AJbicyclist has just obtained a ver dict of $24,500 against a railroad com pany for the loss of his legs. If he hail not been a wheelman what would the sum have been? A. sharp line of distinction shonlil be drawn between the c'.asses that are in the "submerged tenth" because they are hopelessly degenerate aud those coming to us from Canada aud Eu rope, who begin at the bottom, but quickly rise to self-support and self respect. Kovama is a member of the Japa nese Diet. That body had been con sidering a laud tax bill which the gov ernment was determined should be come a law. When the roll was called Kovama annouuced that certain agents of the government had paid liiiu S4OOO to vote for the tax bill,and then sedately proceeded to vote against the measure. In his artless Japanese fashion, Koyaina further rebuked his would-be corrupters by pocketing the money. While this is exceedingly in teresting evidence going to show that the dawn of civilization in Japan lius become a sunburst,it is disappointing. Koyama is evidently young. He must learn that the first requisite of a successful politician is to stay bought aud say nothing about it. It is a little over a year since Phila delphia transferred to the United Gas Improvement company, under a 150 years' lease, the franchise of the gai company, and reports recently made mark sharply the difference between political control and business manage ment. The city now has a revenue of 10 per cent, on an increased quantity of gas sold at §1 per thousand, where as it was formerly unable to make both end* meet at a higher rate. Con sumers are supplied with better gas, aud the worn-out gas mains have been replaced with new ones, to the com fort of citizens wliosa noses had been assailed with the odor of escap ing ga3. Iu this work of betterment 53,11:2,82!) has been expended within the year, although the lease only re quires the expenditure of $5,000,003 in this way during the first three years, and of $10,000,00 thereafter. All these improvements, it should be noted, will ultimately revert to the benelit of the city, as at the end of the 30 yjars the gas-works must be returned to the city without the expenditure of a dol lar of public money on the improve ments made or to be made. More evidence of the use of boracic tcid as a meat preservative comes from Philadelphia. A soap-maker in that city, who purchases the excess fat from the market stalls, says that about five years ago he noticed that some thing in connection with the tallow was preventing its union with the lye in the soap-making process. He con cluded that there was an acid of some kind in tho tallow, and on making that statement to the firm that sup plied the tallow it was admitted that the meat men were using a wash for , the meat, and that it was boracic acid, i He asked if the fluid was injected in : the meat, and was told that it was used only on the surface before the | meat was put into the ice-chest. The soap-manufuicturer adds that he has often since that time noticed in butch er shops that meat that had been un deniably washed with a preserving liquid or powder was avoided by the flies, while they would swarm on un treated meat. He had observed also that he had less trouble with the acid in cold weather, when it was presuma ble that less of the preservative was used. Apropos of the phenomenon of sleep, a printer in a newspaper office in Bangor, Me., thought that he had solved it. He might have succeeded had not nature called him to accouut for his trifling. His scheme was sim ple aud plausible. He did not be lieve that slumber had auy effect on the muscles; they need simply rest or change in the character of exercise. As to the brain, that could be rested in the same way. He dropped off a few minutes from his sleep every day. Iu the course of a month he had re duced his ordinary time of slumber of eight hours to five. At length he reached the supreme mament whe.i lie was to pass his first sleepless cousecu tivo twenty-four hours. As has been said, he was a printer, a compositor. He needed a certain font of type that was kept in a dark corner of the room. He climbed up on the stool. Threo hours later they missed him. A search revealed him sitting on the stool fast asleep. He was taken home and he slept for long periods through out a week. So far he has not found bis experiment profitable. This is a good illustration of all the attributes ef nature. Poor humanity cannot ig nore her laws without a stern adinon ulmati It appears that Admiral Dewey is a good haud at an epigram as well as at fighting. But then one is never sur prised at finding a new virtue or ac complishment in Dewey. The statement that Missouri never punishes train robbers is a cruel slan der, facetiously remarks the Kansas City Journal. It often happens that outlaws of this class ai e sent to the pen itentiary even before they have been operating in the state tweuty years, and sometimes they are compelled to remain there weeks and weeks before the governor padons them out. A dispatch from Pine Bluff, Ark., to the Little Rock Gazette, states that as a result of the recent successful experi ments in Mississippi with monkeys as cotton pickers, several Jefferson coun ty planters will make similar experi ments. One of the most successful planters in the state, we are told, will j soon have monkeys in his field. This I looks like the revival of a hoax that \ convulsed Birmingham, Ala., some I years ago. , If a German scientist is to be be- I lievad, everything needed tj make a j man weigh 150 pounds can be found i in the whites and yolks of 1200 lion's ! eggs. "Reduced to a fluid," declares | the savant, "the average man would j yield 08 cubic metres of illuminating gas and hydrogen, enough to lill a ; balloon capable of lifting 155 pounds, j The normal human b idy has in it the iron needed to make seven large nails, the fat for fourteen pounds of candles, the carbon for 65 gross of crayons and phosphorus enough for eight hundred and twenty thousand matches. Out of it can be obtained besides twenty cof fee-spoonfuls of salt, fifty lumps of sugar, and forty-two litres of water." The death of Caprivi removes from the public life of Europe a man whose chief distinction was that he succeeded Bismarck as chancellor when Willielm ascended the throne of empire. Yet Caprivi deserves honor for a long life of hard work and high achievement in both military and naval lines, as well as in statesmanship. A brilliant gen eral iu war and a methodical worker in the barracks of peace, lie proved himself as equal to the task of reor. gauizing the German navy as to the command of an army corps. Had he not been overshadowed by the tower ing ligure of his predecessor as chan cellor, and had he not failed to main tain the harmony of relations essen tial to his continuance in office, the name of Caprivi would command a more eminent place iu the diplomatic history of the century. In this country the majority rules but does not tyrannize. It is the char tered license of the smallost minority to admonish solemnly, assail bitterly, j ridicule, impugn and defy the sover- j einn, before yielding him that loyal j obedience that no oue dares refuse iu . the end, philosophises the New Vork Commercial Advertiser. Some of us call this government by discussion. It i? edifying enough when it does not lead ignorant foreigners into acts which compel us to painful severity. lie can se the tolerauce of criticism implies neither abatement of swiftness aud force of national action when national authority is outraged, nor embarrass ment of government by faction in the moment of action. The nation dis cusses with the noisy divergence of o debating society, but ac s with the unity aud force of an army. Domestic turbulence has learned this; external turbulence will learn it, if needful. Our consul at Liverpool has rent to Washington a suggestive report on the results of a trial at that city of au toinotor freight wagons. The joint re port of the British experts who wit nessed the trial points out several de fects that are alleged to make doubtful the much more extended use of the ve hicles in Great Britgin iu the near fu ture, and emphasizes some of theii limitations. The trial at Liverpool included only automotor freight wag ons, aud the aim there has been to at tain the maximum of speed and dura bility iu competition with the railways for cheaper freights. Thus far it has been shown that these wagons may work iu commercial competition with railway rates with loads up to four tons and over distances of thirty to forty miles. This is where British effort has been stopped temporarily, awaiting the manufacture of an improved ma chine. With such proof of what Brit ish and continental European manu facturers have been able to accom plish, it will be strange if the plans and models of our own manufacturers do not take into account the defects, aud forthwith adapt their plants aud appliances to the needs of tlie foreign demand. They have the capital and can secure the primacy in tho world's markets