The question of 'war at home—To
stamp or not to stamp?
Madrid statisticians always set down
the destruction of Spanish ships in
danger of being captured as clear
losses to the American navy.
Sixty human lives were saved last
year by the 114 stations of the Society
for Saving the Shipwrecked. The
number of lives saved in thirty-two
years is 2414.
By and by historians will say some
thing fine of the age which produced
statesmen and scholars so great, so
wise, so pure in heart, as Lincoln,
Tennyson, Gladstone, and their illus
trious fellow-workers in state-craft
and literatnre.
Mr. Gladstone was the author of at
le.ist one remarkable prophecy. A
Lo.idon journal points out that it was
to him and not to Cecil lihodes that
• the idea of the Cape to Cairo connec
tion first occurred—and occurred, too,
before England bad occupied Egypt.
In an article in the Nineteenth Cen
tury of August, 1877—more than
twenty years ago—Mr. Gladstone used
these words: "Our first site in Egypt,
be it by larceny or be it by emption,
will be the almost certain egg of
a North Africau empire that will
grow and grow until another Victoaia
and another Albert—titles of the lake
sources of the White Nile—come
within our borders, and till we finally
join hands across the equator with
Natal aucl Cape Town, to say nothing
of the Transvaal and the Orange river
on the south, or of Abyssinia or
Zanzibar to be swallowed by way of
viaticum on our journey."
By one of those curious twists of
irony of which fate is so fond, it was
reserved for Spain to supply the first
ocular demonstration of the established
fact that the Maine was liot blown up
by an internal explosion, comments
the New York World. The experts
easily proved it by the known laws
governing the conduct of explosives.
But there had never been a case of a
warship blown up from the inside to
which the experts could refer those
who insisted on thinking that there
"might be something in" Spain's
lies. Now there are two such cases—
the Maria Teresa and the Almiranta
Oquendo. And each of them shows
conclusively just how an internal ex
plosion acts upon a warship and also
how impossible and and preposterous
is Spain's lying contention that the
Maine blew herself up. This Spanish
demonstration of Spanish treachery is
not important, but it is interesting.
» = —
On what decent pretence, it is asked,
could our government demand, as a
condition of peace, the permanent
surrender by Spain of the Philippines,
or Porto Rico, or any other of her co
lonial possessions? says the New York
Tribune, and then answers the ques
tion: On no mere pretence, but on the
well-established ground of the vic
tor's right to exact a war indemnity
from the conquered foe, and to pre
scribe the manner in which that in
demnity shall be paid. Japan beat
China and took Formosa. Turkey
heat Greece, and took a strip of terri
tory, with the of the Powers.
Kussia beat Turkey, and took a slice
of Armenia. Germany beat France,
and took Alsace-Lorraine. Prussia
beat Denmark and took Schleswig-
Holstein. The United States beat
Mexico, and took California and
New Mexico. The rule may be a
harsh one, but it is the law of nations.
On what decent pretence could our
government be asked to tight Spain,
liberate Cuba, and pay all the bills
without indemnity?
It must be borne in mind that the
test to which applicants for army en
listment are subjected is very severe.
Still a recent report of Adjutant Gen
eral Corbin presents some surprising
figures. This report refers only to
enlistments for the regular army, of
which the total for the mouth of Mny
was 9540, the enlistments for general
recruiting service numbering 5207,
and the enlistments for special re
cruiting service numbering 4333. The
enlistments in cities were 7700 and
the enlistments at military poets and
in the field were 1750. In a list of
tweilty-niue recruiting stations in
cities some very interesting facts are
stated, which show how difficult it is
to maintain the high standard required
in the army. At these stations there
■were 47,871 applicants for enlistment,
and of the number of applicants 14,•
414 were rejected. In Boston, Cincin
nati and Indianapolis only one ont of
five applicants was accepted. In St.
Ixruis the proportion was one out of
tdur,in New York one oat of seven, in
Phildelphia one out of twelve, and in
Chicago one out of Ifr
The Philippines will start in witi
the Mervitt system and allow
civil servica problems to follow at lei
sure.
