The speed of the fastest Atlantic | steamer is now greater than that of the express trains oa Italian railways. There is a deal of "yellow journal ism" in these reports about the yellow metal in Alaska, maintains the Louis- , ville Courier-Journal. A mill employing fifty men is now engaged in making paper from the bagasse, or sugarcane refuse, which was once the greatest nuisance to the sugar grower. Apartment life has grown so uni versal in Paris, according to a special writer, that no such thing as a home exists in the French capital. Inas much as there is no such word as home in the Freuch language, the thing itself may not bo so much missed. The King of Denmark is still estab lishing his claim to be called the father-in-law of Europe. A grand daughter has just been married to the third son of King Oscar. There are few royal families not connected in some way to the dynasty of King Christian. Russia's average annual export of wheat reaches nearly 50,000,000 bushels, but this year she will not have enough for her own people, put ting on the overworked but willing Americau eagle the responsibility of keeping the bread in their mouths. That generous and conscientious fowl will not be found wanting in this emergency or any other which cau be met by tilting its copious horn of plenty, this year more overflowing than usual. General Lew Wallace and Rev. Dr. W. H. Hickman, Vice-Chancellor of Depauw University, have raised a storm of protests because of highhand ed criticisms of the wheel. During the reception of a well-drilled com mandery at Orawfordsvilie, and while General Wallace was making the wel coming address, he claimed that the best appearing mou were those who had received a military training, and he took occasion to deprecate the use of bicycles, saying that the riders looked more like monkeys than men, and that bicycling was time wasted. It remained, however, for Dr. Hickman to come out flatfooted in denouncing the use of bicycles for women. He declares that it is one of the most baneful agencies ever invented in so far as it concerns the gentler sex. It takes the yonng woman from her homo and home duties; its tendencies are altogether wrong. He also asserts that it affords a means of easy escape from the restrictions of conventionality, and is harmful from a hygienic stand- Point. Assistant Chief Alexander Scott of the division of drafting of the Patent Office has an interesting list of the patents granted to women inventors of the United States, compiled from 1790 to January 1, 1895. Up to that period there had been issued 531,018 patents to all persons, the number of women included being surprisingly large. The : articles ou which the patents have boon granted compriso everything in | the patentable liue, from a curling iron i to a cooking stove, aud from a war vessel to a handsaw. While many of j ihe patents are no objects of peculiar interest to women, many of them are on scientific machines, objects of war- | fare, miners' utensils and things which i would bo only useful to the male por tion of humanity. Of course, the baby has not been forgotten, and the articles patented to make the "mother's joy" j more comfortable and contented form a department all to themselves. Col lar buttons have been invented by wives, mothers and sweethearts. Evi- j dently this was done to ease the mas- ! culine mind or nrevent the accustomed, or, at least, accredited, profanity which is supposed to flow when one of the buttons becomes detached from a garment and rolls somewhere out of reach or "cannot possibly be found." "We have found," said Mr. Scott to the Star reporter, "that the objects patented by women are of just as prac ticable a nature as those gotten out by the men. Very often it happens that men invent an object which is of in terest exclusively to womankind, as a new style of hair fixer, but the reverse is often the case. It frequently hap pens ihat a woman will suggest some thing to her husband, or some male member of the family, who acts upon it, taking out the patent and getting credit for it, of course, fully with the consent of the one suggesting the idea. Any one who thinks that a woman is incapable of inventing anything really useful is making a great mistake, as a look over the list of the thousands of objects will testify. Some of the most important things in use nowadays have been invented by women and brought into general use by them.'