Westminster Abbey would lose its reputation if Gladstone's name were not to b2 found there among England's glorious dead. A story is told to the effect that when the Society for tho Prevention of Cruelty to tnimals proposed to estab lish a branch in a leading city of Spo*n the municipal body courteously i> •- cepted the proposal and offered to hold a grand bull-fight at once to furnish the funds. There is a strong and growing sen* 1 timent 111 the Administration and in Congress in favor of making the Anier* • icau Navy the strongest in the world, ! aud it seems apparent that immediately j our war with Spain is over a begin- ] ning will bo made, comments the St. 1 Louis Star. It is estimated that our navy could be made superior to Great j Britain's within two years at a cost of oue billion dollars. Half the arable land of France, a little more than half the pasture, ns much as six-sevenths of tho vine* 1 yards, and two-thirds of tho garden | jand are cultivated by their owners. The average size of the farm in France j is fifteen and one-quarter acres against i sixty-three acres in Great Britain. j The average in the United States at the date of the last Federal census was 137 acres. More than thirty-nine per Gent, of the farms in France are under /me hectare, equal to two and one-half \ acre.*; only two and one-lmlf per cent, j of the French holdings amount to 100 acres each. The Oregon is the queen of battle ships. She has broken all records 1 for distance, for sustained speed, for j coal endurance. It is an impressive fact that she had to leave two cruisers behind because they could not keep j up with her. It is interesting that I nearly every ship built at San Fran- ! cisco turned out tho best of lier class, ! the San Francisco, the Monterey, the | Oregon, the Olympia. The contract price of these ships was higher than on the Atlantic, though the actual cost of building is not much more. The builders seem to put their excess | of profit into superior work. There died lately in a Tennessee in* sane asylum a young woman who, five j years ago, in a fit of jealousy, killed i her most intimate girl friend because : the latter had chosen to enlarge the circle of her companions. Alice j Mitchell is a fatal typo of an infatua* j lion common among school and col* • lege girls, which, while seldom ac- 1 compauied by such tragic results, yel causes untold headaches and heart* I burnings, observes the Youth's Com panion. Flowers and candy, calls : aud drives, notes and poetry, loss of appetite and failure in lessons are out ward signs of affections unwholesome in their selfishness and intensity. It has been said that the lifelong friend ships formed there constitute the priu* ' cipal charm of college life, and this is ; true; but young people and their par- 1 ents and teachers should discourage all such absorbing attachments as wrecked the lives of Alice Mitchell and her young victim. The bill providing for a national commission for the arbitration of dis putes between railway companies and their employes, recently passed by both Houses of Congress, appears to tho New York Independent to be a very creditable measure, and while by no means so radical as has been ad vocated by many parties, it is free from the very serious objections which attach to any proposition for compul sory arbitration. Briefly, the bill provides tlmt either railway companies or employes may request the Chair man of the Interstate Commerce Com mission and the Commissioner of Labor to endeavor to settle a pending dispute amicably by mediation be tween the contending parties. In case the endeavor falls, each party to tho controversy is to name one arbitra tor and tho two so appointed shall select a third, and the board so chosen shall make an awr.rd within twenty days from the time tho third arbitra tor is selected. The award shall con tinue in force between the parties for one year, and the employer shall not dismiss nor shall any employe dis satisfied with the award quit work under three months without giving thirty days' notice. The only force relied upon to cause either party tc take advantage of this system and to abide by tho results is the force of public opinion, which is, after all, the real force behind laws of every sort. It is believed that few railway com panies or labor organization's would venture to encounter the public dis approval that would follow its re fusal to submit its case to arbitration, or the still stronger expression of pub lic sentiment that would follow a