Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 23, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 14 June 1895 — Page 4

Silence

By Miss Melely

CHAPTER XlH—Continued. Sitting down beside his wife, he leaned his head against hersa tired head it was —and laid on hers one of his brown bands, not such handsome hands as they used to be when they did nothing. She clasped it fondly, though she said not a word; she, too, was not given to complaining. Besides, hard as things were, both for him and for her, to see him thus, doing cheerfully what be did not like {through all his tender fictions she knew he could not like the mill very much), fighting with hardships, submitting to poverty, and proudly conquering any false shame about either, taking np his daily burden and carrying it without a murmur or reproach—the felt—ail her pain, the felt something as the mediaeval women must have done—the noble ladies who buckled on their good knights' armor and sent them forth to battle, to live or die, as God willed, but never to be conquered, never ceasing to fight, like true knights, to their last breath. But Bella could not understand this sort of thing at all. She shrugged her shoulders and raised her brows. “It’s an odd taste, Rody, but yon always were so odd. To be out at work all day, and come home tired and dirty, hungry and cold, and then say yon like’ Itl—l wouldn't be you for the world nor Silence either, shut up in this lonely place all the year round. No wonder mamma would not come to Blackhall; it would never have suited her st all,-” and Bella langhed at the bare idea. “But I ought not to find fault with the poor old house, for I may have to come down to it, after all. No telegram or letter?"

1 '"Nothing." "Wall, don’t look so grave about It. Plainly they have all cut me; let mo fall back upon you. Will you take me In. Rody? I’ll sell my jewels—l brought a lot with me, you know—and pay you for my keep. When it’s all gone you can turn me out to starve, only it wouldn’t be creditable to either Thomsons or Jardines if Mrs. Alexander Thomson and her baby had to starve.” ‘What nonsense you talk!” said Roderick, turning away and changing the conversation at once. But that night when the household was all gone to bed, and they three sat over the fire, listening to the wind howling and the sleet pattering against the panes, he resumed the subject, and, somewhat to Silence’s surprise, began very tenderly, but with unmistakable decision, to arrange what his sister should do. His arrangement it was—not his wife’s —as he plainly said, thereby taking from her the weight of a difficult and painful thing. “I will not promise to keep you always, Bella, for I think husband and wifs are better left alone together; but we shall not turn you out, my poor girl, whatever comes,” said he, laying a brotherly hand bn Bella's shoulder. “The little we have ■ —and you see how little it is—you shall Share, till something can be arranged between you and your husband. Then, with what you have of your own —my mother will surely pay it over to you—we will find yon a home close by us, In the manse, perhaps, whero I heard tojday there are two vacant rooms.” “What! to be shut up in a miserable pountry lodging, with only baby and purse! Dreadful!

"Not quite bo bad oa your other alternative —starring. And, Bella, we must look things in the face. If you hare no manage settlement, and my mother keeps Jier money in her own hands during her lifetime, and both she and your husband cast you oft, you hare only your brother to fall back upon. I am not rich now, (you know that; but you know also that, rich or poor, I should nerer let my sister ‘.starve.' " “'No, a thousand times not” cried Silence, taking her hand—for Bella, seeing ■this was no joking matter, had suddenly ■taken fright, and, as usual, burst into ■tears. “It may not come to that; but if lit does, believe me, poverty is not as bad as it seema Tou shall nerer want for love. You will live close beside us; our home will be open to you; and the child—the children" (in a timid whisper) “shall grow up together. Oh, we shall be very happy, never fear.” "No, no; 1 should be miserable I” And she sobbed and moaned, and talked of '"cruelty,” “hard usage,” wished she was /"dead and out of the way”—the usual bitter outcries against fate of those who, having made their own fate what it is, have not the strength to bear it Deeply grieved and not a little wounded, Roderick sat beside his sister, his wife not interfering—who could interfere?—till her misery had a little subsided, and then -said, quietly: "Now, we will speak no more to-night; ibnt to-morrow we will consult a lawyer, •and find out the right and wrong of the •case, and your exact position with regard to your husband. Will that do?* “No, no,” she said. “Don’t be in such a hurry. Wait till I make up my mind. It’s so difficult to make up one’s mind alwaya Money isn’t everything, as Silence says, but I never had her enthusiasm for poverty. And the drink—which to her is such a horror—why, we’re used to it at Richerden. Alexander Thomson isn’t the only drunkard in Scotland. If I could

