Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 13 September 1895 — Page 4

TEE WATCHWORD OF THE WILL. Now, when the race is just begun. With all its warmth and zest, < And twice the needful gifts and powers Are trembling in your breast, While Fortune beckons just before, While Hope is in the van, Resolved with all your strength and soul To do the best you can! The best you can! The time will come When that will seem too small— Ambition scarcely worth the pains, So grievous is its fall: To pick the scattered fragments up? Accept the altered plan? It almost needs a hero’s heart To do the best you can! Dangers and downfalls lie in store For every soul alive, And life, in truth, is not a case Ofthreeandtwo are five. But trust me, he, and only he, Is wiser than the rest, Who puts his shoulder to the wheel And simply does his best. Some chanee is always left at hand, If not the chance we sought, And none can tell what good may fall From the least deed or thought. Then take the troubles as they come, Acquit you like a man. Accept your part with all your heart, And do the best you can! —Dora Read Goodale, in Independent.

AN EPISODE OF THE SEASON.

“We met by chance.” Sauntering over the sands at the seaside, at a sudden turn round a cliff, we ran plump against each other. The gentleman, not at all discomposed, lifted his hat and apologized. I, with my breath nearly knocked out of me, conscious of looking flushed and awkward, hurried away. I was 17 and susceptible. It was mortifying to be presented for the first time to the notice of so elegant a gentleman under such awkward circumstances. Involuntarily I looked back. He stood just as I had passed him, looking after me. Sufficiently vexed to shake myself, I hurried on . As I came back an hour later, the sands were dotted with loungers, but I saw nowhere the stranger. At dinner I contrived to have a look at every face that came in, but I did not find the face I was looking for. I had made my toilet with especial reference to correcting any unfavorable impression of the morning . Elegant strangers do not fall in one’s way every morning of the year. If my bonnet had only not tilted over my eyes in that ridiculous fashion, and it would not, if I had been taking the lady-like pace to which my sister Mabel so constantly exhorted me. Mabel had made a good match, and she was quite determined I should do the same. Mabel was very handsome and stylish looking. Her face had been her fortune, 1 don’t think I was plain, and I tried to be stylish to please Mabel, but I hated it. I had a little fortune, too, besides my face. Mabel and I were only half sisters, with the same father. My mother had left me some diamonds, and other handsome jewels, besides a little money, enough to marry me well, Mabel said, and she had taken me in hand for that purpose, as soon as she was married herself . I was too romantic to like the idea of marrying in so practical a fashion. I would not stay in the parlors this evening. Having once made their circuit I stole away just as they were beginning to dance. I went to my room soon. I heard my sister’s step in the passage, and I slipped through the window to the piazza, which was at this hour usually deserted.

I had left the key on the outside of my door, so that Mabel caine right in. Fortunately she did not look upon the piazza, but anathematizing me as a "careless creature,” I heard her go out and lock my door, taking the key with her. I was laughing softly to myself, when an oddly familiar voice close beside me said: "Good evening.” I whirled with a start, to behold my acquaintance of the morning, standing in an attitude of almost mock humility before me. "He is laughing at my vanity,” I thought. "He is certainly very presuming to address me without being introduced

I wished to return to my room, but the window-sell being rather more than one good step above the piazza floor, such a proceeding would have involved a sacrifice of dignity that I was not prepared, under all the circumstances, to undergo. So I stood still. "I am afraid I intrude,” said my companion, and when I lifted my would be cool eyes to his mine fell under the smiling audacity of the other’s. It was necessary I should say something. What should it be? "I believe the piazza is not private property,” I said superbly. I knew he was laughing at me and at that instant I remembered some of Mabel’s despairing comments conerning me that very morning. "I believe not,” was the response, and my companion, with a grave inclination turned aud slowly left the piazza. I climbed back into my own room, ready to cry with vexation. How I wished I had stayed in the parlor and made the acquaintance of this elegant look stranger in a legitimate manner. Of course he would have sought an introduction to me. I dared not go down now. Presently Mabel returned; I hoped, to make me go back to the parlors. Under her triumphant,convoy, I thought I could survive the ordeal and I was rather anxious to try. Mabel had a headache, however, and had come away from the parlors for the evening. She scolded me some, but said nothing about my going back. Instead, she subsided into a gossiping strain, afterward reproving me sharply for being so careless with my diamonds, which lay as I had tossed them upon my toilet table. "The hotel is full of thieves, ’’ she sai<l emphatically. "Half these gentlemen we see here live by just such

chances as your diamonds. Ym must let me take them, Bessy, and keep them for you.” For reply I silently returned the jewels to their casket, put that in my trunk, and locked it Mabel shrugged her shoulders, but she said no more, , I was a careless creature, as Mabel said. In pfoof thereof I retired that night and left my door unlocked and my key in my trunk. I waked some time in the middle of the night and saw. by the dim light, a form kneeling beside my trunk, and in the act of unlocking it. I had some ado to keep myself from screaming. I had a vague idea, however, that such a proceeding would call to life a pistol or a knife. There would be plenty of time for this cool intruder to secure ray diamonds of whose locality he seemed well aware, and to make off with them before hindrance could come. Cool intruder, I say, for he was by no means noiseless in his operations. I think it must have been the noise he made in opening the door which waked me, and he fumbled at the lock of my trunk in a perfectly audible manner. He seemed to have some difficulty in getting the trunk open.

Imagine my dismay, when seemingly getting out of patience at last, ' he rose to his feet and gave the lid a resounding kick, that caused the refractory spring to loose its grip ■ and expose my treasures to his 1 hand. Now, I was very much attached to my diamonds. I could not lie coolly and see them depart without making an effort in their behalf. However, I was just about to speak, just about to make a wild appeal to the wretch’s generosity, when he, having groped hither and thither through the trunk in the most astounding manner, muttering to himself some curious expletives, suddenly reached the burner and turned up the gas. The blaze showed me the face of myencounterer of the morning; it showed him—me ! I don’t know which was most confounded. He swept the room with dancing eyes, and vacated it very abruptly indeed, but I could hear him softly laughing in the passage, or, I fancied so, probably at the ridiculous figure I must have been, as I sat up in bed, my face like ashes with fright, and my head bristling like a porcupine’s back. I got up presently, and locked my door, and saw that my diamonds were safe. Then I lay down again, but not to sleep any more. So this was the end of my romance. Mabel had said the hotel was full of thieves, and I had only a most un- , looked for chance to thank for having saved my diamonds. Such an elegant man, so handsome; ah, me! In the few hours sleep that finally came to me, I dreamed "hat I was promenading the beach with my midnight visitor, and that I had just discovered that I had only a waterproof cloak over my ; night-dress, and had forgotten to take my hair out of its pins. I dreamed that the stranger was making love to me in that absurd rig. I was angry enough with my dream when I waked. I went down to breakfast in anything but a pleasant humor. The first face that my eyes fell upon was that of the stranger. Ridiculous? I should think so. I believe I turned pale with surprise at his effrontery. To dare to present himself there, after last night’s proceedings. He did not meet my glance at first; his eyes were dropped demurely to his plate, as though he had seen my look coming, and so chose to meet it, but I fancied I could see that silken mustache twitch slightly. He dared to laugh at me still I I averted my eyes immediately, and did not once look toward him again.

Later in the day my sister and I went for our bath, and while we were in the water, Mabel confidently informed me that just the match for me had coma at last. "He arrived night before last, dear, but I would not say a word till I was perfectly satisfied as to his antecedents and belongings,” she said eagerly. "He is rich, and from one of the finest families, and can’t bear the sight of a fashionable woman; so you are sure to suit him, if you half try.” I said nothing and Mabel went on.

"You must have seen him at breakfast. The handsomest man at our table. He sat half way down, and I saw him look at you several times —a gentleman with curly hair, and such funny eyes. ” I turned my face towards my sister with a start of recognition. "Oh, you did see him, then?” and Mabel laughed. Then I told her of the night. To my amazement Mabel began to laugh as though she would go into convulsions before I was half through; and when I refused to go on, she laughed the harder. We had to quit the water, or she would have drowned herself, I believe. I never liked to be seen in my bathing rig, and I was hurrying away to my "house,” when Mabel stopped me. "Bessy, Mr. Trevelyan; Mr. Trevelyan, my sister. Miss Winston;” and there he was again. "Will be back in a minute,” I heard Mabel say as she dragged me away to dress, and still laughing so as scarcely to be intelligible. She made out to explain to me that Mr. Trevelyan’s room was next mine, and that he had blundered into mine by mistake the night before. "He told me all about it before breakfast this morning, but I never guessed it was you. You see, Bessy, the rooms on that floor are exactly alike, and he said your trunk was as like his as two pins, even to the spring lock, and it stood on the same part of the room, of course. There’s only one corner of the room a trunk could-stand in, in those rooms. Don't you dare to let him know you thought he was a thief, though; promise me you won’t tell him you thought he was after your diamonds?” ‘‘lndeed I shall. It is the only way I can be even with him,” I said, decidedly, thinking of those eyes that bad laughed at me five times within less than forty-eight hours. Mr. Trevelyan walked to the hotel with us, and Mabel frowned and {shook her head at me all the way,

I did not take my revenge then, but I did in the evening; ai|d though he laughed, I could see that my shot told. Well, to make a long story short, Mr. Trevelyan and I developed a wonderful appreciation of each other’s society in a remarkably short space of time. When people are in the same house, and meetingas often as is only natural in such a case, it don’t take long to develop that organ of appreciativeness from ever so incipient a state. Mr. Trevelyan, greatly to my sister’s exultation, asked me to marry him before we left the seaside; and as he made some very pretty speeches about that morning when he had nearly knocked the breath out of me, showing that he was prepared for the worse with the better, I consented to take him on the general basis.

Killed By Carrying Gold.

Mr. F. R. Carter, who is in the bi--1 cycle and sewing machine business, confirms the report that his wife, ; Ellen Carter, is now the heir to | nroperty worth about $500,000. Mrs. Carter is one of the seven daughters of Mrs. Bridget Egan, who died at Greensburg, Penn., about a l month ago. Mrs. Egan at the time I of her death was over ninety years of age, and was in many ways a remarkable woman. She belonged to a good old Irish family. Early in life she went to Pennsylvania with her husband, and for fifty years she lived in Greensburg. Her son, Frank Egan, was sent to college, and while pursuing his studies became acquainted with James G. Blaine. Young Egan studied law and settled in San Antonio, Texas, when that city was miles away from a railroad. The young man was prosperous, and soon owned a large amount of property in the Texas city. He was taken sick, and went home and died. His mother assumed control of the property he left. She went to San Antonio to look after her interests, and disposed of a part of the real estate. She received payment in gold for the property, and the problem with her was to get the gold home. She finally hit upon the plan of putting the metal into sacks, which were bound about her chest. In this way she succeeded in getting the money to her Pennsylvania home, but the weight of the metal upon her chest gave her heart disease, with which she was always troubled after making the journey. Mrs. Egan paid the taxes on the San Antonio property, and now that she is gone, her daughters are heirs to about twenty-five acres of land in the Texas city’. Besides this real estate, the old lady left property in Galveston, Texas; Washington, Greensburg, Penn., and in Amherst, Canada. Siie never said much about her holdings, and it was not until a short time before her death that the members of her family knew that she owned any property in Canada. To all of Mr. Egan’s daughters were afforded excellent opportunities for good education, and some of them became expert linguists.

Man and Bear Both Scared.

“ Yes, we have a great many interesting experiences out in the Puget Sound country,” said the New Ehgland man lately returned from the State of Washington. "I saw a big brown bear one day when I was six miles from the nearest camp. He was about fifty feet ahead of me on the trail, and I was to leeward of him, so I just went round him.” “ Why didn't you shoot him?” ■“ Well, people that don’t know the forest always ask that, even after I told them I had only three shots left in my revolver and no other gun along. I should have been in a mess if I had only wounded him, you see. When he scented me I was a long way off.” "Didn’t he run after I you?” "Oh. those brown bears are as much afraid of a man as a man is of them. Why, I knew a fellow who J was going across a stream on a fallen ; tree once. The trunk of the big pine ■ was about five feet up from the ground on his side of the stream, and three feet on the bear’s side. He was picking his steps and didn't look to t)he other side of the water, sixty feet or so. When he got fairly up onto the log there was the bear coming. They were both so dead scared they tumbled off into the water on different sides of the log.” “What happened next?” "Nothing. They both swam ashore on their own sides of the river, and put off through the forest. I don’t suppose there ever was a man and a bear more surprised or worse scared.”

Remarkable Span of Life.

On a tombstone in Landaff Centre, N. H., is the following inscription: "Widow Susanna Brownson was born AugustS, 1699, and died June 12, 1802, aged 103 years.” This is the record of a life which took in parts of the 17th and 19th centuries and thewhole of the 18th century. As the average of human life is increasing in modern days, it is probable that some infants now living will continue to live until the year 2,000 A. D. They would then be not so old as are a number of persons who have died considerably exceeding a century within recent years. It is likely also that the number of centenarians in proportion to population will be much greater during the 20th century than it has been in the 19th. We frequently hear the span of human life spoken of as seventy years, and if it goes to four score it means labor, weakness and sorrow. But a still older record in the Bible makes one hundred and twenty years the natural period of human life. To that age Moses lived, and we are told of him that "his eyes were not dimmed nor his natural force abated.” Many who now die early from contagious diseases have natural vitality which should insure an advanced age, and will when medical science learns how to control these diseases and make them harmless. The very playthings in Japan have now a warlike character. The Jkpan Mail says that even the game of chess is transformed, the figures being painted clay images representiug Japanese and Chinese soldiers of various ranks.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

The Argentine Republic, which has just begun its career as a wheat exporter, expects to ship 90,000,000 bushels of last year’s crop. Out of the crop for the previous year it exported 25,000,000 bushels, chiefly to England. Pbofessor Cesare Lombroso, the famous Italian criminologist, has discovered that one of the most striking characteristics of criminals is the absence of wisdom teeth. This should not make those people, however, who boast of being without these unnecessary molars feel uncomfortable. The official estimate of wheat consumption in the United States is 4.67 bushels a head of population. It has been revised on figures representing the actual consumption of over 8,000 persons, and it is now fixed at 4.77 bushels a head. This would give 28.85 bushels as the annual consumption of the average family, with a total annual consumption for the entire country of about 334.000,000 bushels. The Frenchman who proposes to set out for the North Pole in a balloon argues that the polar circle is an ideal place for an airship, as the temperature is even, the earth unobstructed by vegetation, the daylight uninterrupted for six months, and electric discharges rare. Of course, the balloon will be a very elaborate affair, and it will be provisioned for over 100 days. It is not to start until July, 1896.

During the fiscal year which closed (4,130,440,000) cigars were manufactured in the United States. This is an increase of 63.522,000 over the number manufactured during the previous year, yet nevertheless the United States Tobacco Journal claims that the cigar trade is being damaged by the increasing use of bicycles. The theory is that the time spent on a bicycle is withdrawn from the possible time for cigarsmoking. Union County, New Jersey, has found good roads profitable, the increase in tax valuations having been marked this year. The total assessed values for 1895 are $35,972,500, an increase over 1894 of $1,359,600. The most conspicuous gain was made by Summit, which stands at $1,866,000, an increase of $116,000, or over 25 per cent. Westfield advanced $216,600t0 $1,448,600, and Plainfield, Cranford and Union had substantial additions to the assessed vale of their property. The completion of the Eleventh Census of the United States is now promised within this year by a report from Commissioner of Labor Carroll D. Wright to Secretary of the Interior Hoke Smith. He finds the total cost to date is $10,531,142, and the chief cause of delay has been the population schedule. The only other parts remaining uncompleted are the vital statistics, a purt of the compendium and the second edition of the abstract and the statistical atlas.

Lunacy is on the increase in England, according to the report of the British Commissioners on Lunacy, issued recently. The total number of lunatics, idiots and persons of unsound mind was, on January 1, of this year 94,081, an increase of 2,014 over the number for the preceding year. The increase was confined almost wholly to the pauper class, and is due apparently, it is said, to the more general reception in asylums of cases of simple mental decay resulting from extreme old age. A recent compilation of New England vital statistics shows that in 1892 twenty-two marriages in every thousand of population occurred in the towns of more than 10,000 population, while in the villages and in the country the marriage rate was five less in the thousand. The city birth-rate in higher in about the same proportion, but the death-rate is also higher. The statistics indicate that while the chances of sufficient food are better in the cities, the chances of prolonged life are better in the country in spite of short rations.

Boston has a lighthouse keeper’s daughter who, perhaps, has not emulated Ida Lewis, yet she is an accomplished oarswoman as well as a-versa-tile writer. Miss Louise Lynden has lived with her father on that beautiful headland for nearly fifteen years, and although a graduate of the Boston Girl’s High School in 1879, has preferred to keep herself on the island summer and winter, ever since her father was appointed as keeper of the light in 1880. Miss Lynden is an accomplished photographer, and many of her charming stories are illustrated by her own pictures. The trouble with the Bannocks recalls the fact that the Indian population of the United States in 1890 was set down at 248,253, not including the native inhabitants of Alaska, who numbered 32,052. The Indians living on the reservations and receiving assistance from the Government numbered 133,417. It is believed by many who have made a special study of Indian archaeology that the number of Indians within the present territory of the United States, at the time of the discovery of America, was little if any greater than the number now existing, a statement which will strike many with surprise. One of the largest private estates in the world is that of Dr. W. Seward Webb, at Shelburne, Vt., on the shores of Lake Champlain. The property consists of more than 4,000 acres of beautiful rolling land bordering on the lake. There Dr. Webb maintains one of the most magnificent establishments on the Continent —Shelburne House—where he lives the greater part of the year and entertains in royal style. *He has a stable of blooded horses, a fleet of yachts on the lake, and has a game preserve of several hundred acres. He can entertain his friends with racing, yachting and hunting and fishing, all of which sports he enjoys himself. The two new battle ships of which plans are now being drawn are not to cost over $4,000,000 each. Turning labor into time at a dollar a day, the census average, this'would make ( the maximum cost of each the work of 4,000 men for 1,000 days, or about three years; This would include, of

coarse, all the time spent in preparing all the materials of all kinds—as in digging the coal to heat the furnace to make iron and steel for nails and armor and guns, felling the trees to make lumber, digging the mineral for the paint, planting and cultivating the beans for making the oil, and so on. So that probably the estimate above is well within the actual cost of labor time required. The cooks of the twentieth century will have comparatively easy times. Everything will be done from scientific reasons. Meals simple and most beautifully served, for the eye as well as the palate should be pleased. Foods eaten for a special purpose, not simply to “fill up.” Eating, in other words, will be a refining element rather than a coarse one: and our lady will be proud to say that she is a cook, because it will require more brains to be a cook than to be a physician. The cook will have to know all, while medicine will be divided into specialties, a man finding that the whole human being is more than he can comprehend in a lifetime. A. band of about 7,000 horses was bought on a range in Umatilla county, Wash., recently by the Portland Horse Meat Canning Company, at $3 a head. This was the price on the range. The horses will be taken to Portland as required. Three hundred were sent on as soon as the sale was concluded. The agent of the company, who is traveling through the range country, says that the hide, mane, and tail alone of each horse will bring $2.50, leaving the entire carcass a clear profit. There is a singular reticence about the actual purposes for which the carcasses are to be used, and various people claiming to be connected with the concern talk variously about fertilizers, grease, canned steaks, and many other products. Irrigation experiments along a new line have been making during the past few months in the “arid region” of western Kansas, where the rainfall is insufficient for cropraising, and where no river water for irrigation can be obtained, and so far they have been a great success. The plan is to sink wells to a waterbearing strata and pump the water for irrigating the crops. The State Government is making the experiments, and a farm has been established at Goodland. The engineers report that there is a water-bearing sand, fully one-third of which is water, underlying the whole of the arid district at an average depth of twenty-one feet. This will yield more than a sufficient amount of water for all purposes of irrigation, and it can be economically raised. If all this turns out as prophesied the arid district promises to become one of the most fertile regions in Kansas. Few Americans are aware of the fact that if it were not for the little island of Sicily, there would be no lemons, nor are many aware of the great importance of this commerce and of its necessity to the United States. The production of lemons in America is so limited at the present time, both as regards quantity and seasons, that all the California and Florida products do not supply 10 per cent, of the country’s needs. After the months of August and September, when our domestic lemon crops mature, except for Sicily we should be without any lemons whatsoever, except a few that Spain sends us during the rest of the year. Accurate figures show that from September to April 30, during the past five years, the importations from Sicily each year have been about one million two hundred thousand boxes, each containing 300 lemons, or equal to 360,000,000 lemons.

