Of the 11,000,000 square miles of Africa only about 1,500,000 remain which have not been claimed by some European power and more than half of this lies iu the desert of Sahara. A Maryland fruit grower has suc ceeded in raising a crop of peaches with skins as devoid of the annoying fuzz as is an apple. Next year ho proposes to raise peaches with a skin that can be removed like that of an orange. "When he gets peaches with out either skins or pits, grapes with out appendicitis-producing seeds, and green corn without the provoking cob every one will be happy. More and more American manufac turers, according to the Philadelphia Record, are showing a disposition to invade markets heretofore deemed in accessible. Six iron and steel manu facturers of Pittsburg and vicinity have formed a company to go into the British markets and seek trade. They have opened offices at Pittsburg, and the company is capitalized at sllO,- 000. The backing, it is stated, is sufficient to guarantee any amount as BOOU as an increase iu business shall demand it. A Loudon agent has been appointed, and an attempt will be made to transact business in India, South America and Japan. A spe cialty will be made of cotton ties, hoops, hands and other manufactured products. The extraordinary spectacle of a dead man walking about the streets is what the people of Jackson, Mich., have been treated to the past few days. The dead man is, or from a legnl point of view was, Frank Townley. In 1804 Townley, while a resident of Jackson, enlisted in the army and served until the close of the war. Then he went to Dakota and some time later to Alaska. Nothing was ever heard of him at home, and in 1893 his relatives applied to the Probate Court to have him declared dead and his estate di vided. This action was finally taken, his death being dated in 1885. On a recent Sunday Townley returned to his childhood's home, after an absence of thirty-three years, and was sur prised to find out the state of affairs. He visited the court and examined the records of his death and the disposi tion of his property. Although he breathes, moves around, eats and sleeps like any ordinary individual, Townley is in the eyes of the law a dead man, and what is more, has been dead for twelve years past. The establishment of a lightship on the outer edge of the famous Diamond Shoals of Cape Hatteras suggests to the New York Times some considera tions about lighthouses. It is gen erally known that an attempt of no email importance was made to build a lighthouse on the Diamond Shoals. A contractor constructed a caisson at a great cost and caused it to be towed out to the required point, but the seas overwhelmed it and it went to tho bot tom and was lost. The Diamond Shoals are famous for their constant rough weather, and they lie, as sailors would put it, "slap in the fairway" from New York to Southern ports. It was neccessary that some kind of a guide be put there, and it has been found that a lightship answers the re quirements of commerce. A much needed lightship is that which has been placed ten miles south of Fire Island Lighthouse, and in the path of isteamers approaohing this port from France to Great Britain. Many per sons, doubtless, will wonder how a lightship can take the place of a light, house, for almost every one knows that the former cannot be seen as far as the latter,because it does not throw as powerful a light. The popular idea is that a lighthouse is situated on Borne dangerous spot which its light enables the mariners to see. This is a greatly mistaken idea. A lighthouse is of almost as great value in the day time as it is at night. It is merely a landmark by which the mariner shapes his course. A ship coming from Eng land, for instance, steers so as to sight Fire Island Light, and, having done •o, by processes known to the naviga tor she ascertains her distauce and di rection from it, and then steers to sight Sandy Hook Lightship. This "Using the case, a lightship is almost as useful as a lighthouse. It is true that the latter enables a vessel to keep further away from a danger than the former, but a lightship will make it possible for her to keep several miles away, and that is a'l that is necessary. In the ease of Fire Island the new lightship is extremely valuable,because it lies directly in the beaten track and enables navigators approaching this port to verify their position with great certainty. The same is true in a less degree of tho Diamond Shoals light vessel, and the difference in cost be tween placing her there and placing a lighthouse is very large. Have thirty years gone by, indeed, siiijo she and I were younjf, I And skies were bright, and earth was now, and love its rondels sung? It seems to-day I hear her sing as plain as then I heard, Sweet ' Afton Water" and "Ben Bolt," and "Maggie"—every wordj I And how her eyes grew tender, and how hope sprang elate— j For life was bliss with Molly's kiss, down by the farmstead gate. J The moonlight o'er the fodder fields still shines as bright: as then- The plaining of the whippoorwill vet echoes down the glen; ' , And I suppose that lovers like to linger there as we Their eyes filled with the light that ne'er shone yet'on land or sea: But do they love as we loved then when we would linger late And life was bliss for Molly's kiss down by the farmstead gate? The world is filled with prosy things—there's little now to cheer* < ray hairs tell plain the time to leave off cakes and ah? is here let something of my youth returns when thinking how I hung Upon the words in "Maggie." there-"when you and 1 were young-" And, little one! how much I'd give to tako from age and fate One night of bliss with Molly's kiss down by the farmstead gate! —Will T. Hale. li s ; RACING WITH FIRE. | tyS\S6o\5 6oS Jfslli filial > (. train was 1 crossing a //Ss'-' i"4\ \ P* VaSl P rftirie Tlie si"Klo f ift i ran straight as if it had with a ruler, ea , C 'k S * ( | 6 with the tint of spring, waved breast high. There was no sound except the monotonous beat of the wheels, as they passed from one rail to the next, and the steady swish of the grass, as i it bent before the rushing wind of the I train. j I was sitting on the platform of the observation car, with half a dozen other passengers. The conversation fell upon prairie fires, and each man had his say. "It was along in 187-1, when this road was a-building, and 1 was one of the engineer's assistants," spoke up a grizzled, hard-featured man who had taken but little part in the conversa tion. "We began at the western end, down by Bucephalus, and we had laid out about forty miles of track in a , straight line right across the prairie, j and had got to within, say, ten miles ; from where we are at this identical minute. It was an easy job, for we | just laid the sleepers down on the ! ground and spiked the rails to them, I calculating to ballast the track when jwe got good and ready. I had a big ; gang of Irishmen under me, and we : used to average u mile a day of track laying. One July ;we had a strike ; among the laborers, and all bands quit work. I was down at Bucephalus |at the time, and the chief engi neer asked me to take a locomo tive over the line and see if the strikers had done any damage before they I left us. I 44 1 started out in the morning with nobody except the engineer in charge of the locomotive, I agreeing to take turns with him iu shoveling coal and j watching the engine. We came I along slow and easy, for the track was 1 too rough for any fast running, and about noon we got to where it ended. There were no signs that the strikers had meddled with the track, and as it was a pretty hot day, Sam and I, after we had had our lunch, lay down alongside of the engine in the shade of the cab and took a nap. j "I woke up a little before 2 o'clock, and as I was filling u pipe and making up my mind to wake Sam and to sturt for home a big wolf bolted out from the high grass aud ran across the track not two yards from us. His tail was between his legs and the foam was dripping from his mouth, and he was making about as good time as any wolf ever made before or since. He never so much as looked at me, and when he had vanished I called Sam and told ! him I had seen a mad wolf. While I was;speaking about a dozen prairie dygs rushed past us, and then there came another wolf and a couple of hares. All of them were doing their level best, and they paid no more at tention to us than if we had been a couple of corpses. 4 4 4 What on earth is the meaning of this circus?' says I. 'Are those ani mals just racing for the championship, j or is there somebody after them?' j "Sam didn't answer, but I saw that he looked scared. He sprang up, aud : climbing on his engine looked over the ' prairie to the eastward. Then he sang out to me to get into the cab quicker than lightning, and started to open the draught and set the fires blazing. i j 44 'What is it?' I began to ask, as I I climbed into the cab. But I didn't ' need to finish my question. I could 1 see for myself wiiat was the matter. The whole prairie east of us, as far as ! I could see, was in a blaze, and as there had been a strong east wind all day, and the fire wasn't more than , - three or four miles away, I calculated 1 | it would be down on us iu a very few minutes. 44 'Hadn't we better start a fire and burn some of this grass oft' before the lire gets here?' I asked Sam. You see, I had read about that way of stopping a prairie fire, and knowing that Sain ; had been born and bred on the prairie, ; I calculated he would know all about it. ! " 4 No,' says Sam. 4 Can't you see that the wind has all gone down here, though it's blowing a gale where the fire is? Hold on, now, for I'm going to open her out, and we're going to do | some tall running.' j "With that, he the throt i tie, and the engine started with a big j jump, as if she had just seen the fire j and was badly scared. Wo went down the track for about a mile at a pretty good gait, and then we had to stop while Sam tightened a nut in the con necting rod. MOLLY'S KISS. 'Do you mean to run away from the fire?' I asked. . ' I # cn, loulate to try it,' said Sam, 'since it's our only cliince, but I don't much believe that we can run as fast on this track as the lire can. That fire is coming on at the rate of twenty miles an hour, aud whether this en gine will keep on on the rail at any such rate as that I have my doubts. Hullo! herecoino the snakes.*' "Well, we started on again, running over snakes by the dozen. We had lost about twenty-three minutes by stopping, but the tire seemed to have gained on us about half the distance that it had been when we first saw it, and we were near enough now to hear the crackling and the roaring of the flames. I saw the fire strike a big tree, ami if you'll believe it, that tree burst as if it had been filled with gunpow der, and vanished clean out of sight in less than a minute after the leaves be gan to frizzle. The wind was drawing toward the fire, but we could see by the way the flames acted that a high east wind was bringing the fire down on us at an awful rate. The flames would shoot up thirty or forty feet in to the air, and wave just as if they were hurrahing at the prospect of catching us. "Our engine was doing at least twenty-five miles an hour, and was swinging from side to side and bump ing over the joints—for we didn't have any fish-plates in those days—as if she was bound to jump the track. We had outrun the snake procession, and the only live thing we could see was a coyote who was loping down the track Mty yards uliead of us, without so much as turning his head to see what was after him. " 'How long will the track stand this sort of thing?' says Ito Sam, as he finished shoveling fresh into the fire. 44 'Don't know,' says he. 'lt'seigh teen miles from here to the Wachu setts River, and if we can't get across the bridge uliead of the tiro there is a fair chance that we won't cross. I don't much believe that we will fetch the bridge, but if we don't it won't be be cause I don't drive thishyer engine for all she's worth. We're dead men if she jumps the track, and we're dead men if we stop short of the river. So we might as well let her go and take our chances.' "Sam hung on to the lever and I hung on to the edge of the cab win dow. Neither of us could have kepi our feet without hanging on to some thing. lam free to say that first along I was pretty badly scared, but when the engine didn't leave the track, for all her slewings and jumpings, I be gan to think she would carry us through. So far as I could see, the fire didn't gain any on us, but then we didn't seem to be gaining anything to speak of on the fire. "Presently Sam swore in a general sort of way, and sung out to me to rake up the lire. I did so; and then, supposing that something must have dissatisfied him, I asked him what was the matter. 4 4 4 Tliat coyote's the matter,' said he. 4 We don't gain an inch on him, aud I do most everlastingly hate to be beat by a coyote. Here! you take the lever while I ile her jints a little. I'm bound to beat that coyote between here and the river or to pile up this engine. I never see such an impu dent brute since I took to railroading.' 44 We11, Sam went out on the engine with liis oil can, and when he had oiled her to his satisfaction he came back and raked up the fire again and fussed round with the gauges. He seemed to have forgotten all about the danger we were iu, and to think of nothing but racing with that coyote. Pretty soon we could see that we had gained u little on the beast, and Sam was as cheerful as lie would have been if be had been sitting comfortably in a Bucephalus saloon. He never so much as looked back at the prairie fire, that was as near as ever and as bent on gathering us in, 44 'The ground is sort of loose and swampy just below here, if I remem ber right,' said I. 'Will she keep the track, do you think?' "Sam didn't answer me, for he was leaning out of the cab and watching the coyote. Suddenly he sings out, 'Hurrah, boys! The coyote's losiug his wind. There ain't ten minutes' more run in him, and we'll be atop of him in less than that cime.' "Just then we .struck the swampy part of the road that I had been speak ing of and, one side of the track sink ing a little too deep, the engine jumped the rails and struck out across the prairie 011 her own hook. Sam and I jumped at the same minute, and when we picked ourselves up the en gine was lying on its side about a rod away from the track and the tendor was trying to climb over the wreck. " 'That there coyote's won after all,' said Sam. 'He's got a fresh wind, and he's safe to make the river in time to save his bacon.' " 'What's the use of talking about him?' says X. 'Tell mo what we're geing to do. There ain't any sort of use in trying to run, I suppose?' j "Not the smallest grain,' says Sara. | 'That fire is due here in about fifteen minutes, and we might as well sit down quiet and wait for it.' "I saiv that Sam didn't consider that there was the least bit of a chance for us, and you can imagine whether I was scared or not. "'I did read once,' says Sam, •about a chap who was riding on the prairie and was chased by a fire, same as we are now. He shot his horse and ripped the hide off and wrapped himself up in it. The hide being green, you understand, didn't burn, and the man came through all right. It's a nYiddling tough yarn, but all the same it's a thing that might have happened. I was thinking that if the fire would wait half an hour till my boiler tubes cooled down, I could pull them out and we could get into the boiler, the same us the man got [into his horse's hide. But there's no use in signalling that fire to stop and lay up on a siding for half an hour, just to suit us.' " 'There's water in the tender,' said I, 'couldn't we do anything with that?' " 'Your head, pardner,' says Sam, getting up and going toward the ten der, 'ain't so far from being level. Let's see how much water we've got.' "With that he opened the water tank and looked in. 'We're all light,' says he. 'You come along here and get into that tank with me. We'll put the cover on when the fire reaches us,- and X expect we can stand it for five minutes or so. It's a scheme that lays way over that fellow's horsehide game, and X shouldn't wonder if it turned out satisfactory for all concerned, "The manhole was big enough to let a man through, and when Sam and I got into the tank and crouched down in a sort of sitting position the water came just up to our chins, and we had about ten inches of headjroom. Sam pulled the iron cover part way over the hole and said, 'Now we're pretty certain not to be roasted, which that fire is aiming nt. It'll be some satis faction to get the better of it.' "'X don't see," said I, 'that we're bettering things very much by putting ourselves in the way of being boiled instead of roasted.' " 'X don't suppose,' said Sam, 'that there is any great things to choose be tween being roasted or b'iled or fried, or, you might say, baked. But that fire has set its mind on roasting us, and if we're b'iled,it'll be disappointed. Besides, I ain't so sure about the b'iling. It'll take some time to heat up this water, and we may pull through, after all.' "Just then the noise of the firo showed that it was getting close to us, and a whiff of smoke came into the tank. Sam pulled the cover on, and says to me, 'Just sit and take it easy. There's air enough here to last us for some time if we don'tuseituptnlking.' "I kept quiet, and said my prayer:: i to myself. The fire came down on us with a whoop like ten tribes of Injuns, and the top of the tank was hot in less than no time. The roaring of the fire seemed to pass on and away from us but there was a tremendous crackling j going on in our neighborhood, which ! showed that the fire was still around j us. We waited and waited, hoping every minute that the fire would die : out and let us open the tank. The , water kept getting warmer aud warm er, and when I touched the top of the ! tank, where the water didn't reaoh it, I I burned my fingers. The air, too, kept getting more and more choky, until I was very near my last gasp, t and Sam was about the same. When ho couldn't stand it any longer he threw off the cover aud put his head I out. Then he broke into a big laugh that was a little hoarse by reuson of j the choking he had undergone, aud he 1 climbed out of the tank, calling to me to follow him, which naturally I did without wasting time. "The prairie firo was miles away, j and the crackling which we heard was made by the woodwork of the tender j and the wreck of tho engine cab, [ which was all in a blaze. There j wasn't anything to hurt us when we were once outside the tank, but if we ! had stayed in it long enough we should ) havo been boiled without the least] doubt. We jumped down on the ground, and stood there to see the wreck burn, aud with the exception | of my burnt fingers and a little hair j that was singed off the top of Sam's i head, wo were as cool and comfortable j as a man could want to be. "We walkod back to Bucephalus, and I had considerable difficulty in (getting my chief to believe that Sam and I had saved ourselves by hiding in a tank. I was so well pleased at my escape that it made very little odds to me what he thought about it; but Sam was that discontented at having his engine beat by a coyote that nobody could get a civil word out of him for the next week."—l'all Mall Magazine. II IH Ilrciul Upon the Waters. Fifteen years ago Carrie Burch was a servant girl in a California house hold where William F. Hastings wan also employed. The girl became ill j and had to leave, but had no money, i Hastings loaned her 8200 and she went away. The years rolled by with-! out the 8200 being returned, and I Hastings had forgotten the occurrence when he received a letter from a bar- \ rister in London stating that an estate of $73,000 had been left him by a Mrs. j Hall, formerly Miss Carrie Burch, of California. Hastings could hardly be lieve what he read, but he has the money now, and for his generosity to a strange girl years ago he has become independently rich. When the girl ] left California she went to Australia as | a nurse and there married a retired English merchant, who died some years afterward, and the widow then j returned to London and lived there [ until her death. A Callnnt Savant. When Professor Vircliow was in Russia, a few weeks ago, he was wait ed on by a deputation of female phy sicians, who eame to thank him for ! having thrown open his lecture room • and laboratory to a Russian woman at ; a time when the German universities 1 did not yet admit female students. I Vircliow, in reply, invited Russian fe j male physicians to make use of his i pathologic and anatomic museum at • Berlin, which has been recently en i larged. New Fancy In Embroidery. I A new fancy of the women whose eyes are as strong as their lingers are deft is fan embroidery. This delicate work is for the expert fancy worker only, aud, although very line" aud very tedious, is said to be proportionately fascinating. The fans are usually of gauze (as the worker scorns silk and satin as unworthy of her skill), and the designs are both delicate and in tricate. The material is placed in a j frame and the linest of needles and silks are used. Exceptional surety of touch and unerring taste in colors are Absolutely essential. In the Watteau designs these fans are unusually love j ly, but, except as examples of skill and patience, are useless and wholly | superfluous follies. Painted fans are Iso extremely dainty and nowadays so I common that these pieces of feminine industry and sight-destroying needle l work are to be deplored rather than praised. The jeweled and spangled : fans can be made by any girl who is I fond of unnecessary work, and the i sewing of glittering sequins at random I over u bit of gauze, or the placing of pearls or jet beads in even rows, is a | strain 011 neither eyes nor mind. .Jewels to Match Eyes. "The very latest of all the late crazes with regard to the wearing o. jewelry," said a fashionable jewelc: the other day, "it that the color of the stone should match the color of the eyes of the fair wearer. "The latitude allowed in this is not great, but the proper following out of the idea will doubtless lead to the ! popularity of many stones which have hitherto been ignored, not because i they lack beauty, but because they do not happen to be a3 expensive as I others. | "In accordance with the regulations laid down turquoise is to be the pecu liar property of the women with blue eyes, while the yellow topaz will have a vogue among the women with bright I hazel eyes. ! "Sapphires belong by right to the ! woman 'orbed with violet,' but to the large number of brown-eyed beauties rubies are allowed. They will no j doubt help to bring in cats's eyes, and j all shops of this sort are being ran | sacked in order to find peculiarly col ! ored stones to harmonize with the eyes of the up-to-date woman, i "I dare say you wonder to whom | diamonds belong, since their beauty I depends entirely 011 their lack of color? Every woman has bright eyes j though, and therefore every woman I ought to be allowed to wear diamonds, j This, however, is not to be tho case, j "The edict has gone forth that they are to grace the person of tho woman whose eyes are black."—New York Journal. TIIO Seiaon'fl lilg Mutts. The muff of the season is big. It is drawn up at the top into a satin bow and a cascade of lace. Inexpensive shoulder capes are made entirely of mink or sable or Persian lamb paws. These are lined with brocade and finished with lace or ribbon. Ruffle collars in mink, twelve-tailed necklets in the same fur and white-tipped fox boas to set over dark coats are among the most novel fur accessories. I have seen a few fur-trimmed dresses, green tweed and Persian lamb being one of the best, writes Ellen Os-, born, of New York. A theater party that burst into a restaurant the other night for supper brought some good gowns. One, of [old rose silk, was slightly trained. A hand of jeweled lace insertion edged the skirt behind and ran up on either side of the front to the waist line. Across the bottom of the front was a line of sable. The blouse bodice of old rose velvet was cut with a large square yoke of silk outlined with the jeweled insertion. The yoke was prolonged into epaulets, edged with sable. There was a high collar of unique shape made entirely of insertion and standing in a flat ruf fle of old rose ribbon. The large hat of old rose velvet was trimmed with leathers. A second costume was of fawn-col ;red cloth, with the lower part of the jkirt sprinkled with irregular spots of green velvet. A green-velvet blouse, fcorselet belt and sleeves of cloth and % poke hat of brown felt, faced with green and trimmed with upstanding leathers, completed the outfit. A pink-face cloth dress was charm ing. Its skirt was trimmed with bands and bars of golden-brown velvet. The bodice was tucked round and round aud was finished with a velvet belt and a tabbed, collarlike top of brown and pink figured silk. This also had vel \)t garnitures.—Chicago Record. Administration Curls Stylish. All the femiuinity of any conso- quence in Washington are wearing their hair cropped, curled and held at either side of the parting by tiny combs. This is because Mrs. Mc- Kinley, as the first lady in the land, wears her hair that way, and, of course, should be copied. The curls have come to bo known as "Adminis tration curls." At the various sum mer resorts these dames from the j capital were gazed at in horror at first, because the fashion is certainly unbe coming to almost every one, but when the "why and wherefore" was learned maids and matrons rushed to their rooms, combed out their Merode curls and cut them off. Now the McKinley curls have made their appearance from Maine to the Bio Grande and from Key West to Klondike, and will doubt less hold their own until the arrival of some new social or theatrical star. Why women should change the fashion of wearing their hair is incom prehensible, because to every face some one style is absolutely suited and all other modes are more or less unbecoming. But let a professional beauty or a French music hall dancer adopt some curious and wonderful method of aranging her hair and women the world over will make this method "the fashion." It is many years since Mrs. Langtry started the fashion of chopping off all the hair on the top of the head, curling the short ends into little rings and waves and producing what was known as a "bang." The much-abused tresses have had time to grow long, and now women are looking out at the world from behind straight bauds of hair drawn down over the ears, because Cleo de Merode, Parisian music hall dancer and favorite of a king, has set the fashion for so doing.—San Fran cisco Chronicle. Fashion Notes. Corded silks and ribbed woolens and velvets will be very fashionably used for handsome gowns, entire street costumes, rediugotes and wraps this winter. In the silk departments of Gotham shops are exhibited some gorgeous red lining silks, satins, and brocades, vivid in coloring and to be used in gowns, evening wraps, aud also for fancy waists and tea gowns trimmed elabor ately with black lace or chiffon aud jet. A gay and pretty coat for a girl of five years is of scarlet cloth, double breasted and ornamented by military frogs of black silk braid. A cape of scarlet velvet, under heavy cream gui pure lace, falls from a yoke braided with black. A rolling collar and deep cuffs of the cloth, both braided, com plete this pretty little garment. Some of the new fur capes are made very short and full on the shoulders, and many models show a fur ruffle and standing collar attached to a rounding yoke of deep moss-green, wine-colored or golden-brown velvet. I Other pelerines have inlaid yokes of ; jet, bronze or vari-oolored Persian beads, or the yoke is nearly covered with rich, heavy-silk-cord arabesque patterns en applique. Facings, re vers and vests of white or cream cloth still appear on some of i the handsomest cloth costumes for special wear. This is an easy and most effective addition to a gown, and always a becoming one. Some of these gowns show the white or cream portions bordered with rows of white and gold braid; others are almost hid den by an intricate arabesque or ver micelli design in hand-braiding. White fur is used for trimming many of the new coats, and silk, wadded or quilted, is used for the toddlers of two and three, instead of cloth and cash- I mere. A coat of rose-pink corded silk | falls in full folds from a yoke formed j by lines of ermine. The high, rolling ' collar is of pink velvet aud covered with white lace, as the latest edicts of the baby's doctor is that fur around the neck will make her throat delicate. In the lighter materials for evening wear, and also in soft, delicate wools like Henrietta cloth, cashmere or vig ogne, tucks are still highly favored. Sleeves are tucked all the way up, and tho frills overhanging them have a number of tucks at the edge. In evening bodices of silk muslin, the whole waist is covered with tucked frills graduated in width from an inch to the very narrowest tuck that can be laid. There is no doubt] that chinchilla will again form one of the very popular furs of the winter. It is stylish, re fined in effect, and very expensive. Silk velvet Russian blouses, capes and jackets will bo very much trimmed with this fur. On cloth costumes of dahlia, Russian green, dark blue or plum color, small pieces for various portions of the bodice look soft and dainty against a clear complexion, be it fair or dark. A smart afternoon frock for a girl of ten is of bright blue cloth. The blouse front is a separate piece which is fast ened to the shoulders by bretelles of tho cloth. A square yoke of finely plaited bright red satin and sleeves of plaited red satin give a charming touch of color. Tiie edges of the bretelles and of the blouse where it touches the yoke in front are adorned by a fine de sign in narrow braiding, which also linishes the bottom of the skirt. | CROP-DESTROYING CARP. A Two-Acre Field of Buckwheat Eaten by FUli. | Sono years since Farmer Woodward, jof Great Bend Township, Pennsyl vania, secured a quantity of carp from tho Pennsylvania Fish Commissioners. Making a pond in his jjasture, ho placed the carp in it and waited patiently for tho grand fishing days to come. Ho had not long to wait. In threo years he was catching three or four j pound specimens. He supplied the neighborhood and gave to the poor. I Visiting fishermen carried six-pound | carp back to the city, and Farmer Woodward's carp pond became famous throughout all this section. The lisli multiplied wonderfully,and it was not long before starvation faced them. They found the natural supply of animal and vegetable life in the . pond inadequate. To supply their j needs they gradually commenced to | make incursions into Farmer Wood | ward's garden, near by. They ruined iitin a week. The farmer boys killed scores of the fish with clubs, but for every carp killed ten came to the funeral and remained long enough to dine. Last week Farmer Woodward and his family took advantage of a cheap excursion to New York, during which time the carp made a general exodus, tens of thousands strong, and, work ing their way gradually through an acre of stubble, invaded a two-acro field of buckwheat,and in two days and nights removed every vestige of the ! crop, leaving the ground as clean as if j i company of cradlers had passed over I it. A hard rain followed, and tho gorged carp remained in the field to | enjoy it. ! When Farmer Woodward returned j home on Saturday and beheld the ruin he set the farmhands at work with j clubs and axes upon the black,moving Jiorde of fish and slaughtered wagon 1 loads of them. Woodward says that he will secure enough fertilizer in j the deal to recoup him for the loss of j the buckwheat crop.—New York Press. A Homely Bit of Gallantry. A man who gives up his seat in a street-car to a pretty girl, and then goes home and "kicks" because dinner is not ready, is not gallant. With new ways of living for both men and wo -1 men, gallantry must take new forms, adapting itself to conditions, but it ! will ever exist in tho hearts and be shown in the actions of generous men and noble women. A homely bit of gallantry was enactod in this city a few days ago by a driver of an ordinary, every-day watering cart. A woman liad a fall from lier bicycle, just in front of the street sprinkler, and although not at all hurt, her hands were considerably the worse for contact with the dirt of the road. The driver watched her from his high seat, and then called out cheerily: "Want to wash yer hands, miss?" She admitted that it would be a desirable thing, so the man turned on a small stream from his cart and held his horßes still v/hile the woman washed her dirt-covered hands. Then, acknowledging her "Thank you" with a smile and a bow, he drove on, and the woman resumed her ride. The driver's action was as true gallantry as ever knight performed in olden time—and such as Parisians would never think of.—Springfield (Mass.) Republican. SeedleHß Fruits. More important probably than elimi nating the thorns on trees and busliea is the extermination of objectionable seeds. The seeds of oranges, grapes, pears and similar fruits are no longer absolutely necessary for the production of plants and trees. Nature slowly and grudgingly relinquishes her right to mature seeds—the secret that she has guarded so carefully for perpetu ating many of her choicest species. Before horticulture was reduced to a science most plants depended upon the seeds for their existence, but in these modern days, when budded and grafted stock gives more satisfaction than seedlings, they are superfluous to a degree. We might not bo able to get along without any seeds, for seed ling stock must continue to be raised so long as fruit trees are in demand, but, as all choice stock is budded or grafted, the seeds of our loading varieties of oranges, lemons, grapes and apples ooald be easily dispensed tfivh. —Lippincott's. Lightning; Disproves a Proverb. Lightning may never strike twice in the same place, but there is consider able evidence to the contrary. Mr. Querry and his hired man were haul ing hay on a farm near Wellington, when a thunder storm came up. A stroke of lightning dropped in the vicinity and nearly knocked the men and horses down. Mr. Querry said to the hired man: "That came mighty near knocking you aud one of the horses over." "Itwould take a harder lick than that to knock me and old Bailey down," responded the man, and the next instant a bolt struck him on top of the head, dashing his brains out.—Kansas City Journal. Chimes Bung by Electricity. Electricity now supplies the power for ringing the chimes in Grace Church, New York, and the curfew hymn is played by an automatic ar rangement breaking the current to huge magnets connected with the big bells, tho largest weighing 3000 pounds. Making Loans to Farmers. Victoria, Australia, has inaugurated an official loan offior. Small loans up tc a maximum of SSOOO are to be granted to farmers aud others to en able them to improve their holdings. The loans will bear interest at five per cent, money will be provided from the savings banks.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers