Connecticut baa within thirty-six miles as many mile) of electric roil* way as Maine, Vermont, New Hamp shire and Rhode Island combined. An English paper has it that in China the native Baptists call John D. Rockefeller "Mr. Beautiful Pros perity Oil Man." Probably that is a title to be proud of, though it has a somewhat grotesque sound. Beware of overtaxing the mental powers. A rubber band that has lost its elasticity is valueless. So is a mind that has lost its snap. There is no give to it, no holding power. It can grasp nothing, guarantee noth ing. The newer states have not imitated the Puritan Fast Day of New Eng land, their people, as the Omaha (Xeb.) Bee says, having seen no reason why they should make them selves needlessly uncomfortable even for one day in the year. A tribe of Yaqui Indians has been subilued by a ruse of the Mexican government. Its chief was taken for a visit to the capital, appointed gen eral, and given a uniform. After his return he regarded himself as the rn'er of Mexico, and instead of being rebe'lions has helped, with his 800 warriors, to preserve psace among other tribes. From the martyrdom of Crittenden, and his fifty Kentuckians, to the an nihilation of the battleship in the liar« bor of Havana, the history of Cuba has been an endless chain of incalcu lable brutality, but from the coming of Pizarro and Cortez, to fhe final triumphs of Bolivar and his coadjutors in Central and South America and in Mexico, Spanish rule in the Western Hemisphere has bsen marked by a calculating rapacity and an unsparing ferocity nowhere else to be found in all the bloody annals of conquest. The Laureate of England rises to a higher poetical as well a* moral level when he sings of an alliance between England and America than he did when he rhapsodized the raid of Jameson and his men upon the Transvaal re public. ' His last effort is really not at all bad, though he does not ap proach the poetry of William Watson's appeal to the "towering daughter of the West" written soon after the Ven ezuela message. But why can't we hear from that geuuine poet and Anglo-American, Rudyard Kipling? Here is a theme for the most vigorous and lofty genius of the day, one which should inspire as great a strain as the "Recessional." It is a funny commentary upon the age that the greatest patron of poets aud poe.las today is an English sau sage manufacturer in London, notes the New York Mail aud Express. He is a millionaire, aud during his long and busy career he is said to have purchased over 4000 examples of what Bismarck calls reptile poetry. Some of these are printed as advertisements, others are printed with a brush on great sheets of paper aud hung in his many restaurants, and still others are written with chalk upon advertising blackboards. An English pillmaker patronizes sculptors and uses their groups to increase the sale of hi? poods, while a soapmaker in the Eng lish capital lints magnificent oil paint ings to some plebeian use. The dairy products of the United States for oneyear amounted to 8254,- 00.1,000. We are in the habit of look ing at this branch of farming as one of large extent, writes a llliode Island expertto the New England Homestead, but we find the poultry products for the same year to be 8560,030,000 or more than twice as much aud still not enough, for during the &ame year 13.- 00*1,009 dozens of eggs were imported and the total value of poultry and egg? imported was probably 820,000,000. This 820,000,000 ought to have been jingling in the pockets of American farmers and poultrvmen rather than to have been sent to foreign countries. Even the little state of Rhode Island used from outside of the state about $600,000 worth of eggs. Britain im ported eggs and poultry to the value of £3,657,000 sterling or 827,637,250. London alone used other than English eggs to the value of 86,915,400. France reckoned the value of hei poultry products at 877,920,000, froir which she furnished her own people and exported largely. This large value we find derived mainly from the farms. With such figures before us, a growing population, and a surety that as cost of production is decreased by skillful management that consump tion of poultry prodncts will be largely increased, we may rest assured of a market for some time to come. Talk about jealousy among women! The Washington Star intimates that there is so much jealousy among men that the naming of the streets of the capital city after distinguished Ameri cans is not feasible. The Klondike this year will hardly produce as much gold as either Colo rado or California. But as both these states can be reached without tre mendous hardships they are not the scene of mtich excitement. The Monroe street fire in Chicago the other day called out the old steam fire engine, known as Liberty, which has not before been in use since the big fire of 1871. It did its part well when steamed up, in spite of its long vacation. The Railway Age,in commenting on the purchase of the Swiss railways by the government, observes that the en tire railway mileage in the country would barely make an air line from Chicago to New York and back, or not half the mileage Georgia has. The Chicago Times-Heralil says: A glance at the naval equipment of Great Britain will disclose the fact that this great sea power long ago discerned the important part which the torpedo boat was to play in the naval defences of the future. She has already built 2)3 of these fighting engines, 103 of which are topedo-boat destroyers, and now has forty more under construc tion, making a total of 333. The British government derives an income from all sources of well on to ward $2,000,000 for each working day in the year, but has never yet felt rich enough,sarcastically observes the New York World, to oft'er a reward for the villain who introduced the custom of eating marmalade two hours before dinner, with tea. This would be of slight interest in New York were it not that there are hideous signs and portents that the custom is growing here. The New Haven Begister reports this curious and startling fact in natural history: "John H. Beach of Queach Farm, while plowing in a field recently, found a mock turtle marked 1843 and 1873. The figures were plain, but the initials of the markers were illegible. Mr. Beach says this particular species of turtle has been known to live to the age of one hundred years. There is just one place on the farm where they seem to congregate, and that is quite near a fence." "We have often commented," says the London Globe, "npou the nu suitability of the names selecte 1 by the Admiralty for our warships, and uiw the climax is reached in the christening of our latest battleship Goliath. There never was a reputed mighty warrior who so completely weut under to an apparently insignifi cant antagonist as Goliath, aud the omen must be in the minds of all wlio hear the new vessel's name. It would not cost very much to rechrjsteu the vessel, and this ought to be done, if only to deprive other nations of the opportunity of christening some swift and powerful cruiser the David." A Chicago man has conceive! the idea of forming a pool on the state of the weather on a certaiu future day, proposing to sell tickets at $1 each aud to award prizes running from SSO to 810,000. He desired to Uste the mails to further his scheme, but is in formed by the department that such u scheme would "seem to be entirely a matter of chance," and if operated through the mails would be held to be a violation of the lottery law. Much is the degeneracy of the age that we may not be able to suppress gambling. Men, whether barbarous or civilized, have always found means for the gratification of this demoralizing pas sion; but at least we can prevent then) from using the machinery of the gov ernment with which to carry out theii schemes. The New York Herald observes: The addition of twenty thousand names to the pensioa rolls in the past twelvemonth—thirty-three years after the close of the war—is sugges tive, to say the leant. In transmit ting to Congress his deficiency esti mate of eight million dollars for pensions, Secretary Bliss notes that in 1830—a quarter of a century after the close of the war—the number ol pensioners on the rolls was 537,944, while at the current fiscal year it will be about 995,000. That is to say, it has nearly doubled in the past eight years, and is still growing. The an nual pension expenditure is now equai to three per cent, interest on a debt of five billions of dollars, or about twice the amount of the entire na tional debt at the close of the war. LISTEN TO YOURSELF. Ah. tei.. jer, let mo hear you teaoh ; Ah. teacher, let me hear you teach ; You have brave words from olden seers, You at old sage's feet have sat; The lore of those long-bearded men Enow you the man within your coat, Of all the far-off years; The man beneath your bat? The gray, old thoughts of gray old men You know the thoughts that shaped the Beneath the Asian stars. world, Brought safe by faith through clashing From far-off centuries blown ; years What says the man who talks with thee Of unremembered wars. When thou art all alone ? And you have read the huddled tomes Why should I listen to a man Of many an alcoved shelf Who listens at the alcoved she'.f ? But have you stood beneath the stars Man, let me hear a living man . And listened to yourself ? Who listens to himself. —Ham Walter Foss. j A Balaclava Hero. [ WW W WWW WWWVVVW WTTV V vvvw The head of an ogre crouching for possible victims could have looked no less grim than the huge, squat work house standing back from the road. Tall iron railings encircled it like a collar of spikes, and a one-windowed porter's lodge blinked bauefully at passers-by. A weary old man helped himself along with the aid of a stick. He straightened liis figure when he reached the iodge and seemed to hesi tate while he looked at the building with dim, weak eyes, and the rushing wind fluttered his clothes like rags on a scarecrow. He in a tie several steps forward, then retreated. As he straightened himself to walk,three medals for valor jiugled loosely on his shrunken breast. He glanced round nervously. There was no one to watch. Ho was only a hero,and he hesitated on the threshold of the workhouse. He had braved the Bussian cannon and had slipped down a rope at Lucknowiuto a ruck of fren zied sepoys. Why should he hesi tate? April rain began to pelter down fit fully. He pulled his worn coat closer over him and strode forward with final resolution. On the steps of the workhouse he turned to get a last furtive glance at the outer world. As the sun leaped from behind a cloud it glittered on the medals on his breast. In the lodge a square-jowled luau, with hard, straight creases in his sul len face, was tapping abstractedly on au old desk with an enormous key. To an imaginative mind he would have served as an admirable miniature por trait of the workhouse itself. "Name?" lie said,projecting himself toward a big book. "James Bedfern, late of the Tenth Black Watch," auswered the old man. .Tames Bedfern was past work and explained this to the governor, who promptly ordered him to break a hun dredweight of stone as a preliminary canter; this was probably to take the | freshness out of him and to disillusion hi 111 as to his incapacity for work. Redfern was locked in a cell fur- | nished with great jagged lumps of : stone, and it was his compulsory duty to break them into pieces small enough to pass through a grating in the wall. The old man toiled hour after hour, but his weak blows seemed to be rather caressing the stone than break ing it. At length, in the afternoon, he fell forward over his hammer and the jagged stones that littered the floor. "Hello!" said the square-jowled warder, opeuing the door. "None of this, yer know. This ain't a ladies' boodoir. This ain't a " He jerked the old man face up. His features were cut with tho jagged stone,aud black lines of hunger ringed his eyes. When the warder, by twirling Red fern's hand round ami round uud by pinching his arm,had satisfied himself that there was no shamming, the old mau was removed to the infirmary. He was a very light burden, aud a stalwart casual slung him over liis shoulder and carried him off jauntily, like a sack of flour. When he came to, the doctor ordered him boiled eggs aud a nourishing diet for a day or two. A card to this effect was liuug over his bed with string. A pauper ill the next bed, who suffered from epileptic tits, anathematized the old man gar rulously. The boiled eggs seemed particularly to rouse his ire. Every time the warder passed to the other end of the long room he would lift himself on his elbow aud scream across the intervening space: "B'iled eggs! yah!" He put such an amount of con demnation into this phrase that the other patients took up the matter aud by muttered and disjointed conversa tion arrived at the opinion that the old soldier was a parlous ruffian, a presumer on generosity, an interloper aud a thief. In three days tlie doctor certified that Redfern was able to leave his bed, and the old mau meekly rose and huddled his painful limbs into his garments. Redfern went iuto the office of the square-faced warder, who said that he must return to breaking stones pr leave the house. There was to be a meeting of the guardians that after noon, however, and he had the option of applying to them for lighter work. • The square-faced man took out of his desk the three medals which Red fern had been obliged to temporarily surre„der on his entrance. "They ain't bad medals, are they?" said the square-fa?ed man."l sup pose they are worth five bob apiece?" "They are worth more than that to me," said ltedferu. ''Wouldn't seH'em,then,l suppose?" said the warder. "No, I wouldn't sell them for any thing; they are the only things I have left to remiud me that I've been a sol dier!" "But they ain't much good to yer now, yer know," said the warder. "Look 'ere; I'll offer yer a bargain. You ain't got no reg'lar rights to stop ill this workus, but if you'll make me a present of these ere medals I'll see as they don't chuck you out yet a while." If he had said the same thing 30 years before, Bedfern would probably have broken some of the bones in his thievish body. As it was he said: "Oh,no;you must give me my medals. I must have them on when I die; yon can have them after—yon can have them after. lam the last of the old regiment. When I die they'll all be gone. I must have my medals when I die; they wouldn't take me back in the regiment. If I parted with them the colonel would say: 'Bedfern, where are your medals?' Then I should be turned out of my regiment. Yes, I must wear my medals." Tho old fellow had muttered these last words as though to himself. It was clear that his weakness had ren dered him slightly delirious. "Well," said the warder, "I'll save them for yon, shall I?" Then, with out further ado, he slipped them, rib bons and all, into his pocket. The moment he did this his urbanity vanished,and he resumed his ordinary manner. "Come, get out of here and get to work! Don't try to come that old-age dodge on me!" He called another warder, who took Bedfern in hand and jogged him along toward the stone-breaking cells. This time Bedfern's stock of stones had been reduced to half; but when he was locked in and told togo to work he could not even raise the heavy hammer above his head. Two hours later, when the warder came to summon him bef<%e the meet ing of the guardians, he was still sit ting there, his thin face gray with suffering, and the long scar placed on his cheek by the sabre of a Bussian at Alma stood out white and ugly. It was the mark of a blow he had re ceived for his country. The warder reached forward and struck him over the shoulder with a stick. "I wish you would not hit me," said Bedfern. "I'll do what you tell me, but you see 1 couldn't break the stones, I was so tired." "Oh, yes; we know all about that!" retorted the warder; "we have had some of your sort before. If you ask me,you'll just have to pop out of here as soon as the guardians get their eyes on you." The warder was not supposed to know that Bedfern was a man who had been mentioned three times in despatches from the seat of war. He was not conscious that the medals he then had in his pocket were worth more than the paltry shillings they would bring at a pawnshop. So he forced Bedfern roughly for ward toward the council chamber of gentlemen who were waiting to decide whether this pauper was to be allowed to subsist 011 the spare bounty of their parish or even to be cast into the streets to die of hunger. The room in which the guardians sat was well furnished aud lighted, and IK dignified geutleinen sat to the right aud left of a fat, gray-haired chairman. Bedfern stood before the table of the chairman, who questioned him as to his place of birth. "Why, you don't belong to this par ish at all!" he said, in feigned amuse ment. This was a signal for four pompons gentlemen to enter violent and indig nant protest against such a pernicious state of affairs. They characterized Bedfern's action in coming there as criminal beyond measure. The fact that he entered the work house as a "casual" and then, by art ful trickery,sought to live in ease and luxury at the expense of the rate-pay ers of that borough, tilled them with horror. As they uttered these denunciations they looked meaningly at one long haired and one spectacled reporter, who had exchanged winks and were scratching down insane hieroglyphics at the top of their speed. The old man's wits at once left him. He seemed to conceive that he had been guilty of a hideous piece of de ception. He answered the other questions with an air of meek peni tence. "Have you no family to look after you?" "Yes," answered the old man; "I have a son, but I have not seen him for more than 20 years! He was a line lad. At Alma the colonel said to me, after I had saved his life: 'Pri vate Redfern, hew shall I reward you? You may ask me anything, and I will do it for you.' 'Look after my son,' I said, 'if you would be so kind. He lias 110 mother, aud he is a tine boy.' "When the colonel came back he took mv boy. I used to write to the lad, but I got up into northern Can ada, and I lost the habit of writing. When I came baclr, an old man, to look for the boy, I could not find him. My old colonel is dead. But if my boy is nlive and hears that his old father is here, he'd take hinr away —yes, he'd take him away. But I can't find him," went on the old man. "He was only five years old when I saw liiin last. He would not know me now if he saw me." "Oh. we dou't want any of tho*e sort of tales here!" said the guardian. "Either you have a family to support you or have not. If you have, tliej must take you out of here and look after you. If you have not, you must turn out and chance your luck. You are only 75; you ought to work for your living! You look big enough. Look at me. lam not so big as you —a bit fatter, perhaps —and I work every day of my life." He went into a comfortable office for an hour or two every day; the rest of his time he spent in eating or in sleeping, preparatory to eating more. The guardians all pretended to dis believe Redfern's story about his sou, aud finally, on the evidence of the warder, who testified that the old man was lazy and good-for-nothing, they gave him two hours in which tc leave the workhouse. Bedfern's face was gray with suffer ing, and shooting pains from an old wound in his shoulder caused him agony. His knees trembled visibly, and his eyis grew dim and restless. He summoned strength at last to ask the guardians if he might have back the medals that had been taken from him. However, as the warder swore that he had never seen the medals, which at that very moment were resting in his pockets, the virtuous, well-fed guardians of the poor ordered the old man indignantly from their presence. He tried to protest, but the warder scowled furiously at him and pinched his arm for him to stop. Then Bedfern's weakness overcame him. He pitched heavily forward to the floor. He was taken to the infir mary again, and the doctor said that in a few hours he would be well enough togo out. When the old man came to he saw the warder directing the scrubbing and cleaning of the ward with unusual care, while women paupers were fas tening up fresh curtains to the win dows. There was an air of bustle and preparation about the room such as he had never noticed before. A warder, noticing that he was awake, ordered him to get off the bed aud smarten himself up. The pauper told him that Captain Armitage and his young wife were coming to look over the workhouse. The captain was a tine young fellow,and he owned most of the land round that part. All the paupers whispered incessant ly tho name of Captain Armitage, and at last something in its sound awoke the old man's memory. "Armitage—Armitage? Why, that was my old colonel's name," he said. "Ah, but this is a young man, and my colon"l is dead. Yes, he is dead; I shall be dead soon. I shall hear him say: 'Redfern, you have been men tioned again in the despatches.' Then he'll say—yes,he'll say"—the old man felt nervously over the breast of his coat—"he'll say: 'Redfern, where are your medals?' Yes, 1 must have my medals." He tried to raise himself from the bed on which he was sitting, but the weakness held him prisoner. Presently a carriage came through the great gate at the entrance to the workhouse. At last a gentleman, tall and handsome, entered the room with a lady—a young lady, very little more than a girl, on his arm. She looked about her compassionately. But her eyes wandered back incessantly to the features of the strong man by her side, who in his turn looked down at her smilingly and with abounding love and affection. As the captain and his beautiful young wife came to each bed they ex changed words of comfort with the oc cupant. At last the} - drew near the bed 011 which Redfern sat, fully dressed, his hands clasped together and his eyes bent dreamily 011 the floor. The little lady walking by the cap tain's side, with a look at her hus band, stepped forward and touched his hand softly. He started and glanced up. Captain Armitage noticed the cut on his cheek. "How did you get that scar?" he said. "I was a soldier," replied the old man."l got it at Alma." "Why, my husband's father was at Alma,and so was mine!" said the little lady. 'Tell us about it, can you?" Then the old man told his story. Captain Armitage was bending ovei him, deeply interested. Suddenly he gave a start and, dropping on one knee, took the old man's hand in his. "Is your name Redfern?" he said. "Yes, "answered the old man,' 'James Redfern." Captain Armitage did not vise from his knee. He held out his hand to his wife and,drawi.ig her toward him, placed her hand in that of the old man. "Ma'ide," he said, slowly, "this is my father." Then the beautiful girl bent ovei and kissed the old man on the lips. When James Redfern had swallowed a dose of brandy, which the square faced warder brought with much promptitude and politeness. Captain Redfern-Armitage, who had adopted the latter name when he married Col onel Armitage's daughter, explained everything to him. "Yes, you are my father. I have searched for you for years, but now that we have found you we will ne\er leave you." Then Captain Armitage and his beautiful wife gave old James Bedfern an arm each, and the thiee walked dowu the ward out of the workhouse. At the gate the square-jowled warder hurried up and handed the old man his medals. Captain Armitage's wife pinned them on the old plan's coat, and they stepped iuto the carriage. "Where to, sir?" asked the foot man. "Home!" answfed the youug man. —Answer#. LULLABY, Tcace be unto thee—hush, my child— Heaven's little one undettled; Mt-Htla close to your