Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 19 February 1892 — Page 6

1 l)C ftemocroticSentitid RENSSELAER, INDIANA. J. yf, McEWEN, - Publisher

SECRET OF A BUTTON.

WHAT ONE • MICHT TELL IF IT COULD TALK OF HOME. SlgbtA st a Manufactory—The Method of Cutting Out—How the Dies Are Made——Tlr,© Perfect Article —Au Important Factor of Commerce. How Buttons Are Made. To uae the expression, “not worth a button,” which is often applied to an object apparently worthless, is certainly depreciating all article that is an important factor of commerce, and the making of which gives bread to many thousands of people. Even though the shadow of fashion’s frown fall at present over the button, it is anything but an insignificant article. The ancients do not appear to have made use of the button, except, perhaps, to fasten the drapery of women’s tunics on the shoulder or arms; or to connect the two square pieces of the tunic near the neck. The dies for stamping metal buttons are rated among the highest objects of the die-sinker’s and medalist’s art. In a large button in: nufactory you will see ranges of shelves or pigeon-holes covering both sides of the rooms, each filled with dies, hundreds in number. And upon each one what care and thought have been spent, what ingenuity and knowledge, what skill of eye and hand! In itself it is a curious article, a single die occupying a man from two to three days to a month, according to his ability and the fineness of the pattern to be wrought. To think of 1,000 in a year produced by dint of so much effort and ability, and remember that button-dies are among the highest productions of the art, cannot but elevate one’s respect for buttons. The first step to take then in following throughout the history of a button, says the Chicago Tribune, will be to find out what is this steel die so much heard of and so seldom seen, except by those who go to seek it. It is a block of metal, round or square, as may happen, four or five inches in height and rather smaller at the top than at the bottom. The steel selected must bo of moderately fine grain and uniform texture, and when polished must show no spots or patches under a magnifying glass. After being forged into rQugh blocks the size and shape mentioned the steel is made ns soft as possible by careful annealing—being immersed in a pot of coarsely pounded animal charcoal, then heated to a cherry red and allowed to cool gradually. Next it is “faced up” flatly and smoothly In a lathe, and the engraver takes it In hand. He first sketches his pattern upon it from the drawing before him with a pencil. Then lie begins engraving with the hard, sharply pointed steel engraving tools — gently, for it is always easy to cut away more, but impossible to restore the minutest chip when the stroke has gone too deep. He works out the images of the pattern, obverse and reverse, in intaglio for the upper matrix, and embossed or in bas-relief for the lower. When, after repeated Impressions upon clay from lime to time they are found correct, the matrices are ready to bo hardened. This process is simple enough when plain steel is to be operated upon, but is critical when a delicate engraving is to be preserved intact. Any defect in the mode of coiAlueting it may ruin the labor of majiy weeks. It resembles the previous process of softening as regards the application of high heat, but in this it is cooled quickly to produce the desired hardness, while in the other it was cooled slowly. Each matrix is first treated to a coating of oil and animal charcoal or of lampblack and linseed oil. Then they ere placed face downward in a crueiblo filled with the charcoal and burned. After the cherry-red heat is attained they are taken out with a pair of tongs, plunged in a large vessel of cold water, moved about rapidly till the spluttering ceases, and left in the water till quite cool. If it pipes or sings it Is probably cracked. This, dash into oold wator is the nervous part of tho business, as the fractures are liable to occur then and the whole work of weeks ruined. Sometimes as many as four or six dies have to be struck to secure a minute or delicate pattern. Tho hardened die is now polished by holding it against a revolving iron disk coated with powdered emery and oil and tempered by putting it in water which is gradually raised to the boiling point and as gradually cooled, or by placing it on a heated bar of iron until it acquires a rich straw Color. To increase its strength it is sometimes thrust into a red-hot iron ring of just the diameter to fit it when Hie die is cold; consequently, the ring by contracting as it cools binds the substance Of the die with great force and renders it less liable to crack in the subsequent operations. It is now ready fdV nse in molding the shape of future thousands of buttons. The materials of' which buttons are made are almost innumerable. As one manufacturer remarked, “To make out a long list of materials of whioh they are made is an easy matter, but, excluding tho fatty sdbstances, to name one of which they are not made would be a difficult task.” The most common, however, are metal buttons of steel, brass, iron, and aluminum, pearl, composition, glass, and

PUNCHES AND BUTTONS.

covered buttons. F rit as to making met&l buttons. Her.; arc rows of women sad girls, each seated at her machine, a heavy power press. The sheet of metal •bout iO-loi)o'sf an Inch in thickness, is placed under the heavy cutting die on the drawing-press —a motion of the foot , on the pedal, and it descends' hungrily on thw met&l and bites out a circular pieoe. ms fee same time drawing in the edges *#■ the blank. Shifting the sheet, the worker punches out the disks many times faster than the <oook cuts out cookie* from a sjieefc of pastry. The number cut oat In s minuto is beyond belief to those who have not seen it done. One woman can cut as high as 160,000 shells la a day,

By the same method all the round parts of a button are cut out, the cloth in covered buttons, the collet, and mold. The design is next stamped on the upper shell with a drop-hammer. The shell is placed upon the under matrix of the pair of dies we have watched made, and the upper matrix is brought down upon It with great force, and when taken out the pattern is found to be reproduced in every particular. If the shell is to have open spaces, a kind of filigree work on it, this, too, is cut out by the press. The

USING THE DROP-HAMMER.

shell is then taken to the dip-room and immersed in a solution of nitric and sulphuric acids to reuiovo all dirt and stain. After that it is take out and given the ground color—green, red, blue, or whatever it is to be—by dipping it into the proper chemical solutions, and then each one is colored by hand application of French paints and shellac varnishes. It is now ready to bo joined to the remaining parts of, the button. In the meantime the shank, a bit of wire bent to

BUFFING AND POLISHING ROOM. IN THE FACTORY.

form an oval, has been inserted by machinery into the aperture in tho back or under shell of the button, soldered in, and baked. All that now remains is to put the top shell on, which is deftly done by a girl, who places the under shell with its shank into a cup-like depression below the die of her pross, places the top shell upon it, and the die, descending, presses it down upon the other and fits the edges so closely over the other that it will not eome off. The now completed button is ready to be sewed on the cards with its allotted number of fellows and placed in boxes for shipment. The steel button retains its natural color, of course, and is not subjected to chemicals. In the French cut-steel but-

ELECTROPLATING AND GILDING.

tons tho chased parts or facets are done by little girls with hand punches. They become expert at this seemingly tedious work and turn out many hundreds in a day. In some of tho liner patterns, as in a tiny bunch of grapes, the grapes are each put on separately by hand. Steel buttons are given the brown shade merely by subjecting them to a high degreeof heat; the blue by a greater, and the purple by a yot higher degree of heat. Cloth-eovcrod buttons are made by a somewhat different process. The metal pieces and the wooden or pasteboard mold are cut out the same. Some of the machines here are busily punching out the collet or back part and the orifice in it through which the cloth within is to protrude and form the tuft of canvas that is to be laid hold of by the needle which is to sew the button on. This perforation has a serrated edge. Another machine wraps the metal top in cloth, turns down the edges, and fixes in the pasteboard stuffing or mold. Another cuts out the piece of coarse black canvas which is to go between the puffing and the perforated bottom or collet, and which is prevented from being drawn forth by the tug of the tailor’s thri a 1 by means of the serrated edge, which grips it fast. The button is completed by the fixing firmly together of the fine pieces which go to form the common cloth button that may be seen on any man’s coat or woman’s jacket, This is accomplished by the instantaneous pressure which they undergo in another steel matrix into which the operator places them in their proper order, and then by a touch of a lever they are combined in a perfect button. This last operation appears to a novice like a complete piece of jugglery, but it is, of course, dependent on the ingenious construction of the minute implements brought to bear so forcibly on the different materials. It is certainly a wonderful and beautiful apparatus, but cannot well be described to one who has not seen it. The description given is that of the most common kind of Florentine button, but though the mode of making is materially the sM&ethere are slightly different deviees/ormaking conical or flat buttons, rouqfi or elliptic in form; some covered wish Sxquisite patterns of eilk or other expensive material; some designed to project like flower buds, and some to droop pendent in the form of acorns—but the varieties are endless, infinite. As an English writer says; “In somS branches of traffic the wearer calls loudly for new fashions, but in this the sash-

ions tread upon each other and crowd upon the wearer. ” It is worthy of notice to see the ingenious economy practiced by elothrrialters, who contrive to leave spaces between the button patterns, which are woven in pieces many yards in length and half a yard wide, uncovered by any portion of the silken web. This rigid economy, however, Is carried out in the whole business of button making, the scraps of metal being returned to the furnace and even the shreds and fragments of paper to the paper mill. The old-fashioned horn button has almost entirely gone out of common use. At one time it formed a very important branch- of this industry. But, after ail, perhaps the prettiest manufacture of this family of production is the making of pearl buttons. It may be that the charm lies in the material of which they are formed—tho shell which we know to have been not long ago lying in the realms of the deepseavhmizens and the coral beds at the bottom of the Indian seas. The rainbow light gleaming from the pearl shells before us seems to picture something of its foreign surroundings; of the dusky barbarians whose bread depends almost entirely upon the pearl shell, and who dived beneath the waves to reach the wonderful homes of these shells; of the rustling of the palm trees stirred by the tropic breeze blowing from the ricefields as they came to the lijght of the s-un and blue skies for the first time, and their subsequent crowding into barrels and boxes und shipment to far-away America. The finest shells for this purpose come from Singapore. The black pearl comes from the shells of oysters that grow around tho islands in Pacific seas. They are most plentiful around Tahiti and Hawaii. The iridescent - quality of this pearl in the finer material shows a brilliant luster, giving forth all the colors of tho rainbow, and is transparent. Pearl is a hard substance and requires strong and exact machinery to cut it

without injury. The first operation after cleansing tho shell is cutting the blanks, which is done by a tubular saw worked in a latlio. It is caught and held with an iron grip, while the saw cuts out tho disks, which are some as large as a child’s fist as seen on the shaggy' overcoat of a sportsman, or the saucer-like circles on some of tho fashionable jackets, while others are as small as the tiny buttons seen on buby clothes. They are one by one clutched by a sort of pincers and held against a revolving cylinder to bo polished with sand or emery and oil. Then each one is turned and smoothed in a lathe; adorned with designs, stars, dots, concentric rings or leaves; then corded or milled at the edges with streaks almost too fine to be seen by the naked eye. The figures in the middle are to mark the holes by which the buttons are to be sewed on. Into the small center depression a hard drill fixed to a lathe descends and bores the holes. The edges of these holes, as every housewife knows, are sharp. But for tho cutting of tho thread in course of time by these edges the button might lust forever. Now and then the thin pierced bit of pearl in the middle breaks out, but much oftener the button Is lost by the cutting of the thread. In many pearl buttons a shank of metal is inserted. As neither solder nor any adhesive composition can be used an ingenious device is resorted to The shank, below its ring of metal, is split into the form of an inverted V; the turner now cuts at the back of tho button a hole much wider at the bottom than at tho orifice; he inserts the shank at the aperture, and a sharp tap of the hammer causes the -shaped wire to spread out flat, and shank and button are inseparably connected. The button is next polished with soap and rottenstone in the lathe, and it is done. The scraps of pearl left at the factories are crushed and used for a land fertilizer, which purpose it sorves admirably, having great enriching qualities. A large factory will produce several hundred tons of this shell-refuse in a year, which it disposes of for this purpose. Birmingham, England, was long the center of the button industry, but it has spread to various cities. America has many large factories.

New Disinfectant.

Tlie manufacture of a new disinfectant and deordorant called Sauridon has been commenced at Maryhill, England. It is a residual product of an uncommon kind of black stone shale, which is composed of animal and vegetable remains, is remarkably light and yields a large proportion of heavy volatile oil. The oil is extracted by distillation, and the residual product is reduced to grains of different sizes, varying from a fine powder to the size sos a pea. The powder is claimed to have an instantaneous effect upon obnoxious matter, while also being tasteless and colorless and harmless to animal life.

A Quiet Opinion.

M. Got, the famous old comedian of the Comedie-Francaise (says the Stage),’ can occasionally be funny off the stage as well as on. The other day an author was reading his drama, when, turning around, he perceived that the great comedian had fallen asleep. He turned and reproved the sleeper. How was it possible, he argued, for a man to express an opinion of a play when he was sound asleep? M. Got rubbed his eyes and remarked, with a yawn, to the angry dramatist: “Sleep is an opinion. ”

Queer Things the Japs Believe.

The Japanese believe in more mythical creatures than any other people on the globe, civilized or savage.' Among them are mythical animals without any remarkable peculiarities of conformation, but gifted with supernatural attributes; such as a tiger which is said to live to be 1,000 years old and to turn as white | as a polar bear.

HIS LITTLE JOHN.

Ihe Editor Wasn’t Too Busy to Write • Little Notice, It was almost midnight when he came slowly up the three flights of stairs leading to the editorial rooms and knocked timidly at the door. “Come in,” called out the city editor, without looking up from his writing. He came in slowly, a tall, middleaged man, too thinly clad for such a cold and stormy night. His wrists and hard bony hands showed red and bare beneath the sleeves of his thin and ragged old coat. He had an honest but ignorant face and an awkward, embarrassed air. He pulled off his old liat and held it in both hands, while he asked: “Is it too late to get a little notice put into the paper to-night, mister?” “No; guess not,” replied the reporter. “Got it written?” He pointed to a table near his own desk, and the man sat down before it. He took the pencil between his stiffened fingers, bit at the end of it while in meditation, drew the pad of paper toward him, and began to write. But he made slow and seemingly painful work of it. He crossed out a word here and there and his hand trembled strangely. Once he furtively drew his ragged sleeve across his eyes. Then he turned to the editor and said, in a tone of troubled hesitation aud appeal: “I—l—don’t want to trouble you none, sir, but I—l—ain’t used to writin’, an’ 1 never could spell good. If you—you had time to—to—write the notice for me I’d try to pay you what you think it’d be wutli.” Something in the man’s tone and manner touched the editor’s heart, and, busy as he was, lie said: “I’ll write it for you if there isn’t too much of it.”

“Only three or four lines, sir.” “Oh, a noticeof a meeting, perhaps, or something of that sort?” “No, sir; a notice of a—a—” the man’s voice died away to a whisper, his chin dropped to his swelling chest, his whole frame trembled, as he said, “a notice of a—death!” “I am very sorry,” said the editor, kindly and with genuine sympathy. “What is the name?” “ ‘Johnnie,’ we never called him anything else. He was named ‘John,’ after me, but I’d rather have it pripted ‘Johnnie.’” “When did he die?” “This evening, sir.- It was very sudden, and it comes harder on that account, though God knows it would be hard enough if we’d been expectin’ it. Such things never come easy to them that loves their children, and 1—I—” lie held his faded old hat before his face for a moment. “How old was he?” asked the editor, glancing with misty eyes at a photograph in a little red-plush frame on his desk, the photograph of a handsome, bright-eyed little boy with thick curls and smiling face. “Four years and six months to a day sir, and our only one. That makes it seem still harder. His mother’s ’bout heart-broken, and I—l—well, it’s turrible hard to sit and watch a little life like that go out, and to think of what the home will be without it. You got children, sir?” .The editor pointed toward the photograph, and said: “This is my little boy.” “He’s a sweet-lookin’ little feller. I hope he’ll be spared to you. We’ve got a good photograph of Johnnie. That’s one comfort. I wouldn’t take a million dollars for it now. Now, how much will it be for writin’ and printin' that notice?” “Nothing at all.” “No? Well, I'm a thousand times obliged, and I—l —hope nobody’ll ever have to write such a notice foi you ’bout that little boy of yours.” He wiped his eyes with a handkerchief wet with his tears, and went down the stairs as slowly as he had come up, and back to his poor little desolate home, to walk softly with bowed head in ttie presence of death, and to try to comfort his bruised heart with the thought that the dear little boy had gone to joiu the hosts of heaven.—Free Press.

VAPID GIRLHOOD.

Type of Young Woman Doubtless Doomed to Early Decay. There is a type of womanhood now in New York society which, it is greatly to be feared, will perish with the generation that gave it birth. There seems to be nothing in the flippant shallowness of the young society girl of the period that will develop into the rare dignity and courtesy of demeanor characteristic of this type of which some of our women of Southern birth represent, says the New York Sun. One of them very well known is a tall, slight woman with wonderful glowing Southern eyes, full of fire and tenderness, of joy and of sorrow, softened into memories. Directly she greets you with that peculiar combination of dignity before which you and graciousness that charms and ‘puts you at your ease; the old Saxon word “lady,” which has been so abused and degraded, seems to be honored again in that woman’s personality. Another woman here more commanding in her personality, but none the less courteous, has a quantity of dark, soft hair, framing a purely oval face, still beautiful and expressive Of strength of character and rare intelligence. Her ready flow of well-chosen words on any subject, interesting, unusual and entertaining as well, always spoken in a low, Arm, but musical voice, contrasts strangely with the highpitched, vapid commonalities with which society regales its devotees. A lady sitting box in which one of the fashionable “twenty' score,” as Byron has it, entertained her friends recently, watched an exquisitely dressed, faultlessly beautiful girl lounging awkwardly, with one knee crossed over the other and one arm thrown over the back of the chair, in the glare of the lights and in a prominent place in the crowded building. The girl seemed to be a great favorite, for a constant procession of young men passed into the box. To each she gave an indiffereit little handshake, her elbow on a /evel with her shoulder, her hand in a line with her eyes. To each she

said only: “Aw! You here? Delighted to see you.” That was all. And all without a change of position or a particle of animation in the pretty face. The elderly woman who chaperoned her rose quickly as the young men greeted her, and said to each one the same set formula of words: “Aw! You here? Don’t make yourself so scarce. ” And that was all that was said by the two women from 8 o’clock until 11. Can that type of vapid girlhood develop the charm that makes women of 40 dangerous and of 50 fascinating? Better the punctiliousness and obsequiousness of the old school than the slovenliness of demeanor characteristic of this closing century.

TO FIGHT THE SMOKE.

Invention of an Apparatus for the Protectlon of Firemen. This might he some sort of elephantine freak or a new style of diving apparatus, but it is neither. It is a safeguard for firemen, and was invented by W. F. Merryman, a veteran member of the Denver department. Mr. Merryman has long been interested in the problem of providing some device Which would enable a fireman to penetrate the densest smoke without danger of inhaling it. The invention which he has just perfected will, it is said, accomplish this result, and is based upon the discovery that a column of water four inches in diameter or less will, when suddenly reduced to about one-third that size at the nozzle, gather with it at

THE AIR ACCUMULATOR.

tjjat point large quantities of air. Two pipes lead from the air accumulator fastened on the end of the nozzle to the rubber mask, completely enveloping the face. Through the pipe nearest the end of the nozzle passes the fresh air gathered from the water, while from the other passes, by reason of a vacuum, the exhausted air from the lungs. The apparatus is equally well adapted for use in mines in case of fire-damp, or under any other circumstances where the atmosphere is sa impure as to make work in it dangerous.

A Kissing Campaign.

In a recent campaign in Alabama, says a dispatch, political kissing was developed into a high art. One candidate, after making a speech at the Blue Creek mines one evening, led in a dance and kissed the boss miner’s wife once. His opponent hearing of this went to the same place, also made a speech’•aid led the dance afterward and kissed the boss miner’s wife twice. It is said that the boss miner himself got very tired of the proceedings.

Snakes.

A novel use of electricity has been made in India for the prevention of the intrusion of snakes into dwellings. Before all the doors and around the house two wires are laid, connected with an induction apparatus. Should a snake attempt to crawl over the wires he receives a shock of electricity which either kills him or frightens him into a hasty retreat.

Designs on Glass.

So-called diamond ink for writing on glass is ?. compound of fluoric acid and barium; the latter has no effect, it being simply a white powder to give body to the acid. The ink can be used with a rubber hand-stamp, and it should be allowed to remain fifteen minutes, when the barium will brush off, leaving the design on the glass.

Nature's Photography.

A young man at Warren, Ohio, took refuge under a tree during a thunderstorm. The tree was struck by lightning, and he was killed. When his clothes were removed exact images of the branches and leaves of the tree were found pictured on his breast and other parts of his body with the minuteness of the photograph.

To Harden Iron.

Ox- hoofs and leather are soaked in French nut oil, and are then burnt, pulverized, and mixed with sea salt and potash. The following proportions are used: 30 per cent, of hoofs, 30 per cent, of leather, 30 per cent, of sea salt, 10 per cent, of potash. This product is said by the Scientific American to harden iron all through.

Missing Birds.

Ten species of North American birds are put down by the ornithologists as “missing.” Of these, two—the great auk and the Labrador duck —are believed to have become extinct within the memory of living men. Perhaps representatives of the other eight will yet be found. Most of them are very diminutive.

Bridgeport's Spook.

Bridgeport, Conn., has a ghost in the shape of a dark man of gigantic stature in shirt sleeves who carries a pistol.

Curious Petrifaction.

A petrified turtle twelve inches in diameter and five inches thick has been found on Lake Champlain.

But We Don't Get Any.

The best isinglass dissolves completely in hot water, leaving no visible residuum. A Wise Precaution. Never set. coal oil near butter or lard. “The tongue is an unruly member,” and there are three thousand languages in the world to “sass back” in.

EMPEROR FREDERICK.

X Pretty Story of the Great Soldier Told by One or the German Papers. A pretty story of the late Emperor Frederick is told in one of the German papers. Some years ago, shortly before the death of the old Emperor of Germany, a tall, handsome gentleman jumped into a third-class carriage of a local railway at Berlin, just as the train was leaving the station. An old flower seller, with a basket of newly-cut hyacinths, was the only other occupant of the compartment. He asked the old dame to sell him a bunch, and, mollified by his suave manner, she chose the freshest and largest, and handed it to him. Its price was a penny, but as the gentleman had no coppers and the old woman no change, not having sold any of her goods yet, she was pam with a mark piece, which, as she said at once, was a thing that had never been heard of before in a third-class carriage. Presently the stranger and the flower seller were deep in conversation, and it turned out that the poor woman was the only breadwinner of a family of four. Her son was crippled, her granddaughter a little school girl, and her husband had for some months past been out of work, since a new railway official had dismissed him as being top old to do much work. The stranger then suggested that she should apply, on her husband’s behalf, to the railway authorities. “That is no good whatever,” she replied, as she wiped her tears with her apron. “If you haven’t the Pope for your cousin nowadays, you can’t get anybody to listen to you.” “Try the Emperor,” the stranger went on. “Alas!” she sighed, “if the old gentleman was allowed to see the petitions that are sent, it might do some good, but he. does not get to know about us poor people.” “Well, then, let your husband write to the crown prince.” “Yes,” she said, “he might do that,” and she would tell him so as soon as she had sold her flowers. By this time the train had got to the terminus. The old dame bundled out her basket and noticed with astonishment that the officials and the crowd on the platform looked at her carriage and saluted and cheered. “What’s up?“ she asked. “Why, the crown prince was in the same compartment with you.” Then the flower seller held her head high and told every syllable of what had happened to the delighted crowd. Her flowers were sold before five minutes were over, and a fortnight afterward her husband was at work again again in his old place.

SERGEANT LEVICK.

He Is a Survivor of the Six Hundred o 1 Balaklava. Sergeant John Leviclr, now living at Indianapolis, is a survivor of that famous charge made at Balaklava, now a little over thirty-seven years ago. A dispute having arisen recently regarding the genuineness of a brass medal owned by another Indiana man, who claims to have .been at that famous battte, and which was given to him as a decoration for having participated in the horrors of that awful clay, Levick says: “I am wearing the only kind of decoration (medal with four clasps fpr Alma, Balaklava, In-

kermann and Sebastopol), except the Victoria Cross, given by the British government or by the Sultan Abdul Medjid of Turkey, to the survivors of the charge, or to any soldier for services in the Crimea. Both are of sterling silver and in diameter a little less than a silver dollar, but are a little thicker.” Mr. Levick further insists, and says he has no fear of successful contradiction, that he is the only survivor of the charge, not only in Indiana but in America.

Relic of the War.

Laborers employed in a sewer at Danville, Va., the other day struck a tunnel which is said to be one dug at the time of the war by federal prisoners confined in an old factory which stood on the corner of Spring and Union streets, and through which eighteen of the prisoners made their escape. It is just large enough for a man to crawl through.

Made a Big Fuss.

It is reported that a shark nearly twenty-four feet in length was recently caught in the harbor of Panama. The skin was about half an inch thick. It was captured by a harpoon thrown frohi a steamer, and the vessel was turned completely round by the powerful fish when first made fast.

An Oregon Monstrosity.

A peculiar animal was killed in Oregon the other day. It is not a coon nor a polecat, neither is it-a wildcat or a cougar, but it looks like a mixture or combination of all of them. Its teeth are long and sharp and its tail somewhat resembles a hog's ear. »

Phew!

A Rhode Island man made a net profit of $2,700 in six months by raising skunks for market.' ue sells the pelts of the odorous animals at ?°od figures, and manufactures skunk oil, which he disposes of to the druggists for a rheumatic cure.

Algol’s Velocity.

The observations indicate a velocity of twenty-six miles a second for Mgol and its diameter as 1,000,000 miles. New York Schoolteachers. New York City employs 3,543 pub. Uc schoolteacher*

OUR BUDGET OF FUN.

HUMOROUS SAYINGS AND DOINGS HERE AND THERE. Jokti and Joka'eti that Are Supposed to Here Boon Recently Born- Sayings mad Doings that Are Odd. Curious and Laughable. Narrow Streets. The streets of Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, are so narrow that the street cars that were imported had to be sawed in two in order to allow them to turn the corners. They Ought Not To, In Public. Belle—What do you think of the idea of marrying for love? Nell—l shouldn’t think it was a good way to get it. I’ve noticed that married people usually don’t seem to have any too much love to waste on one another.—Somerville Journal. A Hired Servant. “Do you employ your man Rastus by the month or day?” “Well, with Rastus it’s sort of both. I employ him to do a day’s work now and then, but it always takes him a month to do it.’’—Washington Hatchet. A Qualifying Circumstance* Berkeley Van Nobs—lsn’t that Hopkins a very decent sort of a fellah? lieggy Westend—No; not our sort. Berkeley Van Nobs —But I saw him in Lunnon last summer. Reggy Westend—But he goes to Lunnon on business.—Puck. A Vain Quest* Mrs. Bingo—What are you going to wear at the sociable to-night, my dear? Bingo (frantically from the depths of his wardrobe) —From present indications I shall go in a silk hat and a pair of rubber boots.—Clothier and Furnisher. Health Item. Boy—ls soup healthy? Parent Why, certainly; what makes you ask? Boy—Well, when I smoke you say it is not healthy, and the soup is smoking and you say it is healthy. What does this mean, anyhow?— Texas Siftings. Proper Pride* Of course he felt it his duty to tell her that she was the first girl he had ever kissed. “I’m sorry to hear you say that," she said. “You can’t compare me with other girls—and—l’m sure the comparison would not be to my disadvantage.”—lndianapolis Journal. What He Didn’t Like. Fuldres (nodding toward a pretty girl with a dozen men talking to her) —“Yes, she’s deuced pretty and smart and rich, hut there are some things about her I don’t like.” Tuxedo—“lndeed, what are they?” Fuldres—“A dozen men.”—Detroit Free Press. Logical* Teacher —Bobby, where do we get our sugar? Bobby—From the sugar-cane. Teacher—Correct. Now, "Edward, where do we get our soap? Edward—From the soapstone.— Rochester Post-Express. Ho Did Not*

Lonesome Whiskers—“ Were you in Chicago during the recent scarcity of water?” Wandering Charlie—“l was.” Lonesome Whiskers—“ And did you not experience a great inconvenience?” Wandering Charlie—“ The thing was exaggerated, my dear hoy; I experienced no inconvenience.”—Ex.

To Brace Him Up. Examining Board—“ What would you prescribe in a case of partial paralysis?” Gay Young Medical Student—“ Another drink.”—Elmira Gazette. Included In the Bill. Bell-Boy (excitedly to hotel clerk) — “Lightning has struck through into 499, sir!” Clerk—“ls 49.9 hurt?” Bell-Boy—“No, sir. He’s all right." Clerk (to bookkeeper)—“Charge 499 $2 for extra heat.”—Life. Family Jars. Mr. N. Peck—l should think you would be ashamed to wear the hair of another woman on your head. Mrs. N. Peck—Shame yourself, for you wear the skin of another calf on your feet.—Brooklyn Eagle.

Giants of the Forest.

In big trees the new state of Washington is quite rich. A Seattle paper mentions a fir in Sumas which ia eight and one-half feet in diameter. Near Stanwood there is a cedar seventeen feet in diameter thirty-three feet from the roots, and in diameter 112 feet from, the roots. Nooksack reports a fir twelve feet in diameter.

Standard of the Turks.

The sacred standard at Constantinople is believed to be formed of the nether garment of Mohammed, and a pair of his pyjamas, which are reverentially preserved at Lahore, are held by the faithful to have miraculously extinguished a fire at that place no longer ago than 1849.

Our Artificial Grinders.

The number of artificial teeth made in America is increasing very rapidly. Last year the trade turned out nearly forty million teeth. The houses which do the most extensive export trade are obliged to prepare teeth of different colors for different countries.