Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 21, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 31 May 1895 — Page 4

Silence

By Miss Mulock

■'" CHAPTER XIII —Continued. "That's baby! What a bother she is! Qonld Janet go to her?’ “I will," said Silence, and vanished from the room. “That wife of yours is the very kindest jef women, Rody; but I hope she will not overfatigue herself,’’ remarked Bella, politely, though making no effort to prevent the fatigue. She always had a trick of never doing for herself what another was willing to do for her. And as she sat in the arm-chair, her feet on the fender, she looked the very picture of luxurious ease, except for the haggard, restless look so sad to see. “I must leave you,” Roderick said. “You know, Bella, I am a working man now, and get my own living.” “Yes, she told me. It must be very disagreeable.” “On the contrary, I rather like it. Daily bread, honestly earned, is far sweeter than the old idleness. “Is it? Then I wish I could earn mine.” “You have no need, having your own Independent fortune.” “Yes; he can’t get it, mercifully; mamma tied it up too safe. But neither can I unless she choose. She will do nothing for me unless I stay with my husband like a respectable woman,' as she says. I doubt if she will ever forgive my running away—even to ray own brother.” “Who, I suppose, is not respectable,” said Roderick, bitterly. “Nevertheless, She must be told. Shall I telegraph to her for you this morning?" He spoke firmly, having already made up his mind to this; but he was not prepared for the agony of terror and misery which came over the unfortunate wife.

“Tell her, and she'll tell my husband, and he will come and fetch me. Not that he cares for me —not a pin; but only for the sake of appearances. Oh, Rody, don't tell anybody. Keep me safe —hide me. If you only knew what I have suffered!” “My j>oar Bell, my Heather Bell," said he, tenderly, using the old pet name he had invented for her in the days when they played together “among the broom." At that she quite broke down. “Oh, I wish I were a girl again. I wish —I wish I had never married. Somebody once said to me that a woman has always a future until she is married, then she has none. Tied and bound —tied and bound forever. And I am but seven-and-twenty.” That look, half appeal, half despair, it jrent to Roderick's heart, for he knew it was only too true. She was “tied and bound" with the chains she had herself riveted. Even her own brother, however he pitied her, was powerless to set her free. “Oniy seven-and-twenty,” she repeated. “Such a long life before me —how am I to bear it? ‘Till death do us part.’ And I can’t die. And he —he won't die; these sort of people never do.” “Hush!” said Roderick, turning away aghast. “You don’t know what you are saying.” “I do know it only too well. Many a time, when, after raving like a madman, he has sunk to a mere drunken dog, and

lain asleep on his bed like a log of wood, I have thought of Jael and Sisera, or Judith and Holofernes, and others of those holy murderesses. If it would only please God to take him, as our minister saysl He would be much better in heaven. He couldn't get any drink there.” This ghastly mixture of the horrible and ludicrous, added to what he knew of the utter recklessness of Bella’s nature when roused, was almost too much for Roderick to bear. He looked instinctively round for the one who was always at hand, helping him to bear everything; but Silence was still absent upstairs. Then, laying a firm hand on the poor, violent woman, at once violent and weak —it is so often thus—he placed her back in the chair. “You are talking nonsense, Bella; you know you are; the most arrant nonsense, or worse. Don’t be afraid; you have a brother still, who will do his best to take care of you; but you must let me do it in the right way. Nothing cowardly, nothing underhand. Your mother, at least, must be told where you are. My wife says so. She and I were talking it over this morning.” “Very kind.” “It was kind and wise, too,” was the grave reply. “Silence is the wisest woman I know.” “And I the most foolish! It looks like it. Very well. Cast me off if you like. Turn me out-of-doors. I’ll take the child and go.” But it was only a Hysterical impulse which ended in a flood of hysterical tears. Utterly bewildered and perplexed, Roderick went to the foot of the stairs and called “Silence” in the sharpest tones he had used since his marriage. “Why do you leave me? You know I can’t do without you,” he said. Then added, as she descended with the wailing child in her arms, “it is hard for you, too, my wife. Our peaceful days are all done."

“Not quite,” she said, smiling—it was wonderful the sweetness of her smile whenever she had that baby in her arms—“l see,” when she perceived Bella, and heard her frantic sobbing. “My friend” the loving mon ami which she still used sometimes), “you are of no use here. Leave her to me—women understand women. She will be all right soon. Take your hat and go. Outside work is quite hard enough for you. Good-by, my dear-est-dearest!” She lifted up her face to be kissed—the pale, firm, peaceful face, such a contrast to the other one—opened the door, shut It after him, and watched him safe away. Then, with a great sigh of relief, she went back to her unfortunate sister-in-law. CHAPTER XIV. When Roderick came home at night, not without a certain masculine appreheneiveness of domestic worry plainly written on his face, he found the household settled into surprising peace. In the first place, baby was not crying, but asleep, Janet’s young sister being installed as temporary nurse-maid, and a very clever one; and baby’s mother, her grand silk dress replaced by a soft woolen one of Silence’s —the two women were nearly the same height—sat by the parlor fire. Idle, certainly—Roderick remembered how Bella would sit for an hour “toasting her toes,” with her hands before her—but apparently quiet and content. He wont up and kissed her with brotherly affection, saying something about his pleasure in having her in his house. “Then you’ll not send me back to mine? You did not telegraph to mamma as you HM you would T'

“No.” “Nor write?’ “How could I write to my mother?’ said Roderick, with a mixture of pride and sadness. “No; whatever is done, you must do it, not I. We will talk of it after dinner.” For he saw that Silence had given herself the unwonted trouble of a late dinner, just to make Bella feel things “more like her own ways." It was a little matter, but it touched the young husband's heart. While he sat talking to his sister his eyes were perpetually following the flitting figure of one who never sat still —never knew what idleness was till she had done everything for everybody. “That wife of yours makes me so comfortable,” said Bella, benignly. “And she is so clever, so inventive, really quite a treasure in a small household. In mine, now, I never could do anything myself as she does. It must be very pleasant.” “Only, perhaps, very fatiguing. My wife, come here and rest, just for five minutes.” And as he kissed the tired face he felt sure that the “comfort” which Bella so enjoyed had cost Silence something. Dinner passed, and the half hour afterward, during which Roderick tried hard to admire his new niece, and to make things as easy and cheerful as possible with his sister. When Silence—always Silence—had put baby to bed, the three gathered round the coxy fire, listening to the howl of the wind and the patter of the rain outside, which only made most peaceful the deep peace within. “What a quiet, pleasant life you must have here, you two!” said Bella, with a •igh. They looked at one another and smiled. “And are yon so very poor? What do yon live upon?” “First, there is Blackball. Then, my wife has her income which cousin Silence left her, and I earn mine. We put the two together—marriage should be a fair partnership.” “But it is not,” broke in Bella: “it is mere slavery, unbearable slavery. Oh, that mine was ended! Oh, that I were free!” Roderick took a hand of his wife and sister. “Let us have a little talk together, and face our position, which is not an easy one. Bella, what do you mean to do?” “I don’t know.” “Then what do you wish me to do?” “I haven't the slightest idea. But, oh, Rody, why bother me, when I am so comfortable?” Just the old Bella—easy, pleasure-loving —dwelling only in the present moment, acting entirely on her impulses, of which both the good and the bad ones were equally transitory. There are many such women, who please a great many men—as she had done; who generally find some one or other to bear their burdens for them, and go through life, as she expressed it, quite “comfortably.” But as Roderick looked from one to the other of the two beside him, he thought—no, he loyally refused to think—but he instinctively clasped his wife’s hand tighter in his own. Small as it* was, and tender, that was the hand for a man to cling to, ay, and lean on—as,soon or late,men must lean on women when trouble comes. “Bella," he said, earnestly, “do you at all understand ”

“I understand that I am henceforth what is called a ‘grass widow,’ ” interrupted she, with a reckless laugh. “Mamma must keep me, or give me my money, and let me keep myself: My husband will never give me a half-penny. And Silence says I ought not to ask him. She has the very oddest notions, that wife of yours.” Roderick pressed the hand he held. “Have you two been talking together?” “A little.” “And you have told her everything?” “Everything—made a clean breast of It. A pretty story, isn’t it. Silence? But it’s at an end now,thank God,” said Bella, setting her teeth together. “Even a worui will turn at last.” “Shall you not go back to your husband? —that is, if he will take you back V” “Trust him for—that. He knows on which side his brenffris buttered; all the Thomsons do. They were glad enough to catch me, a bright, clever, pretty girlyes, I was both clever and pretty once, my dear—to be a sort of caretaker or keeper over him; he needs a keeper when he is drunk. .And a wife is the best sort of one—saves appearances. Thomsons as well as Jardines would do anything in the world to save appearances.”

Roderick made no answer. He knew it was true. The sight of his sister had brought back the memory of many a boyish struggle, quixotic as vain, against the predominant spirit of the family—a family in which the first question that arose was never “Is it right?” or “Is it wrong?” but only “Is it expedient?” This law of expediency, not righteous prudence, but petty, worldly wisdom, had been at the root of Bella’s marriage. Those who had the making of it, would they not on the same principle do their best to prevent its being unmade? He felt sure his mother would. Anything, everything, she would sacrifice rather than be “talked about,” as the world would talk, if there w r as a public separation between Mr. and Mrs. Thomsontwo people who, in their own opinion and that of their respective families, held such a very important place in society. He knew his mother and the rest would view the catastrophe, as they had viewed the marriage which resulted in it, solely from the standpoint of society. No higher law that what the world would think and say ever actuated or guided them. In old times he had dimly guessed this—secondarily and chiefly by its effect on his silent, patient father; but now, when he himself came to man’s estate, and viewed things with his own eyes, he saw it clearly. Still, this affair was, as all such cases are, most complicated and difficult; and in it Roderick’s own position was not the least painful. To act a brother’s part toward his poor sister he did not shrink from; but to aid and abet a runaway wife in concealing herself from her husband was most galling, not only to his pride, but to his sense of honor. Yet to thrust her from him into hopeless misery was worse than cruel, dangerous, knowing her temperament, which was to escape from present pain as foolishly as a child does, at any future risk and cost. The medium course, to come boldly forward and insist upon the separation she desired, was equally difficult and responsible for any brother, being himself a man and a husband.

Roderick looked at his own wife, growing closer to him every day, in the mutual dependence which so gently and naturally replaces passion, and gives to both that ineffable rest, of unseparated joys, and divided cares. “Bella,” he said, in a moved voice, “do you know, my dear, exactly what you are doing, or wish to do? Remember what your Bible says: ‘What God hath joined let no man put asunder.’ ” “But God did not join us; it was the devil, I think,” she answered, with a bitter laugh. “And if all other help fails, the devil shall help me to get rid of him.” “What do you mean?” “Never mind. Wait till I’m driven desperate. I am nearly already,; If only I could tear off this.” She took hold of her manage ring and made as though she would throw it into the fire. “If at any

price, at any coat, t oonld be Mn Ju» dine again. ana never more set rjm upon that brute. that fool, that " "Hush!" said Silence, “He's baby's father." *'Ah. that’s It—that's thy misery. I don't hate ray child. 1 dki at first, hot : not now. it’s nature. I suppose. Besides, she is my child. all that I have of my ; own; and even that is half hia, If he chooses to claim her. Oh, Rody, what must I do? what can I do?" It was. indeed, a piteous strait. The one false step, marriage, unconsecrated by love, almost as great a sin as love nnconsecrated by marriage, had brought ita own punishment with it. The young pair, to whom those things appeared as a ghastly nightmare, scarcely comprehensible as a daylight reality, instinctively drew closer together, while they regarded the hapless woman, who had, as she truly said, no future. A loathing wife, an unthankful mother, what future could she have, either in herself or in “the world.” for which she had sacrificed so much and gained so little? What could she do? As she put the question her despairing eyes supplied the answer. Nothing! “I know very little about these things," said Roderick, sadly; "but I believe there are two ways of parting man and wife—by divorce, enabling both to marry again, and by judicial separation. But, oh! the pain, the scandal of it! Think of your child; think, too, of your mother!" While using this argument he knew its futility. Whether from disposition or circumstances. Bella had always been that rather rare character among women —a woman who thinks only of herself. With a perplexed longing for help, for counsel, her brother turned to the other woman beside him. “What does my wife say?" “1 don't care what she. says—wlmt anybody says.” cried Bella, violently. “I have no love for him; I never had. It is a simple question of money. If I run away, how am I to keep myself and the child? She says—that voice of wisdom there — that if I leave him I ought not to accept a half-penny from him. Very well; get mamma to maintain me, or else I’ll maintain myself." “How?” “I don’t know or care. It may not be for long. He will drink himself to death one of these days.” Roderick turned away in horror, but Silence laid a firm, stern hand on her sis-ter-in-law’s arm. “One word more such as that, and we will neither of us help you.” Bella shrunk into submission, even a little shame, then burst into piteous entreaties.

(To be continued.)

TRANSATLANTIC CABLES.

What the Twelve Existing Cables Cost and How Many Miles They Coyer. There are now twelve transatlantic cables connecting Europe with Canada and the United States, and steps have been taken to lay a cable across the Pacific from British Columbia to Australasia, by way of the Fiji Islands, says the Boston Journal. The circle of the earth will then be completed, but not so directly as it would be by a cablo from America to Japan. There are now 152,000 miles of submarine cable, in round numbers, of which 10 per cent, has been supplied by various governments, and the rest by private enterprise. They connect into one system over 2,000,000 miles of land wires, ramifying in different countries. The cables have cost about £200,000,000, and the land lines $325,000,000. Telegraphy controls the commerce of the world, which has risen to nearly $20,000,000,000 a year, or, more precisely, $9,700,000,000 of exports and $8,000,000,000 of imports. It enables international disputes to be settled without recourse to arms, as in ISBI, when the British cabinet was in direct communication with the Boer leaders of the Transvaal. It brings a war that lias broken out to a speedy conclusion, and keeps tne public Informed of its hourly progress, as in the case of Egypt, where the bombardment of Alexandria was known in London a few minutes after the first shot was fired, and telegrams were dispatched from the battlefield of Suaklm, la the Eastern Soudan, while tlie fight was going on. Above all, by putting the remotest parts of the earth in contact with each other, It tends to destroy the barriers of isolation and prejudice, making antipathy give way to sympathy, and hatred to loving kindness.

Red Her Favorite Color.

Things at the office had gone wrong with a certain downtown benedict one day last week, and he reached home that evening in a rather unpleasant frame of mind. The adorable partner of his joys and sorrows met him at the door and embraced him in such a tender manner that he resigned himself to the inevitable demand for some of the “root of all evil” which he knew was coming. “I suppose you want an entire wardrobe this time,” quoth her “hub” gruffly. And this Is the song she did sing: “Now, dearest, you know that I have nothing that is fit to be seen in, and I saw a nice red morning gown to-day, with slippers to match, and such a cute little red bonnet, that I am just dying to get them.” The “lord of the manor” regarded her in silence for a moment, and then said: “It strikes me, Cynthia, that you require the services of a physician.” “Why, what do you mean?” “Well, to my mind, you show unmistakable symptoms of scarlet fever.”— Philadelphia Call.

English Estates.

Seventeen wills, ench representing personally above $2,500,000, have been offered for probate so far this year in England, being the largest unmber in seven years. The Third Duke of Sutherland left the largest estate, $6,300,000, and four others were more than $5,000,000 each. Of the seventeen fortunes five were left by brewers, one by a wine merchant, three by bankers, one each by a colliery owner, a thread manufacturer (Clark of Paisley), a silk mercer (Marshall, of Marshall and Snelgrove), an iron merchant (the Earl of Beetive), a cotton spinner, a dyer, and a merchant. The late Lord Tweedmouth appears as a brewer. Together their sworn value was over $00,000,000. Australia has more places of public worship in proportion to population than any other country. Abraham Lincoln was undoubtedly the tallest president; he was 0 feet, 4 inches in height. The shortest was probably Benjamin Harrison, although Van Buren and John Adams were very short men. The oldest president was William Henry Harrison, who was 08 years and 1 month old when inaugurated; the youngest was Grant, who was not quite 47 years old. There are men who arise refreshed on hearing a threat.—Emerson,

A BELIEVER OF NOTE.

The Widow of V ce President Herrt r eki. Those who are sceptical of spiritual manifestations in Indianapolis know that Mrs. Hendricks, widow of Vice President Hendricks, and some leading Democrats who believe in spiritual phenomena profess to have received on the slate of a medium messages from the spirit land and signed by the Vice President. Mr. Hendricks died Thanksgiving eve, 1885. He had no time for the arrangement of his earthly affairs or his political business. He was in an upper chamber of his Indianapolis home preparing for dinner. His wife heard a heavy fall on the floor above, and when she reached his side found her husband dead with a peaceful smile on his face.

MRS. HENDRICKS.

Gradually it became known to a select and chosen few that Mrs. Hendricks was receiving messages from her departed husband—messages mainly on topics concerning themselves alone, but occasionally referring to political conditions and events most interesting at the time. Lottie (ireenrod, as a child of twelve knew nothing of Mrs. Hendricks and had no conception of the high place in polities held by her husband. Evidently her first slate writing must have been of satisfactory tenor to Mrs. Hendricks, for in ten years she has been a constant visitor to this same medium’s house.

MRS. HERBINE, THE MEDIUM.

Many of the faithful in Indianapolis declare that the successful business ventures made by Mrs. Hendricks since her husband’s death have been due to his spiritual advice on the Herbine slate. They claim that she has increased her fortune only through the advices and prophetic instruction which could only come from an all seeing sbul in the spirit land. Whatever may be the belief, it is a fact that Mrs. Hendricks has in ten years doubled the property left by her husband, and meantime she has dispensed, it is said, in charity or in aid of relatives nearly $70,000. Not only has she attended to her own charities, but she has carried on her roll of pensioners all the needy relatives and impoverished political friends that her husband was in the habit of aiding at the time of his death. Vice President Hendricks was in his life charitable almost to a fault.

Placer’s Dog Miner.

bred Howell, Sr., who has charge of the sluice boxes of the Hidden Treasure mine at Sunny South, is the owner of one of the most intelligent dogs in Placer county. Unlike other dogs, he never goes out on a hunt, but is nothing more or less than a practical miner. For many years, in fair or stormy weather, each day has found him at his post by the side of his master. At the mine a clean up is made each evening. The sluice boxes are elevated from twelve to twenty feet from the bed of the canon and a fourteeninch plank gangway extends their entire length. When a piece of wood blocks the water in the boxes, as is often the case, the faithful dog, Watch, is quick to the rescue and removes the obstruction. If a bowlder becomes so fastened as to cause the water and gravel to run over, and it is beyond his power to remove it, he will keep up a continual .barking until his master's attention is enlisted and the troublesome bowlder is removed . After the evening meal he is often seen, unattended, going to the store where the miners congregate to spin yarns. There he will sit on his haunches among the boys, usually remaining about half an hour. He then goes home, and the entire programme is repeated on the following day.—Colfax (Cal.) Sentinel.

Woman as a Financier.

This is an example of woman as a financier. Three women once came to Nbw York to do some shopping—mother, daughter and daughter in law. It was the daughter in law’s shopping, and one item of the long memorandum of “things to be bought” was a baby’s cloak which the daughter intended as a present to the daughter in law’s baby. It so happened that the daughter in law was rather short of money, so as the “things to be bought,’’ including the baby’s cloak, were all purchased at one shop, the mother paid the entire

! bill. Upo-4 their return home the daughter in law handed the mother the whole amount, including the cost of the baby’s cloak. This, including the cost of the baby's cloak, the mother calmly pocketed. Dimly aware, however, that somebody still owed somebody something, she, to settle things entirely, turned to the daughter and requested the money for said cloak. The daughter, accustomed to the waya-and means of the feminine financier, promptly complied, the mother calmly pocketed this sum likewise, and the only party to the transaction who saw the missing point was the daughter in law.

She Wanted Her Share.

She was a tall, spare woman, sallow of coloring, lusterless of eye, with stooping shoulders and hard gnarled hands. For forty years she had been the wife of the man who sat beside her in the lawyer’s office, and those forty years had been spent in the hard manual labor, the perennial baking and brewing, the almost ceaseless round of toil that belongs to the lot of farmer’s wives. Their joint home had been a small acreage of land in Western Pennsylvania, which had been hardly reclaimed from the wilderness, but which now, in the light of some recent coal findings, had become a valuable and salable property. It was to execute such a deed of sale that the two had come to the attorney’s office, and they waited passively and quietly while the lawyer’s clerk prepared it. Presently it was ready, and true to the custom of their married life it was “father” who first took the pen, and, with much labor and pains, Droduced his signature. Then “mother” was asked to put her name on the proper line, and a place was made for her at the office desk. But she did not move. Her hands fumbled nervously and she cleared her throat of some choking emotion.

“Before I sign that paper,” she said, and her voice grew steady and firm, “I want to know what my share’s to be. I’ve worked as hard as father all these years on the farm, and I’ve pinched and managed and earned wliatever’s to be paid for it, as much as he, and I want a set sum that’s all mine, and that I can hold in my own hands and have belong to me alone.” Husband and lawyer were both amazed at this outburst, but her manner indicated so much resolution behind it that the legal man proposed at once not to combat her, but to accede to her request. In a conciliatory speech he acknowledged the reasonableness of her demand and wished to know what she would consider a fair estimate of her share, her husband sitting by dazed and speechless at this most unexpected turn of alfairs. The woman did not hesitate. “I thought of that, too,” she said. “It’s been forty years, a good forty years, for we took the farm in the fall, and this is spring, and it seems to me”—her voice broke a little at this critical moment —“it seems to me,” she repeated, “as if I’d ought to have $40.” Which is a true story of a recent happening.

A Thousand Dollars for a Curl.

Lady Harriet Dorsay was presiding at a stall at a vente de charite, a bazaar, held in aid of the funds of some asylum or another, when there came up the young Duke of Orleans, son and heir of King Louis Philippe, writes George Augustus Sala, the English journalist. The Duke, after some polite talk, began to extol the beauty of her hair, and, indeed, her Henrietta Maria coiffure had never looked glossier and softer than it did that day. “Oh,” said His Royal Highness, “if I could only possess one of those entrancing ringlets!” “How much would Monseigneur give for one? A thousand dollars?” “A mere bagatelle!” “Two thousand?” “Anything so charming a lady chose to ask.” “I will not be extortionate. We will say one thousand.” Then she very composedly produced a dainty little pair of scissors, snipped off the adorable ringlet, wrapped it in silver paper, and handed it, wiih a smile and a curtsy full of graceful dignity, to the Duke. His Royal Highness looked very straight down his nose, and, returning Lady Harriet’s salute, stalked somewhat gloomily away. But his privy purse duly forwarded the money the next day.

Chinese Boat Dwellers.

The swarming inhabitants of these floating tenements have their only homes upon the waters of the noble Peking river. The miles of closely crowded boats moving restlessly up and down stream between'the green fields resemble a huge metropolis of vast squares and avenues, riverrocked cradles where the drama of life is enacted by the thousands who glean but a scanty livelihood. As soon as a boy born to one of these river denizens can stand upon his little feet he is strapped to a scull or oar, and begins to go through the motions of propelling the boat, earning his living at least in theory from the earliest age. Whenever his hair is sufficiently long to plait into a respectable tail he begins to manipulate chopsticks, to hate foreigners, to understand the ring of money, and in time to paddle his own small wherry and carry a foreign devil up and down the river. If he wishes to see a little of the world he may ship upon a traveling junk, not to venture, however, outside of Chinese waters, and after accumulating a few dollars he takes unto himself a wife and establishes his home among the river population—the Paris of China.

A Unique Bicycle Club.

Hoboken has a “Back Number Bicycle Club” which has twenty-three members, all of whom ride the oldfashioned high-wheeled type of machines. It was organized by two young men who got twenty-five of the machines at a very low price, and have sold them off on the installment plan to the members of the club.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Already there have been more train robberies in 1895 than for the entire year in either 1890,. 1891 or 1892. A. J. Blackwell, the rich and erratic Indian who owns the cities of Blackwell and David in the Indian Territory, announces that he will build a SIIOO,OOO temple at David City, Okla., for the perpetuation of Indian religions. The indications of reviving business continue. The New York World publishes interviews with leading men in almost every department of business, and without exception they ! represent conditions as hopeful and improving. The Examiner states that for eaoir convert made in foreign fields during the last year it has cost the American* Board (Congregational) $260, the Missionary Union (Baptist) SBS, the Methodist Church $285, the Episcopal Church $1,884, and the Presbyterian Board $278.

The Engineering and Mining Journal notes an increase of prices of i staple articles estimated at from 20 I to 25 per cent, as compared with the j prices of the beginning of the year. The articles noticeably affected are I silver, corn, meat, cotton, wool and ! wheat, while in the iron and other j metal markets there is a “a rising, tendency.” The United 'States Consul at Han*kow, China, has sent to the Department of State an elaborate report on* the tea trade of last year. He says that it is the belief that there will be a larger demand for tea the coming season than the last and that there will be keen competition. He adds that the Russian trade was largely remunerative last year. The report shows that for the season of 1894-95 the exports of tea from Hankow to* America and Canada were 6,995,298 pounds. About the same amount was sent to Great Britain direct, while 22,468,247 pounds were shipped to Russia.

The Sioux City Journal is impressed by the difficulties in the way of harmonizing state, city, and town government systems. It says: “Just what to do with our cities, how to give them the necessary measure of self government, and yet to guard against the license which would endanger their existence, how to obey the constitutional command to have all laws of uniform application, yet to make them so elastic as suit the village and the city alike — this is a problem in statesmanship worthy of the best talent and most brilliant genius.” A feature of the Cotton States Exposition in Atlanta, Ga., w T ill be the production of a spectacular playbased on the career of Hernando De Soto and his band of Spanish cavaliers in the early history of America. A company of New York and Atlanta capitalists has been organized by Mrs. Littleton, with a capital stock of SIOO,tKX>, to produce this spectacular drama. They will build a theater and present in tableaus the romantic and adventurous career of De Soto in Georgia, Alabama and Florida, drawing partly on tradition and partly on imagination.

House boats will soon be introduced in this country, a company being about organized with a capital of SIOO,OOO to build them in Philadelphia. It is proposed to establish a floating camp or village near Philadelphia this summer. Each boat will be of a standard pattern, complete in itself, with as many rooms and berths as may be required. They will be supplied with kitchen, store room and lavatories, with open shaded decks for fair weather, and a small boat for landing and visiting. This style of boat is common in some parts of Europe, especially in London. The Czar of Russia has rejected a petition which was recently presented to him by seven journalists and literary men in favor of modification of the press laws, A commission, consisting of the ministers of justice and of the interior and the procurator of the holy synod, to which the document was referred, reported: adversely upon it, pointing out that the presentation of collective petitions is logically prohibited, and also that the press laws are not antiquated, but that they have been repeatedly amended. The commission added that private persons are prohibited from calling upon the government to change the laws of the country and are especially prohibited from criticising them. AT Dashour, twenty miles south of Cairio, the graves of two princesses of the Twelfth Dynasty, more than 4,000 years ago, were discovered intact a little while ago. The coffins had decayed and the mummies crumbled to dust as soon as an. attempt was made to remove them, but on the head of each was a golden coronet looking as fresh as the day it was made. One was a wreath of forget-me-nots with Maltese crosses at intervals made oi precious stones;.the other coronet contained a socket in which was inserted a spray of flowers made of jewels, with leaves and Stems of gold. Beside these were necklaces, bracelets, armlets, anklets, daggers and charms. The United States Patent Office will make a good showing at the Atlanta Fair. The collection made for the Chicago Fair puts it in a position to do so within the rather meagre appropriation, $6,000. The display will run mostly to the cotton industry and general agriculture. The cotton gin of Eli Whitney may occupy a separate case. Plows will range from that of Daniel Webster to the latest approved model. A recent acquisition just received from Massachusetts is the first patent granted in what is now the United States. It was issued in Massachusetts. “At a generail Courto at Boston the 6th of the 11th mo. 1646,” to Joseph Jenkes, of Hounslow, County Middlesex, England, and declared “yt no othr pson shall set up or use any such new inventino or trade for fourteen yeares without ye license of him ye said Joseph Jenkes.” Japan, after a comparatively short campaign, has thrashed China and obliged the latter country to accept terms of peace that are extremely galling. In other words, a nation of 40,000,000 of people has put under

I subjection- * nation of 400,000,000. :.It iaintereVting and profitable to coni **der the causes that led to this reI markable achievement, remarks the 1 New York Journal. A good deal ol j the mystery is cleared away when we assert that the Japanese are both patriotic and self sacrificing,, The Chinese, on the other hand, are self ' indulgent and have little or no love of country. From the outset of the struggle, civilized nations extended their sympathy to Japan. It seemed plain that any improvement in China’s status must be brought about by heroic treatment. Even Li Hung Chang realized this, and now acknowledges that the higher interests of civilization have been subserved by his country’s defeat. The influence of Japan on China is sure to be beneficial. The Chinese are a clever and in many respects an admirable people, but they have been held back by a narrowness of view and a retroactive disposition that is bound to* disappear under Japan’s progressive treatment. > Speaking of Mrs. Hetty Green, the richest woman in the United States (her fortune is estimated at $50,000,090), the New York Journal says: Hetty Green is said to be a rich woman—so rich that her personal tax is fixed at $27,000. Yet Hetty, with all this money, has no home. She asks the people she meets to tell her of some place where she can sleep. She never sees on the walls around her any little embroidered legend, ■‘God Bless Our Home.” nor does she see the associated objurgation about “Our Cook.” She cannot let herself live in ordinary comfort, believing, apparently, that if she has no home she will not have to pay the taxes. It is therefore hardly worth \tfhile to be so rich in purse if you are so abjectly poor in soul. If you have to sneak through life living always on the sly, dodging from house to house, and making your dinner on five cents’ worth of crackers bought at a grocery, what is the use of money? There are hundreds of thousands of poor women in the tenement houses in this city with just enough to live on who may, perhaps, envy Hetty her millions, but who are far happier than she is.

An official of the Agricultural Department, discussing the recent increase in the price of cattle, which is said to be the primary cause for the increase in the price of beef in the country, says that it may be occasioned by the decrease in the corn crop of the past few years. The. last great crop of the country was [that grown in 1891 and available in 1892. It amounted to 2,009,000,000 bushels. The- crop of 1892 was 1,680,000,000 bushels; that of 1898, 1,620,000,000 bushels, and the crop of 1894 less than 1,200,000,000 bushels. Corn is the principal food of beef cattle. It is true that the farmers have used wheat for cattle food during the depression of price of this cereal, but the falling off of the corn crop, in the opinion of the official, may have had more to do with the rise than anything else. Lack of the principal food for cattle may have induced stock raisers to put upon the market more cattle than formerly. Another reason for the decrease in the number of cattle is given in the fencing in and closing up of many of the stock ranges and ranches. The settlement of the Western States by small farmers has made stock raising in great herds less profitable, and it is said that the increase in cattle has not nearly ke,pt pace with the increase in population of the country.

Aquatic Sports at Wellesley.

Wellesley girls show no diminution in their fondness for aquatic sports. There has just been shipped from the works of a Connecticut boat builder a fine eight-oared barge, intended for the use of the class of '97. The barge is described as forty-five feet long, three feet beam, and is constructed throughout of Spanish cedar, lap-streaked, with copper fastenings. The fittings are made up of patent roller slides, swivel rowlocks, and adjustable foot braces. It sounds like a racing boat, but it has not been built for that purpose, as the students are not permitted to race on the lake near the college, but it is safe to say there will be some pleasant and not too slow spins taken in the new barge.

A Mystery in a Tree.

Mr. J. B. Blair, who lives six miles from Villa Rica, was in town Tuesday, says the Carrollton (Ga.) Free Tress, with a mystery in the shape of a piece of a tree with a jaw bone of a man in it. It was shown to five of our doctors and they say it is either that of an Indian or white man. But how it got there is a mystery, as it was near the center of the tree, the tree being over two feet through, and was found four feet from the ground. Mir. Blair was offered SSOO for a half interest in it to show at the Atlanta exposition. He says he would not take $2,000 for it, as he proposes to exhibit it throughout the United States and at the coming exposition in Atlanta.

Veiled Ladies of Egypt.

The veils now worn by ladies of Egypt are as thin as those of Paris, London or New York. It is etiquette and religion that a Mohammedan lady shall be veiled; the Koran commands it, but says nothing about the thickness of the veil, st> the ladies regulate that point to suit themselves. Most Moslem women, however, attach such importance to covering the face that when taken by surprise without a veil a woman will often catch up her skirt and veil her face with it.

Up to Date Femininity.

The new woman is marching on bravely. Two smoking parlors° for her exclusive use have been established in New York, according to the Sunday World, and there is promise of several more. From the smoking parlor to the drinking room is only d step, and frequently it is not such a long step at that. Beyond that, if the reformers are to be believed, are the card and faro dens, the roulette wheels, even the loaded dice, and goodness knows what.