mother's breast, Sail away to the land of rest; Sweetest blessing from paradise— Ilest, my little one; close your eyes; Angels ever their vigils keep— Sleep, my precious, my baby, sleep. Sleep, baby, sleep; Mother dear will hold thee; Sleep, baby, sleep; Mother's arms enfold thee, Sleep, my little one; sleep, my pr» clous one— Sleep, baby, sleep. Peace be unto thee, gift divine; Sweet and innocent baby mine. Never a roy«l diadem Held so pure a priceless gem. All the world IB as naught to me Mother's baby—compared to thee. Sweetest blessing from paradise— Rest, my little one; close your eyes. —Dave Florence. HUMOROUS. "Why, I thought she was an old maid!" "Nest thing to it. She's been married only once." A man these days should cover his legs with barbed wire, and even theD he isn't safe from having them pulled. "What is an investment, grandpa?" "Well, it is giving a man a 05 dinner and then selling him a s'2ooo bill of goods." Hojnck —Who was the best man at the wedding of Mr. Meeker and the Widow Sway back? Tomdik The Widow Sway back. He—Do you believe that germs can be transmitted by kissing? She—l don't know; but I'm very fond of sci entific experiments. Editor—Why didn't you send the carrier-pigeon from the Klondike with news, as agreed? Reporter—Couldn't. Got hungry and ate the bird. "He told me he could live on bread and cheese and kisses." "What then?" "I found out that he expected papa to furnish the bread and cheese." Coal Operator (despondently) I wish a way could be found to relieve *' ■ glut in the coal market. Consumer .. intidentially) Tell the dealers to give better weight. Briton—Do you know that it is a matter of history that Wellington never saw Napoleon? Yankee—ls that so? I always understood that he saw him and went him several better. Mabel—So you have broken the en gagement. Have you returned his, ring? Amy—Why, no! Of course I have changed my opinion of George, but 1 admire the ring just as much as ever. "I envy the Badgleys more than any married people I know.""For what special reason?" "Well, he is over sixty and she is over fifty; but she calls him 'boy' aud he calls her •girl.'" Little Edward —Papa, what is an agnostic? Papa—Your mamma is an agnostic, mv dear. When I come home at night aud tell her what I have been doing, she doesn't exactly disbelieve—she just doesn't kuow. Mother—l don't understand you at all. You are constantly praising Miss Wlurly now, and you used to insist that you couldn't bear her. Daughter —But I didn't know, then, mamma, that she was jealous of me. It's just too sweet of her. "Well," said the young man with the long hair, after the editor had hauiled him back his spring poem, "what would you be willing to give me for it?" "Oh, about ten years, if I could have my way,"the discourager of genius replied. Miss Redding—l declare! I be lieve it is a fact that Reggy Dusnap sent his man to propose to Miss Rose bud for him. Pruyn No; that's only gossip. I know the fucts. He merely sent him afterward to ask the old man's consent. "Did you ever hear the story about the extreme paucity of the rabbit's tail?" asked the typewriter boarder, who has been taking folk-lore lectures. "Before we proceed," said the Cheer ful Idiot, "is this a tale of hare, a tail of hare, a tale of hair or a tail of hair?" Harold lias a pair of twin aunties who look and dress so exactly alike that it is difficult to tell which is Miss Mary aud which Miss Martha. One day a lady said to Harold: "I don't see how you can tell your two aunties apart." "Oh, that's easy enough," replied Harold, "for Auntie Mary looks a good deal more alike than Auntie Martha." Insmie After Sliding Itnwn »>lke'« Peak. Joe Bradley, the Rocky mountain trapper, whose terrible slide on the surface of an avalanche down Pike's Peak last December was one of the most appaliug adventures that ever befell a uumau being, lost his reason through the combined effects of his sufferings and fright. This fact did not appear in the detailed account of the thrilling slide printed at the time, but such appears to be the fact. The Trinidad (Col.) Republican is to hand, with the following reference to the hero of that wonderful adven ture: "Joe Bradley, the unfortunate pros pector, who roile an avalanche down Pike's Peak on December '2O, was ar rested at Florence as an escaped luna tic, and returned to the Pueblo asy lum. The exposure undergone by Bradley, who was unconscious for sev eral hours, and whose members were badly frozen, caused his mind to give way, and he was admitted to the in sane asylum soon after his terrible experience on the Peak." Too Henvy. "My wife cast some bread on the waters once," remarked the young man reluctantly. "Did it ever return?" asked the other. "No," was the reply; "it sank."— Erooklyn Life.