Democratic Sentinel, Volume 16, Number 46, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 2 December 1892 — Page 4

gfjcJJrmocraticScntiJtcl RENSSELAER, INDIANA. J. W. McEWEN, - • - Publisher.

With a fortune of $750,000 safely laid away, Edwin Booth has positively decided not to appear again upon the stage. A Rochester man named Vital Reche is nearly 100 years old. It’s very few of us nowadays that have a vital reach which will span a century. Osman Digna is alive once more. He will be due to die again some time next week. A man with all his lives would be a fine addition to the census of a boom town. The lady who gave birth to the witty remark that females who fought strenuously for woman’s rights were generally men’s lefts, was Mrs. Wills, a London lady who died recently. Definite work is not always that which is cut and squared for us, but that which comes as a claim upon the conscience, whether jt is nursing in a hospital or hemming a handkerchief. Another “magnificent steel ship” has gone down in the lake in a very ordinary storm. Apparently the marine architects of the great lakes are chiefly skilled in their use of adjectives. An eloquent and conversational woman says that talking rests her back. The trouble is she will not confine herself to talking to her back and telling it how she is trying to rest it. The Prince of Wales is about to become a bicyclist. He will not only need a safety machine, up to eighteen stone, but he will find an elevator to hoist him into the saddle a very acceptable addition to it. A Nevada man who had for twen-ty-five years refrained from washing even so much as his face had the decency to die the other day. This circumstance shows that the worst of mortals somewhere within them have redeeming traits.

As soon as we lay ourselves entirely at His feet, we have enough light given us to guide our own steps; as the foot-soldier, who hears nothing of the councils that determine the course of the great battle he is in, hears plainly enough the word of command which he must himself obey. * Some people think that justice applies exclusively, or almost exclusively, to money transactions and dealings in business. But that is a very restricted and imperfect view of what constitutes justice. It lies quite as much in the habit and manner of speech as in the making and fulfillment of contracts. People who did not know that the Chicago University has started in “full-fledged” will please take notice that it has a football team, and the members are already off eastward to vanquish some Buckeye experts. The Chicago University did not have to “wait and grow up with the country,” but was born a giant. Phcebe Couzins rises in haste to eay that she is not the Miss Couzins who recently advocated in London the use of dynamite in converting men to the policy of woman suffrage. Miss Phoebe seems to make out a case. She says that she has not been in London, does not believe in woman suffrage, and abhers dynamite. One of Mexico’s bravest generals, failing to capture Garza, has been sentenced to death. Such retribution adds a new feature to military ethics. If generals are to be slain when defeated in battle there will be no battles, and the annual peace congress need only meet hereafter for the purpose of congratulating itself. Now that the hardships of the winter season will soon be upon the poor, charitably disposed persons will do far more to relieve misery by giving their alms to church or secular organized charities than by indiscriminate support of professional beggars, who victimize the public and the really deserving poor at the same time.

When a pair of fighting animals, presumably human, are offered $40,000 to batter each other in a ring, . and hesitate about accepting it, the inference that they are mutally fearful 'of being licked is not only fair but obvious. The inference as to the state of the public mind that makes such an offer possible is left for future psychologists to worry about. A man named Calvignac over in France was a faithful employe of a mining company. Fortune elected him Mayor and he neglected his vulgar duties for those of office. Then bis employers bounced him and all his associate miners struck. So began an industrial war that has paralyzed Carmaux. But firm and unflinching Mr. Calvignac holds onto his office. He is much like other people. The loyal people of Granada, who had expected a visit from the Queen and were disappointed, attested their grief by by resolving themselves into quite a successful mob. They sorrowfully kicked tfbe lights out of some buildings; with aspect dolorous tore others down and trampled sadly upon triumphal arches. Having thus demonstrated that their woe was

genuine, they went howling to jail, a structure that in their haste they had neglected to overturn.

The Pittsburg agent of the Humane Society advocates the establishment of the whipping post as a means of punishing wife-beaters. He thinks about 50 per cent, of the grievances laid before the Department of Public Safety and the Humane Society are complaints against wife-beaters. If this is the case Pittsburg is even a tougher town than it has been generally supposed.

Beaders of public library books are familiar with the work of the superior person who marks passages for the purpose of attracting the special attention of others whom he assumes to be less capable than himself of appreciating a good thing at first sight. People of dull perceptions are greatly indebted to this gifted individual for pointing out what is particularly excellent in the library books.

At Santa Rosa, Cal., a man hurled a stone through the plate-glass window of a bank, explaining that he did so because he was hungry. He was asked why he had chosen to quell his clamorous appetite with so large and expensive a pane and lacked the presence of mind to reply that it was because he was very hungry, indeed. No man with a stomach flapping idly against his spine could reasonably be expected to find satiety in a 10x12 window light worth two bits.

The determination of the United States authorities to prevent European immigration from recently infected districts during the winter is wise and Just. Thousands, of immigrants scattered throughout the country during the winter would be certain to spread the scourge in every quarter when the hot months are reached. The interests of the people at all times should be thoroughly guarded, and next year, when we expect the whole world as our guests, it is imperative that no blunders should be made. Uncle Sam can get along without his usual million of immigrants the coming year.

There are peculiar people in Milwaukee who, but for the great fire, would never have known ‘fame. When charitable citizens sent funds liberally for the benefit of the poor who had been burned out, these people appeared and gratefully accepted their dole. It was found that some' of them were worth $20,000, owned houses outside the burned district, and had long bank accounts. When they appeared the second time they were surprised by being kicked down stairs, and went their way convinced that, while charity suffereth long and is kind, it does occasionally draw the line. One not infrequently sees a news item to the effect that the brain of some criminal has been turned over to the learned anatomists for study and discover wherein it differed from the ordinary human brain, and often with the idea of throwing some new light on the character of a criminal or the reason of his depravity. At a late meeting of the Neurological Association this subject was up for discussion, with the result that nothing is yet ascertained that can be practic ally useful. It is not possible to pick out the criminal's brain from a dozen others by’ any special marks, fissures or evidence of criminality. It may be worth while handling criminal brains over to the doctors for study, for only by so doing can there be any discoveries in this line, but up to the present time there has been very little discovered worth mentioning. If the account of a recent occurrence at Northwestern University is strictly true, then great improvement can be made in the methods of discipline employed in the “co-ed” department of that institution. It is reported that 100 young ladies were summoned to appear in the chapel at midnight, attired as they happened to be at the moment, and were compelled to remain there while two Chicago detectives searched their rooms for a sum of money alleged to have been stolen from one of their number. The matron is indignant that the affair should have gained publicity and says that the young lady who told of it committed a dishonorable act. In this the matron is mistaken The proceeding, if it occurred as related, was most extraordinary and in poor taste and could not possibly have been kept secret. A grave suspicion was cast upon the young ladies whose rooms were searched, and the indignation which they feel is perfectly justifiable and natural.

Tansy.

“Tansy” humble plant. Its name has seen far better days. In Greek it was athanasia. How little of the original is left—only a shred. In old New England days, and oven now, the kitchen garden had its tansy bed to draw from in the interest of “tansy cheese,” “rum and tansy,” “tansy bitters,” and, ia case of illness, “tansy tea.” It is only a trace of classic custom that has come down through the ages. So powerful its properties that should Jove's messenger administer a draught of tansy cordial to a mortal he took on immortality. The Yankee took it for another Teason. So popular was Tansy that it was adopted as a christening name, and in several European countries to-day Athanase (immortality) is very popular. As an example of word debasement tansy is rather striking.— Davenport Democrat. In the afterpath of the Columbian celebration comes the discovery that when Columbus, standing on the deck of the Santa Maria, first beheld land, he then and there originated the famous question, “Where am I at?”

FOR THE LADIES.

BBOWN TINTS BOOMING. Cinnamon brown is the most favorite color just now both for gowns, mantles and hats. In the latter it is almost invariably trimmed with black, whether fur, feather or velvet. The mantles are made with one cape or three, each being bordered with a band of jet some inch or two in width. The dresses are hemmed with astrakhan in brown or black, or trimmed with black galloon, in which jet may or may not appear. It is a becoming color, this cinnamon, with brunette i, but is a little trying to those blondes who have any inclination toward sickly sallowness. It is well to avoid it unless the tints of the complexion are clear and soft. —[Chicago Herald. FEET IN PLASTER. The latest whim of the San Francisco girl is a fancy for having her feet immortalized in plaster or marble. In the studios of the fashionable sculptor the artist and his assistants are busy reproducing the pedal extremities of society’s swell matrons and maidens at $lO a head, or rather a foot, for plaster, and from S7O to SIOO in the flawless marble of Carrara. And this is how it is done: The woman with the pretty foot removes her dainty shoe, and daintier stocking, dips her feet in oil, delicately perfumed, of course, and the sculptor forms a mold of plaster of paris about it, which is taken off in sections before it is quite dry. A plaster replica is cast from the matrix thus formed, and if the marble sac simile is desired it is chiseled out by. the sculptor's assistants. —[New York Journal. NEW FEATHERS. The prettiest new' feather is a white Aigrette, curled up in a crisp tangle of feather threads, so tine and delicate that the aigrette looks as though made of spun glass. These spun-glass aigrettes make the tail to of the queer birds. One such has brown wings made of two fluffy brown chicken feathers, and ahead as green as glass. A big head that might be an eagle’s but that it is a vivid yellow, has neither body nor wings, but has all gone to tail, which is a cluster of cream and yellow-shaded osprey feathers that curl this way and that, after rising at right angles to the head. Small square wings vithhead between them, are orange and green. A quill of tan color has a border that runs from the base around one side and over the tip, and is of purple-breast feathers mottled in magenta. Tuft aigrettes have the colored tufts dotted with little triangles of black. From the tufts rise stripped ribs with triangle tips. —[New York Times. ■WOMEN IN PHOTOGRAPHY. At Hyderabad, India, a photographic itudio has been opened in which the operators are women. The Koran forbids the making of portraits, but the muftis have declared that photography cannot be included in the prohibition, since the Prophet knew nothing about it. Nearer home we find that New York has a woman who has won the title of society photographer, and she makes a good income by photographing members of the.four hundred, while in Copenhagen one woman receives large commissions from the court., and in Stockholm another counts royalty among her patrons. New Orleans has two women photographers making a handsome living as proprietors, and many girls are earning comfortable salaries by retouching and coloring photographs.—[New York World.

A FOIL FOR BEAUTY. One of the most embarrassing positions in which a woman can be placed at the table is'when she is pouring the tea and coffee. These adjuncts to the meal are usually given to the guests at a time when there is a lull either in the eating or conversation, and naturally the attention of the company is attracted to the hostess, more especially so if she be a pretty and graceful woman. The English long ago recognized this fact and made a very pretty provision for it. It consists of a neat woven wire or metal frame work about eighteen or twenty inches high, which is placed on the outside of the tea tray, enclosing it on either side, thus partially hiding from view the fair one who is doing the honors. Generally speaking, the frame is ornamented with little draperies of light flowered silk or some other flimsy material, and thus she is shut off from the curious gaze of the guests, and can pursue the even tenor of her pouring without experiencing the slightest degree of nervousness. These screens are not, to our knowledge, very well known in this country, but once their utility was recognized, would doubtless become very popular. They could be trimmed with bows of ribbon or draped with lace or delicately painted designs on silk or satin. Suggestive and appopriate mottoes could also be woven in the centre or in any other manner that might suggest itself to the maker. This would greatly enhance their beauty and make a very ornamental addition to the furnishings of the table.—[House Furnishing Review. HIBTORY OF TIIE POLICE MATRON. Prior to 1883, Portland, Me., Providence, R. 1., and Boston had each one police matron, who served certain hours of day and evening. In that year Chicago had ten matrons day and night for all arrested women. Now it has twentvthree in divided districts. In 1887, Massachusetts, after repeated defeated efforts, encouraged by the result in Chicago, passed a law providing for police matrons for all cities having 30,000 or more inhabitants. Philanthropic women in New York next took up the work, hindered and discouraged just as women in other places have been, but with like success in the end. Buffalo has two women matrons, and one in the jail, for which, one women writes, “we.had to fight haid and long.” Philadelphia has eleven police matrons, who have charge of all women durin«;lie time they arc under arrest. Manchester and Nashua in New Hampshire have each one matron. New Orleans has me, who serves In the jail. There is one n San Francisco, bqt she never attends o the most degraded. The Chief of Police there says he “will allow no votnen to be humiliated by such associa■ion.” But these are the very women who nost need the help of their own sex. ■lassachusetts has twenty-two police latrons, ten in Boston, two each in Cambridge and Fail River, one each in .awrcnce, Lynn, Lowell, New Bedford, iVorcester. Springfield and Holyoke: >ut a number of the larger cities ignore he enactment which requires a matron vhere there are 30,000 inhabitants.

A GIBI/S FIRST LONG DRESS. There is nothing—no, not even worldly risdom—that so completely metamorphoses a girl of fourteen or fifteen as the tonning of her first real long dress. She

may have heretofore worn gowns *o the shoe tops, yet in their childish simplicity they were as suggestively youthful as though the regulation garb of babyhood. But just change the even all-round full skirt to the bell shaped drapery, with slight train, discard the guimpe and simple little waists, and what have we? a young lady pure and simple. Girls anxious to be young ladies often don these sweeping gowns many a season too soon, and in after years regret that they thus early assumed the garb of womanhood, for, strange as it may seem, a girl’s age is reckoned from the time she puts on her first real long gown. Of course, this style must needs make a change in her demeanor, for no matter how coltish one may feel, the environments of long cloth breadths will effectually put a stop to the frisky actions of early girlhood; therefore a new deportment comes with the lengthened skirt. The hair likewise from being allowed to flow loosely acts in inverse ratio to the skirt and is taken up higher on the head, until the little girl of yesterday becomes the young lady of to-day, whose age might be anywhere from seventeen to twenty-one. Girls, don’t be in a hurry to put on long dresses —think of the years you will have to wear them, and cling to youth and all its accessories as long as possible, for at the best it is gone too soon, though now, in your desire to become full fledged women, who have so many enjoyments from which you, owing to your youth, ar e debarred, you cannot realize the truth of such a statement. When the dolls are put away, the long dresses donned and the society manners replace the childish, unaffected simplicity of other days, your girlhood is over, ahd though in later years you may long once more for that period so replete with happiness it will have vanished forever with the simple gowns you now so utterly despise.—[New York Commercial Advertiser.

FASHION NOTES. Fur is now used for trimming. Bright red, trimmed with black velvet and jet, is popular for house gowns. Black and red double-breasted vests are fashionable with navy blue serge walking suits. Princess gowns have a yoke, round or V shaped, and a corselet of silk edged with a bead gimp. A short jacket front should never be worn by a stout figure, as it adds to the apparent breadth. Hercules braid three or four inches wide is used around the skirts of colored serge gowns. The dressiest bonnets have jet ornaments, and the whole crown is sometimes a network of the glistening beads. Following the English fashion flow'ers will be worn on felt hats—not lavishly, however. The little toreador jackets of velvet are not only quite stylish looking, but may be put on over a thin silk when the evening is cool. A coarse linen known as “butcher's blue’’ is in vogue for those blouses made with flat plaits and fitted closely to the figure. The double-breasted pique waistcoat is very popular, though a j . a shirt and jacket are necessary with it, it is not very cool. With the princess gown, has come the fancy for striped silks, and they are noted in black with pale blue, black with rose, and black with mode. The old-fashioned guipure lace has returned to vogue. It is used in the broader widths for trimming bodices, while for skirts, several ruffles of the narrowest width are most fashionable. With the tailor gown will be worn the new russet leather glove. Light shades, especially white, in suede, will be chosen for evening, and for dressy day wear pearl or light tan will be preferred to the dark tints. Among new boots the smartest is the heavy calf, laced, which will be worn by eviry fashionably right-minded woman with her tailor gown when she walks. For rainy days, oddly enough, russet leather shoes are considered the proper choice. They have pointed toes and common sense flat heels.

In bonnets there is little new just now, except that they are increasing in size, especially at the sides, and are heavily ornamented with jet and rich galoons of different kinds. Hats have superseded bonnets very generally, even for elderly ladies and matrons. The efforts of the silk producers to introduce vivid and startling colors in men’s neckwear have met with but a tepid indorsement. Embroidered and tinted full-dress bows are still very bad form. It seems strange that every year this remark must be made. The necessity for it is caused by the few who wish to appear eccentric or independent in their dress and the many who ape their fashions. The moth and the dragon fly—demoiselle is its less formidable French denomination—arc favorite forms for brooches and lace and hair pins, and are always largely represented in every show collection of wedding presents. The bumble bee and the hornet, the daddy long-legs and the blue-bottle fly an' 1 maDy other insects are composed of colored stones to suit their several characters, and supplied with iridescent and transparent wings. Clear enamel is very effective, too. in certain orchids, a large mauve blossom of the sort forming the pendent of a riviere. It is the fad now to wear the hair parted in the middle and coiled high in a fluffy knot upon the crown, after the fashion of the girls iu Gibson’s drawings. In canes and umbrellas the tendency this season is toward the use of natural sticks without metal tops. The sticks are of a smaller size, and made of smooth wood.

AVhite suede gloves and slippers are the choice now for e/ening wear, with all colored toilets. The soft clinging kid is becoming. Sometimes a tiny rhinestone buckle is set in a small bow of moire ribbon on each instep. The useful shirt waist has taken new hold upon popular fancy, and some very dainty ones are in blue silk trimmed with ruffles of the same, buttonholed iu white or red. These are especially pretty for wear with the skirts of Eton jacket suits. \ ery beautiful and dressy are the new capes of plain or changeable velvet. They are half long, very full and trimmed with passementerie and fur or feathers. Some arc longer, and have three graduated capes, each edged with fur. An Et.on jacket of black Astrakhan, as fine and lustrous as moire antique, made entirely of the skins of still-born lambs, is o:.e of the pretty youthful garments for winter. It has a turned-over shawl collar, and long, large sleeves; Small sleeveless bolero jackets of black velvet that may be worn with almost any dress are stylish additions to youthful toilettes. They cost from $7.50 to

$lO, neatly wrought with a silken border. Long boas and short tours-decou of chiffon, shirred and tucked into shape, are among the pretty new things for the house. They come in pale yellow, mauve, pink, black and brilliant red, finished with long t c ssels of loops of baby-ribbon, or else with an accordionplaited frill of the chiffon, or a gathered fall of white lace. Collarettes of two ruffles of silk but-ton-holed in scallops on the edges, and the straight sides joined together, are made in all light evening colors to brighten up dark dresses. They are quite long, and are passed closely around the neck, then taken diagonally across the front, and fastened on the left aide.

The Tulip Mania.

The tulip was first made known to botanists by descriptions and figures made by the Swiss naturalist, Conrad Gessner, in the year 1559. The plant from which Gessner made his drawings was growing in the garden of one John Henry Harwart, at Augsburg, the seed or bulb having originally been brought from the Levant. The date of its introduction into England is somewhat uncertain, but horticulturists usually set it down as 1580, probably on account of a passage in the works of Hakluyt (1582), which says: “Now within these four years there has been brought into England from Vienna, Austria, divers kinds of flowers called Tulipas.” Linnteus tells us that the tulip is a native of Cappadocia, also that he believed it to be the “Lily of the Field” spoken of by the Savior. A curious and sensational chapter in the tulip’s history is, however, what I started out with the intention of writing, and which must yet be given, even at the risk of tiring everybody except the true tulip maniac. Soon after its introduction into Western Europe, boards of trade (providing they had such things in those days), made tulip bulbs a basis of the wildest financial schemes ever known, engendering a speculative fever which went down into history as the “tulip mania” or “tulip craze.” The staid Hollanders allowed their “ little diKe-locked land” to become the center of this curious specieti of speculative frenzy, and for three years—--1044-47—the recklessness of the dealers and the disastrous results of the “mania” can only be compared with the “South Sea Bubble. ” When the craze was at its height some of the bulbs sold for ten, twenty, and even 103 or 500 times theii weight in gold. A single bulb of the Semper Augustus, “ not much exceeding the bigness of an onion sette,” was sold on the market for 2,000 florins. But this was not all. The gentleman who purchased it did so with the mistaken idea that it was the only known bulb of the kind in existence, but no sooner did he register purchase than another, ‘ ‘ large) somewhat but not big,” was announced, and the poor victim was compelled to paj 4,000 florins for it or see it go to another. This he did, and became the owner ol two of the highest priced botanical specimens ever purchased.—[St. Louis Ro public.

A Story of a Turtle.

A dead turtle, a turtle with a history, was found the other Sunday at the foot of Aiderman Donnelly’s yard, No. 416 East King street, says a Lancaster (Penn.’ paper. There is au authentic record thai this particular turtle was more that fifty years old. He had been an inmate of the yard as far back a's Aldermat Donnelly’s recollection goes, and old poo pie in the neighborhood say they knew him or heard of his presence there when the property was owned by the Rodgen family. As regularly as the first warm days of spring came around the turtle would emerge to the surface of the ground, and thereafter he would be seen until late in the fall. For the past ten years the Donnelly household has watcheel these appearances with much interest. and the turtle' became known tc the whole neighborhood. Several years ago a board was placed at the side,of an iron trough at the foot of the yard, and up this iuclineel plane the turtle crawled each morning to get a drink of water. One time he fell in and was nearly drowned. Never afterward would he go to the trough. He then made daily visits to the hydrant in the front part of the yard, and after quenching his thirst he would drag himsell slowly to the other end of the lot. He was last seen late in the fall, and when this spring came and he did not appear, a search was made for him. He was found among a lot of stone, tin cans, etc., dead. He was surrounded on all sides by a barrier, and it is probable that he crawled into the place and was overcome by the cold before he burrowed into the earth. Starvation and cold caused his death. When found he was standing in an almost perpendicular position, with his head between twj stones.

His Curiosity Satisfied.

A newspaper man, -whose custom it is to take long walks in the suburbs, one day, this autumn, as he passed an orchard, noticed all the trees but one were well filled with apples. ‘ ‘That’s strange, ” he remarked to his companion, a brother journalist. “What’s the reason, do you imagine?” asked the other. “Here comes a boy, I’ll ask him;” and the journalist tackled the boy. “I notice one tree over there by the fence hasn’t an apple on it. Do you know why that is?” “Of course I do.” “Well, my friend here and I are a little curious, and would like you to tell us if you will. Here’s a dime for your trouble and loss of time.” “Certainly. It’s ’cause it’s a pear tree, mostly.” The man of inquiring mind hung his head and went on with a firm resolve to refrain from curiosity in the future. [New York News.

Hydraulic Ram.

A hydraulic ram can only be operated by a running stream br fall of water. The ram is operated by a stream carried into it by a pipe ten or twelve feet long; this stream lifts a valve as soon as it lias gained sufficient 'velocity, and shuts the pipes. The flowing stream, being thus suddenly stopped, is changed in its course into an air chamber, in which is a valve that is opened by the diverted stream As soon as this stream exhausts its force this valve closes, and the pressure of the condensed air in the chamber forces the water which has entered from the feed pipe into the discharging pipe. Then the valve in the feed pipe, being no longer pressed by the stream, drops, and the stream begins to flow again, and the process is thus repeated several times every minute. In this way about onesfeventh of the water in the drive pipe is raised to any desired height, the quantity of water being in proportion to the height of the delivery, less as the height is greater.—[New York Times. >

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The interesting experiment of introducing and acclimating the reindeer in Alaska, according to Captain Healy of the revenue stem&tc Bear, has been so far eminently protiT.Bing. The reindeer that were left at Unalaska last year have prospered and will in time stock the island, while during the past season many more were carried over from Siberia to the American coast. There was at one time a prejudice among the Siberian natives against parting with an animal that is so essential to them, but this has happily been overcome, and there is now no difficulty in securing all that are desired. There is no doubt that the reindeer will be quite as serviceable to the Alaskans as to their opposite neighbors, and that they will be an extremely important means of alleviating the hard conditions of the long Arctic winter in those regions. A successful issue of the experiment will put an important achievement to the credit of the revenue marine service. The proposition to turn the waters ot the Colorado river into the great Salton plain or desert and make it a fertile tract as of prehistoric times is not yet taboo in a country that prides itself on its practicality. The cheapest internal improvement perhaps ever suggested to accomplish wonderful results is that of reopening the old canals and channels of this lower Colorado valley and irrigating it from end to end. What the red citizens of a long-extinct semi-civilization could do the -white citizens of an advanced civilization surely may do. The Colorado river itself has pointed out how easy the task is by breaking into the desert and leaving in the valley the seeds of vegetation and the water and soil necessary for its germination and growth. The problem is very different from that presented elsewhere in the far west—the great river solves the difficulty at small outlay of capital. Whether there will speedily be a war in Europe is a question that no cue can answer, or rather one in regard to which no answer is worth the paper on which it is written. At no period since the era of the great Napoleon have there been such vast armies in Europe, and either the Continental powers must reduce their forces or they will soon, one and all, be ruined. The richest country is France, but there the taxation is enormous. Both Austria and Germany are comparatively poor; Russia’s credit is only maintained by the French being ready to buy its bonds; Italy is practically bankrupt, already, and, notwithstanding this, all these countries are engaged in an insanestruggle to compete with each other in amassing the material to wage a successful war. The rapid growth of the industrial applications of electricity has placed the study of electrotechnics on a footing with the older branches of engineering, if, indeed, it has not already outstripped them. Statistics show that the number of students who choose the electrical studies at our large universities and technical schools is yearly increasing. At Cornell University, for instance, the number has increased from 28 in 1881 to 250 in 1892; and this is only a specimen of the continued growth in other institutions. Evidence is not wanting that the coming year will be no less a prosperous one in this respect for the universities than the preceding ones.

The Hungarian Government does not sell any part of its forests, but buys more each year. In some parts of the country, as in the eastern region of the Carpathians, woods are found of several thousand acres in extent, consisting for the most part of red beech. This is used for firewood, carriages, staves and agricultural implements, and in the manufacture of bent wood. There are few fires, and they seldom permanently damage the woods. There are large resinous forests in Transylvania; but they are not very accessible, and there are also some in the district of Marmaros, in the northeast of the country. Cycling of all kinds has become very popular in this country, but the love for “wheels” has not yet become a craze, as it has in some parts of Europe. In London long tandem bicycles, capable of seating eight or more passengers, have been introduced, and one is now being used as a rival to the tram or street cars. The owner of the vehicle occupies the front seat, collects the fares and steers, but the passengers have to provide the motive power, and if they don’t move their feet freely very poor time is made on the journey. It is said that in London the seats are booked and paid for a week in advance. Professor Edward S. Holden, the astronomer, and Director of the Lick Observatory in California, is not very hopeful about the present investigations of the planet Mars. “When we come to an examination of the particularities of Mars’ surface we find dissimilarity and not likeness to details of the earth’s,” he says in the Forum. “Under these circumstances, and so long as such widely divergent views can be advocated by competent observers, it appears to me that the wise course is to reserve judgment and to strive for more light.” Filial respect in the Orient presents some features unique enough to attract attention. For instance, a Japanese young man, having decided to adopt the profession of burglary, attempted to strangle his aged mother that a knowledge of his calling might not pain her. His solicitude was futile, for the police caught him administering the solace prescribed by his conscience and checked his career as a dutiful son. An English newspaper has discovered an extraordinary thing that happened in a small town. An old lady has just died there in her hundredth year. At the time of death she was not in possession of all her faculties! Along the west coast of Africa there are now 200 churches, 35,000 converts, IQO,OOO adherents, 275 schools and 30, 030 pupils. Some knowledge of the gospel has reached about eight millions of benighted Africans. The population of Greenland has increased five per cent, in the last ten years. It is a curious fact that the women outnumber the men very greatly, especially in South Greenland.

European Ideas of Ownership.

They have curious ideas of ownership in Europe. In France there is an unwritten but immutable law that a painting shall not be exhibited without the artist’s consent, no matter what the wishes of the owner may be. And now a literary and artistic congress in session at Milan, Italy, has decided that the right of reproduction does not pass to the buyer of a picture. Thus you may pay for a picture, have it in your possession, and have a clear and free title to it, but you don’t quite own it after all —[Washington Post

TURTLE-EGG BUTTER.

Ingenious Way in Which It Is Prepared Along the Amazon. Another thing which the Government now wisely regulates is the turtle-egg harvest,which otherwise would soon become extinct. Everybody has heard of the famous tartaruga, or Amazonian turtle, which abounds by millions all along the river and its affluents, and of the manteiga da tartaruga (turtle-egg butter) — a substance peculiar to this quarter of the globe. At certain seasons of the year they come ashore and deposit their eggs in the sand, says a correspondent of the Philadelphia Record. Then the stream will be fairly speckled with them, each paddling clumsily up to its native sandbar, for it is positively asserted by those W’ell up in turtle lore, that not one of them will lay an egg anywhere except on thevery spot where it was itself hatched out. It is said that the. noise of their shells striking against one another in the rush and scramble to Shore may be heard a great distance. Each lays from 80 to 120 eggs every other year. Their work commences at dusk and ends with the following dawn, when they again scramble back into the water. During the daytime the natives collect the eggs and pile them in great heaps, sometimes 20 feet in diameter and of corresponding height, as cannon balls are piled in a navy yard. While yet fresh the eggs are thrown into wooden troughs, broken with sticks and stamped fine with the feet. Water is then thrown on and th?, mass is exposed to the rays of the sun. The intense heat brings the oily matter of the eggs to the surface from which it is skimmed off. This, when clarified over a gentle fire, resembles melted butte’-, and is the manteiga of commerce. It is conveyed to market packed in earthen pots, and the Indians and lower classes generally prize it very highly for seasoning their food, though it retains a strong flavor of fish oil. It is estimated that in earlier times as many as 250,000,000 turtle eggs were destroyed every, year in the manufacture of mauteiga, and there are still extensivebeaches, notably in Marajo, .which have yielded every year as many as 2,000 pot* of oil, each pot containg five gallons, the product of about 2,500 eggs. The wonder is how any turtle can come to matinity, so many enemies lie in wait for it the moment it emerges from the she'll and makes its way to the water. Alligators are waiting to swallow it, jaguars to feed on it, buzzards, eagles and woodibises to pounce upon and devour it, and if it escapes all these and reaches tho water, ravenous fishes are awaiting to seize upon it in the stream. But so prodigiously prolific are they that only their most powerful enemy, man, has visibly diminished their numbers.

A Blind Man’s Dog.

A blind man, piloted about the centre of the city yesterday by a dog, attracted a good deal of attention. The man was neatly dressed, and carried a satchel containing articles to sell swung over his shoulder. He carried a stick in order to enable him to feel his way up or down a. step. The dog, a plump, well fed, brownanimal, had on a sort of harness, to which a stout cord was attached from his back. He was, apparently, in a hurry to do business, for he tugged at the cord vigorously as he went along. Every few steps he would look around at his master in the most intelligent way, as if to discover whether he was coming along lyAs soon as he got to a door he stopped and looked up at his master. If the door, was one on which was posted the sign, “The other door,” the man would try the knob, and, as soon as the dog saw that hismaster could not go in, he would immediately move on to the next door. When a door was opened the dog appeared tounderstand exactly how to transact business. He would pilot his master straight to the office, in the back or front part of the house, stop, and look up. When anybody bought anything, and “Goodday” was said, the animal would lead the way’ out again, often looking around at his companion, an<f, when the street was reached, he would be sure to start off and try the next door. If the animal was not fond of that man, the actions of a dog go for nothing.—[Baltimore. American.

Worms in Chestnuts.

“I like chestnuts now,” said a prominent doctor as he walked down the street munching at some of the floury morsels, “but later on when the worms begin to show up in them I don’t care for any. It would perhaps interest you to know how worms get into chestnuts. When the nut is still green an insect comes along, and hunting a warm place in which to have its eggs hatched, lights upon the green chestnut and stings it. At the same time it deposits some of its eggs in the opening thus made. The chestnut begins to ripen and at the same time the eggs are hatching. ‘ ‘The insect selects chestnuts as a placefor depositing its eggs as being the best adapted place by instinct. The floury matter in the nut turns to sugar and sugar contains carbon, which producesheat. You don’t need to look for worms in the early part of the chestnut season, as it takes some time for the eggs to hatch. “The chestnut is a very good food; the flour or starchy matter makes it very nutritious. In some places in Italy the inhabitants make flour of those large Italian chestnuts and make bread. Some families use no other kind of flour than this. “Talking about flour, I saw a very peculiar kind made from bananas. The bread made froip it was very palatable, but I think it would be rather hard on the digestive organs as a regular diet.”—[Pittsburg Dispatch.

The Ship of the Desert.

There is an Arab tradition cited in Burton’s “Gold Mines of Miditfn” regarding the creation of the camel, which illustrates the popular but erroneousopinion that that animal is ugly in form and temper. The story goes that when Allah determined to create the horse he called the south wind and said: “I desire to draw from thee a new being; condense thyself by parting with thy fluidity.”’ The creator then took a handful of thiselement, blew upon it the breath of life, and the noble quadruped appeared. But the horse complained against hismaker. His neck was too short to reach the distant grass blades on the marsh; his back had no hump to steady a saddle;, his hoofs were sharp and sunk deep into the sand, and he added many similar grievances. Whereupon Allah created the camel to prove the foolishness of his complaint. The horse shuddered at the sight of what he wanted to become, and this is the reason every horse starts when meeting its caricature for the first time.— [Christian Intelligencer.