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.