Democratic Sentinel, Volume 15, Number 48, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 18 December 1891 — Page 4

fljelmocraticScnttncl RENSSELAER, INDIANA. 3. W. McEWEN, - - - Publisher.

1 There are to be 1.000 ecoks employed at the World's Fair, and New York will unquestionably discover in the fact evidence that the broth will *be spoiled. : Under her accustomed diet of dogs’ (flesh the plucky young woman in Indiana, encouraged by her physicians and friends, has managed thus far to keep pup wonderfully. Someone has invented a gun which will fire under water. This appears ■to be a rascally attempt to pursue the United States navy to its chosen resting place in the bottom of the ocean. A Chicago judge has flatly refused to hold court in the room provided for him on the ground that it is dangerous to his health and the health of those who have business in the court The chrysanthemum may be a fashionable flower, but a posy that looks like a bunch of French sliced pot a toes dipped into stewed tomatoes can (never appeal to the hearts of the people. You will be disappointed if you build your hopes of happiness on living in some other town or country. Wherever you go, you will still be yourself? and will carry your aches and pains with you. A baby that is born on Sunday is popularly supposed to be a favorite of fortune. The chances are that the legend will be borne out in the case of the Astor baby, especially as his inheritance will amount to about *150,000,000. If the next orator who has to respond to the toast “The Press” at a banquet would just consider that it was the wine-press he was to honor be would avoid the utterance of many « stale platitude and touch his hearers at a tender point. I ' The New York AVorld printed the portraits of ten Gotham capitalists whose wealth aggregates nearly SBOO,000,000. The most striking feature about them is that they look like almost any other ten men that could be picked up at random anywhere.

i Sir Morrell Mackenzie has aroused much discussion of the question: “Should clergymen smoke?” Since everybody knows that they will, it would be at once a pity and a grave error of policy for the church authorities to prove that they should not. The long catalogue of vices contained in the pastoral that the Methodist Ecumenical Conference has sent out to the churches might seem to indicate a remarkably comprehensive knowledge on the part of the authors of the letter of the sharp practices and evils of this wicked world. The number of through lines, of railroads, the demand for the canal across Nicaragua, and the increased emigration to the far W.est, all point to a great boom in the commerce of the Pacific in the near future. “Westward the star of empires takes its way”—is something more than poetic fancy. is a certain pathos as well as a degree of suggestive ness in the story that a little Indian boy recently staggered the Superintendent of tbe Pine Ridge Agency by asking timidly if there was any immediate danger of an uprising of the white people. There are always two sides to the shield, It does look a good deal as if the Chicago police were frightened at their own shadows when they made their recent raid on the' alleged “anarchists.” And yet it cannot be forgotten that on one occasion—and that not so long ago—they were as much too dilatory as they have now shown themselves too previous. There is a revival of the rumor that Lillian Russell, the queen of comic opera, is again about to wed. As Miss Russell has already ventured twiee on the sea of matrimony, it is apparent that she is not quite ready to pronounce marriage a positive failure. She may be a believer in the base-ball proverb, “three times and out.” A Boston lawyer relates that not long ago a jury went out early in the day on a simple case, and, when it bad got near time for the court to rise, his honor sent for them. He asked the foreman if he required any further instruction. The foreman replied: “Your honor, here are eleven pig-headed men who won’t agree to anything.” Press dispatches recently appeared In the newspapers from Copperopolis, Col., and Paragould, Ark. Whoever named these two towns were possessed of talents in nomenclature which were certainly unique, possibly useful. Certainly no letter addressed to any one in either of them is likfely to go astray, for there are no other such names on earth. Almost a daily news item is an account of a man who goes away to make a fortune for his family, stays fifteen or twenty years without communicating with them, and then is horrified, when he comes back, to And that his wife was married during his aasenee. He evidently thinks she should hare earned the living, reared the family, and then should bare

supper ready and be waiting at the front gate when he returns. The two German bankers retiring to their counting-room ?.nd committing suicide because they found themselves and the hank hopelessly involved, furnishes a striking contrast to the two Boston bankers, who have wrecked themselves and hundreds of others, hunting for bail preparatory to defending against a prosecution for their crime. Suicide, of course, must not he commended; but one can hardly help feeling sympathy for the men who saw no other way out. A large company of railroad officials in New Jersey held a meeting to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of the running of the first train of cars by a locomotive in the State. Two generations have elapsed since railroading was such a curiosity that the whole New Jersey Legislature turned out to see the little “John Bull,” the putting engine which George Stephenson had sent over to the Camden & Amboy Road. In these two generations what colossal progress has been made! It is only by looking backward that we can appreciate it. We send locomotives to John Bull now, and if the tokens do not fail we will soon send him some which will make his hair rise with awe and wonder.

Sailors are laughing at the impulsive, unconventional young Emperor of Germany because lie proposes to abolish the terms “starboard” and “port” in the German navy, substituting therefor the lubberly words “right” and “left.” “Why not talk so any landlubber will know what you mean?” he is reported to have inquired with some asperity of the horrified naval commander. The Emperor is yet young. A wise choice of parents. brought him a throne, but years alone will bring him that horsesense bred of observation. In time he will learn that every profession has its cant lingo, employed, not to make the utterances of those who use it more intelligible to each other, but to make them wholly unintelligible to outsiders. By this means the dignity of the profession is conserved and the unlearned are discouraged from prying so closely into its mysteries as to discover its general superficiality.

They are discussing in the English papers in a way which must make the sluggish blood of the traditional British matron curdle in her veins whether the keeping of the seventh comraifndment is a mere climatic vagary. It seems that the tales of Rudyard Kipling have brought home to the English mind the idea that the observance of the aforesaid law is so exceptional in India that it is really not to be expected, and there is no end of persons ready to write letters to tho press telling all they know or all they do iK>t know of the matter, witli affirmations and denials ad nauseam. The phrase of Byron is quoted in which he affirms the immorality of ftjlk “where the climate’s sultry,” and there is a certain air of impropriety about the whole matter which seems to lend it a most attractive piquancy. The fact is that the Englishman out of sight of his insular world is always likely to lie immoral and not a little likely to be a beast, and in India it is to be expected that this phase of British character shall come well to the fore, as it does in fact. The question is, What is there to be done about it?

Wanderers on the Sea.

The discoveries of modern science have revealed monsters of the deep as terrillc as any that ancient fancy created, and have shpwn_that oceans are 'riot mere "wastes of 'waters, tmt the homes of an astounding variety of living things. More than this, it has been discovered that the seas themselves have each a sort of law of existence which they obey. The Hydrographic Bureau at Washington for two years has been trying to learn something of the characteristics of the Atlantic Ocean as a great moving body of water by means of bottles, containing papers, which have been dropped overboard from vessels in many places, to drift at the mercy of the winds and waves. Many of these bottles have been found and picked up again either in the open sea, or on shores where they had stranded. Knowing from its records where the bottles had been thrown overboard, the Bureau had been able to trace, in a general way, the path they must have followed in order to reach the places where they were found. In a report published on the first of July this year, and accompanied by a map of the Atlantic, the adventures of a hundred and thirteeen bottles are recorded. Being partially filled with air and then securely corked, the bottles float on the surface of the water, and go wherever the wind and the currents of the sea carry them. Each bottle contains a record of the place and the date of its starting. Some of these found have floated for many months on the bosom of the Atlantic, and traveled thousands of miles. It has been found that bottles dropped overboard between the shores of the United States and England or France generally travel toward the northeast, following the course of that great river in the ocean called the Gulf Stream. Bottles started off the coasts of Spain or Africa travel westward until they arrive among the West India Islands. Along the European side of the ocean the bottles take a southerly course, and along the American side a northerly course. Thus, as a result of winds and currents, the whole Atlantic is shown to be slowly circulating round and round, like an enormous pool. This accounts for the stories that were current in Europe, hundreds of years ago, of strange objects of human manufacture having floated from the New to the Old World, thus giving a clue to the existence of undiscovered lands beyond the sea

WORN IN WINTER.

FASHIONS THAT ARE SUITABLE TO THE SEASON.

It Is More Difficult to Make a Stylish Appearance In Winter Costumes than It Is In Spring:, Summer or Autumn Gowns —A Muffled-Up Look Is Death to Grace aud Style. Cool-Weather Costumes.

TRUE It Is that the fashionable woman finds it more difficult to make a graceful and stylv ish appearance in ’ her winter costames than she does in her spring, J summer, or autumn gowns, lays the fashion writer, and the season is obvious. The mo- * ment that eager ar.d nipping air, of which Shakspeare speaks, calls for heavy wraps, V fur-lined cloaks \ or fur - trimmed i \ jackets, there is \\\ at once a noticable f\ \\ tendency to sacrij[ \ ifee grace an d I I \ style in order to secure comfort—a word, by the way, J' that hasn’t its - exact synonym in

any other language, and I mast say that it is an extremely difficult thing to feel entirely comfortable on a real oldfashioned winter's day without assuming a muftled-up look. Now, a mutfledup look means death to all grace and style. If you want to know how you look when you look muffled up, 1 might say observe the aristocratic pug dog witli his blanket on and his woebegone countenance. I am well aware that many young girls, inclined to be embonpoint, trifle with their health during the winter season in order to keep style and comfort, so far as possible, hand in hand. / These foolish virgins forget that natu/e has seta most sensitive thermometer in the center of their faces, to wit, their noses, and I would respectfully suggest to them that, no matter how lovely their winter costumes may be, a rod nose with indigo lips and a generally pinched lookisquite enough to rob the most beautiful face in the world of its charms. Of two evils choose the less, and so it seems to me that it is better to make almost any sacrifice, including grace and stylo, and keep the blood on each side ot one's nose rather than in its tip. But Ith nk that by a little intelligent thought on this matter you may bo easily ablo to hit upon some style of street gown that will keep you perfectly comfortable and

STREET COSTUMES.

at tho same time savo you from that dreaded mu filed up appearance. My attention was attracted the other day by a wiut'r garment which appeared to mo to very nearly, if not quite, deserve the title of novelty, it was a long velvet easaque, made from a singlo piece of tho material, while its collar and sleeves were fashioned entirely of feathers I say entirely, but in reality tho feather tips were sown upon a Very gtrong but soft and pliable material, ftptfbly casque be either too startling a novelty for y6u, so in my initial illustration I set beforo you something very much of the same shape and style, only it is made up in a less originmil manner. This stylish garment may be made in velvet of any kind or color to suit your particular figu.o and co'oring. The corsage closes in the middle with hooks aud eyes, and to it are sewed long basuucs. Tho front sides have fevers sewe<\ to them with reversed seams. Tho casaiuc may bo embroidered in anyway that taste may dictate. The sides have one dart In order to keep tho easaque from wrinkling, you must add a band of silk of tho same color as the velvet to the left side, reaching down to the, waist and serving to hook tho right side to the left side. In front the basques flare somewhat. The garment must be trimmed with some becoming fur. In my second illustration you will find represented on tho left a very stylish street costume in gray cloth. The skirt is made up on an alpaca foundation, having a deep false hem and a drawingstring In the back breadth. The skirt is slightly draped and finished at the bottom with a bias of gray velvet, which must be lined with muslin. This band is sowed with reversed seam with hollow ploata The front breadth is gored

BEIGE CLOTH MANTLE.

so as to secure a proper fit on the hips. Under the jacket you wear a blouse of gray silk with a leather belt The fronts of the jacket arc double, and it is ornamented with an open pelerine The fronts of the under basques are adjusted to the figure and meet at the front The

upper ones have a dart, and, as my Ulna tration indicates, are cat to a point and sewed upon velvet basques gathered below the waist. The points are bordered with velvet The pelerine is gathered at the neck: straight collar, leg-o’-mut-ton sleeves and cuffs. With thl9 costume is worn a very pretty gray felt, narrow brim and flat crown. The crown is turned up at the back and set off with a bow. An aigrette of gray feathers is placed in front in the center of a bow, the two ends of which encircle the crqwn. At the back there is a pearl-headed pin. The figure on the right in my second illustration pictures an embroidered mantle, the materal being a black slcilienne. The skirt is joined to the corsage, and has folds at the back. The fronts have square tabs. This garment is ornamented with feather trimming and embroidered with silk twist and pearls. The Marie Stuart collar is garnitured with feathers, as shown in the illustration. Completing this costume there is a stylish velvet capote in emerald green. It is made with a pastrycook’s crown, beneath which there is a torsade of pink veivet forming five coques at the front Coques of tho same ribbon arc placed at the back with an aigrette and pink strings. Many fashionable ladies prefer cloth mantles to velvet and plush ones, or e'se cloth mantles with velvet in combination. With cloth there is a greater call for rich garniture, but on the other-

STYLISH WINTER JACKET.

hand you may attain more stylish effects by using this more youthful material Velvet has a dignity about it that tits it pre-eminently for the dowager’s wear, hence young people should not be too prone to mufflo up too much in this material of pomp and state. In my third illustration you will find pictured a very becoming cloth mantle in beige cloth. • The pelerine is in tobaccobiown plush. At the back there is a smoked effect. The pelerine is gathered at the shoulders and is lined with silk of the same color. This mantle may be trimmed with black fur or with any longhaired fur. The long jacket lends itself most adm'rably for winter purposes, uniting warmth and style. You see it made up in a thousand different ways, but I think you’ll search far and near before you hit upon a mere thoroughly becoming and refined garment than the one 1 picturo for you in my fourth i lustration. It is made In a marine-blue vicuna and has double fronts, tho under ones being richly braided and closing in tho middle with hooks. The outside fronts are. as you see, longer, and are finished with revers and a rolling collar in sealskin or plush. The fronts are fitted with fastenings, so that the jacket may be worn completely closed in cold weather, and if you belong to that class tritely denominated frozen turnips, you have only to line the whole garment with fur or silk wadding. Jn my last illustration you will find represented a pretty and withal serviceable winter garb for a young miss. It is made up in wood-brown vicuna trimmed with Persian lamb The jacket is not only lined with silk but has also a flannel inlay, and with it is worn a silk blouse of the same shade as tha cloth, belted in with a narrow leather bolt. The plastron is sowed into tho

FUR-TRIMMED DRESS.

seam at tho right shoulder, but is buttoned on both sides. The epau'ets are continued around the back in the manner of a short pelerine. In front the skirt is slit up into tabs, which are trimmed as shown with the fur. Tho hat has a crown in the same material and is trimmed with tho same fur as tho dress. Whenever the weather permits, and no doubt often when it forbids, you will see the popular shoulder capes, palatines and stoles. Muffs premise to be more reasonable as to size than they were last season. It seems too rfd'ciilous to aggravate tho evil of cold fingers by carrying about a muff too small to cover the hands. It wou'd be far more reasonable for the lady of fashion to revive that quaint old custom of carrying a live poodle about in <o!d weather to setve as a mutt', but the society for the prevention of cruelty, etc.., would soon put a stop to such a practice, no matter how picturesque, especially when the dog was dyed to suit the wearer’s complexion. Astrakhan will be a modish fur with which to trim an afternoon ccstume for visit ng or reception purposes. It goes well with cloth. One very becoming way to apply this trimming is to run three narrow rows of it around the bottom of the skirt and to run a single row around the cut-out of the bodice and so down to the waist, thus framing the embroidered plastron and producing a fine effect. There is a very handsome woo’en material with a rough surface simulating astrakhan which will be very popular for winter costumes. It looks V6ry well in gray or black. Senator Voorhefa attributes his Illhealth to the night sessions of the tfenato last winter.

CHILDREN’S COLUMN.

A DEPARTMENT FOR LITTLE BOYS AND GIRLS. Bomethinc that Will Interest the Jnvenlle Member* of Every Household Quaint Actions and C right Sayings of Cute Children. The Circus In the Barn. “Only three pins!” cried little Ray, “To get Into our liarn to-day, iAnd see a circus with a clown; A bareback rider, Jimmie Brown, And lemonade, a pin a glass— Bill Jones will sell It on the grass. I’m going to bo tbo ticket man, I want to sell all that I can; One for mamma, one for Bess, And six for all her dolls, I guess; And then, you know, Jane must come, too, And little Ned, and Grace, and you.” I’d not a pin, and so I went To mamma’s cushion—some were bent And would not pa=s, and I had quite A time to make tbo change just right. Then when wo all got to the door A downcast look my lad's face wore; The circus men could not agree As to who the ringmaster should be; The trapeze boy had hurt Ills head And should not act. his mother said; The clown’s Aunt Kate forgot that day The circus came, and went away, And did not sew the silver stars Upon his trousers, nor the bars Of blue and red. It was too bad, And so I told my little lad. lie said he wished he was a man. That he could carry out each plan; Rut I wished much that I could be A lad again, and once more see Those good old days when plus were made The lawful currency of trade —Doll’s Dressmaker.

Sewing Aches.

Jessie sat down by her mother to sew. She was making a pillow-case for her own little pillow. “All this?” she asked in a discontented tone, holding the seam out. “That is not too much for a little girl who has a work-basket of her own,” said her mother. “Yes,” thought Jessie, “mother has given me a work-basket, and I ought to be willing to sew,” and with that she took a few stitches quite diligently. “I have a dreadful pain at my side,” said Jessie, in a few minutes. “My thumb is very sore,” she said in a few minutes more. “Oh, njy hand is so tired!” was the next. Next there was something the matter with her foot and then with her eyes, and so she was full of trouble. At length the sewing was done. Jessie brought it to her mother. “Should I not first send for a doctor?” said her mother. “The doctor for me, mother?” cried the little girl, as surprised as she could be. “Certainly. A little girl so full of pains and aches must be ill, and the sooner we have the doctor the better.” “Oh, mother,” said Jessie, laughing, “they were sewing aches. lam well now.” I have heard of other little girls besides who had sewing aches and pains whenever their parents had an v work for them to do. This is a disease called “selfishness,” and I hope none of my little girls are afflicted with it.—Christian Inquirer.

Tact Is the Tiling. Tact is one of the first qualifications of a business man, says the New York Recorder, and the following little incident in the history of one of the most successful merchants shows a development of this trait early in his business career. Coming to New York from the country, without friends and with very little money, he found his wav to “lower Wall street,” and, walking into the store of W. & Co., passed back into the counting-room and waited modestly and patiently till he should attract the attention of Mr. W., who was at the moment busily engaged with some friend. At last the frank, open face of the boy attracted his notice, and he addressed him with: “What can I do for you, sonny?” “I want a place, sir.” “Well, what can you do?” The boy answered eagerly; “Most anything, sir.” Mr. W., partly for a joke and partly to rid himself of the almost too confident boy, said: “Ah, ah! Well, just go out and boi row me a couple of thousand dollars.”

The lad placed his hat on his head, walked out of the store, then passed slowly down Front street till he came to another large store in the same line of business, our friends of the past, Messrs. S. C. & Co., then with a bold but honest look he walked up to the head of the house and said: “Mr. W., of W. &Co. sent me down to borrow $2,000.” “He did, my son? How is business up at your place?” The boy, having seen the appearance of large shipments, answered quickly: “Very good, sir!” “Two thousand dollars, did you say? Will that be enough?” “Well, $2,000 is all he told me, but if you have plenty I think he would like it if you sent him $3,000. “Just give this boy a check for $3.000 for W. & C.,” remarked Mr. S. to his cashier. The boy took the check, and with it returned to Mr. W., walking back into the office with an air of successful pride, and said: “Here it is, sir.” Mr. W., taking one look at the check and then at the boy, said: “Young man, come in here; you’re just the one I have been looking for.” And giving him a desk he set him to work. In the Mall-Box. In a warm bed in an old soap-box in the cellar old Tabby kept her three little black kittens. But sometimes when she sprang into the cellar window and went to the box, she found it empty. Then she always went up stairs to the sitting-room to look for her kittens, and she was sure to find Lulu playing with them. Lulu was only four years old. and she liked to play with the kittens better than her dolls. She would dress them up in the dolls’ clothes, and take them to ride up and down the room in her little carriage, and put them in the dolls’ bed and try to sing them to sleep. Lulu was very fond of her little cousin Amy, who lived in another part of the city, and came to see her sometimes, and she thought she would like to give Amy her kittens. So one day she put the three kittens Into her apron very carefully an 4 car-

ried them to the street corner, on which stocd a big mail-box, painted red. It was for packages and newspapers that could not be put in the little box. Lulu had very often seen her mamma put packages in there to send away, and she thought that in order to send the kittens to Amy she had only to put them in the box. She lifted the lid, and dropped the kittens in one by one. Then she ran home, very happy over what she had done. When she. had played with her dolls a little while she went up-stairs to her mother, and asked if five o’clock had come yet. “It is almost five,” said her mother. “Then Amy will almost get my kittens,” said Lulu, for she had heard that the carrier came every day at five o’clock to take up the mail. Her mother asked her what she meant, and when she heard that the kittens had been put in the mail-box she laughed a great deal. “I think we had better go out, and see if they are still there,” she said to Lulu. They reached the mail-box just in time, for the carrier had opened it and taken the kittens out, and verj much surprised he looked. He was very glad to put the three mewing little creatures into Lulu’s apron, and she carried them home again, where Tabby was looking for them and growing very uneasy. Amy was given one of the kittens the next time she came to see Lulu, but she carried it home in her arms, and did not try sending it by mail.— Youth’s Companion. At bedtime little Willie was saying the usual prayer at his mother’s knee, and having got as far as “If I should die before I wake” hesitated. “Well, what’s next?” asked his mother. “Well, I s’pose the next thing would 4)e a funeral.”

THE BLIND IN JAPAN.

Formerly Shunned, but Now They Learn Useful Trades and Professions. At a recent meeting of the Asiatic Society of Japan, in Tokio, a paper full of curious and interesting information on the condition of the blind in Japan was read by Prof. Dixon. In early ages the blind were regarded as unlucky or uncanny, arid their condition was one of great misery, until one of the imperial princes was born in this state. His father collected around jjim a number of blind to amuse him, and when, on attaining maturity, he was appointed governor of three provinces, he took with him blind men to assist him, and for about three centuries the administration of these provinces was always in the hands of the blind. This prince also introduced the practice, which prevails at the present day, of the blind shaving their heads. During the civil contests of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries between the families of Taira and Minnamoto the blind officials were everywhere ejected, and those afflicted with the loss of sight fell into their early condition of (listress and misery. In course of time orders were issued to the local authorities to provide for the blind in their districts, and now they receive the attention and education' usual in all civilized countries.

The members of the blind guild, which has long existed, commonly followed two occupations, music or chanting or shampooing or massag», those who practiced the former being of a higher grade and frequently enjoying much popular favor. To this day all towns and villages in Japan have their blind shampooers, who go about after nightfall with a strange musical cry. The less skillful among the musicians became professional story-tellers. The higher official grades, which were at one time open to the blind, were eagerly sought after; those who held them were provided with special marks of their office, and during civil wars blind musicians were frequently qmployed as spies. The art of shampooing as practiced by the Japanese blind takes nine years to learn. The pupil for the first three years practices on his master; then he spends three years acquiring the art of acupuncture; and for the remaining three years he is on probation, his master receiving half his earnings. Blind men sometimes distinguish themselves outside their regular occupations. One was a famous go player; and itis'recorded that, having beaten a prince at the game, his antagonist in a fit of jealous anger killed him, and was himself executed for the crime. Another was a famous author, and compiled a valuable repertory of information in 635 volumes. The blind also practiced usury, and acquired much unpopularity from the harsh way in which they treated their debtors.—Goldthwaite’s Geographical Magazine:

Airing Rooms.

It is a great mistake that the whole house, particularly the sleepingrooms and the dining-rooms, receive little ventilating and purifying of air, when it can be done with so little trouble and no expense. A pitcher of cold water placed on a table or bureau will absorb all the gases with which the room is filled from the respiration of those eating or sleeping in the apartment. Very few realize how important such purification is for the health of the family, or, indeed, understand or realize that there can be any impurity in the rooms, yet in a few hours a pitcher or pail of cold water—the colder the more effective —will make the air of the room pure, but the water will be entirely unfit for use. In bedrooms a pail or pitcher of water should always be kept, and changed often if anyone stays in the room during the day; certainly be put in fresh when the inmates retire. Such water should never be drunk, but either a covered pitcher or glass bottle with a stopper should be used for drinking water, and always be kept closely covered. Impure water causes more sickness than even impure air, and for that reason, before using water from a pump or reservoir for drinking or cooking, one should pump or draw out enough to clear the pipes before using it, particularly in the morning, after the water, has been standing in the pipes all night.— Ileartb and Hall.

ALLIGATOR VS. BULL.

A Thrilling Battle Witnessed by a Ship’s Passenger. Passengers going up the San Juan River to the interior of Nicaragua see many strange sights along the shores lined with alligators, and through water filled with sharks, but seldom witness a finer battle-royal than one that took place between a young bull and an alligator. A bit of prairie land or savannah came down through the dense tropical jungle, the impenetrable tangle of trees and vines offering an opportunity for the herds of wild cattle to drink that was 'not ignored. The habits of the herd had evidently been carefully studied by a wily old alligator, as he lay day after day in the

mud, licking his insect-laden chops and dreaming of a dainty meal of delicate veal. The steamer was tied up to the bank when the “gaiter’s” opportunity arrived. A calf had strayed unnoticed from the herd towards the water. An ugly black nose appeared above the water, followed by a wicked twinkling eye and a long scaly body. A cautious crawl up the low bank; and the ugly saurian ran with astonishing rapidity for its prey. A shout and an ill-directed shot alarmed the calf. There was a big bawl, answered by the whole herd, the calf running frantically from and the whole herd toward the water fiend. Then both sides paused, the aligator sinking closer toward the ground, the cows standing with ears erect, their big brown eyes filled with astonishment and fear. Another instant and the cows and calves moved slowly off to one side, ever keeping their heads to the foe, and a young bull alone remained facing the enemy. The young guardian of,the herd slowly advanced to the attack, his magnificent eyes shining with the light of battle, his tail switching nervously, and his head tossing like a swordsman practicing his finest thrusts. It looked for a moment as though the alligator would retreat. Then a vibration ran through his scales, the huge mouth opened, his gurgling threat was answered by a defiant bellow, and with increditable swiftness on the part of both the combatants met. The cruel rows of teeth closed on the leg of the bull near the body, stripping muscle and sinew from the bone, while the polished horn sanlp deep into the alligator’s breast. A quick withdrawal on the partof both, a lightning-like turn of the head, and the other horn of the bull impaled his enemy. A great shudder ran over the body of the alligator, and the blood gushed forth as he reared in his rage and pain. For an instant both feet rested as they were, and then the saurian with a last desperate effort whirled himself on the impaling horn, striking the bull on the side with terrific force, the crash of the blow echoing along the river. No ribs or muscles could withstand the assault. The brave young hero fell upon his side, twisting his neck out of joint. One final effort t:i move his head, one longing look toward the panic-stricken herd, and the look in the beautiful-brown eyes died out forever. A cry of sympathy and regret arose from the spectators, and pistol balls glanced from the armored back of the alligator as he feebly slunk back into the water, covered with the execrations of all the witnesses.

He Knew His Friend.

A lot of the boarders at a private boardery on Second street brought a medium into the fold one night last week and had a seance. When the lights were so low you couldn't find them without striking a match a spirit appeared and hovered over the star boarder. “Whose spirit are you?” inquired that personage. “The spirit of Bilnap,” came the sepulchral response in a squeaky voice. Bilnap had been a friend of the star boarder’s until he (Bilnap) had died with the jim-jams, and the star boarder became interested. “No; you don’t say?” he exclaimed. “Yes,” squeaked the spirit, followed . by a dozen raps. The star boarder wheeled around and sniffed the air. “By thunder,” he said, “you’re off your base. I can’t smell either brimstone or liquor. If Bilnap is dead there’d be brimstone on him, and, if he isn’t, there’s bound to be liquor. I know Bilnap, dead or alive, and you can’t work any snap smell of cologne water or musk on me for Bilnap. Not muchee,” and rising, he made a swipe at the spirit that smashed the seance down the front and up the back and in at both sides. The medium hasn’t been back there since, and they don't put up any more jobs from the other world on the star boarder either.—Free Press.

Elephants’ Tusk Jelly.

How many people, says the Washington Star, have ever eaten jelly made from elephants’ tusks? Yet it is very good indeed. In the English factories, where many tons of ivory are sawn up annually to make handles of knives and forks, great quantities of ivory dust are obtained. The dust is sold at the rate of 6 pence a pound, and when properly boiled and prepared it makes the finest, purest and most nutritious animal jelly known. Years ago ivory jelly was a very fashionable remedy and much sought for. An average of four persons die daily in England from delirium tremens.