i RACKET DRUG STORE > J AT BEENO. I ■WW'WWW'WW Old Dr. Poppitz never had an assist ant till about six months before he died. Then Harold Updike, one of the "town boys," came back from the city a graduated, full-fledged pharma cist and Dr. Poppitz employed him in the drug store. "The Racket Drug Store, Beena, Ark.," that was the sigu over the door, but on a little tin sign near the side entrance was the legend, "Herr Poppitz, Apotheke." The ad vent of Harold Updike lent new glory to the drug store. He wore a pink shirt and silk garters to hold up ~s sleeves. He parted his hair in the middle, and kept it drooping, mane like, over his eyes after tne manner of the college football hero. He was the envy of all the young men in town, because he ruled the soda fountain, and every girl in town called him "Hal" and quit buying stamps at the postofflce. Meanwhile Dr. Poppitz, who, by the way, wasn't a doctor at all, was disabled almost entirely by accelerated diabetes, and Harold came pretty near "running things" in the store. "Would you like a cooling beverage, Miss Sue?" asked Harold one evening, when pretty Miss Clayton, who had got into long dresses within the year, had bought a box of note paper and some stamps. "With me, you know. My treat." And while she was nibbling daint ily at it he eyed her admiringly and stammered: "Two years have made quite a change in you, Susie." "They've changed you. too, Hal. We're all glad to see you back —there aren't enough boys 'round, you see, and—you know Dan Atterbury •" "Oh, that's so. I forgot about Dan! Where is he?" "He hasn't come back from the army yet," she said, getting deeper into five confection, but blushing, too, "I—that is s we, have been expecting him. He said he'd be here for the Fourth, and I'm hopiug " "Aha. Miss Susie," simpered Updike, "so he's been writing to you, eh? He always was a little sweet " "He was schoolmate with us, with you too," she said frowning, with quite a serious attempt at severity, "and I think you ought to be glad to see him too, Hal. He's been wounded and sick, and suffered ever so many things over there in the Philippines. And he was in China too!" But Updike didn't care whether his Did schoolmate ever came Lack, for r ne had some plans of liis own with re gard to Susie, and he knew that even a pink shirt and football hair are not special advantages over a blue uni form and a bolo wound. But Dan came back, just the same, and the girls made quite a hero of him—for a few days. Ho had some presents too, principally for Susie, hut he proved his generosity with gifts of a Filipino mat and a Chinese ring to Updike. He brought a great carton of Manila cigars for old Dr. Poppitz, and they lay open on the little table by his bed the night the good old apothecary died. After the funeral was over an<l the good old doctor was forgotten Har old began to cut quite a figure in Beeno circles. The store owed money to the Hot. Springs wholesaler, and Hal was acting manager for its creditor. Meanwhile he was paying the most ardent court to Miss Su3ie. She might have bathed in costly perfumes and feasted interminably on bonbons and ice cream soda without infringing an inch upon Updike's grandiose hos pitality. He sent her presents of every kind of note paper, fancy toilet articles, soaps, novelties. combs, brushes and the rest of drug store fancy goods. Dan Atterbury's star, on the con trary, was on the descent. He had put aside his weather-stained cam paign suit and was loafing. A soldier out of his regimentals and out of a job is not usually a heroic spectacle. Some of the good people of Becno be gan to hint that "soldierin' alius did make fellers no 'count," and Atterbury was commencing to be aware of his questionable position in the commun ity, when at her gate one night Susie, fixing a poppy in his buttonhole, said: "Danny, what are you going to do?" 'I don't know yet, Sue," he hesitat ed; "I've got over two hundred saved up, I told you, and if I sell that loot I brought home I'd have a pretty good stake—perhaps eight hundred or a thousand. We couhl get married on less than that, Susie." "No, wo couldn't, Dan. Not unless you had a position, or some business or something ahead. It doesn't take long to spend a thousand dollars, Dan." "Well, what would you do?" he asked, boylike, "I'm willing to do any thing. Would you go to the city and study law, or medicine, or—or " "Pharmacy?" she laughed, helping him out, "no Dan, don't study phar macy if it's going to make you like Hal. He's " "I don't think you ought to backbite him, Sue. You ought to send back his presents or at least tell him to stop." "Oh, I don't know. He gives them to all the girls the same as to me." "I know. Sue. But he's beginning to talk like lie owned you. I don't like it." And Updike wondered that Susie quit !; ying trifles at the stole and he became quite enraged when she asked him, kindly, to send her no more gifts. "The drug store is Tor sale, Sue," Dan was saving one night a few weeks later. "I heard the man from Hot Springs telling Hal to look out for a aurehaser. Seems it hasn't hcen mak- I ing money, or they don't want to be j bothered with it. Too bad, isn't it. j Hal will lose his job." "Why don't you buy it, Danny?" It was a bold idea and they looked at each other silently in the moon light. But he went to Hot Springs next day with ail his money and a little that she had been saving since she could remember, and —he bought the Kacket drug store. But when he came back to Susie with his bill of sale and the list ot' notes that he had agreed to pay, he was worried. "Wlial'll I do with Hal. Sue?" "Let him run it for you. You can go to Chicago and study pharmacy on the profits. I'm sure he won't mind working for you, Dan." It was quite a blow to Mr. Updike, but he swallowed his chagrin and the matter was fixed. Dan went to the city and in a year, when he came back with his diploma, Hal greeted him with a stern smile and said: "The jig is up, Dan. They're going to sell us out." And so it was. Susie wept and Dan grieved, but neither of them knew what to say when Harold Updike bought the place. Where did he get the money? His father, who kept the dairy, was poor. Susie supposed it was all right, but why had he been so quiet, so sneaking about it. "I'm going to ask him for a job," said Dan, sullenly, "I gave him one and he ought to do as well by me." And Harold's small soul swelled with pride when he saw Dan behind the counter pounding away with a pes tle, or slobbering among the sirups. His eyes gloated over the new sign "Harold Updike, Pharmacist," which gleamed above the entrance. He bought a "stepper" and got "sporty." Sometimes he even cursed his clerk. He borrowed money from Tom Kelly, who kept the saloon, and the business went on. For a while it seemed that the place was a small mint, but at last the salesmen quit coming. Duns be came frequent, the bank grew "grouchy" and. finally, a small, fat man in a brown suit, came up again from Hot Springs, "to take charge." "I don't see how it failed," growled Hal as he and Dan sat in the disor dered store at midnight after the in ventory was made and the dreary work was done. "I don't see how it (failed when I owned it," said Dan. They were quite silent for a minute. "What are you going to do, Up dike?" " v\ nat are you going to do?" "Oh. I'm going to buy the store back again." said Dan, laughing. 'You? Where did you get the money?" "Susie's dad, Hal," answered Atter bury, "we're going to be married." There was a tap at the window and a merry voice called, "Are you there yet, Danny." But Updike laid his hand on Dan's" arm as he started for the door and said, ' Will you give mo back my old job, Dan?" ' N—no, Updike. Not this time. I think I'll run it myself." And afterward, as he walked home with Susie and her father, he said, "Well, my conscience is easy, anyway. Turn about is fair play."—John H. Raf tery in the Chicago Record-Herald. FISH-SCALE FLOWERS. An Old Soulli American Industry Intro duced Here. Domestic industries travel in a man ner that often astonishes the careful student. The Indians of Venezuela and Northern Brazil have from time immemorial been skilful makers of fish-scale flowers and leaves. The denizens of the ocean in the tropics are notable for the color and brilliancy of their scales and fins, the range of chromatic lints, including pink, rose, scarlet, skyblue, ultramarine, apple green, emerald, and olive-gold, orange, gray, lilac, and purple. The scales are easily fastened together or to wires with strong fish-glue, which is singu larly durable and permanent. The in dustry passed to the West Indies, where it was adopted by the Span iards and during the Cuban war came over to the mainland and found a home in Florida. In the present year it has come northward, and now finds a habitation in New York City. One of the shops is not far from the Waldorf-Astoria, and is presided over by a clever nimble-fingered wom na whose worktable looks almost as delicate as a jeweller's. Her tools are a pair of scissors, a needle and thread, cloth or thread-wrapped wire, wire cutters, glue-pot and brush, and some compressors for changing the curva ture of the scales. The scales them selves are usually fiat when they reach the operator, and must be concaved or curled in order to simulate petals, sepals anil many forms of leaves. A finished flower possesses a fantastic beauty which is unique. The shape and color of the vegetable world are present, but there Is a certain trans parency to all the tissues, a firmness to the lines, and a resilience to the leaves and blossoms which are never found in the floral kingdom. The play of color is often startling, and some times so brilliant, and yet so sub dued. as to seem a new variety of the best and richest mother-of-pearl.—New York Post. Tim Hniitptt 1111 l to Collect. "Talk about hard bills to collect!" exclaimed the fashionable florist. "I know the limit. The banner for Im possibility is borne off by the bill for blossoms run up by the young man whose engagement has been broken off." —Philadelphia Record. Alihough 125 years old. a watch owned by a man in Gloucestershire, Rngland, still keeps excellent time. It was worn at Trafalgar, during the Peninsular war, at Waterloo, through the China war in IS4O, and finally in I the Indian Mutiny. TOMB OF ERIC THE NORSE THE MEANING OF A STRANGE STONE AT HAMPTON, N. H. Soine Very Mytterlou* Murk* on a T.nrge Itnck Convince Jutlge l.nni|irey Tlutt Eui-opeuim I.nntled There UOO Yewr- Ago A Park to he Opened on the Spot. Considerable discussion has been aroused in the New England states over the meaning of a strange stone in which are cut mysterious marks showing every evidence of extreme age. This stone is, in fact, a large rock, and it has been attracting visit ors to Hampton, N. H. Judge Charles M. Lamprey of Hamp ton, after a prolonged investigation of the subject, is convinced that this stone shows that Thorwald Eric, the Norseman, landed at Hampton in the year 1004 and was buried there. Judge Lamprey, in The Boston Journal, says: The pre-Columbian discovery of America by the Northmen is now undoubtedly true, from what knowl edge can be gained from Icelandic sages, although for many years it was sincerely doubted. Bancroft, in his history of the United States, Volume 1., alludes to it and says: "The story of the colonization of Amorica by Northmen rests on narratives, myth ological in form, and obscure in mean ing; ancient, yet not contemporary," and admits that "the motives of these intrepid mariners, whose voyages ex tended beyond Iceland and beyond Sicily, could have easily sailed from Greenland to Labrador; no other clear historic evidence establishes the nat ural probability that they accom plished the passage." The Norsemen were a Norwegian race of bold, seafaring men who had founded a settlement in Iceland, so that at the beginning of the tenth century there was a population esti mated at from 50,000 to 70,000 souls. Their motto was "Westward, ho!" and they pushed on, reaching the shores of Greenland, and there made settle ment, and in the beginning of the eleventh century Greenland was well settled and tributary to Norway, where Eric, the leader, had established the Christian religion. Why, "if they could easily have sailed from Greenland to Labrador," as Bancroft says, did they not sail westward and accomplish the passage to Labrador? They did, and there is no doubt in the minds of the students of ancient history that they sailed to Labrador and further south till they landed on the New England coast as far south as Cape Cod, and, perhaps, as far as Connecticut. I.cif Eric, according to the narra tive, was in.Greenland in the year 1000, and proclaimed Christianity. In the second voyage he discovered Vine land, on the shores of New England, to which he gave that name because of the abundance of grapes growing wild in the woods. Where is "the point of land well cov ered with woods," and where is the grave of Thorwald, marked with crosses? Several localities on New England's shore have tracings of in scriptions. One is found on the North men's Written Rock at or near West Newbury, Mass., tracings on a stone tablet and stone pipe in ancient graves it. Beverly, Mass., and other things in Rhode Island and Connecticut are evidence of the landing of the Norse men 300 years ago on New England's shore which they called Vineland. Hampton has a stronger claim than any other locality, and Great Boar's Head must be the "point of land" and "well covered with woods" centuries ago. Boar's Head was then a much longer point of land, and has been wearing away constantly for a long time. There are rocks extending out southeasterly more than a quarter of a mile which are easily seen under the water by gunners and fishermen, and which are a continuation of the rocks leading from the point; so it is un doubtedly a fact that the bluff, gene rations before the settlement of the town, in 16.38, was moro than a half mile In length from the westerly side where its rising commences to the easterly point. Tradition—handed clown through seven generations of the writer's an cestors, and to them through many generations of Indians —says that Boar's Head and all the upland run ning westerly a mile or more to East man's Point, southwesterly to the Oli ver Nudd farm, was covered with wood. There is still a deed taking in a part of the Nudd farm and written nearly 200 years ago, which calls the land the Nut Trees. So there is no doubt that Boar's Head was covered with woods, making it the wooded point with its bays, and "the distance small between the forest and the sea;" and the strand fall ot white sand. Now there is no other landing place as described by the Norsemen in their voyages to Vineland which an swers this description as well as do Hampton shores. But that descrip tion is not all, for we have the crosses cut on the stone many generations be fore the settlement of the town by the white man—crosses made not by the Indians, but by some one who knew and believed in the Christian religion. A certain field near the narrow marsh and beach on the main road up town contains the rock on which are cut the three crosses designating the grave where was buried Thorwald Eric In the year A. D. 1004. That field, with others adjoining, came into the possession of the writer's ancestors over 230 years ago, and that part of the field which contains the rock has been under tillage and subject to the plow for over 150 years. The rock is a large granite stone ly ing in the earth, its face near the top of ground, with two crosses cut thereon and other marks, cut by the hand of man with a stone chisel, and not by any owner, from the original proprietor, who took possession 250 years ago, down to the present own ers. "They came to a head land that jutted out that was all covered with wood, and there were bays on either side and the strand that was covered with white sand, and the distance small from the forest to the sea." How true is the description! for there are the head land and the bays on either side, the long sandy beaches, and the land which contained the woods "not far from the sea," There is also the rock with the cut crosses made by man 900 years ago. That field now belongs to Wallace D. Lov ell, the street railway promoter. Mr. Lovell intends to erect a monu ment near that of Norse Rock, and to lay off the land into a park. BUAINT AND CURIOUS. If great cold should condense the earth's atmosphere to liquid air it would make a sea which would cover the earth 35 feet deep. The stick insect of Borneo, the larg est insect known, is sometimes 13 inches long. It is wingless, but some species of stick insects have beautiful colored wings that fold like fans. One of the most singular cures for deafness ever recorded is quoted by the Independent Beige, from the Dutch papers. An old man of 70, living at Krommeme. who had been deaf for 20 years, got involved in a dispute with some neighbors and became literally transported with rage. In his semi- Jemented state he suddenly recovered his hearing, which he has retained over since. In a remarkable surgical operation, Dr. Nicholas Senn of Chicago has suc ceeded. in making a new knuckle for the thumb of Mrs. Thomas M. Hunter, wife of Alderman Hunter. Two years ago Mrs. Hunter caught a splinter of wood under her thumb nail. Inflam mation set in recently and resulted in blood poisoning. Dr. Senn removed the knuckle and formed a new one of strips of bone. Few persons are aware that it is possible to tell time by the eye of a cat. This is done 'by a close study of the feline pupil, which contracts and expands with great regularity each day. Thus, at noon, the pupil of a cat's eye is contracted into a mere slit, a mere horizontal line, and at midnight it is at its largest point of expansion, being then as big and round as a grape. With a little study of the feline optic, any one can easily come within a quarter or a half-hour of the time by reference to a cat clock. Human skulls nre a strange article of commerce. Yet such is the demand which has arisen among curiosity deal ers in Europe for the skulls of New Guinea native ancestors, which have ornamented the poles of native dwell ings in New Guinea, that the Austral ian government has inhibited the trade. I.arge prices were offered the natives for the strange relics, and it was feared that the temptation was becoming so strong that as the supply of genuine ancestors ran low illegal methods of procuring spurious ones would be adopted. The director of the Orphanage at Temesvar, in Hungary, has arranged to hold an "infant market" once a montlj, at which all the children at the Orphanage will be on view, and at which persons desirous of adopting one or more can inspect them and take their choice. The first of these mar kets passed off very successfully. Thirty children were on view—boys and girls between the ages of one and 10 years. Nineteen of them were adopted —five boys and 14 girls. Most of them were adopted by fairly well to-do people, and one foster-mother went straight to a lawyer's office and made her newly-adopted child heiress to her fortune of SIOO,OOO. VnnllUllon VVllliont Iirr. In order to maintain the efficiency of a central telephone station it is es sential that the switching apparatus be kept absolutely free of dust. In crowded industrial towns considerable diificulty is sometimes experienced in accomplishing this, as the smoke from neighboring factories and the dust from the street can only be kept out by closing all doors and windows, which is attained by much discomfort to the operators. In Sheffield the problem has been solved by furnishing artificial venti lation. The air is drawn into the room through a coke screen, which clear it of soot and dirt. This screen is kept moist, which to a certain ex tent permits of the control of the humidity of the air. After passing the screen the air is passed through radi ators to enable the temperature to be regulated as desired. The air then passes along a long airshaft, running along one end of the room and then into the apartments through a series of apertures so disposed that prac tically no draft results. The sceme is capable of application The scheme is capable of application to many industrial establishments where the office force and draftsmen suffer keenly owing to the clouds of dirt and smoke that flow into the rooms from the adjacent shops. fllTlng; tfor n Hn<l Nxinr. Mae —I got even with Bessie for snubbing me. Ethel —What did you do? Mae—l told that young man who calls on her that she used to be the best debater in her class at school.—New York Sun. STRUCK THE KEYNOTE. 1 sent a bit of idle verse. Scribbled in a mood of vague regret, To the magazines—and it Is going yet. I sent a psychologic tale; Some problem stories, poems, plays 1 loosed Upon the editors. They all Cume borne to roost. I tried a thought all set in slang, The siungiest slang—of it I have some store. From It's first trip I'd answer baok, "Accepted; send some more." HUMOROUS. Aunt Jemima—What is a miracle, Adelbert? Adelbert—Paw said it woul.d be a miracle if you got married. "What's the name of that little thing you are playing now?" "Piano, old man; what did you think it was, a harp?" "What's the secret of success?" "Save the millions and the billions will take care of themselves."—Detroit Free Press. Wigwag—What makes him so un happy? Do you suppose he has loved and lost? Henpeekke—Maybe he has loved and won. Mrs. Muggins—She tells some.ter rible fibs about her neighbors. Mrs. Buggins—They are nothing compared with the ones she tells about herself. "Say, der was a lot of irony in dat man's words. He sent me on an er rand an' de bulldog bit me." "What did he say?" "Here's a quarter fer yer pains." Wigg—Why do you take off your hat every time Talkalot tells a funny story? Wagg—That is due to the force of early training. Iwas brought up to reverence old age. Mrs. Malaprop—That's young Mr. Jenkins. He's engaged to be married, you know. Mrs. Gabble —Indeed! And is that the young woman with him now? Yes, that's his fiasco. Silas —So Zeke won't have anything but first-class literature? Cyrus—No. Why, he wouldn't even subscribe to a magazine because he saw "Entered as second-class matter" on the front page. Housekeeper—How is it that all the men who come around begging are such big, strong chaps? Hobo —'Cause, lady, a feller has ter be pretty liusky lookin' to beg nowadays without git tin' hurt. "Women are hard to understand." "Think so?" "Yes; I told her she carried her age well, and she was of fended." "You don't say!" "Yes; and then I told her she didn't carry it well, and she wouldn't speak." "Healthy?" ejaculated the real estate man; "why, this is the healthiest town on earth." "Then why are those fresh graves out there?" queried the pros pective purchaser. "Oh, the doctors and undertakers are buried there. They died of starvation." The angry maiden readjusted the hat she wore (her brother's), gave a pull at her tie (her sweetheart's), stuck her hands defiantly into the pockets of her coat (cut like her father's), and continued: "In the course of time wo men will not have a distinguishing garment. There goes a man who has actualy adopted woman's shirt waist." A NATIONAL TRAIT. Amiability the Bane of the American Public. Amiability is our national vice. We are a country contented. Satisfied with our own superiority, fancied or real, we have the sleek good humor which is not disturbed by jibes or sneers. Conceit has provoked contentment. The result is an amiable public. That aggregation of humanity which the politician speaks of as "the dear peo ple" reverentially—in ante-election times—is pleasant in speech and ac tion. Crowds are seldom cross. The excursion company is a notable ex ample. However much the excursion ists may be delayed or disappointed, there is little of grumbling. Even when they return late at night, tired, worn out from the day of recreation, ithey growl good-humoredly and are merry in their misery. Seldom does any assemblage of Americans degener ate into an angry company, and then only under the lashing of passion at a crime or of heated advocacy of a par ty candidate. We get madder because of politics than from any other reason. The election of some far-off individ ual whom we never saw and in whose success nothing of importance to our selves is involved stirs the dregs of discussion into a very ferment of furi ous strife. Political campaigns bring always the dog days of infuriated de bate. The vice of amiability is shown con spicuously in the behavior of the American audience. The audience has lost the right to hiss. So seldom does any auditor exercise this right that when some rude but honest fellow manifests his disapproval of actor or of ■speaker his neighbors, losing for the nonce their amiability, seek to put him out. We permit applause, but not hissing; huzzas, but not crys of dis approval. Our audiences have con strued the right of criticism as mean ing merely the right to compliment. We are glad to read criticism in the newspapers the- next morning, but we object to having it expressed audibly at the time. Yet who can give suffi cient reason why an audience may not express its disapproval as well as its commendation? Surely dislike may as well be expressed as like. The av erage audience is too polite, too amia ble, to do otherwise than applaud. If it cannot cheer it sits silent. —St. Louis Globe Democrat. Worry over a doctor's bill has given many a man nervous prostra tion. ON ABSENT-MINDEDNESS. Argument to Rliow It Doel Not Mwn Mentnl Failure. Is absent-mindedness indicative of mental failure? This question is sug gested by such facts as the large num ber of unaddressed letters posted each year. An English contemporary cites in evidence the official list of articles left in one year in the London cabs and omnibuses. It includes 850 cane 9. 19,000 umbrellas, 267 rugs, 742 opera T glasses, 926 articles of jewelry, 180 watches, 3,239 purses, besides birds, dogs, cats, etc. The list seems like a pretty gevere indictment of the mental qualities of ithe modern city dweller, and if the hard-pressed newspaper reporter hap pens to see it he will undoubtedly send off a harrowing syndicate letter to all the Sunday editors on this alarming demonstration of mental degeneracy of the twentieth century man. Even our medical contemporary suggests the advisability of those who ride in omnibuses and who forget things of consulting a physician. The more marvelous thing, however, a is that they do not forget far more often than they do. Civilization has suddenly increased a thousandfold the . necessary and synchronous pation of the mind. Singleness of at- \ tention was the predominant charac teristic of mental action before our time of bewildering interests and du ties. Not to have learned the trick of poising in the attention at one instant such a multitude of objects is certain ly not a demonstration of mental fail ure, but rather of non-acquirement of a difficult art. But ithe more convincing proof of the actual triviality of the amount of forgetfulness is shown by the compari son of the number of memory slips of the Londoner with the number who ride in omnibuses and other public carriages. Let us double the number / of lost articles and put the total at j 50,000; if now we roughly estimate the j number of rides each day in London, as at least on the average one for each ) twentieth citizen, we calculate in al year there are surely as many as 100,- 000,000 trips made. Consequently, on J the average, a person forgets some ar ticle once in about every 2,000 trips taken. The alarmist adviser of consultation of an alienist for such failures of mem ory would probably smile at this evi dence of his own mental failure.— American Medicine. Great Cork Forest* of Spain* The cork forests of Spain cover an area of 620,000 square miles, producing ithe finest cork in the world. These forests exist in groups and cover wide belts of territory, those in the region of Catalonia and part of Barcelonia being considered the first in import ance. Although the cork forests of Estremadura and Andalusia yield cork of a much quicker growth and possess ing some excellent qualities its sistency is less rigid and on this ac count it does not enjoy the high repu tation which the cork of Catalonia does. In Spain and Portugal where the cork tree or Quercus suber is indige nous, it attains to a height varying from 35 to 60 feet and the trunk to a diameter of 30 to 36 inches. This species of the evergreen oak is often heavily caparisoned with widespread ing branches clothed with ovate ob long evergreen leaves, downy under neath and the leaves slightly serrated. Annually, between April and May, it produces a flower of yellowish color, succeeded by acorns. Over 30,000 square miles in Portugal are devoted to the cultivation of cork trees, though the tree virtually abounds in every part of the country. The methods in vogue in barking and harvesting the cork in Spain ar. Portugal are virtually the same. The \ barking operation is effected when the tree has acquired sufficient strength to withstand the rough handling it re ceives during this operation, which takes place when it has attained the 15th year of its growth. After the first stripping the tree is left in this juven escent state to regenerate, subsequent stoppings being effected at intervals of not less than three years and under this process the tree will continue to thrive and bear for upward of 150 years.—Boston Herald. DiHitiomln I.one Favor. According to an expert writer In the Petit Bleu, the heyday of diamonds has gone, at least on the Continent. Diamonds are succumbing to three kinds of evolution: (1) The evolution of moral taste. It is now considered bad form for la dies and gentlemen to advertise their 4 wealth by a display of diamonds. T (2) A scientific evolution. Thanks to tills diamonds are so wonderfully well counterfeited, that they are no longer the sign of wealth. The larger and the more numerous the diamonds the more they are suspected of being false. (3) The evolution of artistic taste. The diamond admits of hardly any va riation in shape or composition. The great Continental artists of to day in the jewelry line use gold, silver, even copper or iron, and produce with them little marvels of art, in which the diamond hardly ever enters, unless in a very minute and accessory way, In order to "animate" the whole. Un'q id li.cor.l, V Judge and Mrs. G. L. Mitchell, of * Eureka, are able to boast of a rather novel record. They have been married forty-three years, and during all that time there has never been a death or birth in the family, and Mrs. Mitchell says that only twice in her married life did she have to get up iu the night to hunt colic medicine for her hus band.—Kansas City Journal.
Significant historical Pennsylvania newspapers