Democratic Sentinel, Volume 17, Number 28, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 4 August 1893 — Page 4

HOUSE AXZ> HOME. ! i EV CATHERINE TYNAN. Where is the house, the bouse we lore? By field orriv r, square or street, The house our hearts go dreaming cf, That lonely waits our hurrying feet; The house to which wa come, we come, To make that happy house our home. Oh dear dre t m-house! for Jill store A medley of such curious things, As a wise thrush goes counting o’er, Ere the glad morn of songs and wngs. When a small rest makes all her heaven, And a true mate that sings at even. Up those dim s'aim my heart will steal, And quistly through the listeni ig rooms, And long in prayerful love will kneel, And in the swe t-airel twilight gloom--, Will set a curtain straight, or ch lir. And dust and order and make fair. Oh, tarrying Time, hasten, until You light our hearth-fires, dear and warm, Set pictures on these walls so chill, And draw our curtains ’gainst the storm, And shut us in together, Time, In a new world, a happier clime! Whether our house be new or oil We care not; we will drive aw y From last year’s nest its memor.es col 1, And all be gol i that ouce was gray. Oh, dear dream-liouso, for which we pray, Our fo.tcome slowly up your wit!

Mr. Weathercraft's argument.

The murder of old r. Weithe rcraft created the usual nine days sensation, which died away temporarily at least ou the committal of James Thompson, the deceased’s butler, to take his trial for the crime. The case could not come on iu the ordinary course of events for four or five months at nearest, so the public having taken the learned opinions of the various newspapers entered a unanimous verdict of guilty against the accused, and turned its attention to other matters. The law officers were to be trusted to do their duty at the ap[>ointed time, aud the papers would, of course, make things as amusing as possible when that time came, so James Thompson languished in his ceil forgotten save by those officially interested in introducing lmn to the awful majesty of the law. Vox populi, vox dei! Let us follow the example of the sovereign people and leave old James in his solitary cell while we give a short account of Mr. Weathercraft and his melancholy end. He was a man of 60 or thereabouts, a retired stock broker, rich and of good standing in the community, living in a well-appointed house, with a large stall ofservauts, much given to quiet hospitality, and since his retirement paying more attention to his kitchen and wine cellar than to the fluctuations of the market aud the gamboling (save the mark) of bulls and bears. An old housekeeper presided over his establishment, and next to her in importance came the butler, -almost as old both iu age and time of service, he j whom we have just left waiting trial for ! the murder of his master. It would have been difficult to poiut 1 out any peculiarity about Mr. Weathercraft, anything to distinguish him from other hale, genial old bachelors of the same class. He was commonly supposed io have no eccentricities, no hobbies, and few strong opinions; in fact, those who knew h : m said he was only a crank on one subject. • To be culled a crank is the penalty nowadays for holding and airiDg any opinion in which at least niue-tcmhs of the community do not concur. Mr. Wethercraft was what may be called a circumstantial evidence crank. He held indirect evidence in the deepest distrust, and though as firm a believer in hanging for murder as any criminal lawyer on or.off the bench, yet ht Id that no evidence save that of reputable eye witnesses should seud a man to the gallows. On this cheerful topic he was much given to after dinner discourse, nor was his rather halting style unknown to the correspondents’ columns of the daily papers. He was known to have written a magazine article on the subject, which, however, never saw the light, though it spent a whole year making the rounds of the mngazinc offices. Such is the blindness of the editorial mind. His “letters to the editor ” got him interviewed once or twice when newspapers were very hard up for copy. He enjoyed the process hugely and always asked the reporter to “call again.”

When the old man was dead and his butler arrested people said it was a clear case of Nemesis that the evidence against his slayer should be so conclusive and at the same time so purely circumstantial, and some wag of a reporter was heard to wonder whether after Thompson’s trial, conviction and execution, old Weathercraft’s ghost would address ghostly denunciation to ghostly newspapers from mere force of habit, or would sulk in a corner of ghostlund and refuse to be interviewed. The case indeed seemed clear enough. Mr. Wcathercraft had gone to bed on the 19th of November well and in good spirits; on the following morning he was fouud dead, stabbed to the heart. The weapon which was found buried in the old man’s heart was an old-fashioned silver skewer, part of the family plate, and had clearly been sharpened for its deadly purpose. The sharpening seemed to have been done with a file or some such rough implement. There was very little external hemorrhage, only a few drops of blood being visible. The last person who saw his master alive was the accused himself. According to his story he had gone up to Mr. Weathercraft’s room with the plate cheat, it being the old man's habit to keep the silver in his own room at night, though the key was always left with the housekeeper after the chest had been locked up. This had been the custom in the house for many years. His master was in bed reading a novel and said ‘good night’ in his usual way. Mr. Weathercraft never locked his door at night, as the footman was expected to come in at 8 o’clock in the morning, fill the bath and light the fire. This was all the accused could or would say beyond denying all knowledge of how his master had come to his death.

The footman on being examiaed testified to having found the body. He had entered as usual at 8 o’clock, scarcely waiting to knock, and had made arrangements for his master’s toilet, thinking him asleep. Mr. Weathercraft was a heavy sleeper, but usually awoke when the bath was being filled. As his master did not move the witness went to the bedside and. to use the poor fellow's own expression, “As I hope for mercy, sir, the face was the face of a dead corpse.’* This witness further added that the bed was but little disordered, the lamp was out and the novel la? open on iu face on the floor. He did not remove the skewer or attempt to 4e an, bat tna at ,4 i»kl the housekeeper,

1 who sent him for the po’ice. The housekeeper being summoned identified the skewer as part of the usual contents of the plate chest, which led to the recall of the butler, who, being asked whether he had counted the silver on the night of the murder, answered in the affirmative, but being pressed admitted that he did not often count the silver that was notin everyday use. Then finally, as if divining at length his real position, he broke down, calling ou God to strike him dead if he knew anything about his old master’s murder, and was led aside after saying it was a judgment ou him for “leaving the silver uncounted.” The strongest evidence against the accused was found when a search was made iu his room. It looked as if old Thompson must have been almost mad to have left so many mute witnesses against himself. In a tall vase on the mantelpiece was found a cheap file, which, when examined by ail expert, proved to have small particles of silver still adhering to it. On a ledge in the chimney was Mr. Weathercraft’s purse, containing $45 iu notes and some change. Finally, at the side of the coverlet, rather more than halfway down towards ih: foot of the bed. were discovered three distinct stains, which expert evidence asserted to be blood stains, and seemed to have been

left by a human right hand. If motive were wanted for the crime, Mr. Weathercraft’s will seemed to offer it. The will had been drawn up some months previously, and witnessed by the two men servants, the last clause consisting of a bequest of $10,003 to the accused himself. It seemed possible that Thompson knew of this bequest aud that be had perpetrated this awful crime in order to benefit by it the sooner. It is not surprising, in the face of all the evidence, that James Thompson was fully committed to take liig trial for the willful murder of his deceased master, or that public opinion almost unanimously condemned him in advance. During the four months that elapsed between the arrest and the trial James Thompson sat despairing in his cell. He spoke little, answering his lawyer apathetically, throwing no new light on the case but continuing to deny everything. He seemed like one in u hopeless maze who can't exactly understand how begot there and has giveu up nil hopes of ever getting out. As we have said before, the public was tolerably unanimous in believing him guilty, though strange to say there was one notable exception. His lawyer, a sharp criminal practitioner, who had taken up the case with his eye fixed on the SIO,OOO, almost believed him iuuooent, we may say almost, for Mr. Sharpy made a point of never allowing himself to quite believe anything or anybody. Mr. Sharpy as a rule almost believed his client guilty; in the present instance he almost believed him innocent, and that wus all.

Indeed, there was something pathetic in the puzzled expression which never left the old man’s face, and his occasional remark with a melancholy shake of the head, “It was all along of me leaving iny siller uncounted.” Mr. Sharpy, who was practical even in his softer moods, once expressed an opinion to his partner in the privacy of their inner office that “if the old fellow would only get oil that tommy rot about the siller to the jury they would bring him in insane without leaving the box.” Cut if the lawyer believed or half believed his client innocent he found it difficult to offer even to himself nnv reason for the half faith that was in‘him, and it was with the worst forebodings that he saw the* day of trial dawn at last.

The ense was called and Sharpy did bis best, but there was indeed very little to be done., There is an end to all things, even things legal, an end to challenges, an end to exceptions asked aud taken. The Judge delivered his charge and the jury left the box. It is supposed they did this ns a compliment to Mr. Sharpy, who was always popular with juries; at all events, they soon tiled back again with a verdict of ‘-guilty as charged in the indictment.” Old Thompson was formally condemned to death. He was Jed back to hit cell, where his lawyer visited him and tried to cheer him by talking of “stays” and “apEeuls.” He recommended him to make imself comfortable, explaining that, by the grace of God and the laws of the State, he lmd still a couple of years or so to live, unless things went very badly. Hut the old man shook his head and said “No!” He had been condemned to death, and the soonor he died the better; he didn’t want any more palavering about it since it was all along of that siller he had left uncounted. In vain Sharpy pointed out that uncounted siller was not a hanging matter; old Thompsou was firm, and the lawyer departed not altogether without hope and demauded a commission to inquire into his client’s sanity. The doctors came in due time and examined the prisoner. Then they talked it over among themselves aud deoided that though he was certainly a little odd he v.-as sane enough to haug satisfactorily aud handed in their report in that sense.