* THE DAY BEYOND. (7 hen youth is with us, all things see® But lightly to bo wishe<l ami won; Aul take our toll for work undone: •'For life is long, and time a stream. That sleeps and sparkles In the sun— What need of any haste?" we say, "To-morrow's longer than to-day." And when to-morrow shall destroy The heaven of our dreams, in vain Our hurrying manhood wo employ To build the vanished bliss again; Wo have no leisure to enjoy. •'So few the years that yet remain; So much to do, and, ah!" we say, "To-morrow's shorter than to-day." But when our hands are worn and weak, And still our labors seem unhlost, And time goes past us like a bleak Last twilight waning to the west, •'lt is not here —the bliss wo seek; Too brief is life for liuppy rest. And yet what need of grief?" we say, "To-morrow's longer than to-day —A.St.Johu Adcook.ln Chambers's Journal. gOOOOOOODOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO | BESIDE THE LOOM, G ioooooooooooooooooooooooS ELL, Nelly," said ' ll y uuo ' e . joining a lua on *' le ' ou^ M P ' l, i° you see any clinnges?" rival. I had beeu looking at the jjdSiC' blue mountain s, C ffi/jgSE* breathing the rose-perfumed air, and saying over and over to my liappy self: "I'm so glad to be in dear old Virginia once more!" "I have noticed but one change," I answered Uncle Allen, "and that is in the occupants of the cottage by the spring. The Trents were there when I was here before. Baby May was a gloat pat of mine." "May's father prospered while here, and has bought a little place of his own down by the river." "And who lives in the cottage now? I saw two young men come out of there before breakfast." "Yes; they're my farmers this year. They live down there with their widowed mother—a weaver of great renown —" "And a big talker!" said AuntMyra, from the doorway. "You're such a girl for stories, Nelly, you must get Mrs. Erie to tell you some. She can serve you with any kind, from a ghost story to a panther yarn, having met both phantom and 'painter' face to face!" "That woman has seen hard times; stirring times; exciting times!" said Uncle Allen. "She is said to have been a very beautiful girl, with scores of lovers; but she went through the woods and chose the crooked stick—" "And got many a beating from her crooked stick," interposed Aunt Myra again. "Yes; beatings and abuses of all kinds. Finally the stick ran away, throwing the support of three little children upon her. But she was moun tain-born and bred, and had the rugged strength and steadfastness of her sur roundings. Who has been the heroine of many an adventure. You will en joy her yarns, Nelly." Impetuosity has ever been one of my characteristics. "I should like to go down right away and see her weave and hear her talk!" I cried. "But how can I get her into a reminiscent train of thought ?" Aunt Myra laughed. "No matter what you say, child, you will remind her of some interest ing bit of personal history." So I donned my hat and ran down the hill to call upon this woman of such varied life memories. I heard the tramp of the treadles long before I reached the open door. So busy was the weaver that I had to \ j knock before she saw me. At the | sound she started and gave such im petus to the fling of her shuttle, that i it fell at my feet. j I hastened to restore it, at the same time begging her not to rise. "You are Mrs. Erie?" I asked, doubtfully, for I had pictured a bent and care-worn woman, bearing the j marks of her struggle with the wolf. I saw instead, a figure as straight as a plumb-line; a face that suggested trailing arbutus to my ever fanciful mind; a pair of dark eyes as bright as a baby's, and heavy black hair twisted high on a well-shaped head. ( Beautiful as a girl? Who could doubt it, or that she had quaffed of Ponce de Leon's fountain? "That's who I am," she answered, cordially; "and I know who you are ! without asking.' Your unclc/a been ! expectin' you for more'n a week. You | look enough like him to be his daugh ter. Take that rockin' chair and lay off your hat." "Don't let me interrupt you," I said! "I never saw anybody weave, and came down to watch you." Having thus stated half the truth, I drew my chair beside the loom. The weaver smiled like one humor ing a child, and bent to her task with the brief information: "I'm wen via' jeans." When the jeans had increased about two inches in length Mrs. Erie gave a sudden short laugh. "It didn't look very friendly for mo to fling the shuttle at you," said she. "That was my fault. I knocked so abruptly it startled you." "I'vo beeu a weaver, off an' on, ever since I was a girl of eighteen. This is the Becond tiino in all those years that I tossed my shuttle so hard it went out the door. I thought of that other time the minute it flew out to day." She stopped weaving and looked past me through the open window with so thoughtful an air that I scent ed my story. "Tell me about it, please," I said, | inwardly smiling at the remembrance | of Aunt Myra's parting assurance. "It was in December and dreadful ly cold. Father was in the war. Mother wan weakly and I had to take caro of her and the children. I was older than the rest by a good deal. I had the crops to raise, had to plow, hoe, cut and shuck corn, chop down trees and haul them, and do all that a mau does and a heap that a woman does. The four years of the war seemed forty years to me. All the men for miles around were gone, and all the boys that were big enough to shoulder muskets. "But at the time I was speakin' of, one of our neighbors, a young man, was home on a furlough; lie'd been wounded in the arm. Him an' me had always known each other and liked each other the way boy and girl will, you know. Well, one day his mother ooino over to our house and she says to me: " 'Rose, where's Louis gone to?* " 'I don't know, I'm sure,' says I, and blushed up, for I was bashful and it plagued me to have her make out that I knew more about Louis' com ings and goings than she did. I'd been wondering why he hadn't come around the day before, for he'd been in the habit of droppin' in every day. "Louis was a great hunter. I've known him to go off in the mountains by himself and stay a week or two, hunting and trapping. But I knew that wasn't where he'd gone now, for his arm wasn't strong enough yet to carry a gun. "A few days after his mother was at our house the door opened and Louis walked in. Mother had taken all the children and gone to see a neighbor a little ways oft*, so I was alone. I was weaviu' a carpet. "Louis came over to the loom. He had a buckskin pouch in his hand. Without sayin' a word ho took out a ten-dollar gold piece and laid it on the carpet right under my eyes. Then he took out another and laid it alongside of that one, and then another and another, till they stretched the full width of the carpet and part way back. There was fifty of them. Then Louis says: " 'Rose, will you share these shiners with me?' "A little streak of sunshine came through the window and made the gold glitter till it hurt my eyes. I looked up at Louis. His face shone yellow like the gold. I dou't know why, but as I looked at him I didn't like him as well as I did before he went away and came back with all this money. I was trou bled in my mind. " 'How did you come by all this, Louis?' " 'I earned it.' " 'How?' " 'By saving an army?' " 'What army? And how?' "He began to brush the gold into a pile with his hand. " Tt ain't fair for me to answer a dozen questions for you before you answer one for me,' says he, laughing kind of queer; 'but a girl must always have her curiosity settled. Well, this army that I saved from bein' cut to pieces had got into a mighty tight place. The enemy had heard it was goin' to cross the mountain, and they throwed up fortifications on top and fixed a regular trap for it. At a cer tain place that they'd have to pass, trees were nearly cut down so that a few licks would fiuish them. Men were hid waitin' for the army to go by, and then they wore to topple these trees across the road and shut off retreat. Things were planued mighty well but the army got wind of it somehow. They couldn't go back, for they were ruunin' from an enemy, au' they couldn't go on, for there was another enemy waitin' for 'em in front. They didn't know how to got out of the trap. Then a feller who knowed about me bein' at home, goes to the General, ami says: 'There's a man not fur from here that knows every inch of ground on these mountains. If any body kin lead us out of here, he's the man.' " 'Fetch him here double quick!' says the General. " 'So this feller—' " 'Who was it, Loui9?' says I. "But he clinked his money against my shuttle and laughed at my curiosity again. " 'This feller and five more, armed to the teeth, comes across me one morning and says: 'You're to come with us and 110 questions asked.' " 'So they takes me to the General. He tells me the fix they're in and asks if there's any escape. I says yes. He waits for no more. " 'Lead me out and you'll be richer by five hundred dollars. Refuse, and you'll be a dead man inside of five minutes.' "'I thought of you, Rose, and led them down through the valley aud well on toward Covington.' " 'Was it our men?' says I. "I remember how dry my lips were and how choked I felt in the throat. " 'lt was life or death to me,' says he, 'so what difference does it make to you which army I saved?' " 'lf it was our men 'twas outrage ous for you to tako money, poor as the South is! If you helped the Yankees and prevented a great vic tory for our side, you're a traitor! Aud if you mean to say that thinkin' about me made you a traitor, I'll thank you to stop your thinkin*.' "Ho took his hand off the gold and looked at me with a black face. " 'lf it had been you, I suppose i you'd have told 'em to fire away!' he says, witn a sneer. 'You're mighty brave, but I cau tell you it don't feel so nice to be shot.' "I knew as well as if he'd told mo I that he had opened the Confederate trap and let the Yankees out. "I took the buckskiu bag and put all the gold back iu it, " 'I won't share money, and i I wish you good day,' says I. "He took the bag and turned away without a word, and I bcgau to weave again. "I was full of temper in those days, and I was all on lire for the South. I gave my shuttle a tremendous fling, and it hit Louis iu the back as it went out the door. Of course he thought I did it a purpose, but he never looked around. Well, all kind feelings be tween him and me was over, anyway. He joined the other side. After the war hp weut to Texas." "And did you ever find out what general it was he helped?" I asked. "Oh, yes; it was General Av'ril. It was our General Echols who was lay in' in wait up on the mouutain. Have n't you read about it iu your school books?" I confessed that I have a bad head for history, except when served by Sir Walter Scott. "Do you think Louis would really have been shot?" "A man I know saw General Av'ril at the White Sulphur after the war, and asked him that very question. 'On the spot and like a dog!' says he." "That, wouldn't have saved his army. But, tell me, would you have refused to guide him out?" "Miss Nelly," said she solemnly, "when Louis was telliu' his tale, I had no other idea. That was the sol dier in me—and the Virginian. But many a time since then I've laid awake at night tliinkin' about it. Of course, promises or threats wouldn't a-moved me; but if I'd a-stood there lookin' around over hundreds of men, aud kuowed that I could be the means of savin' 'em or destroyin' 'em, I'm not goin' to say I wouldn't ha' led 'em out. I'm a woman, and God's put soft hearts in us women." I was strangely moved by the fire of her glance and the rugged pict uresqueness of her words. She leaned over her neglected work, aud tossed the shuttle through the warp, back and forth a dozen times. Then she gave me a sideways look, and asked curiously. "What would you have done, Miss Nelly?" And I, too, have asked this ques tion of myself in those rare night hours, when sleep has refused to "weigh mine eyelids down."—The White Elephant. No Prisons in Iceland. In Iceland there are no prisons, and the inhabitants are so honest in their habits that such defences to property as locks, bolts and bars are not re quired; nor are there any police in the island. Yet its history for 1000 years records no more than two thefts. Of these two cases one was that of a na tive, who was detected after stealing several sheep, but as he had done so to supply his family, who were suffer ing for want of food, when he had broken his arm, provisions were fur nished to them and work was''found for him when able to do it, and meam while he was placed under medical care; but the stigma attached to his crime was considered sufficient punish ment. The other theft was by a German, who stole seventeen sheep. But as he was in comfortable circumstances and tho robbery was malicious, the sen tence passed upon him was that he should sell all his propeity, restore the value of what ho had stolen and then leave the country or be executed, and he left at once. But, though crime is rare in Ice land, and its inhabitants are distin guished for honesty and purity of morals, there is, of course, provision for the administration of justice, which consists, first of all, by appeals to the court of three judges at Reykjavik, the capital; aud lastly in all criminal and most civil cases, t" the Supreme Court at Copenhagen, the capital of Den mark, of which kingdom the island forms a part. The island of Panaris (one of the Lipari group) is equally fortunate in having neither prisons nor lawyers, and being absolutely des titute of both paupers aud criminals.— Boston Trnuseript. America's First Cotton Mill. Tho tablet which is to mark the site of the first cotton mill in America was put in place yesterday at the corner of Dodge and Cabot streets, North Bev erly, says the Boston Herald. There was no formal exercises, but among those invited by the Beverly Historical Society to be present was tho Hon. R. S. Bantoul, of Salem, as tho result of whose researches the fact was demon strated that this was really the first cotton mill in America. It seems that when Mr. Bantoul was Mayor of Salem he was invited to Pawtucket, R. 1., to attend the celebration 6f the centennial of the opening of the first cotton mill in America. He did not go, but he began to look up the history of the cotton mills. The result de monstrated beyond doubt that the mill in Beverly antedated that in Paw tucket by some years. The facts are substantiated by no less a person than George Washington, who on his tour through New Englaud made a visit to this mill in 1879, and rocorded at length his impressions. This was a year before *.§ later came to America, and two years before he started his mill in Pawtucket. The Beverly mill was built and running in 1788. Homo Queer NUIIICD. The subject of queer names was re cently called by the dedication of a church in whioh the subscribers in cluded a Mr. Senseinan, Mr. Poet, Mr. Sourbeer and Mr. Pancake. This particular church seems to have broken the record for fresh no menclature. One member remembers that she had once taught a class in tho Sunday-school connected with it in which three of the pupils were named Porter, Ale and Sourbeer. Another woman recalled the fact that at a re ligious gathering she had once enter tained Mrs. Sprinkle, Mrs. Shower and Mrs. Storm.—New York Tribune. THE ROAMING ROMANIES. INTERESTING INFORMATION ABOUT THE GYPSY RACE. Many Thoa*nmU of Them In the United States—Tliey Are f*oo<l Horse Traders* I.oyal Friends and the Pawnbrokers llest Patrons—Kind to Their Offspring. "The gypsy race shows no signs of extinction. The Romanies are as strong and as numerous to-day as they have ever been." Thus spoke Paul Kester, playwright, ethnologist and student of the lives, habits and language of the gypsies. Mr. Kester is one of the greatest living authorities upon the American Romany. In his play "Ramar," one of the late Alexauder Salviui's successes, he dealt broadly with his favorite subject; aud a volume from his pen, soon to be pub lished, will shed still further light up on the much misunderstood wanderers. "The gypsies," he says, "came or iginally from Hindoostau. The mi gration of the race occurred during the thirteenth and fourteenth centur ies. The sobriquet 'Egyptian' which they assumed was, it is supposed, ow ing to their temporary sojourn in Egypt. The name Romany ethnolo gists derive from the Hindu 'rom,' a man. Armed with protecting letters from one or more of the popes, they appeared in Germany; and thereafter swarmed over Europe. I cannot say when they first came to America; but certain it is that they were not long after the first white colonists. "There are many thousands of them in the United States, and they per meate all branches of society. I know of an eminent and respectable Episco pal clergyman in Boston who has Bo many blood in his veins. Once a year the old wandering fever comes over this good man; anil then, hey, presto! the pulpit is temporarily abandoned, and he follows the pattrin-trail or lounges contentedly among his kin dred in the shade of the caravan tent. In many of our cities there ore wealthy men and women, millionaires and so called 'society people,' who are Bo many-ohals (gypsy men), or Bomany chis (gypsy girls), and who cannot re sist following the pattrin when sum mer time conies round. But, of course, the great majority of the raoe live in their caravans all the year round, tell ing fortunes and trading in horses for a living—going Bonth with the ap proach of winter, and returning north ward when summer is at hand. An American gypsy has only one wife,and a very good husband he generally makes her. They are excellent fath ers, too. In all my long experience I have never seen a Boinauy father beat his offspring. Since the death of Matilda Stanley, 11., of Dayton, Ohio, a few years ago, the American gypsies have had no generally recognized queen. This Matilda succeeded her aunt of the same name (Matilda Stanley I.), whose great funeral and the vast bonis of gypsies that attended it will still be remembered. The Irish-American and German-American gypsies have rulers of their own. There are 760 families of German-American Bomanies, and their queen is Sophia Freyer, a Bom any chi of nearly eighty years. "The nomadic gypsy bands are not so large as in less settled times, when the Bomany was forced to travel in large numbers for self-protection. From twelve to twenty persons make up the average caravan to-day; al though in some cases the bands num ber fifty or sixty. A very large band is the famous one of which old Chiv odine Lovel is the chief. Every year Level's band comes north and camps between Newark and Elizabeth, N. J., in the woods by the boulevard. These Lovels are over sixty in number. Chief Stanley's big family yearly en camps on Crow Hill, Kings County, N. Y. Iu the suburbs of Denver, Col., the gypsies ruled by Mrs. Caro lina Smith meet annually, while branches of the royal Stanley family of Ohio encamp near Dayton, Cincin nati and Cleveland. "The pattrin is the code of signs by which gypsies tell each other the road to be followed. The word comes from the Sanscrit pattra, a leaf; and the ; commonest form of pattrin is the scat tering of little tufts of grass or tiny bundles of loaves along the route pur ' Bued. Straw, sticks, pebbles' and crosses in the earth are also used. The form of pattrin for night guidanoe is the placing of a small forked stick upward in the ground, with a smaller stick poised in the cleft to show the direc tion. Nowadays, however, the gypsies are getting so unromantio that they do a great ileal of telegraphing. Oddly enough, the great gypsy exohang.s iu the various cities are livery stables [ and pawnbrokers' Bhops. The first | fact is explicable when one recalls the horse trading of the Bomany; but the second calls for explanation. Gypsies are the pawnbrokers' best customers, j They buy lavishly all sorts of gold, I silver aud amber and cowrie orna ments, and nearly all their dealings is done with the pawnshops. The gypsy woman has an oriental taste in jewelry, anil every Bomauy-chi possesses a box full of trinkets,, especially in silver, amber and (inheritance from Hindu ancestors) cowrie beads. The pawn brokers keep in touch with the various I oaravaus and at the sign of the three golden balls the Bomany learns the i whereabouts of relatives anil friends. "Many ourious customs prevail among our Bomanies. For instance, j it is common among the Colsrado and California gypsy women; while secret ly conniving at the marriage of their daughters,| to apparently oppose the suitor's advances bitterly. This ne cessitates an elopement; after which the young pair, having shown their Bomany spirit, are welcomed back to the maternal tent pole. Their cook ing and eating habits are often odd enough. For pork they have a great fondness: and in old times they were aocustomed when passing a form house to 'drab the baulo' (poison th pig) and beg the carcass from the farmer. The poison known as 'drab* is one of the Romany secrets. It is a curious drug which affocts only the animal's brain, leaving the rest of the body unpoisoned. "In so far as I know him (and I may safely say that I know him well) the American gypsy is one of nature's gentlemen courteous, considerate and loyal. The average Gorgio, of course the Romany dislikes and dis trusts; but win the gypsy's affection, and you keep it always. The vagrant tendencies of the race can never be crushed out. They are in the blood, bred in the bone, of the true Romany, So long as the pure gypsy strain ex ists, chal and chi will follow the pat trin trail, tell fortunes, trade horses, woo the Gorgio's gold, and sleep with the broad arch of heaven for their canopy."—Detroit Free Press. WISE WORDS. Thine own friend and thy father's friend forsake not. There is pleasure in meeting the eyes of those to whom we have done good. The criminal is not another kind of being; k he is ourself in our worst moods. Every great and commanding move ment in the annals of the world is the triumph of enthusiasm. A set of mortals has risen who be lieve that truth is not a printed spec ulation but a practical fact. Some women seem to think they ought to be loved, whether they do any of it themselves or not. Men of the noblest dispositions think themselves happiest when others share their happiness with them. Do good constantly, patiently and wisely, and you will never have cause to say that life was not worth living. Everywhere ar.d always a man's worth must be gauged to some extent, though only in part, by his domesti city. Men of humor are, in some degree, men of genius; wits are rarely so, al though a man of genius may, amongst other gifts, possess wit. Manhood begins when we have in any way made truce with necessity; but begin joyfully and hopefully only when we have reconciled onrselves to necessity. Every attempt to make others happy, every sin left behind, every temptation trampled under foot, every step forward in the cause of what is good is a step nearer heaven. The greatest and noblest work in the world andtiu effect of the greatest prudence and cure, is to rear and build up a man and to form and fashion him to piety, justice, temperance and all kinds of honest and worthy actions. ' We should ponder the particular characteristics which are needed to encounter manfully all failures in life, 1 and secure from them whatever bene fit they are capable of bestowing, for these are very different from the quali- j ties which enable a man to ride trium phantly on the tide of success. Always there is seed being sown silently and unseen, and everywhere there comes sweet flowers without our foresight or labor. We reap what wo sow, but nature has love over and above that which justice gives us— shadow and blossom and fruits that spring from no plunting of ours. Curving Knife Mightier Than Sworil. It is well enough to train the girls; they need it. But if you would con fer n blessed boon on humanity, teach the boys to carve; they will be a pleasure to themselves and their friends. The carving knife is mightier than the sword, and the man who goeth forth to the feast, proud in the consciousness that ho can carve a turkey, is a person to be envied. What shall we say of the man to whom the carving for a company is merely a pleasing incident in the daily routine? What shall we say of that wonderful being who can carve and tell a good story at the same time? Such men actually exist. Their name is not legion, it is true; but they dwell among us, aud seldom, if ever, give themselves airs over this accomplish ment. Yet, is it not a remarkable ac complishment? To carve well is a grent thing; few can do it. To tell a good story is perhaps greater. But to carve and tell a story at the same time! To what heights does not man some times attain! I know such a man. He moves among his fellow citizens like common humanity. Dignity, wealth, learning, all are his; I envy them not. But when be carves, I take off my hat and prostrate myself at his feet. Friends forget their hun ger in watching the poetry of his movements; and, as a crowning glory, one which sets him apart from or dinary mortals, he can carve and tell a story at one and the same time. Charles P. Burton, iu What to Eat. At Garibaldi's Tomb. The other day the Crown Prince of Naples, when nt sea, sailed in the neighborhood of Capera and suddenly landed in the company with an/officer andvisited Garibaldi's tomb. The Prince remained a long time in contempla tion, with his head uncovered, and gathered a branch of Oleander growing near the hero's grave as a present to the King. The improvised visit was not known to the Governor of the Island until after the Prince had left. C" * The Small Girl]Diploinat. Diplomacy is often practised by a child that would do credit to a much older head. A little girl was being carried down town by Iter father when he said: "Which do you love the best, your mother or papa?" She looked at her father and t-zen said: "I can't talk," and closed her little lips with the firm determination of not opening them.—New York World. SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL. A strong microscope shows the sin gle hairs of the head to be like coarse, round rasps, but with teeth extremely irregular and jagged. The oyster is one of the strongest creatures on earth. The force re quired to open an oyster is more than nine hundred times its weight. The sole of the English coast when when placed over a gravelly bottom, will at once assume that shape to a re markable degree. Placed in a white bowl it becomes almost as white as the dish. In France it is a punishable offense for anyone to give infants under one year any form of solid food unless sucb be ordered by written prescription signed by a legally qualified medical man. Beamur says that each thread of what we call a "spider web" is com posed of about five thousand separate fibres, and that it would take 27,048 full-grown spiders a year to spin a pound of such silk. The summer coat of the polar fox is dark, in general harmony with the ground of the rocky Arctic regions, where the sun has molted off the snow. In winter it is so white that it can hardly be seen as itruusover the snow. More than six thousand species of plants are cultivated, and most of these have been broken up into varied forms by the hand of man. Horticul turists create new species, and show numbers of cultivated plants of which no one knows the original form. Spanning an inlet of the Yellow Sea near Sangang, China, is a bridge five and a quarter miles long, with 300 piers of masonry, and having its road way sixty-four feet above the water. This work is said to have been accom plished by Chinese engineers 800 years ago. The drill of the woodpecker has an other tool inside, a sort of insect catcher. On the end is a bony thorn with sharp teeth like barbs on a fish hook. As he works and finds an in sect ho opens the drill and sends out this barbed tongue and draws it (into ; his mouth. A testing-machine of wonderful power has recently been devised for ; the Massachusetts Institute of Tech ; uology. It is capable of exerting a pressure of 500,000 pounds. It can be applied to testing the strength of a ! complete arch of masonry, and it is said that similar tests on so large a scale have never before been applied. An experiment station for what has , been called the "vivisection of plants" has been established by the Depart ment of Agriculture in Washington. Somewhat similar stations exist else where, but it is said to be the inten ' tion to make this more extensive than any other. Valuable results are ex i pected from the study of the diseases of plants, and it has long been sug gested that this may lead to the em -1 ployment of "plant doctors" just as now we have doctors for men and ani | trials. A Smokeless Fuel. In the future we may be importing masut instead of exporting coal. Masut is a by-product in the distillation of i raw petroleum. It is also manufac tured from a cheap, brown coal found in Saxony. There has been, until re cently, great trouble, says the Chicago Journal, in finding a furnace suitable for burning it. It is now blown by steam into a special furnace, on the principle of the Lnoigen light, and used without difficulty. It is said to ! be forty or fifty per cent, cheaper than coal, and is twenty per cent, better as I a heat raiser. Steam can be got up riuicker and kept at a higher pressure I and more work be done by the mach inery. From a naval point of view these are vitally important facts. No ; sign of a ship under full steam will be shown in the sky, for masut is a smoke less fuel. Russia and Italy ure using it in their navies, and Germany has lately made some valuable experiments. At Kiel, Wilhelmsliaven and Danzig are tanks from which it can be pumped into ships. Its specific gravity being so much less than that of coal, a ship's buoyancy is greatly increased when the bunkers are filled with it. Heavier armor or cargoes can be carried. The beating capacity being greater, the ship can travel faster or farther. It is yet to be learned what improvements the Germans have introduced into their furnaces and what are the disad vantages of masut. The Truthful Citizen. The other morning a careless mason dropped a brick from the second story of a building on which he was at work. Leaning over the wall and glancing downward he discovered a respectable { citizen with his silk hat jammod over his eyes and ears, rising from a re | cumbent posture. The mason, in t tones of apprehension, inquired: "Did that brick hit anyone down there?" The citizen, with groat difficulty ex i tricating himself from the extinguisher ' into which his hat had been converted, replied with considerable wrath: "Yes, J sir, it did. It hit me." "That's right," exclaimed the mason, in tones lof undisguised admiration. "Noble i man, I would rather have wasted a | thousand bricks than have you tell me a lie about it."—Baptist Union. Cyclone's Effect on Bicycles. It baa remained for the French to study the resisting power which the bicycle has in a cyclone, and to pro duce an instantaneous photograph of a bicycle and rider as they appeared! when caught in a furious whirwind. During recent tempests a number of bicyclists were caught on the high ways, and, although a few machines were wrecked, they were of the cheap est grades. Bioycles of the best make showed remarkable powers of resist ance. They were bent into all sorts of shapes, but they did not break.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers