rr
rojeredittj or
Making, WW?'
I I By Kate Gannett Wells. I
iMBHaiainaaBmi
Marcella had never forgotten the
day she discovered she was only an
"adopted." She could still hear the
scornful tone with which Jimmy
Jones, in shoving her sled down the
Long Path on Boston Common, bad
announced the fact to a group of
boys. She remembered also that a
tall, handsome lad had offered to
drag her sled up the hill, and had
told her she'd come out all right in
the end, which ever since she had
been trying to do.
On that day she had gone home
sorrowfully, and asked what it meant
to be adopted, only to be petted in
reply, and made haupy for the :do-
ment. Yet she had lain awake at
Bight wondering and vowing to her
little self that never again would she
go coasting, and she never did
Marcella had a long memory, a hot
temper and an investigating turn cf
mind. So she looked up the word
"adopted" in the dictionary, and de
clared to herself that Jimmy Jones
tad told her such an awful Ho he
ought always to be punished for it.
Then she began to fancy that people
pitied her instead of loving her as
they did other girls; and she felt
"riled," to use her own expression.
Everything seemed to grow worse
nd worse for her, until one spring
day on account of her carelessness
at school she was sent upstairs to
the sub-master for admonition.
"Poor child," she overheard the
teacher say, "she may not be wholly
to blame; for no one knows what are
her inheritances."
"My mamma will give me Just as
much money as other girls have," de
clared the child, indignant at misap
plied compassion. The sub-master,
an excellent man without imagina
tion, was shocked, and passed her
on to the master, who had no time
for little things, and sent her home
Bntil he should have leisure. An
Marcella left the office, she turned
on him, with all the latent wtldncss
ef her nature, and the pent up woes
of her heart bursting from her child
ish control, exclaiming: "I hope you
never will have time, for I shall pray
God to get you drowned in vacation.
Ton don't know how to keep school."
Before the master could summon
Us wits to reply, she had rushed
downstairs and out into the street,
hatless, to run home. But a police
officer espied her, and caught her by
the arm. As she tried to escape, her
toy protector of the winter seized
the hand, which she had thrust for
ward for a pull at the officer's sleeve
trap, saying, "Let her alone, Cop;
he's a neighbor of mine and all
right."
As the lad was rather a favorite
f the policeman, who knew boys
better than often did their fathers,
he consented, after a few words, to
leave the frightened child in the
boy's care. She refused to go home.
So Hal took her to a vacant lot, and
tn a place dear to alt children's
hearts they sat down, Marcella find
ing comfort ia stubbing her boots
Into the sand and refuse. Hal, bow
ever, was embarrassed, and fervently
hoped that no one would discover
him with a pretty, hatless girl. The
Hence between them had lasted long
enough for him to insist on speech.
"What's up?" he asked.
"I don't know," answered Mar
cella, recklessly. "Things always
have to begin; and it began, you
know, that day last winter!" Hal
nodded. "Well, It's spread. I'm not
popular. I'm (in adopted. The dic
tionary and mamma and papa don't
agree. When I used to get mad I
Just got marked like anybody else.
Now they take to excusing me, be
cause of what they call heredity.
Everybody has got that, only mine is
different. Miss Smith said I could
Dot help being careless, and called
me 'poor child.' I told her I could
help It, but I wouldn't. So she sent
me upstairs to the sub-master, and
he sent me along to the master; and
I Just up and at him. That's all."
Ami she swallowed hard, for she did
not want to cry before a boy.
Then Hal did Just what he had
bad no notion of doing three mo
ments before; he put his arms round
her, and she laid her head down on
his knees and cried, Just what she
did not mean to have done. But both
of them started up as they heard the
well-known whoop of boys coming
round the corner, and each nooded to
the other, comrade-fashion, and dis
appeared at opposite ends of the
parkway. Marcella went home, and
aid nothing. Hal went down town,
and called on Marcella' father at his
office. "It's none of my business,"
be began in helter-skelter fashion.
"What isn't?" asked Mr. Lord,
with whom Hal was on friendly
terms.
"Why, whether she is adopted or
not. I am going,, to marry her just
the same as soon as I'm in business;
but you ought to tell her- she's an
adopted, and- not let the story sneak
out the way it does and have her
pitied when she gets mad just as if
he couldn't help it, for of course
he can."
"What are you talking about?"
asked Mr. Lord, so sternly that the
boy quickly recovered his senses and
manners, and begged pardon, but
with grim insistence told what he
know how Jimmy Jon'es bated Mar
cella, because she snubbed him and
would not take his spruce gum, and
that somehow he had found out from
the aunt with whom he boarded, who
had once lived In a hospital and had
taken care of babies, that Marcella
had been one of them. So Bob whis
pered it all round. Just to spite Mar
cella.
"And you believe the story?" said
Mr. Lord.
"Yes, and Marcella believes It, too,
because, when she asked you and
Mrs. Lord, you did not do anything
but hug her and give her candy.
That's Just the same as saying it was
true. Then, lately, you are always
excusing her when she is naughty
I guess she is most of the time'
and saying she can't help It; and
once she overheard you say you were
afraid of heredity."
"How do you know this?" de
manded the man.
"Because Marcella told me herself;
because sir promise me you won't
tell, never" (Mr. Lord nodded)
(the boy stood on tiptoe and whU
pered into Mr. Lord's ear), "because
I'm one of those babies, too, and I
know how it feels. Only," and he
spoke louder, "the folks that took
me always told me what I am, and
that it depended on me what I got
to be, because heredity needn't count.
Most folks don't know it, and, if
they do, they can't surprise me. You
see Marcella didn't know, and she
didn't like being surprised."
Mr. Lord looked searchlngly at
the lad, and then out of the window.
Turning, he laid his arm on the
boy's shoulder, saying: "Don't speak
of this. I trust you. Come, here
to-morrow."
"I beg your pardon, sir. I was
hot-headed." And, taking up his
cap, he left the office. In vain did
Mr. Lord try to balance his accounts.
Across them ran the great mistake
he and his wife had made. Hal was
right. Marcella ought to know, hard
as it would be now to tell her.
Years ago he and his wife, in their
childless loneliness, had adopted the
child. His logic had wanted her
early to know the truth; but his
wife's selfish craving for childish
affection had kept them silent, lest
Marcella might not love them as
much, if she knew she were not their
own daughter. Now the Nemesis
had come through the girl's suffer
ing, and Mr. Lord Insisted that she
should be told.
"Tell her then yourself," yielded
his wife, at last. "It will be the
saddest day of her life."
It will be the beginning of the
best years of her life. One can't go
on living a He," he replied.
He went upstairs to find the child
curled up In the broad window-seat,
looking at the moon. He drew her
towards him; for he loved her more,
if possible, than did his wife, and
understood her far better. "Papa,"
she asked before he spoke, "am I an
adopted?"
He held her close with kisses on
forehead, eyes and lips as he an
swered, "Yes." The silence seemed
long and cruel to them both. She
shrank in his embrace as if she were
in pain, but he would not let her go.
When quieted by his tenderness, he
told her how her own parents had
died, arM how he and his wife had
taken her from the hospital to be
their own blessed little girl, and that
there had never been a day since she
came to them that they had not re
joiced she was theirs.
... . J .4. k i -
Are you Bure you uuu i warn iu
get rid of me, when they poke fun at
me at school?" she questioned.
"Never," he answered; "but why
didn't you tell me they did so?"
"Because, first, I thought they did
it Just to tease me; and, when I did
try to ask, you and mamma gave me
candy. I threw It away, though, JuBt
as soon as I got upstairs. Then I
heard mamma call me 'poor child' "
Mr. Lord shuddered as she spoke
"and you said you were afraid
heredity counted. I looked up the
word in the dictionary; but, when the
teacher talked to me about inheri
tances, I just pretended she meant
money. I wouldn't let her know I
saw through her. O papa, I'm the
mtserablest little girl ever was adopt
ed. I don't belong nowhere. I don't
see why I got born." And the child
sobbed as if her heart would break.
Very tenderly and slowly, so she
could understand each word, her
father explained to her that she was
truly their child, and that heredity
needn't count, if it held aught else
than final good for her.
The girl listened, at first stupidly,
then coraprehendlngly. "Papa, If I
can begin to-morrow and not go to
that horrid school any more, perhaps
heredity needn't count that's what
you said. Perhaps I needn't get mad
so often. Please don't give me any
more candy, not for a whole year;
and I'll try to get ahead on heredity,
if I've got it bad."
"You haven't. We three, you,
mamma and I, will try together for
a year, so that trying will make a
nice little inheritance to hand over
to next year."
"That will be fun," she exclaimed,
clapping her hands, forgetful of her
sorrow for the next hour. But it re
turned to her as she woke in the
night, until she made up her mind to
begin at once, on the inheritance, and
so fell asleep. . . .
The next afternoon Hal went to
Mr. Lord's office. What the two
Baid to each other was never known
till years after, when Hal asked Mar
cella to be his wife.
"It isn't heredity, so much as love
in the home and will-power in one's
self that counts tor good," said Mr.
Lord to his wife, as Marcella and
Hal drove off on their wedding Jour
ney. The Boston Cooking-School
Magazine.
Three hundred tons of tobacco are
distributed annually among the sail
ors of the British navy. It is sold to
them at cost.
LOVELY WOMAN
A New York Correspondent Unveils the
Mysteries of the Ladies' Waiting-Room
By
. Nowhere in this wide world, per
Saps, does the flotsam and jetsam of
human femininity ebb and flow in such
a ceaseless tide as in the Grand Cen
tral station. New York. And If you
cherish any a priori concept of a con
slstent type of lovely women here is
the place where you descend beneath
the waters of disillusion to come up
washed and made clean.
Death as a leveler is a hide-bound
blue code as compared with the flve-
mtnute8-before-traln-time revelations
of the ladies' dressing-room.
Whatever is selfish or unselfish In
human nature, this hustling for
trains, elbowing your neighbor out
of your way, crowding into the line
out of your turn at the Pullman
window, brings to the front in a wo
man's manner more than in a man's,
because a woman loses her self-con
trol when she travels. She Is always
nervous and excited for no more
specific reasou an that she is catch,
ing trains and has to run on schedule
time. She may have an hour and a
half to wait before her train is called
and knows that this is so by the big
clock in the waiting-room, but she
wears a hurried, harassed look and
breathes In short chest breaths for
fear she is going to miss it. Now n
man will look at his watch, set It
by the railroad time and but that's
another story.
In the outside general waiting
room a woman may sit and appear
to possess her soul in patience, but
within the' sacred precincts of the
dressing-room she keeps the Record
ing Angel busy. A woman can not
spend five minutes here, without un
lacing her innermost character.
In this bustling crowd nobody
knows anybody else, so it is Just her
bed rock nature that comes out, her
manners after twenty centuries of
civilization being still so thin a ve
neer that the least bit of elbowing
jostles all courtesy out of the reckon
ing. It was a long weary wait we had
settled down to, but when the five
hours were over we were as much
sadder and wiser about our sex as a
lifetime of casual intercourse would
have left us.
The curtain on this scene of disil
lusion was raised on the six-o'clock-ers.
These women were, on the
whole, a well-dressed, interesting-
looking lot, out-of-town shoppers for
the most part who had spent the day
struggling over bargain counters,
dressmakers and the supercilious
"saleslady." All were tired to the
bone, of course, some keeping their
own counsel, but many frankly gar
rulous over their trials during the
day.
Each woman as she entered the
dressing-room paused a fraction of a
second to locate the mirror, and thirty-seven
of the first thirty-eight wo
men who entered made straight for
It. Now the waves of disillusion be
gin to roll over you. -
The soul of a woman shines
through the way she does two things:
says her prayers and "does" her
hair. There were a home-going few
who seemed satisfied when they as
certained the fact that their hats were
straight which meant being very
much awry readjusted a refractory
lock of hair, gave a pat to a collar
and a jab to a tie or a jerk to a belt.
Next were those just coming Into
the city. Here comes a woman who
walks up to the mirror, puts her
foot on a chair the lower rung
thereof and takes from her stock
ing a powder-rag. Glancing furtively
at her fellow-travelers to see if they
are looking, Bhe dabs the rag at her
nose and each cheek, rubs it down
hastily, readjusts her veil and, with
a satisfied though somewhat apolo
getic air, turns away and Is lost in the
crowd.
An Increasing boldness as to type,
we notice, runs through these vary
ing degrees of "making up." The
next woman is younger than her pre
decessor, and to her the travel-traces
are more objectionable. She is bet
ter drejaed, her hat tilts at a more
aggressive angle, and her manner Is
more assured. In a "it's-none-of-
your-buBinesB" manner she walks up
to the mirror and lays down her um
brella and porte-monnale. There Is
a swish of silk linings, a glimpse of
open-work lisle thread, a French
heeled foot, and with due delibera
tion this fair bird of passage assorts
the stores in her stocking. These
are a few banknotes, the Inevitable
powder rag, a tiny comb, a pate-brun
pencil, and a bit of a rouge sponge.
She takes off her hat and veil, hands
them to the white-aproned maid in
attendance, and Into the serious busi
ness of over-lay she plunges. She
has come from Bridgeport and is on
her way to Chicago. What does she
care who watches her? With careful
forethought she dampens her fingers'
with her tongue and massages cheeks
and nose just enough to give the
powder a fair hold. Then on goes the
powder In generous dabs. Now quick
with the rouge! Coolly enough she
went at it when It was only powder
she was applying, but what woman
ever possessed the courage of her
convictions to the extent of confess-,
edly using rouge? One cheek gets
a trifle rosier than the other and
there is a bit of a splotch on the
lower lip the light Is not good In her
corner, so she does not see it. Grab
bing her bat and veil, thhe ceremony
bl adjusting, readjusting, Jabbing
ON THE WING.
M. S.
hat-pins, and tying her veil is gone
through with absorbing Interest. The
reflection in the mirror gives back a
rosier, brighter face as she nods an
provingly toward it, but the improve
ment, although she does not guess
it, is not the artificial color, but the
air of self-satisfaction she now wears.
She has still an hour and ten min
utes to watt, but she is getting ner
vous and restless. Bhe Is so afraid
that she is going to miss her train
because she doesn't know Just why,
but she is sure she will.
Tired women with children are, of
course, numerous. The fact that she
has one little toddler clinging to her
and another in her arms is no bar to
the little woman from Derby coming
into town to Bee the store windows.
She, with her New England thrift,
has risen early, dressed all four of
the children, cooked the breakfast
and washed up the .dishes by candle
light and come in to town to do a
round of "window-shopping." . All
day she has been doing it industrious
ly, now she is going back to her vil
lage tired, nervous, over-wrought by
the noise and excitement. The chil
dren, also- tired and out of sorts, have
every " one misbehaved in various
ways, been punished pro tern and
threatened with something more last
ing when they reach home, and are
therefore peevish and sullen. But
she will do the same thing next year
in the same way, except she may have
a fifth olive-branch to care for. As
she lays the baby down, the toddler,
sticky and dirty-faced, sets up a howl
for a little mothering. A middle
aged woman, motherly-looking and
plainly dressed, from whom one
might expect human things, turns,
glares at the tired little woman, the
howling toddler, the fretful baby and
the sulking older ones, draws aside
her skirts and turns her back upon
the disconsolate family party, and
mlrabile dictu it is the young woman
with the roses-of-her-stocklng cheeks
who Is touched by the scene and tries
to amuse the little howler-,
It is so much cheaper than to go to
a hotel, that even women of preten
sions to form stop in the station
dressing-room instead of going up
town to a hotel. Here they have a
maid at their disposal a thirty
eighth 'of one at least so here they
make their toilet for the nonce. One
woman who is going to stay in town
all night has worn her "nightie"
under her blouse and petticoat so she
may be encumbered with nothing but
her card-case. To the usual kit
in her stocking she has added her
tooth-brush, so she is ready for a
week's tour.
The little thirty-eighth woman who
comes into the dressing-room and
does not look at the mirror, sinks
listlessly into a deep chair and lets
her umbrella He where it fell. Eyes
turn curiously or sympathetically to
ward her as their owners' hearts di
rect them. Women offer her a stimu
lant from their bags, and every wo
men who has a bag has a bottle in
it, It would appear. But incidentally
discovering it through the kindness
of their hearts, it were not fair to
discuss it.
As others come and go the little
thirty-eighth woman is forgotten. The
ceaseless tide sweeping young and
old, high and low, rich and poor,
has run the gamut of -human experi
ence between two train-calls. After
about twenty minutes' utter devitali
zation little thirty-eighth arouses her
self and looks at her watch. Now to
business! This is no trivial under
taking to be met in the free-for-all
mirror where the light is not strong
enough. Slipping into a corner near
a window she takes the band-mirror,
before which she draws up a second
chair. Off comes her hat, out comes
her hair-pins, up comes the notion-
stock from her stocking. She is be
ginning with the process of over-lay
in its first stage when we turn our
interested eyes to a group of young
girls who troop in arm in arm, fresh
as the roses of May. Here Is no need
for powder-rag and rouge. It Is on
a tour of Inspection they penetrate
this sacred precinct. Ethel notices
Gladys' chewing gum with the soul
content nothing else can give. "Oh,
where do you keep it?" she asks in
surprise. "I keep It In my hair,"
rosy young Gladys answers inno
cently; . "I don't ever put it in my
stocking any more; I don't think It's
nice."
Meantime the work of the thirty-
eighth has gone steadily on. The
pins having been taken out of her
hair, a fluffy pompadour and a coll
were carefully laid on the chair in
front of her, brushed and fluffed,
the thin growth on her head skerered
into a flat little knot and the false
"crowning glory" carefully re
placed.
We might have asked if there has
been some sort of black magic here
had our eyes not strayed at intervals
to the "window where the process of
rejuvenation was going on. Fluffy
Uncomfortable.
Breaking In woolen underwear may
be a disagreeable task, but we opine
that it Is real pleasure compared to
the job of breaking in a pororus plas
ter. Detroit Free Press.
Frauleln Richter has been appoint
ed lecturer on philology at Vienna
University, the first, instance of a
woman receiving such an appointment.
of hair, pink and white of skin,
dewy of eyes and ruby of Hps, th
weary little woman on the shady slds
of thirty-five emerges from the al
chemy of her stocking, twenty-four
at the outside. The brim of her
hat that drooped is now turned up
In festive fashion, showing a blue
lining with a pink rose nestling coyly
against the fluffy locks. The fresh
white gloves muBt hrve come from
the other stocking, being guiltless
of daub of rouge or smutch of black.
With a gay little nod toward the mir
ror for a final assurance, the little
figure bustles off and mingles with
the crowd. The saints defend her
on her way!
The accommodating maid who has
fastened hooks, tided shoes, brought
fresh towels, helped unpack grips
and suit-cases, arranged veils, sup
plied needle and thread in emergen
cies, given critical opinions as to the
angle of a hat, the sweep of a skirt,
furnished pins to conceal a rip or a
tear, met innumerable emergencies
during the long day, received usually
an absent-minded "Thanks" for her
service. Occasionally sometwoman
tipped her with a nickel, a very few
gave her tea cents when she had
sewed up a r.-;r;t or taken care of a
child, but at the end of the day there
were more pennies than anything
else In her pocket. Why? A man,
for the same amount of service,
would have given three or four times
the tip. It can not always be that a
man has more money to .spend, and
we are bound to admit the charge
of parsimony in most cases at least.
For instance, a woman whose suit
case was lavishly pasted with signs
of foreign travel, who, herself sug
gested opulence from top to toe, who
had called the maid to, her from an
other woman, 'bidden her unpack her
suit-case for clothes-brush, comb and
other articles, pack it up again, brush
her hat and coat for her, gave her
two pennies. But during her remain
ing half-hour wait that same woman
bought copies of Life and Vogue,
paying ten cents for each, and which
she merely glanced through, then
dropped upon the floor. Twenty
cents invested In a minute's diver,
slon and two cents for service well
done!
On the other hand, during a tem
porary lull of the Inflow, a thorough
bred young woman whose hard-and-fast
taifor-made lines enabled her to
pass the mirror with a minimum of
attention, dropped into a chair and
lost herself instantly in Kant'i
"Critique of Pure Reason." The
roomfull of fellow human beings,
after a high-headed survey, ceased to
exist for her until a pair of chubby
little legs wabbled too close to tha
danger-line and tumbled flat over
Minerva's faultlessly shod feet. The
mother's mortified eyes saw too late,
but she rushed with incoherent apolo
gies to pick up the offender. What
did this student girl do? - Dropped
Kant, picked up the sticky, mussy
baby and handed it over to the dazed
mother with a smile, beaming and
illogical, that pure reason knew
nothing about.
All of which bears out the baste
assertion that if you cherish any a
priori concept of a consistent type
of lovely woman. It !s here you go
down under the waters of disillusion
and come up washed and clean.
New York Correspondence of the San
Francisco Argonaut.
German children convicted of seri
ous offenses numbered in 1905, 48,.
003; in 1906, 61,232, and In 1907,
55,216.
The eleven London gas companlei
supply among them 46,403,852,000
cubic feet of gas to 1,101,896 con
sumers.
The use of snake venom Is increas
ing in the practice ot medicine, and
its price Is soaring upward rapidly.
The latest expression In the word
crop of 1908 Is "notel." It was first
used in Cincinnati and means a per.
son who has no telephone.
A young Inventor of Lyons, France,
is said to have solved the problem ol
the transmission ot electrical energy
without the use of wires.
A Paris' paper complains that no
journalist has yet been buried in tha
Pantheon, and mentions as represen
tatives of the craft who ought to bo
there Chateaubriand, Benjamin Con
stant, Paul Louis Courrier, Armand
Carrel, Emlle de Girardin and Louii
VeulUpt.
In Jamaica tuberculous disease 4i
extremely uncommon among tha
whites. When it occurs in negroes,
they quickly succumb to it.
The fossil remains of a Plestosaurui
have been unearther at Talcahuana
Bay, Chile. The body of this marina
reptile of bygone age was forty-five
feet long.
The eight-mile carriage road to tha
summit of Mount Washington being
for sale, it is proposed to form a com
pany to purchase it and run an auto
mobile stage Hue over It for the ac
commodation ot tourists.
! THE CHARM OF
THOMAS JEFFERSON
In December, 1800, a few days af
ter Congress had for the first time
met in our new metropolis, I was one
morning sitting alone In the parlor,
when the servant opened the door
and showed in a gentleman who
wished to see my husband. The usual
frankness and care with which I met
strangers were somewhat checked by
the dignified and reserved air of the
present visltbr, but the chilled feeling
was only momentary, for after tak
ing the chair I offered him in a free
and easy manner, and carelessly
throwing his arm on the table near
which he sat, he turned towards me a
countenance beaming with an expres
sion of benevolence and with a man
ner and voice almost femininely soft
and gentle, entered into conversation
on the commonplace topics of the
day, from which, .before I was con
scious of it, he had drawn me into ob
servations of a more personal and in
teresting nature, . I know not how it
was, but there was something in his
manner, his countenance and voice
that at once unlocked my heart, and
in answer to his casual inquiries con
cerning our situation in our new
home, as he called it, I found' myself
frankly telling him what I liked or
disliked in our present circumstances
and abode. I knew not who he was,
but the Interest with which he list
ened to my artless details induced the
idea he was some intimate acquaint
ance or friend of Mr. Smith's and put
me perfectly at my ease; in truth so
kind and conciliating were his looks
and manners that I forgot he was not
a friend ot my own, until on the
opening of the door Mr. Smith en
tered and introduced the stranger to
me as Mr. Jefferson.
I felt my cheeks burn and my heart
throb, and not a word more could I
speak while he remained. Nay, such
was my embarrassment I could scarce
ly listen lo the conversation carried
on between him and my husband.
For several years be had been to me
an object of peculiar interest. In
fact my destiny, for on his success in
the pending Presidential election, or
rather the success of the Democratic
party (their interests were identical),
my condition in life, my union with
the man I loved, depended. From
"Washington in Jefferson's Time," by
Margaret Bayard Smith, in Scribner's.
Thunderbolts.
"Did you ever see the diameter ot
a lightning flash measured?" asked a
geologist. "Well, here Is the case
which once Inclosed a flash ot light
ning that fitted it exactly, so you can
see how big it was. This is called a
fulgarlte,' or 'ligntning hole,' and the
material it is made ot is glass.
"When a bolt of lightning strikes a
bed of sand, it plunges downward for
a distance less or greater, transform
ing simultaneously into glass tire sil
ica in the material through which it
passes. Thus by its great heat it
forms a glass tube of precisely its
own size.
"Now and then such a tube, known
as a fulgarlte, is found and dug up,
Fulgarites have been followed into
the sand by excavations for nearly
thirty feet. They vary in interior
diameter from the size of a quill to
three inches or more, according to the
'bore' of the flash. But fulgarites are
not produced alone in sand. They
are found also In solid rock, though
very naturally ot slight depth, and
frequently existing as a thin, glassy
covering on the surface.
"Such fulgarites occur in astonish
ing abundance on the summit ot Lit
tle Ararat, in Armenia. The rock Is
so soft and porous that blocks a toot
long can be obtained, perforated In
all directions by little tubes filled
with bottle green glass formed from
the fused rock.
"Some wonderful fulgarites were
found by Humboldt on the high Ne
vada de Toluca, in Mexico. Masses
of the rock were covered with a thin
layer ot green glass. Its peculiar
shimmer in the sun led Humboldt to
asceni the precipitous peak at the
risk of his life.' New York Press.
Porpoises at Play.
A remarkable photograph of half
a dozen porpoises, playing under
water, just ahead of the bow of a
steamship traveling at the rate of
thirteen knots an hour, has been pub
lished by a correspondent of Knowl
edge, Mr. C. H. Gale. The sea was
calm and the photograph was made
by leaning over the bow of the ves
sel. Mr. Gale calls attention to the
singular fact that the porpoises, while
easily maintaining their position
ahead of the ship, showed no appar
ent effort or motion of body, tall or
fin. Yet he thinks that they were
not carried along by movement of
the water in front of the vessel, be
cause air-bubbles were seen rusblng
from their backs, and the photograph
shows the effect of these bubbles by
the white streaks on the backs of the
animals. Sometimes they rolled over
sidewise, but always maintained their
position.
The Sun.
One hundred years ago the diam
eter of the sun was four miles greater
than it is now. One thousand years
ago the sun's diameter was forty
miles greater than It is at present.
Ten thousand years ago its diameter
was four hundred miles greater than
It is to-day. The present diameter
of the sun is 860,000 miles, and it
this diameter were to shrink to
morrow to tig extent of 10,000 miles
the change wouTTflM be appreciable
to common observation, though a
much smaller change would not elude
the delicate astronomical measurements.