but put up with him a little longer!” Both Roderisck and his wife looked exceedingly surprised. They made no remark—they always had carefully avoided making any remarks to Bella about her husband. But when she was gone, and they stood alone together over the dying fire, they spoke of her with a pity deeper than either had ever yet expressed. “Mark my words; she will go back to him yet Do you think, my wife, she would be right or wrong?” “Wrong f was the answer, clear and firm. , “Why?' “Because she will do it neither for love, nor duty, nor even pity, but only for expediency. Thiuk! the horror of a married life begun and continued for the sake of expediency!” Silence looked up in her husband’s face —her husband whom she was ready to live for, however hard a life, ready to die tor, and be knew it "You are right” he said. “And yet hath erred—both ought to suffer,” “But not more than they. And the sins of the parents shall be visited on the children even unto the third and fourth generation.” She spoke in a low, solemn voice. “I told her once, and I shall tell her agaiu, if she asks me, that she who makes a bad man the father of her children is little better than a murderess.” Bells, however, did not seem at all to deserve or to desire the epithet “poor.” She appeared at breakfast next morning

in the best of spirits, nor did she fall Into her usual half hour of despondency after the post went by. She watched the weather with a slight anxiety, bat that was aIL She even began to take an interest in Blackball affairs, and especially in an invitation for New Year’s ere st Symington, which her brother and sister were discussing together. “Of course you will go and take me with yon? I had no idea, Silence, that yon had such grand friends. Do yon often see them?” “Not very often. It’s a good way to walk, and besides " “Walk? You don’t mean to say your husband lets you walk?” A sharp quiver of pain passed over Roderick’s face. “I let her, as I am obliged to let her do many things which cut me to the heart, but we bear them. Bella, when you an<f I were children, we had no need to think of money; now we have—at least I have. If I hired a carriage and took my wife and yon to Symington, it would cost me fifteen shillings, and my earnings are just two pounds a week. Now, yon see? Let us say no more.”

They did not, for Bella afterwards owned to being “quite frightened” by her brother's manner; bat several times that morning she fell into brown studies, as If something was secretly vexing her, and In the afternobn was suddenly missing for an honr, having gone herself—“for the good of her health,"she said—to the village, and as, by mere chance they afterward discovered, to the postoffice. Had she, after refusing so often, at last written to her mother? They did not like to ask, and she did not tdl, bat being not at all of a reticent nature, ahe soon betraysd that something was on her mind. For three days after that ahe was in a restless, slightly irritabls condition, very difficult to please in trifles, snd noticing mors than ever, In that annoyingly condescending way she had, the weak points of the establishment. “And so Cousin Silence left yon the honge just as it stands, my dear, as it must have been in papa’s time, of course? Well, no wonder mamma did not care for it Such poky rooms, such shabby old furniture. In your place I would have turned out every stick of it, and refurnished It from top to bottom. But you can do this by and by, if you stay here.” ‘1 have no wish to go." "Probably not a quiet soul like you; it suits you exactly. But my brother, you sorely would not keep him shut up all his days at Blackhall, he who would be an ornament in any society? Do think better of it Poke him np, make him push himself forward fa the world and get rich; there’s nothin i like money, after all. If mamma saw hit a well off, so that be conid come back to Richerden, and live in good Richerden style, such as we have all of us been brought np to, she might forgive him; who knows?” “Who knows?” repeated Silence, assenting. She would have been amused, but for the sting which Bella's good-natured words often carried. She did not mean it; it was simply that she should not understand. “Just think of what I say,” continued Mrs. Thomson, as she gazed lazily out of the window, down the winding glen, at the end of which curled upward in a fairy-like pillar the smoko of the mill. “I wonder you can endure the sight of it—that horrid place where Body works all day—Rody that used »o be such a gentleman.

“He Is a gentleman,” said the young wife, with a flush of the eye. “And Ido not dislike—l like the mill. It has helped to make him what ho Is, and show him what he could do; and he does it, does It cheerfully for me. Bello, if I die—and 1 may die; who can tell? this spring”—with a sudden appeal to this woman, so like herself, but yet a woman—“if I die, remember we were perfectly happy, my husband and I. We never have regretted anything, never shall regret anything, except perhaps that his mother—l always feel so for mothers.” Her voice broke with emotion, but It was with emotion quite thrown away. Bella scarcely heard what her sister-in-law was saying. She sat listening, as she had listened a good many times tho last few days, to auy sound outside. “Hnrkt What is that? Carriage wheels?' , “Possibly. We do have visitors sometimes, even here,” said Silence, with a smile. But Bella heeded her not. She ran to the window and watched, in a tremor of anxiety, the arrival. A large, handsome carriage, with post-horses, postilion and two liveried footmen behind, coming slowly up to the door. “It is! ft Is our carriage! Perhaps she has come herself, poor dear mamma! I did not tell you, my dear, but I wrote to mamma, and sold, if she thought it best, I would come home. And I suppose she has sent for me. Look there! look there! No, It Is not mamma—oh, God help met It is my husband.’’

Horror, disgust, despair, were written on every feature of her face, as she watched Mr. Alexander Thomson descend, leaning on his two footmen, and In a loud, Imperious voice inquired “If Mrs. Thomson were here.” How she shuddered, the miserable woman who had not had strength enough to free herself from her misery! But this was its last outcry. In another minute her worldy up-bringing, her love of ease and luxury, and a certain pride to preserve appearances, asserted their sway. “Yes, that is our carriage; isn’t it a nice one? And he has brought it to fetch me. Well, he is not so bad, after all. I suppose he wants to get back in time for the New Year; the Thomsons always have a grand family gathering at the New Year. They are a highly respectable family, and in an excedingiy good position, I assure you, my dear,” added she, with a mixture of haughtiness and deprecation, as if she thought her sister would blame her. But Silence merely said:

“Shall I go and receive your husband, or will you go?” “You. No; perhaps I had better do it myself. Send him in here. I’ll manage my own affairs.” And she did manage them—how was never accurately known. But half an hour after Mr. and Mrs. Alexander Thomson were seen sitting together on the drawing-room sofa, as comfortable as If they had never been separated. And most likely half the world would say the wife was quite right in thus fulfilling to the letter her marriage vow, condoning everything, shutting her eyes to everything, making believe that wrong was right, and going back in the most respectable manner to her husband’s house, there to sustain the character of a blameless British matron. She did it “for the best,” as many women would argue, or “for the sake of the child,” which is the argument of hundreds more who deliberately continue in wealthy dishonor; for what dishonor can be worse than marriage without respect and without love?’ But, as the proverb says, Bella had “made her bed, and must lie in it” Nobody had a fight to interfere or advise. Silence never attempted to do either. She sat with the child in her lap, the poor pitiful little creature whom she had grows fond of, and was almost sorry to

ioee, till ahe was sent for Into the draw-ing-room, and then, to make things lees difficult, she entered with baby in bar arms. Its father civilly noticed it and her, and there waa a slight gleam of pleasure in his dull fishy eyes, aa if ha were proud, after a fashion, of his good-looking, eWrsr wife, and of his new paternal dignity. “Nice little thing! And Mra. Thomson tells me you have been so kind to It sad to her, airs. Jardine. Accept my my very best thanks. It was quite a good idea of my wife’s, this—coming to yon for change of air.” "Yes, Blackhall la an exceedingly healthy place,” said Bella, with a laugh—her old careless laugh. If there was a ring of mockery, even contempt In it, the man was too dnll to find it oat Hs eyed her with extreme respect—nay, admiration—and pat his arm round hat waist with a pompons demonstrativeness, as if to provs to all the world what as exceedingly happy coaple they were. The tragedy had melted into genteel comedy, nay, almost into broad fares, were it not for the slender line that so often is drawn between the ludicrous and the ghastly. “I suppose we had better leave at once. By changing horses we shall post fast enough to reach home to-night, and go to your father’s on New Year's evt,” said Bella, hurriedly. “80, my dear Silence, we won’t wait till my brother comes home. Mr. Thomson is decent enough now,” she added in a whisper; “but, by snd by, after dinner—l don’t want Rody to see him after dinner. We shall poet all the way,” she said aloud, “and by midnight we shall be at home." “Where I hope soon to have the pleasure of seeing Mrs. Jardine,” continued Mr. Thomson, with ponderous politeness. ’’Assure yonr husband that he will be always welcome at our place, and I’ll give him the best glass of wine, or whisky, if he likes it, to be found in all Scotland. And—sad —•” “Come away, Silence. I’ll get my things ready and the child's in ten minutes. Make haate.” Bat even when the two sisters were alone together both carefully avoided any confidential word. Bella made no explanation, and never named her husband but once, when Silence proposed to give him some refreshment “Oh, he has taken care of himaelf already; trust him for that. He always takes care of himself. Why, my dear, if there is one creature in the world whom that men never forgets, it is Alexander Thomson.” No answer. None was possible. And Bella kept up her hard, gay, reckless manner, neither shedding a tear nor ottering one grateful or regretful word all the time Silence was dressing the baby. Only at the very last minute, when she saw its aunt press a last tender kiss on the poor little pinched-up face, the woman in her could not help showing itself, even through the "grand air” which had now wholly returned to Mrs. Alexander Thomson. “God bless you, and give yon one of your own.” said she, pressing her sister’s hand. "You havo been very kind to me and mine, and always would have been; I know that. But it’s better as it is. I couldn’t stand poverty. I always did enjoy life, and I always mast. He is in very good circumstances, and he promisee me I shall have everything I can wish for. So, good-by, Silence. I suppose nobody is ever very happy, except you.” Bella went down stairs, the other following and accepting mutely her voluminous public thanks for the “great kindness” she lmd received, and how she hoped to come again soon to Blackhall. “And, my dear, mind you clear out by then all Cousin Silence’s old sticks, and have the house thoroughly done up, modern fashion. There is a man at Richerden who will do it well; Rody knows him. By the by, tell Rody—"she turned a shade paler, and her lip quivered for a moment “No; tell him nothing; he won't care. He will be only to glad to find his house empty, and have his wife all to himself—some husbands are. Come, Mr. Thomson"—she always called him Mr. Thomson—“if we don’t make haste we shall be benighted, and you will have to dine in some horrid road-side inn, which you know you couldn’t stand on any account Good-by, Silence, a thousand thanks and a happy New Year! It’s close at hand now. I suppose I shall dance the old year out and the new year in, as usual at the Thomsons’ house. Ta-ta! good-by." She kissed her hand out of the cariage window, and thus, in the most commonplace and cheerful manner, departed with her husband, as if there had never come a cloud between them, and as if he were the best husband in the world. Not a poetical or dramatic denouement certainly, but scarcely unnatural—to her. She was one of those who have, and must have, the good things in this life. She found them once more about her, and possibly they satisfied her; at any rate she could not do without them. But young Mrs. Jardine, poor all her days, a poor man’s wife this day, with little prospect of ever being anything else, as she saw that splendid carriage drive away, felt almost as sad at heart as if she had been watching her sister-in-law’s fnneral.

(To be continued.)

The Duke and the Workman.

On a certain occasion the late Lord Derby had some workmen In one of his mansions for the purpose of painting and decorating. The floor of the central hall was in course of being painted, and a tall and powerfully built young man was at work on one of the walls, when Lord Derby entered, and giving orders that a number of slippers were to be placed on the door mat, requested the young man to see that any one coming In should put on a pair of the slippers before crossing the passage, and added: “If any one refuses to do It, you must take him by the shoulder and turn him out.” A short time after this a hunting party passed by, and the Duke of Wellington, with his boots dreadfully splashed with mud, opened the door and hurried along the hall. Seeing this, the young man Immediately Jumped off the ladder on which he was painting, and seizing the Intruder hy the shoulder, pushed him out of the house. The painter did not know tho Duke, and had no idea as to the identity of the person he had used so roughly.

Shortly afterward Lord Derby heard of the affair, and summoned all the household and men at work to his study, and demanded to know who had treated the Duke of Wellington In such an impertinent manner. Imagining that he would be Immediately dismissed, the painter came forward, and in a trembling voice said: “It was I, my Lord.” “And pray how came you to do such a thing?” demanded Lord Derby. “By your orders, my Lord,” replied the young painter. Hearing this, the Duke at once turned round to Lord Derby, and, smiling, drew a sovereign out of his purse, and handing it to the astonished painter said: "Yon were quite right to obey seders.”

ABOUT NOTABLE MEN.

Stories That Are Interesting and Readable. Mr. Gladstone makes it a role never to travel on Sunday. Darwin was an inveterate smoker. At the age of 78 he declared that a cigarette rested him more after hard labor than anything else. Mr. John W. Foster is well pleasad with the treaty between Japan and China. He gets sloo.oooout of it. Mr. Foster is a great diplomat. Thomas A. Edison, the electrician, is one of the few poker players who invariably win. His opponents accuse him of possessing a mysterious power to see through cards. It is said that the first bicycle ever brought to this country was owned and ridden by Robert Center, of New York, who was killed on his wheel by a collision with a Brooklyn trolley car recently. King Humbert, of Italy, can broil a steak, grid a chop, and do plain cooking, as well as he can run to a fire, couple the hose and pump on the fire engine. He is the best allaround man in Italy. John D. Rockefeller, the head of the Standard Oil Trust, is credited by a writer in the Boston Commercial Bulletin with having remarked a while ago that his great ambition in life was to accumulate a fortune of $500,000,000. Congressman Bland, the famous advocate of silver, who lives on a farm near Lebanon, Mo., has an orchard of 5,000 Ben Davis apple trees- These apples sell for 40 cents a bushel, and the yield of each tree averages five bushels, or SIO,OOO in cash.

