FREELAOT> TRIBUNE. PUBLISHED EVERT MONDAY AND THURSDAY. THOS. A. BUCKLEY, EDITOR AND PROPRIETOR. OFFICE: MAIN STREET ABOVE CENTRE. SUBSCRIPTION KATES. One Year $1 50 Six Months . 7a Four Months . 60 Two Months 25 Sulwcrlbers are requested to observe the date following the name on the labels ot their papers. By referring to this they can tell at a glance how they ptand on tho books in this office. For instance: Grover Cleveland 28JuneR5 means that Grover Is paid up to June 28,1H93. Keep the figures in advance of the present date. Keport promptly to this office when your paper is not received. All arrearages must bo paid when pajier Is discontinued, or collection will be made In the manner provided by law. THE editor of a Leghorn (Italy) paper who had denounced anarchism in his paper lias been stabbed to death in his carriage, and the mur derer has es aped. This is another incident which demonstrates the ne cessity of taking the most stringent m thuds of wiping out anarchists and anarchism. INDOLENCE IS the mother of ugli ness. Nineteen out of twenty people are too lazy to breathe properly. The rarity of beauty is not to be won dered at, considering the absolute necessity to health of abundant fresh air. Habitual deep breathing pro duces health and beauty, not only hj exercising the muscle of the chest, but by throwing bark the head and compelling the whole body to assume a straight and majestic attitude. FRANCE has .iust launched the most powerful battle-ship in the world, and has given it the honored name, of Le Carnot. Her length is 806 feet, and her armor of steel is over IT inches thick. She is ex pected to develop 13,500 horse-power and to make 18 knots. The ves sel is especially designed for heavy offensive work, with 11-inch guns for Are ahead and astern, and she will have six torpedo-launching tubes. The total cost of the Carnot will be $6,000,000. STATISTICS are said to show that young men do not, on the average, attain full physical maturity until they arrive at the age of twenty eight years. Professor Shaler of Har vard asserts, as the result of his ob servations, that men do not attain the full measure of their mental fac ulties before twenty-live years of age. A shrewd observer has said that "most men are boys until they are thirty, and little boys until they are twenty-five," and this accords with the standards of manhood which was fixed at thirty among the ancient Hebrews and other races. IF a farmer wants to try nitrate of soda as a fertilizer, he can do so with little expense. The Chilian Govern ment is going to send several cargoes of nitrate of soda to the United States for free distribution among farmers. The object is to enlarge the market in tills country. A bu reau of distribution in Washington will send out to farmers a sufficient quantity to fertilize an acre. Farm ers who receive it are instructed to experiment with and report compara tive results after harvest. It is the way the Chilian Government adver tises, and it proceeds on the theory that, being a good thing, it has but to be known to be used all the time. HALF a dozen of the phenomenally successful novels of the year are al ready selling for cents apiece upon the second-hand book carts. To this complexion do they come so fast. Soon ripe, soon rotten, they spring up like the flowers that bloom in the spring, and fade as soon. As the grass withercth so withers away the popular story. To awake some morn ing and find yourself famous is fol lowed so often by an awakening a few weeks later, when you And your self forgotten. Here is a young woman, an invalid, who tried to quiet shattered nerves by writing a story. To her intense wonder ridiculous critics praised it in terms which wanted in nothing but discrimina tion. Here was a possible successor, oh. sacrilege of George Sand, and George Eliot and Jane Austen. Now the volume is on the cart, as typical of literary execution as any death wagon that ever trundled the con demncd to the Place de la Concorde. Here is a young man, one of the cleverest living. He wrote a novel, too. It was the analysis of a woman In humble life, brilliantly well done. But the foolish got after him. too. and how lie must laugh at his silly admirers, because he is a born cynic and has the culture which involves a knowledge of the best things writ ten. Some had the daring to com pare his gambler's wife to the women whose souls have been turned Inside out by the masters like Balzac. Ills book is on Ihe cart now Yet George Moore is a genius. Let us hope that a respite will snatch him from the condemned where lie the "Dodos" and "Yellow Asters" and "Superfluous Women" in yellow backed rows of moribund misery. |THE JUICY BIVALVE. 1 ITALY THE BIRTHPLACE OF A GREAT MODERN INDUSTRY. I How Oysters Are Reared In the 31 are Piccolo, nt Tarento—A liny Divided Into Small Sections and Kuril Section Leased by the Year. Oyster Culture. Modern oyster culture seems to have been derived from Italy. Be fore the visit of M. Coste to Lake Furara In 1853. but little had been done in France to regenerate an in dustry almost on the verge of extinc | tion. The report of Coste pictured I the successes of the cultural proc | esses of Italy and strongly urged their introduction on the French coast, causing the institution, under the patronage of Napoleon 111 , of a series of experimental measures, out of whoso successes and failures has grown one of the most important of the coast industries of France. Especially interesting is the fact, already shown by Coste, on evidence furnished by pictured funeral vases, that the processes in use to-day in Tarente or in the lakes near Naples are apparently the very ones that the Romans employed as early as the time of Marius. Tho oyster stakes of the Lucrino Lake, we are told, represent in appearance and actual position the very ones that l'liny may have inquisitively examined, little thinking that their use would lie handed down to posterity more carefully than the volumes of his life-long work. Every one who has written of Ro man oyster culture has referred to Sergius Orator as the inventor of this branch of industry. It would seem, however, from evidence that has en dured 2,000 years, that this wealthy Roman represented little more than a successful culturistof his day, note worthy, perhaps, because a patric'au. Ilis prominence, too, as a successful ~ 1/ ST" OYSTERS OF SECOND YEAR. culturist has been accented by a re mark of the orator Lucius Crassus, who, as his orator, defended him in a suit for trespass against the state in the matter of oyster property; his time-honored pleasantry that the question of a few feet of land made no difference to his client, who could, if necessary, raise oysters with suc cess on the thatches of house-tops, has given tho grasping Sergius more credit than he perhaps deserves. Cer tainly the oysters from the Tarentinc Gulf were very early known, and were by historic evidence planted, doubtless, with method of culture, in the lakes near N'apies. Tarente, as a Greek city of ancient wealth and commercial relations, is far more apt to have had an oyster culture than was Sergius to invent it. Tho Modern Industry. The modern industry is carried on extensively only at Tarente. It is here that the major portion of the seed oysters are produced which are afterward cultivated in the bays and tidal ponds of the southwest coast and supply the general market ol Italy. As one approaches the city of Tarente on the railroad from lirin disi, a very good idea may be ob tained of the extent of the oyster culture as the road bends aroutid the shore of the Mare Piccolo. As far out as the eye can see the bay is bristling with oyster stakes, whose - ends project several feet above the surface. Those are soon observed to pass in regular lines, and to mark oil the water surface into squares as ol a checker hoard. These inclosures measure about llfteon feet square. They are leased at about 50c a year, and each cultnrist secures as many as he can manage. They are rented from a stock company, which has ob tained from tho city council the leasehold of the entire bay bottom, surveyed iri about twenty soctions, for an annual rental of about $lO,- 000. The minuteness of the subdi vision is the result and also th 3 cause of the competition, and the energy of rival rnlturists adds much to the success of the industry. Vortical Cultivation. The Italians differ from the French in that they cultivate oysters in all depths of water, and make the num ber of oysters fattened in a given park stand in proportion to the vol ume of water. Having but scanty fall tide, their system has become vortical oyster culture. To cultivate horizontally the French have hard ened their muddy beaches, have in closed tidal areas, and have spread miles of flat cases of iron gauze to growing space for their oys ters. The Italian cultnrist has de vised every means of supporting his oysters in tho water between bottom and surface. A Tarentino park rep. resents every branch of thoindustrv; on an area of fifteen feet the cultnrist may collect the young oysters, grow, fatten, and prepare them for market. A Tarentine park consists of cor. ner posts, a web of rope and various suspended devices for collecting, growing, fattening and storing oys ters. The. coiner posts, (Irmly im planted. mark the boundaries of the park. At each corner these are usu ally arranged in pairs, somewhat in clined toward each other and lashed 1 together a few feet above the surface. Thus fixed they appear to be quite permanent. The llrm calcareous character of the bottom allows the posts to be readily inserted by blows i of a heavy mallet. The posts them- I selves are of green pine, 6 or 8 Inches j in diameter. The depth of the har bor allows their average length to be j about twenty feet. In deeper water two or even three require to be | A FASCINE WITHDRAWN FHOM THE I.AKE TO EXAMINE THE CHARACTER OF THE BET spliced together, bringing, therefore, into culture a depth as great as forty feet. The ropes forming a network between the corner posts must sup- ] port the weight of the collecting de- j vices. The cordage must therefore be strong and durable in water. A | wire-grass rope an inch in diameter 1 is manufactured in Naples for this purpose. It lasts for one or two sea sons, and costs about }c per yard. Loose bundles of hazel or goose boughs, termed fascines, are suspend ed by the ropes in the water. They become quickly watersoaked and form ; the most convenient collectors, j These, when covered with young oys- j ters. are broken Into twigs and woven into ropes, which, when suspended from the network above, utilize the water volume Irom surface to bot tom. Oysters that have become do j tached and fallen to the bottom, to- \ getlier with grown oysters, are placed j in a peculiarly constructed basket j and suspended precisely as are the { twig ropes. rrep'tring tho Faiclnes. The fascines gather the spat from 1 the oysters suspended on the ropes. The spawning season is greatest be tween April and October, but experi- j ments show that spawning occurs | during the whole year. The fascines | freshly prepared during the winter | are taken out of the shallow water ! in the spring and anchored in deeper ; J water. In May the fascines are j 1 taken up, well rinsed, and suspended 1 in the shallower water in the | parks. Here they get their second I coating of spats. In the next spring | the fascines are taken ashore and ! deposited in huge banks as a prelim- j inary to weaving the ropes. The at- i tendants now proceed to take them ) apart, chopping each bough with ils | attached oysters into twigs about eight inches long. The oyster twigs are now deposited in baskets and are | carried to the next attendant, who splices them ingeniously between tho ; strands of rope, so that when com- j pleted the twist of the rope, together i with increased weight, keeps the | twigs (Irmly in place. Thus arranged ] the rope bristles symmetrically with i its oyster-bearing burden. Cargoes ! of these ropes are then rowed to the | parks and put in place. Tho growing | conditions of the oyster now become J especially favorable. The heavily | burdened ropes swing and vibrate in the currents, allowing each oyster to escape the accumulating sediment j and to secure an equal share of the j volume of boating food. Their | growth is certainly rapid; an oyster three-fourths of an inch in diameter in March, when suspended to the j rope, has attained by October about four times its original diameter, and , lias thus become marketable. Two j years and a half, however, is gen- j erally allowed to produce an oyster ol llrst grade in the Tarentine market. A rope fourteen feet in length will rear about 2,000 marketable oysters. Another device used in giving oysters their final growth is a net covered j ring, which often supports 400 or 500 j oysters. Fusano and Lucrine Lake, near Naples, are also oyster-hearing loca tions, but decidedly unimportant as I compared with Tarente. The method I of culture is the same as at Tarente. It may be added that dredging is ex- | ceptionallv or never indulged. A I,urge Potato Plantation. American Farmer: A potato plan- | tation of 700 acres, on which two crops, aggregating about 50,000 bar rels, or 125,000 bushels, are annually grown, is difficult to imagine. Such a one exists, however, and its virgin soil is so rich that abundant crops are raised without the use of any fertil izer. This great potato farm is in Ashwood, Maury County, Tenn., about six miles west of Columbia and fifteen miles south of Nashville. It is a part of the old I'nlk estate, owned by tbe ancestors of President Polk. The first crop of the year is from 28,- 000 to 30,000 barrels, and tbe second crop, for which only 500 acres are planted, from 20,000 to 22,000, mak ing a total of about 50,000 barrels, or 125,000 bushels a year. ClawsOn & Stevens employ about 100 negroes, many of whom are women, and have cighty-tive giant niules. They have a factory on the plantation in which all the barrels used by them are made. Mr. Clawson says their present crop Is unusually large, but that, as the crops of Kansas and Mississippi are short, he expects to find ready and profitable sale for his entire product. IS A MIGHTY POWER. GROWTH OF THE CHRISTIAN TEMPERANCE UNION. Horn In Ohio Twenty-one Years Apo* the j Woman's Temperance Crusade Is Now n Oreat Organization, Exerting an Influ ence in Every Civilized Land* In a Noble Cause* I A potent force in the elevation, emancipation and education of the | mothers of the race that is yet to ho tborn is the Wom an's Christian Temperance Un i on. It is a link in the chain along which humanity is feeling its way to a nobler and better life, and of the few organi zations which work throughout the En gl is h - speaking world it is, per il a ps, the strong est. liut its influ •MSS RITANCEFL WILLARDOUCC is not con lined | to the world that speaks the English j tongue: there are branch organiza tions in the Sandwich Islands, in China, India and Japan. It is almost universal in scope, recognizing no sectarianism in religion, no section alism in politics, and no sex in citi zenship. Of an organization so pow j erful and so widely extended it is J interesting to glance at the history. | Back in 18711 a singular crusade I swept over a large section of the West. It was a crusade of prayer, women relying on that spiritual weapon to bring Hwv t' lc saloon down. "l .Starting in Hills , boro, Ohio, the cru ' (%'■■■ swept in the Y*o "rT/sijj, short space of seven weeks over as many States. n bl iterating 1 dSIHc thousands upon thousands of bar 'tljiT' rooms and saloons. MAS MAiio A ii E r\v oin en besieged 1 nT!3dVnVo ! rtho uch p la, ; cs \ i,r.!,y --w. c: T. n. ing and singing j psalms; religious enthusiasm was j kindled, anil thousands signed the I pledge and professed conversion, t Church I ells pealed in steeples aud the sound of jubilant thanksgiving | rose from the street as the crusading ladies were asked by reformed publi i cans to stave in casks of liquors and i empty the contents into the gutters. Itlrth of the W. C. T. 11. ! But the pace was too fast and the ! inevitable reaction came. Other sa loons sprang into existence and the traffic flourished as before. The principle of the cru- AESSE® . sade, howe v e r, jwlraßSfei lived, and in 1874a number of ladies \3w <sl| j met in conference ffl 'Zfb JS?" if tin Cleveland xnd adopted the name ; i , lof the Woman's ''A. • A i Christian Temper- "'-'l' 1 ance Union. A S' plan of organiza- 1 , *Hi \ wt* tion was adopted, j an appeal made to , P" t the women of the U , , I.ADY IIENRV SOMER- I globe and a pub- SET I lishlng house es-p ro9ldo „ t of tho j tablished in Chica- iiritish \v. e. T. T. I go. That house now issues no fewer than I JO, 000,000 pages of printed matter yearly, all directed to the objects of the union. Out of the ap peal made to womankind has grown | the World's Woman's Christian Tem | perance Union, a society which coui i prises, besides our own order, the i British Temperance Association, tho Canadian Woman's Christian Tem perance Union and organizations in j the Sandwich Islands, Japan. India | and China. Its ilrst president was Mrs. Margaret Bright Lucas, a sister !of John Bright, one of England's | great statesmen. A Wonderful Growth. In 1870 at a convention of the W. J C. T. U. in Newark, the question of j woman suffrage was first broached and wasadvocatcd by the "Uncrowned Queen of American Democracy, ".Miss I l iyhsi d 5 "srSl£ I®, >afltapfta|| -flu F;®l L* ft! l|fe J iMtm (0 rr> BfiLg, ijyy®: WOMAN'S TEMPERANCE TEMPL.E CHICAQO. Frances E. Wiliard, Secretary of the Woman's National Clirlstian Temper ance Union and president of the lo al union in Chicago. Upon tho plat form of equal woman's rights Miss Wiliard was elected president of the Woman's National W. C. T. U. in 1870—a post she has since tilled with credit to herself and profit to the so ciety. Under her direction the work of the society was divided into preven tive, educational, evangelistic, social, legal and organizing departments and thereafter the society wielded an immense power in the nation. luthe nurseries and schoolrooms, in the re formatories and in the home, at en campments and at fairs, in tho halls of Congress and in the dives of great cities the influence of these indefati gable workers for humanity's sake is constantly felt. All over the globe ti oy have dispatched missionaries to educate, to preach, to nurlfy. Now tho membership is nearly half a mill ion and is ever growing. In Chicago the national headquarters are in a building whicli was erected by tho society at a cost of $1,100,000. STABLE AND CARRIAGE HOUSE. Elegant Hosiltu of u ll,time Sultulilo for II Kiel, Man's Horse. This design was prepared by Pal liscr, Palliser & Co. for erection In connection with a proposed residence at Seaside I'ark, Bridgeport, Conn., and is arranged to suit the require ments of individual wants as well as the peculiarities of the site. There is a cellar built undercarriage house, whicli will be found useful for the storage of vegetables, roots, etc., and tho carriage house being arranged to drive through, makes it very con venient for every-day use, as well as utilizing the room. The shed is de iSIKxL <:r - if}tij jjs&ri %k PERSPECTIVE VIEW. signed as a shelter for horse and car riage, so that the horse can be fed noon times without unhitching. The two stalls and box stall give ample room for two or three horses, while there is room enough for three car riages. On second story is provided a man's chamber, ha.v-loft and feed room—the feed bins being built into position and having chutes down to stable below. I j I ~p ' *W spHTipW-l I I ilea r PI.AN OF FIRST FLOOR. The building is of wood, frame sheathed, and lower or first story clapboarded and shingled above, roof slated. The ventilator is connected with stable below by means of wooden vent pipes, and thoroughly ventilates the whole building. Harness-room lias an open fire-place, tho chimney running up through man's room on second floor. The hay-racks, mangers and stable fixtures are of iron. Water is supplied on first floor. The har r-rrar | L_ "VIMS, it g 3 Jb — 1 PLAN OF SECOND FLOOR. ness-room is fitted up with the neces sary hooks, pins, etc., for hanging and storing harness. The whole built in a first-class manner at a cosl of $8.70, and makes a neat building for the purpose. Immigration Statistics. The official reports of immigration to the United States show a gieat falling off. Arrivals for the last fiscal year were only 811,404, being a decrease of 180,532 from that for the twelve months next preceding, and lining much the smallest total of the last fifteen years, which have con stituted the period of most active migration to this country. The ar rivals during tho latest fiscal year in clude 71, 000 from the United King dom, r.o.fiOO from Germany, 43,000 from Italy, 37,500 from Austria, about as many from Russia, and 27,000 from Sweden and Norway, no other count)y sending as many as 0,000. The decrease approximately was 20,000 from Austria, and 30,000 each from Germany, Italy. Great Britain, and Sweden and Norway. The fact of a decrease in (he number of arrivals is noted for ail the princi pal ports except for San Francisco, for which a slight increase is re ported. Tho following table shows tho total of Immigrants for each fiscal year since the one ending in the middle of 1870: IMS" 177,277 1 mm 51(1,88! irsi niv.i.eu 1189 iu.ee 18n2 788,992 j KilIU 155,305 ima .|-(13,-J2-J mil iwi.ae: C'-i r.|s.r.;i2 18112 lira hhi 1118.1 395,310] 1-111 197,1KK infill .331,213 ; 1831 311, ID 18-7 11X1,109 | Nearly all the decline in numbers for 1804 occurred in the last half of the fiscal year. That reported for last June was little more than a third of t lie total for June, 1803, and was at the rate of 280,000 )er an num. Since, then the balance of the movement has been in the other direction, so that if the same rate lie kept for the whole year the returns for 180.7 will show that the United States is losing to other countries in stead of gaining from them. statis tics for the port of New York for the month ending with Aug. 2, which practically covers July, show that 10,003 steerage passengers departed, while only 11,540 came in, and of the latter only about 50 per cent, are re garded as true immigrants. Not a Snint. Constantino the Great was not a saint. He murdered his wife, one or twq of his sons, a considerable num ber of. his other relatives, and was guilty of a score of assassinations and murders, lie was a Christiauonly in name. ! LARGEST OF ALL TRUCKS. IT DOE 3 ODD JOBS IN VARIOUS CITIES. A Monster Vehicle Capable of Car rying Filjfhty Tons—Sixty Horses Sometimes Draw It. T"T J O Philadelphia belongs the I t honor of having produced an I inventor who devised a truck, (* composed entirely of iron and steel, and capablo of hauling eighty tons, or 109,000 pounds, at one time. This truck, which has, since its construction, thirty years ago, done work in almost every large city in the United States, is as good as new. The truck itsell weighs 10,000 pounds and cost over S3OOO to build. thnce then five smaller trucks of similar construc- I tion have been built, the combined capacity of which escoeds 500,000 pounds. The owners of these giant trucks, who are J'hiladelphians, con trol the heavy hauling business of the J entire American contiucnt. Whenever a heavy boiler, sugar roll, submarine or street cable is to be moved in any part of tho United States one or more of their iron and steel trucks are shipped to that point. Although when the giant truck was built it was designed to carry but eighty tons, it is believed that more than twice that weight might with perfect safety be loaded on it. By ex tending the pole and placing the other trucks in line it has been estimated that the longest monolith ever quar ried, the one broken from its bod at tho Houghten quarry, Ashlaud, Wis., November 18th, 1892, and which is forty-six feet longer than Cleopatra's Needle, erected by Vauderbilt in Cen tral Park, New York, could be easily and safely transported any distance on good roads. Thus the question of hauling huge weights is no longer problematical. Some description of this larg--t of ill trucks cannot but bo of iutoro.-u to those who have been accustomed to seeing only wooden-wheeled wagons ind timber carts. Tho wheels are three feet nine inches in diameter, made cf iron and have a steel tire two inches thick aud twelve inches wide. They revolve oil steel axles six inches in diameter and stand nine feet two inches apart from track to track. From tho top of tho truck to tho ground the distance is hut four feet. The fifth wheel, or turning arrange ment, placed on tho frout or forward axle, is a complete double circlo six feet in diameter aud revolves on small spherical steel balls in such maimer that no matter how short a turn is made the load can havo no chance to tip or cuut to one side. The first hauling ever done by this wagon was soon alter the outbreak of the Civil War, when a forty-eight-ton boiler for the douhle-turreted monitor Dictator was to be hauled from Fifth and Washington avenue, where it was made, to the monitor, lying at the foot of Federal street. Tho boiler was loaded on the giant truck and pulled by sixty horses iu tho presence of 7000 persons, started safely on its journey, and would have reached its destination without mishap had the pavoment beou equal to the strain imposod upon it. When on Federal street, between I'hird and Fourth streets, a bit of in ferior pavement gave away under the enormous weight, aud the massive iron wheels settled to the hub, pushing tbo cobbles away as easily as though they Lad becu laid in mud. Tbe horses were found to l>e inade quate to pull the wagon over such a pavement, and tbe journey was con tinued by plueingsbips' anchors in the street. Tho anchors, after being buriod, were connected with the wagon with blocks and ropes, to which the horses wore attached, and tho wagon was made to slowly plow its way through a crushed puvoinout to the wharf. The performance demonstrated the fact that no amount of twisting, wrenching or rough usage could damage the truck. The street alone suffered. A large truck with immense wooden wheels made of tho bost-soasonod wood adapted to tho purpose was made in Chicago five yearsago, and was crushed to pieces the first timo it was loaded, since which no further experiments with wooden wheels havo been tried. The horses which pull this iron truck have boon trained to tho work and scorn to thoroughly understand what is required of tbem. They are uover strained by overloading, tho rule be ing that one horse for each ton is re quired. They are hooked up taudem fashion in strings, and when last week tho cable for tbo east side of Market street, 22,000 feet long and weighing forty tons, wound on a gigantic spool, was hauled from Broad street and Washington avenue totbopowcr-houso at Twentieth and Market streets forty horses in four strings of ten each were used. The guiding of forty horses through tin: crowded streets of a big city looks like a difficult task, but it is not. Tho whole operation is conducted almost entirely by tho voice of one man, although there are tou iu attendance. Tho lead liorsos at the forward end of oitch string, together with the two shaft horses, have boon carefully trainod as leaders. It is to them the word of command is given and they aro tho first to respond to this com mand, the others merely following the direction taken by the lenders. Tho two other strings of horses are fastened to the iron rouuds of tho truck, while lor extra heavy weights tho washers ou tho front axles aro provided with eyelets, to which euormous chains holding other strings of horses can be attached. The horses are hooked up in bunches, instead of being placed in one or two strings, because the turn ing of comers can be accomplished with greater ease in that way. *1 When the cable roads in New York were first introduced the means em ployed to get the spools of cable through tho streets to their destina tion was certainly primitive. The cables were shipped from the manu factories wound upon immense reels, like Titanic spools of silk. When those were received for tho first cable roads, for lack of a better way, they were plentifully smeared with grease and rolled through the streets. That plan, however, was soon abandoned and the iron truck from Philadelphia brought into requisition. The forty two ton cable of the Broadway road was delivered by this truck, it being shipped over to New York for that purpose.—Philadelphia Times. SELECT SIFTimS. Nearly everybody smokes in Japan. Some butterflies lay over 100,009 eggs. Palms are grown from seed, never from cuttings of the leaves. Rockland (Me.) lias a champion game cock with a wooden leg. Madagascar sheep have a covoring of coarse hair, like that of goats. It is said that a goose or a duck has never been run over by a vehicle. In 1775 hailstones said to weigh twenty ounces fell at Murciu, in Spain. Books printed from stereotypo plates appeared in Paris as earlj as , 1798. | The tame duck, and not the rodent, is the favorite article of diet of the | Chinese. I California iemon growers now ship the juice of tho fruit East instead of the fruit itself. The natives of Mahoot, in tho in terior of India, dye their noses blue just before entering battle. A species of water lily with roots a* largo as a man's leg grows in the Cas cade range. These roots tho Indiaus cook and eat. The largest, bronze statue iu the world is that of Poter tho Great, at St. Petersburg, Russia, which weighs about 1400 tons. Soap is first mentioned iu the ninth century. It was alluded to as in use in Germany for cleansing clothing and as an excellent medicine. That in several districts of Kurdis tan the wealth of tho individual prop erty owner is estimated in goats, and he is taxed so much per goat. Abel Brano, of Wheeling, W. Vs., has a tamo hawk which hunts up tho turkeys that havo strayod away from the farm and drivo3 them back. The deed for what is now Eastern Peuusylvaniu, given by tho Duke of York to William Penn, is for the term of 10,000 years ut live shillings rent. Bald-headed men in tho House of Commons are many. Of fiOO mem bers voting in a roaent division 100 were wholly or partially bald at the crown of tho head. An Arab test of a good liorso is that, ho must stand erect upon his legs when drinking from a shallow pool. Observation will prove that but a few horses reach the i tandard. New Hampshire was formerly called Lacnia. It received its present namo in 1092. being first called Now Hamp shire by Captain John Mason, who I had been a resident oT Hampshire, England. i Tho Egyptians had four soparato I ami distinct styles or forms of writing | —the hieroglyphic, the hieratic, the ! enchorial and the Coptic. Tho hiero- I glyphio was probably in use as early | as the year 4000 B. C., and at first was I made up entirely of pictures. About i tho year 2000 B. C. the hieratic iorm |or style was introduced. In this tho pieturo hieroglyphics were greatly I simplified, finally developing into | forms purely linear. Process of Drying Fruits, The latost report of tho Buroati of Statistics gives soino interesting figures ou the fruit trees of California. There aro 2,000,000 apricot trocs and 2,500,- 000 apple trees bearing fruit, 5,000,- 000 peach, aud altogether 37,000,000 fruit trees, or an area of 100,000 acres. That gives half an acre of fruit to every man. Pours grow all over tho State, aud tile pour is the most pro ductive and healthy of California frr.it trees. Near San Jose there aro some pear trees that produce 2500 pounds of fruit a season, or forty bushels. Tho earliest and latest fruit is shipped East, the canncrs take a large quan tity, whilo millions of pounds are dried. The process of drying has changed within recent years. Formerly large quantities of fruit were dried by ma chinery, but now the machines are abandoned or only employed when tho moisture in the air prevents perfect curing. In dryiug in tho open air tho peaches and apricots arc cut in half and spread upon trays about throe foot square, the cut side of tho fruit boing uppermost. The fruit is then exposed to tho tunics of burning sul phur for throo quarters of au hour. The funics prevent oxidation an 1 preserve tho natural color of tho fruit, which otherwise would become dark aud unattractive in appearance. Two to four days are required to thoroughly euro them. When tho curing process is complete the fruit is covered up and dropped quickly in hot water, in order to kill tho eggs of insects that may have been deposited there in thou sands. Thou the fruit is packed and shipped to the cauuors.—New York Sun. A Rival ol Ashcslns. Bucnamauquina is the name of n , new species of fibrous material recent ly found iu the United States of Co i lombia. It has many of the remark- L able properties of asbestos, is perfect ly transparent as well as incombusti ■ ble, and can he reduced to a pulp and i molded.—Sau Francisco Chronicle.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers