Indianapolis Sentinel, Volume 34, Number 4, Indianapolis, Marion County, 4 January 1885 — Page 11

THE INDIANAPOLIS DAILY SENTINEL, SUNDAY MOßNING JANUARY 4, 18fc5

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Comicalities la Plant. I Ylji.i Ca Liu .t There is Jick-iu-the Pulpit; the Ü wtr of the plant kiiuwii hü ludian 'lurnij (Aricajia triphylluui), who could ever t nn of tries? singular blom

WVA ü without that sumo stirring of the risible faculties which cue cxpeiiehcea Ir udnga parody or caricaiure, or witnessing a pantomime? The very fight of one is provocative , of mirth. How many times in my school days did l challenge the teacher's frown hy iuvoluntary giggles at the whimsical look of the imprisoned Jack! M ink's hxd, of the geniu.i aconituni, h is quaint, comical flowers, suggestive of an old lady's he id in a night cap. The well-known Flytrap, Dionoe muscipula strike- the mind with all the effect of a joke. Tha leaves of thi.plant are fringed with stitr bristles and fold together when certain hairs on their upper surface are touched, thus seizing insects that light on them. Seeing the leaf stand temptingly open a poor fly pops in for shelter or food; no sooner Inn It touched its feet th in s.)me sensitive fibre are affected, and the cilia at the top closes in upon the intruder, imprisoning him as effectually as if a loy haJ taken him and closed him in a box. The Pitcher-plant or Monkey-capof the Etc, although not particularly ludicrous Ins a whimsical arrangement which borders closely upon the human economy. To the foot-talk of each leaf of this plant, near the base, is attached a kind of bag, shaped like a pitcher, of the same conds-. tence and color as the leaf in the earlier state of its growth, but changing with age to a reddish purple. It is girt around with an oblique band or hoop, and covered with a lid neatly fitted, and movable on a kind of hinge or strong fib jr, which, passing over the handle, connects the vessel with the leaf. Hy the shrinking or contracting of this fiber the lid is drawn open whenever the weather is showery or damp. When sufficient moisture has fallen and the pitcher saturated, the cover falls down so firmly that evaporation cannot ensue. The water is thu gradually absorbed through the handle iu the footstalk of the leaT giving substance and vigor to the plant. As soon as the pitchers are exhausted the lids again open to admit whatever mouture may fall; and when the plant has produced its seed, and the dry rea son fairly sets in, it withers, with all the covers of the pitchers standing open. The flower of the bee orchis is like a piece of honeycomb, and the bees delight in it. Then there is the snap dragou; the corolla of which is cleft and turned back so as to look like a rabbit's mouth, especially if pinched on the sides, when the animal appears as if nibbling. The flower of the cock a comb and the seed pod of the mostynia probocidea bear curious resemblance to the objects which have suggested their names. Same kinds of the mendicago have also curious seed pods, some being like beehives, some like caterpillars, and some like hedgehogs the last being itself an essentially lu dicrous object. The Belle o? Florence. . Florence Letter.) 5f The belles of Florence have great beauty and fascination, and certainly our'own country women and many of the English are as much admired. Everybody seeias to dress well, but the display of family jewels among the Ital ian aristocracy is something fabulous. They are always inherited by the oldest aon, whose wife has a particularly good time displaying them as long as she lives, and then, alas, they are to illu mine the shoulders of the ever dreaded daucrhter-m-law. After the supper and during cotillon, refreshments are passed around and TkartaVfn of f reel v. and at 8. or later in the morning, a hot breakfast refreshes the guests, w hose carriages have teen ortWed at 10. or in some cases not until noon. I know an instance of a gentleman who left his wife at 1 o'clock to dnr went home to bed. and came back to breakfast with her at 9 o'clock on hot coffee, chops, green peas and other 1 ! f .1 . "V.... Ill 1. r, -.J GdlCaCieS OI ino season, nm "in iwiu It realize such a state of social excess but it is an entirely true picture, and given me by the lady who herself gave the entertainment referred to. The women who give themselves up to lif of so called treasure nicht after night - expect to sleep all day until time to dress and lunch ana uine, ana mase a few late calls just before 7 o'clock dinner, after which they usually go to bed again to prepare for another midni srht ramus-nl. A married belle has usually five admirers who contract to dance with no one but herself, and her dancing steps are eauallv circumscribed. There are enough men, however, whose feet are free to Hy arounu wnn me younger maidens or other married ladies who wish, to give or receive only general at tention. The Inroads of Civilisation. A very graphic and pathetic descrip tion of the inroads soon to be made by civilization is given by an old man in Tennessee: "Bat this hyur country's all a goin to change. It's goin to be most everlastin'ly improved, you sec I shan t nev-.be lm Droved: I'm too old. üut tue old ways is coming to an end. They's men buyin' up thousan s of acres of this land They'll be railroads built directly, hither mm m . J nnvlitit v onv rrrwrl U Jf4Iy UiOiC 11 11 J UJ UUUJ J JjWU TberU cut off the woods for fuel an lumber, an' they'll be mines an' quarries tn hvur. they say. An' they'll be mean dirty little towns laid out, all about Then, instid o' people drinkin a little healthy whisky, as we've always done, they'll be forty times as much miserable pbon stuff sold an' drunk, an' whoever drinks it'll bee in to steal an' lie. I reckon they'll be some mighty fine housfs built aom eres along this river, an' they'll put big scientific locks on to their doors, au thieves will come up from Cincinnater and Chat noog , an break into 'em. They aint never been a lock to a door m these mountains, But trey's goin' to be the all-firedest im provementa about hyur, an' I s'poso our Seople'll l'arn to steal too; haf to to keep up an live. An tney Ii De some o them city women hyur, I reckon, from big places, with their fine feathers, an' their dresses a draggin' on to the ground, an' they'll be the devil to pay tmosg our voun men. That's what thT call civilization, ain't it, stranger? I Uli you - this country will soon be improve Ilia hell, but I .han't live to as a

The Klnnghlrrlnjf or ( utile. The process cf killing and dressing beef u the stock yaid, says a contemporary, is cot as expeditious and wonderful in character as is that of killing and dressing hogs. The features most noticeable are the two methods uced in killing

the animals at the start. One of tbeie methods is through the u&e of the rifle, and the other the lance. In both the animals are driven singly from the yard into a narrow box stall open at the top. A dozen of these stalls are in a row, and over their tops are laid some loose planks on wnicn tne 6iayer walks with rifle or lance in hand. In the case of the rifle the executioner puts a ball into the animal's brain at short range, which kills instantly. Not a groan is heard, not a muscle moves. The animal falls like a lump of lead, and id at once dragged irom tne stau into tne slaucbter-houre. where the throat is cut Cj ' and the process of dressing is completed. Turning n llnppy Phrase. Maurice Thompson. The art of turning a "happy phrase" and of using words with more regard to picturesquencsa than to genuine thought expression, has been forced to such a de gree of nicety that it may well be doubted whether the fiber of literature is r.s good to day as it was fifty or a hun dred years ago. The right word and the well-wrought phrase have a value that we all prize; but the "yarn is worth more than the knitting." as our granumotnere useiTto sav. Straining after humor is one serious hindrance to the development ox a good style, uenuine numor is so precious, and, therefore, so desirable an ineredient for seasoning literary dishes, o . .... . that we re willing to overlook some evidpnee of nervousness in the stvle cf those writers who feel the need of extra exertion on their part to show at least a modicum of thu saving salt; out numor refuses to exhale from mere drollery of phrasing. One is safe in saying that wherever there :s a show of struggling for expression on the surface of style, there is a very shallow spot of thought, The surf is noisest where it leathers out on the sand. Courting Sticks. In the early New England days, as far bick as the middle of the 18th century, wht'n hospitality was a practice as well as a virtue, there was iu most houses ouly one small assembly room, and (here the family aud all the guests and chance callers gathered on winter nights about the blazing fire logs. We know that' youth was youth and love was love, and young men were timid and maidens were shy, and courtship went on in those days. rlIow was courtship possible in this common room, where every word was heard and every look taken notice of? We read that in the winter evenings for the convenience of young lovers since there was no "next" room, courting sticks were used; that is, long wooden tubes that could convey from lip to ear sweet and secret whispers. - It is a charming picture that this calls up of life in a Puritian household, this tubular lovemaking, the pretty girl (nearly every girl is pretty in the fire light of long ago) seated in one stiff high back chair, and the staid but blushing lover in another room .handling the courting-stick, itself an open coufession of complacence, if not of true love. Would the young man care to say, "I love you," through a tube, and would he feel encouraged by the laughing, tender eyes of the girl when she replied through the same passage, "Do tell IV Did they have two sticks, so that one end of one could be at the ear and the end of the other at the mouth all the while? How convenient, when the young man got more ardent than was seemly, as the Hip went round, for the girl to put her thumb over the end of the tube and stop the now of soul I Did the young man bring his stick; and so announce his intention, or did the young lady always keep one or a pair on hand; and so reveal both willingness and expectation? It was much more convenient than the telephone, with its "hello" and proc lamatiou to all listners at the end of the line. Uiiappearauce of the School, itlaster. (Century.J It is the excessive amount of system in our wholesale methods of teaching that prevents the best results in any de partment. The pressure of quantity does not give the- teacher time to mold character. Dr. Arnold himself could not have been Dr. Arnold if he had been required by aboard of education to teach the greatest possible amount of arithmetic and geography within a given time. It is probable that Dr. Arnold would have been considered wanting in the requirements of an American schoolteacher of the present day. It is certain he would have found himself hopelessly trammeled, as many an aspiring teacher hnas himself trammeled, by the expecta tious of his employers. The teacher who would fain be less of a machine who would like to take time to do some thorough training, and to develop the men and women of the f u ture srets no opportunity, lie must bring the largest possible crop of arith metic and geography at the end of the year; an ins oeuer worK in uuuuie? character will count fur nothing with the "Board." Then there are hobby-riders, seeking to drive into the already over-crowdeu course some special study. Ibe arts o design are often useful in a business way, therefore drawing shall be univer sally exacted of the pupils. Music jt charming at home, "therefore the vocal teacher must Lave place. In one considerable city, a wealthy merchant in the. Board of .education, who found telegraphy valuable in hit own office, has succeeded in putting every boy and girl in the town to click ing telegraph keys. - But, no matter what is put into the course, it is rare that anything is taken jut. The school-i:iiister finds no place jn which to stand. His individuality i utterly repressed. He is a mere cogwheel in a great machine. He fcinks iown at last to the level mediocrity which machines always produce; he benies a hearer f lessons, a marker cl registers, a worter for examination week. It is not chiefly his fault that, he does not do higher work. There is hardIv space for it, and there is to maiket for it.

liunuiiu and Plantains. A pound of bananas contains mon nutriment than three pounds of meat or Biauy pounds of potatoes, while as a food it is in every senrv of the word far superior to the best wheatrn bread. Although it grows spontaneously throughout the Tropics, when cultivated its yield ia pnjdigious, for an acre of ground planted with bananas will return, according to Humboldt, as much food material as thirty-three acres of wheat or over one hundred aeres of potatoes. The banana, then, is the bread of millious. who could not well subsist without it. In Brazil it is the principal food of the laboring classes, while it is no less prized in the Island of Cuba. .Indeed, in the latter country the gugar-plantere grow orchards of it expressly for the consumption of their slaves. Every day each hand receives his ration of salt fh or dried beef, as the case may be, and four bananas aud two plantains. The banana it should be called plantain, for until lately there was no such word as banana is divided into several varieties, all of which are used for food. The platino mauzanito is a small, delicate fruit, neither longer nor stouter than a lady's forefinger. It is the most delicious and prized of all the varieties of the plantain. El platino guineo, called bv us the banana, is probably more in demand than any other kird. It is subdivided into different varieties, the principal of which are the yellow and purple bananas we ?ce for sab in our market; but the latter is w little esteemed by the natives of the Tropics that it is seldom eaten by them. El platino grande known to u as simply the plantain is also subdivided into vaiieties which are knowr by their savor and their size. The kind that reaches our market is almost ten inches long, yet on the Isthmus of Darici; thene are plantains that grow from eighteen to twentytwo inches. They are never eaten raw, but are either boiled or roasted, or are jirt pared as preserves. Thing That Are C hnlneU l'envei Opinion. As I came down ftairs this morning from my room iu the hotel where 1 have beta stopping the first thing that struck my eye as I emerged from the hallway to the street was the door-mat, thoughtfully held iu position by means of a ch"in, and made fast to the bottom step with a lock and key, 1 am an old stager, my sou, and have come to look with quiet, enduring philosophy on many things I am compelled to meet in life. On general principles I expect men to cheat, and lie, and steal, and even those wh iu 1 know to be upright and h net, and in - whom I repose absolute tru.t, could not surprise me much in its violation. But, for all that, whenever I am brought suddenly face to face with such glaring evidences of distrust as the one I have just mentioned, I am always startled and grieved at their sight to see, for instance, the cup always chained to the fountain; the comb and brush chained to the wall in the wash-room at the hotels the time-lock on the bank vault, which neither the President, nor the cashier, nor the confidential clerk, may ojen, but which, with a blind disregard of friendship, faith or religion, holds its grip uulil the whole Board of Trustees, if necessary, can get together aud see its . ponderous and unfeeling hinges swing open in the morning; or the sacred ballot-box, sacred as the conservator of the rights and liberties of a free people, not one of whom can be trusted alone, with access to its contents, aud consequently having, as .the improved one now do, three keys to as many different locks, so that it can only be opened in the presence of the whole lieturning Board. All these ingenious s. 'guards, coarsely hinting at our common iistruu of ourselves, are paiuful and disn :reeable to me; and, old and experienced as I am in the generally devilish inclination of the the world, they always leave a-i uncomfortable impression ou my mind .vhen they are obtruded on my sight. Newspaper Troubles. Cincinnati Review. The newspaper business is very ex acting on all connected with it, and the pay is comparatively small; the proprietors risk more money for smaller profits, and the editors, reporters, and printers work harder and cheaper than the same number of meu iu any other profession requiring the given amount of intelligence, traiuing and drudgery. The life has its charms and pleasant associations, scarcely known to the outside world; but it has it9 earnest work and anxieties aud hours of exhaustion, which also are not known to those who think the business ail fun. The idea that newspaperdom is a charmed circle, where the favored members live a life of ease, and free from care, and go to the circus at night on a free ticket and travel on free pasa in the summer, is an idea which should be exploded. Business is business, and the journal that succeeds is the one that is run on a square business footing, the same as bankiug, building bridges or keeping a hotel.

Without being represented in its advertising columns we have had people request us to gratuitously insert this notice, or draw attention to this article, with the slight suggestion, that "it .i!l not cost you anything to put this in," which isjust as ridiculous as to ask a man to grind your axe on his grind stone and graciously tell him it won't cost a cent. It takes money to run a newspaper as well as any other business; no paper can succeed financially that carries l dead-head system. Any mention ol people's affairs that they are anxious to see in print is worth paying for and when printed is generally worth as much as any other investment of the sama amount. A Great Scheme. "No, zir, I gannod drust you fur dot pants." "Why not, Mr. Grindstein 1" "Pecause you never vill pay me." "I know, but I've got a scheme by which you can make some money." "Vot ish dot?" "You know Gold?peckIe, your rival across the street?" "Yes." "Well, if I tell him you trusted me for a pair of pants, he'll trust me for a coat and vest, don't you see? A coat and vest are worth five times as much as a pair of pants. You'll lose only $4 wbih ha loses $20. " Vel on dose gonditions you gao have der bants."

Cochineal. Cornelius Drebble, who died in Lon. don in 1C34, having placed in his window an extract of cochineal, made with boiliog water, for tte purpose of filling a thermometer, some aqua-regia dropped int it from a phial, broken by accident, whih stod above it, and converted the purple dye into a most beautiful scarlet. After some conjecture and experiments, he discovered that the tin by which the window frame was divided into squares had been dissolved by the aqua-regia, and was the cause of the change.' Giles Gob?lin, a dyer at Paris used it for dying cloth. It became known as Paf5ian scarlet dye, and roe into such great repute that the populsce declared that Gobelin had acquired his art from the devil. Whitey' Dead." N. V. Ttlegram "Say, boss, Whitey's dead," said a little newsboy, with an armful of papers to a patron ou Park K w, New York. "You knows who Whitey was, boss," continued the newsboy, p.s he pocketed a nickel in exchange for a paper. "You gin him mauy a quaiter, and he often talked about you. But he's climbed the golden stairs." . "Whitey," as he was cal'ed among his companions, was a dimiuutive, 12-year-old newsboy. "We calls him 'Whitey' cause he was such a white one, I tells you, boss. He wasn't like de rest of de gang. When we had a game at pitchin pennies Whitey wouldn't pitch. 4 Cause,' said he, 'my mudder needs de money. He saved his money to help support, his mudder an' little siiters. De udder niht he was out late in de rain an cotched cold, an a fever sot in an'! he bad to took to his bed. Me an Mike goes to see him de day he dies, anhe say, kinder weak-voiced like, 'Red, I'm goin,tokick de bucket; but I ain't afeard. We git gold fur de papers up dere,' pointin' to de sky. "His mudder was a cryin.' Don't cry, mudder. Dey tells me in de Sundey school d at dere will be no sorrow up dere. Sing me de song outen de book, mudder.' De poor muddder; she's a widdy women, an'takes in washin' fur a liven,' but Whitney gin her all his money, an her heart is broke since he passed in his checks, Whitey was a square on he w-as. Just as squre as a nooscpaper, He wouldn't see nobody posed upon. I seen him lick Bill one day when he tried to hunt my little brudder. An when Whitey would make an extra stake and buy a cake or some taffy he'd always d ivy wid some of de boys. Dere wus DOthiu' mean 'bout him." Honeymoon Hlula. In Siam it is the custom for husbands to gamble away their wives. Every sort of plan has to be resorted to where there is no well equipped system of divorce. A rainy day picnic and a broken map riage engagement are in one respect alike postponed on account of the wedder. Burdette. Girls of marriageable age are worth $10 apiece ia Japan, with few takers. Many of the most charming women that a man meets in society are among the last women h would ever have the courrge to marry, is the opinion of a bashful philosopher. A Jersey City girl is at work on a crazy ?uilt composed f small ' pieces clipped rom the silk linings of her many admirers' over-coats. Four and twenty bri-lesmaid. all in a row, Thit'a the latent fashion, for th tet wed ding Co. When the bride was married the maids began to inij; Waxn't that a wedding march to set before a king? Oh! sweet is the morning of pure weddd love. When joy gilds existence, when faith is unshakeu. A1a! that the joy phould so transient prove, That from the bright dream we must some day awaken. Time brings us at last to the gall in the cup; Life loses the glow of affect ion a adorning, W hen quarrels enue as. to who ahall get up Aud kindle the tire on a cold winter morning. A debating society is discussing the question: "Should a woman be allowed to have the last word?" . It seems to us that this is a profitless discussion, for no matter how the question is decided women will still continue to have the last word. An ludian girl 14 years of age is the "boss" breadmaker at Lewiston, Idahos "No," said an old maid, "I don't mU a husband very much. I have trained my dog to growl every time I feed him, and I have just bough a clothingstore dummy that lean scold when I feel like it." Holy Tattooing. The custom of tattooing the body formerly existed in all ' parts of Polynesia, but is now generally abandoned, except among the ruder islanders. The process was substantially as follows: The artist firt drew the desired pattern upon the body of his subject; then taking a fine-toothed comb, made of shell or bone, be dipped it into a liquid composed of the pulverized caal of the caudle-nut and oil, and placing it on the spot caused it to puncture the skin by a blow with a nudlet. Soon a bluish color appeared under the skin, which did not fade for many years. The fmt marks were made about the time of puberty, but so painful, aud even dangerous, was the process that it was not finished at once, but- (he pattern was elaborated year after year up to advanced age. The designs were mostly arrangements of curved lines, showing great artistic skill and appearing to the eye like a drapery of fine lace work. Often figures of men, birds, dogs, fishes or other objects were pictured. The extent of the persou covered by tatt'K varbd on different 5roups, but the thighs were - invariably marked. High chiefs were exempt from the custom, as were the lowest class of freemen, slaves, and to a great extent women. Various theories have been proposed to account for the Practice,' but the only satisfactory one fino! its ground in religion.' The figures of- living objects, so common are the tokens of the individual or tribe in which guardian spirits are believed to reside. The operator is always a priest, and the patient is tabu "holy" during the process.- The primitive idea seems to have been that hy drawing the visible emblem of a deity upon the person his favor was thereby securod. Later this conception faded out, and the custom cameto.be simply a mode of ornamentation or mark of social distinction. The chief were not tattooed because, thtmelves partaking of che divine nature, they did not require it, and the re st were exempt because they did not deserve

black lUi Flahlnff. I inakt a long cast, and, as much by luck as skill, deliver my minnow, now almost at his gasp, in the middle of the concentric rings of wavelets. Scarcely has his fall startled the reflections o! bank, bush, and gratuft to livelier dancing, when the surface is again broken by a sullen seething, in the midst ci which is dimly seen the thining green broadside of a bass. The time given him for gorging the bait seems nearer five minutes than the quarter of one during which the line vibrates with slight jerks and then tighten! with a steady pull as I strike, and an angry tug tells me that he is fast. Now the line cuts the water with a tremulous swish, and the rod bends like a bulrush in a gale, as the stricken fih battles up streMn in a wide sweep, then shoots to the surface and three feet into the air, an emerald rocket showering pearls and crystals. I do not know whether I let my "rod straighten" or "pull him over into the water," but somehow he gets back there without having rid himself of the barbed unpleasantness in his jaw, and then makes a rush down stream, varied with sharp zigzags, ending iu another atrial flight as unavailing as the first. Then he bore hia way toward a half-sunken log, thinking to.swim under it and so get a dead strain on the line; but a steady pull stops him just short of it. Then he sounds the depth te rub the hook out on the bottom, for he is a fellow of expedi

ents; but the spring of the rod lifts hlr above this last help. He has exhaufcttU-' his devices and now makes feeble rushes in small circles and zigzags and a final nerveless leap not half his length out of water. He has fought valiantly fur life and liberty, but fortune has been against him. After a few more abortive struggles, he turns up his side to the sky, and is towed, almost unresistingly, along the bank. Kuisaea- him out triumphantly,swearing, Catholic though he is, by a Puritan saint: "Ba John Hoger! dat's de bes' 'an ago I have ketch in my rememberl" Curlon Watches. n the South Kensington Museum at London is a small watch about 100 years old, rcpreseuting an apple, ihe golden cafe ornamented with grains of pearl. Another old Nuremburg watch has the form of an acorn and is provided with a dainty pistol which perhaps served jw an alarm. In London is an eagle-faced watch which, when the body of the bird it opened, a richly enameled face is seen. They are sometimes found i. the form ol ducks and skulls. The BUhop of Ely had a watch in the head of his cane, and a Prince of Saxony had one in his riding saddle. A watcu made for Catherine I. of Russia. is a repeater and a musical watch. Within is the Holy Sepulcher and the Roman Guard. By touching a spring the stones move away from the door, the guards kneel down, angels appear, and the holy women step into the tomb and sing the Easter song that is heard in the Hussar. Churches. King George III. of England had a watch not larger than a five-cent piece rhich had 120 parts, the whole not reighing quite as much as a ten-cent :iece. Mnn, bei'ic essentially active, must find in activity his jov, as well as his beauty and glory; and labor, liVe every thing else that is good, is its own re ward. Tne Italn Tree. Land and Water. Borne travelers in South America, in traversing an arid and desolate tract of country, were struck with a strange contrast. On one side there wn? a barren desert, on the othtr u rich and luxuriant vegetation. The French Consul at Loreto, Mexico says that this remarkable contrast is dut to the presence of the Tamai capii, oi the rain tree. This tree grows to the height of sixty feet, wiih a diameter ol three feet at its bae, and possesses the power oJ strongly ittractino:, absorbing, and condensing the humidity of the atmosphere. Water is always to be seen dripping from its trunk iu such quantity as to convert the surrounding seil into a veritable m:irh. It is in sumnici especially, when the rivers are nearly dried up, that the tree is most active. If this admirable quality of the rnin tree were utilized in the arid regions near the equator, the people there living iu misery on account of the unproductive soil, would derive great advantages from its introduction, as well as the people of more favored countries where the climate is dry and droughts frequent. De:f .Hute. Among the ancient Greeks deaf mutes were looked upon as a disgrace to humanity, and under the barbarous laws of Lycurgus they were exposed to death. Nor was highly cultured Athens Ips. cruel than Sparta toward these unfortun -te creatures. Def mute children were pitilessly sacrificed without a voice being beard on their behalf, Aristotle declared congenital deaf inuteg to be incapable of instruction, and this was the universal opinion of classical antiquity. The iffmans treated the unfortunates with the samp cruelty as the Greek?. As soon as a child was found deaf and dumb it was sacrificed to the Tiber. Only those eseajed whom the. waves washed back to the shore, or whom the natural love of their parents kept hidden from the eyes of the world. Mustard. The wild mustard in South California islike that spoken of in the New Testament, in the branches of which the bird.of the air may reet. Coming up out of the earth, so slender a stem that dozens can find starting point in an inch, it darts up a slender, straight shoot, fire, ten, twenty feet, with hundreds of fine feathery branches, lucking and interlocking with all the hundreds around it, till it is an inextricable net-work like lace. Then it bursts into yellow bloom still finer, more feathery "und lace-like. At times it looks like golden dust. With a clear blue sky behind it, as is often seen, it looks like a golden snow storm. "I believe those 'chilled plows' used by fsrmers are what cause crops to be so backward," remarked Mr. Knowitall as ho stood in front of an sgricultural store. 11 Yes," said the t lerk, ''and these seeding machines are whaf make the crops goto seed." - Knowitall-can't imasrint what made the honest old granger who I 3 - I I IT 1 naa jusi purcnaseo a macniue, laugn no hearty. 1

Nnwduit. The sawdust and refuse of sawmills i now made to yield fourteen gallons of turpentine, three or four gallons of resin and a quantity of tar per cord. Lumber lrj injf. - The process of drying lumber by surrounding it with common salt is just now attracting attention. The peculiar power of salt for extracting moisture is well known! A Calllominn' Opinion ol Women. San Francisco Argonaut Women seldom like the expression cf i moral sentiment from a man. If innocent themselves, they are impatient; if guilty, the m m becomes a gravestone in their eyes. It is only w hen they have suffered, and just escaped sinning, that they listen with respectful admiration. I'lnle (ilan. Plate-glass was discovered in an accidental way, in 1CSS, by a man named Thevart. It is attributed to the breaking of a vessel containing melted gtass, a portion of which found its way under a large flag-stone, which, when subsequently removed, was found to consist of a pl. te of glass. This suggested the idea :f casting glass in plates. Age of the Moon. "Why do you suppose the feminine is' used in speaking of the moon?" asked K sciusko Murphy of Miss Esmerhlda Lontrcoffin. i "Because she is so beautiful, I suppose," replied Esmeralda, who is on the sliadv side of 35. : ' "No, it's because there is no finding ou; how old she is," replied the lunatic A Correction. "Yes, brethren," says the clergyman who is preaching the funeral sermon, "our deceased brother was cut down in a gle nighttorn from the arms of his loving wife, who U thus left a disconsolate widow, at the early age of 24 years." "Twenty-two, if -ou please,'' soV the wiiow, in the front pew, emerging from her handkerchief for an intaut.

A Scotch Test. lUor.aon Letter. The duke of Argyll, was once giving evidence before a committee of the House of Commons on the temperance question. "Kut" said a member inquiringly, "one B iilic MacPhcrson, apparently a person of authority, deposes tnat he never saw any one drunk in his district?" "Very likely," replied His Grace, "Scotchmen will hardly allow a man to be drunk so long as he can lie still on the floor." CSood Rraon. f suspect we underrate the Mongol. The Celestial, with all his ignoranc, has hii share of shrewdness. When some American capitalists were endeavoring to get the consent of the Chinese mandarins to develop the coal fields of China, their ai swer was, at least, not without diplomatic skill: "No, we cannot permit it. First, it will displace the center of gravitv and the world will tumble over; second, if it is a good thing for you it is good for us." Don't Marry. Don't marry a lazy man. There are some young meu who are so lazy that it almost requires an artist to draw their breath- They seemingly have not ambition enough to labor under an impression. They live ofl the earnings I of their pa until they find a girl who is fool enough to marry them, and they will live off her pa . Look where you are going. Don't marry a man who has spent his all in riotous living, and , tells you that he is now going to get married and settle up. Don't marry a man who has not the wherewith to support you. You cannot live on love. "When ' povertv somes in at tie door, love flies out through the window Chinese ladies wear robes of silk of any or every color their frightful little feet protrude from the legs of a straight pair of satin pantaloons much like the European garment in form. The custom of martyrizing the feet always aflects the Jegs, which invariably become thin, atrophied, or deformed. "Why do you always look in the corners of the paiatings, my dear!" asked a fond mother, who, with her daughter, was visiting an exhibition of the Old Masters. "I want to see the artist's name first, mamma,' was the reply ; "and then I know whether I am to admire the painting or not." A cynical old bachelor, who firmly believes that all women have something to say on all subjects, recently asked a female friend: "Well, rnadame, what do you bold on this question of female suffrage?" To him the lady responded camly: "Sir, I hold my tongue!'' Strictly English titles of honor have no feminine form, and in early Saxon times when women were of small account, a wife like the spouse of the historic Yankee squire was the "same fool ebe always was." Even the queen waa but cwen, or woman. 14 What is your opinion, sir, about divorce?" "Madam, I accept divorce as a necessary compromise: but I sar wirhmi hesitation, that for a really noble mind, a soul capable of delicate emotions, divorce can never hold a candle to widerhood." Hygienic pillows are now in vogue. Three form a full equipment for a bed, of which one is filled with hops, a second with pine needles, and a third with marine moss. They are believed to cure sleeplessneand nervous disorders. A Brooklyn man, who was angered by hU wife's neirlect to mend hi pantaloons, bung them out of a front window of his residence, with a placard on them staring that fact, and ascribing it to laziness on her part. The young man who wrote to his orlended girl, .asking ber to send him "a ine, informing him what she would like him to do, was surprised to receive by express a clothes-line with a nooa at one end. The soundest, argument nill produce no more conviction in an empty head than the most superficial declaration, as a feather and guinea fall with equal velocity in a vacuum. flnLT'i,om finJ arsons whom te acknowledge to be poaseaaed flf rnsv.1 ense except those who inM opinion. r vv mikU U9,Di

A Queer I'reaent. A London merchant, late in the list century, was stopped by soxe gectltaen on the road, when crossing iiounslow Hearth one dark night, and duly relieved of $C00, in gold, besides his watch and jewelry. At parting the courteous and considerate highwaymen ' precepted the merchant, ss a souvenir of their tneetiLr and of the interesting fact that he had been relieved of his incumbrances, with a gilt-edged copy of the New Testament! Magnerllr Hammer. Hammers, the heads of which are magnetized so as to attract nails, for facilitating the making of rough boxes for packing fruit are now used on the continent. We remember using magnetized tsck hammers, so lone as twenty-five years ago; but, althougu the heads were protected by a piece of India rubber tube, they soon lost their magnetism.' Certainly, we omitted to place them at night due north and south, parallel with the main direction of the earth's magnetism, which is perhaps the reason of their failure. Making a ( np of Coffee. According to Lamartine, "it ia the hardest thing in the world to do the simple things in life and do them right Who can keep his temper? , Who knows how to control his appetite? , Where is the man who can hold his tongue? Who knows how to forgive an injurv? Where is happiness to be found? Vhal man knows how to live?" and where is the woman who can make good coffee? It must be one of the hard simple things that Lamartine refers to, for where there are a score cf housewives Who can make firm jellies and delicious preserves and Sastries, there is not one who can be opended on for good coffee 365 days in

tne year. The II rain a Nerap-Book. San Francisco Chronicle What is the brain but a scrap-book? If, when we are asleep some one could peep in there, what would he find? Lines from favorite poets, stray bits of tunes and snatches from songs, melodies from operas, sentences from books, strange meaningless dates, recollections of childhood vague and gradually growing faint, moments of perfect happiness, hours of despair aud misery. The first kiss of childhood lovers, the firt parting of bosom frienis, the word of praise or the word of blame of a fond mofher, pictures of men and women, hopes and dreams that came to nothing, unrequited kindnesses, gratitude for favors, quarrels and reconciliations, old jokes, aud through them all the thread of one deep and enduring passion for some one man or womaa that may have been a misery or a delight. Telegraphist's Hlnnder. Many blunders occur in the transmission of telegraph messages. The mistakes, as a rule, occur with the operator who receives the messages, and It is generally on a busy wire, over which 200 or 300 messages are received daily. The wires between Philadelphia and New York do the heaviest work. Some of the errors quoted at the main office of the Western Union company recentlv read as follows: "William Gil! & Pie' for "William Gillespie' "Do not tsend the money" for "Do not send testimony," "Meet me with hearse and . carriage," which should have read, "Meet me with horse and carriage," "Dr. A. Wing, room car conductor," instead of "Drawingroom car conductor," "Pancake, Belts & Co." for "Hancock, Beals & Co." Reserve me a room in Astor House" read "Reserve me a room in store house' Put This in Your IMpe. New York Graphic The excessive use of tobacco causes insanity, but seldom where the victim would not become insane anyhow. Poets are nearly all smokers. This doesn't necessarily indicate there is anything wrong with tobacco, however. It is injurious for a man to smoke wb always borrows a cigar and a match. The injury is confined principally to his ' friends. Sir Walter Raleigh ence asked Queen Elizabeth to smoke his pipe. She tried it once, and only once. It is a significant fact that inside of a year she ordered bis hed to le cut off. Amurath IV. of Turkey made the offense of smoking punishable by death. As nearly all the officials of the land I smoked he was furnished an excuse for chopping their heads off, which was much cheaper than hiring an asastin to put them out of the way. A Sevr Kind ol Iofr. A mild looking man who tesmbled one who had wrestled with misfortune in a catch-as-chatch-can' hold and 'been thrown in the contest, went into a Woodward avenue bird store the other dsy and approached the affable proprietor. "Look here," he said, "may I take you apart for a moment?" "Certainly," replied the man of animals, "if you can put me together again." "Well, here's a letter from my wifesay, come out and have something?" They went and had something; when they came back the wild-looking man resumed the letter. "She writes me," he continued "to get her a white canvasback dog in crofs " "Now you go," saiil the bird man severely. "I3usiues is business, and I've no time to fool away." He sat down on the curbstone to rtsL He was still reading the letter when a sympathetic lady topjK'd to lkat him. " "Poor man, are vou ill?'' she asked kindly." "Heaveu blees vou, madam, read that letter. If vou can and will, I am a saved man. The ladv took the letter a if she were i humoring the whim of a lunatic and ran i it over. "It is easy enough to read," she said. "Your wife, who seems to be an excellent woman, wishes you to buy her a white dog in cro-stitch, stamped on a canvas spla;her, with crewel to finish it, and send by express at once. Ym eure there's nothing about it that isn't plain enough." "1 bank you, ma'am, i ll never iorget your kindness. Where did you say , the cro? -st itched dog on canvas could be i found?" "At any art-embroidery store," find the lady walked away, remarking sotto f voce: 1 ''Of all stupids, men are the stupidest. Not to kuow wh -itch U i - v. ' J

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