A recent address before the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce by an American manufacturer named Pearce is rich with facts about the present relations of different countries, and especially of the Orient. Mr. Pearce has just been around the world taking observations. He says that 60 per cent, of the jute mills of Dundee, Scotland, are idle because Great Britain cannot compete with India. At Manchester 50,000 cotton spinners are protesting against the duty on English cotton goods imported into India. Children work at the cotton looms in India for 5 cents a week, and has increased her cotton product fourfold in the‘last four years. China is also beginning to spin cotton, and England must soon lose this market also. Spinners get 25 cents a week there, against $2.50 a day here. Mr. Pearce believes that it is not the competition of Europe that this country need fear, but that of India, China and Japan.

In his article on what to avoid in bicycling, printed in the North American Review, Sir Benjamin Ward Richardson, a well-known English medical authority, writes that excessive cycling is dangerous because of its effect on the heart, the motion of which he has known to be raised from 80 to 200 beats a minute by the exercise. He thinks too there is a tendency to develop the lower limbs at the expense of the upper. “There is little doubt of the correctness of these observations,” adds the New York World, “and they are the more trustworthy because Sir Benja 7 min is himself a cyclist convinced of the benefit of the exercise when moderately indulged. His conclusions are supported by Dr. Reilly, of the Chicago, Board of Health, who declares that as a result of excessive bicycling the deaths from nervous diseases in that city has been tripled. Perhaps this is an extreme view, but it is not doubtful that a person of sedentary life and indoor habits can commit suicide in a most delightful way by “scorching” through his holidays on a bicycle. No form of exercise is more attractive, and when it is indulged in with a knowledge of the limits of endurance no exercise is likely to prove inore healthy. But thousands of young people and a good many older ones who think they are strengthening themselves by exercise are really wrecking their nervous systems by overexertion and “overtraining.” All this may be trusted to right itself in time, for the bicycle has come to stay. But in the mean time those who cannot learn except by their own experience will go on filling tb ■ graveyards.

The Gypsy Moth Migration.

The voracious caterpillar of the gypsy moth, imported from Europe some twenty-five years ago, has already cost the State of Massachusetts several hundred thousands of dollars in attempts to destroy and keep the pest within moderate limits, but it is now said that it has passed the boundary Jine and appeared in Dorchester, outside of the supposed infested territory. The imported elm leaf beetle is certainly a great pest, and from present indications will eventually destroy all the American as well as the foreign species of this tree. Even this would not be a very serious matter, because we have plenty of other and more valuable kinds of trees, but the gypsy moth does not discriminate and attack any one or a half dozen species, but sweeps the forests of foliage, and is therefore as destructive as flood or fire. The advent of such .a pest should be guarded against through constant watchfulness, for it may soon appear where it is least expected and get beyond the control of human efforts elsewhere besides in the old Bay State. For several years the State of Massachusetts has been spending thousands of dollars annually merely to keep the gypsy moth within certain limits, and, perhaps, crowd it out of some of the old haunts. This policy is open to reasonable criticism, Sor it is likely to be a continual drain upon the taxpayers with no apparent limits, whereas if the advice of entomologists was followed there might be an end of the annual appropriation. Professor Fernaid, a widely known entomologist, suggests that it would be much better to ap propriate enough money to annihilate this pest in the next three or four years than to continue to appropriate just enough to keep this insect in check, without, to any considerable extent, reducing the total number. People outside of Massachusetts and only fearful that the pest will escape from its present limits and forests may be defoliated and destroyed. Just as long as this insect remains feeding in the forests of Massachusetts, those of other States are in danger, and not a park, public or private, is safe.

Wide Tires and Good Roads.

Farmers and others who are accustomed to haul heavy loads over poor roadsappear in the main oblivious to the benefit and superiority of the wide tires over the narrow ones in general use. Manufacturers of heavy' road and farm vehicles will of course cling to the narrow tire as long as the demand continues, but they will change with the demand; consequently the fault is with the purchasers. In European countries, where good roads are the rule and not the exception as inthis, wide tires are in general use, as they must be eventually here if we are to have any thing like good roads. The light thin macadam, on a soft, yielding foundation, which is being laid in many localities, will not withstand heavy loads - with a common narrow tire. The Pennsylvania and New Jersey legislatures have passed acts encouraging the use of wide tires, but not being ’ compulsory, the old farm wagons will probably remain just as they are until worn out.. It is a waste of money to make good oads and then have thorn ruined by narrow tires, besides it is cruelty to an animal to haul heavy loads with narrow tires over poor roads as well as on the farm.

A New Stimulant.

Recent experiments in our army with the kola nut confirm the statements of many travelers and scientists who have studied the kola question in Africa and the West Indies, where this wonderful nut is generally used. It is claimed that kola is more stimulating than coffee and has no bad after effects. The natives of Africa and the West Indies who chew it are in great demand as laborers, because they are always in splendid health, suffer no fatigue, and work long hours without any food. In those countries the cocoa chewer is always rejected for the kola chewer. Kola contains more caffeine than coffee itself, a good deal of starch and no tannin. It instantly increases muscular strength and allies hunger and thirst, besides lessening perspiration in hot weather. The nut is now cultivated jn large quantities in various parts of the world, and an American firm expects shortly to put it on the market in this country. When it makes its appearance it is predicted that tea and coffee will have to go. The recent army experiments in this country were made by Captain Charles E. Woodruff, at Port Sheridan, 111.

Cocoanuts as Cosmetics.

Does your complexion need brightening up and cleansing? If so here is a simple, home made cosmetic which is harmless and almost immediate in its good effect: Buy a fresh cocoanut and grate it; squeeze the juice through a piece of white muslin. The milk which comes after the straining is the cosmetic. Wash the face and hands with it thoroughly, rubbing it well into the skin. It will speak for itself after being used. In using any cosmetic or cream upon the face always rub the skin up, not down. This will have a tendency to drive away wrinkles, and ii done faithfully will give to the face a fresh and youthful look.

Found in a Peculiar Manner.

A valuable diamond stud was Jost by Eugene Grossman while out riding on his wheel at St. Louis, Mo., and recovered in a peculiar and accidental manner by his friend, Harry C. Crow, who was riding behind Grossman on another bicycle. When Crow began to clean off his wheel he discovered the missing stud imbedded in the rubber tire on the front wheel. While following along behind his friend he had run over the stud. The sharp point had pierced the outside covering, but not into the wind tube.

LIFE WITH THE HOBOES.

What th* Tramp Eats and th* Eoc*ntric Tog* H* Wears. As a rule, the “poke out” beggar has but one meal a day, and it is usually breakfast. This is the main meal with all vagabonds, and even the lazy tramp makes frantic efforts to find it. Its quantity as well as its quality depends largely on the kind of house he visits. His usual breakfast, if he is fairly lucky, consists of coffee, a little meat, some potatoes, and “punk an’ plaster,” as he calls bread and butter. Coffee, more than anything else, is what every man of his kind wants early in the morning. The clothes of the “poke out” beggar are not much, if any, better than his food. 'ln summer he seldom has more than a shirt, a pair of trousers, a coat, some old shoes and a battered hat. Even in winter he wears little more, especially if he goes South. While I lived with him I wore these same ‘‘togs.” I shall never forget my first tramp suit of clothes. The coat was patched in a dozen places, and was nearly three sizes too large for me; the vest was torn in the back, and had but two buttons; the trousers were out at the knees, and had to be turned up in London fashion at the bottom to keep me from tripping; the hat was an old Derby, with the crown dented in numerous places; and the only decent thing I had was a flannel shirt. I purchased this rig of an old clothes man, and thought that it would be just the thing for the road, and so it was, but only for the “ppke out”' tramp’s road. ‘The hoboes laughed at me and called me “hoodoo,” and I never got in with them in any such garb. Nevertheless, I wore it for nearly two months, and so long as I associated with lazy beggars only, it was all right. It is by no means uncommon to see a “poke out” vagabond wearing some sort of garment which belongs to a woman’s wardrobe.He is so indifferent that he will wear anything that will shield his nakedness, and I have known him to be so lazy that he did not even do that. Ore odd fellow I remember particularly. He had lost his shirt somehow and for almost a week went about with only a coat between his body and the world at large. Some of his pals, although they were of his own class, told him that he ought to find another one and the more he delayed it the more they labored with him. One night they were all gathered together ata "hang out,” not far from Lima, Ohio,| and the odd fellow was told that unless he found a shirt that night they would take away his coat also. He begged and begged, but they were determined, and as he did not show any intention of doing as he was bidden, they relieved him of his jacket. And all that night and the following day he was actually so lazy and stubborn that he would not yield and would probably be there still, in some form or other, had his pals not relented and returned him the coat. As I said, he went for nearly a week without finding a shirt, and not once did he show the least shame or embarrassment. Just at present I understand that he is in limbo, wearing the famous “zebra - ’ —the penitentiary dress. It is not popular among tramps and they seldom wear it, but I feel that the old rascal, in spite of the disgrace and inconvenience that his confinement brings upon him, is tickled indeed that he is not bound to find his own clothes.

The Acrobatic Horse.

At Highland Falls, N. Y., Mr. Smith Mandigo owns several fine trotters. He harnessed one to a sulky the other morning and drove to Stephens’s Hotel. He left the trotter in charge of a boy, and was being shaved, when piercing screams were heard. The men rushed out and were horrified to see the horse standing on his head, while the sulky, containing the boy, was poised high in the air. The lad clung to the rig, but dared not move. While Mandigo and the barber were debating what to do, the horse turned a complete somersault, and the boy was thrown into the branches of a pine tree. He escaped with a few scratches. The sulky suffered badly, but the horse seemed all right. Mandigo cannot account for the horse’s strange action. The animal may have a desire to go with a circus company, and so stood on his head to show off, not caring what became of the boy or sulky.

The House Penn Built.

One of the oldest buildings of the number of anti-Revolutionary structures that still remain standing in Philadelphia occupies a conspicuous position on the northeast corner of Second and Walnut streets. The old building is nearly, if not quite, 200 years old, a/id it is claimed by some authorities that it was built by William Penn. John Penn, it is claimed was born in the house . For many decades it has been occupied by a gunsmithy and fishing tackle establishment, as long ago as 1815 such business having been started there. The business is now conducted by John T. Siner, who has been in the store since 1843, and he is himself one of the most picturesque figures of the neighborhood, hale and hearty at seventy-four. He has in his possession a deed dated 1834, in which the owner of the corner building guaranteed the use of the party wall for the erection of the building adjoining on Walnut street, which is also still standing.

A New Trolley Brake.

A Chicago paper describes a new automatic trolley brake, which seems to fill the bill admirably. To work it the motorman has only to turn a crank six inches; that sets a spool working on the axle, the spool winds up the wheels in the length of a car, if necessary, and brings the vehicle to a full stop—a vast improvement over the old brake, which, controlled only by human muscle, generally fails to stop the car in less than several hundred feet. The great merit of the automatic brake is that it will enable the driver to bring the car to a halt in time to permit escape of persons who, under the old brake, would run risk of being overtaken and injured or killed