Indianapolis Journal, Indianapolis, Marion County, 21 April 1883 — Page 4

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THE DAILY JOURNAL. BY JNO. C. NEW & SOX. For Rates of Subscription, etc., see Sixth Pase. SATURDAY, APRIL 21, ISB3. "Twelve pages, MANUAL TRAINING AS AN AUXILIARYIn the novel which introduced George Eliot to the world and made her famous, she makes her hero a carpenter. In his daily work—planing boards, fitting piece to piece with the nice adjustment necessary in good work—rough and knotty problems smoothed out in his mind, one part of the plan of life fitted into another part with a finer adjustment of means to ends. His work became in some measure a consolation for the ills he bad to bear, and by analogy led him to a deeper comprehension of the scheme of life and a more accurate squaring himself to meet the demands of the higher law and thu9, by successive and natural steps, into a truer, larger manhood. This lesson has a deep signification. Occupations classify themselves into those that grow out of and minister to the real wants of humanity, and those that owe their origin and support to the artificial needs of men. Both are essential to the framework of society as it exists in this age, but their moral and intellectual effect is widely different. Education should fit a child for his after life in the world. In our system of education as it actually exists in operation the child is educated in abstractions and is left to find out for himself their relation to the real things of life. The present agitation and consequent movement in educational Ideas is toward the real and concrete. This movement is based upon sound philosophy, and if evolved in the right direction will produce good results. Anyone who has watched a child grow cannot fail to have noticed the delight of the boy when lie has succeeded in making a house that will stand up, any kind of machine that will go, a boat that tually floats upon the water, or the corresponding pleasure of a girl in the garment made by her own hands that will go onto her doll, a handkerchief that she has hemnjed, a piece of knitting or crochet that bears some remote resemblance to that done by her mother. One has only to tap at some of the long-shut doors in his own memory to feel again the glow of satisfaction and the sense ot moral rectitude which rewarded some such childish achievement of his own. These are the finger-posts which nature has set up to point out the true road of progress in the development of humanity. The long-disregarded inference is that the handicrafts should make part of the course of study in our schools. Last week we considered the subject in its economical bearings—as educating the child to get his living. Now let ns indicate some of the ways in which such training may be made auxiliary to his moral and mental development. In planing or sawing a board a boy is handling a product of nature and making it into a product of his own skill, putting his own brain and muscle into it, to minister to his own convenience or that of another. He learns to use the eye and hand, he discerns the relation of parts to the whole, finds out by experience that one false line mars the symmetry of the whole, that one weak place is the ruin of the whole structure. When he goes back to his books the measurements in his arithmetic become allied to the real tilings he has been dealing with. When lie reads in his geography of tracts of forest land or great coal regions imagination allies them to the inateriul which he has just used. He eets a glimpse into a vista that will grow even wider and grander to him as lie advances Step by step, of the adjustment of means to ends in the great scale of nature. In his delight in using his hands and skill he will get a sense of mastery over things and of iiis own importance as a factor in life that will lead logically to self-discipline and control. No one who knows boys will believe this to be a conscious process; hut on the contrary, no one who knows human nature will denj' that the unconscious training will be going on day by day and year by year, if the child be guided by wise and watchful hands, more rapidly aiul more intelligently until at last lie is able to take the helm himself and begin the real work of life, well furnished for the struggle. A good manager of children or men is one who knows how to expel a pernicious idea or crush a bad habit by skillfully substituting a better one. There is a great deal of friction in education, and consequently a great waste of force which ought to be utilized. Fourier, in his sj'stem for the regeneration of the human race, which, though utopian, contained many things which we should not willingly let die, sought the best good of mankind in the line of their natural instincts and desires. In teaching children we do the reverse. We shut them up in close rooms, and tie them down to figures and parts of speech when they are burning io be out and become better acquainted with the things around them. This surplus energy degenerates into mischief when they arc let loose, but it could be easily directed into useful channels by a little training of the hand and eye, and something to expend it upon. Kindergarten methods begin the work well with little ones, but after the first or second year it is abruptly left off, leaving life more like a desert than ever to the pupil In our public schools. Let some way be devised for carrying on the training of the little hands and bright eyes so that this skill in manipulation, accuracy of sight, and delight in the pretty and useful thin-s they have themselves fashioned shall grow with the growth and strengthen with thestrength, and

there will be less need to discuss the case of moral suasion versus corporeal punishment. There will be a more rounded and complete development of the child’s moral and intellectual nature than we are able to get now'by I use of both. Children are the divinely-ap--1 pointed means for the civilization of the race, j Their helplessness appeals to the best in- | stincts of even savage nature, and to those of ; finer sensibilities the thought of the long ! road the tender little feet have to travel ini cites to effort to remove obstructions from the path and strengthen them for the way. Every normally-constituted man desires to leave the world better for his children than he found it for himself. In the search to accomplish this end the progress of the race is insured. Education in the sense of evolution is the direct line of march. We are con* I vinced that education will become a more ! efficient power when it shall have admitted j the hand to equal rank with the head and | heart. It will prove its worthiness of such association by ministering to the perfection of both. _______ PEOPLE AND PABTORB. The world is growing better every day. People are becoming more liberal in their views, and to the cheerful soul, on a sunny day, the millenium seems not very far off, in spite of suen little hindrances as the dynamite party, the Tewksbury atrocities, and a few other matters. The Nihilists are too far away to bother us, Tewksbury is in Massachusetts, and really the rest of us seem to be getting on very comfortably. A spirit of intolerance and bigotry and inhumanity crops up now and then, however, in spots where neither dynamite fiends nor almshouse officials have had any influence, and it behooves us not to devote all our energies to converting the heathen in New England and Ireland lest we have none left for home consumption and the benefit of the clergy. It is the clergy, indeed, who seem most in need of missionary work just now. A Presbyterian pastor near Erie, Pa., animated by what he doubtless deemed true piety, but what in another age would have led him to burn an unbeliever at the stake, lately excommunicated a young lady because she had called in another minister to officiate at her mother’s funeral. She was subjected to the most rigid church discipline. dismissed from membership and her class in Sunday-school taken from her. It was not jealousy, of course, but holy zeal which filled the pastoral breast. The presbytery, which has met since, rescinded his action, and restored the young woman to her former standing in the church, but it does not appear that the matter was considered anything more than an error in judgment. Detroit has an Episcopal church in which the form of worship is so much the same as that of the Roman church, that it is not recognized by the clergy of that denomination. A few days since the rector of this church, the Holy Trinity, lost a child, and called personally upon a number of Episcopal clergymen to conduct the burial service, but they declined to do 60. The hour appointed for the burial had passed, and the father wa9 about to perform the sad office himself, when a rector of another church arrived, upon a summons from a parishioner of the bereaved clergyman. These instances are only two of many which have recently appeared in print showing objectionable conduct on the part of ministers. It docs not by any means follow that this class of citizens is becoming demoralized, but that they have been neslected is probably true. Having for a long time conducted themselves in an inoffensive manner, they have been permitted to go their own way without criticism, and naturally they fall into error. Those’persons outside of the pulpit who undertake to regulate the affairs of this world and the next —and they arc numerous—have been doing missionary work at long range without lookingat the tares which were growing up in their neighbor’s yard, especially if that neighbor was their pastor. The pastor, no matter how beloved he may be, should be carefully looked after. He means well and usually he does well, but will bear watching to see that he does not become too autocratic. The people owe a duty to their pastors. GOD SAVE IRELAND. The exclamation of the condemned assassin, Curley, “God save Ireland,” will be uttered with a different spirit by people not implicated in the outrages that have been perpetrated in the name of Irish freedom. If deliberate assassination, wanton murder, and the cowardly destruction of property are to be the means of “redeeming” Ireland from the thraldom under which she suffers, no power less than Deity can save Ireland from an undeserved fate. Does any sane man pretend that the Irish cause was advanced by the assassination of Cavendish and Burke? Was there anything noble or patriotic about the foul crime? And now that the perpetrators have been discovered, are they proving themselves patriots, or cravens? Does their attitude or the ghastly deed inspire emulation? Is there the least trace of brave selfsacrifice in it all? It i9 not an easy thing to he a patriot in the high sense of that term. It is not enough to pull a trigger or to push a knife. The consequences that follow must be met with fortitude, and the cause that inspires must be honored by being boldly and unqualifiedly proclaimed. Ur.iil a cause is worth dying for it is not worth murdering for. If the taking off rs Cavendish and Burke cannot be glorified in now, the deed was infamous beyond excuse. Until the malcontents in Ireland learn that assassination is not the manifestation of patriotism, God alone can 9ave that unhappy country from the unhappy consequences they are bringing upon tier. Open hostilities, in which life is staked against life, challenge

THE INDIANAPOLIS JOURNAL, SATURDAY, APRIL 21, 1883.

admiration everywhere, and especially is this true when they who appeal to arms do so under hopeless circumstances. The cause that creates such men commands sympathy everywhere. Until Ireland is freed of her Bradys and Curleys she can never hope to free herself from British injustice. It is therefore in a far different spirit from that actuating the murderer Curley that other people say, “God save Ireland!” MEN’S AND WOMEN S TRADESA fashion writer in New York, in a recent letter, says there is a rage among ladies for tailor-made suits. The writer further declares that it would not be a very wild conclusion that “tailors are bound to supplant women as makers of tine woolen costumes.” The writer says: “These tailor-made suits are growing more and more in favor. They have now arrived at perfection in the way of fit and finish. They can be told at a glance. Such dresses are very simply made, and those without whalebones or trimming are in high favor, though not available for all figures. 1 suppose that the women dress-makers may save themselves by learning to cut and press garments tailor fashion, but I have as yet seen no indication of it.” There is danger here, beyond doubt; and it is not impossible that men tailors may yet insinuate themselves into the good graces of the fashion world of women so far as to become their dress-makers. Worth, of Paris, is a well-known example of this kind. The result could but be unfortunate to women who work with the needle. For while they would doubtless continue to do the great bulk of the sewing and making of the very suits supposed to be made by men modistes, they would receive but a niggardly percent, of the amount paid for their niakiug, while the tailors would appropriate the lion’s share to themselves. There is no reason why women may not make these suits, from measuring to picking the last raveling from the completed costume, as well as any man can do it. But if the custom of employing men becomes ala mode, there is no help for it, and women dressmakers will be obliged to submit as gracefully as possible. But the idea suggests another that is becoming repognized more clearly every day. If men can thus step over the boundary line and take up an employment almost exclusively in the hands of women, why may not the rule be reversed, and women enter upon any field whatsoever that promises adequate remuneration? Take, for example, the practice of medicine. There is no good reason why there should not be as many women as men physicians, while there are numberless reasons why there should be women in the profession, since there are many cases for the treatment of which they are peculiarly fitted. The field of pharmacy is one in which wtmien -should find employment, and there is no reason why they should not succeed as well as anybody. These are but tw’oof many long held almost exclusively by men. There is no reason why women should not fill them acceptably, and that too without sacrificing any womanly trait. The law of compensation demands that the same freedom snail be allowed women as men. When there is a demand for women, or where women can create a demand for their services, let them meet it without objection. If they are restrained by a sense of impropriety or unwomanliness, let these delusions be thrown to the winds, wi ,h the assurance that any honorable employment for which they are physically fitted may be followed without fear of losing caste. In short, let every avenue be thrown wide open to the women of the world. Their lot, if self-de-pendent, as many of them are, should be made as easy as possible, and if they pluck up courage enough to take hold of some “masculine” profession, let no one be narrow enough to say them nay. RAMBLING CHATA city with shabby streets is a dear place to do business in. The first requisite of a city street is a erood pavement. Limestone blocks with solid stone gutters are the only pavement worth putting dow r n and keeping in repair, and limestone blocks are the cheaj>est in the end. The money which we spend in repairing our streets and in keeping their dust down in its original form of mud by means of sprinkling would pay for considerable good paving. A Philadelphia shipbuilder say that British steamships are built out of poor material, and that they are not equal to American built iron ships, andtliat the frequent calamities which have overtaken the British ships result from bad work and poor iron. American iron ships generally have good luck, and when collisions happen between them and British iron vessels the British ships are pulverized. Our American ship workmen are native born, and are very apt and know about every part of a ship, and you might take almost any man out of a yard and he could build one. But the English workmen do not think. Our native mechanics when “dressed up” will pass for gentlemen, but you can tell the foreign mechanic under whatever clothes he wears. Glass shingles are now in use for roofs and for weather-boarding. They are durable, and very light in weight. They can be used for flat roofs, and people can walk on them without fracture. They are made transparent or opaque, and of various colors. They are non-conductors of heat, and are therefore Yvurm In winter and cold in summer. They are also non-conductors of electricity. The lion-transparent shingles are used for roofs, yet spaces for skylights are filled with transparent glass. An American company is operating some oil wells in Persia. The wells are near an ancient monastery of fire-worshipers, in which the monks have kept a perpetual flame from an oil well for centuries. Who is the man that wants to be thanked in street-cars and omnibuses? He has been

talking about it for thirty years. Women ! thank sufficiently. The half-nod and inaudible word are enough. To make a scene | in a street-car, shouting, “I thank you, sir, very much!” is what no decent woman i woqlld like. The man who spits is still spitting, and spits w r orse than he did thirty years ago. The man who wants to be thanked had better turn his attention to reforming the man who spits. Mary Dean. Miss Condom, of Louisville, lias set. an example to her sex. She was engaged to marry Mr. Barrett, and preparations for the wedding were I nearly completed when idrs. Riley, a neighbor, j whispered in Barrett’s ear that his sweetheart I was “talked about.” The enra*ged young man, | iustead of paralyzing Mrs. Riley, demanded of I the girl a confession of the slanderous stories or a denial. She denied them, and, learning the name of the slanderer, denounced them as false to that person’s face. This did not snt:sfy the virtuous Barrett. He professed to believe the truth of her denial, but in order to establish his j future wife’s lair fame beyond a doubt, he wanted a verdict of the court in the case. Thereupon Miss Coudom brought suit against Mrs. Riley for slauder, which resulted in the tiling of a written retraction by that lady, and un acknowledgement that the stories were false. Miss Condom’s good name being thus established, Mr. Barrett went about making preparations for the wedding, and put himself to considerable expense in the way of good clothes, etc. Miss Condom allowed these preparations to go on until the appointed day had arrived, when she sent word to the expectant husband that he was not the sort of a person 6he desired to marry, and that the wedding could not come off. As he had previously permitted her to get her outfit ready, she had thought It best to allow him the same privilege, hence her delay in announcing her conclusion. Miss Condom is considerably ahead, iu the opinion of her friends. Avery pretty story is handed down from Boston. A rule forbids the stopping of streetcars on Tremont street at places other than street corners. A young lady desiring to stop at a certain crossing turned to signal the conductor, who at that moment was kissing his hand to a young woman on the walk, and, before his attention could be attracted, the car had passed the stopping-place, and the youug lady sank resignedly into her seat and rode to the next street. There the conductor rang to stop, aud the pretty, but rather indignant passenger stepped to the platform, and, with a slight sparkle in her eye, said: “I am unselfish enough to walk a milo If you could give her genuine kiss, but this is a little too much.” A nice little anecdote, but it does not appear to iiave occurred to the credulous Bostonian that it might have been that the little miss contentedly rode a square out of her way, hoping chat the conductor would turn his attentiou to femiuine attractions nearer at hand. She was evidently disappointed when she left the car. A correspondent of a Loudon pnper says a copy of Moody and Sankey’s hymns, which reached a Turkish poatoflice receutly on its way to an American missionar}', was regarded with much suspicion as a possible incendiary volume. It fell into the hands of Buksheesh Effendi, a factotum of the Governor-general, who understood a little English. Crying to the song, “Hold the Fort,” the suspicious patriot decided that it must iiave reference to an Intended insurrection, and was of au incendiary nature. Thereupon he cut the song out, after which he allowed the expurgated book to go to Its destination; but that missionary will be looked after with an eagle eye. There are people with no Sunday -school music in their souls who would he glad if Baksheesh Effendi could go through 6ome more of the popular books of “sacred song,” and elimlnato freely. These same persons, having no malice towards the Turk, will-rejoiee that there is one country where deatli threatens the person who sings • •Hold the Fort.” Mrs. Tot, of Lowell, Mass., ought to believe in special providences. Thirty-three years ago she became the wife of Mr. Toy, but after a few months was cast asido like a broken toy, and saw no more of her husband. Several years after, thinking he was dead, she married again and again unhappily, a divorce being the result. Then she tried it again, and the third husband was all that heart could wish, except iu a financial point of view. He died a year or so ago, and left no wealth, so that the widow found herself compelled to become a guest ut the county farm. Scarcely was she installed there when a prosperous-looking elderly gentleman called. He proved to be the long-lost Toy. He hart been out west ami bud had no tinio to write, but was willing to forgive her and forget the intermediate husbands. Together they went away from the county farm, visited a clergyman, and are again one Toy. The cause of cremation is making progress in Japau that may well startle as well as encourage the advocates of cremation in western lands. It is said that the number vt bodies disposed of hi that way is about 9,000 a year. The furnace is a stone and cement structure, with a tall chimney that makes it look like a factory. In cue vestibule are a number of red earthenware urns uml small shovels which the relatives of the decoasert purchase to collect the ashes after burning. Besides the vestibule there nre four chambers, the largest of which is decorated witli granite columns. After the cremation tlie ashes are collected, placed in an urn, and then buried—often with much poiup—in a cemetery. The cremation edifice is hedged in by fences of bamboo canes aud red camellias. The cashier of a Connecticut bank, who lives in such affluence that he is aide to own a “truck patch,” Is in receipt of tho following unsigned note, with enclosure: “Sir—Me and another hoy was going through your orchard one night last year and we picked some of your water-melons and ate them. Here’s 75 cents to pay for them.” Possibly this case of conscience will huve such an effect upon that cashier that the directors will receive a similar communication—without an enclosure. _ “The Democratic newspapers throughout the country are already beginning to iurorui their readers that the principal occupation of the Republicans of Massachusetts for the past ten years lias been the tanning of negro skins." —Boston Herald. Democrats who, “beroh the wah” tanned negroes* skins just for the fun of it, while tiio owners were alive, and would like to do it again, nre outraged in their tenderest sensibilities over the indignity offered to the dead Tewksbury darkey. Germany, with a population of 43,000,000, lias 22,500 students in the various universities. Scotland, with a population of but 4,000,000. has 6,500 university students, while England, out of a population of 25,000,00(>, sends only 5,000 students to her universities. The only plausible explanation is to be found in tlie fuct that the average young cockney, in and out of London, knows enough witiioutgoing to college. Tiik essay fnun which we reprinted a notice of General Lew Wallace and his two books, “The Fair God” and “Ben Hur,” was written by Mrs. O. C. Harvey, and published io the Lafuyette Journal. AT a recent sale of oil paintings in New York city, “The Muleteer,” by Vibert (five inches square) sold for $415, or at the rate of over sl6 per square inch. “The Smoker,” by Boldmi (threo inches square) brought s3Bu, or oyer S4O

per square Inch. This is rather discouraging to artists who paint plotures the size of barn doors and have to raffle them off at $4 a piece, including a heavy gilt frame. A Montana paper moved by envy at reading of hnman phenomena iu the East comes suddenly to the front with the story of a oitizen of that territory named Joseph Bearclaw who is sixty years old and never had any teeth. He is the father of an Interesting family of little Bearclaws, possession of which must be nature’s compensation for lack of teeth. The Bohemians taken the trouble to denouuoeas heresy belief in table-rapping, slatewriting, und kindred “manires ations.” It would be equally pertinent to auathematize General Pleasunton’s blue grass theory. The great question will be to dispose of that class of people who try to live up to their blue China. George Washington Tewksbury, of Boston, has sold a corner lot In Chicago for $140,000. Tewksbury alms-house is not this gentleman’s country residence at present, and if ho owns any more corner lot& he may never go there to live. A Jewish watchmaker at Kishenfev, Ruesia. has perfected an ingenious dock that reproduces in miniature the coronation of the Czar. It didn’t have the explosion scene, so it was pronounced a failure. “Burros sold in MlueralPark, A. TANARUS., last week, for $1,50 apiece.’’—Exchange. Here’s a chance for the Iroquois Club to kick themselves at a mere nominal cost. The oppor tunity is too good to be slighted. A Portland, Oregon, Chinaman calls the eagle on American coins a chicken. The age of the American eagle probably suggested a spring ohiokeu to las darkened Intellect. General Washington issued his proclamation or peace Just 100 years ago Thursday. The treaty was sigued at Paris (Versailles), September 3, following. Oscar Wilde would make a fortune out of an autobiography on dudes. BREAKFAST CHAT. General Hancock is gotting uncomfortably stout. Charles H. Reed, who was of counsel for Guiteau, is the attorney for ex-Senator Kellogg. Scotch minister: “John, John, I’m afraid you are on the broad road.” Inebriated parishioner. “Weei, minister, as far as I'm ooncerned the breadth is a’ required.” Mrs. Helen M. Gougar will at once re-enter the lecture field. She will speak at Decatur, Midi., April 24. Subject: “The Liquor League vs. the Womeu of the Nation.” Miss Dawks, the duughtor of Sonator Dawes, decided that Pittsfield, Mass., ought to have a public park. She made a plan, ana used pou and tongue so Dersuasively that the town has voted in favor of the scheme. A slab of marble, marked “C. Gross Brock,” has remained in tne rreight office at Greenville, Ala., for the past seventeen years. It was originally Intended to bo erected over some soldier’s grave. Whose? Where? Mrs. John W. Iliff is the richest woman in Colorado. Her husband, who died a abort time ugo, was considered the cattle king of the Btate, aud at tho time of his death owned twice as many cattle as any other ranchman in Colorado. Matthew Arnold insists that In revising the Old Testament beauty and power shall not be destroyed even to obtain a more correct rendering, and that even where tho meaning is not at ull clear tho charm aud music of the old words shall remain. Mu. Joseph Jefferson has just left his lovely home iu Iberia parish to fulfill some Northern engagements. Iu ills Southern home the fine old uotor is simply adored. All classes of people are fond or him, and apply to him the quaint phrase: “lie is just the whitest man that ever lived in this country.” A Turin jeweler lias made a tiny boat formed of a single pearl, which shape it assumes in swell and concavity. Its sail is of beaten gold, studded witii diamonds, and the binnacle light at its prow is a perfect ruby. An emerald serves as its rudder, and its stand is a slub of Ivory. It weighs less than half an ounce. Its price is $5,000. A Fortress Monroe correspondent says: “Miss Ayer, of Lowell, is a guest hero. Her valet patrols tho hall in front of her rootu, whenever she ts from it, to protect her diamonds aud other valuables, of w'hich she has a profusion of the most costly description. Count Bettini has become quite devoted to Miss Ayer, whose beauty is sufficient to absolve him from thesuspicion of necessarily sordid motives iu addressing her.” The editor of tho Washington Republic is worried over modern aestheticism, and fears that “very soon from some pulpit in Washington we will be started by an aesthetic preacher announcing how Evie ate tho upple aud gave also to her husband, how Mollie chose the better part, how her sister Mattie gave her attention to household affairs, how Rut hie gleaned in the fields of Boaz, and how Sartio by faith gave birth to Isaac at tho age of ninety.” Tine complexions of these English girls are exquisite, showing not only the results of a humid and favorable climate, but that which is more essential os a factor—good health. No tight lacing, no late hours, no hot bread and ice water, no candies or sweets, no Insubordination to family rule, no rushing into w omanhood while yet school girls. Again, nine-tenths of these young ladles have never kuown what it was to violate t lie wish of a parent or a propriety of action or speech.—Collier. A letter from Mrs. Jackson (“11. H ”) on her mission among the Indiaus of California, says that she reached San Jacinto, an Indian village of 177 people, who live in good adobe houses, have wheat aud barley fields, orchards of peuch and apricot trees, all fenced in aud properly ditched. The valley which includes these fields and orohards which the Indians have cultivated for one hundred years has been divided iu ranches, and an Irish trader In Ban Bernardino owns this Indian village, from which its inhabitants are to lie evioted. Attorney-general Sherman, returning from Boston one evening to his home in Lawrence, was somewhat surprised in a railroad depot- to see his youngest son, aged three years and a half, sitting with one foot on the bift'ckltig block, while a stalwert bootblack was kneeling down, polishing off the child’s tiny shoe. When the little fellow saw his paternal relative ho did not relax Ids dignity, and showed no signs of recognition, except to ask for five cents to pay for the “shine.” The mite was taken homo and put to bed, where he belonged. A singular expedient for saving money is reported from Dresden. Au artist of that city, having received a check for several thousand dollars in payment for a picture, went to the government bauk and deposited the money. On receiving the certificate of deposit he immediately tore it into lilts. “What have you done?” exclaimed tho horrified bank clerk. “It will bo two years before you can get another!” “That Is the reason I iiave destroyed the paper,” coolly replied the artist. “The money is now safe for ttiat length of tiiuo at least.” Boston Journal: “West Indians have a curious test for determining whother a person has negro blood iu Ills veins. It is oallod the nose test. The negro has no division iu the gristle or cartilaginous portion of Ids nose, such as nil of pure white blood oau feel at Its tip with the end of the finger. This is the lost thing to yield

to the white accession. Any negro blood i marked with a nose, the gristle of which Is on divided, and the object of putting this paragraph in is to prove that no person will read it through without touching the finger to the nose. Try It and see.” Lady Queensbury, mother of Lady Florence Dixie, when, some years ago, her son fell down a crevasse among the Alps, where he perished miserably, had a vision while walking in her garden at Vontnor in which she saw him in a deep place with au injured foot, taking off his spring side-boot and throwing it upward with all his strength, in order that he might attract someone to the hole at the bottom of whloh he lay. It afterward appeared that the day and hour coincided with the time at which he was lost, and it was the finding of such a boot that ultimately led to the discovery of his remains. Returning home from a dinner party in 86. Petersburg once, Prince Gortschakoff missed from the pooket ot his overcoat his pocketbook, containing 30,000 rubles. He atonoe informed the chief of police, who assured him that the thief would quickly be hunted down. Surely enough, before a week had passed the chief restored to tho Prince the entire sura of money intact, but without the pooketbook, which, he said, the thief confessed having thrown away to avoid identification. This was very well, but a day or two later Gortschakoff, putting on the same overcoat, was surprised to find in a pocket overlooked before the missing pocketbook containing untouched the 30,000 rubles, which he really had never lost at all. The Idea of restoring the supposed stolen money to the Prince from the public funds, in hope of thus winning favor for zeal and efficiency, speaks worlds for the police officer’s ingenuity, but presents a curious phase of Russian official ethics. YOUR UNCLE RUFUS HATCH. Observations Abroad—Cause of the Communistic Earthquakes. Letter in Chicago Thibune, Perhaps you are not aware that I am over here, and perhaps you are. But I have been living in London, Paris, and other European villages for now something like two months. I have been over to Puree twice. The first time I went over it was on my own account. The last time I went to quell the revolution which was to have taken place; and, as it did not take place, and as I went there, you may draw your own conclusions. I left John Wyman in London to look after the Irish and other trifling annoyances which are causing the British lion so much irritation. The Invincibles, or somebody else, heard Wyman was dining and wining with Toole, the comedian, Edmund Yates, the philanthropist, Henry Irving, the tragedian, and other notable actors, epicures, and ’ale fellows well met; and so “improved the shining hour” that, the first thing I knew, half of the India office was blown up by dynamite, and this mighty empire was shaken from center to circumference. I came back post-haste, “blew up” John Wyman, and he at once left for America. Having thus disposed of Wyman, whom I strongly suspect of being “No. 1,” I may add that my opportune arrival here has perhaps preserved the Parliament building, Westminster Abbey, and other memorable structures from meeting with a fate that I shudder to think about. The fact that I did come back, and that they have not been blown up, will again enable you to put this and that together and judge for yourself as to my capabilities as a peacefactor in this world of trouble. As you see, lam somewhat posted in the disturbing elements and forces that do so much to confound society on this side of the Atlantic. I have no objections to impart to you my belief as to the real cause of these communistic earthquakes. It is this: There are too many people to the acre, or else their acres are too small, or, if there is the proper measurement to each acre, then there is not acreage enough. Take France, whose area is 204,000 square miles, with, say. 37.000.000 of population. The square root of the number of people to the mile or the acre is wrong, and of the total area not over three-fourths is available for productive purposes. Again, our idea of a republic is a government of peace. France has a standing army oLfiOO,000 men, with a military reserve of OfO.OOO more, supported largely by the efforts of women working in the fields and woods to earn money with which to feed and clothe this army of idlers. At every street corner in Paris I met soldiers; and they were not nice-looking soldiers either. They are an ill-dressed lot, and sloucliy on general principles. They are, however, changing the uniforms, as the first step toward a redemption of their appearance. It takes a iong while to do certain things in France, and this change of uniform may not be brought about during the present generation. A story which I heard recently in Paris will illustrate this point. A French officer made his appearance at a soiree with the new regulation coat on—but, so it is said, without his trousers. A lady asked him why he thus presented himself. “O!” be exclaimed, “I have none—the army committee not having yet decided wiiat kind we are to wear!” * * In looking over the condition of affairs here, I find that it is the same old story again of too many people to the acreage. England has 116,000 square miles of territory, and 34,000.000 of people. The land is owned bv a very few proprietors, and they too own*tl/> people. This land has to support the royfrt family—always largely on tne increase-all the nobles, and the church with its train of archbishops and bishops, many of whom h< ceive salaries of from $50,000 to $75,000 a year! And so the rent, the tithes, and the tuj es run up as high as S3O the acre on the land. One year of such expenditure on 100 acres of land would buy a freehold of the best lands in the great northwest. Can any country on earth stand this? Something bail got to bend or break. Scientific Aspect of Rook’s Case. ChlcnßO Herald. The attention of moral Democrats is respectfully invited to the curious psychological facts in the case of Mr. Jesse J. Rook, member of the Legislature from Chicago. Mr. Rook was elected as a Republican, and doubtless is still a Republican. But when Mr. Kook is drunk he is a Democrat, and acts in Democratic interests. The scientific aspect of the case most interesting one, and the .moral of it would seem lobe that Itepiiblicuns*must become total abstainers, or at the very least avoid Democratic liquids. Warned Against the Brethren. St. Louis I'ost-Pispatcli (Dotn.) As to the Carter Harrison explosion, the Iroquois chiefs are pleading the old wornout excuse—they didn’t know he was loaded. This disaster should be a warning to all concerned that the Democratic armory is full of rusty and apparently harmless old matchlocks and fuses that are liable to go off at any moment and produce any amount of weeping, wailing and gnashing of teeth. Seems to Bea Massachusetts Industry. Boston Globe. Tanning human skinis not unknown in this Slate. “About fifteen years ago tho skin of a white man was tanned there, and the same, after being dressed, it is said, was used for book-binding, and no doubt the book could be produced if wanted. Ono who saw tho skin after it was finished says it resembled that of a hog, being coarse, and with very open pores,” flow Unltko Ingorsoll. Baltimore American. “Over the desert of death,” remarks Robert G. Ingersoil. “the sphinx gazes forever, but never speaks.” How very uniiko Mr, fngersoll. His tongue traverses the desert of death with ttie interminable continuity of a caravan of dromedaries that starts at llamas, cus and scarcely terminates at Bulsora,