The mercantile marine of the United
States has been increased by the addi
tion, in a lump, of fifty-three veßseli
by the annexation of Hawaii.
The raw silk industry of Japan in
eludes an annual production of abon :
7,500,000 pounds. Of the averagt
exports more than half are to th»
United States.
The whole Hobson incident is fine,
but there is nothing finer in it thai
his turning his back on cheering
crowds to plunge at once into hit
technical duty as a naval constructor,
The assignment was made and accept
ed as bare matter of course. This il
lustrates the spirit of our whole navy,
On top of the news that the Chi
nese Emperor has ordered the estab
lishment of universities on the Euro
pean model comes the report that th#
younger Mandarins have established
a reform society: and, though theii
meetings were for a time forbidden bj
authority, they have been resumed
under £he presidency of the Emper
or's tutor.
The financial supplement to thi
Street Railway Journal recently is
sued, devotes some space to a com
parison of gross receipts by leading
street railway lines in the United
States in the years 1897 and 1896. Ii
shows that in 1897 the tweuty-sij
properties earning more than $1,000,-
000 gross per annum increased theii
income 2.20 per cent.; those earning
from $500,000 to $1,000,000 lost .11
per cent., and those earning frore
SIOO,OOO to $500,000 gained 1.87 pel
cent. The aggregate gain showed l>y
all of the 175 roads included iu tli»
summary was 1.9 per cent.
Mr. George B. Waldron, in an arti
cle iu McClnre's Magazine shows thai
iu the twenty-years following 1793,
Napoleon cost the British and French
not less than $6,500,000,000 in monej
and 1,900,000 lives—the latter num
ber equal to the entire adult maW
population now living in Greater Lon
don and Paris. In the one battle ol
Waterloo 51,000 men we*e 105t,29,00G
of whom were British. The Crimean
war of two years cost the nations en
gaged iu it $1,500,000,000 in wealtb
and over 000,000 of their citizens.
The France-German war cost ovei
200,000 lives aud required an expendi
ture of $1,500,000,000. France had in
addition topsy an indemnity of 1,000,-
000,000 and to give Alsace-Lorraine,a
total loss, it is estimated, of not less
than $3,000,000,000.
While the soil of the Hawaiian
group of islands is prolific in fruits ol
almost every kind, the manufacture
of sugar is the chief industry of tin 1
inhabitants. In 1896 the exports ol
sugar amounted iu value to $14,932,-
000 out of $15,436,000, the value of tlij
entire exports. For the same yeai
the total imports aggregated in valu« j
$7,165,000. Most of the trade of tha
islands for some time past has been
carried on with the United States. I
The public debt of the islands on
January 1, 1896, aggregated $3,754,-
335; while the yearly income from di
rect taxes, customs and licenses ia
approximately $1,740,000. In spita
of the wealth of the islands, the chiel
attractiveness which they possess for
the United States grows solely out ol
their strategic position, says the
Atlanta Constitution.
Statistics translated from the Archiv
fur Eisenbahnwesen, a publication ol
the Prussian ministry, show that in tha
five years 1891-5 America has built
more miles of railway than any of the
other continents, the increase for that
period being 16,998 miles, making a
total of 229,722, as against an increase
of 13,732 and a total of 155,284 for
Europe, an increase of -1867 and a to
tal of 26,890 for Asia, an increase of
1647 and a total of 8169 for Africa,
and an increase of 1566 and a total of
13,888 for Australia. When putin
percentages, however, the additions
to the African lines head the list, foi
the record of that country is 25.2, with
Asia second, 22.1, aud Australia, Eu
rope, aud America following in order
with 12.7, 9.7, and 8 respectively. At
the close of 1895 the railways of the
world, if joined together, would have
gone around it at the equator more
than seventeen times, for the aggre
gate mileage was 433,953. Of this
nearly a tenth was built between the
end of 1891 and the beginning of
1896. This is the first four years in
railway history that construction hat
not advanced proportionally as well
as absolutely more rapidly on this
continent than elsewhere, but we
still have more miles of railway than
oil the rest of the world united.
CASTLES IN SPAIN.
How fair they rise The perfumed breeze
Prom hyacinthiue meadow-ground that Com;s through the branches of iruit-ladeu
lies tre*s.
Within the shade. And song of bird,
By snow-capped heights of wild sierras Flute-like und mellow, from the copse Is
made! heard.
How gleaming white AVith soothing sound
xnose battlements beneath the morning Cool fountains scatter jewels all around,
- In flashing spray
?t ow marbles show The ra iQt>ow bends its arch above our way.
Their brilliancy againßt the eternal snow 1 .
_ We enter there
How roof and spire With bosom friends we bid our joys to
Are daily kindled to a flashing ore, share;
_ And ove L r ,l " We rest at ease;
Folds of silken banner rise and fall I g 0 again at any time we please.
The court below From mortal eyes
Is moated with a stream of gentle flow. Were veiled the glories bright of Paradise,
Whose crystal face Yet there remain
Beduplicates the beauty of the place. These glorious castles all our owr. —in Bpain.
—New York Home Journal.
i >
j THE GRAY STEER.
Twelve hundred feet high is the
sun-dial of the Lazy J Ranch and
nearly as broad—that cliff of divers
hues which stands out from the wall
of the canon of the Grand river.
The opposite precipice serves the
cowboys as gnotnon or index to the
hours of day, for its shadow sweeps
over the stupendous, variegated face
and marks the course of the sun
through a sky that is always un
clouded. A ledge of porphyry, fifty
feet deep, crowns the dial; often it
looks like a strip of piuk ribbon to
the men below by the stream. But it
was a glorious coronal, kindling in the
first rays from the east, when Holden
hailed it with uplifted eye aud hand
as he quirted his horse through the
barway of the corral.
"Sunup!" cried Holden, the young
foreman, filled with the joy of the
morning. He is the son of the presi
dent of the cattle company; he had
come straight from college to the cow
camp, and the old stroke of the 'var
sity eight set a hot pace in saddle for
the Lazy J riders.
He rode that morning a big-boned,
Roman-nosed, blue-roan "outlaw"—a
horse pronounced irreclaimable by the
boys; be had tied a bucking roll
across the shoulders of his saddle to
supplement the grip of his knees, and
on top of that lay the big, loose coil
of his fifty-foot cable line, for he was
still young euough to disdain a lariat
of lesser length and caliber.
Behind Holden Navajo Jim lifted a
light left foot to the stirrup; then his
spurred right tripped clinkiug to the
evasive dance of his young horse, and
-o slipped inimitably into his saddle.
To its right shoulder hung the trim
coiled ring of his rope of braided raw
hide, which, to that of the foreman,
was as steel to iron and would hold
anything on hoofs.
Foreman and follower struck out
through the greasewood over ground
without grass; the grazing range lav
high on the mesa, fenced by the lofty
wall of the cauou. Its seemingly in
accessible height was scaled by the
sure-footed, agile range cattle at a
break in the porphyry ledge not far
up the cauou, and presently they took
to the dizzy trail.
With slack ciuches the blowing
horses clawed up the loose footing at
the top of the break aud moved out on
a narrow projecting tongue of the
mesa. Still higher the mesa broad
ened and was set with sijnat cedars
and pinons. Here the riders saw cat
tle already chewing their cuds iu the
shade. •
"We're too low down. There's
nothing here," said the young fore
man, his eyes roving over the stock.
"It's beef I'm after. I've got to
get a train-road off by the first and not
a hundred steers gathered yet!"
"Quaking-asp putty good place
for steer now," said Navajo Jim.
"Water sweet there aud stampin'-
ground close."
"l'es, I know," Holden returned,
impatiently. "The boys started
twenty head down yesterday and had
them pointed for the corral, wheu
that blamed gray steer scattered the
bunch, aud they broke back for the
hills."
"That gray steer like bull elk. Bet
ter corral him with six-shooter," said
Jim. "One steer not mnch worth."
"Six-shooter nothing! What's our
ropes forV" cried Holdeu. "That big
grizzly brute will fetch up a whole
carload to the top notch in the stock
pens. He goes on hoof to Omaha. 1
told the boys I'd give a SSO-doll-ar
■addle to the first mau that 'twined'
him and stayed with him."
"I already got putty good saddle,
Mr. Holden," said Jim, with a grin.
"That steer seven,eight year old now,
and all time run wild. Horns so long
stink clean through horse."
"Well, beef's up in the air; horses
are down," returned the foremau.
"Qnirt up, Jim. We'll strike up
higher."
On the loftier grnzing-ground they
fouud the cattle still at feed. Through
thickening hosts of deer-flies and
horse-flies their horses strained up the
steep oakbrush slopes. In banded
resistance to like winged attacks, the
cattle of the higher rauge were begin
ning to "bunch" ou each open stamp
ing-ground. Toward these trampled
circles the scattered steers were one
by their way.
"The boys can run in all these
steers tomorrow," said Holden. "You
and I, Jim, are going to twine that
gray steer today."
"He got big scare yesterday: too
sharp to show up on stainpiu'-ground
today," Jim suggested.
"Like enough," Holden assented,
"but ve'll rustle him out. The boys
lost him late yesterday in the long
quaking-asp patch in that gulch up
there, just below the rim-rock."
He pointed to the rim-rock of the
•pvuee ridge, rising yet loftily above
them with innumerable aspen gulches
aud brushy slopes draiuiug down into
the side cauons.
Quickening their horses, they pres
ently rode into the green gloom of the
gulch, where the quaking-aspens
trembled over hidden springs. Here
mighty hoofprints dinted deep the
mud and the sodden trails.
"Dere his track, fresh," said Jim,
stooping from his saddle over a } rint
like a post-hole. "He lie close, some
where. "
"We'll put him up," said Holden,
confidently; "aud once he shows,stay
with him, Jim."
"You bet I stay!" said Jim, simply.
They threaded the winding thicket
on separate trails and met near its
head without a sight of the gray steer.
" It's no use looking for him
down in here," said Holden. "He's
gone up higher. Let's try in the
spruce below the rim-rock."
He led the way upward along tho
steep, brushy side of the gulch until.,
stopped by the rim-rock, they sat iu
their saddles and looked down and
back iu disappointment.
Below them the gulch enclosed the
fastness of the deer, a space darkened
to twilight by a growth of young
spruce and aspen sapliugs.
".Maybe he down in those," paid
Jim, wifh it drop alike of voice and
hand. "Hide hisself in daytime like
blncktail buck."
"But we can't get iuto that 'pocket'
on horses," Holdeu replied loudly, in
vexation. "Wait! I'll try for him!"
As he spoke he dismounted to act
on a boyish inspiration.
He had noticed a big block fallen
from the rim-rock and lyiug tilted up
on the slope. With mighty heaving
he overturned it, and down the slope
it crashed iu smashing leaps through
the brush and swaying timber to the
very heart of thegsprnce thicket.
Snorts came up from below; Holdeu
marked the course of startled, hurry
ing creatures by the lines of swaying
tops furrowing the still, greeu sur
face, aud three grand bucks sprang
out,their horns showing brown in the
velvet as they topped the lower brush;
but a bearer of mightier horns was
breaking through the pliant young
trees,and a glimpse of a grizzly hide
was exultantly caught by the young
foremau.
"Ah, he show up now!" shouted
Navajo Jim, erect in the stirrups, us
the great steer came out below.
Bred from the finest of the Lazy J
stock, he would have weighed near
2000 pounds; but such speed aud bot
tom were his "rustling" on that rough
rauge that the big body rose over the
brush with the wild grace of a bu< k,
aud with deer-like ease his froutlet,
l.lack and threatening, was thrown
back over his grizzly shoulder as he
stopped aud eyed his hunters for an
instant. One defiaut shake of his per
fect horns, then he raced onward,aud
only bending brush marked his path.
Holden was already galloping after
him. smashing the undergrowth in a
straight course down the slope to in
tercept him below,shouting as he ran.
Jim, with Indian circumspection, ran
his horse in au easier descent along
the slope, keeping lii.s eyes on the
swaying brush beneath aud waiting
for au opportunity of closing in more
open ground.
Now Holden's horse, the blue out
law, showed once more his spirit and
brought Holden close behind the
game. Navajo Jim emerged from the
thicket to see the young foreman in
full career, swinging his big rope,
while the haltered head of the horse
and the huge-horned frontlet of the
steer reached out in an even race
across the little open space beyond.
The loop of Holden's cable lit fairly
over the widespread horns; but his
baud was hardly quick enough in
closing it. While it hung slack the
steer leaped with both front legs
through it, and then Holden's tardy
jerk brought it tight around the grizzly
flanks.
The beast bellowed as th 9 plunge
of hi- great gray body drew the turn
of the rope swiftly from the saddle
born. Vainly Holden tried to stay it.
Recklessly he threw the slack end in
a hitch around the steel horn and
clapping his baud over it braced his
horse for the shock.
With forelegs ontplanted and quar
ters lowered, the stubborn blue out
law stanchly set himself to the tight
ening rope. For au instant he was
jerked along, stiff-legged, then over
they went, dragged down, fierce horse
and reckless roper.
Clearing his legs, hanging at the
side of his struggling horse, Holden
still held the saddle-horn with power
ful grasp. Another bawl, a plunge
that no ciuches could withstand—aud,
10, the saddle was stripped from the
outlaw aud jerked high and far from
Holden's hand!
Navajo Jim checked his horse, but
"Onl" roared the young foreman. »ud
on the obedient Indian spnrred after
the wild steer and the flying saddle.
Tlie great steer seemed scarcely to
feel the 50-ponnd drag of the bump
ing saddle. Yet it tightened the ropa
about loin and flanks, and by making
it harder for him to breathe so lessened
his speed that Jim easily kept him in
sight. Through yielding brush and
swaying thicket, through bunches of
frightened cattle that split to let him
pass and came stringing after,bucking
and bawling in sympathy, the brute
plunged on.
Each bawling bunch in turn was
distanced. The brushy Hlopes broke
away. As the mesa, sprinkled witb
pinons, began to offer to Jim smooth
spaces for handling his horse, he un
buckled the strap that held the coil ol
his rope, but still, as every leap ol
the steer took him the nearer to th«
corral, the wise Indian only held the
rawhide ringed ready in his hand.
Down the rapidly narrowing tongue
of the mesa—the mesa which tipped
precipitously out into the river-gorge
aud w as bounded on either side by an
abyss—the trapped steer sped. He
must soon be at a standstill or at
tempt to return on his tracks.
The Indian's eyes had already kin
dled with anticipation of triumph, when
at the last of the pinons the bumping,
hurtling saddle caught fast between
projecting roots. It scarcely checked
the steer! Holden's cable tore loose
from the saddle-horn, and its slack
ened loop was speedily kicked from
the steer's higli-pliiuging haunches.
Once more the great gray brute was
free.
"Ah, he on the push now!" said
Jim and looked to his lcopas the steel
reversed his big body, gave a high,
writhing leap over the spurned rope,
confronted the herder with the threat
ening cresceut of his sharp horns and
plunged forward to the combat.
The Navajo lifted his horse aside
with the spurs, swung the loop open
in his right hand and rose, half turned
in the stirrups, in a quick underthrow
for the front hoofs of the steer as he
lunged by.
Jim's eyes saw, for an instant, low
ered horns and uplifted hoofs mingled
together, and his throw was true. But
so quick was the play of the ponder
ous feet that the loop caught one fore
leg only aud passed over the face and
huug across the horns.
The loop, drawn tight by the roper's
instantaneous jerk and kept from slack
ening by his nimble horse,bound horn
and hoof together. Now the steei
was in sad plight. With bead drawn
sidewise, with tongue lolling front
open jaws, bellowing, lie surged on
three legs, but his spirit was un
broken.