So old Thompson was kid that he had nothing further to hope for in this world and sat down to wait through the months which the wisdom rather than the mercy of the law ordains shall elapse between a condemned man’s sentence and execution. And here we must leave him while we pay a visit to the office of Mr. Fogey, the late Mr. Weathercraft’s lawyer aud confidential man of business. It was a Monday morning just six months after Mr. Weathercraft’s death. Mr. Fogey was busy, but when his clerk entered and handed him a card he glanced at it and ordered the visitor tj> be admitted. The card bore the name Mr. C. V. Lacey, and underneath, “an businyw connected with the late George Weathi.rcraft’s estate.” He was juss acquainted with Mr. Lacey and knew Lirn to bo a very old friend of his deoeased client, but he was at a loss to divine the reason of his visit. The lawyer rose as his visitor entered, and motioning him to a chair asked how he could serve him, to which Mr. Lacey replied by producing a packet from his pocket and laying it on the table in front of Mr. Fogey. Then he sat down and began: “Mr. Fogey,” he said, “I have come here to*day in obedience to a request of poor dear Weathercraft. There is a packet which he gave me some six months or more before he was murdered, asking me to give it to you or your successor exactly six months after his death. The time is up to-day, and here I am.” The lawyer took the packet. It was a tolerably thick one, inclosed in a long business envelopet He turned it over in his hand and then remarked: “I am not sure, Mr. Lacey, whether in view of his strange and sudden end you should not have hod this examined before. ” . “Probably yon are right, from a legal point of view,” replied his visitor, “but I promised, you see, and I didn’t see any reason in the manner of his deatli for breaking my promise. If it had been suicide, now, it might have been differ

ent, but as It was I thought I had better wait.” “Well, I suppose you are right from your point of view,” said Mr. Fogey, as he slit the envelope methodically along the top edge and opened the package. It contained a foolscap wrapper around teu United States notes,each for SI,OOO. Ho counted the notes and laying them down opened the paper and read without comment, while Mr. Lacey listened in silent attention.

16 Washington Avenir, April 20.18 —. Dear Fogey; I must begin by apologizing for committing the letter to Lacey’s charge rather than to yours, as might have seemed more natural, but I have thought that as a lawyer you might feel it your duty to make its contents known before the appointed time. At all events, you would have found yourself in a trying and difficult position. By obeying me you would possibly, as a lawyer, incur ceusure; by opening the letter before the time you would defeat all my plans aud hopes, sol shall hand this to Lacey in trust for you and beg you to forgive me. I am confident when you read this I shall have been dead six months, murdered—for so the law has doubtless did oided—by old James, my butler, with a skewer, part of the silver committed to his charge. There will not have been wanting abundant evidence legally conclusive against my murderer or even motive for his deed; I may thereforesuppo.se that by the time you read this he has been condemned and sentenced, but not executed, since the law requires an interval between sentence and execution.

The legacy left him in my will, besides supplying possible motive for his crime and enhancing its heinousness, has probably furnished him means for proper defense on his trial. Yet, in spite of this, he has been convicted and sentenced. Is It not so? > Aud now to explain everything, to make the dark clear and the crooked straight.. Ou the 19th of November last I committed suicide, having previously arranged that everything should point clearly to the guilt of James, my butler. I srereted the skewer, I sharpened it with a tile and placed the file in Thompson’s room. I stained his coverlet with blood, my blood, for it came from a cut on my fiuger. I hid my purse in his chimney, and finally, on the night of November 19th I committed suicide by stabbing myself to the heart. And now I give my reasons.

Iu taking my own life I have doubtless comrritted a crime against the laws of God and the State, but I believe that the life of one man is of little value when weighed against even a possible good to the community. If my death fulfils the object I have in view then my life has been well sacrificed; and even if it fails, the intention will absolve me. Next I have inflicted great anguish of mind ou an innocent aud virtuous old man; but here again the agony, even if it ruu to martyrdom of one, must be weighed against the benefit of the many. For James Thompson himself I have endeavored to supply consolation, if not compensation, in my legacy of SIO,OOO and the supplementary sum of $10,003 which I enclose herewith. May he understand and forgive me. Perhaps even now you scarcely understand what I hope to have accomplished by my death, but I will endeavor to explain. You have heard me speak, you have perhaps read my written words on the use of circumstantial evidence. I am convinced that so long as men are done to death on iudirect evidence so long must the constant possibility of judicial murder lie heavy on the conscience of the nation. By my death and Thompson’s conviction, I hope to awaken the public conscience to a sense of its shameful burden. If I am successful, then all has been done well. Here is an innocent old man sentenced to death on circumstantial evidence of the clearest description, and but for this letter his seutcnco would eventually be executed. All that I have done to fix my death upon Thompson might have been done by a third party had I been really assassinated. In oonclusiou I beg that a copy of this letter be sent to each of the newspapers, and that the iuclosure be handed to James Thompson with the assurance of my affection and thanks for his services voluntary and others. For myself I feel that if this case leads to a revision of the law touching the infliction of the death penalty neither my life nor Thompson’s peace of mind will have been vainly sacrificed. Your affectionate friend, George Wkatiiercraet.

The two rneu sat silent for a minute while the lawyer folded up tho paper and laid it on the little pile of notes. Then Mr. Lacey spoke: “I always thought poor Weathercraft was a bit of a crank on circumstantial evidence, but he must have been stark staring mad. I wonder what old James will think of it. I wouldn’t have gone through it fora million.” “I doubt if old James would if he had been given a choice,” replied the man of law; ‘-‘not but what $20,000 is a good round sum for the fellow to earn in six months, though he might have preferred earning it in some other way.” “Do you think it likely to have the desired effect on the minds of our law givers?” asked the other. “Not the least in the world," replied Mr. Fogey; “rather the reverse I should imagine,” he continued with a half smile. People will say that Weathercraft was as mad as a March hare and may even infer that everybody who shares his views is a little cracked too. No, Nol Poor Weathercraft has thrown his life away, old Thompson is richer by $20,0C0, minus his law expenses and plus a vast deal of experience, and the law will remain just as it was before. “Now good-bye. I’n» off to show the letter to the Governor. It’s a rum case anyhow.”—[Julian de Kestel-Hankin, in Brooklyn Daily Times.

A Curious Beast.

Acuriou9 beast, killed near Weston, Umatilla County, Oregon, was on exhibition at Pendleton the other day. It is about three feet long aud a foot and a half in height, and has a shaggy coat of dark and light brown. Its head resembles that, of a bear, but its long tail precludes the idea that it might be a cinnamon. It is supposed to be a specimen of the so-called fox-tailed bears which tradition says were once plentiful in the mountains in that vicinity.—[New York Post.

A REASONABLE REQUEST.

Sergeant (to recruit who has trodden heavily on his foot on slighting from the horizontal bar) —Bomben undGranaten! It is all very well, Schulze, your trying to tread in my footsteps, but you ought, at least, to wait till I have cleared out.[WestfalUnhea VolksbUtt.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The adaptability of American women to any position iu society is referred to in admiring phrases by a writer in the Popular Science Monthly. He says: “Wherever we meet the American woman —and we meet her everywhere, in the ranks of the English peerage and of the highest European aristocracy, as well as in more modest conditions—we are struck with that marvelous adaptability in which wise men the sign of the superiority of a race or of a species. It is revealed notably by that good humor with which she accepts the numerous petty annoyances that every change of medium implies and which put the best ciipraeters on trial. She submits to them without effort, and criticises them without bitterness; she is, further, prepared for them by her education, and does not «xpeet to find everything easy. Then the necessity of manual labor does not seem to her like a degrading condition; at most only one or two generations separate her from the time when lur grandmother kneaded the family bread in the primitive settlements. These stories are familiar to her, and the lessons deduced from them are not discouraging or humiliating. She is the daughter of a race of emigrants who have become a great people through work, energy, and determination. She has in this at her command a whole treasury of traditious from which she draws, not without pride. We might say, in listening to these stories, that we are hearing one of those grandes dames of the past century, emigrants and poor, telling with pride in their memoirs how, to supply their wants, they worked iu London or in Germany, utilizing their accomplishments and their correct taste, and making trimmings and embroidering robes with their own aristocratic hands.”

An investigation of the cost of producing wheat in Kansas, recently undertaken by the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, shows that the labor involved in preparing the ground, sowing, harvesting and threshing the wheat, costs, on the average, $3.86 per acre ns against $'5.07 on the non-irrigable lands of the Gangetic plains. In other words, the value of the labor involved in the production of a bushel of wheat in India is 53 cents as against 30 cents in Minnesota, the Dakotas, or Kansas, while the Indian, with his crude mode of sowing, plants a half more seed than the American with his drill. To this labor-cost must be added the value of the seed, either the land-tax of India or the interest on the investment in America, and the cost of hauling to the market, this last being greater in America than in India. Valuing the Indian ryot’s labor at five cents a day. the cost of merely cutting an acre of wheat is 60 cents, while it is done by contract throughout the West for 59 cents. So little does the ryot cut in a day that he usually carries the product of his labor home on his head. One of the richest cities in the United States is Tacoma, which is at the bead of navigation on Puget Sound, and which promises to be one of the greatest cities of the country. The town is only about ■six years old, but it has a population of about 50,000 and is assessed at $43,000.009. Its banks have a capital of $3,000,000 and its car shops pay out in wages $10,090 every month. It has fifty miles of electric car lines and it is building more. It is the terminus of the Northern Pacific Railroad and it has now a line of steamships to China and Japan. It is one of the great lumber centers as well as one of the great shipping ports of the northwest. And it sent out last year more than 0,000,003 bushels of wheat to foreign markets. It has a monthly pay roll of nearly $303,000. It has a large number of elevators and factories. Tacoma is one of the prettiest cities of the northwest. It has more millionaires to the block than any other town in the country, and its rich men have come to siay. They have built big houses, and it is a citv of homes.

When a man who has grasped fortune’s hand in business pursuits attempts late in life to shine as an orator the result is not always happy. This has been the experienceof M. Gervais, known all over France for his fine cheeses. M. Gervais, who is entirely a “self made” man, had an ambition to shine in politics, and at the* last election of members of the Chamber of Deputies lie made the canvass in a Norman town. In order to impress his constituency v. ith his eloquence he hired a journalist to dictate a convincing speech and learned the discourse by heart. When he mounted the rosstrum and began: “As a candidate for the Chamber comma knowing your needs comma I beg to solicit your suffrages full stop," there was such a roar of laughter at his proof-reader like diction "that he came to a full stop in fact. The most serious menace to churchgoing in England is said to be cycling. A few churches have tried to iuducqthe wheelmen to come iu for morning service, but the bicycles of a few who have done so have been stolen by local church members, and the wheelmen now say that they will not go to church unless the church insures their machines. Many of the clergymen have become enthusiastic wheelmen, and it is said that one country minister who was recently called on to officiate at a funeral wanted to ride to tho cemetery on a wheel, wearing his surplice. A Bavarian aeronaut named Koch has a scheme for a new guidable flying apparatus, and the Bavarian Ministers of the Interior and of Education think enough of him and of it to make him a grant erf S4OO to enable him to carry out his ideas. He has described his plans in a pamphlet entitled “Free Human Flying, as the Preliminary Condition of Dynamic Aeronautics.” He will first acquire the necessary skill himself, and will practice over the Lake of Coustance. The Prince Regent of Bavaria is muoh interested in the matter.

Denial is made in St. Petersburg to the unfavorable reports recently published in Great Britain and elsewhere regarding the prospects of the coming harvest in Russia, and to the statement that the Government would, in consequence, prohibit the export of rye. The present condition of the crops, although unsatisfactory in the governments of Podolia. Ivieff, and Cberson. is excellent in practically all other districts. Women have given an aggregate of $2,328,078.18 to institutions of learning in the State of Massachusetts, of which Harvard has received more than half. Public libraries in the State have received from women gifts amounting to SGBI,I9G; public and industrial schools have received $122,000, and kindergar tens, $344,579. As early as 1064, Bridget Wynds gave Harvard College £4: and iu 1718 Mine. Hutchinson gave £lO to the same institution. The Infanta Eulalie through the New York Heiald denied the story that she snubbed Mrs. Potter Palmer and that she was rude to the citizens of Chicago. To a lieiald representative the Princess explained that she tried everywhere to- • tow her gratitude for the kind treatment of the American people and that

had she been offended by anything she would have instantly quitted the United States. Mrs S. L. Obbrholster, National W. C. T. U. Superintendent, has, during the past year, established school savings banks in thirty-four public schools representing over 5,000 pupils, who have to their personal bank credit #3,174.74. Girird College and other institutions, not under the public school system, have also adopted this siinple method of teaching thrift. Fifty years ago Benjamin Potter, of Kent County, Dei., left an estate for the benefit of the poor whites of the county. An accumulation of some $G.00l) is now to be distributed by the Attorney for the State.

THE BODY AND ITS HEALTH.

Insect Bites —Bites of gnats, fleas mosquitoes, flies, etc., may be avoided by sponging the face and hands with elder flower water. A weak carbolic lotion is also used for the purpose. It must not be too strong or the skiu will be injured. Singing in tiik Ear. —That unpleasant sensation known as singing in the ear generally results from hardening of the wax. It may frequently be removed at oucc by syringing the ear with a little warm soap and water, or by dropping a little glycerine oil into the ear at bed time. If these remedies do not answer, a mustard poultice applied just behind the ear at bed time, and repeated, if necessary, two or three nights, is an almost certain cure.

Clinical Thermometers. —ln stating that some 20,000 thermometers are standardized yearly in Berlin and 30,000 in the thermometric institute at Weimar, Professor Helmholtz also remarks that it is really a matter of life and death to be able to distinguish between a temperature of 93 degrees and 991 degrees—years ago, even in the very best and most expensive of these instruments, errors of from 1 to 11 degrees being found. Medical men have discovered that the practical use of clinical thermometers is of extreme value, and, following the example of Germany, great attention has for some time past been given in other countries to the attaining of absolute perfection in these instruments, the operations at Kew advancing this science being well understood. A special factor in thermometry is, of course, the best possible glass, and the claim has been made by English manufacturers that fifty years ago the work of graduation was done less efficiently than now, but that the glass of which the thermometers were made, being perhaps of more simple constitution, was or that account less susceptible to influence inducing devious conditions of strain.

Dangerous Use of Quinine. —“ Dangerous, though popular,” is the judgment pronouced by Dr. W. Thornton Parker in a recent elaborate paper on the present almost indiscriminate use of quinine, and this judgment is fortified by citations from numerous eminent authorities. According to Ringer, large doses produce severe frontal headache, with dull and heavy, tensive and some-, times agonizing pains. In toxic doses it excites convulsions. Cnirone and Cure find that the removal of the motor centres of the brain prevents these’convulsions, aud if the central hemisphere is removed on one side the convulsions are unilateral; on the other hand, Albertoni finds that quiniawill induce convulsions when the central hemisphere or the cortical motor centres are removed. Dr. Bartholow states that in full medicinal doses, asthequinia accumulates in the brain, a sense of fulness in the head, constriction of the forehead, more or less giddiness and even decided vertigo are felt. In toxic doses these symptoms have been intensified—intense headache with constriction of the forehead, dimness of vision or complete blindness, deafness, delirium or coma, dilated pupils, weak, slut ering pulse, irregular and shallow respiration, convulsions, and finally collapse and death. Dr. Wood states that the minimum fatal dose of quinine is not known, but probably varies much. Dr. Brown-Sequard states that in epileptics the attacks are rendered decidedly more frequent by the cinchona alkaloids, and Dr. Wood is of the opinion, also, that, in large doses, quinia without doubt abolishes the functions of the cerebrum.

Strange Relics Come to Light.

A remarkable discovery has just been made in one of the attios of the museum of the Louvre, Paris, where for many years a pile of card-board boxes containing various unclassified objects has awaited the investigations of the official staff. Among this flotsam and jetsam of the lumber-room is a green cartoon, bearing no external marks to distinguish it from the others, much less to indicate that it served as a sort ot urn for part, at least, of the mortal relics of the royal personages. When this insignificantlooking casket was opened the first premonitory symptom of whut was coming consisted of a whiff of that peculiar odor which clings even to the bones of Kings. Then a yellow sheet of paper was perceived, inscribed with the following inventory of the melancholy specimens that it half concealed: A shoulder-blade of Hugh Capet, a thigh-bone of Charles V., a shin-bone of Charles VI., sundry vertebrae of Charles VII., a sbin-bone of Francis 1., more vertebrae of Charles IX., a rib of Phillippe Le Bel, ditto of Louis XII., the lower jaw-bone of Catherine de Medicis, a jaw-bone of Anne of Austria, a shin-bone of Cardinal de Retz. Opposite to each name is inscribed the death of its possessor, and also a day (not always the same) of the month of October, 1793. This last piece of information supplies a clue to the whole mystery, and, as the paper is pronounced by experts to belong without doubt to the period referred to, affords convincing proof of the genuine character of the remains. The box has, in the course of unknown migrations, received rather rough usage, for several osseous fragments are scattered on the bottom.— [Chicago Herald.

How Many Stars In the Flag?

It is remarked as singular, and possibly an indication of lack of patriotism that the average American,always excepting school children, cannot tell off-hand how many stars there now are in his country’s flag. If any reader of this desires to try the question on ten of his friends he will probably find that only three or four can give the correct number even after a minute of hard thought. The ordinary reply will range from forty to forty-two stars instead of the correct forty-four. The admission within four years o£ North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, Idaho and Wyoming has brought the list up to the last-mentioned number. The shape of the Union has been changed from a square to a rectangle, and the stars are arranged in six straight lines, the upper and lower ones containing eight stars and the remaining four having seven stars.— [Philadelphia Timet.

FOR THE YOUNG FOLKS.

“we four.” Out in the street Jack found, one day, An old umbrella, thrown awav. “Better than nothing,” he merrily said, As a cloud sent its raindrops down on his head. Along came Bob. “Any lodgings to let?” “Yes,” laughed Jack; “come in out of the wet.” Then Will came up with a “Halloo, boys 1 What’s the occasion for all this noise?” ‘‘Come alpng in” said Jack, “an’ seel” So the old umbrella gave shelter to three. And last of all, as they laughed together, A doggie, who hated such rainy weather, Came slinking by with his tail arawu in, And a very uncomfortable soaking skin. “Come in with the rest of us, do,” cried Will; And doggie wagged a grateful “I will.” “There, now,” laughed Jack, “we’re fixed, we four, An’ there isn’t any lodgings to let for more." —[St. Louis Republic. LOOKING FORWARD. Little Emily had been very naughty because her marnra i would not let her go out with a party of friends, with whom they were staying, and she screamed so that every one in the house was distressed aud worried. Her mamma had to lock her up in a room and tell her she should not come out till she said she would be good and promised not to cry any more. Every now and then her mamma would go and ask her to promise, but she only screamed the louder. At last a silence fell upon the house, and when poor mamma opened the door, there, stretched upon the floor, lay the pretty weary little form, and when the dear mother drew her to her and asked the oft-repeated question, “Will you be good and promise not to cry any more?” the pretty eyes looked up, still full of tears, and the little girl said, “Yes, mamma, I’ll be good, and promise not to never, never cry any more till some of ray dear relations die.”—[Harper’s Y r oun" People.

TIIS CLOTTED TAGE. The writing master entered the class room and passed from one pupil to another to review the task he had set before them. He paused before the new comer: the page was blotted, scratched aud disfigured with the stain of many tears. “Master,” said the boy in trembling accents, “I have labored in vain; my hand is crippled;there is no resemblance between these crooked lines and the model I have endeavored to imitate; but, master, pity me, for I have douc mv best,” By his side sat his companion. “Behold my page!” he exclaimed. “It is fair and clean, unsullied by a blot, untouched by an ungainly mark. O, Master, in my wisdom I forbore to incur your displeasure. Is not a blank page preferable to the tear-stained, misshapen attempt of a crippled hand tfoat cannot and never will be able to make a fair copy?” The master threw aside the clean white page without vouchsafing to cast a glance upon it, but he leaned with infinite compassion and tenderness toward the pupil who had done his best; gently he took his hand and guided it over the lines, with words of love and encouragement—and the humble pupil t,.ok courage and rejoiced whilst his idle com-, panion looked upon his fair white page, aud saw its brightness overshadowed by the displeasure of the master. —[New York Observer. A PATR OK GOLDEN SLIPPERS. You have no idea what little feet the children of Constantinople have, especially the girl 3. In the Turkish Building it the Chicago World’s Fair, there is a beautiful booth at which golden slippers ire sold. The slippers are the tiniest things you ever saw. They are very narrow and turn up at the toes, making i point like the top of a Chinese pagoda. They are made of something which looks like cloth-of-gold, and they are embroidered with cunning litt’c gold roses surrounded by little gold leaves. AU the boys and girls who pass the Golden Slipper Booth go crazy with delight at the “angel slippers,” as they call them, but when they try to get a pair to wear, then they realize what very small feet the Constantinople women and children possess. Lust week, a real funny thing happened at the Golden Slipper Booth. A party of Americans passed the booth and admired the slippers, ns no one who sees them can help doing; but they did not buy any, although one of the little girls in the party said she would like to have a pair. About five minutes after the American people had gone past, one of the older boys of the party came running back with a girl’s overshoe in his hand. “Please give me a pair of your golden slippers just the size of this overshoe,” said he. “They are for my sister, the little girl who passed here just now, and who said she would like to have a pair of your golden shoes. I stole an overshoe of hers out of my mother’s handsatcliel so as to get just the right size. Please, Mr. Turk, give me a pair just the size of these.” The little, dark-skinned Turkish salesman took the overshoe and tried to find a slipper to match it. But although the overshoe was not a large one by any means, there was not n single pair of the golden elippers in the whole booth that could emateh it in size. Yet the little girl who owned the overshoe was only ten years old. When the boy saw that he could not buy his sister a pair of golden slippers to wear, he was very much disgusted, and tome one heard him telling the clerk that he did not believe girls with such small feet could possibly have any brains. —[The Ledger. TONGUE-TWISTERS. Read the following aloud, repeating the shorter ones quickly half a dozen times in succession: Six thick thistle sticks. "Flesh of freshly-fried flying fish. The sea ceaseth, and it sufficeth n 9. Hi<?h roller, low poller, lower roller, A box of mixed biscuits, a mixed biscuit-box. Strict strong Stephen Stringer snared slickly six sickly silkly snakes. Swan swam over the sea; swim, swan, swim; swan swam back again, well swum swan. It is a shame, Sam; these are the same, Sam. ’Tis all a sham, Sam, and a shame it is to sham so. Sam. A growing gleam glowing green. The bleak breeze blighted the bright broom blossoms. Susan shineth shoes and socks; socks and shoes shine Susan. She ceaseth shining shoes and socks, for shoes and socks shock Susan. Robert Rowley rolled a round roll round; a round roll Robert Rowley rolled round; where rolled the round roll Robert Rowley rolled round?

•' Oliver Oglethorp ogled an owl and oyster. Did Oliver Oglethorp ogle an owl and oyster? If Oliver Oglethorp ogled an owl and oyster, where are the owl and oyster Oliver Oglethorp ogled? Hobbs meets Snobbs and Nobbs; Hobbs bobs to Snobbs and Nobbs; Hobbs nobs with Snobbs and robs Nobbs’s fob. “That is," says Nobb, “the worse for Hobbs’s jobs,” and Snobbs sobs. Sammy Shoesmith saw a shrieking oongster. Did Sammy Shoesmith see a shrieking songster? If Sammy Shoesmith saw a shrieking songster, where’a the shrieking songster Sammy Shoesmith saw? I went into the garden to gather some blades, and there I saw two sweet pretty babes. “Ah, babes, is that you babes, braidinn of blades, babes? If you braid any blades at all, babes, braid broad blades, babes, or braid no blades at all, babes.”—[Argonaut.

CURIOUS AFRICAN WEIGHTS.

llow Gold Is Weighed In the Dart Continent. Money used by natives in Occidental Soudan consists of small univalve white shells called cauries, derived from the Maldives and Lacjuedives islands, and also from Zanzibar. For several centuries past, ships have brought to the mouth of the Niger or to the Guinea coast, as far as Liberia, entire cargoes of these shells, the value of which runs from 12 cents to 40 cents per thousand, acoording to the part of Africa. Cauries are only used in oountries where gold is scarce. In the whole area between Kong, Bondouka and the sea, cauries are not used; natives settle their purchases with gold dust or nuggets. To weigh the gold they use as currency, they employ small copper scales. Weights are extremely varied in shapes and sizes. Most of them are in brass. The weights exhibiting human figures, animals, tools, ludicrous scenes, etc., as reproduced here aie modeled with wax and cast in brags through the cire perdue process. Africans may have learned this process from Europeans who visited their country; but their art exhibits a uaivo character thoroughly sui generis. These black artists have evidently reproduced what they saw or imagined, and they have douc it in a style of their own; their works are peculiarly humorous and fanciful. Each native, who has a pair of scales, has also special weights whioh he alone understands how to use. He knows, for instance, that a giraffe weighs one or two mitkais of gold; that such a Weight in the shape of a bird represents i or J mitkal of gold, etc. There are no uniform sets of weights; consequently each native is obliged to have his own series. When the purchaser has weighed the gold he must give for certain merchandise, the vendor weighs it in his turn to see whether it is correct. The unity of weight in the whole Soudan, is the barifiri, which corresponds to eighteen grammes. Eac i barifiri is worth fourteen mitkais. Admitting the value of gold iu Europe to be three francs per gramme, we find that a barifiri is equal to fifty-four francs’ worth of gold, and a mitkal thirteen francs, fifty centimes. Each mitkal is divided into twenty-seven banans (the banan is a bombov seed); each banan is worth fifty centimes. A mitkal of gold uay also he weighed with fifty-four grains of vegetal coral; these tiny grains, red like 'coral with a black spot, are the fruit of a kind of convolvulus. There are special weights to weigh one-half mitkal, one-third or two-thirds mitkal. The smallest weight is called pouassaba; it is formed of one and a half grains of rice not decorticated. Gold powder is carried in quills stopped up with a wooden cork wrapped in a piece of linen.—[The Jewelers’ Circular.

The Wonders of Whitewash. A missionary stationed at one of the South Sea Islands determined to give his residence a coat of whitewash. To obtain this in the absence of lime, coral was reduced to powder by burning. The natives watched the process of burning with interest, believing that the coral was being cooked for them to eat. Next morning they beheld the missionary’s cottage glittering in the rising sun white as snow. They danced, they sang, they screamed with joy. The whole island was in confusion. Whitewash became the rage. Happy was the coquette who could enhance her charms by a daub of the white brush. Contentions arose. One party urged their superior rank; another obtained possession of the brush and valiantly held it against all comers; a third tried to upset the tub to obtain some of the precious cosmetic. To quiet the hubbub more whitewash was made, and in a week not a hut, a domestic untensil, a war club, or a garmentjbut was as white as snow; not an inhabitant but had his skin painted with grotesque figures; Dot a pig that was not whitened; and mothers might be seen in every direction capering joyously and yelling with delight at the superior beauty of their whitewashed babiea-

The “Hair Ball.” The ball which is frequently found in the stomachs of ruminating animals is called by writers on veterinary subjects a “hair ball." It is occasioned by the hairs getting into the cow’s stomach, either by licking herself or other animals (her calf, etc.). These hairs form around some nucleus of food or other matter and grow by deposit of matter aiound them after they are once formed. The balls are composed of hair, earthy matter and food; sometimes they are partly composed of some calcareous substance. They are classed by some writers among the “calculi” similar to those found in human beings. These “concretions,” as they are sometimes called, are found in many parts of the human body. In lower animals their composition is very variable, some consisting of the same ingredients as are found in those of men. No use can be assigned to their formation, and they nre surely more harmful than useful.— [Courier-Journal. What Thirst Is. Thirst b simply a sensation by which a lack of fluids in the system is made known, and in a state of health it is a generally faithful indication of the wants of the body. Natural thirst is first indicated by a peculiar dryness of the mouth and sauces, caused b; a failure of the pharyngeal membrane to secrete a due amount of liquids, but if fluids were to be introduced i directly into the stomach through a tube, and not by way of the sauces—as has been done in unusual cases—the immediate absorption thereof instantly allays the sense of thirst, from which it has been supposed that the sensation of thirst is in the nerves of the stomach, and that the throat sensation is a kind of reflex action.—[Chicago Herald.