Joel Chandler Harris, “Unile Remus” of the newspaper press, is a man of extreme diffidence. A Georgian editor, in speaking of him, says that Harris once left Boston very suddenly, without even sending to his hotel for his trunk, in order to escape a dinner at which he was apprehensive of being lionized. George Augusta Sala. the English journalist, was once in a train which was “held up” by Carlists in Spain, and he overheard a Spanish gentletlemnn, who was overcome with fright, murmuring to himself: “To die so young, to leave my wife and babes; oh, it is sad, it is sad I and I haven’t even had my breakfast.” William Morris, the English poet, rejoices in the possession of a prodigious memory. Given a fair start on any sontenco in Dickens’ works he can complete that sentence with very little deviation from textual accuracy. Were every copy of “ Pickwick Papers ” destroyed to-day, William Morris could, doubtless, write the book almost word for word as it now stands. Samuel Staples, of Concord, Mass., who died recently, was famous for his friend?, among whom were Emerson, Thoreau, Alcott, and Bull, the inventor of the Concord grape. Mr. Staples was at one time the town jailor, and he once had Alcott and Thoreau for prisoners, the former for a few hours, the later for a night. Alcott’s offense was the non-pay-ment of a small debt, which he refused on principle. ” I never heard a man talk honoster,” said Mr. Staples.

Ex-Congressman Amos Cummings, the well known journalist, recently told this story about Horace Greeley: “One day I went out to see Greeley at Chappaqua about some newspaper business. The old gentleman saw me coming as he stood looking out the window, opened the door himself and led me Into a fashion parlor. I followed him into the room and, as I was only going to remain a moment, laid my hat, gloves and cane on a center table. Greeley and I had just immersed ourselves in a talk when Mrs. Greeley swept into the room. The moment, she entered the door her eyes fell indignantly on my trousseau as I’d piled it up—hat, gloves and stick—on the table. Without a word she swooped on the outfit like a fish-hawk and threw them out of the window. Then she left the room without pausing for speech, as one who had taught somebody thut the hall was the place for hats and canes and similar bric-a-brac. I was inclined to get a trifle angry, but Greeley stretched out his hand in a deprecating way and cheered me with the remark: ‘Never mind her, she thought they were mine.’ Afterward, however,” concluded Cummings, “when I recalled what Greeley’s hat used to look like I had my doubts.”

Edwari, one of “ the fighting McCooks,” while Governor of Colorado Territory, had a good deal of trouble with tho Indians, and especially with their chief, Colorow. With a party of braves Colorow came to Denver one day, and after drinking heavily told his followers that he was going to kill McCook. The Governor had his office in a two-story building, and sat with his back to the door, with a looking-glass on the desk in front of him, so that he could see any one coming in without turning. McCook was expecting some trouble with Colorow, and was seated at his desk when the Indian came in. Colorow had a pistol in his hand, and approaching McCook he stood by his sido and grunted: “ McCook liar 1” The Governor never looked up, but kept on writing. “McCook heap liar,” repeated Colorow, but the Governor never noticed it. “McCook heap big liar,” continued Colorow, and still the pen scratched away. Colorow mistook McCook’s silence for fear, and let his pistol hand drop until his pistol arm hung down straight. In an instant McCook grasped the Indian’s wrist, and in another the pistol fell to the floor. Turning Colorow around, the Governor deliberately thrust him down stairs and out of the door into the circle of Indians who were waiting for the expected trouble. “Colorow’s a squaw,” said McCook to the Indians, and giving the chief a parting push he returned to his office.

Skeleton of a Huge Sea Animal.

The fossil skeleton of a huge sea animal was recently discovered by a settler in the Cherokee strip while

searching for driftwood along the Arkansas river. The nose or beak was projecting from the sand, and on breaking it was found to be bone. This aroused the finder's cariosity to such an extent that he set to work to exhame the skeleton. The head, beak, a few vertebrae, some ribs and propellors were in a fair state of preservation, bat the remainder crumbled as soon as exposed to the air. It has been named by local scientists monocerosichthyosaurus and plesiosaurus, but it evidently belongs to neither. The eye sockets are four feet in diameter, with a supreorbital notch, the same as in the human cranium, with a space of twenty inches between the sockets, making a skull diameter of nine feet and eight inches It has a pointed face or bill twelve feet long, and a comparatively small brain cavity. The vertebrae measure twelve inches each way, and the distance from tip to tip of transverse processes is forty inches, and resembles those of a mammal rather than those of a fish. The ostryodes is thirtyeight inches long. A rib is thirteen feet eight inches long and thirtythree inches in circumference, and two triangular-shaped bones, corresponding to right and left, are 84 by 12 feet, the use of which is conjectural, but supposed to be propellors or fins. Its lengtn has been variously estimated to be from sixty to 800 feet.

Spangled Work.

Women who are tired of embroidery done with colored and white silks are using their needles in spangled work that gives to a picture frame, a jewel case or a lamp shade a rich, jeweled effect that is both brilliant and beautiful. Like many other kinds of fancy work, that done with spangles is a revival, yet a great improvement on the similar work done by our grandmothers. It is an improvement because designing has become an art, and also because the spangles themselves are manufactured in greater variety than formerly. They are to be had in every color and tint of a color, to represent foliage, flowers and jewels. They are used alone, and in combination with beads that represent jewels. Sometimes parts of the designs are done in embroidery silks and the spangles and beads are used to brighten them in suitable places. They are also used as borders or frames to dainty figure or landscape pictures painted on boxes or candle shades of satin. Silk and gauze are both used as a foundation for the work. The material is stretched tightly over a frame, and the spangles and beads are sewed in place with waxed silk that matches them In color. Dragons, butterflies, and beetles and all sorts of insects look well done in the spangles of brilliant coloring, and flower designs are more effective in delicate hues.

My Lady’s Purse.

It’s interesting to see what the average woman keeps in the article that she is pleased to call her purse. There is an old and time honored notion that purses are made to hold money. The average woman has changed all that, however. Money there may be in the bit of silver tipped reptile hide that she invariably carries in her hand, but it is in the minority. Samples of overy shade and variety are first and foremost among the contents. Then there is a whole arsenal of glove buttoners, hairpins, pencils and the like. Visiting cards, memorandum books, letters and pocket handkerchiefs are next in bulging evidence, and if she’s a woman considerably below the average it wouldn t be surprising to find a snug little wad of chewing gum in company with her dimes and quarters. How does the chance observer know all this? Why. it is all spread out before him upon the average woman’s lap when the street car conductor steps forward to collect the average woman's fare, and as some time elapses before the sought for nickel is fished out from the debris there is plenty of time for the chance observer to make a complete and accurate inventory. In its apparently limitless capacity, the purse of the average woman rivals the pocket of the average small boy.

A Remarkable Cat.

A cat that thinks and seems possessed of strange intelligence is the property of a little boy who lives in Perry. One night this cat was sleeping quietly on the rug before the fire when one of the little children began crying. The cat jumped to her feet, climbed upon the shoulders of the child and deliberately slapped her face. The cat was at once caught, severely whipped and put out of the house. This seemed to be a lesson to the cat and for a time she controlled her temper. About a week ago, however, there was another scene. The infant of the household was upon the mother’s lap and began crying. The cat, lying upon the rug, as before, jumped up, stood upon its hind feet and with one front foot slapped the baby’s face. Again the cat was severely whipped, and one of the boys carried her off and gave her to a colored man who lives on the outskirts of the town. But the cat came back the very next day. It is a remarkable fact that in each instance related above it did not appear that the cat intended to hurt the child, but merely to administer a reproof. It certainly seems that the cat has reasoning power. But if that cat slaps another child the number of cats in this community will be reduced by one.

Woman Not Called Professor.

While Smith College has both men and women as members of the faculty it does not confer the well earned dignity of the professional title upon the latter, even when they fill positions as heads of departments in every respect as responsible and onerous as those held by the other sex. There were 746 students enrolled last year, with a teaching force of only thirty-six, nearly two-thirds of whom are women, but not professow. _

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

Dx. J. V est Rooseyeet, a very high medical authority, demonstrates in the Scribner that bicycle riding develops not only the muscles of the legs, but most of the important muscles of the body. The man who died the- other day after licking an envelope was poisoned by decaying animal matter from the glue getting into a sore in his mouth. No poisons are more deadly than those produced by the decay of animal matter. Persons who lick envelopes in sealing them do it at their own risk. Cos am Doyle, in one of his medical stories, says: “Men die of the diseases which they have studied most. It is as if tbs morbid condition was an evil creature which, when it found itself closely hunted, flew at the throat of its pursuer. If you worry the microbes too much they may worry you. I have seen cases of it, and not necessarily iu mierobie diseases either." Experiments made to determine at what age a child lirst becomes responsive to music show that at six or seven months they are fully so, at least as far as time is concerned. That they are also sensitive to tone at the same age is shown by experiments on a child of seven months, who will not begin to beat time to“Pat-a-cake" picked on the zither in any chord higher than E, but at once responds to E. Army statistics in France and Germany bring out clearly the fact that the latter country has a better system of elementary education than its rival. Out of 258,177 recruits incorporated in the Germany Army during last year 017 only were unable to read or write—that is to say, 24 per 10,000. In France, on the other hand, out of 848,651 who drew for the conscription no fewer than 22,096, or 048 per 10,000, were similarly illiterate. There seems to be no end to human credibility. A writer in a French review, to show the misery and readiness to believe anything that promised to better their condition, as well as the audacity of the unscrupulous rascals by whom they are sometimes fleeced, tells the story of an adventurer who persuaded a number of the peasantry in some districts in Russia to hand over to his keeping all their worldly possessions with a view of emigrating, under his guidance, to the planet Jupiter, where they were to find land in abundance, easy to work and marvelously fertile.

Concluding an editorial article in advocacy of good country roads the New York Tribune says : In Massachusetts there is a permanent Highway Commission, under whoso authority SJSHOO,(X»O is being expended in building State roads. This sum has been dividod among fourteen counties. The general plan is to build, section by section, roads to connect business centers, and join them with through roads in other States. Colonel Pope, who is an enthusiast on the subject of good roads, is convinced that the Massachusetts plan is superior to that of any other State. Certain it is that Massachusetts has taken hold of the matter in earnest and with intelligence. Dr. Howard, of Baltimore, in an address to the Amorican Medical Association, has endeavored to give an analytical account of the mystery of hypnotism. Every phenomenon of this strange influence is referred by him to “suggestion’’—this word being in tliis use u technical term, which means that one mind controls another by irresistibly suggesting its line of thought. “Self is not an entity independent of the orgonism.” The individual, the eye, the human entity, is a product of the bodily structure. There is no soul which has a body for its house. There is a body which has a soul or mind as an attribute of its physical existence. This soul or mind may vary as the body does. “ Alter the relations of the various structural elements of the body and you alter the self.’’ Suggestion from a superior mind assimilates the other creature to itself; and so controls its mental and physical operations. Under a bad influence anybody may be Mr. Hyde; under a good one everybody is Dr. Jekyll.

A little over nine years ago Chicago’s Haymarket tragedy occurred. On the night of May 4, 1886, a bomb was thrown into the ranks of the police, who had gone to disperse an anarchist meeting. One policeman was killed outright, six were mortally wounded, and sixty more or less injured. The number of iftie crowd killed or hurt was never known. Chicago never witnessed excitement so intense, and*she at once achieved the reputation of being the center of anarchism for the whole world. No one event ever brought labor troubles and agitation to the notice of so many people, and probably no other influence has done so much to cause a widespread study of social economy. Four men were hanged for the Haymarket crime, and one killed himself in jail by blowing his head to pieces with a dynamite cartridge exploded in his mouth. It was never discovered who threw the bomb. When it exploded it blew Chicago anarchy to pieces and answered the directly opposite purpose its thrower evidently intended.

A most interesting flag will flyover the plant system exhibit at the Atlanta (Ga.) Exposition. “It is” says the Atlanta Constitution, “a plain flag of bunting with the stars and striped of the United States. It surmounted the exhibit of the plant system in the old Piedmont Exposition in 1887, and was much admired by Mr. and Mrs. Cleveland when they were shown through the exhibit by Mr. Grady. That flag afterward decorated the exhibit of the plant system at the Paris Exposition, and on the day when the Bartholdi statue was presented to the city of Paris by American citizens through Mr. Whitelaw Reid, then United States Minister to France, who acted as spokesman, and was accepted by President Carnot, both of them alluded in their speeches to the flag flying at the top of the Eiffel tower. That flag was the same above alluded to, which surmounted the exI hibit at the Piedmont Exposition,

end which adorned the exhibit ot tho plant systoia at Paris sad which will again adora that exhibit at tkia exposition." It is usual to class ss tbs Wee States of tbs Union only those that border upon one or more of the great lakes, but there are many other States that may be properly so called. Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont have well developed lake systems, and even Msssachusettsand Connecticut have a few small natural lakes. Northwestern New Jersey baa a sort of lake system, so baa northwestern lowa. North Dakota’s lake system is part of the larger system embracing northern Minnesota and neighboring parts of British America. South Dakota, east of the Missouri, has a lake system that extends into the edge of Nebraska. Washirrgton, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Montana have lake systems more or less interrelated. Eastern North Carolina has a lake system, including several considerable bodies of water. Southern Georgia shares the extensive Florida lake system, or rather systems, as the Florida lakes have more than one waterbed. Mississippi and Louisiana have a lake system dependent upon the Mississippi River. Something of the kind is true also of eastern Arkansas.

The large decrease in the number of immigrants arriving in this country within the last two or three years is very gratifying to the officials, and: they take to themselves a share of the credit attaching to it. It is asserted that never before have the immigration laws been enforced more rigidly, and one result of this restrictive policy ie shown in the falling off of nearly 50 per cent in immigration since 1898. Every immigrant is required to pass a searching examination before he is admitted to land, and if there is-good reason to believe that he belongs to any of the prohibited classes he is at once returned to the country whence he came at the expense of the steamship company bringing him over. During the last year or two the steamship companies have found it to their interest to co-operate with the officials in keeping out undesirable persons, and the result of these combined efforts have been very satisfactory. A statement has been prepared at the Bureau of Immigration which shows the number of immigrants which arrived in the United States for the nine months ending March 81, in each of the last three years, to have been as follows: 1898, 259,560; 1894, 218,644; 1895, 140,989. Numb* of immigrants debarred for nine months ending March 81, 1895, 1,488; number returned within one year after landing, 128.

Womanly Haroism.

The most heroic women were of ancient Sparta; and this pnrtly because, while heroic, they did not ceaso to be women. They did not themselves take part in war, but they deemed it their special glory to bring forth sons brave, hardy and patriotic, and, having borne them, to give them up to their country. The Spartan women took a lofty interest in the affairs of their native land. Their husbands and sons were fired by their sympathy and deterred from weakness by the dread of their reproaches and contempt. “Return either with your shield or upon it," they would say to their sons when going to battle. After the defeat of Leuctra those whose sons had fallen returned thanks to the gods, those whose sons had survived appeared in mourning. They were heroic also in the stern athletic training to which they were submitted in their youth with a view to making their bodily frames healthy ■and strong for motherhood. But their heroism as patriots was more conspicuous still, and is well illustrated in a brief Greek poem: Eight sons Demaeneta at Sparta’s call Sent forth to fight; one tomb received them all. No tear she shed, but shouted “Victory ! Sparta, I bore them but to die for thee!” —New York Advertiser.

Battle With a Bear.

Grant Earhart, who lives on Tsiltcoos Lake, near Florence, Or., came near being killed by a bear while out hunting three or four days ago. As he was crawling through the brush, on his hands and knees he came face to face with the bear. Mr. Earhart poked his gun at the brute and quickly fired three shots, but it did not stop bruin. Earhart thrust the muzzle of his gun into the boar’s mouth, but the gun was not loaded, and the bear, hurling the gun aside with his powerful paw, attacked Mr. Earhart. Earhart threw up his arm and drew his dirk knife. The bear struck the thrown up arm, breaking it in several places, and then struck him several times about the shoulders, neck and head, and tore the scalp off the back part of Mr. Earhart’s head with one terrible sweep of his clawed foot. Just here his noble trained dogs rushed up and nounced upon the bear, which turned to fight them, and Mr. Earhart escaped. The bear died from its wounds while struggling with the dogs.

Advice to the Married.

At Ebonezer African Methodist Episcopal Church, Baltimore, Md., Rev. Dr. Johnson, Secretary of the African Methodist Episcopal Board of Education, preached. Bishop Gaines announced that Dr. Johnson would deliver a lecture on "When to Marry, How to Marry and How to Keep Married.” “Thelast part of the subject,” said the bishop, "is one to consider well. Some men are so mean and some women are so indifferent that it makes matters bad. It is partly the fault of both that so many people do not succeed in living happily after marriage. You women make yourselves look just too sweet before you capture the man of your choice, and when you get him, instead of keeping yourselves up to the standard of good looks, you neglect it. I tell you that I want my wife to look just as sweet to-day as she did when I fell in love with her." /