fail ure to accept the results of an arbi tration. j A CHANCE OF AMBITION. ' ITonitiu9at the brtdge, and he Who fought at old Thermopylm; Great Samson and his potent bone By which the Philistines were alone; Small Pavhl with hl9 wondrous alia That did for him of giuut frame; J. Cjesar in his Gallic scraps That made him Lord of other chaps; Sweet William, called the Conqueror, Who made the Briton sick of war; King Hal the Fifth, whonoMy fought And thrashed the foe at Agiucourt; Old Bonaparte, and Washington, And Frederick, and Wellington, Decatur. Nelson, Fighting Joe, And F.irragut, and Grant, and oh, A thousand other heroes I Have wished I were In days gone by— Can take their laurels from my door. For I don't want 'era any more. The truth will out; it can't be hid; The doughty deed that Dewey did. In that far distant Spanish sea, Is really good enough for me. The grnnnnar's bad. but, oh my son, I wish I'd did what Dewey done! —John K. Bangs, iu Harper's Weekly. 1 BEN BMKS j SMARTNESS. 1 f^me;s , < )LDMobammedßen £ Braliim was a pri- D vate of the Third fgto/vS jmVj Regiment of Tureos, Arab infantry iu the niw3l French service. He iff wljjffl Rfrfl was tall and raw- IT* honed,fearinguoth hig, believing but little in Mohammed the Prophet, niul not at all in Allah. He drauk wiue and ate pork, two things held iu abomina tion by the Mohammedans, he swore in bad Arab and worse French; in fact, he was the most perfect black guard in tlie whole body of Turcos, I which were 10,000 strong, and that is 1 paying a great deal. Ben Braliim lived happy and contented until one day, while passing before the bric-a-brac pawn office and dry goods shop of Yus sufl', the richest Hebrew of Orau, he saw, hanging in the window, some gold watches. Then his happiness ras gone, for oue thought invaded his mind so completely that, twenty times t day, lie exclaimed loudly: "By the Prophet's beard, I must have one!" And by the Prophet's beard lie got one too, and this is how it came about. Mohammed Ben Braham had n cousin, a lieutenant in the same regi ment, and he went to him and told liim a story about his mother being sick aud needy, and the lieutenant, who loved his aunt, gave him twelve francs, with the recommendation to use tlieni well, a thing that the Turco did, much to the sorrow of Yussufl', in whose shop he appeared five minutes later. Yussufl* was alone, and seeing the Turco entering his store, he arose to meet him, not through deference for the caller, but from a knowledge that the Turcos are the greatest prowlers of Africa. "I salute you, Rabbi Yussuff," said Mohammed, touching his fez. "I salute you, Turco," replied Yus sufl, politely, "what do you want?" "I came to pay you twelve francs for seven you loaned 1110 a fortnight ago," answered the Turco. "Did I loan you money? Ido not recollect to have seen you before." "You don't? Well, then, you were more drunk than I was when I bor rowed the money from you. But, 110 matter, I owe you twelve francs, and there they are." Then tlie Turco put twelve francs fn the other's hand. Yussuff took it just as an Arab priest entered the | shop. j Yussuff saluted the new-comer with the greatest respect, as he was one of his best customers, and said: "Will you allow me to present this Turco to you as oue of the few hon est men we have iu this town?" , The Arab looked with astonish ment 011 the pair. "Well, well!" thought he, "what are we coming to, if a Turco turns to ,be as honest to be praised by Yus sufl?" Then he asked: "May T in j quire what this Turco lias done to deserve your commendations. Yus suff?" "I loaned him twelve francs, and I forgot all about it. Many would have I taken advantage of my lack of mem ory, but he did not, for he has paid me like an honest man that he is." "My friend," said the Arab to the Turco, "will you favor me with your company to my house?" Mohammed Ben Braliim answered ; that as soon as Rabbi Yussuff bad re turned his pledge, ho would follow him. j "A pledge!" cried Yussuff, turning pale. "You have given me none." j "What!" replied the Turco indig [ nantly, "that gold watch there is i mine." And Mohammed pointed to a | watch worth about sixty dollars. "That watch was bought by me from a chief now dead," yelled I Yussuff. I "Yussuff," interposed the Turco, I "it seems to me that this chief died very conveniently for you. Will you give me my watch?" I "No," answered Yussuff. 