The roper slowed his horse to the
strain. From horn to cantle the sad
die creaked as, trampling and tugging
in a wild, wide waltz, straining horse
and hauling steer made the mad cir
cuit of the precipices.
The Navajo, active in the saddle
with rein,spur and rope, was, in spite
of all his efforts, drugged past the
break where the trail ran down the
slope. His horse, always straining
desperately, was tugged on and on
until he circled along the perilous
porphyry brink, and Jim glanced
longingly from the saddle on the cor
ral,seemingly almost directly beneath
him, its great square shrunk to the
measure of his sad.lle-blauket.
Holdeu,pounding down bareback on
the blue roan, had stopped to gathei
up his rope, but now Jim heard his
encouraging shout. The quickened
tramp of his rushing horse, the whirr
ing of his big rope as he swung it
aloft, sounded close at baud, and the
sweating roper relaxed his strain.
The steer, alert to the slack, jerked
his hoof from the loop. Heedless of
the cutting rope, instantly tightened
across face aud froutlet, his stated
head was lifted, and he stood, wild
eyed, quivering, cornered, caught bui
not conquered. He was on four legs
again. Conquered? Never! Witb
resistless pull on the rope,he wheeled
and broke for escape across the clifl
that rises, red-bauded, above the cor
ral.
"Stay with him, Jim!" roared the
young foreman, swinging his rope,
sure the steer would stop at the edge.
Stay with him? It meant death
surely. Already under the plunging
front hoofs of the desperate rebel the
porphyry rim crumbled. Jim's obedi
ence did not falter, although he wat
fairly staring down on the corral.
How would the falling feel?
The Indian had a swift picture of it
—the steer lowest in the air on the
taut lariat, horse aud man whirling
after —but Navajo Jim set his savage
jaws. No foreman should dare hira
to stay with a roped beast! He would
not look on the faces of white ropers
sneering. He was hired body and
soul—he was obedient—he wouli'
stay.
Holden, for this mad second, watchec
incredulously. The steer would not
go over—surely not. What? Straight
on! And Jim! Was the man alsc
crazy? Then the Navajo heard ouce
more his master's voice.
"For God's sake, Jim—let go! 0
heavens!"
Jim obeyed. He flung loose the
rope, but on his horse staggered. Anc
the black length of the lariat was stil l
whipping out with the defiaut horuec"
head that pitched off into space when
the agile horse saved himself aud hit
rider on the very brink.
Holden dropped his useless rope a«
the Navajo, skimming the porphyrj
edge like a swallow, rode back anc
sta-ed into the eyes of the white man.
"He was brave, that steer," saiJ
Jim,with a queer choke in his throat,
"He saved himself from the stock
pens."
Holden held out his hand anj
grasped the Indian's. "You beat mj
time, Jim," was all he said, but some
thing in the tone called a new pridi
into the Navajo's stern face.—Franl
Oa'iling, in Youth's Companion.
THE MOVING SPIRIT.
Jt was Uncle Bam as did it. It was Unci#
Bam as raised
The boys in blue unflinching where the can
non fiercely blazed; i
The boys that's ever ready when there's
duty to be done, I
No matter if it's on the quarter-deck or by
a gun;
Whose loyalty and courage kin outlast the
fiercest fray;
The boys to whom the world's takln' off its
bat today.
I
'Twas Uncle Sam as did tho things which
proudly we review,
An' his faithful sons kin trust him to be just
an' generous, too.
It ain't the first time he's been out a victory
to win,
And in A. D. 20,000 be kin do the same Rk'in.
It'll be the grand old story of men joined in
strength and will
Jlarcbiu' up the path of glory, Uncle Sam
a-leudin' still.
—Washington Star.
HUMOROUS.
Zim—So he laughed at your advice?
Zoin—Yes. My advice was to grin
and bear it.
Ned—She has a fascinating quiver
in her voice. Ted—Yes, and she uses
it, to hold her beau.
Zim—Strange how people will wish
for eternal youth. Zam—Yes, and
bow they do kick when they reach
second childhood.
Watkius—l told Ethel last night if
she laughed again I'd kiss her. Wool
ens—Well, what about it? Watkins
Sue had hysterics.
Bigge—l say, old chap, here is a
check of yours. I wish you'd just
rash it for me. Jigge—Er—certainly
er—will you indorse it?
Patient—You seem very anxious to
perform the operation, doctor. Doc
tor — Yes; it is au operation th..- I
buve never yet performed.
-Ada —No; Priscilla will never marry
nu:ess she finds her ideal. Ida—
Wuat sort of a luan is her ideal? Ada
—A man who will propose.
"Who is the man of the hour, mam
ma?" "i'our father, Dickie; he al
ways says that he'll get up in a min
ute, ami tbeu stays in bed sixty."
The Sire—Aud do you think you
can make mv daughter happy? Would-
Be Son-in-Law—Confident of it, sir !
Lain full of faults she can nag me
übout.
Mother—lf I give you this piece of
cake, will you try to be a good little
girl? Gladys—Yes; and I will try
to be gooder if you will give me two
pieces.
Mrs. Nagley— Two-thirds of the
scolding wives are caused by your
men's clubs. Mr. Nugley—No, my
:lear. The clubs are caused by the
scolding wives.
Johnny had been playing around
the piano and had had a fail. "What
aie you bawling about? 'asked Bertie,
joutemptuously. "It was the soft
pedal your head hit."
"They tell me your wife is a par
ticularly line housekeeper." "Ex
irutiatingly so. I've seen that wom
an sprinkle the clock with insect pow
der to get rid of the ticks."
Commissioner (to civil service ap
plicants for places in the custom,
bouse) —When was the diamond duty
most burdensome? Bright Candidate
—Just before my marriage, sir.
Arrows—Hullow, old chap! Con
gratulations. I hear you have mar
ried a lady with an independent for
tune. Borrows —No; I married a for
tune with an independent lady.
Mr. Bunting—Young Grimsby is
poing to marry old Miss Broadakers.
Sirs. Bunting (astonished) —For the
land's sake! Mr. Bunting—Partly,
Hud partly for her bank account.
Doctor (angrily)— You put iu some
thing that wasn't ordered in the pre
scription, and now the patient is quite
well. Drug Clerk—Well, then, write
your presciijjtions so they can be
read.
Hogarth—"lt's queer that these ar
tists sign their pictures so wretchedly
that no one cau read the names. Ru
bens—Not so queer when you con
sider what the people say about the
paintings.
Young Bride(pouting) Here we
have Leeu married only two days,
Clarence, and you're scolding me al
ready. Husband—l know, my dear;
but just think how long I have been
waiting for the cbance.
Indian* Not K«*en Siglitfd.
It is a deeply rooted conviction, rtat
ing from our boyhood's reading of
Feuimore Cooper,Mayne Reid,Gustav
Aimard, and other authors who famili
arized us with the red man, that the
uoble savage had a keenness of vision
BUoli as no pale-face could ever
reach. And now comes Dr. Ranke of
Munich, who has been submitting the
eye-sight of several Indian braves to'
scientific examination, to upset this
theory. He comes to the conclusion
that the alleged keenuess o' vision of
the redskin is a sheer delusion. They
see no further aud no more distinctly
than does the average citizen of Lon
don or Berlin. But they possess the
odvautago of having been trained from
infancy to observe with concentrated
attention the objects around them, aud
to draw deductions rapidly from this
survey for the purposes of war or the
chase. Dr. Ranke says that with
similar life-long practice almost every
European could acqrire the same
faculty.—London Chronicle.
Wherti Mahogany Come* From.
Mahogany, the wood of a free knowr.
to naturalists by the name of Swei
tenia Mahogani, is found principal!;
»n the coast of Honduras, and aroum
the bay of Campeachy. Cuba am
Ban Domingo also yield mahogany.
Which is of a finer quality than tha
found in the first mentioned lo
ratifies. The former is usually callec
bay wood, while the name of Spanisi
(rood is applied to the latter.