Japan is getting there is wonderful lhape. Her foreign trade has quad rupled since ISSJ. The Yankees of the Occident must look to their laurels, lest the Y'ankees of the Orient surpass them. German professors arc beginning to exercise a little common sense. In one of the universities of Berlin a pro fessor declined to accept a challenge to fight a duel from a student who had been turned Hown. The students, generally, denounced the professor as a coward, but the papers and people sustain his action, and predict from it a long-needed reform in university customs. The Scottish piper who piped never so merrily as when wounded he piped a Highland regiment on to the charge at Dargai, finds himself ths blushing hero of an offer of matriage from a lady who proposes settling upon him, if accepted, $25,030 a year. For years societies have been organized, satirists have written and laws have been passed to discourage the bagpipe, and all the good done is upset by this one offer of marriage. The soul of the reformer must need be cf stern stuff aud his patience abounding. Many are the hobbies of the adult princes of Europe, and science has claimed several as her disciples. The prince of Naples has chosen electricity as his favorite study. For many years he has been interested iu the applica. tion of electricity to light, sound, motive power and offshoots of such studies, such as electric rays in con nection with photography. Since the discovery of tho X rays ho has been most fully occupied in experiments, and has been a most successful opera tor in this direction. His home in the Quirinal was more like a scientific laboratory thau a royal residence in his bachelor days, but doubtless this has been altered recently. The mode of procedure in bringing about tho disposition of a prize vessel ! is to bring an action in a prize court. 1 This proceeding commences when the captured vessel is brought to port by an officer of the vessel that made the seizure. In this country he puts in a libel—that is, a petition in tho Dis trict Court that an inquiry be made— and with this libel he forwards the . ship's papers. Notice is given that any person having an interest in the 1 property may appear and claim it. An enemy, of course, cannot put in a claim. If the court find that the ves sel is a legitimate prize, it is ap- • praised, condemned, and then sold ot j auction by tho United States Marshal. I If she is taken by the Government, | then the court takes notice of her j value as shown by the inventory. Ac cording to the act of 1881, all theprizo goes to the captors when the vessel I making the capture is of equal or iu- i ferior force to the prize. If tho cap tor is superior, only half the value goes to the captors and the other half goes to the Treasury. The prize money is divided between the officers and crew of the vessel making the capture. The commander of the squadron is entitled to one twentieth of all prizes made by a ship of war at tacked to his command, and the Fleet Captain is entitled to receive a one- ' hundredth part of the prize value. Tho local tradition in New York that the Scandinavian inhabitants of ! the city are to be found generally "along the water front" is not sup ported by tho facts. The truth of the matter is that the total transient river and river front population of New | York—sailors, canalboat men, steam ship stokers, ship aooks and nian-o'- war's men—does not amount collec tively to more than 8000 or 7000 per sons, all told. In the month of Feb ruary, 1805, an accurate census was made of these residents in what aro now the Boroughs of Manhattan and the Bronx and they wero shown to. amount coMectiveh' at_ tho time to ' 4323, in a total population of nearly 2,000,000. Tho water front popula tion of the Borough of Brooklyn, never large, has not increased since consolidation, and tho present total in all the boroughs is probably not far from GSOO. But there are in the whole of New York more than 35,000 Scan dinavians, and in New York borough the Scandinavians are chiefly to be found in the district of tho town be tween Twenty-third and Thirty-fourth streets on the East side. There aro two Swedish churches in this neigh borhood, a Swedish branch of the Sal vation army, and five intelligence i offices, making a specialty of supply ing to employers Scandinavian domes tic servants or gardeners or coach-1 men. The Scandinavian inhabitants 1 of New Y'ork aro tranquil and unob trusive, and two-thirds of their num ber aro to be found on tho Brooklyn 1 *ide of the bridge. LIFE. A kipping of the lips of dawn, j And then we wake. A chase for sunbeams on the lawn, Our way we take. A kissing of the lips of fate, A kissing of the lips of strife, A struggling while the duy grows lato, And this is life. A broken sword placed back in sheath, A stealing back to nature's breast, A kissing of the lips of death, And then we rest. 1 —William Wilfred Campbell, in tho Sketch. ooooooooooooooooooooooooco 0 Miss DUEARLE'S § 3 RESOLVE. 3 O OOOOOOGQOOO OGOOOOOOOOOGoS /fl ISS DUBAELE was \y I five-and-forty years I W X I of age on the uine ' - 8 B teeutll of Mnrch, I I jfrf £L M —' we " no ma '" j ijfelyU. A&tt ter what year. And I she was stout, and \m\: short, with no visi ble waist; and hands ril t' til i were red and I 'l' AM fat, instead of white 1 111 IV tT a slender; and I'll jj fl features that be j 111 || \ i longed to no Gre ■ll 1 V ciau type or Roman ft I ] \ mold, hut seemed n, \ ' j to be setting up, j | j sui generis, eaeb on ' its own special nc i count, with no ref- I erence whatever to I the others. For the world is not al i together stocked with Veuuses and Hebes, whatever the romance writers I would like to make us believe, and there is no reason why a plain female i cannot be a heroine in spite of her ; looks. But we have not mentioned the most important fact of all. Miss Dubarle had forty thousand dollars of her own. And that was, without doubt, the reason that her relatives sent her pres sing invitations to "come and visit I them," and dispatched eases of wine and hampers of game and boxes of new books down to Dubarle Farm; and little girls worked hideous pincushions and tidies to decorate her rooms; and young men wrote acrostics for her birthday, and everybody listened ! politely to her speeches, however pro j lis they might be. For a rich old maid is worth cultivating, and it wasn't at all likely now that Miss Du barle would ever marry. I It was a bleak afternoon, the red and brown leaves whirling round and round in the blast, and the great wood fire upon the hearth, sending, every now and then, spiteful little gushes of smoke into the room where Miss Du , barle and her second cousin and com panion, Janet Heath, sat together, working crochet roses for a counter pane. "Janet," said Miss Dubarle joolitely, "you're a fool!" Janet looked up with a flush of color on her pale, pretty cheek. She was not at all unaccustomed to these little ! complimentary remarks on the part of Miss Dubarle. i "Be a sensible girl," added the el j der female. "Give him up, and I'll I buy you a blue-silk dress and a black j lace shawl." | "But I love him, Miss Dubarle." I "Oh, psha-a-aw!" grimaced the spinster. "Love, indeed! I never I was in love!" j "And," added Janet, growing more rosy than ever, as she stooped to pick up her ivory needle, "he says he would be miserable without me. Don't, please, bo angry, Miss Du barle; but indeed, indeed, I must marry him." ! Miss Dubarle jumped up so sudden ly that the dozing blackbird in its 1 cage uttered a shrill note of conster nation. I "Very well," she said—"very well, Janet Heath. Pack your trunk as soon as you please. I can dispense 1 with your services at once. And pack ■ mine first, if you please, Janet Heath." |' "You are not going away, Miss Du- 1 barle?" queried poor Janet, in con sternation. | • "I'm going to visit my relatives," I said Miss "Dubarle, with pursed-up lips. And then little Janet knew that her own fate, as far as any worldly , advantages to bo derived from her kinship to the heiress, was sealed. "Putin the black silk gown, Janet," said Miss Dubarle, in a tone as lugu- 1 brious as if she "were giving orders for her own funeral. "Of all sins, I regard ingratitude as the basest— and the China crape scarf—to think that I have nursed a viper to turn and sting me at last! And don't for get my easy slippers—though I don't know either why my corns should be entitled to any more consideration than my poor bruised heart." Ami then, as Janet Heath began to cry, Miss Dubarle marched out of the rc on. | "I lie vet' could endure the vapors," said Miss Dubarle. "I'll go to my niece Maria, or maybe I'll make Her bert Hmytho a little bit of a visit; he's always saying how delighted he would be to entertain me in his bachelor quarters. They both love me, although I haven't done half for them that I have for this little ser pent's tooth of a Janet. I dare say she expects to be my heiress, but she'll find out her mistake, I guess." And Miss Dubarle, who allowed no buus to go down upon her wrath, took the first train for New York, and slept i that night in the fifth story of a mar ble-fronted hotel. ! "t didn't think I should miss that child Jauetso much," she said, rather | dolefully, to herself, the next morn | ing, as she tried to comb out her tangled "back-hair," and nearly | strangled herself trying to button up I her own boots—"but I don't care! I i won't give up to her love-sick whims, ! and I will go to see Maria Brooks and I Herbert Smythe. Maria's little girl ) wrote mo a beautiful letter last month. and all out of her own head, her mother said. Lot me see—Eudocia her name was. Perhaps I'll adopt Eudocia." And Miss Dubarle ordered