y to be
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je thatc
to vin-
ny own
in the
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gimilar
sperate
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on gys--°
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and in
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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