Freeiand Tribune Established 1888. PUBLISHED EVERY MONDAY AND THURSDAY, BY TIIB TRIBUNE PRINTING COMPANY. Limited OriricE: Maix Street Above Cestbe. FREELAND, PA. SUBSCRIPTION KATKS: One Yenr $1.50 Six Months 75 Four Months 50 Two Mouths .'ls The date which tho subscription is paid to I* on tho address label ot each paper, the change of which to a subsequent date be oouies a receipt for remittance. Keep the figures in advance of the present date, lie* port promptly to this oflice whenever paper is not received. Arrearages must he paid when subscription is discontinued. Afa' e nil momy orders, cheeks, etc,,payabl. lo Ih Tribune l'rintinj Company, Limited. The Philadelphia Press computes that the capitalization of all tho trusts organized in this country in the Inst fifteen months reaches the enormous total of §1,183,000,000. In other words this is two-thirds as large as the cost of the Civil War, aud is one-third greater than tho greatest debt the United States ever owed. The manu facturers of the country in 1800 had a total capital of §0,130,307,383. The trusts only include a small share of the total manufactures, yet their capital is now two-thirds as large as the total sum invested in all establishments making anything in all the laud, aud more trusts are being organized daily. Some idea of the difficulty of com municating with Samoa is to be had from an inspection of ocean distances. From San Francisco to Honolulu the distance is 2100 miles; from Honolulu to Samoa, 2250 miles; from San Fran cisco to Samoa by direct route, I1G0; from Samoa to Auckland, New Zea land, tho nearest telegrajih station, it is 1580. Under present conditions as much oi more time is required for a voyage from San Francisco to Hono lulu or from the latter place to Samoa than for a trip to Europe, though the distance from New York to Liverpool is about 3000 miles. When the Pacific cable is laid, it will be tapped for con nection with Samoa. An English woman, Mrs. Rogers, stewardess of tho steamer Stella, has won for herself a name and place among tho world's heroos and martyrs. When the boat went on the rocks in the English Channel and was fast sink ing, she first coolly and courageously assisted the women passengers to put on life preservers and having helped them into the boats, she refused to fol low them for fear of overcrowding the already dangerously ladeu craft. And so, remaining with the steamer, she sunk when the latter broke up and was never seen again. The memorial which the English people are going to erect to her memory will be one in which America would be honored by being asked to join. Finland, since it was torn from Sweden iu 1809 by Russia, has been a Russian principality, enjoying a large measure of home rule. The Czar, un der the title of Grand Duke, is their Prince, aud they have been his most progressive, enlightened and valuable subjects. They have made their own laws in their Diet and have obeyed them. They have had popular '.gov ernment based on a suffrage nearly universal, and have made great strides forward iu wealth, education and civili zation, until to-day through their own efforts, they compare favorably in gen eral well being, prosperity aud happi. uess with any peopleonthe continent. Of the Russians, eighty-seven per cent, are illiterates, against one p>er cent, for the Finns. They have fur nished an admirable example of indus. trial, social and political capacity, and their impeudiug fate has excited the sympathy of the civilized world and horrified the Finnish people. Kuialan New. papers. There has never existed a political press in the real acceptance of the terra fn Russia. According to immem orial tradition, the government of the czar only allows the publication of news which is in every respect agree able to its own views and opinions. In certain special cases of great im portance, when it is thought neces sary either to excite or to calm public opinion, the Russian government is a trifle more lenient. Thus, for In stance, in 1812, during the wars againsl Napoleon 1., two newspapers suddenly made their appearance, and at once became the recognized organs of the Russian Chauvinist party, the Russian Invalid, mouthpiece of the ministry oi war and the Syn Otetschesva. The first Russian newspaper dates from the reign of the Czar Alexi3 (ICI3-1676). II was known under the name of Cur rent News and was only destined for the immediate "entourage" of the em peror. The real founder of the Rus sian press was Peter the Great, who first started the St. Petersburg Gazette, the official organ of the Academy of Sciences, a complete collection ol which exists since 1714.—Correspond ence Providence Journal THE WORLD-SMITHS, TThfit Is this muslo Whose strains aro borne nfar? Tho bummers of the world-smith! Are beutintf out u star. They build our old world over, Anew Its mold is wrought, Tney shape Hie plnstic planet To models of their thought, This is tho Iron muslo Whose strains nre borne afar; Tho hummers of tbo world-smiths Aro beating out a star. Wo lienrthe whirling sawmill Within tho forest deep; Tho wilderness is clipped llko wool. The bills are sheared like slieop. Down through tho fotbl fen ways We hour the road machine: The tnnglod swamps are tonsured, The marshes combed and clean. We see tho sprouting cities Loom o'er the prairie's rim, And through tho inland hilltops Tho ocean navies swim. Across the trelllscd land-ways The lifted steamers slide; Dry shod beneath the rivers The iron stallions glide; Beneath the tunneled city Tho lightning chariots flock. And back and fortli their freight of men Shoot like a shuttlecock. Tiie moon-led tides are driven back, Their waves no more are free, And islands rise from out the main And cities from the seu. We see the mountain river From out its channel torn And wedded to the desert That Plenty may be born; We see tho iron roadway llepluco thoteamer's rut; We see tho painted village Grow round the woodman's liut. Beneath tho bullied oceans The lightning couriers flee; Across the sundering isthmuses Is mingled sea with sea. Smiths of tho star unfinished, This is the work for you, The hammer down tho uneven world— Aud there is much to do. Scoop down tho beetling mountain, And raze that bulging cape; Tho world is on your anvil, Now smite it into shape. What i 3 this iron music, Whose strains are borne afar? The hammers of tho world-smiths Are beating out a star. —Sain Walter Foss, in Songs ol War and Teace. THE BURNING OF DIXON'S Drfin&i ft T wa3 eviclent that Dixon must P> have informed on them. The Government de tective could never have found their well-hid- U(I den centre of operations without the aid of one in the secret of the mountain path# and the case so cunningly hidden away. They had always distrusted Dixon. Ho was not a mountaineer born, but had come among them several years before, had married a mountain girl aud entered into their mooushiuing industry with a zeal that should have left nothing to be desired. But iu spite of all this tho traces of suspi cion still linked about him, aud more than one of the distillers denounced in strong terms tho impulse that had prompted them to let liim into their confidence. Now their worst fears had been re alized. Tho still had been raided, the men caught at work were taken away prisoners, and the fortunate few who were elsewhere at ik& time of the raid were left to stare blankly at the ruins and then to look into each other's eyes and swear vengeance on the in former. The punishment was decided upon instantly, without a minute's hesita tion or a dissenting voice; the only thing that remained for them to do was the drawing of tho lots to decide who should apply the torch to the lit tle cabiu where Dixon aud his family wsre sleeping soundly, all uncon scious of the awful fate that every mo ment brought nearer. As they stepped forward one by one to draw the lots the character aud thoughts of each might almost bo read iu his face and action. One might well shrink from the pitiless stern ness that showed in the faces of tho majority. Here and there was one who looked relieved when he found that he had drawn a blank, but one man stamped his foot and swore with rage when he saw that he had drawn a blank and that tho job had not fallen to his share. At length someone said: "Now, Hawkins, it's your turn. Take your pull," and in obedience to the sum mons a tall, shambling figure rose from the darkness of the outer circle. As he stretched out his long bony hand to take liis turn a fit of coughing seized him, and when it passed it left him trembling with weakness. Ho drew the lot quickly, as if fearful that he would lose his turn, and 'sank weakly down on an upturned keg without looking at his draw. "Let's see it, Hawkins," said sever al of the men, and he opened his hand mechanically. On tho upturned pr.lin lay a black bean. Ho had drawn the lot. "I say, Hawkins, you trade with me. You ain't fit to do the job," said ono of tho men, looking down with rough pity at tho shrunken figure. But Hawkins closed his fingers over the bean with a fierce gesture, aud a smoldering fire crept into his eyes. He rose slowly to his feet, and said with a firmness and steadiness of tone that surprised the others: "I will do it myself. I hope lam man enough to not play the sneak," and then he walked out of tho cave. Out on tho mountain side Hawkins wandered aimlessly until he stumbled and fell from weakness and exhaustion. He lay passive where he had fallen, and theu there began a struggle that he had vainly tried to ward olf by ac tion—a struggle of which none ever knew sftvo the silent stars aud the all* seeing One above beyond them. As he lay there scenes from tho past came drifting across his memory—of the timo when he was young and strong and happy; while pretty Jennie Watson was true to him. Theu Dixon came, and his handsome face and fine manners, and won her away from him. i.V less than a year they were married, ! and Hawkins—well, he had grown careless, and justice had found him out. Now had come tho chance for revenge on them both—a revenge that would involve their helpless children : as well as themselves. He rose stiffly, like one In a dream, i and went by the shortest and most direct cut down the mountain side to tho little settlement in tho sheltered valley. Swiftly and skillfully ho did I his work. As ho watched the tiny tongue of flame that had crept up the heap of kindlings he hud prepared he thought of the fiery harrier that would soon cnt his enemy oft' from es- j cape with a fierce exultation. Then | he turned and ran down the path with stumbling footsteps toward the lonely, 1 half-ruined cabin that he called j home and threw himself on his hard bed with a groan of physical weakness and pain. Meanwhile the tiny tonguo of flame crept slowly upward with soft crack ling sounds; ouco it blazed brightly for a minute, then sank to a feeble point of blue flame, struggled weakly f as if for life, and went out. A little curl of smoke wound upward and marked tho place where the flame had been. Then it dissolved slowly in the clear air and nothing was left but the heap of kindling on the rude door step, with tho few charred sticks to mark tho spot where it had burned, \ as a silent witness of the frustrated design of tho avenger. As the first early rays of the sun peered over the mountain and sent a ray of light into the window of the cabin, Dixon swung open the heavy door and stopped on tho sill in dumb astonishment at tho the sight that metj his eyes. Then in a moment he had i grasped the truth. This was what the sly looks and unusual manner of his neighbors meant, was it? And they had failed in their cowardly work. What if they had succeeded, Jennie and tho young ones would With an imprecation strong and deep tho man turned and called his j wife to his side. She came, looked where he pointed at their feet, and then raised her eyes to his j dark face in a frightened, questioning ' glance. Before he could answer the j unspoken inquiry he caught sight of a shambling figure coming. Something in the man's pallid face made Dixon turn to his wife and sav quickly, "You'd better go inside. Ho wants to see mo, I guess," and she obeyed silently. Dixon kicked tho debris from the step and advanced toward tho ad vancing figure until he and Hawkins stoou face to face in tho narrow, worn path. Tho visitor looked into his face with a wavering, uncertain glance, his thin lips parted in a meaningless sihile that was horrible to see, and then he began to speak in a tone in which treachery and cunning were [ strangely mingled. "So Dixon was burned out last night, eh? Too bad! Wife and young ones burned? Poor Jennie! Might 'a told her, but then she would 'a warned Dixon." The listener knew at the first word that tho poor wretch beforo him was insaue. As the hollow voice went on, betraying the whole fiendish plot to his (piickcned intelligence, he caught the man suddenly by the shoulders and held him with a grip that made him stop short in his rambling talk and give a little cry of pain. "Seo here," cried Dixon, turning the man around in the path so that ho faced toward tho mountains, "yon get out of here quick while I've got enough hold on myself to keep from > shooting you. Go!" an Ihe gave him a push as he released the motionless figure. Hawkjns staggered, r< covered his balance and looked up into the stern face above him. Seme <ast glimmer ' of reason showed him there was danger, and without a wcrd he turned and ran with uneven steps up the little path that led to tho mountains, Dixon quietly clearod away tho evi dences of the attempt to burn him out, forbade his wife to mention it, and bided his time. Beforo noon everyono in the valley knew that Dixon's cabiu was still standing and that Hawkins had disappeared, t A searchiug party got together quietly and started out to find him. All the long, sunny afternoon they trnmped and searched over the moun tain side, and just as the sun sank be hind tho highest peak, lighting it up with an unearthly, awesome splendor, they found him. He was lying face downwA'd, on the cool, moist ground, one arm thrown up and pillowing his forehead; in tho other hand was clutched tightly a little bunch of faded mountain flowers. A dark crimson stain on the ground beneath tho white face told its silent story of death. lilcctriclty nn<l a Bulky Home. A Pennsylvania geutlemau owned a horso that would have been very valu- ' able but for what seemed an iueradi- j cable vice of balking. A friend sug gested that electricity might cure him. ' The gentleman purchased a small storage battery, connected it by wires , to the bit and crupper, and placed it in the cart to which tho horse was at tached. As was anticipated, the horse refused to move, and stood with all four feet braced. Then the owner touched the button , connected with the battery. When tho horse felt tho shock he snorted, jumped, and began to move off at a lively pace. Every day for a week ho | was treated to the same lesson. As a result, his owner declares that the horse is completely cured of his evil ways, The West Pennsylvania Humane Society, which investigated the gen- | tlcman's method, came to tho conclu- I sion that a small amount of electricity used in this way was more humane than a whip. The Quality of Erks. I There is a much greater difference in eggs aside from their size and freshness than is generally supposed. It is very largely the result of differ ences in the food eaten at various sea sons. In printer and early spring, when fowls begin to lay, the food is grain, and as the heu has not been exhausted by a long run of egg pro ! duction, her egg is higher flavored j than it is later, when the grafn ration is mainly withdrawn, and a diet of in sects and often of grass takes its place. ! On this innutritions food neither \ good egg to eat nor one that will pro duce a strong chick can be safely de pended on. One of the reasons why eggs packed, in various preparations to keep them fresh are so generally unsatisfactory is that they are not Ost-class eggs, eveu when fresh. It ' is best to begin early in spring to put up eggs for winter. They will be bet ter to begin with and will keep better. i A Device For XVuterlng-Trongli. j Where a number of cattle are turned J out to drink together thero is quite ; sure to be crowding and perhaps fight ing at the trough. A device tending to obviate this is shown in the out. Within the trough a -board is fitted, which rises and falls as water is pumped in or is drunk out of the trough. At regular intervals are square or round openings, through which each animal can drink, one, and only one, at a 1 ~~ a SENSIBLE DIUNEINO PLACE FOB CATTLE. place. Incidentally, the cut shows ail ! j excellent way to put watering-troughs together at the euds. Let tlio end piecos slightly into the sides and bot i torn, and "shrink on" a strap of iron, as shown. Thi3 will pull the joints i togother lirmly, since the heated band shrinks in cooling, as does a wagon i tiro when placed on the wheel. Put cleats under the board that rests upon i the water to keep it from warping.— I New l'ork Tribune. Rotating Manures tn Garden*. While the garden always receives : more of the stable manure made on the farm, this is usually so deficient in mineral fertility tlmt garden crops l often suffer from lack of potash and phosphate, while the nitrogenous" ele ments of plant food are an overabun dant supply. Under such conditions the soil becomes heavy aud impervi ous to air, or, as old farmers call it, "muck midden." Almost all garden vegetables require potash, and inauy of them need also phosphato to pro duce a successful crop. When the crop is valuable for its seed mainly these minerals are especially neces sary. Beans and peas are good ex amples of this. It is often said they grow best on poor soil. This only means that there must be enough mineral fertility to balance that which is nitrogenous, or the vines will grow too much to leaf without either pod ding or filling as they should. Nitro genous manures are not needod at all for beans, as these are never planted until the ground is well warmed, when cultivation is enough to cause the soil to furnish all the nitrogen ! needed. Peas are hardier, aud for giving them an early start some quickly available nitrogenous manure may be used. But both potash aud phosphato may be used liberally for both peas and beans, greatly increas ing the yield of grain without much if uny inerearo in the growth of haulm. But even those crops which do not require extra large amounts of miner als are benefited by letting the gar den go without stable manure one year, and substituting the same value or cost of mineral fertilizer in its Btead. Even if tbevo wero 110 nitro gen in the concentrated fertilizer, the effect of applying potash and phos phate to laud is to sat free much ni trogen, and on land that has long been manured with stable manures, this amount will probably be sufficient for the year's crop. In a recent pub lication a well-known gardener tells | how he loug'practiced a system of rota tion in which when he had got hisgar | dening soil overfilled with manure, re lief was found by plowing under 1000 to | 1500 pounds per acre of tho refuse i hop leaves from a brewery after their | strength has been extracted. On an other occasion he took the waste j stems from a tobacco factory, which he found rotted in the soil,as did the hop ; leaves, with the tesult that the clam ! my, sticky condition of soil, resulting from over manuring with stable ma nure, was changed to a light loam that easily responded to any kind of manure in a single year.—American Cultivator. An Ideal Coon For Chicks. The usual arrangements for rearing little chicks arc not, as a rnle, tho I best that might bo had. The idea seems to prevail that any old box set Dn edge, with a slatted front, is all i that is required. In such a coop tho comfort and health of the old hen is lost and she soon gets lousy and I quickly transfers the lice to the chicks. This illustration shows an I improvement on the old style heu coop which is at onoe practical, I humane and inexpensive The coop is made in the usual way, except that a door is placed in the side to remove the old hen when desired, without A COMMON SENSE CHICKEN HOUSE. unhooking the lath yard. A space at the top is left wide enough so that a board may be slipped down and cover the front opening to the coop to keep the hens aud chicks in at night and protect them from storm early morning dews. The yard is made of laths or half inch stuff, aud is fastened to the sides of the coop with hooks and eyes as shown. It is secured to the ground at the farther corners by crotched sticks driven into tho ground. This plan of fastening permits the use of the frame on different coops. Over the top is a square of wire netting aud over this netting is stretched a length of waterproof cloth which will keep the pen dry in wet weather and shady during the hot part of the day. This cloth is fastened to buttons screwed into t're frame, buttons such as are used for fastening carriage curtains being just the thing. The arrangement permits frequent changing of both coop and pen to dif ferent locations. A portion of the ground inside the pen is spaded and tho small grain fed is scattered over it to teach the chicks to scratch. Mother hen will find a corner for a dust bath and keep herself free from lice, and the entire family will be comfortable and happy. The plan is especially desirable for use with the late hatched chicks when the coop is so located that the sun shines on it during most of the day and wheu fre quent aud heavy showers come up suddenly.—Atlanta Journal. t Culture ot Wheat* At the wheat growers' convention recently held in Macon, Ga., Mr. C. H. Morrill, Bibb County, Georgia, presented a very suggestive paper 011 "Wheat Culture," from which we take the following: The laud should be well plowed, but not too deeply, at time of sowing, and the grain worked iu with a harrow aud then rolled to firm the soil over the seed. When it gets well started wheat grows rapidly, but it is uot a very vigorous plant and cannot fight its way as well as many of our cultivated grains. In order to make success reasenably sure it is necessary that the land should be very carefully suited to receive the seed. If the soil is very rich it is all tho bet ter. If the land has been partially exhausted an abundance of plant food must be supplied. This food must be in a condition for immediate use. Coarse manures will ilo little good. Stable manure and green cotton seed is not plant good and will decay and cau be assimilated. The wheat plant is a delicate feeder and its food must be carefully prepared. Wheat may follow a pea crop if the land is rich enough otherwise, as the pea crop furnishes nitrogen stored in its roots which the wheat crop must have. In this case, however, some chemical fertilizers should bo used. In any and every case the land should be made rich and the plant food which it contains must be near the surface. In this section I should prefer chemical manures to any other form of fertil izers and should apply it heavy. As the wheat crop, including the grain, straw aud chafl', takes from the soil twenty-four pounds of phosphoric acid, fifty-nine pounds nitrogen, thirty-one pounds potasll, wo must apply these elements of plant food to the soil in the shape of nitrate of soda at the rate of 150 pounds to the acre, half at time of sowing, the other half as a top-dressing in the spring, and 500 pounds of a fertilizer containing nine per cent, of phosphoric acid and twelve per cent, of potash. Too much stress can hardly bo laid upon a thorough preparation of the soil. Under the common system of management all that cau be done towards making the crop is finished when the sowing is performed. Wheat is a peculiar plant and requires fifur peculiar conditions of soil and care. As in its fruit it is superior to all other grains, so in its habits it is more particular and exacting than others. It cannot eudure conditions in which corn or oats would flourish. It re quires a rich, clean soil aud should follow a'crop that has been cleanly cultivated and all weed seeds eradi cated from the land. The wheat growers of the West have followed the same laud killing process that the cot ton farmers of the South have fol lowed, every successive crop dimin ishes the supply of organic matter, and from the careless culture every successive year increases the stock of weeds. If wheat could receive the very best system of culture so that the ground should bo mechanically in a proper condition and weeds bo kept out, good of wheat could be grown much longer without manuring the soil, by proper cultivation simply. The- experiments of ]\lr. Lowes, of England, seem to indicate this. He raised twenty-seven successive crops of wheat from one plant of land with out any manure. The crop of 1811 was fifteen bushels per acre, and that of 1870 exactly fifteen bushels, this amount also being the average yield during the entire understood that the ground was kept free from weeds, the wheat being in drills and the soil cultivated between them.--.Farm, Field and Fireside. There ire millions of the inhabitants of the Pnilippine Islands who never knew the dominion of Spain and never saw a Spaniard, Illinois Roads. There's a blight upon your namo, Illinois, Illinois, It has compromised your.fame, Illinois, Illinois; In the spring and in tho fall, When there'/: lots of things to haul, We can't use your roads at all, Illinois, Illinois; Wo can't use your roads at all, Illinois. When it coraos to raising corn, Illinois, Illinois; You can laugh them all to scorn, Illinois, Illinois; But it's painful to relate That for highways out of date You're the banner-Holding State, Illinois, Illinois; You'ro the banner-holding State, Illinois. Bee them stretching on and on, Illinois, Illinois; Like a ditch across the lawn, Illinois, Illinois; Full of mud so black and thick That a four-in-hand would stick With a load of twenty brick, Illinois, Illinois; With a load of twenty brick, Illinois. Shake the moss from off your back, Illinois, Illinois; Time to take another tack, Illinois, Illinois; If you have a bit of pride, Don't be any longer guyed— Mako your mud-roads hard and wide Illiuois, Illinois, Make your mud-roads hard and wide, Illiuois. —lllinois State Journal, Advantages of Improved Roads. One of the most interesting papers fead at the New York State Farmers' Congress, recently held at Albany, N. Y., was that on tho "Advantages of Improved Highways," by John A. C. Wright, of Rochester, N. Y. In part Mr. Wright said: "No subjects are so closely related as highways and agriculture. Material prosperity de pends upon production and trans portation. In prodnction we have made immense strides, in manufac tures many-fold, and even 011 the farm each of us produces as much as all four of his forefathers of two genera tions ago. Besides tho cost of produc tion there is tho cost of getting what is produced to its best market. How much that is, we often fail to realize. It has been computed that the annual freight bill of each of us is SGO. This is the transportation charge or what it costs us to move products over tho highways which are of thred sorts— tho common highway, the railway and tho waterway. The relative cost is most aptly shown by stating that the amount it costs to move a ton five miles on the highway, will move it twenty-five miles on the electric rail way, 250 miles on the steam railway and 1250 miles in deep waterways. "In improving, therefore, the com mon highway, we reduce tho largest item in this freight tax. By pains taking effort wo have found it costs thirty cents per ton mile on the ordinary road, such as we have, and a smooth hard road-way would reduce this to seven cents per ton mile, or we would do the business for one quarter of what it costs us now. This is equivalent by tho above tables to getting each ton carried for more than 500 miles by rail and more than 1000 miles by water. "We have also found that the farm products of this State reduced to tons are about 12,000,000 tons, and that at the average haul costs about $1.50 to move per ton, or a freight bill for primary transportation of agricul tural products of $18,000,000 a year. If we had good roads this cost would be, to allow a good margin, less than $6,000,000 and the saving over $12,- 000,000 a year, or as much as our total State tax bill for all purposes. The common road, therefore, is the most important factor in transporta tion, so far as wo are concerned, and the chance for saving in haul on it the greatest." Hampered Farmers. "To-day tho barriers between us and the remainder of the county are roads that are almost impassable," cays the Waukegau (111.) Gazette. "Iu this the town is not alone the sufferer. Farmers throughout the county nro hampered and tlioir work seriously re tarded because ot miserable highways. Would it not he to labor through our representatives for the passage of a hill-calculated to remedy this evil?" Coxev Quits tho Road. Genei'al Covcv, whoso plan for the betterment of highways was not adopt ed by Congross, declares roads at 51as sillou, Ohio, are impassable. He has purchased a naphtha launch, and will hereafter do his traveling on the ennal. Coxey's office is five miles from his residence, thj road being the worst in tho county. The Warfare In Brief. Every added inch of mad makes the road many miles longer. Tho fanner who is mired in the mud up to his knees Bliould be deeply in terested in roads. The improvement of a road should depend upon something more than the wind and the sun. The best method in which a town cau pave its way to success is to pave its streets and improve the highways loading therefrom. Wide tires are growing in favor. Now that some of the States are build ing espensivo highways, tax-payers insist that the roads shall be pre served. The San Francisco Bulletin points out that the county which cannot af ford schools and good roads is nllowed to pass into the possession of men who want neither. Ilompfield Township, Westmoreland County, Penu., must pay 8310 to a citizen who was crossing a bridge with a threshing-machine when the bridge gave way and dumped the outfit into a creek. Poor highways are expea- POPULAR SCIL'.'CE, A scientist of some standing, ac cording to the Mining and Scientific Press, asserts tb.ifc chemically pure water is poison to the human stomach, | upsetting some 1 itherto accepted 1 theories regarding distilled water by I the argument that i:i distillation the water losses sundry salts tbat it greedily abstracts from tho animal tissues when it is swallowed, thus constituting a protoplasmic poison. If this view be sustained, "absolutely pure water" is more dangerous than ordinary water impregnated with im purities absorbed from the atmosphere or collected in its flow. 1 Professor Torvald Kohl, of the Od der* Observatory, Denmark, reports ; Ikftt wheu the huge sunspot of Septem ber last was crossing tho solar merid ian, magnificent auroral lights flashed across the heavens, and the electric bells in tho great telegraph station at Frederieia rang without auy visible :ause. Tho telegraphic service in Denmark was disturbed for hours dur ing the auroral display. Professor Kohl thinks that the agency of the sun in producing the phenomena was evident. Similar exhibitions of "wire less telegraphy" between the sun and the earth have been noted in the past. A new form of spectroscope has re cently beeu devised by Lord Rayleigh in which simplicity of construction is combined with high dispersive power. In the new instrument ton right angled prisms are arranged side by side in a long tube which is filled with a mix ture of bisulphide of carbon and ben zol i?i such proportions as to give the same index of refraction as glass. The advantages claimed for the instrument are that it gets rid of the loss of light by reflection, and minimizes the effect of the irregularities in the glass, while the light undergoes no refrac tion for that portion of tlio spectrum for which the adjustment is made. On the other hand, the arrangement is greatly affected by temperature,as the refraction indices of the substances vary with auy change. Professor Ray leigh was, however, able to use the apparntus to show on tho screen the separation of the sodium line. More puzzling to the astronomers than the canals of Mars is the singu lar doubling of some of these, or their appearance in pairs, Which appear to be variable to different observers. An accidental observation is brought for ward by Dr. A. Woolsey Blacklock to show that astigmatism may explain the phenomena of doubling. His eyes are affected with astigmatism, the direc tion in one eye being at right angles with that in the other, aud on glanc ing at some trees with one eye he re cently noticed that all the twigs slant ing upward to the left appeared double, while those sloping the other way were single. The double twigs were like the two images seen through a block of Iceland spar, one being rather fainter than the other. On changing the position of the head the double twigs became single aud the single ones double, a variation corre sponding with what is seen in certain canals of Mars on different nights when the planet occupies different positions. Alexander A. Lawes, civil engineer, of Sydney, Australia, suggests a plan of mechanical flight on beating wings as presenting advantages tbat tran scend all other schemes. He bcliove9 that the amount of power required to operate wings aud the difficulty in ap plying it are exaggerated beyond all measure. Tho wings or sustaiuers of the bird in flight, he urges, are held in the outstretched position without any exertion 011 its part; and many birds, like the albatross,sustain them selves for days at a stretch. "This constitutes its aerial support, and is analogous to the support derived by other animals froip laud and water." The solo work done by tho bird is propulsion aud elevation by the beat ing action of the wings. Mr. Adams's machine, which he does not say lie has tried, is built in conformity tc this principle, and its sails are modeled as nearly as possible iu form and as to action with those of the bird. The aid of an air cylinder is further called iu, through which 0 pressure is exerted balancing the wings. Tho wings are moved bj treadles, and the author's picture oi the aeronaut look 9 like a man riding an aeriel bicycle. A Very Eccentric Man. There is a queer man iu Washing ton who makes it a business to attend receptions, teas, weddings and other social gatherings to which he has not been invited. Ho always pays his re spects to the hostess, speaks a few polite words and thau passes into the crowd. He is never offensive, hut always def erential, and is simply tolerated be cause that is the easiest way to get along with hiin. He lives quietly with his mother and sister in u well situated and well-appointed house in tho west end, hut the ladies of the family have never made any attempt to enter society. Their eccentric brother confines his social enjoyment to these intrusions, which are harm less and are so well known as to cause little remark. Some ladies have in structed their butlers not to admit him. When he is refused entrance at a house he always retires in a gentle manly manner, handing his card,with a request that his regrets be offered to the lady of the honse. He seems ta think that it is his duty to go to these places, and ho does it in a con scientious manner.—Chicago Record. Life of a Car Wheel. Tho car wheels made in Pennsyl vania are generally run -40,000 miles on passenger coaches and are then put 3n freight cars. A forty-two-iuch wheel now in tho shops has beeu run over 700,000 miles and a thirty-six inch wheel has traveled GOO,OOO miles.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers