Rensselaer Union, Volume 7, Number 4, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 October 1874 — Page 8

A Musical Prodigy.

Thk world knows by heart how the ■divine Mozart astonished theorists by the early development of his musical gift and by the latest triumphs of his Jgenius. He played the piano accurately at three years of age; composed at six, and conducted the performance of his masses at twelve. He enjoyed in this respect a prominence not gained by any other of the great masters. I have just had a half-hour’s interview with a modern Mozart—a little girl, who may some day imitate her great prototype and give to the world what is now scarcely known, music composed by a woman 80 far as her little hfe has gone she is more than equal to Mozart. She will be five years old Oct. 8. At the age of seven months, when placed within reach of the key-board of a piano, her thumbs went down on the keys in a manner that brought no discord, and she manifested unmistakable delight at the sounds produced. After that the piano became her favorite amusement. Site was placed before it and allowed to play for hours at a time. Her parents observed with delight and wonder that she soon had method in her playing, and that she understood harmony.’ When two years old she composed music. At three she had made rapid progress, and now at five she evinces no abatement of the keenness of her musical mind. Her name is Rose Mansfield Eversole. She is the daughter of Dr. A. C. Eversole, now living in Dayton. Her mother is a music teacher, and has an inherited talent for music. Dr. Eversole knows music by study, but has no particular natural aptness for it. This is their only child. She is as sweet and pretty as a blonde, lithe and graceful in form, with fair silk-" •en hair, largi, expressive blue eyes, and a Sappy though thoughtful face. Her attainments in general knowledge are scarcely less remarkable than her musical genius. When she was sixteen months old she learned the alphabet in a few days, and was delighted, on being carried along the street, to spell out the signs. A year ago-she could read well enough to read to her father the yellowfever news in the papers, in which he was much interested. She knows the names of all the States and can tell their relative location. She is also well versed in European geography. All this she dinary way. Her father gives her no tasks, he only answers her questions. Her knowledge of geography was obtained from inspection of 'an atlas. Whenever she hears any city or place mentioned she goes to her atlas to locate it, and thereafter she remembers where it is. She talks with a freedom and clearness that show the superior quality of Her mind and the unusual quantity of knowledge stored in her young head. She is quite at ease in talking with strangers. A physician was introduced to her in my presence, when the following dialogue ensued: Physician—l am a doctor, Rose, like your father. How do you like the medical profession? Rose (quietly)—Oh, I don’t like it at all. Physician—Well, it is rather a hard life. I suppose you like better to be a musician: , ... _x—_ Rose—Yes, I always did. Physician— You mean you have always liked it since you were a little girl* Rose—No, sir, I mean I always liked it when l was a little girl. Physician—Not when you were a little •baby? Rose- Of course not. I only had fat. chubby hands when 1 was a baby, ami couldn’t play at all. Physician—This gentleman by my side, Rose, is a newspaper man. 1 read his productions every day. Rose—Do you* 1 should think you would rather read your own. Physician—l do not write, neither do I sing. 1 don’t know •• Old Hundred” from ■“ Yankee Doodle." Rose—l do. —Her father uses language in talks to her that would puzzle most children of much larger growth. But with all her wisdom she manifests a wholesome childish love of play. While playing on the piano her eyes would sparkle as she followed the rompings of children in the roam. Her playing is not by any means brilliant —how could it be when her little tfeet dangle hopelessly high above reach of the pedals, and her arms are quite too short to stretch across the key-board* The wonder is that she can play at all at .such an age. She plays almost anything that she has heard, but her genius isshown in a stronger light by the music which she produces from her own brain. She is an indefatigable composer. Sometimes for an hour her fingers wander over the keys, not aimlessly, but with the faultless touch of a true musician bringing out her childish musical fancies. She never commits a musical sin. Her harmonies are always perfect.

During my interview with her, her father asked her to play a march. He had previously asked her to improvise—using that word—and she played some beautiful little arpeggios. At "his request for a march of her own she instantly began a march of exquisite beauty. After a while her father asked her “to put a little minor in it.’’ In an instant she complied, blending the theme she had chosen into a minor passage without losing a bar.” 1 ' She played also a little waltz, composed as she played it, besides playing in my hearing “"Home, Sweet Home,’’ “ A ankee Doodle,” the march from “ Norma” and other compositions. She likewise sang a song which she composed for a little poem in the nursery. In all her playing she uses both hands, as any one else would, but she never looks at the right hand; that finds its place intuitively, while she has sometimes to look for the fingering of her left hand. But the most remarkable feature of her musical gift is her intuitive knowledge of pitch. She seems to know with certainty the exact pitch of any musical tone she hears. A gentleman" sounded with his voice a . note and she instantly touched the key corresponding to it. When asked how she knew what key to touch, she answered “By heart.” "Her father says he was whistling an andante in one of Beethoven’s compositions in her hearing, a few days ago, when she looked at him and said, ‘‘ Papa, you are whistling that tune in F, and it is written in C.” He didn’t know in what key he was whistling it, and went to the piano to see. As he was going Rose cried out, “Nearly F, papa. I heard a little sparkle of Fin it.” He found there was a “little sparkle of F,” as his key was but a slight shade below E. Thje little wonder is not being pushed. Her father seems to be a man of sense, and he declares she shall not be crammed. The greatest danger he fears

is the annoyance of curious people wanting to see and hear the prodigy.—Cincinnati Cor. Chicago Times.

Importance of Tap Roots.

It is a habit of trees and some vines to send down a strong and large tap root directly beneath the body of the tree. If that was not essential to the well being of the tree the tap root would not be formed. “ W,” in Cultivator and Country Gentleman, states that seedling pear trees always, and seedling grapevines generally, have vertical roots which thrust deeply downward and supply the leaves with the necessary cqld water through the severest droughts. But as these get older, and especially if grown from sprouts or layer?, we find the roots directed horizontally, and then, if they are in open, dry, unsheltered soil, a fewsummers will disease them so that the leaves become open to blight and mildew and winter finishes what the trials of the summer time had weakened. It is a difficult problem in tree culture to constantly secure a sufficiency of moisture in the soil, and at the same time to encourage the roots to run deeply. A wide mulching of the surface will retain moisture indeed, but it infallibly attracts the roots to grow and feed close under the mulch, within the grip of either drought or frost when the mulch has decayed away. Thorough draining and deepening of soil not naturally well drained, and either a constantly mellow or open surface, or a constantly close-cropped sward of grass, are most favorable to healthy and regular root supply. English books and practice advise the suppression of tap root. It is an established principle in their arboriculture that these should be checked and horizontal roots encouraged as much as possible. In planting Wall trees in gardens they sometimes lay an impervious pavement down in the soil under the trees as a precaution against the dreaded canker of the stem. We follow this lead. Our nurserymen find that a tree transplants better for having many small roots, disposed to run through the rich surface soil, rather than two or three vertical prongs. But it is very doubtful whether there is substantial advantage in this course, applied in our hot, dry climate, for we hnd that trees in forests and along fences, which have “ come by chance,” and have never feft steel in their roots, either of pruningknifeor pfrsw, will maintain heafth~andSroductiveness. to an extreme old age. [ursery-grown trees, cultivated in orchards, sicken every few years after severe vicissitudes of weather, and perish prematurely. Even where the subsoil is impervious hard-pan all around, so that there is no drainage, we find the selfplanted tree enduring, although its roots are all necessarily horizontal, because they cannot penetrate the hard-pan, or if they do they are pinched off by the poisonous nature of the subsoil, or drowned off by the water which is held all the year near the surface. In such soils the forest trees—which are apt to be blown over in storms because they are only standing on the hardpan and not anchored in it—show, when uprooted, a perfectly flat mesh of horizontal roots. A tree with this form of roots will not live long in rich, well-drained soil in our climate—evidently because it is irregularly supplied. It is all feast or famine with it —repletion or drought. After a rain the growth is suddenly inordinate, and again in our frequent summer droughts even the roots are dried. Soon the stems begin to decay, owing to these alternations, and then the tree irretrievably declines.—A. F. Herald.

High Living.

The highest spot on the globe inhabited by human beings is the Buddhist cloister of Hanle, in Thibet, where twenty-one priests live at an altitude of 16,000 feet. The monks of St. Bernard, whose monastery is 8,117 feet high, are obliged to descend frequently to the valleys below in order to obtain relief from the asthma, induced by the rarity of the atmosphere about their mountain-eyrie. At the end of ten years’ service in the monastery they are compelled to change their exalted abode for a permanent residence al ihe ordinary level. When the brothers Schlaginswell explored the gla ; ciers of the Ibi-Gamin. in Thibet, they once encamped at 21,000 feet—the highest altitude-at which a European ever passed the night. At the top of Mt. Blanc, 15,781 feet above the level of the sea. Prof. Tyndall spent a night, and with less discomfort than his guide, who found it very unpleasant. In Jtily, 1872, Mr. Glaisher and Mr. Coxwell ascended in a balloon to the enormous height of 38,000 feet. Before starting. Mr? Glasher's pulse beat 76 strokes per minute, and Mr. Coxwell’s 74. At 17,000 feet Mr. Glaisher’s pulse bad increased to 84, and Mr. Coxwell’s to 1001 * At 19,000 feet the hands and lips of the aeronauts turned quite blue. At 29,000 feet Mr. Glaisher could hear his heart beat, and his breathing became oppressed. At 30,000 feet he became senseless; notwithstanding which he ascended still another 8,000 feet, when his hands were paralyzed, and he Ifad to open the valve with his teeth. In the Alps, at the height of 13.000 feet, climbers suffer from the rarity of the air; yet. in the Andes, persons can dwell", as, at Potosi. at a height of from 13.000 to 15.000 without inconvenience.

How a Crop Was Saved and the Army Worm Beaten.

The army worm has in California met an actual "defeat. These creatures appeared in vast numbers on the beet fields near Sacramento, and opposition was utterly powerless by trenches or by fire, but the experiment of setting turkeys against them proved completely successful. The birds rushed at them, and for several days lived upon no other food, supnlying"themselves almost to surfeit with this delicious treat For awhile it was uncertain which party wpuld prevail, but latest accounts report a complete triumph for the birds. The turkey crop has disposed of the worm and saveff the beet crop—and inasmuch as the beets, were in hundreds of acres, cultivated for sugar, the victory saves an important industry that was threatened with entire destruction. Some of the birds suffered. One. indeed, died, and being dissected was found to contain 1,432 worms, many of which were still alive. There were about 3.000 turkeys engaged, and the total number of worms eaten may be cal culated at leisure. A repentant bride recently wrote to her parents from across the seas: “The motion of a screw steamer is like riding a gigantic camel* that has the heart disease. and you do not miss a single throb. I know of nothing to compare with it for boredom, unless it be your honeymoon when you have married for money."

Dust In Fruit Culture.

It is singular that along dusty roadsides there is generally an abundance of fruit, and this abundance ■ is usually in proportion to the quantity of dust. Not only is the fruit abundant but the leaves are generally remarkably healthy; and we do not remember an instance of a blighted or. seriously diseased treO.when they have been covered with roadside dust. This has been frequently noted in regard to old pear trees in gardens along roadsides; but this year especially as to the cherry was very striking, particularly low-headed pie-cherries, which are more easily covered with dust than trees of larger size. In this vicinity this year we had a particularly dusty time. There was no rain of any consequence for five weeks, and the roads, many of them at least, are not famous for a freedom from dust. The consequence was that many of the trees were for weeks of a dusty brown instead of their usual living green. The trees did not seem to mind it in the least, and the prodigious crops of cherries that they bore was something wonderful. One friend gathered four hundred pounds from one tree, which he sold for ten cents per pound, yielding the handsome sum of forty dollars from one tree. This tree stands on his little grass patch in front of the house, and thus served the double purpose of putting money into its owner’s pocket and of screening the house from much of the dust. We do not pretend to account for this curious fact but rest with simply stating it. It is supposed that the plant breathes through its leaves —how it does this when covered with dust it is not for us to say. It may be that the minute insects which crowd on fruit trees generally don’t like dust; indeed people do say that it is to destroy insects that chickens so love to cover themselves with dust. Again, some people have a notion that many fruit diseases come from minute fungi, which develop on the leaves and branches, and soon cover the whole surface, destroying tissues as they go. It may be that absolutely dry dust falling on these minute juicy little plants may suck the moisture out of them and leave them high and dry. We do not pretend to discuss any of these propositions; at the same time it is curious to note that these dustCQvered fellows should always do so we]\.—Ger>/i<tiitoieii Telegraph.

A Plucky Woman.

A’Cleveland lady distinguished herself for coolness and determination while in Canada last week, and the story is well worth telling, showing, as it does, that American pluck is not at a discount even among the Kanucks. A little son of the lady was playing in a yard in a Canadian village that shall be nameless, when a large dog that was passing in company with a farmer, ran into the-yard and bit the child severely in one of its arms. The brute then ran off and followed his master away. The mother learned of the little one’s injury, and endeavored to get some one to follow the dog aud put him out of the world, but none of the men to whom she appealed would do as she desired to have them. Bound to get vengeance on the dog, she made inquiries as to where his master lived, and discovered that his home was at a distance of eleven miles. Arning herselfwith a revolver, she traveled that distance, sought an interview and demanded that the dog should be shot, but the owner refused to accede thereto. To cut the matter short, the lady walked into the yard, emptied two barrels of her revolver at the dog and walked off, leaving the animal stretched out on the turf, and impressing the farmer and his family with the promptness and quality of American pluck. Yesterday morning she reached Cleveland and had the child’s wound cared for by Dr. A. P. Dutcher. The injury is not considered dangerous. —Cleveland Leader.

The Grasshopper Plague.

The following description of these pests and their depredations is given by Rev. Richard Cordley, of Lawrence, Kan., in the Cengregatiithalist: The “ 'grasshopper region” extends from the Indian Territory on the south to Minnesota on the north, and from the arid plains of the Rocky Mountains on the west, whence they originate, to the Mississippi on the east. It is not often, however, that they reach the latter boundaries, as frost generally overtakes them on the way. This year, however, they are earlier than usual, and they reach the rivers before frost comes. So their ravffg’es this year will extend, with an occasional break and omission, over a region nearly 1,000 miles square. “ Their number is simply appalling. The national debt and the wonders of geometrical progression are left completely in the shade. ‘ Take your little pencil" while I give you the materials of a problem. An army of them is passing over my house as I am writing, going eastward. Looing up, the air is tilled, with them as high as you can see. The lower st rata looks like snow-flakes in the air. Higher up they looslike silver dust sprinkled on the sky. This immense multitude has been moving rapidly all day. On Saturday, two days ago, another army, equally vast, passed over the city southward, and were seven hours going over. - remember that the army extends, with a few breaks in the lifie, nearly 1.000 miles, and, while your pencil and figures inav fail, you can form some conception of the reality. Their destructiveness is as wonderful as their numbers. When they light they come down like a snow-storm, covering the ground. As as they strike they begin to eat, and they keep eating till food grows scarce, and then they move on. In some places their destructiveness is more complete than in others, as their stay varies from three days to-three weeks. They have excellent appetites and a wide range of diet. Onions, tobacco. peppers, cabbages, and other strong and pungent articles, are their favorites; but they can accommodate themselves to circumstances, and when these luxuI ties fail can thrive very well on such l suhjtantials as corn or "grass, or leaves ; of fruit or forest trees; -and even as a ‘. last resort they devour the twigs and i bark of the trees, and the stalks of the ' corn, as the hard tack of the campaign. The rapidity of their work is almost incredible. The great cornfields of these prairies seem to melt before them almost while you are looking at them; orchards and forests exhibit the baldness of winter, and the whole country looks as though a fire had passed over it. A farmer fold me he had 100 acres of corn in one field, so rank you could not see through it. The grasshoppers struck it abouLnoon. and in a few hours only bare stalks were standing." “It just melted away before my eyes,” he said. 'And what they have ’ done for him they have done for all. The bottom-lands of the

Kaw (Kansas) RiveF, which for 100 miles west of here are almost one unbroken corn-field, now show nothing but cornstalks. Where the com is mature they leave the ear and stalk. But where it is green they sweep the whole away. In this region much of the corn was about, ripe, and is safe. One hundred miles west of us the grasshoppers came earlier and there is absolutely no harvest. I drove several miles through fields on the Kaw bo|tom while the grasshoppers were working. The sound of their eating was as if a drove of cattle were in the field. In my own yard you could hear them distinctly eating among the trees.. At any hour or the night you could go to the door and hear the work going on. It took but a few days to. strip the trees of their leaves; the yards of their grass; the gardens of their plants, and the fields of their harvests. When food becomes scarce] they all rise together as if by word of command, and pass on “to freener fields,” if not to “ milder skies.” t is the best appointed army ever known. They move and camp and work in concert, as if directed by some common voice. They forage in the country as they move. If one of them gets hurt or killed, his companions at once eat him up. So they need neither baggage wagon nor stores, ambulance nor surgeon. The insect differs from the common grasshopper. In addition to its jump apparatus it is furnished with four white wings, which c’o not simply help it to hop, but on which it flies indefinite distances—miles —perhaps hundreds of miles. It is no doubt nearly identical with the locust of Scripture. ■. The humors of the campaign are not a few. At Topeka they said they “ate the peaches from the trees and then threw the stones at the people as they passed.” In Missouri they say “they stopped a train one morning, seized the daily papers, and there learning that a section had been missed by them turned back and finished the job.” Stopping the train is no joke. They have frequently piled themselves on the track so as to cause the driving wheels to stick on their broken bodies. The ladies have a special aversion to them, as they cannot walk out without capturing from fifty to two hundred and bringing them home. In church you can safely assume that every lady has a few score hidden in the folds of her robes. A sudden twitching of the- features, a clutching of the fingers, or a faint scream will indicate that one of these captives has “struck for liberty.” -

Origin of the Spices.

Nutmeg is the kernel of a small, smooth, pear-shaped fruit that grows on a tree in the Molucca Islands and other parts of the East. The trees commence bearing in their seventh year, and continue fruitful until they are seventy or eighty years old. Around the nutmeg, or kernel, is a bright brown shell. This shell has a soft scarlet covering, which, when flattened arid dried, is known as mace. The best nutmegs are solid, and emit oil when pricked with a pin. Ginger is the root of a shrub first known in Asia, and now cultivated in the West Indies and Sierra Leone. The stem grows three or four feet high, and dies every year. There are two varieties of ginger—the white and black —caused by taking more or less care in selecting and preparing the roots, which are always dug in winter, when the stems are withered. The white is the best. Cinnamon is the inner bark of a beautifuT tree, a native of Ceylon, that grows from twenty to thirty feet in height, and lives to be centuries old. Cloves —native to the Molucca Islands, and so called from resemblance to a nail (clavis). The East Indians call them “ changkek,” from the Chinese “ techengkia” (fragrant nails). They grow on a straight, smooth-barked tree about forty feet high. Cloves are not fruits, but blossoms, gathered before they are quite unfolded. Allspice—a berry so-called because it combines the odor of several spices—grows abundantly on the beautiful allspice or bayberry tree, native of South America and the West Indies. A single tree has been known to produce 150 pounds of berries. They are purple when ripe. Black pepper is made by grinding the dried berry of a climbing vine, native to the East Indies. White pepper is obtained from the same berries freed from their husk or rind. Red or cayenne pepper is obtained by grinding the scarlet pod or seed vessel of a tropical plant that is now cultivated in alLparts of the world.

The Cause of Yellows in Peach Trees.

Whatever may be or may not be the cause of the yellows in peach trees, one thing 1s reliable, namely: If a liberal, quantity of lime be spread about some trees, and wood ashes or dissolved potash around other trees, on a different soil, the yellows will disappear. This has been proven of er and over again, until all doubts have been removed. Concerning this subject Thomas Meehan writes that if you .dig around a peach with the yellows, you will be first struck with a mushroomy smell. Pickingout the roots and examining them with a lens you will see millions of thread-like fibers, which are the mycelia of fungi. These eat the young fibers, and leave only the main roots,"through which all the nutriment of the plant has to be gathered; and as an old root is unable to do much more than draw in water, the tree becqmes in a measure starved, and the leaves become yellow, just as they would be if growing in poor soil, which, though the plant might have plenty of roots, furnished nothing for the roots to eat. To have plenty of roots and no food is equivalent to having plenty of food and no roots. The effect on the plant is just the same. Remedies which look to the destruction of this root paranite are employed. Hot nyater has done it; so has a weak solution of salt. Others have found a solution of potash subceed. The exact nature of this fungus, so far as we know,has not been investigated to entire satisfaction. KFungi are very polymorphous. This one may enter into the circulation of the plant, and exist in that case as an apparently distinct species, extending through the tissue and destroying it as it goes. This seems likely from some experiments by Mr. Thomas Taylor, of the Department of Agriculture. At any rate it is generally believed that a bud, or even a knife used in pruning a deceased tree, will communicate the disease to a healthy one.— New York Herald - —A Bostonian just returned from abroad traveled 20.000 miles within the last year without changing a day’s programme for bad weather, and never for seven fiionths unstrapping his umbrella.

The Escape of Lavalette.

The escape of Marshal Bafeaine recalls the escape of another celebrated French prisoner, the Count de Lavalette, which was probably both more unexpected and more daring. Marie Chamans de Lavalette was born in 1769. He ntered the army at the time of the revolution, served with great distinction, by and by became aide-de-camp to Napoleon, ana married the Emperor’s niece, Mlle, de Beauharnais. In 1812 he was appointed Post-master-General, lost his place on the restoration of the Bourbons in 1814, but was reinstated after the Emperor’s return from Elba, and bestirred himself so actively in the imperial cause during the Hundred Days that, after Waterloo, he shared the fate of Ney and was sentenced to death. It excited some wonder that the Bourbons should display such implacable severity toward a man who, after all, was but of secondary rank; but Lavalette wielded great social influence, ana M. de -Talleyrand was said to have denounced him as a partisan of unsuspected genius and more dangerous than half a dozen Marshals. So Louis XVIII. refused to grant a reprieve, and the execution was fixed for the 21st of December, 1815. Now Lavalette was confined in the Conciergerie, and the Princess de Vaudemont, the Countess de Chassenon, and M. Baudus, friends of Lavalette, conferring with the Countess, his wife, decided that it would be possible to save him by the Countess changing clothes with him in his cell. Mme. de Lavalette was allowed to dine with her husband every evening at five o’clock and remained till seven. It is necessary to remember that ladies’ bonnets were larger in those days and their cloaks ample, so that the idea of smuggling out a man in woman’s disguise under cover of the darkness was much more practicable than it would be in these times. At all events the experiment was tried on the evening ot the 20th of December, and it succeeded; but the escape was one of such hair-breadth kind that soriie historians are persuaded that there was more in the matter than appeared outwardly. ' The Countess, accompanied by her daughter Josephine, twelve years of age, arrived in her husband’s cell punctually at five o’clock. Their dinner was a sad one, as well it might be, and the prisoner’s chances were almost compromised at the last moment by a loquacious turnkey coming in at half-past six o’clock to otter consolation. He was not got rid of till twenty minutes to seven, and the next quarter of an hour was hurriedly occupied in arraying the prisoner in his wife’s bonnet, black silk gown, boa and shawl. Lavalette was a short man,. no taller than his wife, and had once been fat, but,luckily, confinement had thinned him, and the disguise was so complete that when he emerged from behind the screen where the change had been effected his child did not recognize him. This screen played a great part in the escape, for without it nothing could have been done. It was the custom of the turnkey to come into the prisoner’s cell every evening immediately after the Countess had left and if the Countess had not been able to conceal herself for a few r minutes behind the screen the turnkey must have immediately noticed the prisoner’s disappearance. As it Was, the instant Count Lavalette had fled from the cell, holding his daughter by the hand and keeping a handkerchief to his mouth, the turnkey came :n as usual, but hearing the Countess rummaging at the toilet-stand behind the screen, concluded the prisoner was washing his hands, and withdrew into the doorway, where he remained five minutes offering consolation as before, and being answered by what he took to be sobs. Meanwhile the fugitive had got to the end of the first passage and had passed five unsuspecting jailers, who rose and bared their heads; but before reaching t]ie open air he had to go down two more corridors, a flight of steps, the salle du greffe, or office, an inner gate, a large yard, and an outer gate—in all about 200 yards of ground. He reached the office in safety ; but here a dozen turnkeys were gathered round a stove, and one of them, coming close to the prisoner, laid a hand on his arm and said: “ Courage, madame.” Lavalette had drawn a gold piece for such an emergency; he dropped it, and the man in stooping to pick it up allowed him to sweep on across the gate and so into the courtyard, where twenty gendarmes were lounging outside the guard-room. It was almost a miracle that the Sergeant on duty did not come forward to identify the veiled figure, but perhaps compassion for the supposed Countess’s grief withheld him. He ordered the gate to be opened, and Lavalette, passing out into the grand court of the Palace of Justice, instantly entered the sedan chair that was waiting. But the chair porters were not present! Two minutes, which must have seemed two centuries, Lavalette waited, expecting every moment to see the Conciergerie door open; but at length the chair was suddenly lifted by unknown hands, and the porters set off at a swinging trot for the Rue de 1 Harlay, on the Quay des Orfevres, hard by. Here-M. Baudus was stationed in scab. Lavalette sprang out, leaving his daughter in the chair, and was whirled away toward the Pont Neuf, pulling off his disguise and donning a servant’s livery as he went. At the Pont- Neuf he alighted with his friend, and both started on foot for the Rue du*Bac. At the precise momentwhen they were entering the street six mounted gendarmes came tearing along at‘ full gallop. They were the first of a detachment which had been dispatched to all the gates of Paris to give notice of the prisoner’s escape. Lavalette, in truth, had had but five minutes’ start. Not hearing his prisoner stir at the end of five minutes, the turnkey had peeped behind the screen, and, perceiving the Countess there, had raised an alarm. But Mme. de Lavalette sprang upon him, and during % couple of minutes there was a desperate struggle between them,—the jailer only escaping at last by leaving the sleeve of his coat in the Countess’ hands. An instant afterward the alarm was given, and so rapidly was the pursuit organized that some gendarmes overtook the sedan chair bearing Josephine Lavalette before it had turned off the quay. But the most extraordinarv part of the escape'has yet to be told. "During three wSeks Lavalette was searched for with unparalleled ardor; a price was put on his head, a description of him was posted at street corners, all the hotels and more than a hundred private houses were ransacked, and as usual numbers of inoffensive persons were mistaken for him and apprehended at the gates of Paris. But all this time the prisoner was lurking in an attic of the Foreign Office, where the Due de Richelieu, the Prime Minister, resided. Nobodv thought of looking for him in the bedroom of a clerk, M. Bresson; but it happened that M. Bressson had himself been saved from death by some kind soul during the Terror, and to repay this

debt of gratitude he harbored Lavalette faithfully for three weeks. At the end of this time, the keenness of the chase having abated, the prisoner was smuggled out of the country, disguised as the servant of three Englishmen, Messrs. Wilson, Hutchison and Bruce.— Pall Mall Gazette.

Ice in India.

What possible connection can there be between Lake Ontario and India? The one lies between the United States and Canada, where the winter cold- seizes upon the rolling waves and binds them tight and fast. The other, thousands of miles away, burns and dries under a tropical sun. But it is this very contrast that brings them together. Lake Ontario cools and refreshes the people living on the East Indian coast. And this is the way the good work is brought about: Lake Ontario is so situated that in winter it freezes over a great part of its surface, forming ice several feet in thickness, fine grained, compact, and of beautiful transparency. As soon as the ice is fairly formed the ice companies set a small army of men at work to take it away, and they are kept busy all the season. Some are on the lake cutting out the ice in huge cubic blocks; others stow them away in the wagons which are to convey them to the ice-houses near the lake, where they are deposited temporarily.; some are at work at these houses receiving the ice and putting it in the buildings; others, again, are taking out the ice that has been waiting for transportation, and loading with it the cars in which it is to be conveyed to the different cities in the United States. The scene is a lively and busy one, and this ice business gives employment to a great number of men. The ice intended for India is sent to Boston, and is there shipped as soon as possible. A good many vessels are employed; in this service. The holds of these ships must be made very cold before the ice can be packed into them with safety, and this is done by letting down blocks of ice, and as soon as these melt, the water is drawn off’ and others are put in. The second blocks do not melt quite so soon as the first, and then others are let down; and the process is continued until the temperature is so low that the ice does not melt at all : -J The hold is now ready to be filled for the long voyage: X thick bed of“ sawdust is laid on the bottom and upon this blocks of ice are carefully and closelyplaced, forming a smooth, icy floor. This is Covered with a light layer of sawdust. Upon this blocks of ice are packed as before; then another layer of sawdust; another stratum of ice blocks; and so on until the hold is filled. This packing has to be done quickly or the ice would soften somewhat while exposed to the air. Great cranes moved by steam lift the enormous blocks of ice from the storehouse or wharf, swing them over the vessel and lower them into the hold, where the men stow them away. Steam works rapidly and the labor goes on day and night. When the hold is filled the hatches are fastened down -and. calked and the precious freight is safely shut up in the cold and darkness, and" title ship starts off as soon as possible on her long voyage. These vessels are built for fast sailers; but, at the best, it takes a very longtime to reach India. During part of the voyage the tropical sun pours its heat upon the decks; but when the ship gains her port and the hatches are opened and the work of unloading commences the blocks of ice taken out are as perfect as when they were put in! The unloading once begun, it is carried on without intermission until the hold is emptied, the workmen relieving each other; but it cannot be done quite a» rapidly as the loading. Some of the sailors, dressed in their warmest winter clothing, are down in the hold cutting apart the blocks w-hich have become frozen, together, placing the ropes around them, and fastening them to the cable that passes over the pulley. Other sailors and native East Indians are on the deck, where it is so hot that they are glad to dress very lightly. They are pulling at the ropes and'in this way hauling the ice out of the hold. Others are conveying it to the depots on the shore, where it is stored away in vast quantities. Near these may be seen groups of natives waiting to be served with ice, which is to be carried to the hotels and other houses. Some of these natives have already been served, and have started Upon their journey into the city, six or eight of them bearing a framework of bamboo sticks and cords, in which is suspended a monstrous block of ice as beautiful and transparent, as rock crystal. ■ And, after all the labor at Lake Ontario, after the transportation to Boston, the loading and unloading of the vessels, the sums of money that must be paid to so many workmen, and the voyage of several thousand miles, ice can be bought in the cities of India, in ordinary seasons, at three cents a pound!— From, “ Ice in India," in St. Nicholas for October.

The Danger of Wet Coal.

People who prefer wetting the winter’s store of coal to lay the dust on putting it in their cellars do not, we believe, generally know that they are laying up for themselves a store of sore throats and other evils Consequent upon the practice. But so it is said to be. Even the firedamp which escapes from coal mines arises from the slow decomposition of coal at temperatures but little above that of the atmosphere, but under augmented pressure. By wetting a mass of freshly-broken coal and putting it into a warm cellar the mass is heated to such a degree that carburetted and sulphuretted hydrogen are given off for long periods of time and pervade the whole house. The liability of wet coal to mischievous results under such circumstances may be appreciated from the. circumstance that there are several instances on record of the combustion of wet coalwhen stowed into the bunkers or holds of vessels.. And from this cause, doubtless, many missing coal vessels have perished.— London Medical Record. —The following are the number of letters in the alphabets of different nations: English, 26; French, 25; Italian, 20; Spanish, 27; German, 26; Slavonic, 42; Russian, 36; Latin, 22; Greek, 24; Hebrew, 22; Arabic, 28; Persian, 31; Turkish. 28; Sanscrit, 44; Chinese radical characters, 214. —ln the twenty-five years—lß4o-’73 there were 262,563 new houses built in London, and 6,578 new streets and seventy-one squares were formed. The length of these new streets. and squares exceeded 1,158 miles. . —A Inan in Jasper County, Ga., gathered from one grain of wheat 2,370 grains. His corn will average forty-five bushels to the acre.