Rensselaer Republican, Volume 23, Number 15, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 11 December 1890 — Page 6

THE MASTER OF THE MINE.

By Robert Buchanan.

CHAPTER V—Continued. * Everything was distinguishable from the sea, the low-laying flats stretching black ana desolate beneath the warm Bummer sky—the village, which from my present point of vantage seemed but a handful of houses thrown in a hollow, just beyond the cottage where destiny had placed me. I also perceived now that there were numerous other cottages scattered about the morass, artd finally, that there was one large turreted mansion rising up from a belt of greenwood. •■What house is that?” I asked. "That?” Oh, that is the master’s house.” "The master?” - - >— ~Ye S ; Mr. Redruth, the master of the mine. Besides that,” she added, "he’s the master o’ the whole place.” "Does he live there?” ••Yes; a good part of the year.” "Anybody else?” "The mistress.” ‘•That’s all?” "Yes; except at holiday times, when the young master comes home from ochool. He's home now.” Having a suspicion in my mind, I asked her what the young master was like, and she gave me an accurate description of the boy I had encountered a few hours before. I said nothing just then of my adventure; and, after this, we fell dreaming again. Annie looked down into the sea. while I watched the shore, past which we were lazily drifting. Suddenly my eye was attracted to a huge black mass, which rose like an ominous shadofc between me and the horizon. I asked Annie what it was; and she replied: "The mine!” To her the word had a world of meaning; to me it had none. It simply awakened in me a seer desire for knowledge, which I immediately wanted to gratify. "The mine!” I said. "I never thought about the mine before, or we might have gone to see it. We’ll pull in and go now; shall we?” To my amazement, she half rose from her seat, and put out her hands, as if to stop me. "No, no!” she cried, "we won’t go there—not to the mine!”

Her face was white, and she was trembling, though she was wrapt in the eun’srays as in a warm mantteof gold. “What’s the matter, Annie?’ I asked. “Are you afraid?”—--- - “Yes,” she said; “I am afraid of it, because I know it is cruel. It is like a great black mouth; it seems to ask you to come down, and then it crushes you and you dip. I have-seen strong men like my father go down into it happy and laughing, and then afterwards I have seen them brought up dead, all so black and changed and dreadful. Oh. don't talk about it; I can't bear it ?” She shivered again, and covered her eyes with her trembling hand, as if to shut out the sight. During this conversation, I had been pulling steadily Onward, so that the lx>at was now opposite the cliff surmounted by the . mine. I turned the beat's bow shoreward; then, after a stroke or two, I rested on my oars and lookedup. We were now right below the cliff, and the view from our point of vantage was strange indeed. On the very summit of the crags I saw the mining apparatus overhanging the sea. First, a chimney, s moping loftily at the top, then another, smoking less loftily half way down; then, lower down, almost close to the sea in fact, a third smoking chimney, connected with what appeared to me to be a small mining office. — On“none side of the cliff, tai? ladders were placed, to enable the miners to ascend from, and to descend to, the shore;and he must have a sure foot and a strong head who could comfortably tread those ladders, round by round, the sea

roaring under him and almost flinging its spray after him as he went higher and higher. Taking in the whole external apparatus in one view, chains and pulleys, chimneys and cottages, posts and winding machines, seemed to be scattered over the whole face of the cliff, like the spreading lines of an immense spider's web, while in some parts mules and their riders were trotting up and down a rocky track where the pedestrian visitor would scarcely have dare! to tread. I turned giddy, even at the sight of it. I rubbed my eyes and looked again at my cousin. Her trembling agitation had passed off; and she was looking at me. ••It was silly of me to talk like that.” she said: “tout I can't helpdtr Sometimes, when I think o’ them poor men that have been brought up, and remember that father is there, it a’ most makes me scream.” “But there’s no danger.” I said, •now!” ‘•‘There's always danger! ” she returned. “Tom Penruddock said so, and I told father, but he only laughed. Ah, but I’ve seen others laugh, too—them as is lying now in the church-

yard!” This conversation, sad as it was,had Its fascination for me. It made me want te knew more about the mystery of the mine. What I saw, indeed, was not the mine itself, but only its outer machinery. The main shaft, Annie told me, opened down into the solid earth from the body of the cliff, and was covered with a trapdoor, from which dizzy ladders led down into the subterranean darkne-s, CHAPTER VI. FIRST GLIMPSE OF THE MINE—UNDER THE SEAT It must not be supposed that my .unde and aunt, although they had

; adopted me, could afford to allow me to eat for very long the bread of idle* nets: Had it been necessary, they I would willingly have.shared with jne their slender means; but it was not necessary. I was fourteen years of age, I had received a good education, and I Was in every way fitted to earn .: my bread. But what could I do? My inclination was for the sea. T longed :to become a sailor; not because I had any particular love of 'ships, but because? T had some wild idea that it I might ultimately be the means of bringing me to Madeline. Besides. 1 must own that T was not exactly proud of my newly found relations and a home which was so different to Munster’s. Sometimes at night, when I sat furtively watching my uncle smoking his pipe in thq ingle, agd my aunt darning tne stpekings, I fell to wondering what the boys would say if they ~ Bay them, ana my cheeks burned with . shame. It was On one of these evenings that I ventured to express my wish to go to sea, My aunt threw up her hands in horror. . ! "Lawd love the lad!” she cried; "if he be’an-t like his father a’ready! You'd like to gaw to say, tvouictys?To“ wander over the face of the earth and die like yo ir father did. without a roof to cawver your head? A sailor? Lawd love ’ee, and why would you be a sailor?” ’Tstammered something about wishing to work for my living when my uncle cut my explanation short by patting me on the head and saying: ■•You’m.a good lad, I’m glad to hear 'ee talk saw; but there's no cause for ’ee to gaw to say. You’m a comin’ to wark wi’ me, Hugh!” ■•ln the mine?” I exclaimed in delight, for my-strong desire to go down" the shaft was growing; but my uncle shook his head.

"Naw, naw, lad; the mine be onh for big coarse men like me; a slip of a lad will be better whar you’m gawing —into the awfice. ” •The office?” I repeated, my ardoi being considerably damped. “Have ’ee fixed it all, Tawm?” asked my aunt. _ "Iss, mother, I fixed it wi’ the master this fawrenoon. Hugh can gaw o;u Monday and begin.” Thus it will be seen that my destine was mapped out for me. On tin Monday 1 began my duties as under clerk, with but little satisfaction to myself beyond the fact that I contributed six shillings a week towards the household expenditure. Thus my new line began, a life which promised to be uneventful enough. At first 1 chafed somewhat; but Time, that healer of all things, brought solace to me. As months rolled on, the memory o Munster’s began to grow dim; and when I thought of Madeline it was of some lovely vision seen in a dream. Monotonous as my days promised to be, I soon managed to infuse a littk

pleasure into them, principally with the aid of my friend and ally, hone-t John Rudd; for we soon became close chums. He conceived a great respect for me, partly on account of my superior education, and part y because 1 rendered him such valuable assistance in the transcription of his poems. He placed his boat entirely at my disposal also lent me his gun, a rusty old Joe Manton, which I kept in secret, and with which I used to .amuse myself in the evenings when my work was done. But the one great fascination for me was the mine. It was .be coming a sort of “Frankenstein,’’haunting me? by night and by day; j saw it before me as I sat writing in the office, and when I was asleep at night I saw it in my dreams, opening it: huge black jaws and preparing to crush away some hapless life. The more I heard of it, the stronger grew my wish to explore for myself those dark bowels of the earth. Again and again I had begged my uncle to take me down, but he refused. At last, however, one Sunday morning, he came to me and to my intense delight said: "You can gaw dawn the mine t-day, Hugh. Ibe gawn’ down. I’ll tak ’ee wi’ me. ” Excitement is welcome to all boys, and it was especially welcome to me. but there was one cloud on my sunshine, when I looked up and saw that my cousin Annie was as white as a sheet and trembling violently. “Don’t, father, don’t!” she said piteously.

My uncle laughed. “Lor a mussey, Annie, what a frawhtened little woman you’m gettin’!” he said. "Wha, you arn’t like a miner’s lass, Annie. We must mak' the lad a man, nawt a milksop. Naw then, Hugh, hurry up and get ready, we'm nawt got much time to lose!” The first thing to be done was to attire myself in one of my uncle’s mining suits of flannel, and possess mysell of one of his broad felt hats. This was soon done. I was now a man in a’i but years, and I managed to cut a tolerable figure in my uncle’s clothes, indeed, when I made raj* reappearance in the kitchen, he declared, with a nod of approval, that I looked every inch a miner. It was a proud moment for me: now, for the first time, I felt my manhood upon me, and I laughed with my uncle at Annie's pale cheeks and my aunt's sad eyes.

My uncle handed me half a dozen candles, which he told me to put into my pocket; then, with a merry nod to the women folks, we started. It was no easy matter to get to the entrance of the mine, not being able to go straight to the shafts as in the case of mines on level ground. First of all we had to make our way to the counting house, in which I sat aVmy daily toil. The way was long and ■ diffieult to travej, on my account of the ■accumulation of mining gear we had to pass; long chains stretched out over bell cranks, wooden platforms looking like battered remnants of wrecks, yet supporting large beams of timber and heavy' coils 'of rop«. Here there was a little creating

[shed, there a broken-down post or two. ! and there again we had to wind rourd Iby the rocky path amidst chains and cables and asceuding loads. I, having to travel this road every day of my rife, was well accustomed to’ it. and I accordingly followed <m my uncle's footsteps without much filing ofcuriosity or joy; but when we had q.a*sed the counting-house, ascended 7 the cliff, and gained the trap-door entrance to the mine, my heart began to beat with anticipation. Here we both paused. "Ydu’H keep a strawng head,” said my uncle, looking at me. t2Twill be bad business if you begin to tramble like our Annie. Are you sure you arn’t afraid lad?’ ‘ Not a bit” I returned, then, looking at the ladder which was set at the entrance of the mine, I asked, ‘Shall ; go firgt£ "Bide a bit. bide a bit, lad!” he returned. ‘Gi’s one o’ tham candles.’ I did so, whereupon he lit it and stuck it into my hat, -then he lit another for himself; after this he began to descend the first ladder, and I followed him. The first object I was conscious of was the huge beam of a steam-engine, which worked on my right, alternately bowing and rising, and heavily straining at ( the deluge of water which jt lifted. On the other side, through boards the chinks of \vkich admitted just light enough at the foot of one of the ladders to show the passage, I saw the loaded tubble. or bucket, rushing past its descending companion. Wfe were now between two shafts, descending from stage to stage; the tiuylight was completely gone, and we depended solely on our candles, which were almost perpendicular, we came to a platform, and made a halt. '“"Waal, lad?” said iny uncle; holding nis flickering candle above his head, md looking into my face.

I laughed, and hastened to assure him it was all right, though, in reality, I began to feel some of my cousin’s ! misgivings. We rested a second er two, the halt indeed'being made more for me than for my guide; then my uncle took another lighted candle, and stuck it into my hat, "Naw, lad,” said he, -come on wi' a will; lavhowld o’ the sides o’ the ladder, and ha’ a care.’ I promised to obey him. and we recommenced our descent, he going first nd I following. We went down first >ne ladder then another, till again we •ame to a platform and rested. "What’s below?” —I asked of my uncle, who was again regarding me curiously, trying to detect if possible :my sign of fear or shrin king in my ace.. "What’s belaw, lad?” he said. *Wha, Jie water drained from all the mine, the pumps at wark pumping it awt, and p’raps a cartload o’ ratting human D.iwns.’

VVe descended a couple more ladders md landed again, this time to traverse one of those side galleries in which he pit abounded. It was about seven feet high, but so 1 narrow that two persons, if thin, could just squeeze last one another. The inly light no v vas that afforded by our candle, winch lickered in the hot, sickly, . apour which floated about us. The fetid air of the place a* as beginning to tell upon me, ny breath became labored, the perspiration streamed down mj* face, while mud and tallow and iron drippings were visible on my clothes, ■ly uncle, who was similarly bespat tered to myself, but who was breathing more freely, recommended a rest. 1 sat down on the floor while he sot himself to replenish the candles,which had nearly flickered out. Sitting thus in the stillness, I became conscious of a strange moaning and soughing sound. After listening intently, I asked my uncle what it was. ••It’s the sae,” he returned: "it be rolling up thar above our heads.” [TO BE CONTINUED.]

"Bringing Father’s Dinner.”

It was in the Cincinnati, Hamilton & Dayton depot in Cincinnati one day. when one of the men employed to oil cars as they came in accidently fell under the wheels of a moving coach and had his right leg and h p crushed in a hoorrPde manner. Ho was picket,, up and laid on some coats spread out on the <hatform,.and a doctor was soon on h:/.i. He must have suff?red interz jy, but after the doctor him he cooly asked. “Doctor, how badi. s it?” ••Verybad, indeed.” “Will I live?” “Not more than ten minutes* You are bleeding to death.” “What time is it Jim?” asked the man of a fellow employe. ■‘Eleven fifty five,” was the answer. “The children will bring my dinnet at sharp 12. "Some of you go and stop them. They mustn’t see me die Poor motherless children—orphan now'/’ I went to the door with others, am. we were just in time to stop a boy of .* and a girl of 6 from coming in. Each had hold of the handle of a baskecontaining father's dinner, and thej were smiling in anticipation of tlx greeting they would received. We sent them away with a false story about his having gone home, and the eyes of both were filled with tears of dissapointment. The echo of their footsteps could still be heard on the pavement when the farther breatheu, his last. White clover will afford more feed 11 cert tin times of the year than or any other kind of clover. It wi not flourish in damp sails, or those that are very poor. I; wi 1 do well t a partial'bhade, as a grove or orchan 1 , b t to make the highest excellence it -h'juld have the advantage of full sunlight.

FARM AND GARDEN.

If you have a straw-cutter or feedcutter of any kind take the first rainy day and cut up a good supply of straw for bedding. With cut straw you canmake an more comfortable than with long straw, as an evener distribution of it can be had upon the floor of the stall. It makes a better absorbent for the same reason, and the manure and urine become more thoroughly incorporated with it; and be sure and have a liberal supply of bedding. Nothingismuch more conducive to poor condition of live stock in the winter than compelling them to lie upon cold, wet floors. With liberal bedding they can be the more easily kept warm and clean—two factors that of the first importance for their general welfare.

Statistics show conclusively that agriculture has not kept pace with manufactures in thia country during the last quarter of a century. Farm products increased in value from 1865 to 1885 from $47,000,000 to $72,000,000, or about 89 per cent. Manufactured products during the first ten years of this period increased 98 per cent. , or from $273,800,000 to $588,860,000, and during the whole twenty years to 1885 they increased to $674.000,000, or about 150 per cent. The gain in manufactures has been three times as rapid as in agriculture. In view of this fact it would seem as if the time had now arrived for agriculture to feel the effect of an increased demand for its products which this gain in the consuming classes should have brought about

On the trial grounds of the experiment station at Geneva, N. Y., were J planted for testing two rows of each I variety of strawberries, one grown in the stool system, the other allowed to mat to the width of two feet, twelve plants in each row, the rows three feet apart. In past years the largest individual fruits have been obtained from the plants in the stool rows and the largest yield of marketable fruit from the matted row. This year the matted rows gave both the largest yield and the largest berries, and, in addition, bloomed and fruited from three to five days in advance of the stool rows. —This is a result that would not have been generally expected, but, if borne out by future work, will go far to prove that the easiest way is the best in strawberry culture. It is a fact worth considering that the railways received more for carrying the Georgia melon crop to market than the growers received for the product. The growers received on an average of S6O a carload, or a total of $330,000, while the railways charged an average of S7O a carload for transportation, or a total of $385,000. Nevertheless, the growers did better than in former years, but it forcibly suggests that they should’ consider the bulk and cost of transportation in determining what crops to grow. It is the policy and interest of the railways to encourage the growing of bulky products. For instance, it costs as much to freight the product of two acres of melons as of 100 acres of cotton. Consider this in deciding whether you will grow wheat or corn, fruit or hay. The American Garden is an earnest advocate for the development and improve meat of our native fruits. It thinks that the progress thus far made is only a beginniug of what the future will show. The improvement of our native grapes, gooseberries, raspberries, etc., has been brought about by the partial or total failure of foreign varieties, and our increasing population, the failures in fruit raising, owing to the peculiar climate and soil of the newer States, and the destruction of the forests in older regions of the country will lead to the cultivation and improvement of other native American fruits. Already there, is a marked increase in the attention given to our native plums. Our cultivated raspberries and blackberries have been developed from the wild state' almost within a generation. Our wild huckleberries are almost gone and soon some of those will be brought under cultivation. The experiment stations might well take this matter up and see what can be done with our cherries, crabapples, Juneberries, | pawpaws, persimmons, etc. The bounty which is to be paid upon ' our domestic sugar production should ' stimulate the maple sugar manufac- ■ tures to renewed efforts and encourage those also who are experimenting in the production of beet sugar. After Jan. I,lß6l,every pound of sugar made here, whether mad from cane, beet roots or the sap of the maple tree, is entitle to a bounty of from 1| to 2 cents a pound. In the south the bounty will probably have the effect of brining into cultivation new sugar lands, provided the planters can be made to feel that the bounty is a per manent substitute fox* the tariff. Certainly, with all our recourses, it is to be hoped that the way will be opened by which we ean afford to provide our own sweets. Texas and Arkansas both claim large areas of undeveloped cane lands, the Dakotas and California can grow the sugar beet, New York! Ohio and Vermont the sugar maple* In the writer’s old home in New York (Delaware county) the production has been so great that in a single year this bounty would bring to the farmers nearly $20,000.

JAMES K. REEVE.

NOTES. Crude carbolic acid is better to use as a wash in soapsuds for trees than anything else. Kerosene hot be used on tress at all. ——-—— Several onion growers are bearing testimony to the value of sod ground for this vegetable. This is somewhat in opposition to previous ideas in onion culture. It ought to be a rule in "doctoring” cows that “when you don't know what

to do don’t de anything;” but the con-* trary is followed, and many dead or injured cows are the result. When we give the cows poor feed, and a scanty supply at that, we are inviting a curious specibs of microbe to assist us in our dairying. Rye may be used for late pasture. ■lt will do the rye no harm to allow it to be grazed, but stock should not be turned on when the grpung is wet. Tbe sweepings from the hay loft, which contain the seeds of plover and grasses, make excellent food for the early chicks that may be hatched, and, should be sifted and saved for that purpose. Store your onions on the floor, where they can be spread out to dry. They should not be disturbed after they are put away for winter. The frost's will do them butlittle damage if they do ffffi thaw too rabidly. Look well at the trunks of trees below the ground, near the roots. If any signs of damage from insects appear, or disease shows symptoms, use lime plentifully around the trees and wash the trunks with strong soapsuds. To rid a poultry house of red lice fumigate it with burning sulphur, in which has been placed a pound of old tobacco leaves, or a piece of common rosin twice as big as an egg, the house meantime being closed perfectly tight. Insects can not live in this kind of atmosphere:

SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY.

The stoppage of travel in the vicinity, of fires cau.-ed by the lines of fire hose crossing the street, has long been B.tource of complaint, and it has been wondered that no practical means of running hose across a roadway so as not to interfere with the passage of vehicles has been devised, Such a deice has been brought opt by an arch--1 act of Chicago. It consisis of a temporary bridge upon which the hose Cm be carried over the street ata height permitting cars and general travel. It is said to have worked well both in San Francisco and Denver. A simple method has been devised by means of which, in the midst of a busy workshop full of machinery in motion, any special noise, even though slight, can be distinguished and its origin traced. The apparatus consists es an ordinary india-rubber gas' tube about a yard in- length; the length may, however, be varied to suit the nature of the investigation. The tube in unprovided with ear-pieces or bell. One end is applied to the ear of the observer, while the other is moved about in order to explore the seat of the irregularity. Since the free orifice of the tube is comparatively small and is applied as closely as possible to the vibrating surface, it practically receives only those sonorous vibrations which are emitted by this surface. Those who will have to do with machinery will find it especially useful for observing noises due to irregularities in the working of small parts of machines, which may be either difficult or dangerous to approach in any other way. It has been recently stated that a prize offered some years ago for the discovery of some means whereby the inexperienced might at once determine whether in a given case death had or had not occurred was won by a physician who discovered that if a light were placed behind the hand of the supposed dead, person a scarlet tint would be apparent where the fingers touched each other if life was not extinct, and. that if no glow were visible death had taken place. Dr. B. W. Richardson has written! an essay in which he states that, although this test has its value, it is not by any means to be trusted as an unfailing indication of life or death. He gives the case of a person in a state of syncope to whom the test was most carefully applied. Not the faintest sign of red coloration between the fingers could be traced, yet the recovery of the syncope was complete and was effected without any artificial aid. Dr. Richardson regards it as a good test, but is of opinion that more certain proofs are the pulsation, the respiratory murmur, pressure on veins, the electric test for muscular irritability, the ammonir hypodermic test, coagulation of blood in the veins, rigor mortis, and decomposition. Remarkable success has been attained by Prof. Ahn of Breslau in applying photography to fix the indications of different diseases of the eye. Another contribution to one of the newest departments of science is Prof. Fisher’s photographs of cultivation of luminous bacteria, which were photographed by their own light —the views giving evidence of the constant movement in which the tiny organisms are unceasingly engaged. One of the greatest anthropologists of the century in Paris has been making a collection of the various types of mankind, and he does it by means of the photograph. He inclines to the opinion that the type or origin, the race to which the party originally belonged is better preserved among women than among men. He has therefore made his col- ' lection from among women, and to increase its attractiveness and value be ' has announced his intention to ch’use only beautiful women for his types, i Apropos of this idea a prominent photographer proposes to appeal to phojtographers for-selection and contribu- ‘ tion of a photographic reproduction of ] the representative women whom they consider the most beautiful; so that a collection can be made which will be handed down to posterity as representing the standard types of ■ in the nineteenth century. , A shoe dealer says that girls’.between sixteen and eighteen have bigger feet then after tr*«z.v aafl twentyfour. The foot is fleshy at that time ' and large, but as years' come the. flesh decreases and the musoies grow more firm.

TEMPERANCE COLUMN.

A UNIQUE AGITATION. Father Ziegler; of ’ St Malachy’s Church, St Louis, has instituted an effective temperance campaign by boycotting the drinkers. He has obtained the names of the> meh of his parish who drink, and placed this list in the hands of a committee of sixty women, many of them wives of the men on the list. These bibulous husbands were informed by trembling wives that unless they straightway reformed their names would be read by Father Ziegler from the alter. Great as was the consternation among these married sinners, it was nothing compared with that among the bachelors on the list. The young ladies have entered with spirit into the plan, and the least suspicion of a young- man’s, faithlessness to the pledge, is visited with the boycott. Young men vie with old ones in -"swearing off,” and the crusade which was at first laughed at, is accomplish! ing great good. " . ALCOHOL IN HOSPITALS. '* The cost of alcoholics prescribed in infirmaries promises tQ prove an element for good in the non-alcoholic medications problem. Some thrifty Britons have been feeling that the liquor bills for these institutions were a heavy burden upon tax-payers, and, to test the matter, Aiderman Stephens, of Newcastle-on-Tyne, has collected statistics upon this point from sixtyseven hospitals and infirmaries in the TJnited’ Kingdom. Tbo average cost per patient for liquors varies from 7s. IOJd. in a small infirmary at Elgin, to nil, as given in the records for the London Temperance Hospital, where, ..with 753 patients, not a farthing is expended for alcoholics. Next to it stands the great Swansea hospitall with 3,952 patients, where the average expenditure per patient per year is only one and three-fourths pence. Had it prescribed the same amount of alcoholics for each of its patients that Elgin did, its liquor bill would have been over £1,500, instead of £27. It is well, says a contemporary that taxpayers are beginning to ponder these figures; when they go a step further and learn the fact that the death rate in the hospital which uses no liquor is from four to twelve per cent', less than in those which do use it, the day of medical drunkard-making in hospitals is past. NOTES. TheW. C. T. U. of East Washington, alway alive to the best Interests of the work, is utilizing the Northwestern f Industrial Exposition being held in Spokane Falls. The laidies have secured space there and ordered fifty dollars’ worth of temperance literature which is being distributed continually. The Indiana Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in session lately, passed the following reso. lution unanimously: "Resolved, That we endorse and congratulate the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union on its Christian character, its arduous labors, its marvelous succes in manufacturing temperance sentiment, and in the growing blessing of the Lord that rests upon it.” , The official returns of liquor consumed in the seven Canadian provinces furnish a good illustration of the result of prohibition by the' Scott act. In Prince Edward Island, entirely under the act, the per capita consurffption of liquor is three-fourths of a gallon. In New Brunswick, where nine out of fifteen counties are prohibition, it is one and a half gallons: in Nova Scotia with elven out of fifteen counties the, per capita is one and three-fourths gallons: and so the ratio goes on increasing in inverse ratio to the number of counties under prohibition, till in British Columbia, which is entirely under license, the consumption is ten gallons per capita. The Southern Star, of Atlant, invites the National W. G, T. U Convention to an excursion to Indian Springs, Ga The Constitution says there is a project on foot toesta dish a great inebriate asylum at those springs whose waters are said to possess the peculiar property of making it impossible to drink them and whisky at the same time. A writer in the Constitution says*. "No matter how strong a hold the whisky habit has on man, iet him but commence to drink this Indian Spring water, and the desire for whisky is gone. And se 1 say, this is pre-emi-nently the place for a great e for inebriates, and the National Woman,s Christian Temperance Union is, of course, the one body that can make such an institution a success.

Nicaragua Canal.

Work has been begun on the most formidable piece of excavation on the Nicaragua canal. It is solid rock cut about thirteen miles from the Atlantic end of the canal. A great deal of dredging has already been !dne in thj low land from the shore inward. Tire climate is agreeable the health of the surveying and working parties good, and the progress made thus far equals expectations. The engineers confidently predict that the work can be completed in four years.

Another Kind of a Dog.

Wsshtng'on Post. ••Is Set ar er hunt*’ dawg?’’ inquired a colored man or an acquaintance who was accompanied'by a lopeared monument of canine discouragement. "Nope, not ’xactly. Ho does de gittin’ los’ and I does de huntin’.”

The Potato Remedy.

Boston Globe. Ae to what will prevent loir from falling out, I will say, take the water that common white potatoes are boiled in. let it settle and cool,drain off the clear water, and wash tnc sc»>lp thoroughly several times. »ww