y to be tead of pieces je thatc to vin- ny own in the 1 war. 1d pris- nd the e tales 8 never th the nd yet people ike cir- f war ad gimilar sperate I be- n, well y, who re ten gerably killed ery of not to ty and not of no im- iviliza- se the ent in admit, tions, ‘ on gys--° people ons. I vagay edemp- t lazy, stamp, and in -Simon on rt 3 rophets 5 to be a 3 porch, lays or ilingly yy rain en tak- hat is, at sus- form is ; dura- as well the on- leasant ill the On the er Tun- is cer- set in, red by | Ss SOmeé pather. | even- clear upon. dull in not far 1d con<X it will 10 will ory to ve find d once use to e and oe like- mind, n this d. He would leaves, htning Once, he res ‘Para- i if all 1% caulay | mory. coffee l upa 70 pO- once iin for repeat single 10es of 1s that alma- Duke* nority as fol- ect to 3 him 5 Brit- » mak- . The at the throw outh’s ms ex- ! Bur- me as roken their vhich, st the 8 run hough ~Lon- great ed by ealize 1, his which ‘X SeBt— . | and other sweets :f BLACK ROCKS. A Btory of the Early Dayk of the Cen- nellsville Coal Region. iy A writer in Forest and Stream says | that Elias Blank, one of the early set- ers of what is now the great Connells- ville coal region, in western Pennsylva- nia, was among the first Americans to soft coal. How the thing came about is thus described: »:One night Mr. Blank was aroused by a rapping at his door. Opening it, he admitted a famous Indian fighter, Lewis ‘Whetzell, and a companion, Jonathan Gates, commonly known as ‘‘Long Arms, ”’ “Friend. Lewis,’ said Blank, ‘‘where have thee and our friend been and where bound?’’ ‘I want to get out of here at once,’’ said Whetzell, “and Long Arms is of the same opinion. This country’s be- witched, and Long Arms and 1 are nearly scared to death.’ “Friend Lewis, thee must not tell such stories to me,”’ said old Elias. “Thee knows I ‘am thy friend, and 1 have saved thee when a price was on thy head: I know thou art a man of courage, and friend Jonathan Gates, whom some call Long Arms, fears nothing on earth, and I’m fearful noth- ing anywhere else, and yet thou tellest me that he and thee are scared even al- most unto death. Shame on thee so to declare before thy friend, who loves ye both as he were thy father!" ‘‘No, no, Elias,’ said Whetzell, drop- ping into the Quaker speech. ‘I tell thee no lie. We are scared. Yesterday afternoon we were in hiding about a mile from Dunkard creek, and in the evening we built a fire under the bank very carefully, and we got some black rocks to prop up a little kettle and put them beside the fire rather than in it, agd the black rocks took fire and burned fiercely, with a filthy smoke and a bright light, and Long Arms said the devil would. come it we staid, and we grabbed cur kettle and poured out the water and made our way here, leaving the black rocks to burn.” Elias Blank was much interested. He did not tell Whetzell what the black rocks were, but he found out exactly where the men had made their fire, and when they went awlly he gave them each a new Ezra Englerifle, a knife and a tomahawk, wit} Jour pounds of powder and a suppls & Jead. Then he hunted ap their camping ground, found the ‘‘black rocks’ and opened a coal bank into one of the river hills, and this coal bank is still in ex- istence in a 12 foot vein ‘of coal that is absolutely free from slate and burns like pitch. Resting at Unyanyembe. My march is nearly over. I have got back into well beaten tracks and am even occupying a house where near- ly every Englishman who has entered this region of Africa has lain and groaned over his fevers, his delays and the thousand and one troubles inciden- tal to African travel. Livingstone wait- ed here with patient resignation for months, ruminating no doubt now on the great lake, anon on the ‘‘great open sore of the world.”’ Stanley barricaded and Ioopholed its walls in the war with Mirambo. Here Cameron groaned over his fevers and his delays, and before me rises the picture of Murphy, stout and burly, sinking with a groan to the ground, and Dillon, blind and helpless, lying wearily on his couch. In later times Captain Carter of elephant fame had to flee from the house as from a house infected, and but a few days ago his Scotch assistant and two Belgians were on the point of shooting each other with their revolvers, and, last of all, to close this ‘“‘strange, eventful his- tory,’ here lies yours truly, resting from his long and lonely march and feeling as if his work was o'er. I am at the present moment a prey to that horrible scourge, prickly leat, making me feel as if needles were coz- ing out of every pore of my corpus. Mosquitces by the million buzz about my ears, but sing no pleasant love song to my maddening brain. Iam also a martyr to certain volcanic eruptions vulgarly known as boils, which prevent me from sitting, lying, walking or standing with any degree of comfort. Then the temperature is so high that at midday I have not got out of my pyjamas, while to get a breath cf air I have continually to resort to the fun. —Biography of Joseph Thompson, Afri- can Explorer. Clean Shirts In Germany. The Berlin Boersen-Couri about a German’: cu of shirt front which led un pal is unended to ap peal to tie large vamber of conitneng G8unars wo wear d front Lius a puper coily 1h and 1s in seven lager er 1s iyrn of it reveals anc whi glistening front. Thus row cor pape: dicly the wearer niuy ovoive ¢ clean pr ocr shirt front for every « u the wech 2% dicky is niaue te bution to auy kind of shirt. It costs ber $0 pfennig, or about v the expense of a clean front is but aut a day In view of the prevalence of the dicky habit in Germany the invent r has taken steps to manufacture tis compound shirt fronts in large quui ities. 7 cents; consequen Acids and the Teeth, It is a dentist’s v ord that acids are quite as injurious z- sweets to the teeth, unless their traces ure promptly remov- ed. Oranges or : ples eaten at night need the brush as + rtainly as do candy persons would be careful, too, wh: is taken before a teeth filling apy. utment, those with sensitive teeth wi: find some mitiga- tion to their suti: «ing. Acids that set the teeth on edge ire particularly to be avoided. Good Argument. Yabsley—Mudg ¢, what makes you laugh at your ow: stories? 8 Mudge—Why suouldn’t I? If they te not worth laughing at, I would not teil them, —Iudianapolis Journal. "CUBE ROOT MADE EASY. How Any Bright Scholar May Learn to Tell It Offhand. To find the cube root of any given number of figures offhand seems an al- most impossible feat, but yet it is sim- le enough when one knows how to do, t—s0 simple, indeed, that any bright boy can learn to do it in a few weeks. rst he must know exactly what a | sube is—namely, that it is the result! i of multiplying one number by itself and then multiplying the product by the original number. Thus, 8 multiplied bby 8 equals 9, and 9 multiplied by 8, ! the original number, produces 27, which consequently is the cube of 8. The cube root of 27 is the original number, 8, and to find the cube root is the reverse of finding the cube. The would be adept at this art should first study carefully the following figures: IX1X1=s 1 2X2X2= 8 8X8X8= 2 4X 4X d= 64 EX bX 5=125 6X6 6=216 | TXTXT=3848 8X8X8=512 OXOX0=729 A close study of these figures shows that 2 multiplied in this manner by it- self results in 8, that 8 multiplied by itself has 2 as a final figure, that 8 mul- tiplied by itself has 7 as a filfal figure, that 7 multiplied by itself has 8 as a final figure, and that 4, 5, 6 and 9 mul- tiplied by themselves have their origi- nal figures as finals. Hence the ‘‘artist’’ knows that any sum given to him the final figure of which is 8 must have 2 as a cube root; that if the final figure be 9, the cube root must be 9, and so on. For example, give him the figures 74,088, and he can at once tell that 42 is the cube root, for the reason that 74 has 4 as a cube root, as the cube of 4 is 64, while the cube of 5 is 125, much more than 74, and 088 has 2 as a cube root. ; Or give him a more difficult problem, as, for example, the figures 824,369. Then he will see at a glance that 324 is more than 216, which ‘is the cube of 6, but is less than 843, the cube of 7. Therefore the cube root of these three figures is 6. In like manner the final figure of 369 being 9, it follows that the cube root of these three figuresis 9, and thus the cube root of the six figures has been shown to be 69. Any one can test this method for himself, and a little practice is all that is needed to make one as deft in such jugglery of figures as the best ‘‘light- ning calculator.’ Of course a skilled arithmetician could easily frame problems that could not be solved in this offhand fashion, but such difficult tests are seldom offered by public audiences, and, as a rule, the ‘““artists’’ are easily able to answer all the questions asked of them.—New York Herald. How Cold Metals Sometimes Mix. Professor Roberts-Austen’s® discov- eries on the subject of the interdiffusi- bility f metals is most interesting reading. The facts have been to some extent known to savants before the meeting of the Royal society, at which more public att-iution was drawn, but on that occasicu the results were made more clear It was then shown that solid metals may be made to mix them- selves as if the atoms were living crea- tures. Professor Roberts-Austen has, in fact, discovered pieces of metal ‘engaged in the very act of mixing themselves up one with the other. Of course the inter- est of this is that the interdiffusion of which we speak bas been found to take place when the metals were cold, and, though 8 property in metals, to be capable taching themselves one to the other when cold, has been talked about Lefore, nothing so clearly proved has hitherto been at the service of metallorgists and chemists as the facts adduced by Professor Roberts-Austen. He shows tliat when clean surfaces of lead and gold are held together in the absence of sir ata temperature of 4C degrees tor four days they unite firmly and can ouly be separated by a force equal to one third of the breaking strain of the lead. The professor has also proved that if a plate of gold be laid under cone of lead about three- tenths of an inch thick mn three days gold will huve risen and diffused itself to the top of the other metal in very appreciable quantity. —Colliery Guar- dian. Lord Palmerston. A minister who kept race horses and had at hiscommand a good store of very blunt vernacular, who could not be got to admit that he understood an abstract thought, who always knew be wantcd and was determined to ) ut regardless of the opinions ters, who conceived his own ideas to be supericr to those of other people, who vever looked further than tomorrow and much prefered rot to think beyond this evening, but who at the same time was determined to establish the privi- lege of an Englishman to the sidewalk all over the world, while men of other nations might step into the gutter— this minister represented aspirations which had long ago sickened under the rounded periods intended to convince humanity that bread and calico summed up their total requirements and were more suflicicnt for rational happiness This was the pcpular conception of Palmerston when, in 1853, he became first minister of the crown.—* Yoke of Empire,”’ by BR B. Brett. A Permanent Paste. Soak an ounce of refimed gelatin in cold water for ean hour, then drain off and gqueeze out the water as much as possible. Put the gelatin in a jelly pot and place the pot in a pan of hot water over the fire. When the gelatin has melted, stir in slowly 21% ounces of pure alcohol. Put in a wide mouthed bottle and cork tightly. This glue or paste will keep indefinitely and can be melted for use in a few minutes by set- ting the bottle in a basin of hot water As it contaitis a very small percentage of water ir affects the gloss of the apints but little and dries almost im- | FOUND IN EVERY ATLAS. Picturesque Nomenclature That Is Orig- inal sand Fresh From the Soil—A Native Jerseyman’s Rxplanations of 8 me of the Appellations, “Other states may be bigger and richer and turn in a heavier vote,” said the man with the woodbine whiskers twining gently about his face, ‘‘but for picturesqueness of nomenclature New Jersey takes the gold medal.” ‘You're from Jersey, sir, I suppose, said the man who had just come in from the smoking oar. ‘I am, sir, and I'm proud of it. I come in on this train every day to busi- ness in the city, and in my leisure mo- ments I make a study of the geography of my native state. I may say, sir—I think I may say with confidence—that few men are so well informed as I upon this interesting subject of New Jersey’s geographical nomenclature. You ob- serve, sir, that I say New Jersey, not Jersey, which is an undignified behead- ing of a noble title.” “Possibly it is because I'm a New Yorker,’ said the man across the aisle, “but I have always thought New York to be pretty strong on interesting names. ’’ ‘‘A great error, sir,”’ declared he of the whiskers. ‘‘A very great error. Your names are mainly corrupted In- dian titles or direct cribs from ancient davs—Ithaca, Marathon, Utica, Homer, Virgil, Syracuse, Sempronius, Moravia, Rome, Cato, Palmyra and a score of others. Ygu have borrowed the glories that should have been buried with Greece and Rome. ur titles, sir, are dug up fgpm the soil and repléte with meaning. Let me cite some. ”’ Here he pulled asmall notebook from his pocket, and the other man, with regretful politeness, said he would be glad to learn something on the subject. **Consider, sir, ’’ continued the Jersey- ite, ‘‘the appropriateness of such names as Ragtown, Breakfast Point, Camp Gaw, Polifly, Radix, Pluckemin, Pock- town, Tillietudelum and Succasuna.’’ ‘*Some of them sound familiar,” said the New Yorker, ‘‘but are all of those real names?’ **Every one of ‘em on the map, sir,” replied the other warmly. *“‘I’ll give you $100 for any one of those that isn’t a real place, and they fairly reek of the soil. Now, here’s another batch— Bone Hill, Wickatunk, Bamber, Atco, Wollyfield, Blue Anchor, Blazing Star, Hockamick, Jahokeyville, Oney’s Hat, Kalarama, Flyat, Flickerville, Zings- em, Wakeake and Batsto.”’ ‘They sound as if they were taken from Jabberwocky,’ remarked the New Yorker. ‘‘They’re utter nonsense.’ ‘Taken straight from the country- side,’ averred the geographer. ‘They may not be very strong on sense. Those names I cite merely as instances of pure beauty of sound. If you're looking for meaning, I can give that to you. For instance, there are Barley Sheaf and Wheat Sheaf, poetically stiggestive of the agricultural riches of our beautiful state. Our domestic animals are com- memorated in such fitting titles as Goosetown, Hensfoot, Hogtown, Mon- keytown, Horseneck and Peacocktown, while for other animals there are Skunk- town, Pole Tavern, which used to be Polecat Tavern; Postertown (if a poster ain’t a wild animal 1 don’t know what is), Snake Hill, Turtletown, Frogtown, and I don’t know but what Batsto ought to come in there. The frogs get another show at Manunka Chunk, which is the name they gave it them- selves, singing of nights out in the swamps. ‘Now, for the temperance folk there are blazing signs of warning in such names as Whisky Lane, Gin Point, Jug- town and Bum Tavern. There used to be an innkeeper in the latter place, by the way, who sued the authorities once a year for maintaining such a title and always con promised for 5 cents, with which he iought himself a drink and was well satisfied. One year the authori- ties started in to fight the case and the innkeeper in disgust quit the business and Bum Tavern simultaneously. A place with a suggestive title is Naugh-. right, which got its name from a large farm owner’s sign, nailed on a tree at the roadside, ‘No right of way here.’ They got calling him Old No Right, and when the village sprung up they called it after him, but a man who had spelling reform the wrong way made it as it now stands. Speaking of spelling, there’s one village you can spell either Packnack, Pacquanac, Pequanac or Pequannock, but you can’t pronounce it as the natives do, no matter which way you choose. ‘There are some names more sug- gestive than beautiful—Scrabbletown, Scrapetown, Slabtown, Samptown and Solitutle, for instance. Some belie their names, like Recklesstown, which is as peaceful as a graveyard and in the same general line of business, keeping its inhabitants buried far from the cares of this busy world. Then there’s Round- about, which 1s a plain¥four corners erossing, and Small Lots, with nothing but wide stretches of countryside. As for Pellettville, I’ve heard that there isn't a drug stove there, but I can’t swear as to that, not having been there for many years.’ Look here,’’ put in the New York- er. ‘'‘I believe yon'te the man who writes the suburban stories in the comic papers and you're practicing names on’ me. ”’ “You do me great injustice!’ cried the geographer. ‘‘Bvery name has its local habitation, and you can find them all in the atlases. Next you’ll be cavil- ing at wach well known places as Snufftown, Ringoes, Rustic, Absecon, Hackle Barney, Soho, Bachville, Rural Place, Sodom, Blue Ball, Allamuchy, Totowa, Buckshutem, Duty Neck, War- bass and Smith’s Turn Out. *’ The New Yorker rubbed his nose and said nothing.—New York Sun. nediately. —Harper’s Round Table. SOME OF THE TOWNS THAT MAY BE . -_-.:... i ———— y e—— — | NAMES IN JERSEY. | i GEM SCULPTURE. Bemething About the Making of Camees and Intaglios. . Gem sculpiure, or lithoglyptics, is an art of great antiquity, having been gpracticed by the Babylonians, the Egyp- ‘tians, the Hebrews and. the Greeks. | Afterward it sank into decadexce, but | in the fifteenth century was revived in Italy. It is an art that calls for great elegance of taste and much skill, for on a small stone, generally precious, de- signs are represented either in raised work, as cameos, or by being cut below the surface, as intaglios | : To cameos the term ‘minute soulp- ture” is ivdeed applicable, for since the days of Grevk art celebrated statues have been ccpied in this way. The first intaglios were. the scarabs, or beetle shaped signets, worn in rings by the Egyptians from a very remote period. One side of the stone was shaped like a beetle, the other side was flat, and the name of the king or wearer was cut in- to it. A hole was then drilled in the stone from end to end, and through it a strong wire was passed to hold it in position in a ring. The flat or seal side was always worn next to the finger, but when used as a seal it was turned. In the art of gem sculpture the Greeks excelled all predecessors. The Etruscans, contemporary with the Greeks, also attained excellence in gem cutting, and it is said that ‘‘on these early gems of Etruscan or Greek origin may be read asin a book the forms of their religion and the subjects of popu- lar interest in politics, song and fable for centuries. ’’ Under Augustus gem sculpture flonr- ished among the Romans, many of them possessing cameos and intaglios of great value, and cabinets of costly gems be- came numerous, It is said that Cesar sent six cabinets of rare gems to the temple of Venus. There are many fine cameos and in- HANDS OFF THE BIRDS. ‘Time was when man made ready wae i And in his caverned lair i Beaded his tellow's teeth and wore The trophies in his hair, Tune 1s when ruthless savage, swars, And slaves of fashion, fair, Foy God's sweet choristers to sport e trophies in their hair. Where lies the onus of the doom? Who flaunt symbolic pain? The principals are those for whom The innocents are slain. How long, Lord God, shall blood price gain Buy inhumanity? How long shall sanguined stigma stain The brow of vanity? Hands off the birds, whose worship pours From every templed grove! Let live earth's fittest metaphors Of beauty, joy and love! —Benjamin Lander in New York Times. LONDON’S PAST PLEASURES. How Its Inhabitants Amused Themselves a Century or Two Ago. The Londoner in the long past might retire to Bagnigge Wells, near the pres- ent King’s Cross, or Florida gardens, Brompton (Brompton was noted 100 years ago for its “salubrious air’), or the Marylebone gardens and Bowling Green, mentioned by Pepys as *'a pretty place’ so long ago as 1668, or the Bayswater Tea gardens, which flour- ished till after the middle of the pres- ent century, there to sit in a summer Jhouse overgrown with honeysuckle and sweetbrier, drinking tea, then held in much esteem as a fashionable beverage, and eating cheese cakes, ‘‘heart cakes, ’’ Chelsea buns, syllabubs, jellies, creams, hot loaves, rolls and butter, while a band performed a concerto by Corelli or the last new composition by Mr. Handel, “The Master of Musick,’ or-a singer gave the last new song by Dr. Arne. Afterward his visitors might enjoy the privilege of drinking new milk from the cow and picking flowers taglios in the British museum. ‘Among the finest of them accessible to the pub- lic are the ‘‘ Cupid und Goose’’ intaglio, the ‘Dying Amazon,’’ the ‘‘Laughing Fawn,” ‘Bacchus’ on red jasper, and! the “Julius Caesar’ of Dioscurides. In modern times gem sculpture has reached | a high state of perfection and beauty. —Philadelphia Times. THE FUNCTION OF ETHER. Without It There Would Be No Light, Radiant Heat or Magnetism, “Whatever difficulties we may have in forming a consistent idea of the con- stitution of the ether, there can be no doubt that the interplanetary and inter- stellar spaces are not empty, but are oc- cupied by 4 material substance or body which is certainly the largest and prob- ably the most uniform body of which we have any knowledge. *’ Such was ‘the verdict pronounced some 20 years ago by James Clerk Maxwell, one of the very greatest of nineteenth century physicists, regard- ing the existence of an all pervading plenum in the universe in which every particle of tangible matter is immersed. And this verdict may be said to express the attitude of the entire philosophical world of our day. Without exception the authoritative physicists of our time accept this plerfum as a verity and rea- son about it with something of the same confidence they manifest in speaking of ‘‘ponderable’’ matter or of energy. It is true there are those among them who are disposed to deny that this all per- vading plenum merits the name of mat- ter, but that it is a something, and a vastly important something at that, all are agreed. Without it, they allege, we should know nothing of light, of radiant heat, of electricity or magnetism. With- out it there would probably be no such thing as gravitation—nay, they even hint that wit@ut this strange some- thing, ether, there would be no such thing as matter in the universe. If these contentions of the modern physicist are justified, then this intangible ether is incomparably the most important as well as the *‘largest and most uniform substance or body” in the universe. Its discovery may well be locked upon as the most importent feat of our century. —Henry Smith Williams, M. D., in Harper's Magazine. A Good Story of Sheridan, Sheridan once had occasion to call at a hairdresser’s to order a wig. On be- ing measured, the barber, vvho was a liberal soul, invited the orator to take some refreshment in an inner room. Here he regaled him with a bottle of port and showed so much hospitality that Sheridan’s heart was touched. When they rose from the table and were about separating, the latter, look- ing the barber full .in the face, said, “On reflecting, I don’t intend that you shall make my wig.” Astonished and with a blank visage, the other exclaimed: ‘‘Good heavens, Mr. Sheridan! How can I have dis- pleased you?'’ ‘‘Why, lock you,” said Sheridan, **you are an honest fellow, and, I re- peat it, you shan’t make my wig, for I never intended to pay for it. I'll go to another less worthy son of the craft.’ —Liverpcol Mercury. Spoiled Pleasure. Mrs, Meyer— What's the trouble, Mrs. Schulz? You are in bad humor this morning Mrs. Schulz—You see, my husband staid at the club every night last week until after midnight. Last night I sat up, determined to give him a curtain lecturé, when he got in late. And what do you think? The fool came home at 9 o'clock. —Fliegende Blatter Apoplexy has increased in England in a very remarkable degree since 1850. In the 16 years ending with 1866 there were 457 deaths from apoplexy per 1,000,000 inhabitants Last year the ratio was 577 per 1,000,000 The eruption of Etna has entirely de- stioyed vhe chestnut woods on the mountain slopes, the trees being devas: tured by the lava i the door of a veteri ‘ferred to the and fruit, ‘‘fresh every hour in the day,’ a great attraction, doubtless, for Londoners at a period when fruit and flowers were neither so cheap nor so abundant in the metropolis as they are at present. Nor were more artificial amusements lacking. In addition to illuminations, fireworks and masquer- ades, attended by the world of fashion from princes downward, there were miscellaneous entertainments of every sort. A high scaffolding was erected in Marylebone gardens in 1786 for a pred- ecessor of Blondin called ‘‘the flying man,” who was advertised to fly down on a rope pushing a wheelbarrow before him. In May, 1785, Lunardi, the first aeronaut who went up in a balloon in England and was quaintly called ‘‘the first aerial traveler in English atmos- phere’ by contemporary . prints, de- scended unexpectedly one afternoon in the Adam and Eve Tea gardens in the neighborhood of Tottenham Court road, then a resort of fashion, and was up- roariously welcomed by the populace in acknowledgment of his flight. Later on aeronautic flights became a special feature of all these pleasure gardens. Ponds containing goldfish—a novelty in the middle of the eighteenth century —were reckoned as another of their special attractions and were advertised as ‘‘gold and silver-fish, which afford pleasing ideas to every spectator.’’— Temple Bar. Japanese English. The Rev. Masazao Kagaren brought me a present of a tin of native preserved apricots put up at Nagano, bearing the inscription, ‘‘This apricots is very sweetest,”” Another tin—I think it was a sort of Japanese ‘“‘Liebig’’—was still more remarkably inscribed: ‘All the medicines of our company used to sell are not only manufactured of the pure and good material, but also, unless the article are inspected by the. superin- tendent, they not sealed. It is true that their quality i® best. If there was sus- pection about it, trust on official exami- nation. If even in the slightest neglect the result is not good, our company should be responsible for it. Beware the trademark, sealing wax and wrap- per of our company.’ In this connec- tion I may remark on the curious signs in English (?) composed in cheerful in- dependence of outside help. I have seen the equivalent of the English ‘‘man- gling done here” Fa ma- chine for smoothing the wrinkles in the trousers” and ‘‘Washman, ladies only,’ “Clothing of woman tailor, ladies fur- nished in upper story,’’ ‘‘Insiracted by the French horse leech,’ (this. adorned ary surgeon and re- tuition under which the gentleman was trained) — From “Mountaineering In the Japanese Alps,”’ by Rev. Walter Weston. # Inopportune Shelling. The troops were storming a temple or a palace, and O’Shaughnessy stopped before a mirror and stood twirling his mustache and wun iring himself, though the bullets were whistling round him. ‘‘Bedad, Shaugh,’’ he said to him- self, with a grin, ‘“ye're a fine figure of a man.” Crash came a bit of lead, which starred the said mirror into a ghousand cracks, quite obliterating Shaugh’s features, ‘‘Bedad,’’ said he coolly, ‘‘ye’ve sp’iled a foine view that I had of me- self.’ —London Mail. The Minister's Mistake, In a rural parish in the Mearns an Aberdeen divine, who had driven over in a hired vehicle, cecupied the pulpit. Only one person attended service, and the minister apologized for the length of his discourse. His audience signified his approval of his preaching, and the minister continued. Guess his conster- nation when he discovered his andience consisted of his driver, who had been engaged by the hour.—Edinburgh Dis- patch. The people of the United States read nd support as many newspapers as England, France and Germany com- bined. T7377 8HE WAS WRONG. { The Orisipsi Poem Wasn't by Cowper ab but by Some Ome Else. There 18 a woman's literary club on the South Side which is having the , bardest imaginable time to keep togeth- er. Unlike most similar organizations, it is not from want of money that this association of fair students is constant- 'ly threatened with disbandment. A spirit of discontent, and rivalry stalks through the meetings. The original purpose of the club was a thorongh criticism of the works of Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Milton, Spenser and Sir Edwin Arnold. But, although this laudable intention was adhered to for several months, after awhile some of them got to writing es- says and other papers tv be read before the society. The book trade may not have noticed it, but at that time there was a considerable run on concordances, glossaries, books of synonyms and liter- ary dictionaries. Ever since then things have gone from bad to worse. It seems impossible to maintain harmony. The vice president of the organiza- tion, a charming young lady, whether considered mentally or from her photo- graph, recently wrote a rather extend- ed poem in a very lofty strain. She read it' to the club. Amid the general ap- plause which 1 followed there came from several rem corners of the room something like murmurs. A couple of her auditors were heard to say that she had never written anything like thas before; that they didn’t believe any one in the club was capable of it; that, in ° fact, several passages sounded strangely familiar. . Finally one member with glasses and a very penetrating expression, address- ing the author of the poem, said: “Didn’t you get some of that from Cowper? I'm sure you did.”’ “I did nothing of the kind,” retorted the vice president, flushing at the ac- cusation. “Oh, but I remember almost the ex- act lines!’’ persisted her accuser. ‘*How dare you say so!’ returned the poet hotly. ‘‘But we’ll get the book and look," persisted the other. ‘You're a mean, mean thing,’ said the vice president, bursting into tears. “I didn’t get this from Cowper at all. And now that you're so smart I'll not tell you where I did get it.’’—Chicago Tribune. « NOT USED TO HOTEL WAY& A Young Woman After Registering Gives the Clerks a Surprise. She drifted into an uptown hotel by way of the women’s entrance. She was plainly but neatly clad and did not look like a girl who was used to the system in operation at a big hotel. She had a bright, pretty face and looked fresh and charming. The two clerks ox duty eyed her curiously and exchanged comments about the girl. She hesitated a moment when she reached the office, but after some little display of embar- rassment walked up to the desk and picked up a pen in a diffident manner. The clerk wheeled the book around sa that the place for signatures was in the proper position and waited. She chewed ‘nervously at the end of the pen, them dipped it sl< wly in the ink, and with = great deal ¢ f pains wrote: ‘*Miss blary McClosky, Ninety-third street.” Then she eyed ber effort approvingly and carefully laid the pen down. The clerk, who had been watching the opez- ation with a good deal of curiosity, said: ‘“‘Rocm, miss?) A flush mantled her face, but she said sweetly, *‘ Yes, if you please.” ‘‘Would you like a room with a bath?** asked the clerk in ‘a puzzled tone. Again she seemed embarrassed and hesi- tated, but finally said in a low tone: “Yes, if you please. That would be very nice and I would thank you very much.” ‘‘How much do you care to pay for a room?’ said the clerk as his eye swept the rack. ' ‘‘Pay?’ she said in sheer surprise. “Pay? Why, I didn’t expect to pay any- thing. I got a job here today as a cham- bermaid and I have just come down, >’— New York Tribune. A Miraculous Draft of Fishes. The dwellers on the banks of the Neckar, near the good old German town of Heilbronn, had an experience the other day which must have reminded them of the miraculous draft of fishes. A few days ago, toward evening, the worthy Heilbronners perceived that the Neckar was toward both its banks one moving mass of all sorts and con- ditions of ish, thronging landward in seeming anxiety to be caught. Nor was this tacit appeal at all disregarded, for every man, woman and ehild of the vicinity ran out with pots and pans, with spades and rakes, and pails and baskets to help himself or herself to a share of fish. The explanation of the miracle, which perchance might prove a hint to fisher-folk, was that the river had become so n:uddy after recent heavy rains that the ish found it difficult to breathe int! ¢ **thick’’ water and had approached the banks for more air.— Westminster Gazette. 372 West Bees’ Brains. The brain of the honeybee has re- cently been studied by Dr. Kenyon of Clark university more thoroughly, it is said, thon ever before. It is thought that tle source of a bee’s power to adapt 1tself intelligently to its sure roundings has been discovered in certain peculiar objects in its brain called the ‘‘mushroom bodies, ’’ The quantity of gas made in Germany last year, according to official returns, was 25,887,000 cubic feet, in the man- ufacturs of whieh 2,750,000 tons of coal was employed. The number of flames in use was 5,735,000. In ten years $1,000,000 has been paid out by the casualty fund of the British Benevolent institution to injwred rails way men and.their families, t
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers