Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 7, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 3 March 1893 — Page 4

JTF OLD SWEETHEART JILL. Talk not to me of modem maids, Of Blamlie and waud aud Lil, There’s u'tr a one among them all IJke my old sweetheart Jill! Long years ago, when we were you g, Aud climbed that horrid hil'. She bore the weight of half the pail, .A helpful sweetheart Jill! And when I tumbled down that day, (I have the scir there still) She shared my luck as she does yet, Lear helpmeet, sweetheart Jill. When happiness comes down our way Her laugh is like a rill, The sun shone on the Iridal day Of merry sweetheart Jill. If fortune frown upon onr path; As frowm, sometimes, she will, “ There’s si ver back of every cloud,” Says cheery, sweetheart Jill. Then drink this toast, ye envious ones; Fill! All your g asses fill! ** May every Jack get such a wife As mv old sweetheart Jill!” —[Edgar Wade Abbot, in Eoston Times.

WHAT HAPPENED TO HALLIE.

BY SARAH BIERCE SCARBOROUGH.

Nothing had ever happened to Hallie. Burt. At least, that is what she claimed. “Fpurteen years is a very long time to pass away without anything happening to a body,” was what her lather had gravely remarked when she persisted in the assertion; and Phil, her grown-up brother, had quizzically asked if she would be satisfied with anything less than lassoing a crocodile in one of the Colorado mountain lakes or shooting a dodo in the canyon below. “I don’t expect the impossible,” she had retorted; ’’but I do want something that might be called a ‘happening.’ ” The hunting excursions with the boys, the round-ups on the plateau, the mountain climbing and the agate hunting —all these she refused to consider in the category of “happenings.” They were expected things and ‘’happenings ” were— | well— “ something that she had not looked for—very long, at least,” she explained. But, according to her own definition, several things happened very soon. In the first place, her father and mother, who went every year at the time of full moon in September, to Pueblo, had prom- j ised to take her with them on this trip; but the very day before they started her mother called her aside for a private talk. I At its close Hallie emerged from the sit- 1 ting room with suspiciously swimming eyes. “Try not to mind it this time, dear,” said her mother. “ You know that we are to take your Aunt Catherine, and if you think how ill she has been and how much she will suffer from the discomfort of being crowded, aud how necessary it is that her poor uerves be not annoyed in any way, I am sure that you will find some pleasure iu the sacrifice of your long-looked for trip.” So she watched them depart, only heaving a great sigh as they disappeared from view. “ I should say that here is a happening with a vengeance,” remarked her twin brother, Hall, bv way of consolation. “ But I wouldn't mind it tho’; and we will go up after agates. Maybe we wiii find one as a mate for the one you want set for a button—that will be another kind of a happening.” b-* efra that favorite amusement had lost its charm. “It is bound to be poky the best way you can fix it, she replied, gloomily. “ Then, too, it would not be right to go off. There is nobody here but Phil and us, and Phil isn’t to be depended on to stav.”

“.You forget Garcia and Manuel,” said Hall. “They are never left alone.” “That is so. Heigho! 1 don't know, but I wish with you that something would happen.” Hallie was right about Phil. That noon one of the boys came down from the upper ranch to tell of the stampede of the cattle, aud their suspicion that it was caused by a mountuin lion. Instantly Phil was alert. He had long wanted u mountain lion's skin, and it did not take long for him to convince himself that his presence was indispensable at tbe other ranch. “ l’H go up for a couple of days, and Fred and you can look after everything. Mantel will take good care of things. Isn’t that so, Manuel T” “Si, Scnor.” The man showed a glistening row of teoth as he answered. “ And I am sure that Garcia is to be depended on.” The womau bobbed her head without hearing; for she was as deaf as a post.

“And I don’t like it a bit,” said Ilallie, as Phil rode off. As for Hall, had he not secretly wished to go with Phil, he would have thought it just the thing to be left in charge. As it was, he was discontented, and roamed about, leaving Hallie to her own devices. It was dull enough for her, as Garcia was no company at all. But company came. At night, two men—Mexicans—rode up from the mountain road and stopped to talk with Manuel. “They want to stop all night,” said Hall ‘ ‘Manuel says that they are all right.”. •‘And that would be a good reason why I would not have them stay,” Hallie demurred. But Hall laughed at her. “Pshaw! Here’s a girl that is always wanting something to happen, aud is afraid it will at the same time.” “I am not," was the . indignant reply. “Only it might not be What I wanted.” “They can stay in the adobe part, and Manuel is all right to look after them.”

So they stayed,though Hallie kept jvishing in her heart that something would bring Phil back. But he did not come, and Hail sleepily declared that nobody need fret. The consequence was that long after he had gone to sleep Hallie was in Pfait's room next the adobe part, listening to the conversation going on among the men. The thin partition made this an easy thing to do. Late in the night she tiptoed to Hall's bedside. * “Wake up Hall! There is some plan among these men. I can’t quite understand there’s so much Mexican Greaser talk; but I know they think of waiting for Papa’s coming back, and mean to meet them in the upper canyon.’’ “Now, Hallie, you have imagined half of that, I expect,” yawned Hall, drowsily, as he prepared to turn over. "But I haven’t, really. Hall, wake up! I tell you I heard something about money, too; and you know that Papa twings up Hie pay for the boys this “Manuel must hare got hold of that fact someway. The old rascal!” Hall .y» awake now. “If Phil were only p -We most get him here It k only SwSjJ '■ ■~ ■ l. '• ,

twenty miles, and Padre could make It quick enough. Then he could go right on and meet our folks. They’ll not start before Friday.” The two,talked until morning, and by that time Hall felt quite convinced that he had done a very uuwise thing to harbor the men and was willing to do almost anything to rectify his mistake. Hallie, however, thought that it was the very best thing that could have happened because otherwise they themselves would have known nothing about the proposed act of the highwaymen. “You will not lie afraid to stay?” Hall asked, as he made his preparation for an early start. “Perhaps you had better go with me.” “No, I’ll stay, so that they may suspect nothing. They'll hang around until about Friday before they set off for the trail.”

At daylight Hall saddled Padre, “just to have a day of hunting,” he said to Manuel who was watching him. Hallie nervously saw him disappear, but began to busy herself helping Garcia, so that the day would not seem so long. Hall would reach the ranch by noon, and the two would be back by night; there would be ' uo danger before that she was sure. But at noon another man rode up,from the mountain road and was taken into the adobe part by the others. Hallie hurried to Phil’s room with forebodings. What she gathered from their talk not only surprised but terrified her. The last comer had been a spy upon her father's movements. He reported that they had already left Pueblo—much earlier than they had expected—and with the stop of one night, which they always made, they would reach the upper canyon about an hour after midnight. Hallie saw it all. They always preferred to travel in the evening when the weather was warm and there was moonlight. It was Aunt Catherine's health which had probably caused the change of time for return as well as the night travel in September. What should she do? If Phil would only come, there would be time, or perhaps the boys could see some plan to prevent the men from leaving. The last idea proved itself impossible, as at noon the three men rode off upon the upper road.

All the long afternoon she watched for a sign of Phil or Hall, but night cams and neither had reached home. Mamiel had noticed her uneasiness and had carelessly remarked that Hall might get on the track o£ the mountaiu lion, too. This did not not allay her fear 3. It- only reminded her of what she had lost sight of—that possibly Hall might not find Phil, and there was uo telling when the two could get back. It caused her to reach a determination. Manuel slept in the far end of the adobe part, and Garcia would hear nothing nt any time So she set about her preparations. “There is really nothing else to be done.” she murmured to herself, as she put on the short suit that she wore when hunting with the boys. “Father must be warned by somebody before those men meet him.” Sh 3 knew just where the attack was planned to take place—at the bend, after the party had left the lower canyon. If she could ouly reach the canyon before they crossed and took the long wagon road to the upper one. She believed she could. They would leave “Hunt’s”— their night’s stopping place—at sundown. She remembered so vividly the ride, as sheihad taken it three years before—when' they passed into the lower | canyon and! stopped the bronchos to see the gtand sifcht under the pale light of the I moon whicliutrought out all the beauties of the placfc with wierd effect--just midnight, so she remembered.

Bhe was certain tlrnt she could reach it. She had thought of the old trail, abandoned now that the wagou road had te-’cn made. It was sfeep and rough, but it cut off full six miles and led off from :he upper canyon so far that there was r.o danger of meeting those men. She was glad enough to find that Manuel had left her own broncho out in the corral at the left, and on the opposite side of the house from where he slept. She was nervous; but Phister, the broncho, was never unwilling to be caught, so she was on his back in a short time aud walked him slowly away. For a minute she sat, as she reached the old trail which turned so sharply down the mountain, ani looked back. There was no sign of the boys and she looked ahead with a little quiver of fear. “Never mind, it’s for Papa and Mamma, and nothing will hurt me,” she reassured herself, aud turned into the gloomy path.

It was rough indeed, so rough that even Phister’s well-trained feet found footing difficult at times; but she clung to his back and pushed on. She grew feverishly excited though os she advanced. If she should fail, after all, to intercept them! It made her almost frantic to think of it, and Phister was urged to the imminent danger of both. Still the beast was wise enough to refuse stubbornly to make undue haste. She did not know the time, and minutes seemed hours. She could only roughly guess as, at times, the moonlight struggled into the path. Now she was at the spring. It was half choked by gravel and underbrush; bu? Phister would stop to drink. As he drank, there came to her earn a prolonged cry, low and mournful, at first, but as Phister uneasily started on, it rose to a crescendo wail. Again and again, at intervals, it came to her ear 9, and it seemed to sound nearer. Phister showed signs of nervousness. too. Suddenly it flashed upon her that it might be the mountain lion. Could it be following her-she had heard of such things—or was it possibly upon the other trail? She drew up Phister sharply. This was an unlookedfor terror. For a moment she questioned what she should do. She laid her hand on the holster with a glad remembrance that she had brought her own revolver. She had learned to use it quite well, but could she do anything if she should meet an animal like that? '

She must go on though, she quickly decided, and if the worst came, well—she would shoot—at it, she determined with a nervous little laugh. She patted Phister to reassure him, and Urged him to a good pace. The descent was nearly over. Soon there would be a smooth path for a short distance, a grassy slope beyond, and then she would be able to see into the canyon down toward which she must ride in a winding path for nearly another mile. Perhaps she was mistaken, she thought,. as all was quiet fora few minutes. Then a bough broke somewhere up on a mountain, and Phister stopped to raise his ears. A low wail sounded again almost at her right. The grassy slope had been passed and she could see below. Just over there was the cut through which her father must come, but no one was in sight. There was a crashing of limbs nearer, as if some creature were bounding from jtree to tree. Phister broke into a tro, rough as it was at this point. She* saw nothing, but she felt the presence of (Something. Once she thought of fir og her revolver; but she hesitated. She did Bot k ow how far on the other road the ml i might be, and if they

should hear it 1— No; perhaps she could outrun it—whatever it might be. Then came another thought that fairly made her heart stand still. Suppose that the men had been mistakeu, after all, and her father was not coming that night. Hallie had never fainted iu hei life, but for a second everything reeled before her. Still she pressed on. Was not that a rattling of pebbles? She drew up Phister to be sure. There was a descent of the opposite side where the broncho's hoofs might loosen the peb bles and send them down. But all wai still. Then there was another crash, and the moon, which shone right into the depths, showed a long dark body on a swaying limb overhanging the canyon toad some twenty feet below. Phister saw it, too, and trembled. A low, panting, purring sound came from the beast teetering there-at length, its eyes fixed on the road beneath. There was atattling; she was sure of it. There was a murmur of voices, aud the wagon train emerged from the opposite trail. If the beast had followed her, it was evident that its attention had been suddenly drawn to the new comers, and it lay with angry, quivering body and lashing tail, ready for a leap into thtir midst. Like a flash Hallie saw it all.* Her father or mother might be killed in that unlooked-for spring, or, if this did not happen, what a terrible shock it would be to her aunt’s nerves! Her own seemed to become steel at the thought. She slapped Phister smaijtly. The broncho stepped tremblingly forward. The lion turned its head at tbe sound. As Phister stopped short again, Hallie raised her revolver, took deliberate aim and fired. There was a snarl, a convulsive bound, then the beast sprang out, clutching at the limbs, and rolled down the canyon’s side. With the report, Phister gave a terrified snort, dashed frantically forward, fairly leaping over the stones, whirled around the turn in the path and bore her straight into the midst of an astonished group. “It is our Hallie!” With Mrs. Burt’s exclamation, everything was confusion for a few moments, and it was some minutes before Hallie herself could recover self-possession enough to tell of her ride and its cause. “My brave girl!”,was all that her mother could say, as they looked at the lion stretched dead across the road. But her father held her fij-tnly by the hand as he decided upon the course to Eursne in regard to the Mexicans. If lallie could ride down the old trail, they could ride up it; so the women, with Mr. Burt and another man, took the bronchos and slowly rode back, Aunt Catherine rising equal to the occasion, declaring that her comfort was not to bo thought of longer. It was daylight when the ranch was reached. They found old Garcia in a state of terror. Hall aud Phil had returned late that night and, taking Manuel with them, had immediately set off on the upper road after the Mexicans. Before noon they returned with jaded horses, but with the men as captives, having surprised them in their-waiting. Manuel solemnly affirmed that he knew nothing of their design; but whether he did or not, Mr. Burt thought it best to rid himself of him soon after. “ Well, Hallie, you can never again complain that nothing lias ever happened to you, I am sure,” said Phil, when all had heard of that ride with that cry resounding in her ears. “ And I think I am cured of ever again wishing anything to happen,” she replied, with a shudder.

But her “happenings” had begun. Aunt Catherine learned how Hallie had given up the trip t.o Pueblo for her sake, aud the next announcement made was that her niece was to go back to the East with her. And when they went Ilallic carried the mountain lion skin with her. “She has earned it all, too,” said Phil, proudly. "Not many girls would have done what she did. And think of that shot right in that animal’s temple!” But Hallie has always persisted that that was the most extraordinary happejing of all. —[The Independent.

Cruelties of Nurses.

Servants employed to look after the little folks are. as a rule, so anxious for their own pleasure that they frequently slap their charges into submission in order to be free to gossip with their confreres below stairs. This course of action usually takes place at bedtime, and any frolicsome disposition on the part of little “wide awake” is, according to the personal observation of our informant, speedily reduced to a- condition of sobbing and sleep, owing to the employment of methods known only to these guardians of these treasures of the home. There are other atrocities also practised on children by their nurses, which savor of actual cruelty. If these cases are numerous, can it be possible mothers are unaware of them? Is it that the duties of society so completely take up both time and attention that the doings of the nursery are unknown to the mothers of the little dwellers therein? Motherhood is a far nobler office than social leadership, and the little souls commended to a mother’s keeping are greater treasuers than the diamonds that are the envy of all other women in that circle in which only the elect move. Therefore these human jewels should be guarded with a constant and jealous eye, and their caretakers should be chosen with due regard to their mental and bodily welfare, instead of selected at random simply to get somebody who will be capable of keeping the children out of sight and hearing when company is around, by whatever means, fair or foul, they choose to employ.—[New York Telegram.

A Well Ventilated Tomb.

The most peculiar and eccentric character that ever lived in Alabama was Thomas Banks, who died at Montgomery some time during the year 1890. Physicians say that he would have lived years longer than he did had it not been for the fact that he was continually brooding over the danger of being buried alive. He was a man of considerable property, being rated at about $200,000, but to his way of looking at the matter money could not provide against the horrors of a premature burial. Away bsck in the ’7os he had a mausoleum built in the Montgomery Cemetery, and directed that he and his only brother should be laid there together after death. In 1889 the brother died and was carefully aDd tenderly laid away in one of the niches of the mausoleum. After this solemn event Thomas had his bedroom furniture moved to the tomb and ever after regularly made his toilet there. As mentioned above Thomas also died in 1890, and now the two brothers lie within handy reach of fresh air should either wake from his dreamless sleep. The Banks brothers were natives of North Carolina, and went to Montgomery boom time about the year 1856.—i9t Louis Republic.

SOMEWHAT STRANGE.

ACCIDENTS AM) INCIDENTS OF [EVERY DAY LIFE. Queer Facts and Thrilling Adventures Which Show That Truth Is Stranger Thau Fiction. A FRRvrtr statistician, who has b'en studyingthe military and other recofds with a view of determining the height of men at different periods, has reached some wonderful results. He has not ouly solved some perplexing problems iu regard to the past of the human race, but is also enabled to calculate its future aud to determine the exact period when man will disappear front the earth. The recorded facts extend over nearly three centuries. It is found that in IGIO the average height of man in Europe was 1.75 meters, or say five feet nine inches. In 1790 it was five feet six inches. In 1820 it was five feet five inches and a fraction. At the present it is five feet three and three-fourth! inches. It is easy to deduce from these figures a rate of regular and gradual decline in human stature, and then apply this, working backward and forward to the past and to the future. By this calculation it is determined that the stature of the first men attained the surprising average of sixteeu feet, nine inches. Truly, there were giants on the earth in those days. The race had already deteriorated in the days of Og, aud Goliath was a quite degenerate offspring of the giants. Coming down to later time we find that at tjte begiuuing of our era the average height of man was nine feet, and iu the time of Charlemagne it was eight feet eight inches. But the most astonishing result of this scientific study comes from the application of the same inexorable law of diminution to the future. The calculation shows that by the year 4000 A. D. the stature of the average man will be reduced to fifteeu inches. At that epoch there will be only Lilliputians on the earth. And the conclusion of the learned statistician is irresistible; that “the end of the world will certainly arrive, for the inhabitants will have become so small that they will finally disappear”—“finish by disappearing,” as the French idiom expresses it—“from the terrestrial globe.” Mr. Walter B. Harris, who has just returned to England front Tangier, writes a letter to the London Times which scents to prove beyond dispute the existence of the so-called “dwarfs” of Mount Atlas, about whom so much has been written of late. Mr. Harris encountered a number of these small folk and collected a good deal of material about them front their neighbors, who say that they inhabit the most inaccessible parts of the mountains to avoid the payment of tribute. But he does not believe in the pygmy or troglodyte theories. He says: “I think that it is now conclusively proved that the small people of Mount Atlas are not ‘pygmies’—that they are, in a fact, merely a certain collection of Shielt tribes, who, through the high altitudes at which they live, aud the extremes of climate they are subject to, from their poverty and inability to grow crops, from the scarcity aud bad quality of such food as they are able to collect, have, in the lapse of centuries, become of almost extraordinarily stunted growth. Why then have they not been seen by former travelers? The answer is simple. Both Sir Joseph Hooker and Mr. Joseph Thomson, almost the only Europeans who have ever visited the Atlas, were during their travels entirely in lands governed by Kaids representing the Sultan, and the very proximity of these Kaids would drive the ‘small people’ to a distance, who would never on any account visit their castles. It is for this reason alone that the existence of a stunted race of Shieh people must have failed to have attracted their notice. Francis W. J.\MESof Port Townsend, Wash., who, with J. B. Webster of Oakland, was of the pioneer population of that Territory thirty odd years ago, stated in a letter to Mr. Webster recently that the Makah tribe of Indians at Cape Flattery, just south of Vancouver island, are increasing in numbers, which is unusual, and that they are as wealthy a community of Indians as exists in the United States, made so by their industry, also unusual and the increased value of sealskins. These Indians now have their own schooners, and cruise, with a white captain of course, as far north as Alaska, aud are very successful. They also are noted whalemen, and engage extensively in the cod, halibut and salmon fisheries, there being rery extensive halibut banks a few miles seaward from Cape Flattery, which are cow annually visited by a numerous fishing fleet. These banks were discovered by Mr. Webster and two other white nen in 18)9 and quantities of the fish cuight and cured for market during the next few years by his company. Port Angeles is sixty miles from Cape Flattery and was thirty years ago without inhabitants, but is now a flourishing city of 3,003 inhabitants, with a grand future teforc it. On Christmas Day, when the fourmasted American ship Cyrus Wakefield was in a gale, First Mate William Mitchell was knocked overboard and swept far astern. He had climbed to the poop deck aud had taken a firm hold of a life line to steady iim9elf, when the spanker boom got adrift, and swinging around struck him and hurled him over the starboard quarter. One of the crew tied the deep-sea lead ine to a life preserver and cast it overboard. Suddenly the leadline tightened as though a monster fish had seized it. “I have him! He’s caught the line!” yelled the seaman. As the line threatened to part, a heavier one attached to a life preserver was allowed to drift down to Mitchell. The lead line indicated his distance astern to a yard. The last of itg 160 fathoms had been payed out when Mitchell grabbed it. The second line he also caught, and the crew started to haul him aboard. This was finally accompiished, but the first mate was more dead than alive when taken out of the water.

A most extraordinary story comes from Boise City, Idaho, which is said to be well authenticated. It is said that three travelers were at the upper end of Lake Chelan recently and one of them went in bathing, when he was seized by the foot by a marine monster and was being pulled into deep water when his screams attracted the attention of his companions, who came to his rescue. They pulled him ashore, the monster hanging to his foot. It had legs and a body like an alligator and the head and eyes of a serpent. Between its fore and hind legs were large ribbed wings. The men tried hard to tear the monster from the foot of their companion and finally tried fire, which had the effect of causing the animal to rise suddenly into the air, taking the victim aong and finally landing in the lake, whee both disappeared from sight. Johss Hopinvs University still gossips of Professor Sylvester, the marvellous mathematiciai who came over from England to t< ach be science in which all his interests cented. His mind was ever occupied witi mathematical problems,

and all sorts of odd things happened to him on the streets of Baltimore. The most amusing episode of his life on this side, however, grew out of a voyage to Europe. While abroad he made some highly important calculations, - but on reaching Baltimore he found that the paper on which he had figured was missing. Ho important were the calculations that he took a steamer back to England in order to look up the papers. He did not find them, and started back to the United States deeply disappointed; but duriug the voyage over he accidentally discovered in a pocket of the overcoat he had worn on the previous voyage the very thing he was in search of. The plague of wolves in Shensi, a mountainous province of North China, is described as becoming more and more alarming. A correspondent in that part writes that in the village in which he is sojourning they had heard of eleven persons being carried off by these animals Ift seven days. Most of the victims were children; the rest young persons of sixteen, nineteen and twenty years of age. “They come,” says the writer, “to our village here overy night just now. Men are bestirring themselves, going out in large numbers to hunt them, us yet, however, unsuccessfully. To-night we have put poisoned mutton in two places not far off, hoping to find at least one dead wolf to-morrow. They roam in open daylight, besides entering villages and carrying off helpless little ones. Three went in company a few days ago into a native village; one of the number entered a hut and snatched a little child from his father’s arms. Pursuit in every case has been futile. It seems this is their breeding time, hence their abnormal boldness.”

The usefulness of carrying a sharp jack-knife was shown the other day in a Lewiston (Me.) mill, when one of the young women’s hair came tumbling down as she passed a piece of heavy machinery and the ends of it caught in some slowly revolving cogwheels. The girl screamed, but did not have the presence of mind to break away at once before more strands of hair were caught and dragged in. She stood there holding out her arms and screaming while her head was drawn nearer and nearer to the fatal wheels. Then up came a man with a sharp jackknife, lie compassed the hair of the girl within his left hand and held it firmly as he might a rope and with the other hand severed the hair close to the wheels. A itATHEK ghastly story is told regarding a French Countess, a friend of Camille Flammarion, the astronomer. On one occasion, observing her in evening dress, he frankly expressed admiration of her beautiful shoulders. When she died, in accordance with her directions, enough skin to bind a book was removed from this part of her person, and sent to Flammarion, with a note gracefully asking him to use it as a cover for a volume of the next work he should publish. It is said that after a skilful tanner had been employed to prepare this strange memento, it was actually devoted to the use prescribed; and upon the cover was inscribed, in gilt letters, “Souvenir d’une ruorte.”

The picturesque little village of Payerne in Switzerland, not far from Lake Neubourg, possesses a unique curiosity in the shape of a saddle which belonged to Queen Bertha, the founder of the Benedictine Abbey, which has since been transformed into one of the best educational institutes of Europe. This saddle, which is more than 900 years old, is of peculiar antique shape, having an aperture for the knee in the pommel. Queen Bertha was noted for her zeal and industry, and in order to set a good example to her subjects she always rodo from one place to another to gaiu time. A queer rabbit story, which beast “Uncle Remus” at liis best, comes from Davidson, N. C. John Hedrick killed a very large rabbit during the snow. It had a large raised place on the inside of the left hind leg which he cut into and found between the flesh and hide two leather-winged bats, which were full grown. The bats were fastened to the flesh of the rabbit by a leader or something similar. There wa9 not a broken place in the hide until Mr. Hedrick cut it. An extraordinary ease of suicide is reported in the Berlin papers. A sixteen-year-old boy, feeling himself humiliated by a severe reprimand that had been administered by his parents, seated himself in a chair, and. after loading a revolver handed it to his brother, a lad of six years, and compelled him to do the shooting, The little fellow fired but one shot, killing his brother instantly. The monomaniac who, in 1839, stopped Queen Victoria while she was riding on horseback in Hyde Park and nosed marriage to her has recently in Bedlam, the celebrated insane asylum of London. He seemed to be perfectly sound on every other subject, was well educated, and wrote very sensible letters relating to insane asylums and the reforms which could be made in them. He was eighty-four years old. Men cutting ice at Buxton, Me., found a half-blown water iilly imbedded in one of the cakes. It was thawed out, put in a* sunny window, and soon bloomed out as handsomely as any lily of July.

RELIABLE RECIPES.

To Broil Steak.— Steak for broiling should not be thin or it will be dry and hard; at the market, ask them to cut your steak three-fourths of an inch thick, cut off the suet, grease the broiler and have it hot, lay the steak on the broiler on a bed of hot coals, turn the broiler often; when done remove to a hot platter, sprinkle with salt aud spread butter over it; serve immediately. Roast Loin of Veal. —Take a white and fat loin of veal with the kidney attached ; saw off the spine and remove what is left of she hip bone, season with salt and pepper; tie up the flop over the kidney, put in a buttered sautoir with a glass of water, and bits of butter on top; cover with a buttered paper, and cook in a moderate oven for nearly two hours, basting occasionally with the gravy; drain, untie, place on a dish, add a little broth to the sautoir, skim the fat, reduce to a demi-glaze sauce, strain over the veal, and serve. Stuffed Beefsteak. —A large slice cf round is best for this; if there is any bone, with a small knife, loosen the bont and take it out, season with salt and pepper; have ready prepared some dressing, made of stale bread crumbs, moistened with cold water, seasoned with one egg, a spoonful of butter, salt and a little parsley or sifted sage, mix well and spread on the slice of steak, roll up closely and wind with a cord; have the oven very hot, put it in a tin in the oven, bake half an hour, mix a spoonful of butter and water together and put in the tin while baking; when done, remove the cord and serve hot, cut ia slices from the end ol the "oil.

Coal Oil Credit.

Coal >il holds first place as au illuminator. For application to farm woodwork of all kinds crude petroleum has no peer for cheapness and iuiperviousness to weather Its value in keeping heavy wagon wheel’s sound and preventing need of tire-sitting is well known. Mixed with Venetian red, durability and an air of permanency are bestowed on farm buildings. It is .used as machine oil or dilutant, as insect exterminator in hog and hen houses, and in “ kerosene emulsion” for spraying vegetable pests. Vaseline, a product oi coal oil, is employed by many as a lubricator for carriage-axles, to soften harness, shoes, the hands, etc., and is better than most liniments or ointments for chilblains, sores and wounds on man or beast. It is especially healing for galls and bruises when mixed with 5 per cent, of its bulk of tannin. And now it is recommended in place of lather in shaving. Its use here is not imaginary, as it will enable a razor to cut at once and keenly. (Its only fault i 3 in permitting the razor to take the outer skin of the face also if the beard be light.) The razor-strop should be kept moist with it. Asa “by-product,” vasaline is among the cheapest manufactured substances.—[New York Tribune.

How He Does It.

I asked Marion Crawford the other day if it is a fact that he averages 0,000 words a clay when at work upon a novel, as the newspapers have reported him as saying. “Yes,” he replied, “I often write that number in a day. I never sit down to write a story until it is perfectly and clearly outlined in my mind. I know precisely what I am going to say and what I am going to have my characters do. Hence, it is only the transfer of what is in my mind to paper, and that is very easy to me.’’ “Does it not tire you?” I asked. “Of course,” said the novelist, “just as any work tires a man.” “But literature is a pleasure to you, is it not ?” “Not at all,” came the perfectly frank reply, “only so far as it gives me a good living. , I write novels because it pays me do so, and that is why I essayed literature in the first place. It was not from choice, I assure you. That is the. reason, I presume, why I read so few novels. I have to write them, and that is enough.”—[Atlanta Constitution.

The Independent Mountaineer.

It is a strange fact, but nevertheless true, that there is less poverty in the mountains than in any other section of the State. While the mountain people are seldom wealthy they are rarely, if ever, in need of the necessities of life. Each man has his little patch of land on which he raises enough to support his family and by odd jobs secures enough money to buy their clothing. While the poorer people of the larger cities are suffering for fuel, the moutaincer is sitting by his comfortable fire smoking the cob pipe filled with “long green” which he himself lias raised. Although the winter has been exceptionally severe we have yet to hear of a single family in Leo County that is suffering. The Kentucky mountaineer, howjbver, is one of your independent fellows who will starve rather than beg and nd one knows of his sufferings until he is found stiff and cold in death.—[Beattyville (Ky.) Enterprise.

What the Presidents Died Of.

Rutherford B. llayes was the only mau who ever held the position of President to die of heart disease. .Washington expired of pneumonia, John Adams of natural decline, Thomas Jefferson of chronic diarrhoea, James Madison and James Monroe of natuial decline, John Quincy Adams of paralysis, Andrew Jackson oi consumption, Martin Van Buren of asthmatic catarrh, William 11. Harrison of pleurisy, John Tyler of a bilious attack, James K. Polk of chronic diarrhoea, Zacharay Taylor of bilious fever, Millard Fillmore of natural decline, Franklin Pierce of inflammation of stomach, James Buchanan of rheumatic gout, Abraham Lincoln assassinated, Andrew Johnson paralysis, U. 8. Grant cancer, James A. Garfield assassinated, Chester A. Arthur Bright’s disease. He was one of threa Methodists to become President, Johnson and Grant being the other two. —[Columbus Journal.

Weeping Trees.

In the forests of Oregon, Washington, Montana and British Columbia there is a species of tree that has continuous and copious dripping of pure clear water from the- ends of its leaves and branches. This extraordinary sight may lie witnessed at all seasons when the leaves are on, and seems equally as plentiful on clear, bright days as on damp, cloudy nights. The tree is a species of fir 'and the “weepiug” phenomenon is attributed to a remarkable power of condensation peculiar to the leaves and bark of this species of evergreen. In the island of Ferro there are many species of “weeping trees,” but in this latter case the “tears,” appear, according to published accounts, to be most abundant when the relative humidity is near the dew point.—[St. Louis Republic.

The “ Busy Bee ” Fallacy.

If anybody tries to make you believe that a bee-hive is an emblem of industry you may tell them that no bee works longer than three months out of the twelve, and that on comparing its size and strength with the work it gets through it turns out to be just as lazy as the average loafer.—[London Tit-Bits.

The Mediæ val Kitchen.

In the mediaeval kitchen, economy and convenience preferred the pot to the spit, and for one dish cooked with the latter twenty messes came from the former. Broiling doubtless preceded roasting, and it is probable that before meat was exposed to the fire on a spit primitive roasters hung their flesh before the flaming fuel by means of a strong and coarse Doard.—[New York World. Anybody can measure, approximately, the breadth of a river without a surveyor’s compass or any mechanical means whatever. The man who desires to make the experiment should place himself at the edge of the stream, then stand perfectly still, face the opposite bank and lower the brim of his hat until it juat cuts the opposite bank. Then let him put both his hands under his chin, to steady his head, and turn slowly round until the hat brim cuts some point on the level ground liehind him. Mark the spot where the hat brim cuts the ground, then pace off the distance and it will bo found about the breadth us the river.

THE BODY AND ITS HEALTH.

In Case of Diphtheria. —First, strips of linen or cotton fabric, about eight inches wide, folded several times, and long enough to reach from ear to ear, should be wrung out of the water (if in winter), and if in summer put directly upon the ice, and then applied externally to the throat, and as fast as one cloth gets warm another should- be ready to take its place, writes C. G-. B. Klopbel, M. D., in a contemporary. If the child complains of being cold, its feet and hands should be bathed in as hot water as it can stand. When the child is very young, it may readily be ascertained if it be cold or not by feeling its hands and head. Under no should hot applications be made to the throat. If the child is old enough, it may begiven broken ice to suck constantly, even if the water is spit out. The cold applications inhibit the growth of the microbes. The patient’s hands should be washed frequently—and here let me say so should those of the attendants—and the vessel used for' the purposeshould not be used by any one else. The patient's clothing needs protection in front. This may be done by pinning back of the neck a large piece of linen or cotton fabric, which will cover the whole front of the child and reach as far as the knees. A material should be used which can easily be boiled or burned when soiled. The little patient, if old enough, will want to spit, and for a spittoon a small wooden box, with an inch of sawdust on the bottom, is capital. Fresh sawdust should be supplied at least once a day—three times a day would be better —and that which has been used should be emptied upon a good hot fire, and thus burned at the time the change is made. If there are any flies about, the box should be kept covered, and as a matter of course, only uncovered when the patient desires to spit; otherwise, the flies alighting upon this spittle, would cany the germs of the disease with them, and then alighting upon the family’s food and drink, uecessarily infect them, and thus indirectly infect the whole family. This is by no means chimerical, but a wellestablished fact.

Health and Living. —The prevalence of pneumonia and consumption, as shown by the mortality records of large cities, is a startling fact which ought toarrest the attention of medical societies and of the public, says the Tribune This is a year when sanitary questions will be constantly discussed, owing to widespread apprehension of an outbreak of cholera. Public opinion will sustain the most radical measures for the protection of the country against the Asiatic scourge. It is not our purpose to call in question the necessity for a rigorous quarantine and systematic regulation of immigration as safeguards against pestilence. What we desire to emphasize' is the fact that whether cholera is let in or kept out, New York and other cities are already ravaged by scourges which escape public observation. In proof of this assertion we have only to refer to the mortality statistics for this city during the last decade. The average annual mortality from pneumonia, phthisis and bronchitis is 13,245, or 29i per cent, of the entire death list. That is an alarming exhibit, which ought to be seriously considered in the sanitary discussions of a cholera year. The first inference to be drawn from the increasing prevalence of these diseases is that they may be regarded as infectious or contagious under certain conditions. Certain forms of pneumonia have indeed been shown to bo communicable. Recent reports of medical officers to the Local Government Board in London have tended to confirm this opinion. There was moreover, a striking illustration of the spread of this disease in Vienna a year ago. The Grand Duke Heinrich died of pneumonia; his room attendant was seized with the same disease; then his aide-de-camp, Colonel Copal, and finally his physician. This instance of pneumonia *in an infectious form is vouched for in ‘‘Public Health Problems,” a recent English work. As for phthsis, there is a steadily growing opinion among medical men that it is a contagious disease. One of the best-known cases was that of a French dressmaker who had three apprentices. The young women took turns in staying overnight and shared her bed with her. She had consumption and died of it. The apprentices, who had been vigorous young women in perfect health, all contracted the fatal disease. Such instances as these point to infectious or contagious conditions which are ordinarily disregarded. Another deduction which may be grounded upon the terrible mortality of these diseases i 9 that their development is promoted by existing of living. The reforms in sanitation of houses, which have had a marked effect in diminishing the ravages of diseases like diptheria and typhoid fever, do not appear to have affected pneumonia and phthisis. These reforms have been confined mainly to improvements in plumbing and drainage and to facilities for ventilation, especially in tenement houses. If there has been any marked change during the last thirty years in the conditions of living and ordinary business in cities, it is in the climate indoors, especially fiom October to May. By means of steam-heat, hot-water systems and improved furnaces the temperature, of houses, offices and stores has been considerably raised during the winter months. It is at least an open question whether overheated''houses and offices are not to a large extent respbnsible for the prevalence of the class of diseases which we have been considering. It is certainly a natural inference that the artificial climate indoors is debilitating, and that those who pass constantly from overheated parlors, stores, offices, churches and theatres to a much lower temperature outside are exposed to radical changes from heat to eold. We have no space in reserve for discussing other predisposing causes to lung disease, such as lack of outdoor exercise, ill-ventilated sleeping-rooms, injudicious diet, and unnatural habits of breathing. The subject is one of very great importance, in view of the overwhelming evidence of the terrible mortality of these modern scourges. It is, we repeat, one to which medical societies and the {Tress ought to devote much attention during the present year, when sanitary questions will be invitaly be .widely discussed -

Victory Snatched from Defeat.

Examination of one of Vantine’s prayer rugs has revealed to an interested nnd expert .observer what he believes to be a true and interesting story. The striking peculiarly of this rug is a border and figure of gleaming yellow spots, which prove to be only the rug showing through the silk texture. The ingenious connoisseur says he thinks the workman was smokiug hie omnipresent cigarette, and, accidentally dropping it, burned a hole in the silk. This probably happened several times until the bright workman conceived the idea of turning his carelessness to hie own advantage, and kept on deliberately burning spots to form what is a most effective pattern. —[American Carpet and Upholstery Trade.