1 "All right, sir. I will have yon ar rested 011 the spot," and opening the door Mohammed went into the street calling for the police. In a minute two of these worthies made their appearance and inquired the cause of the uproar. "Arrest that man," said the Turco, pointing to Yussuff, "he has robbed me." The police took Yussuff by the throat, aud the whole party left the store to go to the judge. 111 Africa, the judge's courthouse consists of apiece of carpet, two yards square, thrown on the pavement, in the market place, where tho judge sits surrounded bv the police who make arrests- land l*av tiuado the culprits at the judo's mand. It is justice in its primitive state administered 011 the rapid tran sit plan. "What is the matter?" inquired the Arab magistrate. "Your Wisdom, this man has robbed that Turco," replied the officer. "Turco, how did the thing hap* pen?" inquired the judge. "Your Wisdom, this man loaned me so veil francs on my gold watch. ] returned him his money, togethei with five francs as interest, and uow he refuses to give me my watch." "How did you get a gold watch?" "Your Wisdom, it is a present from my dying father." "Did anyone see you paying the money?" "Your Wisdom, this holy Arab was present." "Arab, is it true what the Turco is saying?" "Your Wisdom, he lias spoken the truth," replied the Arab. "Yussufl introduced the complainant to me with the remark that lie was one ol the few honest men we have in this town." "Yussuff, do you deny the accusa tion made against you?" "Your Wisdom, I do deny it." "Did you take twelve francs from the complainant?" "Your Wisdom, I did." "For what?" "Because I loaned it to him." "Without any pledge?" "Yes, your Wisdom, without any pledge." "Officers, go to Yussuff's house, and bring here all the gold watches he lias," said the judge. The officers went and soon re turned, bringing about thirty gold watches, which they spread before the judge. "Look and see if your time-piece is there," said the magistrate to the Turco. The cunning Turco advanced, and without any hesitation took, not the best, but the third from the best. The judge, who had eyed sharply tho action of the Turco, seeing him discarding the costliest watch to take another inferior in value, felt con vinced of the justice of his claim to the object of his selection. lie said to him: "Take it and go. Remember that a present from a dying father is 11 sacred thing, not to be j>olluted by the hands of this money lender, who is a thief, a'usurer and a liar. Go!" Mohammed Ben Braliim did not 1 wait for a second invitation to take what did not belong to liim; lie bowed low to the judge, kissed the Arab on the shoulder and departed. Then the judge said to Yussuff: "For lying to me, for exacting usurious rates of iuterest, for trying to rob a poor soldier of a sacred me mento from a beloved father, you shall get fifty strokes 011 the soles of your feet, and if in two hours you have not paid five hundred dollars fine, you shall get one hundred more. Oflicers, execute the sentence." Everybody applauded the justice of tlie judge's decision. No, I am mis taken, not all. There was one who did not. Can you guess who? A Kuliieri I'liilipiiliie Industry. An ancient industry in tho Philip pine Islands which, by the way, lias been nearly destroyed by Spanish tyranny and greed, is the gathering of various kinds of mother-of-pearl. In the warm waters of those seas animal life is very prolific and many kinds of shells grow to great size. Some oys ters, for example, are as large as punch bowls, and scollops grow two or three feet in diameter. Natives catch the animals when they are alive aud throw them into pots of boiling water. They then extract the fleshy part of the body, of which some varieties they use as food, and others as provenders for their domestic animals. The live shell, as ic is called, is stronger,hand somer aud more durable than the dead shell; that is, the shell of an auinial which has died a natural death. Tho rough motlier-of-pearl is sent to China, chiefly to Canton, where there is a famous artistic guild which employs it in many ways. One variety, which is flat, a half inch thick and several inches in diameter, is carved in intaglio and iu relief and makes a very beautiful ornament for the wall or the window or for insetting in the panelß of a door or a cabinet. When hung in the window the light pene trates it and gives prismatic tints to all the figures of the carver. Small pieces are split into layers and con verted into inlaid work, for chairs, tables, picture frames, altars and the decoration of wealthy homes. Tlie way they killed this industry il lustrates their theories of government. They sell to the highest bidder what they call the piscary concessions. No oue can take any fish from the water without a license from the concession aire. The poor natives, who make but ten or eleven cents a day, are un able to obtain -a license aud can only pursue their calliug underhandedly. If caught they are treated as common thieves, and if found in the overt act they may be aud often are shot by the armed police. In this manner the fishing industries of the Philippines have steadily diminished wherever there are Spanish settlements, so that the people of the large cities import quantities of sea food from other and freer countries.—New York Mail and Express. Groat Wrecks nnd Lou* of Life. Among the most serious steamship wrecks of the last twenty years and their attendant losses of life are the Eurydice and Princess Alice (300 and 050) in 1878; Victoria (700), 1881; Cimbria (400) 1883; Serpent (270), 1890; Utopia (574), 1891; lleiua Re gen te (400), 1895; Elbe (352), 1895; Salier (280). 1896; Kaang-Pin (500), 1890 PHILIPPINE AMAZONS UTTERLY WiTHOUT FEAR AND POS SESSED OF THE FRENZY OF DARING. Uoinnntlc Struggle to Free Them Helves From Spanish Oppression—On Their i Smooth, ltouml Arms They Bear the Insurgents' V Brand. The women of the Philippine Isl- , ands, like those of Cuba, are taking an active part in the revolution against the Spaniards. Indeed, it is ■ largely on account of the women that , the revolution exists, the indignities I offered them by the Spanish being the I last drop which tilled the cup of in- | dignatiou to overflow. It is the old j story of cruelty and oppression which | has been repeated in each and every j one of the Spanish colonies since the ! days of Christopher Columbus. The population of the Philippines j is a mixed one. First, there are sev- ; eral native tribes, chief among which j are the Negritos, or African people, I as the Spanish call them. Those, i downtrodden for centuries, have re- j treated to the wilderness, and play ! small part in the revolt, except by their readiness to give aid and com fort to the insurgents. There are many Chinese, a number of Japanese, and between 10,000 and 20,000 Euro peans—Dutch chiefly, English next, with a sprinkling of all other nation alities. The principal element in the population is, however, the Malay, a . a race of peculiar interest to the eth- i nologist. Brave to recklessness, vin- | dictive and revengeful, the Malay is not unlike our own American Indian at his best. He is hard to attach, but when once won he is faithful unto death. Passionately fond of his wife and children, he idolizes the woman whom he loves. Travelers describe the women as handsome, vigorous and intelligent, with large black eyes, clear olive complexions, perfect teeth and satiny black hair, of which they take excel lent care. Daintily neat in their persons, the daily bath is an institu tion. They revel in delicate per fumes, extracted from the flowers of the islands, and their sense of smell is as acute as that of a sleutlihound. They allow the thumbnail to grow very long, which assists in playing 011 the guitar, an accomplishment in which they excel. When tlie Spanish discovered the islands they found them in the pos session of Malays who had conquered the Negritos, driving them back into the wilderness, where they still live. Many Chinese dwelt among them, and there was a steady trade between China and the Philippines in sugar, tobacco and hemp. The Spanish took possession, as was their way, and for 300 years have oppressed and mal treated the unlucky mestizos, as they called them. But the centuries have brought with them a large admixture of European blood, principally Span ish, into the Malay strain, increasing tlioil* pride and revengefulness. More over, these mestizos have been indus trious. They have worked hard and prospered, spite of heavy taxation. They have sent their sons and daughters to Europe and educated them, and still they have gone on for years patiently enduring Spain's heavy yoke. The oppression in Cuba has been as nothing to that in the Philippines. Everything is taxed to the utmost, and the slightest excuse has sufficed for confiscating the entire property of any man not under the protection of a foreign government. The native subject of Spain has abso-1 lately no rights under the law, and 110 matter what outrages he may suf fer 110 mestizo can sue a Spaniard or | obtain legal redress. In Mauila the poorer natives are employed as