in this line. TMt AMERICAN NOMAD. Turning from the quiet fields Ever striving to outstrip Where the lazy cuttle graze; Those that labor at his side; Leaving her in tears who bent Bpuraing love and spurning rest, O'er him in his helpless days; Till the Inst unsatisfied; Faring down the dusty road, Here today—tomorrow where? Leaving all be loves behind, "Home" a hollow, empty name; Bushing in where striving men Happinass to give in trade Push him down and never mind. For a little pelf or fame. Dreams of sweet old peaceful scene Still the lazy cattle graze Bome;imes, in the rush and roar Out upon the sloping hill, Memories of cradle songs And the smoke is curling up That aro sung to him no more; From the old red chimney still; Newer friends and newer hopes, Btill the rusty hinges creak Gaining step by step, and then When they swing upart the gates, For a little chinking coin. And a little vacant lot Leaving all behind again. For the restless toiler waits. —Cleveland Leader. PTHEOLD UNIFORM. E J t> A Story of the Zouaves. One of my desk-mates in the office at the ministry of war was an ex-non commissioned officer, Henri Yidal. He had lost a left arm in the Italian cam paign, but with his remaining hand lie executed marvels of caligraphy—down to drawing with one pen-stroke a bird in the flourish of his signature. A good fellow, Vidal; the type of the upright old soldier, hardly 40, with a sprinkling of gray in his blonde im perial—he had been in the Zouaves. We all called him Pere Vidal, more respectfully than familiarly, for we all knew his honor and devotion. He lived in a cheap little lodging at Greuelle, where—on the money of his cross, his pension and his salary—he managed to support his widowed sister and her three children. As at that time I, too, was living in the southern suburb of Paris, I often walked home with Pere Vidal, and I used to mnke him tell of his campaigns as we passed near the military school, meeting at every step —it was at the close of the empire—the splendid uni forms of the Imperial Guard, green chasseurs, white lancers and the dark and magnificent artillery officers,black and gold, a costume worth while get ting killed in. As we walked along the hideous Boulevard de Grenelle he stopped sud denly before a military old-clothes shop—there are many like it in that quarter—a dirty,sinister den, showing in its window rusted pistols, bowls full of buttons and tarnished epaulets; in front were bung, amid sordid rags, a few o d officers' uniforms,rain-rotted aud sunburned; with the slope-in at the waist and the padded shoulders they had an almost human aspect. Vidal, seizing my arm with his right hand and turning his gaze on me, raised his stump to point out one of the uniforms, an African officer's tunic, with the kilted skirt aud the three gold braids making a figure eight on tho sleeve. "Look!" he said; "thnt's the uni form of my old corps, a captain's tunic." Drawing nearer, he made out tho number engraved on the buttons and went on with enthusiasm: "My regiment! The First Zouaves!" Suddenly his hand shook, his fare darkened; dropping his eyes, he mur mured, in a horror-stricken voice: "What if it were his!" Then brusquely turning the coat, about he showed me in the middle of the back a little round hole, bordered by a black rim—blood, of course—it made one shudder, like the sight of a wound. "A nasty scar," I said to Fere Vidal, who had dropped the garment and was hastening away. And fore seeing a tale, I added to spur him on: "It's not usually in the back that bul lets strike captaius of the Zouaves." He apparently did not hear ine: he mumbled to himself: "How could it get there? It's a long way from the battlefield of Melegnano to the Boule vard of Grenelle! Oh, yes, 1 know— the carrion crows that follow the army; the strippers of the dead! But why just there, two steps from the military school where the other fellow's regi ment is stationed? He must have passed; he must have recognize 1 it. What a ghost!" "See here, Pere Vidal," said I, vio iently interested, "stop your mutter ing, and tell me what the riddled tunic recalls to you." He looked at me timidly,almost sus piciously. Suddenly, with a great ef fort, he began: "Well, then, here goes for the story; I can trust you; you will tell me frank ly, on your honor, if you think my conduct excusable. Where shall I begin? Ah, 1 cau't give you the other man's surname, for he is still living, but I will call him by the name he went under in the regiment—Dry-Jean and he deserved it, with his 12 drinks at the stroke said, nodding in that direction. " 'i'es, what of it?' said I, glancing at the officer, 20 paces off. " 'Ho was foolish to speak to me as he did.' "With a swift, precise gesture he shouldered his arm aud fired. I saw the captain—his body bent backward, his head thrown up his bauds beating the air for an instant - drop his sword and fall heavily ou his back. " 'Murderer!' I cried, seizing the sergeant's arm. But he struck me with the butt of his rifle, rolling me over and exclaiming: " 'Fool! prove that I did it!' "I rose in a rage, just as all the sharp-shooters rose likewise. Our colonel, bareheaded, on his sniokiug horse,pointed his sabre at the Austrian battery and shouted: " 'Forward, Zouaves! Out with your bayonets!' "Could I do otherwise than charge with the others? What a famous charge it was, too! Have yon ever seen a high sea dash on a rock? Each company rushed up like a breaker on a reef. Thrice the battery was cov ered with blue coats and red trousers, and thrice we saw the earthwork re appear with its cannon iaws, im passable. "But our company, the Fourth, was to snatch the prize. In 20 leaps I reached the redoubt; helping myself with my rifle-butt I crossed the talus. I had only time to see a blonde mus tache, a blue cap and a carbine barrel almost touching me. Then I thought my arm flew off". I dropped my gun, fell dizzily on my side near a (spin-car riage wheel aud lost consciousness. "When I opened my eyes nothing wrs to be heard but distant musketry. The Zouaves, forming a disordered half-circle, were shouting 'Vive l'Em pereurP and brandishing their rifles. "An old general followed by his staff galloped np. He pulled up his horse, waved his gilded helmet gayly and cried: •• 'Bravo, Zouaves! Ton are tB j first Rolcliera in the world!' "I founil myself sittiug nriar th wheel, supporting my poor brokei J)aw, when suddenly I reinembeiel Dry-Jean's awful crime. At th'nt verj instant he stepped out of the ranks toward the general. He had lost his fez, and from a big gash in his close shavja head ran a trickle of blood. Leaning on his gun with one hand, with the other he held out an Austrian flag, tattered and dyed red—a flag he had taken. The general gazed at Uim admiringly. " 'Hey theu, Briconrt!' turning ta one of his staff; 'look at that, if you please. What men!' "Whereupon Dry-Jean spoke up: " 'Quite so, my general. But you know—the First Zouaves--there are only enough left for once more!' " 'I would like to hug yon for that!' cried the general; 'you'll get the cross, you know,' and still repeating, 'what men!' he said to his aid-de-camp some thing I didn't understand—l'm 110 scholar, you know. But I remember it perfectly; 'Worthy of Plutarch, wasn't it, Briconrt?' "At that very moment the pain was too much for me, and I fainted. You know the rest. I've often told yon how they sawed off my arm and how I dragged along in delirium for two months in the hospital. In mv sleep less hours I used to ask myself if it was my duty to accuse Dry-Jean pub licly. But could I prove it? And then I said, 'He's a scoundrel, but he's brave; he killed Captain G-entili, but he took a flag from the enemy.' Finally, in my convalescence,l learned that as a reward lor his coinage Dry- Jean had stepped up into the Zouaves of the Guard and had been decorated. Ah! at first it. gave me a disgust at my own cross which the colonel had pinned 011 me in the hospital. Yet Dry-Jean deserved his, too; only his Legion of Honor ought to have served as the bull's-eye for the squad detailed to put him out of existence. "It's all far away now. I never saw him again; he remained in the service, and I became a good civilian. But just now, when I saw that uni form with its bullet-hole—God knows how it got there—hanging a stone's throw from the barracks where the murderer is, it seemed to me that the captain, the crime still unpunished, was clamoring for justice." I did my utmost to quiet Pere Vidal, assuring him he had acted for the best. Five days later,on reaching the office, Vidal handing me a paper folded at a certain paragraph, mur mured gravely; "What did I tell you?" I read: "Another victim of intemperance.— Yester day afternoon, on tho Boulevard do Gre nolle, a certain Joan Mallet, known us Dry •lwari. sergeant in tho Zouaves of tho Impe rial Guard, who with two companions had been drinking freely, was seized with delir ium tremens while looking at some old uni forms hanging in a second-hand shop. H" drew his bajouet and dashed down ti e street to tho terror of all passers-by. T o two privates with him had the utaiost d lll culty in securing the madman, who shouted ceaselessly: 'I am not a murderer; I took an Austrian Hag at Melegnanol' It seems that the latter statement is true. Mallet was decorated for this feat; his addiction to drink has alone prevented him from rising tftlho ranks. Mallet was conducted to the iHfTltary hospital of Gros-Caillou,whence ho will soon be transferred to Chareucon, for it is doubtful if he can recover his reason." As I returned the paper to Yidal, he looked at me meaningly and con cluded: "Captain Gentili was a Coraican— lie lias avenged lihrsslfl"—Translated for the Argonaut from the French of Francois Coppee. QUAINT AND CURIOUS. Of the houses in Paris, France, there are still 10,000 (with 200,000 in habitants) that use well water. Under Henry V an act of Parlia ment ordered nil the geese in Eng land to be counted, aud the sheriffs of the counties were required to furnish six arrow feathers from each goose. A large tom-cat for thirteen years made voyages on a mail steamer be tween Bvdney and San Francisco. The animal died, and was buried at sea, having almost completed 1,000,000 miles of travel. There are some curious supersti tions concerning waves. The Arab sailors beiieve that the high seas off the coast of Abyssinia are enchanted, aud whenever they find themselves among them they recite verses which they suppose have a tendency to sub due them. The oldest inhabited house in Eng land stands close to the River Ver, and about 250 yards from St. Alban's ab bey. It was built in the time of King Offa of Mercia about the year 7'J5, and is thus over 1100 years old. It is of octagonal shape, the upper portion being of oak, and the lower has walls of great thickness. During the last decade excavations in Egypt have added to the treasures of ancient Greek literature buried iu the sand for two thousand years— manuscripts of works by Aristotle, Herondas. Bakchylides, Menander, besides the Ninus romance, Greufell's erotic fragment, and the hymns to Ap .to, with music. CliiVJren or Taxe*. if you live in Madagascar you must have children, or else pay a tax to the authorities. This is the latest decree issued by the government of Madagas car. For some time the population of that island has been decreasing. The government authorities sat in council a short time ago and decided upon a tax to be levied, upon every man who, at the age of twenty-live, is unmarried, and upon every married man who, at that age, has no children. The tax is k\.75 a year. Every girl must pay uf tax of SI.BO a year as long as she re'.iiVlus single after she passes her twentAfourth year, and every married woman does the same until she has chilf bacchanalian feasts In the history of the lead nations. Her advice is decidedly belated; it does »ot (It the intelligence of our times. Chem istry shows that the "one wine, red or white," which this writer says should be lsed "straight through" a home dinner iontnins a varying percentage of alcohol. Whether there be in this wine much or Ut ile alcohol, the character of that alcohol is :he same. It is an irritant, narcotic pot ion. Its best friends cannot deny that it las the power, when taken even in small juantities, to create a progressive, uncon :rotlable and destraetive appetite for more. This appetite grows stealthily upon the Irinker. The ability to resist it varies with he individual, and is dependent unon jhysical conditions, in which hereidity is a powerful factor. John B. Gough said, 'My father could be a moderate drinker, lutloanbe only a total abstainer or a juttor drunkard." The gratification of this appetite ends in Irunkenness. crime, poverty, misery and Badness. Therefore, the family or indi vidual who is drinking the red or white .vine which this so-called temperance 1 Toman recommends for the daily home linner Is trying a very dangerous exueri nent. Eighty-four per cent, of our crlm nals, seventy-live per cent, of our paupers. | Ifty per cent, of the inmates of our insane i isylums began their careers with so-called noderate drinking. No human being can j 'oresee when he begins where such tippling I will laad him. He Is dealing in futures, ! with no knowledge of his chances beyond ! he fact that the drink he is imbibing has ! in enticing power for destruction; but this 'act he generally ignores. I Modern chemistrv shows that the four ' tinds of wine this writer would have | ;erved with a more formal course dlnnaa ire the same sort of liquors, differing only n ll'ivor and th:} amount of alcohol they | contain. Providing for guests four differ j snt kinds o F poisonous drinks which have ' :he power for harm that alcohol has is. to ' iay the least, a barbarian sort of hospltat : ity, a relic of the days that had not the light of modern science. Through its action on the nerves and ; jruin, alcohol, of all agents, is the most ] r.owerful for the destruction of those quali ! ties of mind and character that make a 1 people capable of self-government. It is, j :herefore, the mo9t dangerous of all foes ! :o our free institutions, which rest upon I :h« capacity of our people, for self-govern ment. To follow this wine-bibbing advice is an ! nvltatton to disaster to that which we hold most dear—liberty under law. The ca | paclty for government of the American people will stand the strain of the colonial ?xpansion has thrust upon us, if alcohol is ! ibolished from our habits. Commenting I >ll this probability, Adolph Fick. professor }f physiology in Wurtzburg University, ; jermauy, in a public lecture said: I "There is good reason for asserting that : :he Anglo-Saxon race at no very distant lav will free itself from the yoke of alco | iioi. Whether it will then be possible for those races still submitting to its use tc jompete with the Anglo-Saxon in their : jconomical pursuits is a question to be ihoughtfully considered." Miny H. H"NT. Tolstoy on the Drink Question, i The physiological aud mental effects 01 ilcchol are now fully and clearly provec !>y physicians and men of science, Alcoho j #s a recognized poison which Impairs di 1 Restlon, disintegrates ".he blood and lowers ' the strength. These are a few of tilt 1 physlolsgical effects. Alcohol also pro luces a weakening and obscuring of the mind. It has been proved by repeated I tctentiflc experiments that It reduces the working capacity of the mind and body ! The mental and physical stimulation which follows the absorption of alcohol i? very brief aud worthless. The idea that the moderate use of alcohol j s harmless is now absurd. It injures « ' person exactly in proportion to the quan ; ttty taken, however small that quactltj may be. ] To-day one can not and dare not say that She use or alcohol is a personal concern I >n!y; that the moderate use is uninjurious. ;hat every one knows what he is doing ana needs nn lessons from others. No, it is nc longer a private affair. It is an affair o f the greatest importance to the community i Whether they wish it or not, all men are to-day divided Into two camps—those who i light by word aud example against tilt purposeless use of a poison, and those who lefond that poison by word and example. Aud we see this tight going on in every land. In Russia it has beeu carried o with especial energy for the last twent. years.—Lao Tolstoy. The Great Destroyer or Anglo-Saxons. [ Mr. T. W. Russell, member of the liug ' ish Parliament, in an address at Belfast I Ireland, referred to the history of the mem I bers belonging to a young men's society ii County Tyrone thirty-five years ago, an' ieclarod that everyone whose life ha :urned out a failure hail beeu ruined b; Iriuk. He described the appearance of th most brilliant of the youthful band labor Ing on a wharf at New York, brought lo bv the mocker. Drink had the country 1 the throat. When A. M. Sullivan lay c his death-bed he sent for the speakei pointed out to him that the Irish par l was £oin£ to bo captured by the urin power, and charged him never lo give u the battle. The public house had becom a more potent force in politics than churc I or chapel. The apathy of Christian me and ministers was astounding. The scot and vengeance of a trade grown rich t widows' tears ami children's cries were a most enough to make one quail. Drii was the great destroyer of the Anglo-Sax' race; Satan's prime agency iu the uaraal ng of men. The lecturer had .-hang. »ome of his views, but ttiose on the drli question lie had never modified lu t ■lightest legree. Notes of the Crusade. The Imperialism In the saloon power be imperialism to be dreaded. This coi. try can take care of Aguiualdo easier th we can of the saloonkeeper aal his vi army. It i= significant of the progress that te jerauce agitation is making in Germi ;bat 200 students of the University of B lin have organised themselves into a tot abstinence club, the first !a the empire. The brewers who were so patriotic at jutbreak of the war are now kicking v irously against the additional war tax beer. Their patriotism was only on foam after all-