WILLOW WEAVERS. QUEER PEOPLE WHO WORK IN DARK, DAMP CELLARS. They Make Trunks, Baskets, Desks, Chairs and Many Other Articles, Including Coffins, if Ordered. Descend by a perpendicular, ladder like stairway in Fourth avenue—never mind just where. It is so modest a place 7ou will search long before finding it. Stoop low an 1 enter a door through whose grimy glazing ouly a few faint rays of daylight steal. A few steps far ther you are in the moist domain of the basket-maker, where the gas is always burning in the daytime. For thirty years the clatter of the willow plied by strong, deft fingers has made low, mo notonous music there. The scene is just what it was a quarter of a century ago. The air is warm, but heavy with damp ness. Column on column of snowy has kets, fitting one into the other, are piled to the ceiling. Huge bundles of white willows bound with withes lie here and there, and the floor is strewn with scraus and snippings of the same. Only one thing has changed in the cellar—the faces of the workmen. But the present generation will bend over its ' unvarying taisk and grow gray and wrinkled, as its predecessors did. Its patterns will pass out of date and itself will follow them. A few odd relics will remain, thrown in their dusty corners, and be smiled at by the careless opera tives of a more meretricious age. Around the cellar, with backs to the wall and legs outstretched before them, sit the basket-makers. Round and round upon a board in his lap each man turns the basket he is at work on, aud it grows, clean and fair, under his flying fingers. The tiresomeness of his posture lie varies by crossing his legs liko a Turk or by shifting the box he sits on. The basket-maker's box is his best friend. It has its three measurements, and ho tries them one after another to relieve by change of attitude the cramp in his back. It is so simple a device no chair could take its place. When a reporter visited the place the first m in he met was the boss, who wears a gingham blouse and could give lessons to half the clubmen in Gotham on his- 1 torv, literature and the use of the ' Queen's English, or the trend of current j events. "I think," said lie, switching the dust out of his trousers with a buuch of wil lows, "I think the basket business de serves to be written up —why, my dear sir, the basket-makers are one of the first families in the aristocracy of labor. The founder of our house I always aver was the old fellow who made that float for Moses. If he hadn't been a good, honest workman the skeptics wouldn't have any book of Genesis to squabble over, and the children of Israel would be working at their trade of brick mak ing in Egypt yet. People who stray down into our cellar here sometimes are mys- i tilled. The never associate basket-making j with anything but gypsies and IndDus, | but the days of those vagrants are over, ' as far as basket making is concerned. I "Yes, it is hard to see where all the baskets come from, bat that's because it is such quiet work. Right hero iu the heart of New York we own three fac tories, and are sending wares to every corner of America. We bring matciial from Europe and the West Indies, and willow farmers away down South are tending crops which late in the spring they will harvest for us." "Work at the trade must be plenty, ' then?" 4 Far more so than the workmen. : Basket-makers—and I speak only of j plain work—can get employment the ' year round and earn anywhere from $2 j to $3.50 a day. But the American has- | kct-makcr is a rarity. All our help is | imported, and the 20 men sitting around on the floor here represent about a dozen ; nationalities. They serve a live years' ' apprenticeship on the other side, and j think they are lucky to know the trade ( at that, though they can get double the wages here they can there. Nearly all the fancy basket work is made in Europe, and can be imported and sold hero cheaper than Americans can make it. Women and boys are employed for that line." "Why don't Americans learn the trade?" "I can only imagine one reason, and that is that the work has always to be done iu a cellar where it is damp. The minute a willow gets dry it can't be worked. Now, maybe all these Yankees are afraid of the rheumatism, but I defy you to And a healthier set of men than these." 4 'Are the willows soaked before using?" "Yes," answered the tradesman, open ing a little door in the wall and leaning the way into an adjoining room. The atmosphere was fairly dripping and was redolent with the fumes of sulphur. Between fits of coughing the reporter managed to nsk what caused the odor. "Another trick of the trade," the bo?s answered. "After the baskets are fin ished we set them in here and burn sulphur near them. The smoke bleaches the goods and they go forth white as snow. Y'onder in that vat aro bunches of willows soaking in cold water. After a few hours they will be ready for use. There is poetry in those willows for me. They aro magic wands. You can do anything with them if you know how, Baskets? There arc patterns numberless. 801110 have gone away out of fashion. The square shapes have taken the place of the round and in plain work every thing is Eacriflced to strength and durability. The big actors now, for ex ample, wouldn't use anything but a bas ket trunk, and yet half the people in America don't know that ihere is such a thing in existence. Where would a wooden box be if it was put to do the work of the wheel basket in wholesale dry-goods houses or the meat baskets of the big markets? These baskets arc made of heavy rattan, with strips of wood and iron wheels molded on. Here is one just sent in for repairs. It wa9 made seven years ago. "There are dog baskets, fancy little beds for pug pets, wine baskets, strong, familiar, and very popular; there are laundry baskets for washed linen and wa9te-baskets for newspaper stories. There is nothing we cannot make. There is a desk, keyhole and all. Our best workman who does this is a Germau. Then there are wood baskets, made on the pattern of a hundred years ago or so. Our grandfathers used to hustle out on cold Winter mornings and fill them with chunks for the fireplace. Tlicy were sturdy pieces of furnitures then. Now they arc resurrected, made up with rat tan and rushes, and the plutocracy fills them with wood and sets them by the grate. They are only for ornament, and the servant comes in and dusts oil basket, wood and all. ' Lighting a candle, the basket-maker conducted his visitor down into a vast sub-cellar, cold and clammy. As far as the little candle shed its beams, heaps of baskets of all shadow and sizes could bo seen, and whole regiments of ghostly willows seemed drawn up out iu the darkness. "Here," said the guide, "are a lot of willows that arrived yesterday from Bel gium. They are dry now, aud can be kept forever. The Belgian willows are the best, far better than we can grow in tiiis country. It may be only a matter of climate, for the slightest thing will affect the growth of the willow. Its soil aud general treatment have to be just so. It must sprout out straight and slender, without a knot, and must reach the re quired length within a year. If willows arc more than a year old they are useless for our business. All the willows grown in this country are from imported slips. For this imported material we pay $5 a bundle, and that is enough for about live baskets. Then here is the split cane, for work that must be very light and strong. Leaving the cellar, the reporter re turned to the workroom to watch the manipulation of the willow. "Every one of these men," said the boss, "carries in his head the knowledge of a thousand different 'stitches,' as you might call them." In starting a basket the workman first makes the bottom, no one shall tell how. Then inserting the perpendicular sticks, he fastens the whole to his work board with a bodkin and begins to weave in the body of the basket, which is done with lightning-like rapidity. In his haste he cuts the same capers as a pianist does in the execution of those agonies known as brilliant passages, leaning for ward and gesticulating with his head as if it would add impetus to his swift digits. I watched the conclusion of one man's task, llis basket stood complete, but with the fiue tips of the willows pro truding liko lingering hairs from a bald head. lie picked them with a knife made for the purpose, threw the basket to one side and got up to stretch his legs. lie went across the room and fell into a spirited argument with another basket maker, who, though entirely blind, weaves away at as great a rate as anybody. In ten minutes they had set tled upon the political effects of the London strikes aud provided a solution of the Behriug Sea question. The differ ent nations, seated on as many different boxes, contributed suggestions from time to time, aud the boss remarked that the boys were great on Europe. When asked about basket-chair mak ing the glib cicerone said it was a branch of the bus ness by itself. There are big companies aud factories in New Eng land. In view of the demand for those goods and the new uses to which the willow is being put, the outlook for workmen is better than in almost auy of the trades. "It is just AS I have told you," he said, as the reporter was leaving. "We can make anything at all. When you get ready send me your order, and I will make you a coffin that will defy time." —[New York Recorder. A Mohammedan at Worship. I know of no religious spectacle more impressive than that of a barefooted Turk standing erect 011 his prayer-rug with his face towards Mecca and his eyes looking straight into the eyes of his God. It is not a duty with him, nor a forma I i y, nor the maintenance of a time honored custom. It is his very life. Watch him as he enters this wretched interior of Bania-bashic, with its scaling and crumbling walls, and its broken windows, through which the doves lly in and out. Outside, at the trickling j fountain, he has washed his feet and 1 face and hands, bathing his throat and 1 smoothing his beard with his wet tin- I gers. lie is a rough, broad-shouldered, I poorly clad man in fez and skirt, his 1 waist girt with a wide sash ragged and , torn. He is perhaps a "hannnal," a! man who carries great weights on his I back—a human beast of burden. His 1 load, whatever it may be, is outside in j the court. His hourly task is his daily bread; but he his heard the shrill cry from the minaret up against the sky, and stops instautly to obey. lie enters the sacred building with his shoes in his hands. These he leaves at the edge of the mat. Now he is on holy ground. Advaucing slowly, he halts half way across the floor, and theu stands erect. Before him is a blank wall; be yond it the tomb of the prophet. For a moment he is perfectly still, his eyes closed, his lips motionless. It is as if he stood in the autechamber of Heaven, awaiting recognition. Then his face lights up. He has been seen. The next instant he is on his knees, and, stretch ing out his hands, prostrates himself, his forehead pressed to the floor. This solitary service continues for an hour. The man stands erect one moment, with a movement as if he said, "Command 111 c; I am here." The next moment he is prostrate in obedience. Then he backs slowly out, ami, noiseless, regains his shoes, bends his back to his burden, and keeps on his way, his face having lost all its tired, hunted look.—[Century. California Prices in 1849. During the winter of 1849-50, theccst of living was extreme. As the season was a very wet one, the roads and trails were full of mud-holes, in which supply wagons were stuck and mules and oxen mired. Wagons and animals were un loaded several times a day to extricate them from the mud, and in one instance at least fourteen days were spent on the road from Stockton, lifty miles away. Flour reached a dollar a pound, rice the same, pork and bacon a dollar and sixty cents a pound, saleratus sixteen dollars a pound, and spermaceti candles u dollar each. All ounce of gold was the price of a pick or shovel, ami almost anything needed, except fresh beef, commanded a proportionate price. That all miners did not get rich is accounted for in the state ment that it took a fair claim to pay ex penses. The short duration of a placer claim, the loss of time in finding another, and the too general restlessness, tell the story or many failures to realize a for tune by even those who were the most lucky. Too often it was due to extrava gance, gambling, Or the guzzling of brandy or whisky at eight dollars a bot tle. But, drunk or sober, one was obliged to pay two ounces for a pair of pantaloons, a hundred dollars for a pair of long-legged boots, and four dollars expressage for a letter. [Century. An Icicle 1,000 Feet Long. On Monday last a loud noise and slight shaking of the earth caused no little wonderment among residents near the hills. Investigation proved the cause to be an ice slide. A small and innocent spring issues from the side of one of the mountains, its waters spreading and flowing over a steep incline of rock. During the past winter months ico formed against this wall of stone, in creasing in size uuttl one vast icicle, fully twenty feet in thickness and 1,000 feet in length, projected into the valley below. From the warmth o! the sun and its own weight it released its hold and thundered down the mountain tide, carrying every thing before it, even trees three feet in diameter. Those who have visited the place say that the foot of the clilf prc sents a mass of broken ice, trees, limbs, aud earth fifty feet in height. This is a repetition of occasional similar occur rences in previous years, but on a grand er scale.—[Seattle Telegraph. THE TRAVAUX PONY. Indian Methods of Transportation— A Wonderful Little Beast. The travaux pony furnishes the solo means of transportation of the Indian camp, except sometimes a dog hitched to a diminutive tranieau, and, weight for weight, drags on his tepee poles more than the best mule in Uncle Sam's ser vice does on an army wagon. When camp is broken, the squaws strip the tent poles of their buffalo skin coverings, and it is these poles which furnish tne wheels of the Indian vehicle. The Black foot makes the noatest trappings for the travaux ponies and pack-saddles. The pony is fitted with a huge leather bag, heavily fringed, and gnudy with red end blue fiaunel strips and beads of many colors. Over this goe3 the pack-saddle, which is not very dissimilar to the ridiug saddle, and has perpendicular pommel and cantle; and in the pommel is a notch to receive one end of the tepee poles, which are some times bound together two or three on each side, and trailing past either fiank of the pony, arc held in place by two pieces of wood lashed to the poles just behind his tail. In the socket so made rides the par fleehe, a sort of rawhide trunk, and this receives the camp utensils, plunder, chil dren, sometimes an old man or woman, puppies, and all the other camp impedi menta; while a squaw rides behind the pack-saddle on the pony, indifferently astride or sidewise, with her feet on the poles, and perhaps a youngster bestrides its neck. Thus laden, the wonderful little beast, which is rarely up to four teen hands, plods along all "day, covering unheard-of distances, and living on bunch-grass, with a mouthful of water now and agaiu. There arc apt to be several ponies to carry the pluruer of the occuputits of one tepee, and often one of them is loaded down with the rougher stuff, while a second may be decked with tl.e finery and carry only one squaw, particularly if she happens to be a new purchase and a favorite of the chief. A squaw is usually about as good a horseman as her buck, aud rides his saddle or bareback with as much ease as a city woman rocks in her chair. Indeed it is not uncommon to find women in the fighting ranks and doing a man's full duty.—[Harper's Magazine. Onions and Watercresses. The watercress is a plant containing very sanitary qualities. A curious characteristic of it is that, if grown in a ferruginous stream, it absorbs into itself five times the amount of iron that any other plant does. For all amende con stitutions it is, therefore, specially of value. But it also contains portions of garlic and sulphur of iodine and phos phates, and is a blood purifier, while abroad it is thought a most wholesome coudunent, with meat, roast or grilled. The cultivated plant is rather more easy of digestion than the wild oue. Botan ically the onion belongs to tho lily family. The odor of the vegetable, which is what makes it so unpleasant, is due to a volatile oil, which is the same as that in* garlic, though iii tho onion it is milder and naturally does not last so long. There arc, besides, easy ways of remov ing at once all unpleasantness from the breath. A little parsley or a few grains of coffee, or even a swallow or two of milk, if takeu after eating, j>roves an effective remedy. Boiled onions nre the least objectionable iu regard to odor, and are as easily digested as any. The oil in the onion passes off in the water in which the vegetables arc boiled, and if the kettle be kept closely covered and the water changed after they have boiled five minutes, and then again ten minutes later, there will bo no odor through the house, and the onions will be white instead of gray, as they so often are. Besides being rich iu llesh forming elements, raw onions aro especially good in breaking up a heavy cold, they are also stimulating to fatigued pcrsous, and are otherwise beneficial. [Scientific American. A Wild Goose Story. It's a great gooso story which cornea from Hatfield. A daughter of Thaddeus Graves was dusting the parlor, when a shadow was thrown on the window. She ran out and saw a large bird waddling about in the front yard. It had a long nock, and was grayish black with white below. She chased it into a hedge, caught it and carried it into the hen house. When Father Graves went out to look at it lie pronounced it a wild goose and thought it the same one he had seen Hy ing about in an aimless way the day be fore. He doubts if he will eat it—seems too bad. The Graves family is great on wild geese stones, for Mrs. Graves tells that her family once—seventy or eighty years ago—kept tame geese. One Fall, as a Hock of wild geese was passing south ward, a large female goose dropped right down among the tame flock in the yard and stayed with them all winter. The next Spring, while the llock was out feeding, a fiock of wild ones came up from the South, and the old fema'e rose right out of tho yard and Hew away to arctic regions. The next Fall she came back in the same way with her family of children and they all spent the Winter and went off in the Spring, never again returning, unless this last captive be a descendant in whom the impulse to domesticity is re kindled.—[Hampshire (Mass.) Gazette. Steering an Army. When General Wolseley decided to attack the Egyptians' stronghold at Tel el-Ivebir, he marched his army, at night, across seven miles of sandy desert. It was a dark, clear night; there was no moon, but the stars shone out. A naval lieutenant, Wyatt Rawson, had been detailed, because used to navi | gating by the stars, to guide the army I across the desert to the enemy's en i trenchments. With his oye on the stars !he steered tin force as lie would have steered his ship. So accurately did he lead that the first gleam of the breaking day revealed to tho British troops the long line of solid earthworks, three hun dred yards ahead. The assault, within half an hour, put the earthworks au YEARS In one family. Dr. I. S. JOHN so K Co.- uln sixty venrs Mum I lint learned of your JOHNSON s \NODYNK LINIMENT; form. than fort ti yearn I have unci it in my fninllv. 1 regn 1 it os one el IhobiM and safest family reinedi-H tlmt. he round, used internal or external. in ail aires, O. INOALLS, Deacon 2nd Baptist Church. Bangor. V. Every Sufferer !, vous Hendauhp, Diphtheria.Coughs, < 'atari h. Bronchi' Artluna, Cholera Morimu, Dlanhu-u, I-ameness, Horn,. . in Dotty or l.iiufr", Stltf Joints or Strains .will tln y ex|iresH,j,repaid, upon neeipl of retail i n e. Sin, .Winder, s> Io ; ICrmiivnlili- Tom I. Wonder, J. 1 2 K. lid for circular,.. Till: I M VI ItSAI, W CKDIIt < <>., North W niirn.N.ii CLFS A? NKUVOUH. WRETCH™ mnrtnH £t|is|L w f" • hoop well, tin, III, ,1 tell.how. ducts, a year. Kami'!-'-. One. Dr. .1. ||. DYE, lf.ntor. Bufra'., v. I HAY FEVER w"wV°. s " Y SS drcssof every sufferer in the & ASTHMA P barcld Hayes,M.D., Buif&lo, N.Y. MM .SsSE; Colleges, a'- .I liv prcfchsi'inai anil buslm-** man every , . WhCr ß. j\ f OKLELv! 71* Wiuhlniiton SUcst. itoiton. FCJTATE OF OHIO, CITY OF TOLEDO, I, LUCAS COUNTY, Frank J. Cheney makes oath that he lathe senior partner of the firm of F. J. Cheney & Co., doing business in the City of Toledo, County aud State aforesaid, and that said firm will pay the sum of $ 100 for each and every case of catarrh t hut cannot be cured by the use of Hull's Catarrh Cure. FRANK J. CHENEY. Sworn to before mo and subscribed in my presence, this oth duy of December, A. D., ( —' — I A. W. (JIREASON ■J SEAL \ r i7T . i . tfatary Public. Hall s C atarrh Cure is taken internally und acts directly on the blood aud mucous surfaceo of the system. Semi for testimonials, fre _ F. J. CHENEY & Co., Toledo, O. Sold by Druggistw, 75c. Sweden und Norway sent us 45,000 people in 1800. The total forest men in the United States is estimated at 481,704,500 acres. If Afflicted with sore CWBIIKC Dr Isaac Thomp son'* Eye-water. Druggists sell at 2.1 c. pet bottlo There are 4,000 orgunized socialists in j Pennsylvania. FITS (-topped free ny DR. KLINE'S GREAT NERVE RESTORER. No tit* after lirnt day's use. Marvelous cures, 'treatise and $2 tiial bottle fre. Dlt. KLINE, 3 I Arch St.. Phila., Pa. Eight men die suddenly to one such death among women. ™,° 2??jeet the manufacturers of Dob bins a Electric Soup has been for X 4 years to mnve tliia soap of such mperior quality that it will give > universal xittofacttnn. Have llioy other your grocer for U " Tuk ° It takes eight and one-half acres to keep a cow in New York State. U 21 A heavy burden —all the ills and ailments that only female flesh is heir to. It rests with you whether you carry it or lay it down. You can cure the disorders and derangements that prey upon your sex, with Dr. Pierce's Favor ite Prescription. It's a legitimate medicine, carefully compounded by an experienced physician, and | adapted to woman's delicate organ ization. For all organic displacements and weaknesses, accompanied by weak back, bearing-down sensations, and for all uterine diseases, it's a posi tive specific. It's guaranteed to give satisfaction, in every case. If it doesn't, you've only to ask for your money and it's cheerfully refunded. If it does, you'll want to ask for nothing more. It's | the cheapest medicine you can use, because you only pay for the good you get. It improves digestion, enriches the blood, invigorates the system, and produces refresh ing sleep. PAINT, J REQUIRES ADDITION OF AN J DIEEP I G>KJ RY Y^ ADVERTISED IN 7343 PAPERS F J Wlioro we linve no Agent will arrange with nny Relive llerelintii.- 1.. A .11.- N. Y. m I EW!S' 98 % LYE I Powdered and Perfumed. BHMA? ma Strongest a\u\2>urest Lye made. A Makes the best perfumed Hard ipgm ®Soap in 20 minutes without boil jx&jß inq. It is the best for softening jHB water, cleansing waste pipes, disinfecting sinks, closets,wash ■■ ing bottles, paints, trees, etc. JYL PENNA. CO., 1 PR DOWN WITH HIGH PRICES. ..m ■!■■■.! ■ —'■• ii mmmWHY not buy fromtho I,nr<'*i Factory cl "■"■■■■ I Us WONDERFUL 1 oAVt Deulcrn' prnlltM. . REFSUCERATQRD THICYCLtS, j ----- ZV r. f r - 1 „\V: OFFICE and ! \ * i'--I COMBINATION 1 m | i ÜBRftRV OEIKS. | Fiinry < hairs, If < 1.1 i-. \ Ijar Wrlto at onco for t'ulogui'. " THE LUBURC MANLIFACTURINC % CQPHILADELPHIA, PA. Dept. A IO;>, >OH, 321, !I-' XOI-111 Kill Si ll* i*t. -C . „ .je'llrie'crbemcirriey- Que Mo,ct n -ponl*refuse tbo use ShA>P® U©: it" is &~ >olid c&ke of scouring so&p„ ised for cleaning purposes I asked a maid i lie would wed, And in my home her brightness shed; She faintly smiled and murmured low, "If I can have SAPOLIO." CHICHESTER'S ENGLISH, RED CROSS DIAMOND BRAND Tj"? " V ,''!j THE ORIGINAL AND I" / iVf b• '' . n take no other kind. •• • and I ■'■'■ , \ (. Jr'( All i.iiMnp.i-ioboard l..xc*. *;n: i ' r. diuieeroun p-. nut ?!■<* It*. At m ' " r \ UM. f'p -to. in t'itup< fur |i:irlidiil-.ir<, i•itiiiiO!! l n> •! "KelTcl lor f ndlr, M in f. t: r lorn lliili. V It 10.000 Ti'sMmoiiiiiN. Aam /'. •r. CHICHEBTCR CHEMICAI. Co •nHuuiirOi /*" held Li: ull l.ooul DruflftlaU. I'l'U.Alll.l.l'i'Ui 1 >* CURES PERMANENTLY Pjjßumatism J SCIATICA l R^cKAcbes Aches 4 "EuralgiA IT HAS NO EQUAL. IT IS TriE BEST "German Syrup" Here is an incident from the South —Mississippi, written in April, 1890, just after the Grippe had visited that country. "lam a fanner, one of those who have to rise early and work late. At the beginning of last Winter I was on a trip to the City of Vicksburg, Miss.,where I got well drenched in a shower of rain. I went home and was soon after seized with a dry, hacking cough. This grew worse every day, until I had to seek relief. I consulted I)r. Dixon who has since died, and lie told me to get a bottle of Boschee's German Syrup. Meantime my cough grew worse and worse and then the Grippe came along and I eauglit that also very severely. My condition then compelled me to do something. I got two bottlesof German Si rup. I began using them, and before taking much of the second bottle, I was entirely clear of the Cough that had hung to me so long, the Grippe, and all its bad effects. I felt tip-top and have felt that way ever since." PETER J.BRIALS, Jr.,Cayuga, Hines Co., Miss. @ UNEXCELLED! A I*l*l, IE!) EXTEIiXALI.V Rheumatism, Neurabia, Pains in the Limbs, Back or Chest, Mumps, Sore Throat, Colds, Sprains, Bruises, Stings of Insects, Mosquito Bites. TAKEN INTERNALLY ll net* like 11 chain: foe Cliolcrn llorhua, Dim rhirn. Dyneiitrry. Colic, Crump*, Nnu acii, Blck Headache. Ac. Warrantnl perfectly liariulr**. iSceontli accompany ilia each bottle, nl*o ill lections for iinr.) It* SOOTHING nml I'KNETRA TIMJ nun liiic* tire fell ii.iineilintely. Try it ami lie i anvinccil. Price *45 and 50 cent*. Sold by nil drug gists. DEPOT, 40 111 II It A V ST.. XF.W YO.CK. FRAZFR aIIe fi EdraJb Ghi KE fc rtjp M w IN THE \VOITJLI> *2 SE L£ £5 $ C K?" Get Uio Qeziulae. bold Everywhere