a car riage and drove to the mansion of Mr. Secor Brooks, on an aristocratic side street. "They seem to live very nicely," thought the rich relation. "I didn't know Socor's inoome justified such style as this." The servant showed Miss Dubarle into a reception room, furnished after the style of Louis Quinze. His mis tress was out, but would return pres ently, he explained. "I'll wait," said Miss Dubarle. A wizened little girl, with her hair braided in long Chinese plnits, and red, chill-looking elbows, was tinkling away at the piano. She looked round a3 the guest entered. "You are Eudocia, I suppose," said Miss Dubarle, affably. "Yes," said the child, "I'm Eudo cia. And who are you?" "I am Miss Dubarle," said the heiress, graciously. "You have heard your mamma tell about Miss Dubarle, haven't you?" 'Oh, yes." said Eudocia, her small, fishy eyes lighting up. "You're the old maid that mamma says is so out —out " "Out of health?" "No; some very big word." "Outrageous?" suggested Miss Du barle, somewhat discomfited. "No—not that—outlaudish! And you're going to die and leave me all your money and then we're to travel in Europe. But papa says he don't see but what you're (icing to hold on for ever. What is it you are holding on to, Miss Dubarle?" "Hem!" said Miss Dubarle. "So your mamma's kind enough to con sider IL3 outlandish, is she?" "Mamma's going to invite you to visit us," went 011 the unwisely com municative Eudocia, "when the Fitz- Koy Fortesques are gone. She says she dou't want them to bo shocked with your Noah's ark ways. I had a Noah's ark once," added the enfant terrible, "with a dog in it and Skem, Ham and Japhet." "I dare say," said Miss Dubarle, checking a strong inclination to laugh, although she felt herself growing pur ple in the face with indignation. "I think I won't wait any longer, Eu docia; good-by." And Miss Dubarle shook the dust of tho Secor Brook 3 mansion off her feet. "A pretty hypocrite's nest I should have got into there!" she said, half aloud, as she entered the vehicle sho had been wise enough to. bid wait. "Janet Heath, with all her faults, was at least frank and truthful enough. Drive to twenty-seven Bachelor Square, coachman!" Twenty-seven Bachelor Square was a tall, brownstono building, full of studios, offices and sets of chambers, and Miss Dubarle was well-nigh out of breath before sho reached n door at the very top, on which a card, neatly ticked, bore the inscription, "Herbert Smythe, Artist." Sho beat a brisk tattoo on the panels with the handle of her sun umbrella, and a voice answered: "Come in." But to her amazement, the occupant of tho apartment, instead of a young artist in a black velvet painting-robe, was a glim female, sitting very up right on a gotliio chair, with tattered gloves and a bonnet bent on the side. "Is Mr. Smytho in?" asked Mi9s Dubarle. "No," answered the stony female; "he ain't. But if you're wise you'll sit down, like me, and wait until he does come in. I s'pose you've come after your bill?" "Have you?" asked Miss Dubarle, taking tho first part of the hint, by depositing herself on a sofa. "Yes—for the seventh time. He owes everybody—Smythe does. I'm his laundress, but you can ask the landlord and tho wine merchant, and tho tailor and the hatter, and " "Then," curtly observed Miss Du barle, "I should think you were all great fools for trusting him!" "80 we be," said tho woman, grim ly; "and I ain't a deny in' of that, but you see he's kept us on tho string all along with stories of his rich cousin, Miss Dubarle, as has made her will in his favor, and is goiu' to leave him no end of money." "Oh!" said Miss Dubarle, rubbing her nose vehemently with the end of the sun-umbrella handle. "He savs," added tho unconscious traitress, "thnt she's as old as Me thusaleh, and can't live but a fow days, anyhow; but I, for one, don't believe a word of it. But you ain't agoin' bo you?" "Yes," said Miss Dubarle, rising. "Please to give him this card when 110 comes in and tell him, if you like, the littlo conversation we have had." And alio was nearly downstairs bo fore the laundress, fitting on a pair of silver-bowed spectacles, had read the two words inscribed upon the card; "Miss Dubarle." The heiress was very silent during her drivo back to the hotel. Perhaps she was engaged in rondering the funeral rites on her dear departed de lusion! All that she said to herself was contained in one sentence: "I don't like being made a fool of," she mentally enunciated, "and I be lieve I've come very near it." Janet Heath sat by the fire in the next ovening's twilight, musing, per chance, half in sadness, half in shy pleasure, when the door clicked on its latch and in walked Miss Dubarle. Janet started to her feet with a slight cry. "Don't bo alarmed," said Miss Du barle, stroking the soft, brown hair with a kindly, reassuring touch. "I've come back to you, Janet Heath; for 1 believe, in spite of everything, you are the truest friend I've got, aud that you love me after all!" "Indeed, indeed, Miss Dubarle, I do!" sobbed Jaaet, with her old foolish trick of tears. "And so," said Miss Dubarle, "you can marry that Harry Dart of yours, and he can come here to live, and we'i! all be a happy family together. Untie my bonnet-strings, Janet— they've got somehow into a knot—and make me a cup of tea. Those rail roads are enough to shake one into a jelly!" So Miss Dubarle settled back into the old groove again, and when the letters from New York came she sent them back unopened. And when Mr. Herbert Smythe and the Secor Brooks family arrived in propria persona; she obstinately refused to see them. "I won't be bothered!" said Miss Dubarle; "Janet's my heiress, and there's an end to the matter." And the relatives discovered that they might as well attempt to move the Rock of Gibraltar as to alter Miss Dubarle's resolve!"— New York News. Eloquence at Bay. It was a preacheT who had that "fatal fluency" for whom an acquaint ance laid a trap. He had away of promising to preach, aud on beginning would say something like "I have been too busy to prepare a sermon, but if some one will kindly give me a text, I'll preach from it." One de termined to cure him. He therefore asked him to preach. The invitation was accepted. The time came, and the visitor began his usual introduc tion: "Brethren, I have been so pushed for time to-day as to have been quite unable to prepare a ser man. But if some of you will give me a text, I'll preach from it. Perhaps my brother here," turning to the plot ter near him, "will suggest a text." "Yes, brother," came the ready reply; "your text is the last pai'tof the ninth verse of the first chapter of Ezra, und its words are 'nine-and-tweuty knives.'" There was a pause, an ominous pause, as the preacher found his text. He read it out, "Nine-and- j twenty knives," and began at once. "Notice tlie number of these knives— just exactly nine-and-twenty; not thirty, not eight-aud-twenty. There were no m, aud "sug ared off" again. The sample of maple sugar he pro duced was the exact counterpart in color and flavor of the sugar which the house had been selling its cus tomers for seven years at a fancy price as the only genuine aud unmis takably pure article. Another sample was made of brown sugar, and the three were taken to the head of the firm. He sampled each, and at once prououueed the granulated mixture the genuine article. A sugar expert in the wholesale distriot also had an opportunity to distinguish himself. He did it by picking out the genuine at once." Somebody doubted his ability, and he offered to try again. This time he picked the bogus granulated, and then the brown sugar mixture. The Vermont sugar man had, how ever, made his point, and his con signment was pushed at ouee, though tho firm was under the somewhat em barrassing necessity of telling its cus tomers that for several years they had been buying bogus sugar for the real article. It -medy For a Long I'alatr. "If you have too long a palate," writes a Northern woman who has been spending the winter in Athens, Ga., to a friend in New York, "let me give you a popular remedy that the children's old mammy gave me and wanted it tried on tho baby: "Take hold of a little bunch of hair on the top of the head," she said, "and tie it tight with a string. Then take a tablespoon and put in it some pepper and salt, aud hold it in the mouth. Get hold of tho buuch of hair and pull it up; at tho same time touch the tongue to the salt aud pepper in the spoon, and the palate will go up aud nover come down again." This remarkable performance has been tried on tho woman, nnd "workod," so she said, but tho North ern woman added: "I cannot vouch for it, but give it to you for what it is worth." A Ruso With a Result. "How strange," ho said. "What?" Bho asked. "These newspaper stories of fads of engaged girls," he expluined. ■'They don't interest me," she as serted. "Really?" ho asked. "Nota bit," she returned. "Why should they?" As she looked up into his eyes in a wondering sort of way he drew a good long breath, for ho knew that ho had a clear field, aud when he loft that evening she had become deeply inter ested in somo of those fads.—Chicago Post. Ills Ilittercst Foe. In Lady Gregory's newly published reminiscences she says of George IV. 's trip to Ireland in 1821: "The King arrived after a good jiassago, during which much goose pie had been con sumed. Word had just come of the death of Napoleon at St. Helena. The story goes that 'Sire, your oneiny is dead,' were tho words he was greeted with. 