A Small Story. Eiuht small children for busy Bess — Eight to l' "d and wash and dress. Four small girls and four small hoys In 0110 small house make no small noise; And MI, to have them out of the way. lShc% sen,t tliem off to the woods to play. "Don't quarrel, nor tease, nor fret, nor frown. But eotne back home when the sun is i down. And if you see the chipmunk small, Don't throw stones at him—that, is all; For he's just as busy ns he cnii he. And I know how that is, myself," said she. —Joy Allison, in St. Nicholas. House of Delight for Children. Fairmount park, Philadelphia, has a children's play house which lias been open for 15 months. One thousand children have been entertained there In a single day, but 350 is the average number. Boys over ten are barred. All other children are welcome. The house is fitted with swings, see-saws, wagons and tricycles for the older ones, and hammocks, baby jumpers, rocking horses and building blocks for the younger ones. For the little ones wlio are too young to walk a big creep ing pad is provided. In the sand pa vlllion are twelve tons of white sand. For those who meet with injury a trained nurse is in attendance to ad minister consolation and nec •>. ary treatment. The institution was bequeathed by Mr. and Mrs. Richard Smith. A SitrprlHPcl Cat. Several days ago live or six sparrows were pecking away in the gutter im mediately in front of an engine-house, when a cat crept across the street and pounced upon one of them. Instantly the victim's companion sent up a war cry, which was as instantly answered. -From the housetop and tree the spar rows flocked to the scene. With whir ring, hissing cries of noisy rage, they fearlessly attacked the offender. For about 30 seconds the dazed cat en dured the blows from perhaps a hun dred beaks and twice as many beating wings. Then, still holding her prey, she struggled away from the infuria ted birds, and ran into the engine house. The plucky little fellows fol lowed IK r inside, but soon gave up the chase, leaving her with her dearly bought dinner, a sadder but a wiser cat. England*! 4Pirat Parliament. January 120 is memorable in English history as the date of the first meeting of the first parliament, an assembly which corresponds to the national con gress of the United States. This great English reform took place in the year 12(55, in Westminster ball, which still Is in existence. This first of British national legislative bodies in which the common people were represented consisted of two knights, or noblemen, from each county and two citizens from each borough or township. The election and service of the citizens representing the common people (4*; distinguished from the nobles) in this parliament was the first clear admis sion by the government that the citi zens had a right to take part in making thelawsand managing the affairs of the country. Tlius we see that hundreds of years before the birth of the United States tlie principles on which our republic was founded were recognized and put into partial operation in Great Britain. Strange DincTerie In Africa. Till l problem of liow the apple got Into the dumpling sinks into insignifi cance beside that of the jellyfish, the crustaceans and Lake Tanganyika; but J. K. s. Moore, who recently returned from Central Africa, believes ho has discovered how the iish from the sea got into the lake in the middle of the c >• uncut. Mr. Moore is one of the young men at the Royal College of Science, South Kensington. He was leader of an ex pedition largely subsidized by the Itoy nl Geographical society, and after a year's march of over 2000 miles, from the Zambesi to Uganda, he has come back with hundreds of specimens and several Important additions to tlio knowledge of Central Africa. He has encountered cannibals, vol canoes and glaciers and scaled an lee , clad peak called "Sltchwl," in the Rll - wenzori mountains, or Mountains of tlie Moon, at a height of about 1(1,500 feet. The mountain took ten days to climb. The peaks of the range are covered with ice to a depth of hun dreds of feet,"-for tlie snow melts in tlie day and freezes nt night. Mr. Moore and the 20 t'Jijl boys who accompanied hint lived 011 goats dur ing the ascent and descent, driving the goats and killing them when food was wanted. The T'JiJi boys were so struck with the phenomenon of ico that they tried to carry lilts down to Ujlji. The tropical sun nearly boiled the Ice on the way. Between Tanganyika and Lake Al bert Edward is a lake called Kivu. The best atlas published gives it as about one-tentli the size of Albert Ed ward. Mr. Moore, wlio was accom panied by Malcom Fergusson, geologist and geographer, found that Kivu i larger than Albert Edward. The north cud of Tanganyika was found to be 50 j miles westward of its ascribed posi tion. It was between tills lake and Kivu hat the cannibals were met They are tall, light-colored men, more like Arabs than negroes, and are born theives. They gave much trouble and killed two or three bearers, but Mr. Moore never had to fight them out right. The primary object of the expedition was to dredge and sound the lakis | with reference to the marine forms ; which Mr. Moore found there four ' years ago. The question was whether , the jellyfish and crustaceans origi- ! nally got into Tanganyika byway of the Nile or the Congo. Having deter j mined that these marine species are I to be found in none of the lakes north j of Tanganyika, Mr. Moore believes that Tanganyika was once joined to j the sea byway of a great basin in j the Congo State. When Tanganyika was left high, if , not dry, in the center of Africa, the j jellyfish and crustaceans of the sea | remained behind and their descendants are flourishing today. They have been j there many thousands of years, for j fossils they resemble are to be found i b< .JW the chalk level. liißrctß in Winter, A little boy once asked his father if 1 the house Hies went South for the ! winter, like the birds; and then his j father told him a long story about different insects and what became of j them during the cold months. He told the boy that when autumn I comes the death knell of millions of j flies has sounded. They do not pre- 1 pare for winter as many other insects j do. The majority die, and their little ! bodies pre blown away by the passing j breeze. A few hardy flies will linger | in cracks in the walls, creep under j the door frames or Into crevices in the woodwork, and some naturalists be lieve that these few lingering flies are | the parents of the multitude that ap pear in the warm days of June, for they lay thousands of eggs. Katydids, grasshoppers, crickets and beetles are killed by the frost, and the eggs which they hide in the ground or conceal in the bark of trees fur nish the supply for the next year. These hatch out in the warm days of spring. Beetles exhibit a wonderful Instinct in caring for their eggs during winter. Among some species the eggs are rolled in balls of material suitable fo" food, and then the balls are packed away In a nest until the infant beetle wakes up and eats its way out. Then there are the "sexton" booties, which deposit their eggs in the bodies of dead birds or field mice, after which they set to work and perform the proper rites of burial, heaping the earth upon the body of the dead. The young beetle, when hatched from the egg. finds a store of food awaiting its arrival in the world. It is said thai the spiders store away no food supply in winter quarters. Quantities of eggs are laid and care fully sheltered in velvety cobweb sacks that defy the weather. These sacks may be found swinging by silken ropes from the goldenrod and milkweed, and hidden away in crevices and corners of board fences and stone walls. The little spiders creep from their cosey sleeping bags which the wise mother lias provided for them, and if they tiscape their cannibal brothers and sisters they enter at once on a career of trapping and hunting. Bees and wasps lay up stores for the winter, the wasps not as carefully as the bees, but in the centre of the cone shaped nest of the paper making wasps may b; found goodly stores of honey. The thrifty ant deserves much sym pathy, in that it is a dainty morsel for spiders, beetles, crickets and other in sect hunters. A few ants may sur vive and feed on accumulated stores during the winter, but it is chiefly the eggs and cocoons hidden away in the secure underground chambers of the ant hill that furnish the ant popula tion of the following summer. The ant's care of its young, the management of its slaves, and the tiny insect cows which they capture and from which the honevdew is milked, all would furnish a tale as interesting as the customs of any wandering tribe of the desert or any lost nation of darkest Africa.—New York Tribune. f urio>lties in I onlon. Country things which flourish in London have been receiving a good deal of attention of late. At the pres ent time there may be seen a number of fine bunches of fast-ripening black grapes 011 the south wall of the Hos pital for Incurable Children, at Chel sea. No doubt the poor mites within will be enjoying them before long. In a garden at the King's road end of Flood street, Chelsea, there is a mulberry tree which has this year borne a fine crop of fruit. It was picked during the present month. Mul berries are not always to be obtained in London, and they are expensive. This, by tlie way, has been a good year for inuib wries in various parts of the country. They have been allowed to fall from the trees and rot. on the ground In some places. The reed harvest is a small matter, but not one to be altogether overlooked in districts where this tall, handsome plant flourishes. The mowers are now among the reeds, which go down be fore (he old fashioned scythe. They are hound up in sheaves like the corn, and when dry stacked and used as they are required for thatching purposes.— London Express. In the remote parts of Scotland the old Covenantors' love for long tier vices on the bare hillsides still lingers. At Dingwall a recent communion ser vice In the open air lasted fiom 10 a. m. until 4 p. in. CONSCRIPTS OF FRANCE. MILITARY SYSTEM IS STRICT AND NO MAN ESCAPES. A Youth I* No Sooner Horn Than the A liny OllifiaU Have Their Hynit on lliiu —"hiHWlng His Xuuibi-r" 1m an Inter esting Oecusion—llls l viiiile tie Itoute. The French boy is no sooner born than the military authorities have their eyes on him, says a writer in the Pull .Mall Gazette. Within three days after his entry into the world ids par ents are bound under severe penalties to register ins birth at the local mairie, or town hall. This formality accom plished the youngster at once receives the visit of the doctor attached to the register ollice. The medeein de l'ctat civil, as tliis functionary is termed, verifies the declaration made by the parents and satisfies himself that the infant is indeed a man in miniature. This precaution is necessary as the father and mother, were they left en tirely to their own devices, might be tempted to palm off their boy as a girl, with a view to enabling him to escape his military service. The existence of the youngster hav ing thus been duly placed 011 record, he is allowed to run loose for a score of years. If he chooses to, he can shorten tlds period of liberty by volun tarily enlisting before his time, provid ing, of course, his physique passes muster. The marine infantry, a corps that sees a good deal of actual fight ing in the colonies, recruits a number of adventurous spirits in this way, and not a few of the young men who pro pose to adopt I in* army as their career improve their prospects by making an early start. As soon as his twentieth birthday is passed he begins to have a keen eye on the official posters dis played 011 the walls of the town hall, the schools and other public buildings. These posters are white, like all other official posters in France, but they are of exceptional size, while, that there may be 110 possibility of their escaping notice among their many miscellane ous fellows, they compel attention by a most apparent distinctive sign, con sisting of two tricolor flags placed crossways above the reading matter and printed in colors. One of these military posters details the arrange ments for the departure of the class, or annual contingent, and from it the conscript learns the date of his incor poration and other items of informa tion. In the course of his twentieth year he should give his address to the near est recruiting office, and see that tlie mayor of his district has put down his name among the conscripts of the coin ing class. The mayor, however, is bound to see that liis name is 011 the list, whether lie concerns himself with his inscription or not. It should be said that the conscript draws his number In tbe January that follows the completion of his twentieth year. 111 consequence, a conscript born in December lias only just turned 20 when the army claims him, whereas, a conscript whose liirth is 111 January is 21 at the time of tlie tirage au sort, Tlio only use at present of the drawing or numbers is that when there is a deficiency of men for tlie marine in fantry tlie vacancies are filled up from among the conscripts who have drawn the numbers one, two or three. For the next six months or so the conscript is left to himself, hut toward tlie middle of the year he makes ac quaintance in earnest with the mili tary authorities. The occasion is the Bitting of the councils of revision, tlio bodies that definitely decide the fate of the conscripts. The council of revi sion is composed of two civil function aries, of a superior officer and of an army doctor, and it has the assistance of a member of tlie recruiting staff and of several gendarmes. A council sits in tlie chief town of every canton. The mayors of tlie different localities comprised In the district are allowed to be present at its operations, with a view to safeguarding the interests of the sons of their electors. Tlie eon script is expected to present himself before the council, but should he ab stain from putting in 1111 appearance lie does not incur a penalty. lie loses the right, however, should be remain away, to benefit by certain dispensa tions which wfil shortly be explained, and ho is purely and simply taken as a soldier without more ndo—lie is taken d'offlce, it is technically said. In | the case of the conscripts who come up 1 before it—and they are the vast 111a ! jority—the council decides their mill | tary service, and pronounces on tlio admissibility of the claims they may put in to he dispensed from the full term of service, to serve one year in stead of three. The question of physi cal fitness is settled, of course, liy a medical examination. The privilege of only serving one year is accorded in the first place to certain classes of young men whose family circumstances are exceptional. Tims tile oldest son or only son of a widow. Hie eldest son of a family of orphans, the ( blest son of a family of seven or more children, and the elder of two brothers who happen to he eon scripts In the same year are entitled to a dispensation. The dispensation is also granted to young men whose earn ings are proved to lie indispensable to the support of the family, and to the brothers of soldiers who have died or been definitely invalided while on act ive service. By far the largest class, however, of single year soldiers is fur nished by the learned professions. The young men who are studying to lie barristers, doctors, professors and en gineers, or for certain other careers, have to serve but one year. This concession is conditional 011 their passing their examinations; should they fall in them they must return to the army and complete their three years. The number of dlspensec from all causes is very considerable, some 70,000 out of the 250,000 or so con scripts who form the annual con tingent. The council of revision takes note of tlio conscript's trade, occupation, or profession, this matter and, so far as his physique allows, ins own wishes being taken into consideration in as signing Idm to this or that branch of tlie service. The labors of the council over, the results are sifted and classi fied at the war oifiee and the destina tion of each conscript settled. He learns his fate by the receipt of his feuille do route, or marching orders, an official Intimation commanding him to join the corps to which he has been attached on a given day. If he is penniless, his third-class railway fare is given him by the mayor of his district; should he be able to meet this expense, the sum is refunded him 011 his joining his regiment. Failure to comply with the instructions con tained in this feuille de route is ac counted ail act of insubordination and exposes the iusoumis to severe penal ties. Tlie incorporation of the classes takes place, as a rule, in November. The conscript lias become a bleu, and is entitled to tbe munificent pay of a cent per day. DYKE MAKING IN HOLLAND. Where it Half Jncli or Water la lletwooa I the Country ami Destruction. Few people have any definite under standing of tlie constant wrestling and I struggling that is carried on in Hol land with the waters of tlie sea and rivers. These are tlie common enemy of the people, who are in hourly peril of their lives and property in conse quence. llow serious is the position of Hol land is fully demonstrated by tbe pop ular saying that the safety of the country may be jeopardized by only half an inch of water. The truth of the saying is accepted by all, and we cannot help admiring the people, who, notwithstanding the gravity of the situation, go about their daily occu pations with perfect coolness. Nature, as though conscious that she had acted unkindly by placing so much of the country below the water level, endeavors to assist the inhabitants to keep out tlie waters. The first work of dyke making is often performed by her; layers of sand and elay are thrown up on the banks and the peo ple take advantage of these embryo embankments. They assist the forma tion by putting mats of willow 011 the deposits to strengthen them niul himl the earth substances, and later they drive piles at the back, and so in time form the high dykes which prevent overflows. For something like 500 years the people have been lighting tlie waters and reclaiming the land; but even when they have snatched a tract of territory from the water the fight is not done. The work of draining these polders or lowlands must go on inces santly or the efforts of the past would he quickly nullified. Tlio greatest work of ilic kind was the draining of the Hnarlcmer meer, or Haarlem lake, the result of which was an addition of 41,075 acres to Hol land. A canal was dug encircling tlie Haarlem lake and a dyke was built 011 the inner side; then engines were planted to pump the water out of the lake. It took four years to complete the work; 80,000,000 tons of water were pumped out and the cost was $20,000,000. The ground was then In tersected liy canals for drainage pur poses and in two years the land was being cultivated. But the people in Holland have in view an undertaking which puts that of the Haarlem lake entirely in tlio shade. This is nothing less than the draining of the Znydcr Zee, which has an area of 1805 square miles. The in itial stage of this undertaking would lie the construction of an embankment from mainland to mainland; it would be 35 miles long and 210 feet wide. It would take 10 years to build this em bankment, which would serve as n road for railway and general traffic. The work of draining and reclaiming the land would take 40 years and the total cost of the undertaking would he $750,000,1X10. Cruelty of tlio Deal*. Deaf children as a class are generally believed to he especially cruel to their mates and to tlie lower animals. Pro fessor G. Stantley Hull suggests in a recent article that this apparent cruelty may he in part accounted for by the fact that they cannot hear the erics of pain, and hence do not really understand the amount of suffering which they are causing. He points out that Aristotle in his Ithetorlc develops the theory that the sight and sound of others in pain call to mind or to the imagination a copy of the suffer ings the spectator would experience under similar circumstances. 80 that our idea of suffering in a given case may ho said to be gauged by tlie amount of pain that would make us look and cry out as the suf ferer docs. The (leaf individual's sen sitiveness to suffering, in other words, his pity, would he thus naturally much curtailed by the entire absence of the Important senses in producing this emotion.—New York Times. The 1 ncren.e or City Population. It isn't so much a 'tendency to ill ban life" that moves men townwurd as it is the tendency to get away from tlie kind of work that Induces per spiration.—Charleston News and Cou rier. ' A Bloody history China's Rccsrd fsr the Past Party Years. . . . r —r~ —-rr.^r?>r - ; The pages of modern Chinese his tory are stained with blood —the blood of helpless and defenseless men and women. Since the days when foreign ers first went to the far east, but es pecially during the last forty years, there has been a constant succession of brutal murders—murders usually brought about solely by the passion ate hatred of the yellow man for the white. One of the most characteristic of these was the liu Cheng massacre on August 1, 1895. The Church Mis sionary society has a very successful enterprise in that city. There were many converts, and no one dreamed of any danger. Five women mission aries lived in one house on the hills be yond the city during the summer heat and close to them lived Mr. Stewart, early in the morning three of his the missionary in charge, his wife and five children. August 1 was the birthday of one of the children, so brothers and sisters got up and went out on the hills to gather flowers. Hearing horns and drums, they ran to look at the procession. One China man seized the oldest girl by the hair and beat her. She tore from him and made for home, to find the house occupied by the mob. She caught a glimpse of her father making for her mother's rooms, and then no more was seen of either of them. Seeing the house burning, she got her little brothers and sisters and dragged them off. The baby she pulled from under the body of its dead nurse. Her two brothers and her little sister were all wounded. An American missionary, hearing the riot, rushed up to help, but he was too late. In the brief time nine had been murdered, and two of the children soon died. The story of the death of these brave girls, one of whom. Miss Marshall, was the daugh ter of a Blackheath vicar, went with a The... They Are Not a a Little Bit Like Cow punchers cowboys... There is a distinction and a wide difference in the terms cowbody and cowpuncher, although by most per sons each is accepted as a synonym for the other. As a matter of fact, no more grievous affront could be of fered a cowboy than to call him a cow puncher; out 011 the cattle ranges not even ignorance would serve to excuse such a mistake. To the minds of cat tlemen the term cowpuncher carries opprobrium, while everywhere that of cowboy has been lifted into respect able prominence by the courage, dash, goodfellowship and hospitality of these Centaurs of the plains. The difference, however, lias not been clear to orators and literary lights. Even so well-informed a writer as Colonel Henry Watterson has failed to dis cover it, for only recently he applied the opprobrious epithet to Governor Roosevelt while giving expression to his high opinion of the Republican candidate for the Vice Presidency. Said Colonel Watterson: "Youthful, well balanced; a gentleman, a cow puncher, a man of letters, a man of action, a clear-headed politician, a dashing sbldier, he has the respect of those to whom ability, both mental and physical, appeals, and he lias the admiration of those whom accomplish ment, whether in the lead of politics, arms, or literature, impresses." Of course, he meant to say cowboy, for, while Mr. Roosevelt had some experi ence on the cattle ranges, he was never a cowpuncher. In the early seventies, when cattle were driven "up the ftrails" to northern markets, the cow- SUPPLY OF Furnish All Tvnpv That ls Us^ 1 V yj 1\ I , Nowadays, The elephant Is no longer the only animal which can produce ivory, ac cording to the official decision of the United States general appraisers, says the Baltimore Sun. ivory dealers and those who work in the material Jiave known this for a long time, but the makers of the tariff do not 3eem to have been so well posted. Testimony from ivory dealers was introduced at the investigation to show that the tusks of the hippopotamus furnish just as good ivory as do any of the 25 dif ferent varieties of elephants and must pay the ivory tariff rate of 35 per cent ad valorem. It was also shown that the boar, narwhal, right whale and al ligators were producers of ivory. Kvon the western hog gives up many an ivory tusk to the butchers in Chicago packing houses. This dots not mean that there is no difference between el ephant ivory and hippopotamus ivory. Ivory workers who understand their vocation can distinguish a difference even between the various kinds of ele phant ivory before it has been pol ished and worked over. Hippopotamus ivory answers every mercantile purpo e as far as it goes. That it is not con sidered as valuable as elephant ivory is due to the fact that it can be used for smaller articles. The hippopotamus teeth received in this market weigh from one-half a pound to three or four thrill of horror through the land. Why were they murdered? A proclamation had been issued among the people as follows: "Notice is hereby given that at the present time 'foreign barbari ans' are hiring evil characters to kid nap small children, that they may ex tract oil from them for use. I have a female servant named Li who has personally seen this done. I exhort you. good people, not to allow your children to go out. I hope you will act in accordance with this." The mob did act on it. The experience of Lord Loch and his companions in 1857 present a tale of horror rarely equaled. On June 21, 1870, came the infamous Tientsin massacre. The French Cath olic missionaries and Sisters of Mercy had established a mission in Tientsin, and one of their agencies was an or phan home. A report got about among the natives that the sisters were kill ing the children to use their hearts and eyes in the manufacture of some medical specific much sought after in Europe. Every one saw that a storm was coming, and the French consul was urged to take such steps as would show the slander to bo false. But tlio consul thought such a request a slur on his dignity and refused to listen to it. The consul paid for his dignity with his life. No one fully knows what happened, for every European on tho spot was done to death. The defense less sisters were butchered after name less barbarities, and the French cathedral and orphanage were set on fire. Twenty foreigners, including a Russian and his young bride, who were mistaken for French, were slain. For the moment it seemed that a gen i eral uprising, such as that of the pres ent hour, must follow. But in the end the Chinese authorities subdued the uprising and executed a score of rioters. puncher was unknown. He sprang into existence with the shipping ot li/ 3 cattle i. crat- cars over the rail roads. He was not a cowboy—never had been. He was simply a nomad, with a desire to get from one point to another without expense and as easily as might be. Experience made it clear to cattle shippers that in or der to deliver cattle on the hoof by crato car it was necessary to keep them on the hoof all through the journey. It was found that when fa tigue induced the cattle in the cars to lie down more often than not they were trampled to death before they could get up. So the cowpuncher then and there acquired an identity. To keep cattle from lying down in the cars shippers hit upon the idea ot sending out with each cattlo train a crew of men armed with long poles, whose duty it would be to travel over the cars and "punch up" all cattle that were down. These crews were recruited from the riff-raff of human, ity usually to be found about big stockyards, and only the foreman of each crew could call his employment permanent. This was, and is today, the duty of a cowpuncher. The cow boy is self-respecting, and he has a pride in his calling that is real. He condemns the cowpuncher—speaks of him as "poor white trash." And he has just one opinion of the fellow who classes him with the men who ride crate cars instead of cayuses and swing long poles instead of riatas. That same opinion would not look well expressed in cold type. pounds. The elephant tusks range in weight front 100 to 250 pounds. Nar whal tusks range in weight from five to 25 pounds. When manufactured into small articles the hippopotamus ivory brings just as much as any other kind. As far as that goes, however, the tusks of the American hog bring more than dees any kind of ivory if weight alone is considered. If they were sold at tlie regular ivory rate of $4 a pound they would bring over four cents each. They are sold by tile pieco and average 25 cents each. The pig teeth are hollow, but will take a very liigh polish and can be used in many ways. It is said that 20 per cent of :hc hogs killed produce valuable tusks. The long, thin, yellow tusk of the nar whal docs not bring nearly as much today as it did 130 years a.to. This Is dun to the parsing of superstitious Ideas regarding this ivory pro hirer of the sea. A century ago redo be lievcd that the walrus was cnnnocl d with the fabulous unicorn, an. I :ho horn or tusk was Atpptmnd to po ess many magical virtues. For Instance, it VM.S regarded as an antidote for til poisons, and kings kept a horn in their dining rooms, believing that it would warn them if their food had been poi soned. The tusks were worth thou sands of dollars in those times, but the whalers and hunters of the north are glad to sell them today for ?73.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers