Democratic Sentinel, Volume 19, Number 44, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 8 November 1895 — Page 4

L VPS SEA SONS. fBU flowered summer Ilea upon the land. I kiss your lips, your hair—and then your hand “Slip 6 into mine; 10, we two understand That love is sweet. Theroseleaf falls,the color fades and dies; The sunlight fades, the summer bird-like flies; There comes a shade across your wistful eyes — Is lore so sweet? The flowers are dead, the land is blind with rain; The bud of beauty bears the fruit of pain Can any note revive the broken strain, Is love so sweet? The world is cold, and death is everywhere; I turn to you, and in my heart’s despair Find peace and rest. We know, through foul or fair, That love is sweet. —Pall Mall Gazette.

A JUST PUNISHMENT.

Two people were sitting on the veranda of an Indian bungalow; a tall man of about forty, handsome and bronzed, and a girl about fifteen years younger, fair and delicately pretty. From within came the distant sound of a piano and violin, and without, at the bottom of the compound, was the ceaseless sigh and whisper of the river. “The air feels almost like England today,” said the man, “When I shut my eyes I can fancy myself at home.” “Do you long so much for England?" said the girl, looking up with a smile. “It’s all so new to me, and so full of interest, that I don’t want to go back at all.” “Ah, Miss Graham, if you had been an exile for ten years, as I have, you’d know what the longing is.” “Ten years!” said the girl, sympathetically. “Yes, I shall want to go back long before that.” “I was only home for a month then,” went on the man, as if he found it hard to leave the subject. “Twenty years of my life I have spent in strange countries and among strange peoples, and now I’m getting old and England is calling, calling to me louder and louder as the days go by. I’ve learned what it is to be homesick, Miss Graham.” “Then why not go home?” said the girl, gently. “Surely” “Why not ?” the man laughed a little bitterly. “You see lam reaping the rewards of a misspent youth. I got into scrapes when I was at home—l wasn’t worse than other people, but I was a bit more reckless. I belong to a respectable family, you see, and it’s part of the contract that I don’t go back unless” “Unless—what?” asked the girl, softly. “Unless I marry, and take my wife back with me.” “So it’s either slavery or exile,” said the girl, laughing. '‘Don’t laugh, Miss Graham,” said the man, earnestly. “The truth is, I have never seen a woman I wished to make my wife, until” “Alison,” said a voice at the window, “will you have a scarf? There is quite a breeze, and your dress is. very thin.” The man muttered something under his breath, as the girl rose and'turned to take the scarf. She stood at the window a few minutes, and odd words and phrases of talk, punctuated with laughter, came brokenly to the man’s ears. “There goes my chance,” he said, under his breath. He got up and leaned over the railing looking out upon the river. When the girl came back to her seat he turned towards her. “Do you mind if I smoke, Miss Graham?” he said. “Oh, no, I like it,” she answered, smiling. She leaned back in her chair, gathering the scarf round her, and looked up ft him, still smiling, while he lit his cigar.

“Jessie bas been telling me a most absurd story that George bas just brought borne,” she said. “Tbe colonel's wife bas got a new nurse girl from England, and she has been causing great interest and excitement among.tbe men. To-day, two of them, each considering himself tbe favored swain, fell to quarreling about her, and, at last, there was a regular stand up fight. In tbe end, when some one in authority interfered and separated tbe bruised and gory combatants, the girl annpunped her preference for another nmn j who had been a peaceable spectator of the ! fight. George says no one was more j surprised than the man himself, and ! there were at least six other men who considered they had claims. One can’t help laughing, though it isn’t a thing to be ! amused about, really. I think they ought j to send the girl straight back to England.” “Oh, come, Miss Graham, perhaps she did not mean to do any harm.” “No,” said the girl, bitterly. “The people who flirt never mean to d<? harm, I believe, but that does not make it any less cruel.” “Would you—would you be very down on a man that flirted ?” “Oh, it’s not really worse in a man than in a woman. It’s heartless aud mean, and contemptible on either side.” “But, Miss Graham,” remonstrated the man, “it doesn’t follow always that flirting merits all the hard names you give it. Sometimes I fancy, it may be a very innocent form of amusement.” “Ah, you don’t understand, you don’t know.” said the girl, earnestly. “You are too simple and honorable yourself to guess what it may mean when it’s ‘innocent amusement’ on one side and not on the other. That game is so seldom played fairly on both sides. Perhaps I should have thought like you but for something that happened when 1 was very young. I can never forget—l can never think iightly of flirting again——” Her voice stopped with a little quick catch of the breath; tbe man looked at her with a face full of sympathy and interest. Presently she went on again: “I’ll tell you, if you like; it doesn’t matter now who knows. I had a friend—my dearest friend, though she was some years older than I. She died six years ago, and 1 was with her much of the time that she was ill. They called it all sorts of things, aud no one knew but I that she died of a broken heart. I suppose it was one of those cases of innocent amusement

“Her people used to go every summer to a little watering place, where they had a cottage and a boat One year there was a young man there, handsome, clever and attractive, and with some halo of romance and heroism about him that made him specially interesting Mabel liked him from the first, and when he began to devote himself to her, as he did almost at once, there grew up an understanding between them that, in Mabel’s eyes, was equivalent to an engagement. You see my friend was quite incapable of flirting, imd it never occurred to her that an honorably. man could mean anything but that. Of course, in her eyes, this man was the embodiment of honor, and courage, and every other virtue. “Mabel had said nothing to her people. There was no formal engagement, you know, bo ring, and Mabel was a sby

and sensitive girt. She dreaded the publicity and tbe fuss of congratulations. She was not afraiu of opposition, her lover was a good enough parti, and she was glad that no one should know for a little . while. One day she awoke to the fact that she ought, perhaps, to speak. Her I lover had persuaded her to meet him by the river, after dusk, and they were to go for a row. Mabel bad rather reluctantly consented to this plan, for her people were rather straight-laced, and she did not think they would like it. In fact, after first intending to tell her mother, as a matter of course, as the day wore on she found it more and more difficult to speak of it. She worried herself quite ill, for she did not want to break her promise, and she could see no way of keeping it. As luck would have it, her people were going next door for a quiet rubber after dinner. Mabel looked so wretched that her mother suggested she should stay at home and go early to bed, and she gladly accepted the excuse. . “As soon as they were gone she put on a light wrap and hastened to the trysting place, determining as she went that she j would ask her lover to speak to her people next day. The path by the river was a private footway used by tbe residents anfi visitors by courtesy of the owner. The meeting-place was an old boat-house, about a mile and a half away. When Mabel reached it she was hot and exhausted, for she had hurried, partly because she was a little late and partly from nervousness. She heard the sound of oars out in the stream, and paused a moment lo listen, thinking it was her lover’s boat, but it was going towards the harbor, and the sound soon died away. She sat down on a log and waited. Presently footsteps coming along the path made her jump up in a fright. A terror of discovery suddenly came over her. She crept round the boat-house, gently pushed the door open, and stepped inside, so that she was quite hidden by the shatlo v. The footsteps stopped close by and Mabel was in fear that her hiding place would be discovered. Presently she heard more footsteps, and then voices; a party of three or four girls had come out for an evening walk. They did not pass the boat-house, however, and after a little while they turned and retracted their steps. Mabel waited until their voices died away in the distance, and then followed them stealthily. She was cold and dizzy, but she did not dare to hurry lest she should overtake them. She got home without having been seen by any one, and went straight to bed.

“In the morning she was very ill, low fever the doctor said, and it was some days before she was able to see any one, At last, when she was getting better, she learned the truth. Her lover had gone away—had left the country the very night that he had asked her to meet him, no one knew how or why. ‘Called away on business,’ his people gave out, and nobody else had any explanation to offer. But Mabel knew, for in the early days of her convalescence, when she was allowed to sit in an armchair on the veranda, or to huve her bath-chair pulled Up among the bracken and heather on the headland, first one and then another of her own personal girl friends came and sobbed out just such another story of heartbreak and deception. And not a word of explanation or repentance did he send to any one of them. Mabel kept her own counsel, and no one suspected that her illness was anything but physical. She never got j really well again. They took her abroad, j but she never seemed to get auy stronger, j At last she begged them to take her home : and let her die in peace, and the doctors ■ said they might as well let her have her way. So they took her back tc the little | house at Seafield”—

“Seafield!” The half-burnt cigar dropped from the man’s nervous fingers as the word broke from him involuntarily. “Yes, do you know Seafield?” asked the girl in surprise. “And your friend—was it Mabel Calmsac?” Ilis face had gone very pale under the tan. “Mabel Cahusac, yes. Oh! Captain Aldenham, did you know Mabel?” “I met her—once," Fred Aldenham spoke with a great effort. “Miss Graham, did you hear—the name—of the man?” “No,” said the girl, sadly, “Mabel would not tell me that. And I don’t even know whether his people were visitors or residents in the place. I am sorry, because I have so wished I could meet the man and see him get the punishment he deserves. But, you see, I might meet him without ever knowing.” “For which he may thank heaven,” said Aldenham fervently. “You knew Seafield and you knew Mabel!" said the girl, softly and wonderingly. “How strange it all seems ! The place has often been in my mind since I came here. The river sounds just like this, and the gardens slope down to its banks just like the compound here.” “Yes,” said Aldeuham in a low tone. “It was of Seafield I was thinking when I said the place reminded me of home. 1 like to shut my eyes, sometimes, aud forget the palms and the tree ferns, aud fancy that the wind is stirring in the oaks and beeches of the old garden.” “I don’t wonder yon long for home,” said the girl, gently. “Seafield is such a lovely spot! It must have been hard to come away.”

“Yes,” said Aldenham, rising suddenly. “When a man gets to my age things begin to alter. When I was a youngster I wanted to see life. I wanted to get as much fun out of the old show as possible, and I was glad of the chance of getting in touch with a younger, freer, more spontaneous growth of civilization. I tried everything, Miss Graham. I’ve he%led cattle on the prairie, I’ve washed for gold in an African river. And finally, fate landed me here, in the midst of an English society, more conventional, more dull, more corrupt than any I could find at home, id order that I might learn, I suppose, the value of the English life I had forfeited. I have learnt it, and I long for nothing better now than a cozy house in my native place, with a few acres to farm, and a boijt on the river. I want to know my brothers’ and sisters’ children, aud, before it’s too late, I want to see my mother.”

There was silence for a few moments; the girl was deeply moved, but she could think of nothing that was not trite and commonplace to say. The endless sweet song of the river beneath them seemed to be mocking at the human passion it had stirred. “Miss Graham,” said Aldenham, speaking with sudden resolve, “I’ve donfe many things in my life that you would not like —that I don’t like myself; but I believe no man can feel himself worthy of the woman he asks to be his wife. Perhaps—there may be some things you would put against that on the other side. I don’t wau’t to plead that; if there’s any hope for me it won’t be because I deserve it, but because ” “Oh, please don’t say anything more— I’m sq sorry, so very, very sorry.” The girl had risen and was standing before him with a face of utter bewilderment and .consternation. “Oh, Captain Aldenham, I never knew, I never guessed—oh, I hope you didn’t think ” “No, I had no right to think—anything,” said the man, gravely and sadly.

‘‘Miss Graham, if I wait—is there no hope for me?" The girl shook her head. “It would be no use,” she said. “Miss Graham—will you tell me —is there some one else?" Alison lifted her head, and steadied her voice by an effort. “Yes, Captain Aldenham;” she said, “there is—some one else.” She held out her hand to him in farewell. and he took it a moment between both his own. “Then good-by,” be said. “Good-by,” said Alison, gently: then she turned and went swiftly in through the window. Fred Aldenham stood a moment listening to the wash of the river. Then he drew a cigar from his case, and cut the end off slowly and deliberately. “Poor Mabel,” he said, as be lighted it, “after all, she has her revenge.”

FIREPLACE MOTTOES.

They Can Be Etched Into Wood With a Hot Poker. Over the fireplace, in straggling letters, may be carved in the wood, or fired upon the tiling, appropriate devices and sentences. It is not an expensive fad, and is something indicative of real individuality. As instances, “Welcome ye to this cottage by the sea,” or “Welcome ye to the cot by the old oak tree,” or whatever tree be nearest. Again, “Come, bask in my cheerful warmth : ” “ Find in my fire, your heart’s desire;” “Good cheer, find ye here;” “In gladsome mirth, gather around my hearth;” "Shall I not take mine ease beside my fireside?” These or other mottoes might be etched into wood, for a cottage, by poker work, a decoration of which too little is generally known. Pyrography.as it is designated, is done after a little practice by any one having the least art training or dexterity and precision in drawing. While there are sets of tools by winch finished work can be done, a small-pointed poker, heated either over a spirit lamp, or in a coal fire, can be made the instrument for fine effects. Not only lettering for mantels, but designs in lights and shadows, for panels, screens, picture frames, cabinets and brackets are made by the poker point. Good, well seasoned wood, free from knots and cracks, must be used to expect good results. It is said by experts that elm shows the blackest tracings, but that sycamore, holly and lime, followed by the oak, ash and elm, lend themselves readily to this work.

On any simple design or lettering the beginner can practice. There are but few rules. The bright woman will soon find the limitations and the beauties of pyrography. The beginner should trace upon a panel a simple design, perfectly geometrical, and with the heated poker or point follow the pattern with light, quick strokes. She should avoid resting the poker for an instant, even, on first touching the wood or upon leaving it, under the penalty of leaving an unsightly hard dot or point. Where the shadows are deep the point can be slowly touched again and again. With practice the amateur can shade the wood etching from any conceivable depth of shadow to the high lights, which are the untouched wood. It is well to first lightly trace the outlines, when the iron can afterwards go over the deeper portions at pleasure. The dark background is made by fine parallel lines crossed diagonally by others. The same rules in regard to leaving the design untouched should be observed, as in any other kind of drawing.

What Electricity is Doing.

The Mining and Scientific Press thus sums up the uses to which electricity is applied. It enters into the preparation of what we eat, drink and wear, and there are many articles of utility now produced by its aid. The residents of many citizens in the United States have their houses protected, lighted and heated by electricity. They go to their places of business in cars run by electricity, the elevator by which they reach their office in high buildings, or the machinery in their factory, is run by electricity, the bell which summons them to church is rung by electricity and the church organ is played by electricity. Electricity brings the news to them from all parts of the earth; stamps their letters, automatically sounds the alarm in case of fire, rings the door bell, cooks the food, and fans them while eating it. When they go to the dentist their teeth are drilled and filled by electricity, and miniature electric lamps are now constructed for the use of doctors in diagnozing diseases. The patient swallows a lighted lamp, which illuminates his person so as to enable the physician to make a correct diagnosis. The barber cuts or singes the hair by means of electricity, the streets are lighted and the farm cultivated by it. By means of it we can talk with our friends 500 or 1,000 miles away and hear their voices as distinctly as though they were in the same room. The telephone is perhaps in more general use in this country than electric lighting. Even in small towns telephones form apart of the furniture of many private houses, and are used to transmit orders to the butcher, baker, etc. There are now some eighty-five electric railways in the United States and 9,000 miles of track, employing 28,000 cars. With the aid of electricity natural forces which have heretofore run to waste are being turned to the service of mankind. The American River has already been made to furnish motor power by which Sacramento. Cal., is lighted,and by which its street cars and factories are run, and new projects are in progress all over the State.

Smallest Colliery in the World.

The little village of Nelson, England, has the distinction of possessing the small, est colliery in the world. It is situated near the Colliers’ Arms, and affords employment to two workmen. These are father and son, and they combine in themselves tbe proprietors, managers, miners and hauliers of the undertaking. There is no siding connecting the works with any railway, and all the output is sold to the householders who live in the village and its surroundings. It should be stated that a stout little donkey does duty for a horse, and performs his work well. The coal has a ready sale and commands a good price.

THE JOKER'S BUDGET.

JESTS AND YARNS BY FUNNY MEN OF THE PRESS. Professional Success--Tha This Disag room ant-- Motherly Kind-neat--Certitude-- Etc., Etc. PROFESSIONAL success. Fnend—Were you successful with your first case ? The Doctor—Yes; his widow paid the bill. Tint TRUE DISAGREES!Err. “Going to live in the country, eh ?” “Yes." “I suppose city air doesn’t agree with your family?" “Well, city airs don’t agree with my pocket book.” MOTHERLY KINDNESS. Little Boy—Tommy Wing’s mother is awful good and kind to him. Mamina—What has she done that is so thoughtful ? Little Boy—Let him have meaales just the day school began. CERTITUDE. When I hang up the racket, The paddle, and bat, When my red Tam o’ Shanter Supplants my straw hat; When the cranberry’s ripe and The turkey is fat, Thanksgiving is coming, I’m certain of that! AMBIGUOUS. Poet—Did you get my Book of Bonnets I sent you ? His Friend—Oh, yes—delightful! I couldn’t sleep till I’d read ’em. TOO MUCH GO. “Yes, there is a good deal of go to Bridget*” said Mrs. Birmingham, who was recommending a cook to Mrs. Hilltop. “Then I don’t want her,” replied the latter. “My great complaint against the cooks I have had is that they go too soon." EASILY EXPLAINED, Mabel—How did Jack happen to propose a second time ? Florence—Because I refused him the first time, of course. YOUTnFUL BRAVERY. Doctor—Now, Tommie, will you promise me to take your medicine like a man ? Tommie—No, sir; when a man takes medicine he makes a bad face and swears. FORGETFULNESS. “I tell you what it is, my boy, I’m losing my memory. I can’t tell to-mor-row what I did to-day.” “You don’t say so! You couldn’t lend me $5, could you ? BUT COMPANY DOESN’T LOVE MISERY. Mrs. Wigwag—l’m afraid I’ve made enemies of all the callers I had to-day. I felt too miserable to entertain them. Wigwag—l always thought misery loved company. SMART LAWYER. “I tell you what, the lawyer is a cute fellow and no mistaite! I ought to know, for lie lately defended my son.” “How’s that? I thought your son had been sentenced ?” “Yes, but only for a twelvemonth!” REFINED SPITEFULNESS. “Can you tell me how old Miss Brilliant is, Miss Spleen ?" ‘ ‘Oh! no, indeed ! You mu9t some one older than I am.” RETORT DISCOURTEOUS. She—You’re just like all the rest of the men. Here we’ve been married only a year and you never kiss me unless I ask you to. He—Huh! You’re just like all tbe rest of the women. You never think to ask me to kiss you unless you want money. PROMOTING SCIENCE. She—Do you think germs are conveyed by kissing? He—(thoughtfully)—l don’t know, but we might try aud see. BROKE TOE SILENCE. For a long lime after he had succeeded in inserting himself through the door, at 3 a.m., she regarded him in silence. At length she spake. Also, she spake at length. SURE TO BE TRUE. “You know, George,” she was explaining, “I was brought up without any care.” “Marry me, my darling,” said George, “and you shall have nothing else but care.” FULLY EXPLAINED. “What is the reason that the top drawer of a boarding-house bureau will never either open or 9hut?” asked the newlyarrived guest. “Possibly,” answered her friend, “it is due to the quality of the board.” VALUABLE CONTENTS. Railroad Official—l must say you put rather a high value on that trnnk. What’s in it? Passenger—l don’t know. My wife packed it. Official—Hum! Perhaps your estimate is correct. If a woman did the packing, everything in the house is in it.

AGE OF ANIMALS.

Falcons and Ravens Sometimes Celebrate Their Golden Weddings. Many animals live to a surprising age, retaining their vitality so long that it is difficult for man to count their years. Of all, the oldest, or rather the one retaining the greatest longevity, is the Greenland whale, which, if the inferences from its growth be correct .lasts between three or four hundred years.

The king of beasts probably prowls his native heath three score and ten years, for even in confinement he has been known to live this period. A lion known as Pompey remained in the tower of London over seventy years, and his age was unknown when captured. Another brought from the River Gambia, died at the age of sixty-three. Leopards, bears and tigers live about twenty-five or thirty years; the camel, forty and more; the rhinoceros and hippopotamus, from seventy to eighty, and the elephant certainly warrior, captured an elephant from Porus, a King of India, and inscribed upon a brass plate the history of the victory. After this was securely fastened the animal was set at liberty, and it turned up 850 years afterward, still having the plate recording the sto;*y.

The tortoise lives an astonishing time. Several specimens of the Indian variety are to be seen in the zoological gardens of London, promenading injheir quiet fashion, though each is icnown to be over 200 years old. Two very antiquated tortoises reside near York, England, which were brought from Rochelle soon after the siege in 1628, and were personally acquainted in all probability with Joan of Arc. A document called the Bishop’s Barn, among the archives of Peterborough Cathedral, contains some astonishing details of. a tortoise, which dwelt in the palace garden over 200 years. The Bishop s predecessor remembered it over sixty years, and he was the seventh Bishop whose mitre had been seen by the venerable reptile. Its shell was perforated and attached to a chain so that it might roam the garden without a keeper or straying away. Another tortoise appeared at Lambeth Palace about the year 1625, during Archbishop Laud’s residence there, but it died in 1758, through the neglect of the gardener. Some of the birds live to a green old age also. Falcons and ravens sometimes celebrate their golden weddings as they attain to a hundred years and more; pelicans and herons live fifty years; peacocks, twenty; hawks, thirty; geese a hundred; nightingales, over ten; domestic fowls, ten years, and thrushes and other wood and field birds acquire from eight to nine, while wrens do not survive three years. The age to which a swan may live is differently estimated. Bacon said a hundred, and Goldsmith declared 300. Certainly, in 1627 a swan lived in Holland, in the town of Alkmar, wearing a collar dated 1562, and in Molleson’s museum, England, there is a stuffed bird known to fame as the “old swan of Dun,” which died in 1823, aged 200 years.

Instances of Telepathy.

The following examples of telepathic action are known to the writer, W. J. Colville, as authentic instances of the action of mind with mind without expectation or preconcerted plan. During the recent World’s Fair Mrs. A was frequently thinking of her nephew, Mr. Z , who was enjoying a few weeks’ vacation in Chicago, while she remained in Boston. On the 15th of August, 1893, Mrs- A attended evening service in a certain church, and during the sermon, feeling a sense of drowsiness came over her, suddenly felt transported to the fair grounds in Chicago. It wasa. little after 8 p. m. in Boston, and consequently about 7 o’clock in Chicago, when the electric illumination of the exposition garden and buildings was just beginning. The lady, dozing in the church more thau one thousand miles away, saw the great buildings lighted up one by one as if by magic, the whole scene appearing as an enchanted fairyland. In the midst of the brilliant spectacle she distinctly saw her nephew walking with two young men, to one of who he suddenly exclaimed, •‘Oh, Alfred, who I wish my aunt were here to enjoy this.” Two days later Mrs. A received an interesting letter from Mr. Z , in which he detailed his experience at the fair and included this sentence in the description of the brilliant illumination on the evening of Aug. 15, that being his first visit on the grounds after 6 p. m“I said to one of my companions, ‘Oh, Alfred, how I wish my aunt were here to enjoy this, ’ and as I spoke I felt you were close beside me and continued walking with me forat least ten minutes.” Whatever may be the solution of so strange a phenomenon, it seems incredible that the threadbare explanation conveyed in the term “conscience” should be proffered to account for so remarkable an occurrence. A few days afterward the same lady received from her nephew, then about to leave for Chicago, the following mental message while she was quietly engaged in household duties: “Don’t expect me till Thursday evening after 9 o’clock, as I have decided to leave on a later train than the one I expected to take when I last wrote to you.” Two days later Mrs. A received from Mr. X a postal card containing the words. The message had reached her mentally in Boston while he was writing it in Chicago.

Lofty Mountains in the Sea.

There exists in the great ocean between Australia and New Caledonia a range of mighty submarine mountains, whose limestone top 3 rise within 300 fathoms of the surface. The discovery of these peaks, rising sheer 7,500 feet from the bottom of the deep sea, was made by the men who have just finished laying the, first section of the trans-Pacific cable. Sir Audley Coote, who was at the head of the cable expedition, arrived here yesterday on the steamer Alameda from Sydney, New South Wales. He said: “The sea from Australia to New Caledonia has been surveyed by a British and by an American vessel. Your Albatross went there and did some very good work, but as it happened, both this expedition and the other missed the strange feature of the ocean that I can describe. We had anticipated no great difficulty in laying the cable section, and did not find any until suddenly the bottom of the ocean began to rise. We were forced to cut the cable there in midocean and to buoy up the ends. It was then found that what had hindered us was a range of submarine mountains.

“There is nothing else like this in the world that I know of. The mountains rise in abrupt peaks, and are hard limestone and granite. By careful measurement we found that the peaks were more than 7,000 feet on the average, and the highest of them 7,500 feet from the bottom of the ocean. than 300 fathoms from the surface of the water we found the tops of the highest mountains. The range extends for nearly seventy-five miles—that is, measuring from the extreme northerly to the extreme southerly point. To lay the cable around this range took forty-eight miles more of cable than we had counted on . We had to go around the peaks as a railroad would go around a mountain on land. ”

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

So many sheriffs in the West and South have added bloodhounds to their force of criminal trackers that the price of the animals is increasing, and the raising of them is becoming quite a business, notably, perhaps, in Kentucky. One hundred dollars is sold to be an average price for a good bloodhound pup now. The imports of coffee for the last fiscal year are the largest single item on the list They amount to $96,130,000. This immense sum purchased nothing except the soothing effect coffee has on the nerves of most people. Yet most people would probably deny that a soothing effect could possibly be worth $96,000,000. It is said that no steam locomotive has ever equalled the record made by an electric locomotive in Baltimore. At its latest test it hauled three steam locomotives and forty-four loaded cars up a heavy grade at the rate of twelve miles an hour. In view of such results experts are beginning to think that the electric locomotive is at last a practical reality with revolution in it. A writer in the London Field says he has been told that in the United States “they would stick at nothing” to win u sporting contest—“not even at poisoning a horse, perhaps a man.” Of course not facetiously comments the New York Tribune. We could give the Borgias points. The last census showed that deaths from poisoning in sporting contests were more numerous than from all other causes put together.

“A really fashionable man must this year have five overcoats,” remarks the New York Herald fashion editor in profound analysis of this fall’s fashions for men. These various necessary garments are known as the “Chesterfield” (doublebreasted and cut long), the “Paletot" (over dress suit—very long), the “surtout” (short and soft—for walking), the “coaching coat” (long), and the “furlined” (for severe weather). Whew! A peculiar case of fire on shipboard was that which damaged the bark Aunie Stafford at Dieppe, France, recently, the facts in the case having been learned at the investigation into the tire. It seems that the vessel carried as ballast about fifty tons of flint stones. While lying light alongside the quay the vessel pitched and rolled, and this produced friction between the stones, which is said to have caused a spark or sparks which ignited the ceiling. As the bark had previously carried cargoes of petroleum, the interior woodwork was naturally in fine condition for taking fire. '1 he Director-General of Railways in India reports that some forty-five different railway projects have recently been approved by the Government and are now in course of construction, The various lines will, when completed, aggregate 6,163 miles of railway. The private enterprises are encouraged by certain concessions from, the Government, such as free use of land and provision of rolling stock. The Parliamentary Commission which has investigated into the resources of India has reported that 60,000 mile 3 of railway are needed in India to develop the resources of the country. Tiie German Emperor has one very singular peculiarity. He cannot bear to have any one look at him when he is saying his prayers in church, and in order that the curiosity of his subjects shall not disturb his religious devotions he lias issued the following unparalleled order: “As soon as I enter church every one is on the qui vive to look at me, a thing which annoys me exlenely. I therefore desire that all shall a istain from this curiosity when I go on Sunday to hear Divine service. Those who desire to have a good view of me can do so every day when I take my walk in the Thiergarden or dr<Ve in my carriage. ”

The Courier-Journal tells of a curious case of a female tobacco fiend near Lynn, Ky. She is a Miss Drake, aged 16 years, who lias acquired such an ungovernable appetite for tobacco that it bids fair to de. stroy her unless she soon obtains relief. She began usiug the weed in small quantities about a year ago, and so fast did the habit grow upon her that in three months she was consuming two pounds of leaf tobacco a week. Her parents grew alarmed and forced her to discontinue its use, but so great was her suffering that she twice attempted suicide. For the past six months she has used four pounds every week, haviug a large chew in her mouth at all times when she is not eating, even sleeping with a quid under her tongue. She is emaciated to a mere skeleton, having lost forty-three pounds in weight since she began the use of the weed. The doctors have tried every known remedy to destroy the appetite, but without success.

Useful Roadside Trees.

We notice with pleasure that some of the correspondents of our Western contemporaries are advocating the planting of both fruit and nut trees along the highways in place of those kinds that bear nothing in the way of food for either man or beast. One writer admits that the nut trees are just as handsome and yield just as much shade as maples and elms,while they bear something of economic value in addition . The idea that the boys and others passing along the roads would take all the nuts is only true where there is only a tree or two of such kinds in many miles, for it is rarity and scarcity which excites our curiosity and acquisitiveness. If at first a man should fail to reap much of economic value from the fruit or nut trees planted along the roadside he would be no worse off than if the ordinary kinds were planted, for from these he does not expect anything but shade and a little sentiment in the way of fine appearance.

A Great Band of Elks.

A correspondent of Shooting and Fishing, writing from Cora, Wy., gives an account of a band of elks that came under her observation a year ago. The correspondent and her husband were driving home from a railroad station with a load of supplies. The snow was between one and three feet deep. The band when it was sighted extended backward like a great black streak for fully three miles, and was pouring over the hill in front like a torrent to the river. The trail of the elks was clearly marked in the snow and was fully two rods wide. From an estimate of the time it required for the band to traverse the section from where the animals were first seen until the last one had passed it is estimated that between six and seven thousand elks were in movement. The highest chimney in the world is at Glasgow, Scotland. Height, 474 feet. & The deepest artesian well is at Bu : dapest, Huumry. Depth 8,140 feet.

THE LIME KILN CLUB.

Brother Gardner Eulogizes ■ Departed Member. As soon as the secretary had finished the roll Brother Gardner called for the report of the Committee on Astronomy, which should have been handed in two weeks ago. Asteroid Johnson, chairman of the committee, promptly stood up and read the report. There had been considerable discussion in the club as to what influence the sun had on the weather, and the committee had thoroughly investigated the matter. The sun, as the committee understood it, was manufactured and hung out for the purpose of encouraging photographers, laundresses, hay-makers and house painters, and the idea that it has any visible effect upon weather 93,000,000 miles away was not to be seriously thought of. The late re markable summer was rather to be laid to the supposed sliding of the North Pole a distance of over 3,u00 mile south from its usual position. This being the meeting when the quarterly report on agriculture was due, Subsoil Davis, chairman, arose and reported as follows: 1. More cucumbers will be harvested this fall than ever before in the history of America, and pickles are bound to be cheap next winter, no matter what the price of coal. 2. Wheat is only two-thirds of a crop, but this will save a great deal of handling and wear and tear and give freight cars and grist-mills a rest. 8. Ninety out of every 100 watermelons received in the northern markets this season have been green. The ten ripe ones have been reserved by the commission men. We submit whether it would not be a good idea for the public to learn to enjoy the taste of green melons? It would save time, money, waste and hard feelings, and prices would probably be cheaper. 4.—Considering the weather, scandals, earthquakes, cyclones and elopements, the crops in general average more than could have been looked for and we see no cause for lamentation.

The secretary announced a communication from Montgomery, Ala., asking if the Lime Kiln Club wouldassist the next congress in conducting the affairs of the country. Brother Gardner read the letter over twice and then arose and replied: “ Dat will depend altogether on de ackshun of congriss towards dis organizashun. If we am inwited to mix in an’ assist we shall do so wid great cheerfulness; if we am not inwited we shall go ahead an’ run our sheer of America an’ let congriss fool around wid the balance.”

Col. Contraband Smith, chairman of the committee on decorative art, announced a new scale of prices to be adopted for the fall and winter season, and after some debate they were accepted. The increase over summer rates is about ten per cent. Stove pipe will be blacked and put up at the rate of $24 per mile with extra for elbows. Wood-sawing will remain at the same figures, whether the sawyer is asked to eat dinner with the family or not. Brother Gardner then arose and said it was his sorrowful duty to announce the death of Uncle Jim Whitestope, which took place only the previous day, and continued: “You knew him to be old an’ feeble an’ sort o’ waitin’ to go, an* yet de news surprises you. A week ago he sot heah wid us, to-night he am lyin’in his coffin. Sich am de onsartainties of life. I liasknowed Uncle Jim since we was chil’en togeder in de far away days. When he realized dat de summons was drawin’ he sent fur me, an’ I sot beside him, when de angel took his speerit an’ flew away. ‘ ‘Uncle Jim was a poo’ old black man, unlettered,unlarnea, an’ lookin’ back only to y’ars of toil an’ privashun an’ sorrow. He saw poverty, woe an’ misfortune in almos’every month of his life, an’ yit how did he die?

“Dar’ was sunthin grand in that death-bed scene,” continued Brother Gardner in a whisper. ‘ ‘Eighty y’ars of toil an’ anxiety an’sufferin’was drawin’ to a close. A life in which dar’ had bin many clouds an’ leetle sunshine was about to end. “I see him as de sinkin’summer sun crept inter der winder an’ turned his white h’ar to de color ob silver. He woke from his soft sleep, an’ dar was sich Jhappiness in his eyes an’ sich glory in his face as I nebber saw befo’. He listened like one who h’ars de far-off sounds of sweet music, an’ the glory deepened as he reached out his hands to me and whispered: “ ‘ I kin see my ole wife an’ de chill’en up dar! I kin see glory an’ rest an’ peace I I kin look across de dark valley an’ see sich happiness as I nebber dream ofl’ ’.’ “An’he passed away like a babe failin’ asleep, an’ you who go up dar’ to-morrer will fin’ dat same glorious smile lighting up de face of dedead. He has suffered an’ believed an’ had faith an’ had gone to his reward. He had been dispised fur his color, ridiculed fur his ignerence an 'scorned fur his faith in de hereafter, an' yit no king eber died wid sich a smile on his face an’ wid sich happiness in his heart. Peace to his ashes! While we mourn fur him we shall still rejoice dat he has gone to his reward. Let us break de meetin ’ n tw<j an’ go home.

Manufacture of Precious Stones.

Since science has demonstrated that artificial rubies can be manufactured, there is little doubt that before long diamonds and other gems will also be turned out from the laboratory. It can scarcely be said that made rubies are not genuine, as they differ in no respect of material or appearance from the stones manufactured by nature, but it is declared possible to distinguish them by means of a microscope. It is a curious caprice that will discard an article as spurious merely, because it is turned out of the laboratory of man instead of nature, especially when there is no difference between the two products.

Odorless Onions.

A new luxury in the vegetable lino is announced. It is called the" Spanish odorless onion; it is imported from Spain; varies in size from six to twelve inches! and in looks closely resembles the ordinary onion. They are sweet, and can be eaten as apples at any time, with little fear of an offensive breath.