Analysis show that the quality of ' Amcrienn cum ii still far tuperior to tliHt of Europe. -i London bus nt pri-sont twenty-throe paupers tii every 1,000 inhabitant), wmou initio highest proportion since 1882. According to recent statistics rail road accidents in thia country kill more trampi than any other kind of people. Chicago ia very much interested in n attempt to crowd down the street oar fures to three cent. The street car companies say that it would rain them. Tho British Consul at Tokio says tbnt while the Japanese are making many very cheap goods in competition with British and American manufac turers, they are also wry poor goods. Dr. Albert Shaw, editor of the Bo view of Reviews, told the New York Assembly's franchise comraitteo that in Europe he observed that cities were fully alive to the valuo of franchises, and were accustomed to get their full value for the benefit of the public. If Hor Majesty Quoen Victoria called all the policemen of Euglnnd, with their officers, to a review, au army of nearly 40,000 men would pass before her. Of ordinary con stables there are 80,000, of detectivo officers, 611; thcro are 8,899 scr gennts, 1,543 inspectors, C30 superin tendents, and 167 borough head-con-stables. Jealousy of American farm produce on the part of England has just broken out in a new spot, announces the American Agriculturist This time it is directed against tho importation of live sheep except under onerons re strictions. It is not so much fear of the introduction of soab among their own flocks as fear on the part of the politicians of displeasing the English farmer vote. Saya the Springfield Republican : Gorman students of literature ore much exoroised over the decay of polite letters in the Fatherland. In scholarship it more than holds its own but neither ia poetry, drama, nor fiction is there anything notable being done. It may be said the same is true of music Germany no longer leads the world as sho did in thia art. It ia quite possible that thia decadence is due to the ovor development of the critical spirit and that greatness in scholarship is proving detrimental to art. About 20 per oent of the Moslem pilgrims to Mecca perish in Arabia. Djeddah, the nearest port.isscparatod from Mecoa by a desert, and the cara vans on this route are constantly sur roundod by bands of murderous Bedouins, These mounted bandits merciless kill and then rob any strag glers. Others are murderod "for profit" in Mecoa or Medina, while thousands die every year of cholera aud other diseases caused by tho in credible filth and lack of oil sanitary precaution, in tho holy oities of the Mahometans. It is said that women who go into business life have not only a greater obanoe of marriage than girls who toy at homo, but greuter prospeots of happiness afterward. The reason al iened is that they make the aoquaint noe of the olass of men who make, a a rule, good husbands that is, industrious, intelligent, hardworkiug men of business. Moreover, adds the Atlanta Constitution, working with them day by day, each has a moro than usually good opportunity of dis covering the other's real character, so thut there is loss risk of disillusion ment after marriage. A railroad ruuuiug aoross a lake on palm leaves, some of thorn twenty-five feet long, is certainly unusual. Such a railroad has just beeu completed on the wonderful Pitch Lake of Triuidud, This lake is situated near the village of La Brea, on the Gulf of Pari. At first eight it appears to be au expanse of still water frequently interrupted by clumps of troes uud shrubs. On ap proaching it, it ia found to ounsiat of mineral pitch, ouutuiniug numbers of erevioos filled with water The sur face is not slippery uor stiokv.and will bear any weight It is about 100 y sores in exteut oud occupies a bowl like depression in a trnnoaled cone on the aide of a hill oovered with tropioal jungles. The cone oousists of both as phalt and earth. A hoary struma of asphalt has overflowed to the sea, forming a barrier reof for a consider able distance. Spme diggiugs have teen pushed to forty feet below the nirfuoe of the lake without rlniliug " ntuiu. Tuuro is a steady outflow "mi1s the sea through the aide of i cous. '. The rather of the Forest, Now from those veins the strength of old. The warmth and lust of life depart Full of mortality behold The cavern that was onoe my t.enrtl Sin, with blind arm In snnson due, Let the aerial woodman hew. For not through mightiest mortals fall, The starry chariot hangs dolayed. His axle Is uncooled, nor shall The thunder of Itlswhoels be stayed. A changeless pace Ills coursers keep And halt not at the walls of sleep. The South shall bless, tho East shall blight, The rod rose of the Dawn shall blow) The milllon-lllled stream of night, Wide In ethereal meadows flow ; And autumn mourn i and everything Dance to tho wild pipe of the spring. With ooeans heedlcs round her foot And the Indifferent heavens above, Earth shall the Ancient tale repeat Of wan and tears, and death and lovoi And, wlso from nil the foolish pnst, Khali peradventure hall nt last, The advent of that morn divine When nations may as forests prow, Wherein the oak hates not the pine, Nor beeches wish the cedars woe. But all In their unllkencin blend Confedernto to one golden cn d Beauty: the vision wbereunto. to joy, with paintings, from afar. Through sound and odor, form and hue, And mind and clay, and worm and star Now touching goal, now bnekwnrd burled Tolls the Indomitable world. Wllllinm Watson. The First Class Passenger. The midnight train was duo to start iu five minutes. The night was bitter ly cold, a hard frost having set iu shortly after dusk. Tho guard of the train appeared to fcol tho cold keenly ; yet, instead of pacing the platform or bustling about to keep his blood cir culating, he stood shivcriug iu frout of a first class carriage, looking miser able and dejected iu the extreme. His restless eyes had fixed them selves on the entranco to the platform, and a moment later, without any cherry "This way, sir," he silently, and in a manner which even at that time struck Mr. Yorke as peculiar, held np his arm as a signal. It was a signal which had been expected, for it was answered by a similar gesture from a toll, slender man, who came hurrying down the platform, pushing in front of him a bath chair. The guard's agitation had visibly increased npou the arrival of this pas senger, but the latter was cool, rapid in his movements, and as dextrous in his actions as if he had rehoarsed them when he came to assist the guard in lifting the occupant of the chair into the carriage. Mr. Yorke saw that tho invalid was a lady, well wrapped up iu oloaks and shawls and heavily veiled. Tho rido was without incident until fivo minutes after passing through Goodridge tunnol, .the shout of a man instantly followed by another, which might have been the echo of the former, but that it was a distinctly different voice,intcrrnpted tho monot onous rattle of the train, and the driver shut off steam in response to a summons by the communication cord. At that instant the up express rushed quivering by. The cries had both come from the off side, and putting hia head out of the window, Mr. Yorke, as his eye grow aooustomed to the darkness, found that the guard had already gained the footboard of the earringo from whence the alarm had presumably emanated. There were shouts from the guard to the driver, hiuch giving of arms, and then the train backed alowly for a few hundred yards. There the guard and the passengers dis mounted. Mr. Yorke followed suit He saw at onoe that there had been a ghastly occurrence. The trunk of a woman waa lying aoross tho up line, and the head had been completely severed from it by the engine wheels of the up train. Mr. Yorke's momentary view of the lady of the bath chair was sufficient to enable him to ideutify her as the vio tira of this midnight hor-ror. The wraps were easily reoognizable. Look ing closer, he imagined there was very little blood about for a mutilation ao terrible, aud stoopiug to touch the hand, in spite of the protest of the tall passenger, he found something which arouusod his journalistic in stincts to their fullest activity' some thing whioh sent him runniug up and down the train for a doctor; some thing whioh exasperated him strangely when all his exertions failed to find one. Obviously there wus no medioul mau living near. Mr. Yorke next turnod to the tall stranger and introduced himself as a nowapaper man. The tall mau who had beeu soowliug blackly over Mr. Yorke'a intervention, looked greatly relieved upon heariug that gentle man's profusion,' aud readily con sented to give his version of the mat ter for publication. But first of all he desired that note should bo taken, before the guard went on with tho train, that that offloial admitted the accident was due to the negligence of the railway engineer. "That's right, Mr. Oresswoll," said the guard with bloodless lips. "Well, just tell this gentloman about it," responded the passenger sharply, and in a tone of annoyance. The guard reoovered something of his composure, apparently, as the ef fect of his asperity, and proceeded: "A few moments before the the fatality, I happened to look along the train, and I notioed that the handle of this gentleman's compartment was not fastened." "How did you know it was this gentleman's compartment from thit distance?" interjected Mr. Yorke. "Of course, he didn't know till he got there," put in Mr. Grosswell, hastily. "No, of course I didn't know till I got there," repeated the guard. "I suppose, looking back now it's all over, it would have been wiser to have stopped tho train, but we were slack ing down our speed passing Evesham Woods, ns wo always do, aud the car- lingo wus not far from my van, so I started out to turn the handle. The lady foil out just ns I was about to reach tho door. With nuotlior step I could have provontcd tho accident." "Did she full out backwards or face foremost," asked the journalist. "Oh I backwards, sir," was the an swer. "So, I think you're wrong, guard," again interposed Mr. Grosswell with a snap. "Let me think a moment," said the guard, placing a shaking band to his clammy brow. "Yes, sho fell face foremost, of conrsj. I can seo her now. " Iu tho meantime the tall passengor or, ns the guard callod him, Mr. Gresswcll told the journalist tho story ho desirod to have published. His wife, he said, had suffered from a painful illness, which he specified, and had been under the care of Dr. Steiuwny, of Victoria street. Ho was tnkiug her down to tho seaside at her own wish. Certain suspicions which had beon forming in Mr. Yorko's miud took definite shape from the moment of this lame explanation. If he now became au apparently moro sympathetic listenor, it was by diut of the simulation which discretion suggested as a cloak to the hostility which began to take possession of him. "My wife rose to see if it was rain ing," proceodod Mr. Grosswell, 'and looked out of the window." An obvious lio, reflected Mr. Yorko, for the porsou who was lifted into the enrriugo iu the helpless condition of this invalid could not rise and go to tho window unassisted. But ho said nothing. "As I looked around," continued tho bereaved husband. "I saw hor falling forward. I clutched at her, just caught tho edgo of her dross, and it came away in my grasp as she dis appeared through the door which had beon so negligently left unfastened. Here is the piece of material which was left in my grasp, and here is tho plnoa from which it wai rent" Now Mr. Yorke saw the reason for that contradiction of tho guard by Mr. Grosswell, and the necessity for the story that the lady fell face foremost The rent was exactly in tho oonter of the back, in the edging. Beforo he had finished his interview with Mr. Gresswell the journalist was oontideut that he was treading upon the heels of a murder. He was not surprised that there had been no feminine cry of terror. He felt con fident that the lady had not met her death on the line at all, but that she bud beon murdered and then thrown u front of the express train, ia order that her body might not remain avail able for the proof of the guilty nieaus which had compassed her death. For when he had suddenly stooped down aud touched the lifeless hand a minute or two after the alarm had been given it was cold and stiff. It had been held in the grasp of death for some hours. Henoe his chagrin at the absenoe of medical evidenoe to prove this all-important point By the time the coun try dootor arrived tho coldness of the body and the rigor mortis wero symp tom! quite compatible with death in the manner the tall passenger related. The bitter coldness of tho night, said Dr. Truefit, would have led him to expeot similar appoaranoei about tho oorpse eveu hud he arrived considera bly earlier. Nor did the doctor's in spection of tho soene where the muti lated body had been found suggest to him any waut of reoouoiliution be tween that which ha saw, and that whioh ho had been told by Dr. Gress well. Ho saw no occasion, be said, to conduct any necropsy beforo tho coro ner's inauest was held. . Mr. Yorko rapidly wrote out a guarded report of the incidents of tho night, scribbled a letter of instruc tions to a colleague in London, and prepared tho packet contaiuing those two manuscripts for carriage by tho next train. His next step was to tele graph to Huporintondont JumoB, tho head of tho railway company's police, to send down his smartest detective. Upon the arrival of Inspector Waring events began to tnovo rapidly. Gress well, truculent and abusive, waa ar. rested; tho Corouer was communi cated with, and a post-mortem exami tion was ordered. The inspector, like the journalist, felt confident that he was upon the trail of a diabolical murder. But both, as events proved, were wrolig. They had discovered a crime, but it was not murder, ns tho post mortem examiuation subsequently proved by showing that death had beeu due to natural causes. Tho whole story enmo out when the guard was arrested. "Murder l"he repented, wildly, when the charge was mndo in the station master's office at tho terminus. No, belore God, it wasn't murder. I'll make a clean breast of it. Listen I Gresswcll has beeu the curso of my existence. I onco placed inysolf in his power by a foolish act, which I committed nt his instigation. I gave hi in tho slip in Brisbane, camo to Euglaud and had worked faithfully for the company aud forgotten his evil face almost until one day I mot him near tho Elephant and Castlo. I haveu't known a happy momout since. Jail would be a roliof, so lo ig as it helps me to keep out of his war. He was at me for wocks beforo he could get me to consent to go in for this thing with him. Ho lent mo a book I forget the title, but I've got it at home with his naino in it to prove what I say. It was about a murder and the agony of tho murderor when he came to disposo of the bgdy. "Gresswell used to discuii this story with me. Ho brought every conversation around to the ono topio, the atupidity of the murdorcr in not seeing that tho corpse, so far from being iu tho way, was really a valua ble possession. He illustrated this by saying that his wife was dyiug rap idly; that ho expected to make thou sands out of her body. 'How?' I asked, aud then he went on to explain that if he threw tho body out of tho train and proved that sho fell out through the company's negligence, there would bo a grand haul for com pensation. I rcseutod being asked to join in this scheme. I told him it tilled me with horror. But he talked me down. It was not so much the shnro of the gaiu he promised me. On my oath it wasn't. But ho seems to have a control ovor me. I can't ex plain it, but if ho wanted to make me put my arm on the line iu front of a goods train, I believe he could do it He said there was uothing horriblo in the affair; that I was as sentimental as a school girl, and that, ns fur as mutila tion of the body was concornod, his wife had always iutouded for leave hor oorpse to some hospital to the dissect- iug room. In short, the villiont ho got me to agree to be a party to bis scheme, and then he hurriod mo along so fust that I npver could put the brake on. He got me to explain spots where there were no dwellings, aud, therefore, uo dootors; he got me to lock the oarriuge for him, and to give him the signal, when the express was approaching, and he got me to prove that the carriage door was not scoured through nogligonoe on tho part of tho company's servants. Ho drilled me thoroughly, and well, you know whut'shapponedl" Black and White. Three Years iu a Trance. For three years Mrs. Anna Larsen has been in a cataleptio state at the Essex County Hospital for the insuno at Newark. All this time she sat mo tionless, never speaking or paying tho alightest attentiou to what was passing around her, aud being fed from a spoon by an attendant Long ago her husbund went into the Orauge Moun tains and blew bis braius out A day or two ago, when the dinner bell rang, Mrs. Larson got out of her chair and marched into the dining hall. She ordered the waiter to bring her moro when hor plate was empty, and talked to those who sat near her as though she had but Just awakened from a dream. She was slightly demented when taken into the institution, but her head appears to bo clear now. The doctors are watching her closely, aud are greatly interested in the case. New York Journal A Brooklyn justioe refused to ac cept a coroner's verdict in a trolley killing case, and ordered a special in vestigation. CHILDREN'S COLUJIX. IBS LAND or STORY BOORS. At evening when the lamp Is lit, Around the Are my parents sit ; They sit at home and talk and sing, And do not plnynt anything. Now with my little gun I orawl All In the dark along the wall, And follow around the forest track Away behind the sofa book. There, In the night, where none oan spy, All in my hunter's camp I He, And play at books tbnt I have read , Till It Is time to go to bed. Those are the hills, these are the woods, These aro the starry solitudes t And there by tho river by whose brink The roaring lion oomcs to drink. I see the others fnr awny, As if In fire-lit camp they lay, And I, like an Indian soout, Around their party prowled about. Ho, when my nurse comes In for me, Home I return from across the sea, And go to bed with backward looks At my dear land of storybooks. nougat Louis 8tevixson. A REMARKABLE DOO). "I have a dog," said a minister, who had just board a precocious crow story, "who is very sagacious. Oue Sunday ho followed mo to church and sat among the poople and watched my movements in tho til jit. That after noon I hoard a terrible howling in my bnck yard, and of gourde I weut to sco what it meant. I found my dog was in a woodshed, standing on his hind legs in a dry goods box. Ho held down a torn nlmanno with ono paw and gesticulated with the other, while he swayed his head and howled to an andionce of four other dogs even more sadly than I had douo in the evening." Now York Mail and Ex press. 8IIB SAT DOWN OS A BEAR. Betsey Ransom, whoso home was a small red farmhouse, built closo up against tbo almost perpendicular sido of Bald Mountain in New Hampshire, was one of tho most indefatigable berry pickers iu New England, and nowhere did sho find such big, blue, luscious berrios as on tho southern slopes at tho base of old Bald Moun tain. Hero firo had laid waste acres of raluablo land, leaving iu its path many 'a blackcnod stump and tree truuk, momontoes of the fiery visita tion ; and here, too, the blueberry bushes, first of nature's children to respond to tho soft iufluonoo of sun and air, grew luxuriantly. It was in ono of those fire swept patches thnt Betsey Ransom found herself one warm July morning, heaping tho lust pint of berries upon her second ten-quurt puil. For lu.u s sho had picked steadily iu tho shade of treos and bushes; but now tho fiery rays of tho sun shone directly down upou hor, and were re flected with power from the rocks and lodgos farabovo, on the mouutuinsido, while, far below, tho valley lay shim muring iu tho hut July atmosphere. Looking about hor for a comfort nblo plaoo in which to rest aud eat her midday lunch, she espied, at a little distance, a blackoned log, and thinking it a more desirable seat than the ground, walked alowly to wards it, fanning herself vigorously all the while with her sunbonuet, and sat ' solidly down. To her intense horror aud amuzemout, there was a sudden convulsion beueath her, aud with an angry snort, up rose a big, bluck bear. With a shriek of terror, Mrs. Ran som leaped to her feet and flod for her life. She had not run far before some obstruction threw her violontly to the ground, and glauoing ovor her shoulder as she regained her feet, groat was hor relief at seeing thut she was not pursued, but thnt bruin re mained where she had found him, and wus devouring her lunch with evident satisfaction. "What's the mnttor, mother?" ex olaimed her husband, as bareheaded, breathless, she rushed past him into tho buck door of the little red house. "A bear I" she panted, as she took the rifle from its hooks; "he's eatin' all my blueberries t" "Shoo I give me the gun, then ; you can't shoot" "Cau't I?" she replied. "Come and soe 1" and she kept on with the weapon. Pioking up an nxe he followed as fast ns his rheumatism would permit, and was in time to see the boar quietly muahiug the berries, and his wife, partly shielded by a thioket, with the gun at her shoulder. Craok I and tho bruin rose to his Launches. Uauglaudthe huge beast rolled over, dead as a stone. "Well done, wife, ; you've lost your berries, but hava gained a splendid boar skin. I'm proud of you." Youth's Companion. QUAIXT AXD CURIOUS. Large quantities of turkeys raised on Connecticut farms sre being shipped fo Europe. A blnck bear weighing 613 pounds was killed hear Wilkesbarre, l'enn., by two hunters recently. A California lion, measuring sis feet nine inches from nose to tail-tip wns shot near Pescadero, Cal. Downgino, Mich., with a population of 4,000 has twenty-four searet so cieties and twenty social clubs. At Port Jorvis, N. Y., couplo wero recently married whilo standing on tho boundary rock where Now York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania join. Some patriotio but mischievous youngsters iu Leo, Mass., took a neighboring farmer's white horse one night recently and painted its head red and its tail blue. An Indian known ns Chief Busbey Joe died at Amber, Mich., a few days ago at tho reputod ago of 110 years. Ho wns on expert hunter and trapper, and was out in the woods after game almost up to the day he diod. Six doer wandered into the village of Central Lake, Mich., trotted through the streets for a whilo, and took to the woods again before any of the startled inhabitants could quiot their nerves snffloiently to get a gun. Rev. Joseph Powell, of Findlay, Ohio, not being au American citizen, registered as a voter to prove an as sertion made iu his pulpit that the registration laws were not enforced. Ho has found himself arrested for fraudulent registration, Juke Gregory, an old colored man living near Wavorly, Ky., traded his wife fo a neighbor for an old mule, a pointer dog, and $5 in cash. The woman was a willing party to the swap, and even borrowed the ninlo from her ex-husbgnd to carry her to her new home. The battlo of the Rocks is another name for the battlo of Fulkonstein. In 1814 tho Frcnoh mouutaineeri posted thomBelves on the heights nod let loose great masses of rocks and enrth ou the Gorman ottacking force. Whole ranks were overthrown by a single avalanche, and the attack wus abandoned. Thomas Frye, of Escatawba, Miss., is reported to have a "mad-stone," which he found some two years ago in the caul of a deer. He has applied it several times to wounds made by mad dogs, oud sunkos, and it has worked porfectly. Before applying to tho wound, he soaks it for live minutes iu warm milk. A rich old Englishman recently bad a painful experieuco with a tax gatherer. In order to avoid paying the death duties he hud turned ovor all his property to hie son. Tho son, however, died intestate and without children before his father, aud, as hia son's heir, the old gentleman had to pay death duties on his property him self. Tho Dollar Still Missing. William Bain, a coal miner of Stotts City, Mo., who believed that he had swallowed a silver dollar whilo asleep, aud came to Kansas City sev eral weeks ago to have the dootors search his anatomy for he will proba bly go down to his grave without the satisfaction of knowing whether bo was the victim of an overhoated imag ination or whether he reully swallowed tbo coin. After the doctors had cut him opeu and examined the corners of his stomaoh to see where the dol lar was coucealed, they concluded that he hud not swallowed it and sowed him up, though William insist ed that he knew be bud gulped it down. Now has'gone baok to Stotts City and taken his dollar with him, a he believes. However.the surgeons who searched his internal regious thoroughly aud were unable to find a oout ure inclined to believe that it is simply a case ot strong imagination. Buin went to sleep in a chair with a coin in his mouth. A violent fit of ooughing fol lowed bis awakening. Ha believes it was oaused by swallowing tbo silver ooiu. His surgeous believe, however tb.it be must have ooughed up the coin and in bis exoitement was not aware of the faot Bain has quite re covered form the horoio surgical opera tion whioh he underwent in the hos pital here. Sau Faanoisoo Cbroniolo, The Number of Hairs lu a Beard. A Pottsvillo barber has fouud a now ocoupation for spare momenta, Uo has oouuted the number of hairs iu man's beard whom he shaved. When the lather dried whioh had been used ' iu shaving it was not difficult, although tedious, to eount the hairs, whioh numbered 11,603. Philadelphia Reoord, ,
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers