LOST IN ALASKA'S WILDS LIEUT. CASTNER'S PERILOUS JOUR NEY IN THE YUKON COUNTRY. Terrible Hardships Suffered by His Little exploration Parly—Subsisting on Mule Flegli and Wolf Meat—They Set Out to Locate an American Trail lo Circle City The rigors of the Alaskan climate in the fall months and the difficulties which attend reeonnoissances in the Yukon country are set forth in a re port whioh has been received at the War Department from one of the ex ploration parties sent out to secure more accurate information regarding the most northern territory of the United States. A number of such ex peditions are now making surveys, bnt nothing had been beard of them for several months, nntil Captain E. F. Glenn, Twenty-fifth Infantry, sent in a report of the experiences of Lieu tenant J. C. Castner, Fourth Infantry, at the head of one of the small parties under his command. This report, dated Ootober 13, details the experi ences of Lieutenant Castner since leaving Captain Glenn at Camp Sepa ration, on August 30 last, until his re turn to the mouth of Chena Biver on September 30, during whioh period nearly one hundred mile 3 of territory were covered in an effort to reach Cir cle City. The trip was abandoned on account of lack of food and the great priva tions encountered by Lieutenant Cast ner aud the two enlisted men who ac companied him. The supplies, con sisting of twenty dnys' short rations, blankets, axes, eto., were carried on two mules, named Weyler and Jack. The party met with many obstaoles in crossing the Delta Biver, and narrow ly escaped being drowned several times in tho glacial waters. The mules were really an incumbrance much of the time, and they were taken across the streams with great difficulty. On ono occasion one of the mules was used as a means of propul sion for a raft, but the animal was soon ovoroonie by the cold and be came a dead weight, causing the raft to be whirled round aud round by the ourrents The party was compolled to camp many nights without proteo tiou other thau afforded by the blan kets, aud the trail followed led the men across numerous ravines, canyons aud fallen timber. Weyler failed rapidly and delayed the party, and it was finally decided to abandon him, and part of his pack was transferred to Jack. On September 7 Castner found his own strength failing for want of food, and the situation became more serious when it was discovered that the maps carried afforded little accurate infor mation of the country. Eleven grouse killed on the sth furnished food for the two succeeding days. At this time Lieutenant Castner made an effort to ford the river, Jt>ut he was carried off his feet by the swift cur rent and lost valuable tools. Ho was able to laud on the Bhore about three quarters of a mile from where he started to wade. On September 10 Jack showed signs of blind-staggers, and it was decided to kill him. Some of the meat was packed up and carried by the men. The trail continued across streams and over the roughest kind of roads, which apparently had never before been traversed, the party muok of the time being compelled to make a trail. On September 13 the streams swelled to the proportions of moun tain iorreuts, full of long rapids, the strength of the men dwindled, and it was decided to abandon every thing except the food and firearms. On September 14 the party made eleven miles over mossy roadways, whioh impeded their progress greatly. The next day the men walked with bleeding feet over rough rock, suffer ing pain at every stop. The supply of food was reduced to two weeks' stock of tea and coffee, a slice of bacon for supper, nnd auother for breakfast. Ahead of the party was a mountainous country. There was no sign of a divide and no evidence of the Yukon waters, while, if the men had been in the best physical condition, it would have taken a week to have gone over the hills; then there was the risk that they would find nothing on the other side. It was here that Castner de cided to retrace his steps with the hope of reaching the body of the mule whioh had been killed. On September 10 the party was without a particle of food, coffee constituting the morning meal. Fortunately Castner killed two ducks, and these served as the food for supper. On September 17 the party sub sisted in the morning on coffee, and later in the day one of the soldiers encountered three wolves. He fired six shots before he killed one of the animals, which proved to be a young Yukon wolf, the meat of which was speedily oooked and proved most wel .come to the tired nnd hungry ex plorers. Lieutenant Castner says it tasted much like mutton. On September 18 the party became discouraged at the slow progress made, and Oastner determined to build a raft. The blankets which had been aban doned were rocovered, and ribbons from them were used to tie the logs together. Castner being without an axe, the roots of the trees used were burned. The next day the party em barked, and were swept along by the swift ourrentwith tremendous velocity. On suddenly rounding a curve in the - river the raft and its occupants were thrown in and under a huge timber jam, everything the men possessed be ing lost, and one of them came near drowning. They reached the shore with great difficulty and walked ten miles in their stocking feet. On Sep tember 20 the dead mule was found, and portions of the body secured, on whioh the party subsisted for a few , days. From this time until Septem -1 her 80 these three men lived on ber ries and roots and slept without cover, walking with bleeding feet sixty-five miles in six days nntilthey reached an Indian encampment. They were hos pitably received and every possible at tention given them. Two days later Lieutenant Castner, Blitch and McGregor started down the river in birch bark canoes with the In dians and reached the mouth „of the Chena Biver on September 80. Blitch and McGregor could go no further and were left at an Indian camp. Lieuten ant Castner proceeded up the Chena Biver eighty-five miles, where he found a steamboat and white men. He purchased at enormous prices a boat and provisions and returned to the camp whore the soldiers had been left. He reached there on October 0, and a few days later the three men managed to get to Weare, Alaska. At the time his letter was written Lieutenant Cast ner was still unable to get his shoes on. He could not then walk over a mile a day in mocasins. He feels greatly chagrined over the failure of his expedition, but extracts satisfaction from the fact that he and the two soldiers were the first white men to go from end io end of the slough around Bates Bapid, a discov ery of considerable importance. REFLECTIONS OF A BACHELOR. Man seeks; woman searches, A man's hardest trial is preserving faith in his wife's faith in his faith. If men could be born widowers there would never be any suoh a thing as a widow. The longer a man stays single the surer he is that some woman had a lucky escape. Some girls would appear better il they could only manage to get away from in front of themselves. Tho time a mau bogins to lovo his wife the hardest is about the time lie discovers she doesn't love him so much as he thought she did. When a girl who is visiting town talks about tho "conservatory" at home, you can be pretty sure that her mother raises house plants in the bay window. If n man took the trouble to find out what a woman's favorite novel was and then proposed like the hero does, she probably could never help accepting him. Take away from the average woman's mind what she thinks about the neigh bors, and you will have left her religion and what she thinks the neighbors think about her. No girl has any right to get married till she knows nine ways to use up stale bread and how to fold a dress suit so when a man wants to wear it he won't have pay a dollar to get the wrinkles pressed out of it.—New York Press. Confusing. There is a Detroit family that ar ranged to spend tho cold season in the Bormudas, and due announcement oi tho fact was made in the usual way. An uuforseen event deferred the pro posed trip and the pride of the good wife did not permit of her acknowledg ing a change in the plan of campaign as proclaimed to the world through the newspapers. They would go later, and meantime they would havo it be lieved that they had already departed. All the servants but one were dis missed. The front of the house was made to look as though the place were closed, and temporary residence was taken up in rear apartments. A friend of the family, who had just returned to the city, called and was bent upon letting tho folks know that she was back. Her persistent manipulation of the boll led the servant to show her beaming countenance through a craok of the door. "Is your mistress at homo?" "She s'id to'till yez they air in the Barmudiz." "O, away from home?" "They air al lioinein the Barmudiz." "But they must havo gone from home in order to be so far away." "If yez'll wait I'll ask the misthress. Shure I can't be ramimberiu' how it is. at all, at all." The friend waited patiently; even gaily. "It wus roight I wns all the toime," announced the faithful handmaid. "The misthress is here in- the Bar mudiz. Would yez be l'avin' a carrud?" —Detroit Free Press. A Wonderful Case. Nelson Mackold, of Waukesha, has lived since May, 1897, with two bul lets in his brain, either one of whioh, so the dootors say, would have killed anybody else. On that date a horrible crime was committed on a lonely farm near Wau kesha. A man named Ponch killed Farmer Alexander Harris, put two bullets into Mackold's head and left him for dead. He then went to tho house and, after Mrs. Harris had given him his breakfast, ho shot her and her daughter. The hired man revived sufficiently to crawl to a neighbor's house and give the alarm. The whole country was aroused and some days after the murderer was found in a pond, where he had shot and then drowned him self. Tho grasp of Mackold upon life was marvelous. AH the doctors said he would die, but instead he got well and by the end of the summer was able to work about tho farm. In the interest of science Mackold was taken to Chi cago aud au X-ray photograph taken ofhisbrain. It shows that one bullet is lodged at tho base of the brain, right over the spinal column, and the other is iu the roof of the orbit. Physiciaus say that, according to every physical law, he must of neces sity die from the effects of the bullets in their present position. Yet the man lives, is strong and well, feels no ill effects from" tjils bullets and is as sane as he ever was. OBJECT LESSON IN THRIFT WHAT A LIFE OF FRUCALITY HAS DONE FOR VICTOR WILLIAMS. He Is an Eccentric Old Capitalist in New York State—Deals In Farm Mortgages Principally His Fatuous llootleg Dunks—Disposition of Ills Wealth. Viotor Williams, who is reputed to be worth nearly $200,000,' aud whose mortgages, leases and contracts blanket many a farm in the towns of Lyme, Lorraine and Cape Vincent, walked into Watertown from Three- Mile Bay, where he lives with a nephew and "does chores for his board," on a recent Wednesday, says the Syracuse Herald, carrying slung across his arm a well-blacked pair of cowhide boots, in which wero stowed away big rolls of greenbacks, aggre gating many thousands of dollars, be sides other securities rivaling iu value the contents of many a couutry bank vault. The old capitalist had been on a collecting tour among the farms of the mentioned towns, gathering in the interest on his mortgages aud stuffing it into his bootlog banks, and coming to Watertown deposited his gatherings in the vaults of certain of the city banks, after which he started out to walk back to the farm, leaving early that he might reach home iu time to take care of the farmer's stock. In appearance the old man, who must have passed his eightieth birth day, is suggestive of anything but a capitalist, as his cowhide boots, which ho always carries with him on his trips, are suggestive of anything but the depositories of money aud secur ities. He wears, winter and summer, a well-patohed pair of brown denim overalls stuffed iuto a pair of long legged rubber boots, while his faded coat is belted around his stooped aud bent body by a piece of clothes line with an iron ring iu lieu of a buckle. His gray hair protrudes from beneath a low-drawn Scotch cap, and his shrewd and wrinkled visage is framed with a fringe of gray beard. His eyes, in spite of his eighty years, are as keen as a hawk's, aud he never for an instant allows his glance to wander from his bootlog banks. This little, bent and shabbily dressed man has made every cent of his wealth by industry, frugality and striot economy, and every penuy of his possessions has been honestly ac cumulated. He was born on a little, rocky farm near the Burnt Bock schoolhouse, in the town of Lyme, some eighty years ago, and after at taining his majority worked for neighboring farmers in summer and taught district schools in winter for several years, but evidently gave up wielding the birch aud spcut his life up to a few years ago asm farm hand in unremitting toil, often working iu tho field for the scant wages of the "hired man" oil farms he could have owned in his own name simply by foreclosing tho mortgage he held thereon and which reposed iu his cow hide boots. As ho received his hoard and got his "washing and mending" done gratuitously on the farms where he toiled, ho was able to save nearly every cent of his wages. The first dollar earned by him ho still keeps, and has kept ninety-nine out of every one hundred, he says, earned since. Like mauy another man, ho found that the hardest struggle was to savo the first SIOOO. Since that was saved aud its interest commenced to pile up, the rest, he says, has beeu easy, A few years ago he gave working among the farmers for wages, and has since lived with his nephew near Three-Mile Bay, but has by no means boen idle. Periodically he slings his pair of cowhide boots across his arm and starts out on a collecting tour, taking nlong his papers aud making new leases and contracts as occasion requires. Ho has never, it is said, paid a lawyer a cent, always securing a compromise in any difference which has arisen between himsolf and his tenants. As ho owns no farms in his own name, only holding mortgages, etc., he is little bothered by the tax gatherer. He is said to have very de cided opinions regarding the income tax law and the taxation of mortgages. Just what disposition Victor Wil liams will make of his wealth when ho arrives at the end of his accumulating, none of his friends has the remotest idea. He never married, his entire attention having always been concen trated upon the accumulation of wealth, and he has but few living rel atives. It is said by those most fa miliar with the eccentric old man that it is his purpose to set apart the greater part of his wealth for the building and endowing of an agricul tural college, to be located near Watertown, while others maintain that the building of an industrial school, such as that erected by the benefi cence of the late Thomas S. Clarkson, at Potsdam, is his cherished object. To a kinsman he is said to have once stated that he would set aside a cer tain sum to orect a monument, which should be surmounted by a figure copied after himself, bearing slung across the arm a pair of boots. To another friend here he is alleged to have once said that more than SIOO,- 000 has passed through his bootleg banks during the years in which he has used them for garnering aud car rying wealth. Paris Mushroom Caves. One of the most interesting sights around Paris is the mushroom caves, which are nothing more or less thau tunnels containing at intervals of a few feet small beds of fertilizer nfixed with virgin Boil. The oaves 'wliere | mushrooms are grown are especially ' prepared and great care and attention are given to their keeping and perfect preservation. BATTLE IN THE WOODS. Remarkable Duel Retween a Bis Real nncl a Bull Caribou. The only enemies the caribou hoi to fear among wild animals are th< black bear and the lynx. The lattei is very destructive to the young in the spring and summer months. The ef forts of bruin in stalking and pulling down unwary stragglers from the herd aro more successful than is commonly supposed. In the mating season, however, the bull caribou, like the goat that tackled the grindstone, has the courage of his convictions, and, unless taken unawares, is opt to give the bear a very stiff argument. Adam Moore, of Scotch Lake, New Bruns wick, in October, 1897, was the wit ness of a remarkable battle between a large black bear and a bull caribou. From subsequent examination of the ground it appeared that the bull was accompanied by three cows and a fawn. The bear had evidently crept up on the fawn and killed it with one stroke of his paw, when the bull ap peared and attacked the bear in a most valiant manner, the cows run ning off in the bush. Adam had just paddled up the dead-water from camp and was lifting his canoe over an old beaver dam when he heard a rumpus on the bank a few rods up stream. He paddled close to the combatants, but they paid no heed to his presence. The bear refused to give up the dead fawn, but seemed to be handicapped by n guilty conscience. Whining as if in protest at the unfriendly treat ment he was receiving, he sat bolt upright defending himself with his fore paws as the agile caribou circled him. The latter ani mal seemed to be wild with rage, and his movements, as he tried to impale the bear, were so rapid that Adam could scarcely follow him. The bear parried the blows of his assailant adroitly, but wore a bored expression as if he really wished a general dis armament as long as nobody inter fered with him. Adnm noticed that the caribou's neck was bleeding from an open wound and that the bear had been gored in the breast and flank. Anxious as he was to see the issue of the fight, his sympathy for the caribou was too strong to be resisted and ho brought down the bear with a well aimed shot. Even when his enemy was dead the caribou continued to strike at him with his saucer-like hoofs, while Adam silently watched him from the dead water. Then, being apparently convinced that he had slain his tinted foe, the ball uttered a loud grunt of triumph and rambled off in search of the harem. Objected to Frills. The late Admiral Kirkland, known in the service as "Bed Bill," was a veritable "sea dog," as the term is popularly understood; brave and fear loss, possessed of many genial quali ties, but a strict disciplinarian, with the greatest horror of anything like "dudeism" or atTectatiou among his young officers. On one occasion the Admiral re ceived a visit from a recently appointed young officer. "How do you do, sir; how do you do?" said the little midshipman. "Howde do?" said the Admiral gruffly. "I suppose you got all of my tele grams, Admiral, did you?" asked the young officer, trembliug at the rather ungracious attitude of liis superior of licer. "What telegrams do you refer to?" asked the Admiral. "I got uo tele grams." "I am very, very sorry," said the young man, now thoroughly frightened lat the Admiral's attitude. "I tele ! graphed that I was coming from al | most every station, sir." Admiral Kirkland turned iu his chair and glow ered at his little subordinate. "Why do you suppose that I care whether you came or didu't come? Never presume to do that again, sir." And the poor little officer, thoroughly abashed, sluuk out of the room.— Pittsburg Dispatch. ItlrdH Which Soar Hit;li. Very few people realize at what tre mendous heights biuls sometimes tra verse the air. Herons and wild ducks, geese and swans, when traveling loug distances, fly at greater heights often as much as 2000 feet. But it is the hawk, and more particularly the vul ture tribe, that constantly wing the air at far greater limits than these. The common buzzard spies for carrion suspended a mile above the earth, and the great condor of the Andes has been watched through a powerful tel escope floating at the amazing height of 27,000 feet, over five miles above tha sea level. Second Hurt Cured the Firnt. A young man, employed in a book bindery iu Portland, while playing ball about a year ago, received au in jury to one of his fiuger3, which, to all appearances, would be permanent, and he never expected to get relief. But a few. days ago he was at work iu tho bookbindery when his finger was crushed, and a surgeon was summoned, who, to his great surprise, found that this second injury had completely remedied the original hurt, and ho was able to annouuee that when well the finger would be perfectly normal iu shape,—Portland (Me.) Transcript. Fox Terrier Crnckg and Eats Nut*. A lively littlo fox terrier owned by a family uptown has developed a strange habit. In his afternoon rambles now he stops before a grocery store in front of which, among other things, there is usually an open box of table nuts. Picking up twe or three nuts in its mouth the dog runs away with them to its master's house, n few doors off. There, stretching itself on a rug in front of the door, tho dog holds a nut between its paws, cracks it with its teeth like a squirrel, and eats it with relish.—New York Sun. A PHILIPPINE CEMEItRY. Hie Reason Why Gruves Are Not Dug la the Ground. Paco cemetery, near Manila, is a characteristic burying ground, a small circular piece of land with two thick and high concentric walls some dis tance apart, the outer one enclosing the cemetery. Iu these walls, and not in the ground, the dead aro buried, in innumerable narrow niches running deep into the wall. When the body is once put in, the niche is walled up and a tablet is placed to mark the spot. The reason that graves are not dug in the ground is that at a depth of two feet water is found. The cemetery is managed on the plan of a boarding house. The deceased's friends pay his board for four years, and if at the end of that time they do Sot pay again the niche is broken #pen and the remains are thrown into the bone-pit. Sometimes not even this courtesy is shown to the dead, for I saw a coffin and part of a corpse thrown over the back wall of a ceme tery into somebody's rice field. On the first of November, towards evening, Pnco cemetery is a very in teresting sight. The two concentric rings of walls blaze with the light of thousands of candles and small lamps. About these two blazing rings a great crowd moves. Individuals stop now and then before the niche of some dead friend, as, on the promenade of any European watering-place, people stop to speak to each other. I never knew beforo what became of all the Derby hats of bygone years, but now I know that they are sent out to tho Philippines. Littlo native men, iu ppiok and span shirts with the tails floating to the wind, wearDerbys of every conceivable shape, some perched on the top of their heads af ter-the fashion of the Irish music-hall comedian, some covering their faces and ears with voluminous curved brims. Little Philippine women with stiff clenu pina dresses and black gauze voils over their heads, looking neat and wholesome, swing along with that peculiar undulatory motion of the body which reminds one a little of the snake. Mestiza girls, in cos tumes which are not quite Philippine, and certainly not European, hold their heads high and sniff' at the common people as befits their superior caste. Spanish women, in dresses after the Paris fashions in the sixties, hang in dolently on the arms of gallant Span ish officers who carry themselves with the haughty pride of conquerers. And, finally, Jimmy Green, iu an ill fitting brown duck suit with a flannel shirt and a campaign hat, slouches along to see the sights. At tho end of the semetery is a chapel, where for a small considera tion masses will be said to get tho suffering souls out of purgatory. In deed, "All-Souls' Day" is the only day in tho year when souls in purga tory have a chance to get out. Back of the church is the "bone-yard," a loug trench where the Rkulls and bones of people that have failed to pay their rent ore thrown. A rather pretty Filipino girl, nonchalantly smoking a cigarette at the end of this pit, gave a "light" to one of our party. Her es cort climbed down into the "bone yard," and picking up a skull, mut tered something in Tagalo. It might have been "Alnsl poor Y'orick!" for all we knew. The relic-hunter among us asked the man, in Spanish, to give him the skull to tako homo as a me mento. •'Oh, senor," answered tho Tagalo, "if yon take it home, it will jump about at night, and give you no rest until you either break it or bring it bring it back here!" "But if I get the padre to sprinkle holy watar on it?" asked the relic huuter. "Bah! What can the pndre do?" replied the irreverent Tagalo.— Har per's Weekly. XUlml Fishes In Culm. According to Dr. Gill, Cuba is also remarkable for two species of blind fishes, distantly related to the cod family and otherwise represented only iu deep sea forms. They have, after many years, adapted themselves to the fresh water of the caves in which they have become isolated aud have lost their Bight after living many genera tions without seeing daylight. In Cuba thero are also some fresh water "gar pike," curious because of their resemblance to alligators. This simi larity in appearance is suggested by the "gar pike's" hard, bony scales, which will resist musket shot, also by its snout, conspicuously croco dilesque. Other fresh water fishes of Cuba aro related to similar species of South America, Mexico and south western United States. Those related to our species are some forms of killie fishes and mumioliogs. The only food fish in Cuban water is a large mullet, which has wandered inland from the sea.—Washington Star. Wool Untie From Fluo Needles. An industry common to Europe, but heretofore uuknown in this country, says a Western paper, is being estab lished at Grant's Pass, Oregon, by Mr. and Mrs. D. A. Cords. It is tho manufacture of pine needles into a fabric, similar to woolen cloth, aud the forests of Oregon provide tnore and better material for this industry than any other place in the world. While Mr. and Mrs. Cords are enthusiastic, they are practical minded withal, and will "make haste slowly." They in tend, first, to make material of the consistency of excelsior for mattresses; after that they will manufacture the wool whioh is used for underclothing, bandages and other such purposes, where a soft pilable fabric is required. Only the inner fabrio of the needles can ho used for the latter, and the process is expensive, but not more so than of tho manufacture of lamb's wool. I WOMAN'S WORLD, f %esec€e€see*eefe*' WIPING OUT WRINKLES. Massajje Treatment Will Iteßtore to the Face Its Delicate Smoothness. One of the most difficult problems a woman must solve in her quest for beauty is how to retain a good com plexion and keep away wxinkles. Wrinkles in the face come in obedi ence to certain commands of nature, and they can, to a gr-iat extent, be banished by forcing na'.ure, who gets a little bit tired as the year goes on, to take a tonic, brace up aud do liev work. ifoREHEAD FoatriE-AD TE/TPLETS ABOVE- THE EYE UNDER TH.t EYL- CHEErIx NtCK COWWiCINC -CHttk sr.ow-tiie/niDDLE A DIAGRAM FOP. FACE MASSAGE. The first thing for a woman to do when she wants to apply massage to her face aud neck is to study the con stitution and conditions of her skin. She must know whether she has a fatty skin or a dry skin. If the skin is too dry, then elasticity and power of tension are lacking, so that the skin cannot follow the movements of the facial muscles and nerves, and the consequence is that the skin relaxes aud tho wrinkles come. In this ense your skin must be fed with the lack ing fat. To this end vegetable fat is preferable to animal fat. If the skin is too fat it seoms to ex ude parafrine, tho pores become en larged by the tallow, pimples and blackheads come to you as nature's frioudly warning that your skin is ab normally secreting fatty substances. This superfluous fat must be removed by dry facial massage. Even if your skin is good, your face without a blemish, you should still giveitamas- Bage treatment occasionally; it is as necessary as gymnastics and exercise for the body. By skillful treatment of yourself you can remove the fatty secretions, thereby producing a natural, trans parent, white color of the face. The circulation will be accelerated, and wrinkles, if not too deep, will in a short time dematerialize. Let us suppose that you want to free your face of tan, patch, moth, freckles. You will first annoint the face and neck with somo kind oi cold cream. Now, with tho lightest touch, rub from the roots of tho nose upward over tho forehead, and again, begin ning at the middle of the forehead, with the same light stroke, run toward tho left, and from tho middle of the forehead toward the right. For every direction that you take about five strokes is the beneficial number. Be careful to go especially against the horizontal wrinkles in the forehead; 1 thoso that usually start out from the top of a fat "sway" nose. Now stroke from tho right and left corners of the eyes, over the temples, especially against the crowfeet, near the eyes. Close your eyes and give same number of strokes over the up per and lower lids, beginning at the nose and stroking out. Begin at the tip of the nose, go over the nose proper, and over the wings of the uoso toward the right and left sides. Under the lower lids, beginning at the nose and over the cheeks toward the ear. Next, beginning from the wing of the nose, the corner of the eye, and temple, toward the middle of the right and left lower jaw. These strokes must end at the same place. Your next starting point is the middle of the chin, aud thence toward the mid dle of the jaw, and vertically, starting from the temple. Under the chiu and beginning from the right and left sides of the neck downward to tho breastbone. This whole treatment requires only about fifteen minutes daily; and bear iu mind, for in this particular almost all amateur masseuse err, the lighter the stroke tho better.—Chicago Itec ord. A Bit of Lace. The possessor of even tho smallest bit of choice lace should regard it as a treasure and keep it among her preo ious things. Lace, though so fra gile, is nevertheless among those im perishable articles which, handed down in fnmiles, go from mother to daughter, and are as useful to the third .generation as they were to the first. A certain fine sentiment clings to the lace which has been used at weddings and curisteningd, wmcii lias I formed part of the grandmother's | trousseau, and long after she has done with it adorns the wardrobe of some youthful bride, who repeats in her features the charm of her aucesters. There are imitations of lace made to-day which almost counterfeit the real in the fineness of their threads, beauty of their designs, and the in j tricacy of their meshes; nevertheless, no machine-made imitation ever com petes in true value with a bit of lace, patiently wrought by hand, perhaps in soino quiet convent, or made by a peasant woman at intervals of lier busy day, that she may thus earn her children s bread. Poverty and pathos are interwoven in the filmy cloud of which completes the toilet of the bride, and in the delicate edge of the same on the cap of the aged matron, or the gossamer handkerchief which finishes the costume cf the great lady. The plain gown fashioned without regard to reigning styles takes ou an air of its owu if a bit of beautiful lace be worn at the ueck and sleeves. Lace is seldom out of vogue, though there are seasons like the present when its use is more general that at others, when lace shawls long laid away in lavender emerge from their seclusion and are fashioned into capes, over-dresses, aud drapery to heighten the lavish lineryof a modern belie. Regarded as a gift, nothing is more suitable as au offering from friend to friend at a birthday, wedding, or hol iday occasion than a bit of fine lace. The woman is far to seek who is indif ferent to its spell, and who does not love to look over her laces as ehe looks at her jewels, finding both among the delights of her life. Not only has lace its use in the toilet; it linds an appropriate place in bedspreads, doilies, aud scarfs for bu reau and table ornamentations. For these homelier uses a heavier and more elaborate style of lace is chosen than for the daintier needs of the toilet.—Harper's Bazar. Tlio Taste of