SONG.
There's beauty in the dawning lights
And twilight fair or starlit night
Has each its charm and grace ;
But lovelier still on earth to me,
The fairest thing my eye can see,
The beauty of thy face.
There's calmness on the ocean's breast,
As deep and blue it seems to rest
1 'Neath bluer heavens above \
But deeper, calmer, still to mo
Than ever soa or sky can be,
* Thine azure eyes, my love!
There's music in the running stream,
> And music when the woodlands seeai
Awake with songs of birds ;
But sweeter, dearer, still to me
Thau naturo's voice can ever be.
The music of thy words.
<*. lloxby, in Chambers's Journal.
IN THE FIFTH FLAT,
y BY ANNA LEACH.
fiffji "p. } xI 1 was awav up
Wr' town ou
®*tonsion of
which scorns its
niu 8 8 88 getH
more prosperous,
J y aud with the true
Philistine spirit obanges its name to
that of the discoverer of America.
There were two great apartment houses
opposite each other, with the constant
roar and jerk of the elevated road
lying between. Workmen had been
coming aud going upon a third
tali white building on an opposite
corner, with an empty lot lying ad
jacent, and boys of his own age had
been playing in there, playing all sorts
of tantalizing games, ever since Wil- I
bur Clint had moved into the iiftU
flat.
He used to stand at the window in I
his nightgown and look at them. He I
wore his nightgown half the day some
times, because it seemed so senseless
to dress himself when he could not go
out. Ill's mama gave him his bath and j
tucked him into bed at night, and
then in the morning, long before he
was up, she took the elevated and
went away down town to a magazine
office where she read stories which
other people wrote, and patiently
sealed them up again and sent them
back to the writers.
Sometimes her heart used to ache
at the old fashioned, provincial views
of life which so many of the stories
showed. When Wilbur's mamma, sit
ting there at her desk, in her neat
black gown, hesitated over a page of
spidery writing and smiled a little at
the corners of her mouth, it was a cer
tain sign that she had found another
love story, told in the good old way,
where cruel fate had at last allowed
the lovers to fly into each other's
arms, and they made their exit amid a
shower of rice to the tune of wedding
bells, their sorrows ended forever.
"I do wonder," she said to herself
as her pen hung over the au
thor's address she was putting j
upon one of these inanuscriprs j
one day, "how a 'Mrs.' ever came!
to write such a story as that. Well! j
well! May be her husbaud died on I
their honeymoon, poor thing!"
One day the editor of the magazine,
who was a very busy man indeed,
came into the tiny little room where
his reader sat, and fumbled over some
of the thick pack ages which wen.'jiileri
all about.
"Mrs. Clint," he said, "are all the
story writers getting cynical? What
is the matter? It seems to me we
haven't had a really cheerful tale for !
six mouths."
Mrs. Clint used to think a great deal
about her little boy as she went up
and down on the elevated, and as she !
sat by the lamp and darned bis little
stockings at night, or lay with his
curly little head upon her arm. She
looked at him anxiously to see if he
were getting pale with the confine
ment. Bhe knew that it was all wrong,
but she knew no other way. A little
lad of five could not be allowed out on
the street by himself.
** Sometimes she too saw the boys
playing on the vacant lot where the
builders piled their waste. They used
to take an old tin pail and build a fire
in it, and swing it in a blazing circle
about them, and then Mrs. Clint would
shudder all over, and make Wilbur
promise that he would never go out
alone.
The flat was a little more expensive
than Mrs. Clint could rightly afford,
but she had taken it because the i
janitor's wife was an old acquaintance,
an old servant in the boarding house j
where Mrs. Clint had lived when she
had first come to New York, a fresh
country girl with an ambition to write i
for the magazines. She had had a 1
number of stories accepted, had done
all sorts of work for syndicates and '
newspapers, and had gone to the
theatre with nice, ambitious young
newspaper men, who threw work in
her way, and told her stories of
prominent people and their humble
beginnings. And then finally she had
married one of the most ambitious of
them, and had gone to Paris with him
for a year, and had been delightfully
happy.
They had gone to all the places |
where artists and writers had dis
covered the unusual and the pictur- I
esque. They had had a little apart- I
ment up under the roof with a wide, |
wide window looking out over all !
Paris ; and there had been azaleas in j
pots on the sill, and gay cushions on '
the couch beneath, and young Mrs.
Clint had wondered if there were ever
two people in all this world so happy, i
It was here that Wilbur had been
born, and two months later they were j
called back to America by the paper
Clint worked for. A ['residential !
campaign was just coming on, and a
worker like Clint was needed. It wat
summer, hot, close summer, and Clint
took his wife and baby down to Long
Island to a little town "swept by ocean
breezes," as the pulsing electric
letters at Madison Square announced.
He came down every night when he
could, but there were a great many
things to keep him in town, and he
bad to make a great many journeys
about the country to hear what party
j leaders had to say about it.
After the close companionship of
this last year, Mrs. Clint missed her
husband terribly. She was a little
nervous and impatient, and sometimes j
she said so. The hot weather and the
constant strain had worn Clint's own
nerves to rags. And ho had never
known how to be soothing. He only
sat by the open window, in his shirt ,
sleeves, and smoked a cigar and looked
at the sea, until Mrs. Clint told him
that cigar smoke would kill the baby.
Then he went down stairs and looked
at the sea from the bow of a beached
dorv. His wife began to ask why she
couldn't go about with him as she used
to do.
'Two people can go anywhere,"
Clint said, "but two people and a baby
con go about nowhere."
And then she told him that she al
ways knew he was staying away be
cause the baby bored him. Oh, it
had all been a midsummer madness,
born of heat and mosquitoes and the
electricity of a Presidential election
year!
' Once alio left the baby with
1 its nurse, and went up to
town to lioar a great speaker.
Clint had been obliged to leave
her, and she had waited for him until
four o'clock in the morning; and then
when he came in, his step was not
steady. He had been all night at a
banquet. She had never said a word,
but she had lain with the sbset up to
her eyes and seen him biu§ an icy I
i towel about bis bead and sit down to 1
I write with a strong cigar in his teeth.
1 After that she was silent, but she
was frightened. The next great
! speech he did not send for her, but
she went up in the morning, deter
mined to go with him that night, and
bring him back home with her if she
could. She did not find him at the
office, and she went into a restaurant
to lunch, feeling warm and out of
sorts. She was trying to be economi
cal, these days, saving money for lit
tle Wilbur. No ono knew better than
she how precarious a livelihood is
newspaper work.
And there, sitting opposite her,
I farther down the room, was Clint,
j cool and immaculately fresh and gay,
lunching with Miss Richardson, who
did the snappy articles upon the mov
ing world for the Day. Miss Rich
ardson was drinkiug champagne.
Well, of course it was silly, but
Mrs. Clint walked out without
recognizing them, and went down
to Long Island and dismissed her nurse
aud packed her belongings, and came
up to town without leaving au ad
dress behind her. She had gone to
Mr. Dash, the editor of Tomorrow,
aud he had taken her on, because she
I WHH in trouble, ami because ho had
I prophesied a brilliant future for her
in the old days. But these prophets
generally leave out of consideration
i the fact that a woman is after all, a
j woman. The brilliant career had been
I turned aside, and there seemed to be
some difficulty shout getting it into
the right track again. Instead of,
frying to make clever stories, Mrs.
Clint read and smiled over and edited
and returned other people's stories.
It was not long before Clint found
her. She refused to see him, and
then he wrote her a letter, and said
that he had opened an account in the
Jefferson Square Bank in her name,
and that he should deposit fifty dol
lars a week there for her. His income
varied. Sometimes that was about as
much as he made, Mrs. Clint knew.
She never answered the letter, and he
! let her alone.
She never touched a penny of the
money, but let it accumulate for Wil
i bur. There was nearly ten thousand
dollars in the bank, and although she
vowed she would never touch it, it was
pleasant to know that it was there in
case of emergency—for Wilbur. And
then, in the awful summer, the bank
failed and the money was gone. She
went down to see about it, and she
found that there had been nothing de
posited to her credit for several
weeks. An extra tightness came about
her heart. She had been nursing her
i obstinacy for almost five years, but
never, never feeling alone, 'it always
j seemed to her that Clint was only
| waiting for a word. Of course she
I would never speak it; it, was his place
Ito come back. No one ever spoke to
j her of him. She had avoided all of
her old friends. They had been few.
j and she had made no new ones. She
j and her boy lived alone. When she
I could let her nurse go, she had taken
I this little apartment where Margaret
1 WHS janitress, and would look after the
i boy now and then. Next year he
would go to school.
Think and plan as she might, these
last months had made a terrible change
in Mrs Clint. She pretended to her
self that it was because Wilbur's
: money wah lost, but deep in her heart
, she knew that it was the realization
that at last her husband had deserted
them. She called it "deserting" them
I now. She asked somebody casually,
one day, what had become of Maude
J Hichardson, and was told that she had
i gone abroad; and then she saw an nl
j lusion in the IJay which told her that
Clint was again in Paris. It war after
j this that Mr. Dash came in and made
| liis inquiry as to the growing cynicism
of story writers.
Wilbur was looking longingly out of
I the window. Spring was setting in
early this year, and the sound of the
boys playing came clearly through the
air. He felt lonely and restless. He
! looked all about him. Across the
street there was a window exactly up
on a level with his own. Framed by
it, looking out as longingly as he, and
also dressed in white, but evidently
because he was an invalid, sat a gen
tleman in a chair. He must have just
come there, because Wilbur hud nevei
noticed him before.
The child saw that he was observed,
and with the friendliness which was
natural to his lonely little heart, he
showed his teeth in a smile and waved
his hand. The gentleman smiled
back, and, lifting an orange from
somewhere, held it up aud beckoned
j for Wilbur to come over. The boy
shook his head and then ran back.
He hurried into his clothes and tore
at the tangles in his hair. Margaret
might let him go.
"He's such a nice gentleman, Mar
garet, please," he said. "I think it'e
my duty to cheer him up. He's ill."
"Lee me have a look at 'im," the
Irish woman returned, taking hei
hands out of the suds.
She peered from behind the dotted
muslin curtains of the fifth Hat at the
haggard, wistful face, and gave an
Irish blessing upon all "sowls."
"Ye're not goin' to call upon the
gran' giutleman with 110 buttons fast
ened on yer shoes, says I. It's the
good little pants and the line new
shoes will ye wear to honor him in,"
she said excitedly.
"Will mama care?" the little voice
asked wist t ill ly.
"I'm thiukin' she will an* she
won't," the Irishwoman muttered to
herself. Her big red hands were nor- |
▼ous, but she moved them briskly, I
and soon had the boy dressed in the j
dainty little garments in which his ;
mother loved to make him beautiful, j
Then she took him across the street, i
and made an inquiry or two of the ;
boy iu the hall of the opposite house. !
"He's been sick a good while, but '
he's gittin' better. He's been into
somu ©' them countries where they've
been fighliu' wild niggers, an' it jest
about killed him. He's setti u' up
now. Did he call the kid over? All
right. I'll take him up."
Wilbur took his hand trustingly,
and followed him into the elevator.
They had no elevator in their house.
Margaret followed too. She stood in
side the car and heard the door open
and shut. Her hands were clasped.
Then she went home.
At dinner time a wild looking
woman burst into her kitchen.
•'Where is my baby?" Mrs. Clint
asked, looking about.
"Willy? Well now, it's beggin' your
pardon, miss, but some elegaut people
who lives acrost the avenoo, in the fift'
flat up, has enticed the child aver to'ern,
an' I took him over meself. I'd go
after 'im this minute, miss, but it's my
ole mau's supper would burn."
"I'll go. What are their names?
You must never, never do such a thing
I again?"
Mrs. Clint hurried across the street,
divided between anger and good feel
ing toward these people who had taken
a fancy to her hoy. Sho didn't stop
to look at the names. She walked
into the elevator and asked to Vie taken
to the fifth floor. She knew thero
was only one fiat whose entrance was
| here.
Inside she heard voices, her boy's
voice. She rang the bell, and there
was the sound of his little feet run
ning eagerly across the floor. He was
so fond of opening the door for their
I infrequent visitors that he was doing
f it for these people.
The door was iluiig open, and in the \
light of an open lire she saw, past the !
child, a pale, sick, wistful face that 1
she knew.
"Mary," he said, "won't you let s
Wilbur bring you in?"
The long separation was at an end.
—Munsey's Magazine.
Hunting Deer With Cats.
Our veracious contemporary, the
Bangor News, is responsible for the
following —at least we have failed to
trace its authority back any further
than the News' columns: "A very
novel sight was witnessed at the Wil
li mantic spool works recently. A deer
was seen running rapidly past the
works closely pursued by three house
cats. As they neared the river one of
the cats thought to take a ride on the
back of the deer. She gained the po
sition and lost it quickly and the deer
swam across the river. The cats,
nothing daunted, moved quickly up
the stream to the bridge, crossed over
dry-shod and sped on in pursuit of the
flying deer once more. Had it been
dogs that thus openly defied the laws
the wardens would have been investi
gating the matter ere now. As it is,
where is the law that reads SIOO fine
for chasing deer with cats? The cots
were owned by citizens of the place
who are well known. They should bo
warned to keep their cats chained, or
I farmers with small stock in their barns
j should see that the doors are kept
I closed."—Maine Spokesman.
A New Wave (juicier.
A new method of distributing oil on
water has been invented by P. Samo
hod, of Lima, Peru. The apparatus
comprises ft box-shaped distributor,
near the ends and center of which are
globe-shaped, perforated, copper oil
receivers connected with each other
by metal tubing, and surrounded by
sponge, the whole inclosed by a var
nished leather cover with many per
forations protected by metallic eyelits.
It has two metal bauds, from which
chains pass to the deck of the vessel,
other chains being connected to facili
tat.c its suspension from the bowsprit.
An oil supply hose of good varnished
leather or other preferred material ox
tends from a pipe in communication
with a pump and reservoir on tho ves
sel to tho central ono of the throe oil
receivers, by means of which tho oil
may be forced into and through the
distributor as desired. It is designed
that the length of tho distributor shall
be equal to about one-third of the
maximum width of the vessel. —New
Orleans Picayune,
Bangs were first worn at the court
of Louis XIV.
Domestic drew* goods in cheviot
mixtures are sold at very low price.
I 'George" Ivlingle, the poetess, is a
Philadclphian, whose right name is
Mrs. Georgians Klingle Holmes.
Mrs. Gladstone is eighty-one years
old, and she possesses that vigor and
vitality which is so remarkable in hei
husband.
Signals used at night by ships at
sea were invented by Mrs. Martha .1.
Caston, who, at an advanced age, it
living hi Washington.
It is generally conceded that the
most popular woman in diplomatic
circles at Washington isMme. Romero,
wife of the Mexican Minister.
Kid gloves for ordinary wear arc
painted ; only the bright opera tints, i
such as fashionable ladies wear tc
match their colored dresses, are dyed.
Mrs. Humphry Ward is a handsome
woman, tall and shapely, with regulai
features and sympathetic eyes. She
was brought up iu the best English so
ciety.
Sophie May, the author of "Dottj
Dimple" aud ' Little Prudy," is recov
cring, in Southern California, from
serious neualgic affection of the eyet
and head.
A woman of nondescript hair, com
plexion and eyes may wear light colore
(piite acceptably if she will put a band
of fur around her neck and at the I
wrists of her gown.
Mrs. Lease, the Kaunas politician,
recently informed an audience that
her name was not Mary Allen, but
! Mary Elizabeth Lease, and she wished
! the world to so understand it.
The Scotch United Presbyterians
are endeavoring to obtain several wo-
I men missionaries to go out at once to
Manchuria, where 1000 women arc
clamoring to enter tlio Christian
schools.
Mrs. Annie S. Austin, the newly
elected Mayor of Pleasanton, Kan., is
described as a woman of more than
average intelligence and weighs 200
pounds. She fills the chair of Mayor
I with ease.
| A woman whose neck is thin should
' never try anything but the square cor
j sage. The generously proportioned
| look best in the V stylo or the oval.
Only perfectly proportioned shoulders
i should be bared.
Mrs. Cleveland lias a young cousin
j with her for the season, Miss Mny
! Hnddleston. She is evidently doing
j as Hhe would bo done by and lias pre
| sented the debutante after the most
j approved fashion.
| Sarah Grand, author of "The
j Heavenly Twins," is singularly absent
i minded. One day she lost herpen and
a visitor who happened in found her
| looking after it among the letter "ps"
j in a French dictionary.
i So deep in her interest in the cause
of woman's suffrage that Mrs. Nancy
I Oilman, aged ninety, recently secured
100 signatures to a petition asking the
I New Hampshire Legislature to grant
i the right to vote to women.
Miss Alice Cooke has been appointed
j lecturer in history of Owens College,
Manchester. This is the tirst time a
j woman has been appoitcd in a univers
ity college in England as a lecturer to
mixed classes of men and women.
One gown properly made aud be
coming is of more use than live or six
that have seen much wear and little
repair or care. The secret of good
dressing does not lie in many toilets,
but in suitable and immaculate ones.
Airs. Stewart, ninety-eight years old,
is in a private almshouse in Glasgow.
In 1822 she danced with George IV. at
a ball in Holy rood Palace. Pier uncle
was the royal restaurateur in Edin
burgh, and procured an invitation for
her.
The very latest fad in Gotham is for
society women to pose as models for
the artists of fashion magazines. They
don their now gowns and give sittings,
being paid royally for them. The
money they earn thus they give to
charity.
Charlotte M. Vongeistall and stately,
with large brown eyes, light hair and
a very strong face. Her house is tilled
with hooks, even to the corridor.
Among her treasures are autograph let
ters from royalty and children thank
ing her for her writings.
Reduced to almost poverty a woman
of London of good family and highly
accomplished has started a laundry
which she calls "Sweet Lavender."
She chose this field because other oc
cupation common to her sex are over
crowded and afford no opportunity to
gain wealth.
The Russian furore for black and
yellow and for furs is now at its hight.
Sable, ermine and mink are the favor
ite furs, and as ermine is royal in price
as well as iu decoration, the slaughter
of white cars is unprecedented. Like
glass diamonds, the untrained eye
never detects the difference.
While all European royalty was read
ing her obituary in the papers Queen
Mary of Hanover was enjoying-the de
lights of her beautiful gurdeu in Ivis
singen. She first learned of her
"death" from her lady-in-waiting,who
was in receipt of numerous telegrams
asking about the Queen's last moments.
Hie Queen Regent of Holland wears
clothes, hut spends
much time and thought on her small
toilets. Everything little
Queen Wi 1 helmina wears is of the most
exquisite texture, and all the linen,
fairy-like in fineness, lias the "W."
and crown beautifully embroidere 1
upon it,
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL. I
A splendid series of photographs of
Brooks's comet has been obtained
In the space of one minute the poly- 1
pus can change its form a hundred
times.
Danish lighthouses are supplied
with oil to pump on the waves during
a storm.
Dr. Hermann Zeigler, the German
scientist, says a forecast of the weather
may be determined by photographs of
the sun's disk.
Peas and beans cooked in hard water
containing lime or gypsum will not
boil tendpr, because these substances
harden vegetable caseine.
Scotch manufacturers of carbon di
sulphide supply most of the French de
mand for this article, which is exten
sively used in the destruction of phyl
loxera on grape vines.
The Capitol of Hartford, Conn., is
of marble. Local engineers claim
that it expands an inch to each 100
feet, beiug three inches longer in
summer than in winter.
In the tanning industry electricity
is beginning to play an important
part. The largest tannery in Switzer
land will soon be reconstructed and
enlarged for the purpose of adopting
the process of electric tanning.
The anableb, a fish that inhabits the
rivers of Guiana and Surinam, has
two pupils in each eye, an upper aud
a lower one. When the fish is swim
ming it keeps this upper optic, which
protrudes above the head, out of the
water.
The green ants of Australia make
nests by bending leaves together and
uniting them with a kind of natural
glue. Cook saw hundreds at a time on
one leaf drawing it to the ground,
while an equal number waited to re
ceive, hold and fasten it.
Earthenware sleepers, tlio invention
of Matsui Tokutaro, a Jnpauesc, were
recently experimented on at Shimba
shi Station, Japan. Fairly good re
sults were obtained. It is cluiinedthat
the increased cost of earthenware
sleepers is amply compensated by their
freedom from decay.
Dentists are great users of costly
metal. Beside gold for stopping, two
sevenths of the world's consumption
of platinum is employed by them in
making the wires by which the artifi
cial teeth are firmly fastened to a
plate. It is the only metul possesing
the required properties.
In the Institute of Experimental Pa
thology in Vienna Professors Haster
lik and Stockmayer, four students aud
others, swallowed a quantity of comma
bacilli. They suffered no bad effects
beyond headache and nausea. Pro
fessor Strieker therefore draws the
conclusion that the comma bacilli will
not cause cholera in the case of strong,
healthy subjects.
The Russian naval authorities have
not been slow to take advautage of
the lessons taught by the sinking of
Her Majesty's steamer Victoria. An
exact model of the sunken vessel is,
it is said, being constructed in Cron
stadt, and this, together with the in
formation available as to the causes of
the accident, will serve as an object
lesson to Russian naval architects as
well as what shall bo avoided in de
signing new vessels.
Babbits tor the Market.
It is not generally knowu that n
rabbit ranch exists near this city on
what promises to be quite an extensive
scale. J. B. Baumgartner and Mat
thias Foerg are the owners of the
ranch, and already have a bam forty
feet long and divided up into stalls,
all of which are now ocoupried by
bunny and his numerous progeny.
The rabbits are the lop-eared va
riety, a breed exceding scarce and held
at fancy prices iu the United States.
Mr. Baumgartner imported two pairs
from Switzerland a year and a half
ago, paying S'2oo for them. He now
has over sixty rabbits from those two
pairs.
The rabbits breed seven times a year
and have from eight to ten to a litter.
When full grown they weigh from
fourteen to eighteen pounds. They
are most delicious eating, their flesh
being considered superior to chicken
As they command from fifteen to
twenty cents per pound, rabbit, farm
iug is much more profitable than
chicken raising.
Like ordinary rabbits they are prac
tically omniverous. They are beau
tiful animals, with their long, silky
hair and fluffy fur. Unlike other rab
bits, they do not burrow except a'l
breeding time, and are exceedingly
tame by nature and easily kept. Baum
gar ten Ar Foerg say that they kavo
only made a fair beginning in the
business and are already planning to
enlarge their building aud ranch.—
South Bend (Ind.) Journal.
Saw a Meteor in Mid Ocean.
On the German-American Company's
steamship Standard about 6 a. m.
January 26, in latitude 39, longitude
69.20, Second Officer Paradies saw a
meteor. He says it fell from the
zenith a ball of blue light, descending
slowly to south-southwest, where it
changed to fiery red. Just before
reaching the horizon Mr. Paradies
says the meteor seemed to explode in
to thousands of scintillating pieces,
illuminating the sea and the ship as
bright as day.—Washington Star.
The Wealth of Cuba.
Cuba is a rich country. On this
Island there are 90,960 sugar and to
bacco plantations and fruit aud vego
table farms, the total value of which i
$325,000,000. Cuba's yearly exports
amount to $90,000,000, while the im
ports are only $43,750,000. Of tin
latter $16,250,000 in from this coun
try. Nearly $50,000,000 goes uunnalh
to the support of Spain." Detroit
Free Press.
QUEER CHINESE BELIEFS.
CHINAMEN BELIEVE IN THE TRANS
MIGRATION OF SOULS.
Bin* Devlin With Warnings at Sea
and Dad or Beneficent Tigers
Ashore—Strange Superstitions.
PUKING the recent visit to
Washington of l)r. Edward
tt. Bedloe, the famous racon
teur of the Philadelphia
Clover Club and late Consul to Amoy,
ho regaled his friends with many
strange tales of Chinese beliefs.
"Some years ago," said he, "the
steamer Nam-Chow sailed from Singa
pore in the Straits for Amoy. She
carried several hundred Chinese as
passengers. On the second day out
the Captain from his position on the
bridge saw a great commotion among
his Chinese passengers forward and
sent the mate to find out the cause of
the disturbance which arose seemingly
without reason and grew with each
moment. The mate shortly returned
from his mission with a look of mingled
perplexity and amusement on his
bronzed and weather-beaten face.
" 'Captain,' Hnid he, 'this is the
rnmmest lot of heathens Ihavo struck
yet. Blow me if I can make them out.
The beggars have a yarn and they all
stick to ifc like a lot of sea lawyers
lying under oath. They say that just
before the rumpus began what they
call a "blue devil" camo down on deck
right out of the smoke from the stacks
and walked up to them. The whole
b'ilin' of 'em declare they saw him
and that he said the steamer was going
to be wrecked and nearly all on board
lost. He said, so they give it, that
there is just one honest Chinaman on
board, and that for liis sake he came
to give them warning. They say that
when the "blue devil" got through
with his palaver he gave an awful
grimace, walked backward into the
smoke, and disappeared. Aud now
they are as crazy as March hares, and
every mother's son of 'em in a blue
funk with fear that the Nam-Chow
will go to Davy Jones's locker in the
next hour.'
"The Captain was visibly annoyed,
but he said little. He had sailed too
long in Chinese waters to be thrown
off his balance by any queer freak on
the part of a lot of Chinese deck pas
sengers, but his Scotch blood was too
full of belief in second sight not to
give him a feeling of relief when the
harbor of Amoy was reached in safety.
Within a week the cargo was dis
ahirgcd and the vessel was ready for
her return trip to Singapore. But,
though the Nam-Chow usually took
several hundred Chinese deck passen
gers, not one was booked or could be
induced to go. The native cooks ami
waiters hail also deserted the ship,
leaving their wages with the purser.
The story of the 'blue devil' had got
around, and not a Chinaman would
put his foot on the steamer for love or
money. The Captain was iu a quan
dary, but shrewdly set to work to find
! away out. He consulted the local au
thorities, and in a few hours he had
every Chinese priest in Amoy down on
the steamer, beating tom-toms, burn
ing joss sticks, and raising a general
hullabaloo to scare off the blue devil
ami exorcise his evil influence. When
this was done to the satisfaction of the
priests they pronounced the vessel
safe, and inside the next twenty-four
hours the missing members of the
crew and the normal passenger list
put in an appearance, and the Nam-
Chow sailed. Within forty-eight
hours the propeller shaft broke,
pounded a hole in the bottom of the
steamer —it was at night—and of the
four hundred odd souls aboard only
thirty-five were saved.
"The Chinese," continued Dr. Bed
loe, "are firm believers in the trans
migration of souls. The dogs in the
streets may contain the spirits of one's
departed ancestors, and they treat all
animals with the greatest circumspec
tion.
14 1 once went with a party on a
tiger hunt severul days' journey into
the interior. We arrived at last in the
tiger country, and made inquiry at a
village if there were any tigers in the
neighborhood. The head magistrate,
a shrewd old Mongolian, declared in
the most positive terms that there
were none, nor had there been, he
affirmed, in many years. We had
been informed otherwise, but could
learn nothing, and so proceeded fur
ther into the country. We had pro
ceeded but a few miles before a runner
came from the village we had just left
with a message from the magistrate.
He begged our most humble pardon,
but would the illustrious and most
benevolent gentleman be so kiud as to
return at once. He had been mistaken
in saying there were no tigers in the
neighborhood. There was one, and it
was a very bad and most dangerous
one. Just after our departure it had
entered the village, seized a young
woman, and made off with her into
the jungle. Would we be so conde
scending as to hunt up the tiger and
kill him ?
"We returned, got on the track of
the tiger, and with a strong force of
heaters succeeded in killing him
after about four hours of cautious
hunting. We then returned to the
village, leaving to our attendants the
task of skinning the tiger and bring
ing in the hide. The old magistrate
could not abase himself enough for the
falsehood 1 ■ had told us, but his apol
ogy was the most remarkable feature.
He gave us a good meal of curried
chicken, bamboo sprouts, fish, and
some excellent tea, and as we ate told
us the following story :
" 'One cannot bo too careful about
animals,' said he. 'They may be
very good animals, and one's own
parents might have passed into them.
Think how sad it would be if one
should kill a relative, thinking it was
a tiger, This tiger which you killed
to-day had never done us any harm r
only taking a goat or a dog once in
while, and we thought him a good
tiger until to-day, when he seized the
daughter of Sung Tsao.' " —New York
Sun.
WISE WORDS. S
Foolish indulgence begets ingrati
tude.
Mercy is the feminine gender of
justice.
When a woman believes she never
I deceives.
Bad habits are material evidence of
weakness.
Love has never learned to balance
his scales.
There are few amendments to un
written laws.
High-priced men arc least often out
of employment.
It isn't always the full pocketbook
that runs over first.
Everyone is anxious to help the man
who doesn't need it.
The man who really needs advice is
the first to repulse it.
Everybody should be trained to tell
the truth judiciously.
There are no means for satisfying
an unuatural appetite.
A bad policy is mighty poor back
ing for a good principle.
Good husbands are seldom troubled
with bad mothers-in-law.
A person doesn't worry much over
the lie he isn't caught in.
Affected modesty is the most vicious
form of self-consciousness.
A lie is an investment which seldom
pays more than one dividend.
A gushing and loquacious friend is
much worse than a discreet enemy.
Sweethearts build air castles iu
which they expect to live when mar
ried.
A woman's words are not always an
advertisement cf what is in a woman's
heart.
Self-conceit Is P- vulgar fraction
whose numerator is "1" and whose de
nominator is "mine."
Strange that when a person has deep
feelings he tries to hide tliem, but, pos
sessing none, pretends that he has.
The child's first longing is for ma
turity, the youth's for love, the man's
for prosperity, the sage's for death.
It is easy euongh to sny that you
wish your enemy no evil, but wait un
til something happens to him and see
if you can help feeling glad.
It is said that it requires long prac
tice to enable one to think well on his
feet. Most of us lie down to it, and
forget to get up in time to anything.
Wild Cattle.
All c.ir uomestic cattle exhibit a
tendency to become feral when the
conditions of life are favorable, says a
writer in the Australasian. In our
climate cattle do not rely upon the as
sistance of man for their support, and
when his discipline is relaxed for any
length of time they become wild.
The Devon and Hereford being ex
tremely light of foot aud of lively dis
-1 position, have been consequently de
, scribed as more apt to become wild
I than any other breed; but this I do
not believe. As a lad I was considered
i a good stock-rider, and it so happens
that I have had many a gallop after
half-wild Herefords and Devons.
When they broke away one had to ride
j through the thick timber at a break
; neck pace to heal them, but once
headed they were fairly amenable to
the discipline of a bold and skilful
j stock-rider.
T have hud only one experience of
I handliug a really wild herd f Dnr-
I hams, and 1 remember how fervently
1 1 hoped that I would never see one of
the breed again. They were much
more easily headed than the swifter
i Rubies or Whitefaces, but directly
: they became knocked up they
• charged at once, and they meant
; charging.
I can give an instance of wildness in
a well-bred Durham herd of the pres
ent day. On their own pasture they
are as quiet as pets, but from the time
they are put into the trucks to go to
market they become perfect demons.
A stock agent once said of them :
"They will climb the fence to get at
you when in the Flemington yards."
I saw a Devon herd during one of my
rambles in Queensland, and found
them as I found all the station cattle I
saw in that colony, singularly quiet.
But my experience of Queensland cat
tle is, I admit, very limited. All our
domestic animals exhibit a tendency
I to become wild in Australia if they
; are neglected. I have known and
heard of wild horses, cattle, dogs, pigs,
■ goats, turkeys, geese, ducks and
j guinea fowl.
Height ol nil Eagle's Flight.
The imperial eagle, the largest o<
the species known, fiies to a height o i
from 10,000 to 15,000 feet. It is a
native of South America, aud its hab
itat is among the lofty mountains of
that country. Its power of flying to
high altitudes is only exceeded by the
condor of the Andes, which is said to
have attained the height of six miles,
or within one mile of the greatest
height ever attained by a balloon.
The eagle sails in the air at heights
ranging from three to five miles, aud
when seen to sonr upward by an ob
j server on the earth's Hurface disap
pears from sight in about three min
utes. —Brooklyn Eagle.
Electricity in the Mines.
It is stated that there are now in
i the United States more than 300 min
ing compauies making use in their
' operations of electricity for light and
power. About one-third of the gross
amount of copper refined in this coun
try is now treated by electrolytic pro
cesses,—SHU Francisco Chronicle,