'Whe.u did sho die?' was his response. But tho Queen wa3 indeed also dead." One of Nature's Pranks. In India there is a species of but terfly in which the male has tho left wing yellow and the right one red. The colors of the femaler*r n their way: Rut all of It ends at last—iko laughter as well as the sighs— Under the fresh green gra3s, under the old blue skies. Greatness and g'.ory for some, aa.l tho tribute of j.raisH and ong; Obscurity alojio lor other.-, "a.'j long as lifo —as long": Yet glory shall naugb: avail,—no matter that fato deiii 's. Under the fresh green grass, under tlio oil blue skies. Heaven's not bought with a price, oartii'a not ho.den in fee; And leveled are caste and degrees fa# over the jasper sea: And sweet shall tlie sleeping bo to happy and tearful eyes. Under tho fresh green grass, under the old blue skies. —Will T. Ilale. PITH AND POINT. A political job is one where yon liav& to do the greater part of your work be fore you get it.—Puck. Fax—"The diamond is the hardest known substance." De Wit to—"Yes —to get."—Tit-Bits. "Miss Autumn told me her ago was twenty-four.'' "I always said that girl wasn't up to date."—Life. "Why do they have such noisy mu sic at the exhibition?" "To drown all comment, I suppose."—Fliegeude Blrotter. "Did you hear old Longbow's latest story?" "Nope." "Says ho saw a hoop snake with a rubber tire."—Cleve land Plain Dealer. Hills—"Browne says that he is sad dest when ho sings." Hulls—"That's* why they call his audiences sym pathetic."—Harlem Life. "Julia still loves her husband mad ly." "How do you know?" "She says ho can read poetry bettor than any other man alive."—Chicago Rec ord. "Going to the shore this season, Miss Elderly?" "Yes. Now that tho coast-defences arc to be improved, J. suppose that there will be some meir there."—Detroit Free Press. First Tramp—"l hear they are building a new jail, with all modern improvements." Second Tramp "That won't do us no good. You'll need a pull to get iu there."—Flie gende Bhetter. Wife—"The doctor orders me to the mineral baths at Carlsbad, and you re fuse me the means to go. That shows how little you value me!" Husband —"On the contrary. Ido not wish to lose a pound of you."--Fliegendo Bhetter. First Senator—"You lie!" Second Senator (advancing towards him) — "Say, I'll " First Senator—"l dare you! Come outside!" Presi dent of the Senate—"Gentlemen! Gentlemen!" [Derisive laughter in the galleries. ] —Chicago Tribune. "Ah," the fond mother sighed, "you say you love my daughter now, but will you love her when she is old?" Steadily looking her in the eyes he re plied: "She will never get old. Any one can see at a glance that she takes after you."—Chicago News. "Here is a paper," he said, "that advocates a movement to compel women to take oil* their hats in church as well in the theatre." "In church!" she exclaimed. "That's what it says." "Might as vjell abolish Easter en tirely, " she said indignantly. Chicago Evening Post. Mrs. Youuglovc—"John, do you know that you haven't kissed me for a week?" Mr. Younglove—"Yes, darling, I was just waiting to see how long it would take you to notice it." John, it will bo observed, had his presence of mind right with him.— Cleveland Leuder. Jones—"Funny about Deacon Pratt. Awfully absent-minded, you know." Brown—"What'she beenjdoing, now?" Jones—"At the prayer-meeting last evening Elder Goode asked him to lead in prayer, and before he knew what he was saying the Deacon replied, 'lt isn't my lead. I dealt.' " —Boston Transcript. Slio Liked Sailing. The following true tale, from Lip piucott, is a most curious example of living well on nothing a year without breaking the laws of the land: About twenty years ago a steam packet company of "Liverpool wished to buy a piocoof land which was owned by a "stay at home spinster," as her neighbors described her. She sold her laud at a very low price, but in sisted upon such a clause being in serted in the agreement giving her tho right, at any timo during her life, to travel with a companion in any of the company's vessels. When the agreement was closed she sold her furniture and went on board the first outgoing ship belonging to the packet company. For years this shrewd spinster lived nearly all her time upon one ship or another, fre quently accompanied by a companion, according to the agreement. This was always a person who would otherwise have been a regular passenger, but who purchased her ticket at a reduced rate by paying the spinster instead of tho packet company. The company offered her more than twice the value of the land if she would givo up tho privilege, but this she would not do. Her reply was, "You got tho land cheap, and I like sailing, so we ought to both be satisfied." A Kcmurkabln Elephant. Tho Berlin Zoo is to he enriched by ft remarkable elephant. This creature, which is eighty years of age, has long played the part of executioner iu an Eastern country where criminals may not he put to death by human means. Hence, an elephant is retained to crush the victim's head.—Loudon Globe.