-., me like that,” observed the professor. RR THE CAGED BIRD) A year ago I asked you for your souls 1 took it in my hands, it weighed as Yight any bird's wing, it was poised for ght, t was a wandering thing without a goal, caged it, and 1 tended it; it throve; se ways 1 taught it; it forgot to fly; It learnt to know its cage, its keeper; I, Its keeper, taught it that the cage was ove. And now I take my bird out of the cage, It flutters not a feather, looks at me Sadly without desire, without surprise; A 1 have tamed it, it is still and sage, It has not strength enough for liberty, It does not even hate me with its eyes, ~~Arthur Symons, in Harper's. ——— i rs I i Psychical Research] oy A 0 HE American girl sat next T to Professor Denman. On then came Mr. Forester, then Mrs, Murchison, then mo significance, then the American girl. The table was quite still, quired the American girl. “Somebody give it a kick and tell it to get busy.” utes,” observed Professor Denman, “You must have some patience, member, mosy of us bave never at- tempted beforel’ fcan. “I suppose I've been turned out of the circle for making fun at a a craze for it one winter, and some of us could make the table step lively; its own accord so long as I was in the crew. You see, I never could get make the other girls real mad.” “Well, I am responsible for our mak- "professor mildly, “and I must apologize for the lack of results. Shall we fry “I have heard,” remarked the host, “* “that sometimes a table that has made will yield to the method of asking questions and knock on the floor in “Three times for ‘Yes,’ once for ‘No,’ I suppose,” remarked Colonel Hooke. shall we try it? Mr, Forester, 1 sug- gest that, just for a beginning, you swerable by ‘Yes’ or ‘No,” and concen- trate your whole thought upon it for fingers touching as before.” “What, me?’ said young Mr. Fores fessor. He caught the eye of the American girl, who was turning a him. Mr. Forester suddenly straight- ened himself in his chair. “All right,” Jooked at him curiously; then smiled to herself. “Yes? Now fix your mind on the ques- tion; and everybody else please try and We'll give the table five niinutes.” “Not wanted,” observed the host, as legs and rapped back ou the floor; once, twice, three times. prompt with the best of the mediums.” said Colonel Hooke. “How's that, For- “First rate, thanks,” replied the “young man, who had suddenly grown the astounding—"' “Shall we continue?” asked Professor of the enthusiasm every one expected from him at the first success of his wearisome work for the company.” He half rose. © his other side sat the host, Colonel Hooke, then a young man of “Say, do you think it's asleep?” in- “We have not been sitting ten min- Alice,” said Mrs. Murchison. “Re- “Well, I have,” SsQined the Amer- dozen table-turnings up home. We Lad but it never would shift a half-inch of to feel serious about it. It used to ing the present experiment,” said the a little longer?” no motion whatever of a rotary kind answer to them.” “Just s0,” said the professor. “Well, formulate in your mind a question an- a short time, while we sit with our ter in confusion, looking up at the pro- limpid and sympathetic glance upon he said, “I don’t mind.” The American “Ready ?’ inquired the professor, take a real interest in the experiment. the little table rose slightly on two “Gad! I've never known it more ester?” red in the face. “But I say! Of all Denman, in a tone that betrayed none hobby. “I'm afraid this is rather “Oh! we must go on!” cried Mrs. Murchison. “Such an excellent begin- ming! Let's switch the lights off and do the thing properly.” “No; no putting out of the lights, if you don't mind,” said the professor. © “That would make the thing even more foolish than it already is. But we will | 80 on if it still amuses anybody.” | Every one looked at him in surprise. “Have you suddenly become an old- fashioned scientific scoffer, Denman?” ked. the colonel, rather grufily. Sit Own and let's get on. I'm going to sk the table to give us a date.” But not another movement did the e make that night, '# pper Professor Denman sat next American girl, Everard,” said the professor, in an undertone, “I will take portunity of asking you why ade fools of the company this o!? . Everard was occupied at the nt in blushing. She had just ht Mr. Forester's eye across the table. But at the professor's words . #he blushed a little deeper, and glanced at him in the manner of one of Mr. Dana Gibson's unapproachable divini- ties. Mr. Forester did not miss this admirable effect. “The old boy is say- Ing something pleasant,” he reflected angrily. . “It is not of the least use looking at #Bhall I give you some salad? This is not the first time I have engaged in investigations of this sort, by some hundreds. I may have struck you as a harmless old gentleman, with whom it was safe to play tricks; but I knew at once that you were tilting your side of the table when we got that ‘Yes. Why did you do it? Miss Everard ate her salad pensively for a few moments, Then she smiled “Yen,” she sald, “you are quite right, professor, 1 did work the old table just at the end. But you don't want to give me away now, do you? 1 had my reasons.” “As it was quite clear from the out. set that you would not pretend to con. duct the experiment in a proper spirit,” replied the professor, with good humor, “1 was quite regdy for something of the sort from you, My only surprise is to learn that you had a reason worth calling by that name, May one ask what it was? “Why, 0; not too closely, anyway,” answered the American, dallying with a fork in some apparent confusion, “But I will tell you this. I happened to have a sort of an idea what Mn, Forester's question was, and 1 guessed it would do him a heap of good to have it answered with a ‘Yes. His question was about a--a family matter that's been troubling him some. 1 think it was that, anyway.” “Well, your benevolent fraud seems to have worked wonders,” observed the professor, innocently regarding Mr. Forester. “He looks more cheerful than I've ever seen him, positively, 1 must congratulate you.” The professor spoke these last words with the faintest suggestion of em- phasis, and smiled gently at his neigh- bor, Miss Everard again colored a lit- tle and then looked him bravely in the face. “Perhaps you may later on, profes- sor.” she said, “Come, I'm walking your way, For- ester,” said Professor Denman, as they put on their coats, “We'll go together, Only have some consideration for the trembling limbs of an old man, my boy. Don’t run me off my legs. You seem,” he added, as they descended the steps of the house, “as if you walked on air.” “So 1 do!” exclaimed Mr. Forester, | baring his head to the night breeze. “I'm the happiest man in London, by Jove! Professor, you shall be the first to wish me joy! I am going to marry lice Everard. She accepted me in the drawing room haif an hour ago. What do youn say to that, sir? “I am overwhelmed,” replied the pro- fessor, with the hint of dryness in his tone. “Aly dear Forester, I wish you joy. I never met the lady before this evening, but I can tell you this: She | is resourceful, and she has pluck.” “I should think she had!” cried Mr. Forester, with enthusiasm. “But I say, professor, we owe this evening's happiness to you, I must tell you. It all came of your table-turning.” “Yes?” said the professor, interroga- tively. “The question I put in my mind,” pursued Mr. Forester, “was whether I had any chance with Alice. I had hardly dared to hope it; there were at least a dozen better men than I am in the running, and I simply couldn’t summon up the cheek to ask her until to-night. But when your jolly old table thumped out ‘Yes,’ I took my courage in both hands and did it. I shall never,” he added solemnly, “laugh at that sort of thing again. It's dashed odd and uncanny, and I don’t under- stand it. But it answered my question, and it was right.” “Yes,” mused the professor, “it was. Speaking as an investigator, I may say { that a remarkably strong influence was | at work to-night—very strong indeed.” | —E. Clerihew, in London Daily News, Extent of Swamp Lauds, The Dutch have reclaimed vast areas in Holland from the encroach- ment of the ocean. Thousands of fam- il live and farm below the sea lédvel, gaining their security by m feats of engineering and persistence. They now contemplate the drainage of the Zuyder Zee, reclaiming some 1,350,» 000 additional acres of meadow land. American drainage, in most cases, would be fa: more simple and less ex- pensive; it is simply a question as to whether the nation will see the wis- dom of setting its hand to this work. In Florida the Everglades alone— almost solid muck beds—would afford an empire of some 7,000,000 acres; in New Jersey and Virginia are vast swamps, among them the famous Dis- mal Swamp. In Illinois, which is gen- erally regarded as a well settled agri- cultural State, there ave <.000,000 acres of swamp land; in Michigan there are nearly 4,000,000 acres. Fertile Iowa has about 2,000,000 acres of swamp land. In Minnesota there are almost 5,000,000 acres of rich surveyed swamp lands and huge swamp areas not yet sur- veyed. Arkansas has tremendous swamp areas which could be drained and made habitable, and, in all, there is a swamp area in the eastern half of the United States which is equal in extent to the great agricultural States of Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, with three or four smaller Eastern States thrown in.—New York Press. | } Kentucky Mules Scarce. “A pair of big, fine young mules are easily worth $500, and they are hard to get even at that high price,” said Mr. L. B. Foreman, of Cincinnati, “Kentucky is the great mule-producing State, and one county alone in that Cemmonwealth had 18,000 mules on its tax rolls last gear. There is good money in breeding them, but not in localities where land is very high priced. During the Boer war the Brit- ish bought thousands of mules for use in their campaign against the Afri- kanders, and owners made big money. Horses of high quality are also very scarce in the West, and the demand for them is even keener than in the days when automobiles were unknown, Good horses, in fact, are so high that sales are exceedingly dull.”—Wash- ington Post. The collection of musical instru ments, medals, jewels, autographs and original compositions, published and unpublished, which belonged to* the great violinist, Paganini, is to be sold. The. articles number 358 and are now at her accuser, the property of his brother, THRILLING FIGHT FOR LIFE, 0 O be seated in a buggy be- hind a runaway horse, bat- T © (ling for his life with a K, Fr wildeat, was the exper- oN rience of Harvey Jack- son, a traveling man from New York. While he was driving from Irventon, Pa, to Youngsville, the rig was passing a lonely stretch of woods, when the beast sprang into the vehicle from a tree, aligiting on the driver's lap. The wildcat tore the rebe to pieces and attacked Jackson. He drew a small knife and managed to open it. While the cat was tearing his face and body he jabbed it with his weapon. The horse had become frightened and was running away, while in the swaying buggy the battle continued. Jackson was gradually growing weaker, when suddenly the cat dropped to the bottom of the buggy, dead. He bad killed it with the knife. Tae horse ran almost to Youngsville befeve Jackson recovered and stopped it. although badly hurt, the man will recover.—Philadelphia Record. PIRILS ON CHINESE RIVER. Miss Anna B. Coole, a young Baptist | missionary, who has been in the far | interior of China for two years, arrived recently in San Francisco, Cal, on the Coptic on her way to Cleveland, Ohio. With Miss Coole were Gretchen and Kathleen Wellwood, young daughters of the Rev. Robert Wellwood, a mis- sionary in Szechen, not far from the border of Tibet, 2000 miles up the Yangtse Kiang from Shanghai. The trip made by Miss Coole and her young charges was most unusual. Leaving Suifu on January 15 in a na- tive boat, accompanied by a lifeboat in charge of Chinese soldiers, they started down the river, traveling only by day On the way down their boat was wrecked on a rock and the party had a narrow escape for their lives, finally reaching Shanghai in safety. BURGLARS ODD ADVENTURE. When a Paris architect named M. Georgel was sitting in his office a few days ago, he heard a knock at the door, but as he desired to be alone he took no notice and went on with his work. A few minutes later he heard a key moving in the lock, so, not doubting that his visitor was a burglar, the architect armed himself with a re- volver and hid behind some curtains. A moment later the burglar entered and proceeded to rifle the room. Then suddenly he started and grew pale. In a mirror he had seen a revolver leveled at his head from behind the curtains. “Open the window,” ordered the architect, “and shout ‘Police!’ ” The burglar had no alternative but to obey, and was speedily arrested.—Paris Journal, THE SAHARA TRAVERRED. The most remarkable journey across the Sahara was begun in May last year, and ended less than five months later. The explorer was Professor E. F. Gautier, of the School of Leiters, Algiers, who is well known for his geological studies in the northern part of the desert. For the last 600 miles he had with him only a guide and a servant, and was practically unarmed, for he carried no rifles. He met the Tuareg outlaws, who had lived by plunder and made the desert travel impossible except for the strongest caravans; but he expected no harm at their hands, and in fact they belped hifh on his way. Ie made re- markable discoveries, for his route was through the unknown and widest parts of the desert, south of the Tuat oa The paths of Caille and Lentz were far to the west, those of Barth and IFou- reau were far to the east of his track, and so he had a virgin field for his researches. Four years ago, such a journey as Gautier has made would have been re- garded as a madcap enterprise, doomed to failure and involving the lives of all engaged in it. But Gautier believed he would pass unscatched and win success, and no one thought his fool- hardy. Mis journey was made possi- ble by an idea that struck the French four years ago—a brilliant conception, brilliantly carried out, by which they f ”. have revolutionized the conditions of desert travel—Cyrus CC. Adams, in American Monthly Review of Re- views. MAIL IN THE WILDERNESS, The annual mail for: Arctic circle points with the Dominion of Canada has just been despatched by way of Edmonton, Alberta, over a trail which is not only the longest mail route in the world, but the most desolate and most difficult. Letters only are carried, €ays a British Columbia correspondent of the New York Sun, and these are limited to one ounce in weight, as the entire bulk of the packet when if leaves Edmonton must come within 200 pounds. For the two-cent stamp which decor- ates the corner of the envelope the letter will be carried in some cases from the extremes of South %frica, Australia or India, and it willl most probably be necessary tothave fe car- riers go 500 or 600 miles into afifrozen, forbidding wilderness. The overn- | ment expends upon the redemption of the stamp very many thousand times what it receives, and the carrier must fight Ingle-handed with nature, His life and the safety of the precious packet entrusted to him are at all times in hazard, This is the first year in which the | Postoffice Department of Canada has assumed the delivery of mail in the | Bay | extreme North, The Hudson Company has heretofore carried mes- sages to and from the Arctic and sub- | Increases in the num- | Arctic country, bers of trappers, missionaries, prospecs tors, settlers and policemen in the ex treme North explain the taking over of the responsibility by the Postmaster General of Canada, The mail is divided into two packets at Edmonton, one for points between Lac La Biche and Fort Resolution, and the other for the straggling outposts of empire as far north as Fort Mec- Pherson, the most northerly depot even of the Hudson Bay Company, nearly 100 miles within the Arctic circle, where the year is divided into a single day and night. The Lac La Biche mall goes by horse only 120 miles out of Edmonton, Thenceforward the dog and the rein deer are the carrier's assistants, From Edmonton to Fert McPherson is over a thousand miles. Ten intermediate deliveries are made, and the mail ar- rives at the fort in April—if it has no exceptional delays. . Besides these packets, several other packets go to the northland about this season, so that all the posts will re- ceive at least one mail a year. There is a mail made up at Prince Albert that goes as far as the head of Rein- deer Lake, at the edge of the great Barren Lands. The York Factory packet runs to the far north by way of Winnipeg and the Nelson River. The Moose packet is made up at Mat- tawa, and goes by way of Abittibe River, The carriers for the east and vest shores of the great bay sometimes meet at the southern ports on the shores of the bay, and the meetings are made the occasion of brief but hearty jollifications. Then each passes on his way. Newspapers and packages are car- ried to the north by the annual steams- ers of the Hudson Bay Company on the Mackenzie River in the summer. Of course letters are also carried, but newspapers convey the tidings of the world, and are treasured as fine jewels, A SOLDIER'S WAY. Abraham Haarscher was one of the beaux of his regiment. He attended the dances o. the enlisted men as re- ligiously as he attended reveille, but at no dance was there any particular maiden singled out for the attentions of Private Haarscher. He went the rounds and danced with every girl that came to the enlisted men's merrymak- ing. Haarscher had dodged Indian bullets and Spanish bullets and he dodged Cupid's shafts. He saw his comrades marry and leave the service. They told him his day would come, but he laughed at them. During the course of his years of duty as one of Uncle Sam's soldiers Private Haarscher saw service in four different regiments and against every form of foe that his adopted country had to face. Few men knew as did THE SUEZ CANAL, — Nard to Build, Costly to Maintain, Bus Well Worth It AlL The creation of the wheat export frade of India was directly due to the { opening of the Suez route to Europe. | Before that time, says the Technical World, all attempts successfully to ship wheat by way of the Cape of Good Hope had failed, because of heat. ing during the long voyage and the | loss from weevils in the cargo. During the first year of operation of the Suez Canal 486 vessels, aggregat- ing 436,000 tons, passed . through it. At the present time the number is about 4000 ships, with a tounage of about 10,000,000. The magnitude of these figures be- comes apparent when it is considered that the foreign tonnage entering at the port ©f New York is less than 0,000,000 a year. Measured by value. the importance of the Suez Canal trafiic becomes much larger, the imports and exports of In- dia alone which pass through it being nearly gune-quarter of the vaiue of the total foreign trade of the United States. The building of the Suez Canal was a triumph of organization. At times no fewer than 80,000 laborers were em- ployed; and all the adjuncts of a per- manent community had to be provided by the constructing company. The cost of maintenance of the canal is necessarily high, on account of the drift of sand from the Nile at Port Said, which has constantly to be dredged away. The operating expenses are also heavy, the great traffic in- volving considerable cost for pilotage. Altogether, the annual expense for maintenance and operation is at the present time about $1,400,000, or ap- proximately $13,000 per mile, - About thirteen hours are required to go through the Suez Canal by ordinary steamer. By a system of landing marks and electric light buoys, navigation by night is made as safe as by day: and each vessel in motion is required to supplement the stationary lighting sys- tem by having on board and in opera- tion a lighting apparatus to illuminate its passage through. Vessels without an apparatus of their own may hire the necessary reflectors, ete, upon en- tering the canal and return them con leaving. WISE WORDS. Vision, aspiration is tial.—James M. Taylor. The misfortunes that are hardest to bear are those that never lLappen.— Lowell. Foolish men mistake transitory sem- blances for eternal fact and go astray more and more.—Carlyle. Education begins the gentleman, but reading. good company and reflection must finish him.—Locke. Thought is the forerunner of action. Keep your thoughts pure, that your actions may be wortby.—London S. 8, Times. Stand with anybody that stands right. Stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong.—Abraham Lincoln. Grief for things past that cannot be remedied and cave for things to come that cannot be prevented, may easily hurt, can never benefit me. — Joseph Hall. the first essen- this private what absolute devotion to duty meant. | Haarscher was intensely proud of | Lis French nativity. One night at a far Northwestern ison he was walk- | ing post as a sentinel upon a frail tems | ne 'y bridge thrown across a stream, | The ends of the structure marked the | ends of his post. A storm arose in sudden fury. The | stream which flowed under the bric kad been swollen before by the rains of the season, In a few minutes it was a raging, roaring torrent. The I re began to show signs of weak- | ». Haarscher kept on walking his | The timbers were creaking une | Post. der his feet and the water was begin- ning to creep over the planking, when the officer of the day appeared at the end of the bridge. He saw the senti- nel ang his peril. “Come off that bridge, No. 5,’ he yelled above the storm. HMaarscher walked calmly off the bridge in obedience to orders and came to an ‘arms port.” “Haarscher, you fool, know ‘that bridge, is going?” Even as the officer of the day spoke the bridge was whirled way. “That was my post, Lieuten-nt,” seid Private Haarscher, “and you for- get that I am a Frenchman.” At the end of the Franco-Prussian War Haarscher came to America em- bittered because his native province, Alsace, Lad become the spoil of the enemy. He enlisted almost immediate: ly upon his arrival in this country, and until the day of his death at Fort Sheridan he never passed an hour, save when on occasional leaves of absence, beyond sight of the flag that marked the campus, the garrisons or the bat tlefields of America. Abraham Haarscher carried one recs ord that is probably unique in the his. tories of the armies of the world. In nearly thirty years’ service, although a model of soldierly neatness, discis pline and intelligence, he never wore the stripe of a non-commissioned offi cer, refusing chevrons time after time; his reasons for refusing being known to no one but himself. Haarscher did not know what the in- side of a guardhouse looked like from ihe viewpoint of a prisoner. There never was a soldier in camp or bar- racks whose rifle and equipments were like unto his. So at guard mount, as the neatest soldier, he was chosen for the duties of orderiy to the command: ing officer. The soldier thus chosen i rot obliged to wall: post, and when tattoo comes he can turn in to sleep without fear of being rcuted out for don't you the duties of the mid ight guard— Chicago Post. The character which you are c¢on- structing is not your own. It is the building material out of which other generations will quarry stones for ihe temple of life. See to it, therefore, that it be granite and not shale.—Dr. A. J. Cordon. The deep truth about all noble life is that it is renewed every day. * * * The past has enough to deo fo help it- self, and we cannot mase reserves of goodness; the need of each day ex- hausts all the supply.—Samuel Chap- man Armstrong. You can unlock a man’s whole if you watch what words he uses most. We nave each a small set of words, which, though we are scarcely aware of it, we always work with, and which really express all that we mean by life or have found out of it.—Professor Henry Drummond. Principal Thing in a Law Point. A young man from the South who a few years ago was so fortunate as to be enabled to enter the law offices of a well-known New York firm, was first intrusted with a very simple case. He was asked by the late James C. Carter, then a member of the firm, to give an opinion in writing. When this was submitted it was observed by Mr. Carter that, with the touching con- fidence of a neophyte, the young Southerner had begun with the ex- pression, “I am clearly of opinion.” When this caught his eye he smiled and said: “My dear young friend, never state that you are clearly of opinion on a law point. The most you can hope to discover is the preponderance of the doubt.—Success. Klectric Train Light. A little combination of dynamo and eteam turbine is now in use by certain railroads for generating electric cur- rent on the train itself. The generator is so light and compact that it may be placed on the locomotive in front of the cab. It runs noiselessly and with almost no vibration, thanks to the turbine motor. The steam is drawn directly from the boiler and may be ex- hausted inte the smoke stick: In some installations the dynamo and turbine are placed in the front end of the bag- gage cfr, where they occupy a floor space only five feet six by twenty-two inches in extent. Headlights are now frequently lighted by means of these diminutive generators one appearance at public worship in the course of the year. This is on the day which commemorates his accession to the throne. y ! HOUSEHOLD AFFAIRS y COFFEE AND TEA STAINS. . Coffee and tea stains, if rubbed with putter and afterwards washed in hot soap suds, will come out, leaving the table linen quite white and fresh, CLEANS BLACK MARBLE. ' Spirits of turpentine will clean and polish black marble. For removing ktains from white marble nothing is better than a paste made of one- quarter pound of whiting, one-eighth pound of soda and «