serv ants, and to punish them for slight J offenses they are often tortured, some- j times to death. Worst of all, if a worthless Spaniard looks with covet- i ous eyes on the daughter of a mes tizo the woman is at his mercy, and the father is powerless to protect her and prevent a distasteful marriage. It was this last outrage which pro voked the revolt, and the women are said to have incited the men to this step. Many of them are in the rebel ranks lighting side by side with their husbands and fathers, and it is said that in a recent attack Innis, the stronghold of the rebels, where two Spanish colonels were among the killed, one of them fell by the hand of a woman—not by a rifle shot, but in a liaud-to-hand conflict, in which the Amazon used the native weapon, the polo. These women have been described as utterly without fear—possessed, indeed, of the frenzy of daring told of by travelers, as shown in the Ma lay custom of "running amok." Reports all agree that the Amazon leaders in the Philippine army are rarely killed, their very recklessness serving to protect them by striking terror into the hearts of the Spaniards, who regard them as possessed by some uncanny sprite. On the other hand, their daring inspires the insurgents with confidence and they fight like demons. Mme. Rizal, who is prominent among the rebel leaders, is believed by the insurgents to bear a charmed life. She herself, according to all accounts, appears to be utterly devoid of fear, not only risking her life readily in battle, but wheu arrested and iu peril of speedy execution defying the Span ish authorities to do their worst. This last piece of daring is probably due to the fact that she claims to be a Brit ish subject, and as such dares the Spaniards to touch her. Few women have had so eventful and romantic a career as this young widow, who is utill under thirty years of age. Mme. Rizal was the daughter of Irish parents. Her father was James Brackin, a sergeant in the British army. She was born in the Victoria barracks at Hong Kong, and chris tened v viingly 'M Daughter of the Regiment." Her mother died during her infancy, and the" little girl was adopted by Mr. and Mrs. Taufi ner, of Manila, who reared aud edu cated her. She became engaged to Dr. Rizal, the Philippine hero, and married him only a few days before he was shot. The Spaniards forced her to witness his execution, and she vowed vengeance—a vow she has well kept. Mme. Rizal declares that her husband took no active part in the in surrection, that his only offense was sympathy with his people, and de clares also that his execution was an unprovoked and cold-blooded murder. The insurgents retaliate to the ut most extent of their power for the bar barities practised upon them by the Spanish soldiery. Each execution ol rebels by the Spanish has been fol lowed by one of captives in insurgent 1 strongholds, a policy to which, prob -1 ably, is due the recent change on the part of the Spanish troops toward the , captive insurgents. | Meanwhile the insurgents, women 1 as well as men, are bound by a solemn 1 oath to "fight to the death for the ' freedom of the Philippines; to show no mercy to Spanish man or woman, to count neither life nor property, nor family ties, in the battle for national liberty and the expulsion of the Span iards." The smooth, round arms of these women are marked by the V brand of the halo—the mark of the in surgents—and to the full, as forceful ' as the men, they are determined to | die rather than be slaves to the Span j ish oppressors, under whose yoke they and their foremothers have bowed so long. Education has brought forth the new woman in the Philippines as elsewhere, and once more "Old Glory" heralds freedom to the slave. On tln> River of Egypt. "Assouan is the southern frontier of Egypt, the terminus of the lower Nile. And it looks like a terminus. We came to it on a lazy afternoon," writes G. W. Stevens, the well-known African explorer, "too late for coffee, too early for tea. The Nile, which had been lazy, too, began to show signs of a current. We tied up by a bank of yellow sand; in front of us, to the left, was a long line of palms with white houses peeping from behind them—Assouan. Beyond it a lofty rise of rock—at least, it looks lofty in Egypt—met the elevation of a rocky, tree-grown island—Elephantine. Be tween the two came down the river, still fretting from the Cataract. It narrowed between the two elbows of rock, and turned a corner, so that it looked as if Assouan were not only the end of Egypt, but the end of the Nile. "In a quarter of an hour I was in a boat, amid my packages, pulling away up stream for my friend'* dahabeah. Lucky are the friends of my friend, and his welcome always gives you to believe he came to this particular cor ner expressly to meet you. Now I was to live a couple of nights aboard his dahabeah. I had seen the sort of comfort in which he sends you up the Nile in a party; now for the luxury when he gives you a dahabeah to your self. "The six leather-skinned rowers took hold of their clumsy oars, one hand like a cap over the butt; swung them out by the loop-of-rope rowlocks, and bent forward. As the oars took the water a seventh leather-skinned, squatting idly in the hows, suddenly set up a nasal wail. 1 knew it at once —Arab singing; but to my horror the whole crew joined in full-throated. For half a dozen strokes they howled, and then set up one strident staccato 'a-a-ali!' which is the cry they use in this country to remind shirking camels and donkeys of their duty. Then for auother six strokes they howled; theu a-a-ah-d agaiu to keep themselves up to their work."—London Mail Plenty to Do. "I thought you told me, Wilson, that you intended to do business just the same after you had moved rnto the suburbs. I know you have plenty, but I always thought you one of those men who insist upou dying in the harness." "You were right about it, my old friend. I believed that it would be impossible for me to avoid spending at least two or three hours a day on 'change, but my time is completely taken up and I haven't looked at a market report for a month." "Wouldn't believe it if any one else told me. How do you exist?" "I am having young trees set out, getting a garden ready, superintend ing the building of a barn, watching them pave the street and having a continued kick with the assessors, who seem to think that my property is worth all I paid for it." "You'll soon have all that off your hands. I was afraid you might have left us permanently." "Oh, I've only commenced. I have a Jersey cow, a pointer pup, a tandem, two Berkshire pigs and a kodak, be sides " "Never mind. The cow, the pup and the kodak are enough. I'll just tell the boys that it's all off so far as trade with you is concerned. You have three fads that will keep you busier thau a coon fn a bee tree."— Detroit Free Press. The Karlli'* Laziest Creature. A curious and sluggish creature is the tautawa, a nine-iuch lizard, whosi home is in New Zealand. The little imitation saurian has the reputation of being the laziest creature ever created. Ho is usually found cling ing to rocks or logs along the shores ' of rivers and lakes, and has been known to remain in one position per fectly motionless for many months. How the creature manages to exist is 3 a mystery. 1 Average 111-lleulth. 1 The average amount of sickness in - hnman life is nine days out of the f year. BRAMBLE'S QUIET HOLIDAY. Ills Kuse Wax Clever, Hut the Cleverer ISoys ■■"oiled Him. Old Cy Bramble had never been a boy. He probably began to dry np shortly after he was weaned and passed through boyhood in a sort, of chrysalis stat?, with tho difference that he never became n butterfly. Bramble hated boys, and every boy in Tunley hated him. His chief reason for hating boys was that they were noisy, and it naturally followed that the day *n the yenr that he most loathed 1 'as the Fourth, and he had been known to say that if he had his way it would be a capital offence to set oft' even a parlor match. On tho even ing of the third of July he would de scend into his cellar with a basket of food, a lamp and some books and with both ears stuffed with cotton, and he would not be Been again until became out on the morning of the fifth. So the astonishment of the small boys of Tunley may be easily im agined when he gavo it out that he would take orders for firecrackers and torpedoes to be ready for delivery on the evening of the third, and for which he would ask just half the mar ket rates. Was he crazy or had he turned philanthropist? But he was evidently in earnest, and the chance of getting fireworks so cheap outweighing all other considera tions he did a laud office business in the way of taking orders. At 7 on tho evening of the third his goods were ready, and he had a busy time waiting on all his boyish cus tomers, but by 11 o'clock he was ready for bed, and he went thei e, not to his cellar. The morning of the Fourth dawned as disgustingly early as it usually does, but wakeful and nervous peopN waited in vain for noisy salutes. In neighboring towns the faint sound oi cannon and pistols could be heard, but Tnuley was as still as the grave of a dumb man. When the grown-ups came down to breakfast they found their children holding indignation meetings. Some thing was the matter with the fire crackers. They sputtered and hissed, hut did not crack, and the torpedoes simply broke in a distressingly quiet way and scattered pebbles over the ground. Bramble was found sitting outside of his house iu an armchair, reading a book and looking as contented ns a well-fed kitten. It was evidently a put-up job on his part. He had doc tored the fireworks, that he might en joy a qniet Fourth in the open air. When it dawned ou the boys that they had been victimized they lost no time in forming a purse and a com mittee. The parse enabled the com mittee to go to tho nearest town aud buy a large quantity of era ckers of all sizes. At about 3 in the afternoon Bramble sunk into a restful nap. His dried-up features relaxed, bis withered talons lay like a heap of picked bones in his lap, and he gave himself over to dreams. Then it was that tho parade began. The paraders were all tho boys who had been duped, and they numbered all the boys iu town with one or two exceptions. The line of march lay past his house, and his rocking chair was the reviewing stand. His slum bers was disturbed by a beating of tin pans, a blowing of liorus and the ex plosion of firecrackers. Then, before ho was fully awake ho was bound to his chair by a stont rope, and the per formance concluded with what the boys called "Tbe Bombardment ol Moscow," in which a dozen huge can non crackers played an active part, ex ploding simultaneously under the "re viewing stand." By a miracle the old man was not hurt, but he burst his bonds with the strength that great fear sometimes gives, and rattled into tho house liken skeleton in a gale of wind, and all the rest of that Fourth he spent in his cellar, while the boys held high carni val iu front of his house. Aud nothing was ever done to them either, for public opinion, ns expressed by their parents, held that a man whe was mean enough to knowingly sell damaged fireworks to boys deserved all that he got. This nil happened s jme years ago, and old Bramble has gone tc a place where firecrackers don't keep, but oue of the Tunley boys told rue nbout the occurrence, and so I know it is true. —Charles Battell Loomis. Gerinnn Experience With tbe Grip. Au extensive investigation ns to the spread of the grip in the Gernmu Army, assuming, ns it did, the form of an epidemic, has given to medical opinion as to its being a dis ease that owes its origin to certain miasmatic external causes, while, on the other hand, there is not assumed to lie any sure evidence of tbe influ ence of weather, climate, wind or soil, or the season of the year. To the contrary, indeed, the number of those cases iu which the spread and the mode of spreading of the ailment is attributable to human intercourse was considerably increased by the experi ence of the last epidemic. But au thorities are still iu a state of doubt ns to whether the infection is carried directly from person to person, or whether the infectious material is carried by the intervention of inani mate objects through the air. Of the real germ that causes the disease there is no precise knowledge, lteasons are given, however, for believing that inanimate substances may house the real germs of the disease and convey them far away; and if, therefore, dead substances can thus contribute to the spread of the disease germs, such a fact may perhaps explain the appear ance of the disease upon ships on the high seas.—New York Tribune. Australian eggs now sell in Lon.loz in large quantities. CURIOUS FACTS. In Brazil a single pineapple liaa never attained a greater growth than seven pounds. A captive bee striving to escape has been made to record as many as 15,510 wing strokes per minute. A servant on a farm near Cambrai, in northern France, has lived seventy one years with the same family. Coins bearing the names of em perors who existed over two thousand years ago are still in daily circulation in China. The "elephant beetle" of Ven ezuela is the largest insect iu the world. A full-grown one weighs about half a pound. A curious fact has been noted by the Arctic travelers—snow when at a very low temperature absorbs moisture and dries garments. A set of the works of Aristotle, the Greek philosopher, printed on vellum and of the date 1483, brought S4OOO at a recent sale in England. There is a hospital for trees on the banks of the Seine in Paris. Trees which grow sick alcug the boulevards are taken here to recover. A Teplitz old lady of ninety-nine has committed suicide by holding her head down in a tub of water because she did not want to live to be a hun dred years old. The most expensive drug is physos tigmine, an ounce of which would cost nearly SIOO,OOO. It is prepared from the Calabor bean and is used in dis eases of the eye. It having been decided to levy a house or hut tax of $1.25 on each owner in Sierra Leone, the natives are pulling down their huts and living un der trees rather than pay it. The owl's eyes have no muscles by which they cau be moved; but extraor dinary flexibility in the muscles of the neck enables the owl to move his head with iucredible rapidity in any direc tion. It is interesting to know just at this time that in the United States Senate three are twelve Senators who served in the Union army, and twelve who served iu the Confederate army. There are fifty-seven ltepreseutatives who served in the Union army and thirty who nre ex-Confederates. Provident Eliot on Hnppy Marriages* President Eliot, in a recent address before the Dorchester (Mass.) Wom an's Club, discussed the happy mar riage, and gave it what free and easy writers call a first-class notice. A very brief extract from his address credits him with saying that the ideal izing devotion with which the happy marriage begins is the most admirable Ihing in human nature. He does not seem to favor the idea that the cor ner-stone of happiness iu marriage is a sufficient iucome secured against the chances of fortune. On the con trary, he declares the young woman who marries for money or position is sacrificing the best of life which mar riage affords. The chief conditions of a happy marriage, us he finds them, are health, common intellectual inter ests, and a religious belief held in common between husband and wife. No doubt he enlarged upon these con ditions, and qualified the idea of the superlative importance of the latter two by taking large views of tliem. We often see, for example, people very happily married whose minds are so differently constituted that it seems impossible that they should have more than a limited number of intellectual iuterests in common. But there are difi'erent kinds of good minds, and minds that supplement one another seem quite as well suited to harmonious associations as those that run in parallel grooves.—Har per's Weekly. Your Chair and Your Desk. Some curious experiments have been made l>y a Harvard professor to prove what is really the best height for the chair you Bit ou uud the desk you write at. Every person, it appears, ought to have a chair specially made to suit his or her height, and the seat of the eliair should be exactly one quarter of your height fiom the flour. Thus, if you are Bix feet high, the chair seat should be eighteen inches. The width of the seat should exactly equal its height, aud it should slope backward three-quarters of an iuch to the foot. The back should be a trifle higher thau the seat and sloped slight ly, not too much. Finally, your desk should be two-thirds ns high ngaiu as the seat of your chair. Thus, if yonr chair seat is twenty-four inches, the desk should be forty inches iu height. When you have attended to all these little details you can sit aud write all day without feeliug that backache that comes from chairs and desks that don't fit von.—Hartlord (Coun.) Post. Patti and "Hag-time" Song-. Patti ouce went on au excursion with a party of Americans, atuoug whom was a young chap who could play on a banjo aud sing "coon" and "rag-time" songs like a professional. He did not intend that the great singer should judge of the quality of his art, but by accident she had a chance, and to the young man's joy she fell hilari ously in love with every rag-time melody he saug. This was a secret between the two until oue evening Patti consented to sing for the com pany. Several listeners went mildly insane when the great artist, after a little preparatory "patting," sang "Mamie, Come Kiss Your Honey Boy."—New York World. Green Garnets. Green garnets nre more valuable than diamonds because they are so exceedingly rare. They are of au un surpassed rich shade far beyond that of an emerald, and are very brilliant. On the other hand, red garnets are so common that tkey ci st next to noth ing.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers