Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 20, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 22 May 1896 — Page 4

WORTH WINNING

CHAPTER XIV. Very different was the anxiety with which Camilla Harding looked forward to the promised visit of her Horace on the day which followed the above interview between uncle and nephew. She longed for it with a feverish joy which prevented her sitting still or settling down to any sort of occupation for three consecutive minutes, from the time she rose from breakfast. But, if waiting for three o’clock to come was an excitement more painful than pleasurable, what shall be said of the change for the worse as that hour, then the quarter, then the half hour struck, and no Horace appeared ? It seems like a work of supererogation to explain the events of that eventful night more clearly than has already been done, and to say, in so many words, why sweet Lilia’s conscience, as regarded Horace, was light and at rest. No one will of course have doubted her tor a moment, nor fail to recognize in the seeming Romeo her erratic, erring, but still affectionate, and in face and above all, in figure, admirably preserved father. Neither were you puzzled to know that Cyril Acton had a connection with the affair, and without such a guide and gobetween, that nocturnal conspiracy of a man and his daughter—separated for more than a whole year—to meet for a few brief minutes, could certainly not have been successfully carried out, in a Country and on premises quite unknown to the chief actor in the scene. Acton had simply ridden over to a certain signpost, as arranged between them by correspondence; had there met Cave Harding, who had walked by the side of the Chestnut hack, as far as the spot where •Horace found the animal tied to a railing. Thence the friends had walked together Within a stone’s throw of Camilla’s windows. As has been seen, Cave advanced clone to his child immediately on the •troke of twelve, while Acton, whom Camilla never even saw on that night, kept Watch around, being equally on the alert for any movement from within the house, nay, more so, than out of it. Thanks, however, for Horace’s caution and previous acquaintance with the ground, he tecaped Cyril’s vigilance. Well, the nocturnal interview had endid by their both agreeing that it was very delightful, but very wrong and foolish, and must on no account be risked again. Acton was to contrive an occasional correspondence until such time as this model parent's “little speculations” should bear sufficient fruit to enable him and his daughter to “snap their fingers at the old eat,” as Cave irreverently put it, at which remark Lilia, I am afraid, laughed. Thus it will be seen that the ill-fated girl could have no suspicion that she had incurred her lover’s displeasure, and that thought, at least, was not added to her other miseries on this dreadful Monday afternoon. For the hundredth time Camilla strays to one of the windows which look on the approach, and pressing her forehead against the rain-beaten pane to cool it, strains her eyes through the wet and foggy distance in vain. Tuesday morning broke somber and rainy, like the day before. The post-bag contained a letter from Massing, but it was not from the right person, being merely a line from Sir Howard, saying that he should be passing the Silvermead lodge gates on his way to a political meeting at the other side of the eoifnty, and fnild stop and ask for luneon on his way. Camilla’s face began to resume much of its wonted brightness as the luncheon hour drew near. No doubt Sir Howard’s announced descent upon them, albeit that he Baid he should be passing, was susceptible of a very favorable interpretation indeed. What more natural than that, on Horace telling him of the course he had taken, his uncle should have given a qualified consent, stipulating that no further step be taken until he had himself seen I*dy Prendergast, and made his own conditions; and in such a case Sir Howard would very likely have undertaken to verbally excuse Horace for not having kept his appointment of the previous day. Sir Howard’s visit was probably not •o completely a matter of chance as he would have it appear. True, he owed Lady Prendergast a visit and was not at all loath to break a dreary drive of over a dozen miles through a soaking country by stopping at Silvermead for a snack and a chat. But, as we have seen, the tales he had been told about his nephew and this young girl had exercised his spirit in no common degree, and now that Horace had acceded to all his wishes, never even hinting at any attachment for Camilla, and had gone off to London for the express purpose of pushing his suit with Lady Susan, there was no doubt *«me feeling of curiosity at work in the uncle, which prompted him to come and judge for himself of the state of affairs. As for the did lady—time had somewhat dulled her mortal vision, and, to a less extent, her general perceptions. She was, therefore, at the moment the least disturbed of the three. It was in her most ordinary manner and tone that she •aid, after hands had been shaken; “This is a kindly thought of yours, Sir Howard, to take pity upon two lone women. Come and sit down near the fire.” “I assure you, Lady Prendergast, the gain is mine. Besides, lam a lone man now. My nephew has gone off to his first London season.” “Already!” said the dowager, surprised. “Yes; he went yesterday. Well, there is a good deal for him to do, one way and another. I have just put him into the yeomanry, and there is his uniform to get. Then Lord Caulfield is to present him—a horse or two to buy—and ” “Then we shall see him no more for the present V put in Camilla, who had not yet spoken. “Why, no; not unless you are going up to adorn some of the London balls, Miss Harding; he will be at them all, I promise you.” "‘Oh, I am not going up, but if I did,” •he added, with a proud smile and a secret effort, “I do not know that I should dance with Mr. Brudenell.” “Indeed! Is he so bad a performer?” “Oh, dear, no, a very good waltzer, but — “Why, then?” “Well, Sir Howard, he —he asked particularly if I—if we should be at hime yesterday, Monday; I said we should be very happy to see him, and —he never came.” Daring this speech Camilla kept np an Attempt at laughter and a bantering tone. “Reallyr exclaimed Sir Howard, with Mfeigned surprise, “I was not aware ”

BY JEAN MIDDLEMAS.

“Now, was not that detestably rude for a new acquaintance?” pursued the poor child, more lightly still “Rudeness is not one of Horace’s faults,” said the baronet, half to himself, and lapsing suddenly into a brown study. “I am as puzzled as you are — hum ” The topic continued to absorb him, and during a short conversation which followed between himself and his hostess, he was so absent that he twice had to ask her to repeat some remark. This was a small thing, the talk being only of a new gardener and some flowers that cheered the rooms, but to Camilla it was a feather which showed how the wind blew. The anxious uncle was meanwhile asking himself why Horace had formally announced a visit to Silvermead; why, having done so, he failed to keep the appointment; why, failing, he had sent neither message nor note of excuse ? About half an hour after they quitted the dining room, and when the conservatory had been duly inspected and the usual little commonplaces of leave-taking all spoken by these three goodly personages, Sir Howard’s well-appointed brougham and pair came round, and bore him away externally serene; but, ail the same, with a strong suspicion on his mind that he was leaving two quite sorrowing hearts behind him.

CHAPTER XV. When three weeks had passed anp Camilla had received no word the spirit of self-preservation spoke at last in our little heroine, and she resolved, after infinite deliberation, to write a long letter to Horace. It was ns follows; “My Dear Horace—l am perhaps calling you so for the last time, yet I cannot begin my letter in any other "way, because, until I know more, I will not condemn you. “It is no use my telling you how you have behaved to me, because you know better than I do how badly it is. I have almost worn my brain out with trying to account for it, or explain it in any conceivable way. “By dint of pondering and pondering, and, indeed, praying hard for light, I have come to ask myself whether something I did between our last meeting and the Monday when you were to have come here, is not the key to the whole trouble. My grandmother will not nllow me to see my father. I have always loved him more than I think even other girls love theirs. He has had great misfortunes. We arranged and carried out a meeting at midnight on the Saturday after I saw you. It was here close to the house. Mr. Acton helped us. We were together for nearly half an hour and no one found us out. At least I ought to say not that I know of. “Now, supposing my meeting with my father was discovered by some prying servants, gamekeeper or other person, and that it thus from mouth to mouth reached your ear, I say I can imagine that you, after taking due measure for ascertaining that the information was trustworthy, should say to yourself—never dreaming that it was my own father that I had met; ‘Here is a girl who is utterly bad. No courtesy or consideration is due her.’ Oh my dear Horace, I hope that I am right! for I can bear my present anguish no more, indeed I cannot. “The thought strikes me that you will write at once, that I may be the happiest girl in England or out of it. "Ever till death, your own “CAMILLA.” There had been, some time before, much talk of getting from London a stained glass window for the conservatory. Lady Prendergast had spoken one day to Cyril Acton about it. Glass chanced to be rather a hobby of his, and he recommended a certain firm in Lambeth for executing the work. Subsequently two or three notes had passed between them relative to this. “Oh, by-the-bye, dearest,” said Lady Prendergast that day, “here are the measurements of the sash; I wish you would write to good, kind Mr. Acton "for me, and inclose them. Say I like the design particularly.” Here, then, was her opportunity. Acton, who moved in the same society, had probably met Horace several times already since she had introduced them to one another. At any rate, even if Acton did not know the latter’s address, nothing could be easier than for him to find it out. Needless to say she at once accepted the old lady’s commission, and having fulfilled it, added: “I have to bother you also with a favor I want you to do for me. If you do not happen to know Mr. Horace Brudenell’s address, will you kindly find it out and send him the inclosed letter from me? I shall perhaps some day tell you more upon the subject, but cannot do so at present. Neither can I explain to you now why you are to make no allusion to this matter in any letter you may write to my grandmother, or indeed in any way to any person. Your old friend, “CAMILLA HARDING.” CHAPTER XVI. Cyril Acton inhabits a comfortable set of rooms in South Audley street. He is sitting there one May morning in a somewhat restless mood. Cyril Acton is ambitious —fiercely, unscrupulously so, and he is seldom ever tempted by such things as may clog his darling ends. Young as he is, he has already grown furious with fate, and regards all men and women as mere tools, so many chessmen to his hand. His position is, no doubt, somewhat cruel, and enough to sour a far better nature; indeed, the case is a singularly hard and strange, although not an unparalleled one. His father, now Viscount Hammersley, when traveling as a youth of three-and-twenty in the United States, chanced to meet a young Irish lady lately arrived there, and who, like most of her nation, was a Roman Catholic. The girl was of good family, and Cyril’s father had at that time not the faintest apparent chance of inheriting the family wealth and honors. The youthful pair became attached, and were married at a small town in Florida, little dreaming that the law of that State had certain clauses regarding mixed marriages, which, unless conformed with, would cast a fearful shade over their whole existence. It was not until three years afterward, when they had already a son and daughter, and when a number of Actons had happened to die off most - obligingly, that they discovered simultaneously with Mr. Acton's accession to the titles and estates of their illustrious house, that he had no "wife. The unhappy pair now heard for the

first time that in the place where their supposed marriage took place it is obligatory, when one of the parties is a Roman Catholic, the other a Protestant, to make declarations of the fact, or the ceremony is null and void. All that could be done was for a new marriage to be gone through, which step was of course taken, and the unfortunate mother became a wife and a viscountess, but, alas! nothing could be found to avail the children. Now, it befell that three months after the new marriage there came another son, but whether owing to the anguish its mother had gone through, or to some other cause, it proved from the first a complete cripple, and a few months revealed only too certainly that it was also weak of intellect. Lady Hammersley, although no reproach attached to her, was of a highly sensitive nature, so that with every right and opportunity for entering the most fashionable circles, she shrunk from showing herself where she knew her cruel and strange story must be forever whispered around her. Persuading her loving husband to emigrate once more, they henceforth took up their abode in a somewhat remote part of Canada, where at the period now reached they still continued to reside, Lord Hammersley occasionally coming over to England. It was there that little by little they framed and matured a plan which, if not to be defended, can at least claim mitigating circumstances in its favor. This was nothing less than the transposition of their two sons. Profiting by a journey of some two hundred miles to change all their servants, and also their headquarters from one town where they knew almost nobody, to another where they had never set foot, they simply interchanged the names and ages of the two boys and the trick was done. To halve their consciences, they told themselves that the poor rightful heir, Cyril, could never have been benefited in any way by his position, while their beloved Lucius, who now was made to drop that appellation forever, was only restored to what they called “his moral rights before heaven,” he being framed in every way to shine and enjoy, and alike to make up for their own obscurity and brilliantly carry on the ancient honors of their house. The surreptitiously legitimatized boy, being by this time seven years old—for the plot was not conceived and carried out with any rash haste—it became of course necessary to let him into the secret, and to explain to him, as fnr as possible, all the complex bearings of the strangely intricate case. Naturally a precocious youngster, especially where self-interest, was concerned, he henceforth appeared eyen more wonderfully developed, both in mind and body, than he really was, for he had to profess to be full two years younger than he actually was. It was truly wonderful how the little Lucius, henceforth Cyril, grasped and digested the whole situation! and even in time threw out many a valuable suggestion which had escaped the more limited acumen of the parental plotters. (To be continued.)

TEN BULLETS.

The Kind of Men England Has to • Fight in Africa. In many ways the assembly of the Boers of the Transvaal to resist the incursion of Jameson resembled closely the uprising of the people of New England against the British in 1775, and the battle 01 Krugersdorp was comparable to Concord fight. The South African farmers are ordinarily a slow-moving people, but when their country was threatened they assembled almost as If at the drop of a handkerchief, in spite of the enormous distances which separate one settlement from another. They were true “minute-men.”

On the next morning after the news came of the British raid, a column of several hundred Boers, under the command of an officer named Frichard, rode into Pretoria, all mounted on nervous little Boer horses. They had been riding hard for ten hours without leaving their saddles, but men and horses were full of life and good spirits. Some of the men were in their shirt-sleeves; one of them said to the correspondent in Dutch: “I had just time enough to say the Lord’s Prayer with my faipily and grab my vest and rifle—there wasn't time to get pay coat.” It Is genuinely characteristic of the piety of the Boers that they would take time to pray with their families in sucli an emergency, and not stop for their coats. In the ranks of this detachment were sturdy and active men of GO, accompanied by their sons and grandsons. One of these “old fellows” was Hans Botha, who received nine bullet wounds in the battle in 1881 in which the Boers defeated the British army. Gen. Joubert, who led the Boers on that occasion, and who now took command of the forces pouring into Pretoria, saluted old Hans warmly. “What!” he said. “Are you on hand for another fight. Botha?” “Yes, General,” answered the veteran. “I think I’ve got room enough somewhere between my scars for another bulet!” After scarcely more than a moment of repose, the command galloped off for Krugersdorp, where some 900 Boers were now concentrated. There they met Jameson’s 700, and in a very short time had conquered and “bagged” them all. There was some splendid shooting on both sides. The first Boer to be wounded was no other than old Hans Botha, the man of nine bullets! He took his new misfortune very coolly, and said, “Well, anyway, I’ve got a round number now!”

“Old Hundred."

“Old Hundred” first appeared ’in print, so far as it known, in the “Genevan Psalter,” published in 1551, where it was set to Psalm cxxxiv. When this book made its way to England and was printed there this melody was set to Psalm e., and when a new edition appeared, tunes that were retained from the former were designated “old,” to distinguish them from such as had been added. Much significance is naturally attached to the confession of a woman that she has purchased a brick of glittering brass. The incident shows the proud upward march of the sex to that plain on which man is supposed to stand, superior and enviable—San Francisco Examiner. Not only to the God that is above ns, but to the God that is in us, let us direct our prayer; and to that God let our Importunity be such that, like the man of the parable crying for bread at midnight, it cannot, will Dot, be de nied.—John Chadwick,

CROWNING A CZAR.

IMPRESSIVE CEREMONIES IN THE CATHEDRAL AT MOSCOWA Journal by the Daughter of the British Ambassador Describing the Coronation of the Late Czar of Russia. Miss Mary Grace Thornton, daughter of •Sir Edward Thornton, describes “The Crowning of a Czar” in the Century. Miss Thornton writes as follows: The service began with the Emperor’s confession of faith, which was so like our own that I could follow it easily. The metropolitan came forward to hear him make it, and responded at the end, “May the grace of the Holy Ghost abide with thee.” I understood comparatively little of the rest; but they say that the prayers are wonderfully beautiful. From the first moment to the last the Emperor was the central figure. If one looked away, it was only to see how every one was watching him. His voice certainly trembled when he began to read, but it gained confidence as he went on, and he looked (as he always does, to my mind, with or without a crown) every inch an emperor. Throughout the whole service he bore himself with great dignity, and in a manner worthy of such an occasion. After the creed and the reading of the epistle and the gospel, he ordered the imperial mantle to be brought, which was clasped round bis neck with the collar of St. Andrew, lifted the magnificent crown from the cushion on which it was presented, and receiving the benediction from the metropoli tan, “in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.” placed it on his head, and. holding the sceptre in his right hand and the globe in his left, seated himself ui>on his throne, looking a very noble presentment of a czar of all the Russias. The empress seemed to have caught something of his air, for that day a certain stateliness was added to all her charm. She was very pale, but I thought that I had never seen her look more sympathetic. She now left her place, and went to kneel before her husband on a cushion which had been placed for her at his feet by Prince Waldemar. Tlie czar lifted his own crown from his head, and placed it an instant on hers ltefore replacing it. Then, taking her crown from its bearer, .he held it In place while the four dames d’honneur fastened it securely to her head. These were Countess Adlerberg, Princess Yiasemski, Princess Kotehoubey. and one I did not know—the oldest in rank in Russia, I believe: and they also helped to fasten the imi>erial mantle of cloth-of-gold and ermine, of great weight. As the czarina returned to her place, she turned a face full of emotion to her husband, and held-Vit her hand, and he taking it and (trooping down, they kissed each other. His majesty now received the scepter and globe again, and emperor and empress stood crowned before their thrones and wearing the imperial mantles, while the priests proclaimed the titles of the autocrat of all the Russias at full length; and the beautiful chants that followed were drowne»l in a clanging of bells and a noise that seemed loud enough to announce the coronation to the whole of Russia. During the singing the imperial family left their places to come and congratulate the emperor and empress, the little czarevitch first. There was much embracing and plenty of tears. It was after this that, as the noise of the bells and cannon died away, the emperor took the book from the metropolitan and knelt to pray, reading the prescribed words, he alone kneeling, while priests and congregation stood. As the emperor rose from his knees we all knelt down, and then followed the prayer of priests and congregation for him, led by the metropolitan, the emperor alone standing in the crowded church. As I Have said before, this was the most impressive moment of all.

The choirs now sang again—that beautiful, unaccompanied singing of the Greek Church, though here it had an accompaniment of all the Kremlin bells. After a magnificent Te Deum the mass began, in which, before communicating. the czar was to be anointed with the holy chrism (the “seal of the gift of the Holy Ghost”) on forehead, eyelids, nostrils, lips, ears, breast, and hands. The oil for this anointing is prepared by the priests with the greatest care, in vessels of silver; and they themselves fast absolutely for sixteen hours l>efore a coronation, spending the time in prayer. After the emperor, the empress is anointed at the holy doors, but only on the forehead. Also in the holy communion she receives as an ordinary member of the Greek Church; but the emperor, on the day of his coronation, “in view of the sovereignty that resides in her person.” receives as the priests receive, in both kinds separately. Of all this I saw nothing because of the intervening pillar. But I did see their majesties leave their thrones, and go down the steps of the platform to the holy doors of the screen, dozily attended by the colonel of the Chevaliers Gardes with his drawn sword, and preceded and followed try endless high dignitaries, returning in the same order after the anointing and the holy communion. After this there was little more of the ceremonial in the cathedral. At the end of the usual service there were some special prayers and chants for the newly crowned pair—- “ Long life to the crowned of God!”— and in the silence that followed the priests held up the cross for their majesties to kiss, the emperor replaced the crown, which he had laid aside at the beginning of the mass, and. carrying the globe and scepter, moved with the empress toward the cathedral doors.

FOOD THAT WAS DEADLY.

Fate of Some Animals That Bit Off More than They Could Chew. A curious tragedy in nature’s life was told about in the Deutsche FischereiZeitung recently. A twenty-five-pound pike was found dead near the Villa Scholz. at Horn. On examination, a trout, weighing four and a half pounds ■was found stuck in the pike’s mouth in such a way as to choke it to death. Various animals have died of suffocation in this manner. Especially is this true of herons, grebes, bitterns and

other fish-eaten,which have been found dead with fish in their throats. A gull, up in Massachusetts Bay, waa seen acting in a way that caused two boys to take a rowboat and go out and see what the matter was. The gull would fly away, then tumble into the water, struggle awhile, then fly again, each flight being shorter than the one before, and at last the bird merely skimmed the surface heavily. When the boys got to it the bird’s head was under water and the wings were flapping slightly. They pulled the bird into the boat and it was seen that on the end of the bill was a clam shell. The gull had tried to get the clam; the clam bad closed his shell upon the bill, and the scared bird had tried to fly off over the water, but, breathing being hard, it was soon exhausted. A wild turkey was found one time In the Tennessee bottom lands. The turkey, in jumping up to get some berries, came down with its neck through a fork of the bush. The bird, being unable to pull his head through the fork, was choked to death, but not until it had covered the ground with feathers for ten feet on all sides. Some of the birds that use strings or hairs in the construction of their nests —swallows, sparrow's, etc.—become entangled in the material every spring and are choked to death. A man named Allard was coming down the Columbia River from Astoria, Ore., to another Hudson Bay Fur "Company post at Van couver. He had a crew of Indians for his canoe, and all were pretty hungry, having been living on dried salmon and hard bread. As they rounded a point one day they put up a flock of swans, which flew past them. The Indians had never seen a man shoot a bird flying, and the trader and had no ammunition to spare, although they offered a splendid shot, especially the leader, which was a bird of unusual size. It was so fine a mark that the trader lifted up his paddle, and, taking imaginative aim, said “Bang!” in a loud voice. What followed made the Indians gasp. The big swan at the word went tumbling head over heels to the water, struck with a loud splash, and by the time the canoe was alongside had ceased its struggles and was dead. There was not a mark on the bird, and as the Indians looked over it they nodded toward the trader with looks of amazement and fear on their faces. The trader calmly loaded his pipe and puffed away as unconcernedly as if he was not wondering how it had happened. That night, while the Indians were pulling out the canoes, the trader had a private autopsy of the swan, and found a large bulb of the swan’s favorite food, the “wappato,” or Sagittaria variaDilis, as it is known to botanists, stuck in the swan’s throat in such a way that the bird had choked to death. The man removed the bulb' and on the return of the Indians said nothing of it. That night the party feasted on the swan, but not until the trader had made w’eird sounds over the carcass and had impressed the Indians wonderfully. Thereafter that trader was the most respected, almost-worshipped man, among the Indians, who ever after called him, “The-man-who-shoots-fly-iug-swans-with-a-paddle.”

CORNSTALK MILITIA.

How a Patriot Guarded His Property from Redcoats. During the exciting times of the American Revolution the Eastern Shore of Maryland, while many were true patriots and thoroughly believed in and upheld the cause of American liberty, was yet a hotbed for Tories, who as firmly defended what they believed to be the rights of the King. The region aown as the Seaside, which extends along the western shore of Synepuxent Bay, was particularly well supplied with the adherents of George 111. A great-grandfather of George W. Purnell, now a prominent member of the bar. was a stanch defender of American independence and a commissioned officer in the militia, but owing to the depredations so frequently being committed along the seaside and about his own home, known as the Fairfield Farm, it became necessary for him to remain there to protect his property. The Tories about the country acted as pilots for the British soldiers, who frequently came in boats through the inlet at Chincoteague and up the Synepuxent Bay, the prosperous farms along the shore offering an excellent field for their raids. For the most part these farms were entirely unprotected, and the local Tories would guide the soldiers to those houses where they would probably get the most booty. It was told of Mr. Purnell that early one morning, while looking over his farm, and standing on a hill which commanded a view of the bay, he saw several boat-loads of redcoats making their way toward his own shore. He went to his house and summoned a dozen colored men about him and armed them with long cornstalks. Mounting an old gray horse, he marched his battalion down behind the hill, always keeping out of sight of the approaching British. As soon as he reached the foot of the hill on the inland side he called a halt and gave orders to his men. He stationed himself just at the brow of the hill, so that the head of his noble charger could just be seen by the men on the bay. Then came the order for his battalion to march ip review. In an unbroken line around and around the hill they marched, with their cornstalk muskets glistening in the sun. His twelve men made a fine showing, and the effect on the raiders was magical. The distance magnified the number. They saw the army and precipitately retreated. The fame of the valorous old gentleman has been handed down to the present generation.

The Mud Wasp.

For centuries the mud wasp has built its Cjells of soft mud. In the bottom of these cells the female lays its minute egg. building its mud home just the size that the young will be when grown. Before closing its mud-walled cell the w'asp catches a suitable sized spider, injects into its body a fluid that causes it to remain torpid through the winter, until with the warmth of returning spring the young wasp grows and consumes the spider for food, thus gaining strength to break the mud walls and emerge into the outer world a fullwinged insect. Yet no mud wasp from the beginning has ever seen its young. Water rents are higher at Pittsburg than in any other city in America.

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

A homicide occurs every two hours in Italy. This was one of the many startling statements made by Baron Garofalo, a distinguished Italian criminologist, In a lecture delivered on “Criminality in Relation to the Education of the People” in the Roman College. His audience Included Queen Margherita. Next to Monaco, the smallest country in Europe, Is Liechtenstein, in Germany, the ruler of which is Prince Liechtenstein. For some time he has been living in Vienna, leaving a manager to rule in his place. This manager has become unpopular, and the people are so dissatisfied that there Is some talk of mobilising the standing army of seven and a half men. According to Mr. Peterson, an expert dog-trainer in London, the life of a performing dog extends to about eight or ten years. The education of a dog for the stage, according to Mr. Petersen’s ideas, should not commence before the animal is a year old, and generally lasts for a year. Some animals, however, are quicker than others,and a dog found in the streets repaid his rescuers from the lethal chamber by picking up all that was taught him and going on the stage in three months. According to a recent bulletin of the Bureau of Labor the gross average product of every employee engaged in manufacturing or mechanical industries is $2204 a year. Of this, the employee gets $444.83 as wages; $1213 goes for raw material, and $547 for salaries, rent, etc., and profits. The average annual wages are increasing with every census, having been $247 in 1850, $289 in 1800, $302 in 1870, $340 in 1880, and $444.83 in 1890. Japan’s hope of becoming a great iron and steel manufacturing country has been clinched by the discovery of iron deposits of vast extent and high grade. At Iwate mines have been opened which will produce 30,000,000 tons. Mr. Wnda, ex-chief of the Mining Bureau of Japan, is authority for the statement that the product is equal in quality to that imported and makes as good steel. As cool retails at $2 gold per ton in Japan, the prospect that the country will soon cease to import manufactured iron and steel goods is practically assured.

Accidents will happen, says the proverb. According to a table published In the Pittsburg Chronicle-Dispatch from an analysis of 2000 accident cases, there were 531 persons injured by falls, or missteps on pavements, 243 by carriages or wagons, 75 by horse kicks or bites, and 47 by horseback riding, 117 were cut by edge tools or glass, 96 were hurt by having weights fall on them, and 06 were hurt by bicycle accidents, while 73 were hurt by falling down stairs. Yes, accidents will happen, and here’s a little study of chances. But what a lot of trouble a little caution will sometimes avert. Biblical scholars throughout the world will await with intense Interest further particulars concerning the manuscript Gospel which was recently discovered in a village church near Caesarea, in Asia Minor, and which the Czar of Russia is said to have purchased. All that is known of it now is that It is very old and beautiful being written upon the finest and thinnest vellum, which has been dyed a deep red purple. The letters are in silver, and are square, upright uncials; the abbreviations of the sacred names are in gold. The pages are 32 centimetres by 26, and the writing on each page is in two columns.

Boston has at last acknowledged the unwisdom of having a cow for city surveyor, if one may so express the fact that some of the streets there are laid out so as to follow the cow-paths of the original hamlet. The inconvenience of the streets and their narrowness have led to a most expensive congestion of traffic. The daily amount of freight carried through the city is estimated at 100,000 tons. The unreasonable delay for each team under present circumstances is one hour out of the ten, which constitutes a working day, or a loss of 10,000 tons daily. At a cost of sixty cents a ton, there is a loss of SOOOO a day. or $1,800,000 per annum. The World’s Proctor Memorial Association has announced that it wfill erect the largest observatory in the world on the summit of Mount San Miguel, near San Diego, Cal., as a memorial to the celebrated astronomer and author, Richard A. Proctor. The association was organized some years ago in California, but it is proposed to nyike the observatory of an international character, and secure, if possible, the co-operation of the leading Governments of the world. The intention is to equip the Institution with the largest telescopes ever constructed, the first one to have lenses five times the size o the Lick and four times that of the Yerkes telescope; if it proves a success, still more powerful will be constructed on the sectional-lens principle invented by Astronomer Gathman, of Chicago. Mount San Miguel comprises about 12,000 acres and has an elevation of 3600 feet. An American engineer named Hobson has contributed to the Revue Bleue an article on the Eastern situation, in which he plainly expresses his doubts of Lord Salisbury’s belief that the concert of the powers may eventually lead to a cessation of the present armed peace. He would have Britain go to war at once, since he believes that by next year, or the year after, France and Russia together will have a far stronger navy than Britain will then possess. Mr. Hobson declares that the dual alliance of France and Russia will easily dispose of the triple alliance.. “France for money, Russia for men,” he says, “are almost inexhaustible, but the triple alliance cannot stand the strain of keeping up its armaments much longer, and England will have to make very heavy sacrifices to regain a little of the superiority which she will have lost in warships of the first-class.” Russia and France will, therefore, wait till the rest of Europe is bankrupt, and then, perhaps, arrange a new alliance. In this way, Mr. Hobson arrives at the conclusion that England ought to go to war immediately, “since every day that passes puts her in a state of increasing inferiority at sea as compared with her adversaries.” It is clear that Mr. Hobson’s article was written for a French and Russian alliance-

She Made Nine Notes Out of Eight

The story of the rise and fall of Ernestine Becker has never ben truthfully told In print, says a Washington correspondent of the Philadelphia Times. She was the ingenions woman who, being employed in the redemption division, devised a method of making nine notes out of eight. Of eourse the paper money that comes into the Treasury for redemption is in all stages of dilapidation. Some of it can only be Identified by pasting scraps together. Ernestine would tear a strip from one note and paste it upon an other, so artfully manipulating the sections thus obtained that the original material of eight notes served to compose nine, leaving ane bill for herself. This was very profitable, inasmuch as she was able to deal with fifties and hundreds; she never bothered with notes of less than twenty dollars. There is no telling how long she prosecuted this business. She did it with the utmost boldness, and there is every reason to believe she carried it on for a number of years. Her profits may be faintly surmised from the fact that, on the last day of her employment she earned S9BO in this way. This was in the autumn of 1888. On that day she was so unlucky as to be absent from the office for a while, and a package of money which she had made up was torn by accident. It was handed over to another clerk to be repaired, and the latter employee counted it again, according to the established usage. The first thing that excited her attention was that the numbers on the tops and bottoms did not match. Nevertheless, she suspected nothing. It was evident that the notes had been patched wrongly. Accordingly, she soaked them in water and put them together properly. As a result, she had a less number of notes and a less amount by S9BO than had been indicated. Tihs discovery resulted in an investigation. Ernestine claimed that the money had reached the Treasury and had been handed to her in the shape in which it was found. Proof to the contrary could hardly be obtained, and no prosecution was attempted. The woman made good the S9BO. A Washington real estate agent, who died the other day, swallowed the fortune which was thus criminally acquired. The woman died not long ago of cancer in a New York hospitaL

The Fierce Zebra.

It always appeared to the writer that Sutton, the head keeper of the Zoo, treated lions, and some male tigers, as if they were dogs; while all the lionesses, the leopards, pumas, and most tigers were treated as cats. Lionesses he never touched with the hand, and leopards except the snow-leopards, very seldom; but some of the tigers and the male lions behaved in their dealings with him exactly as if they were domesticated animals. Bears, he maintained, always became unsafe to handle after they were full grown, though often tame and friendly when cubs. Polar bears, on the other hand, he looked upon as always dangerous and quite untamable, having a kind of incurable levity which makes them absolutely without respect or fear for man, even when they are kept in captivity. In the case of the larger cats, age and ill-temper do not necesaril.v Increase together. In all the years spent in the care of the large carnivora, he never received an Injury. Yet, though never hurt by the bears or lions, he was nearly killed by a zebra. The correct facts of this curious accident were as follows: The zebra, which was known to be very savage, was turned out into a yard, the sliding door between the yard and its stall being pushed to, but not fastened by the man whose duty it was to do so. Sutton was in the inner stall, putting in fresh hay, when the zebra heard him. He also heard It tret up to the door, and the next moment saw its muzzle pushed against the rack which had been left between the edge of the door and the post. It slid the door back in a moment, ran in, and stooping its head, seized him below the knee, and threw him violently on his back. It held on to his leg, biting so severely that is cracked the shin bone, though Sutton, who was lying on his back, kicked it hard with the other foot. The other men drove it off with stable forks, but the keeper was laid up for thirteen weeks from the effects of the bite.

A New Dog Story.

“Dog stories are usually regarded as chestnuts,” said A. P. Beckwith of Indianapolis at the Riggs. “It would seem that at some time or another dogs have been known to perform almost every act their masters have. But I never heard the counterpart of a story I know to be true. A fine St. Bernard dog was injured by a street car on North Illinois street in Indianapolis, and his owner took him to a veterinary surgeon, who dressed the wounds and gave instructions to bring the animal the following morning. Before breakfast the dog went to the office of the surgeon and waited on the doorstep until he arrived. Every morning the dog appeared before his master arose, and one day a bandage used around one of the animals forelegs slipped, and the dog, realizing that something was wrong, went to the office in the middle of the day to have it fixed. It took about two weeks for the injuries to heal, at the end of which time thq dog ceased his visits, but has always since greeted the veterinarian affectionately whenever he sees him.”

Kings That Have Never Been Crowned.

With the exception of Queen Victoria, the Emperor King of Austria, Bohemia and Hungary, and King Oscar, of (Sweden, no other reigning monarch has been consecrated by religious rite. In the case of the King of Italy there were obvious reasons why the services of the church should have been dispensed with. It is less intelligible that so Catholic a king as Carlos of Portgal should have been content to take the oath in the Cortes and attend a “Te Deum” only in the cathedral. A mere oath, too, sufficed for the establishment of King George upon the somewhat rickety Hellenic throne. 'Che crowns of Holland and Spain, of course, are, so to speak, in commission. As to the Kaiser, of Germany, he did not even care to go through the formality observed by his grandfather, who put the crown upon his own head, but deemed it enough to make a solemn declaration at the opening of the imperial parliament.