Bloomington Telephone, Volume 11, Number 22, Bloomington, Monroe County, 7 October 1887 — Page 2

A SAXON PK0VK&B. There Is a Jolly Saxon proverb lhat is Tary much like this, 3 at & man Is half in heaven When he has a woman's kiss ; Btit there's danger in delaying. And the sweetness may forsake it go, I tell yon, bashful lover, If you -want a kiss, why, take it, Kever et another fellow Steal a march on yon in this; Kever let a laughing maiden See yon spoiling for a kiss ; There's a royal way of kissing; And the jolly ones who do it Have a motto that is winning. If yon want a kiss, why, take it, Any fool may face a cannon, Anybody w-aar a crown ; But a man mnst win a woman If he'd have her for his own; Would you have the golden apple Ton mnst climb the tree and shake it; If tbe thing is worth the having And you want a kiss, why, take it. Who wonld burn npon a desert With a forest smiling by? Who wonld give his sunny summer For a bleak and wintry sky? Oh 1 1 tell yon there is magic. And you cannot, cannot break it; For the sweatees part of loving Is to want a kiss and take it, ettit Poat-IHspatcK

THE CURSE OF THE CASTLE.

BT EMMONS BAIRD.

It has happened again! So all the illers said at the "Golden Dragon." "It has happened again!9' So the old kelner at the Schwartzberg said, ad the servants repeated it; and that wms how they had the news at the "Golden Dragon" and all over the TilSage before night How it happened -was a mystery, but there was no denying it If any of the obla folks at the Sehprtzberg were going to die, something in the castle

sore to fall with no human hand

r no xoopnoie lor explaining wny

crash should come before the death,

not at any other time.- The omen

had begun again in these days, after a lapse of a century. The old kelner's father, who had kept the keys long ago, had told strange tales about it He had only heard them in his youth, but they were very strange tales, and the "Golden -Dragon" and the village in general decided that they were not to he explained away. Bat it was much more satisfactory when it the present tune the evil omen began to show itself gain. It was no grandmother's story now, but a reality. The gossip and excitement went on with shudders and Whispers; it was so pleasant to have ome&ing to shudder about Why, if Aobodv had died after the great stag's heed fell in the hall, the "Golden Dragon9 would have been downright

But as it happened, the little boy 4he eld baron's grandson and heir fell 4Mi the Black Mountain the very day fter, and broke his neck. That was mly three months ago. And now the great mirror in the tapestried drawingworn had fallen It was certainly the old baron that was to go eff this time. The village waited, breathless, to know. Home went Fritz Hartmann with the ewa on the Saturday night He was in a worse humor than usual: that is eying a great deal for Fritz Hartmann, oc he was the blackest man in the Tillage; and who he was or what he was thinking of was all a mystery. "Flowers, father!0 said the little firight-haired child, wanting to be

"Go to bed!" said Hartmann, and dropped the flowers and kicked them way. 44 Any news?" his buxom, goodhumored wife asked. The blackest mood Fritz could be in was never too Mack to stop her smile; many a gather 4ng thunderstorm was laughed off by Martha. Why should there be news?" he aid, savagely, flinging his coat aside, emd throwing himself on a seat, with his hat still on. Love in a cottage has tany drawbacks, and his absence of tanners is one of them. The brisk and buxom Martha popped the child into bed, and began to make Fritz's supper hot There was no fear hi her nature, and a great deal of .cariosity Ml wanted to bear about the poor, deaar old baron," said Martha. aHe is dying, they say," growled -Fritz. "Oh! Poor old man !n Why?" said the husband. "He paid a for my bit of caning; What need re care?n "Yes, we should care, my wicked old iFritz" shaking him by the shoulder. If a poor man died," said Fritz, "they would shovel him into the ground and forget him. Why should not the Each die too? He has the gout; it would be a comfort to the old fellow to

Martha had prayed that he might not die for many a year, gout or no gout he had been so good to her long ago, rhen her parents died, and she was taken to the castle to feed the chickens ad the ducks in the yard. Fritz did a bit of wood-carving as well as his daily work. Tourists bought ids carving in summer; it ws bought at the castle toa He had carried his brackets and frames to the Schwartz berg Castle so often, that he was free t the servants' hall any day, and when he took the carved chair on Thursday, the baron had made him bring it into the library with his own hands. It was vngratefnl of Fritz to be glad that the poor old baron was dying; but then Fritz was always growling at the oaetle folks, and grumbling at his own poverty. After supper he went out to the "Golden Dragon," and lolled with the idlers on the benches outside the inn. He was not a man for speaking to the ethers; he had the name of being as proud as Satan, but he listened wit h his arms folded, and the corners of his dark eyes watching everything; There was no reason that the baron should elio because the mirror fell, he said. It was all nonsense. He was the only man in the village that disbelieved in the omen of the Schwartzberg Castle, When the notary passed the old tan with long black hair he bowed to Hartmann. It was a queer thing that the otary always bowed to Hartmann, the working man. Sometimes Hartmann

even went to supper with him which

a queerer thing still.

Up at the moumtaia castle, the lona

tapestried drawing-room was dimly lighted, and the groat, round, broken mirror lay untouched upon the floor. The granddaughter of the baron was thee with a friend from Geneva, the young lawyer, Ludwig Schmidt a friend, and more than a friend. Bertha was in the first blush and beauty of girlhood, fair and pink, with soft blue German eyes, and curls too rich to be flaxen. She was letting Ludwig cut one little curl, with her pretty head bent for the robbery. The shadow of death loomed over her home again, while she was still wearing a mourning gown for her boy brother ; so, though they were lovers, even to the sweet folly of giving a love-lock, they could not be very light-hearted to-night. "And why not have the broken mirror taken away ?" the young lawyer of Leipsdc asked. There is do room for superstition in the legal ond logical mind. "It is ill-luck forwhoever touches it, said Bertha, with a blush; but she could not get him to believo such foolishness. He put tbe love-lock in he

innermost recess of his pocket-book,

band then with his owu hands, gathered

the rums of the mirror on to a table,

rang for a servant to take them away

out of everybody s sight.

"You picked tnem up, sir?" said the

servant, nervously. "I did," said Ludwig, with a laugh.

"There's no fear of ill-luck for you, my

good fellow, you are so cautious.

"It would have been wise, sir, to have left it as it fell until after the change

of the moon. Ludwig gave a growl of contempt

"My good man, I would not be such a

moonstruck lunatic. Take the pieces

awav. Bertha admired him more than ever,

as every girl admires a brave man. It

seemed such a daring deed to be the one to pick up that mirror; she mistook

his common sense for bravery. "Your grandfather is dying of sheer fright," the young man went on, stepping out on the terrace, and leading the girl with him. "The omen will come true if the fear of it kills him." "But, dear Ludwig," said the girl, leaning on the balustrade, and feeling helplessly ignorant as she looked up at her wise lover, and loved liim the more for the man's superior wisdom, "we should all like not to believe in the omen ; but whafc could have knocked the mirror down. It was indeed puzzling. The nails that had held that mirror were as long as a man's hand. They had been buried in the wall like shafts of iron, and out of the wall they had dragged themselves, after being for fifty years safe and Arm. Bertha herself had been in the drawing-room, singing Gounod's "Serenade," with her fiance leaning against the piano, watching the light from the candles making a halo about her fair hair, and the old baron was dozing ia his chair with the dog at his feet when all at once, with no hand near it, the great mirror had dragged its nails out of the opposite wall, and crashed down upon the floor. The dog had howled and barked, the servants had rushed in, and in the midst of the confusion the old man's voice had said, with a tremble "My hour has come! His strength bad failed; he had been confined to his room; he was dying. When Ludwig and Bertha walked along the terrace, they hushed their steps near those open windows farther on than the old drawing-room.

"He is awake again," said Ludwig, looking into the curtained gloom. "Go to him, Bertha, if you like, and I can

harre a smoke in the garden. You might

ask him about the win. " "But I don't want him to die, Ludwig." "My poor little Bertha, what strange things they have taught you! He won't die a moment sooner because he makes a wilt It is the right thing to do. " Whatever Ludwig said was right, was supremely right always to the lonely, half-taught girl ; so as she sat beside the death-bed that evening, she tenderly and gently coaxed the old man to leave his last wishes written down. Ludwig was called in from the garden, where his cigar had been glimmering under the lindens, and they sent for the village notary, and the butler was ths witness. It was well the will was made that night The old baron was dead before morning. Then how the idlers at the "Golden Dragon" talked, and how all the village whispered and shuddered ! Well, a few months after, Ludwig Schmidt owned the castle, and Bertha was his wife, and it was to be hoped nothing more would jump down from the walls to give mortals a warning. III. The gloomy Fritz Hartmann was more gloomy than ever. Martha swept the cottage and played with the child ; but he grumbled at his poverty, and the child shrank from his black looks. He was at the old notary's house every night now. "Are you selling him carving, Fritz?" said Martha. "Why, we shall be rich !" Fritz Hartmann was going out of the notary's before he had even tasted a bit after his work. "I am doing some carving there at the house, of a night. We may be rich if we are, it is only my just right, and thanks to nobody." This was a strange way of talking of wood-carving. Martha wondered and Euzzled while she was taking off brightaired Gretchen's strong little shoes, and putting her to bed. Well, after all, it was the just right of a workman to get the value of his work; perhaps that was what Fritz meant. But Fritz must be making a great deal of money now. Why, he had gone up to the castle in the middle of the day to mend a broken part of the Swks clock-case. When Fritz Hartmann reached the notary's house, he forgot that there was any such thing as carving in the world, unless it be caning out a fortune. Yet there was some carving to be done, and he might be rich. The old notary and Hartmann walked in the garden by the colored spires of hollyhock flowers. They smoked and talked of the time of Hartmann's father, and how the old notary knew him well, and how there had been a quarrel. "No one in the village knows?" asked the old lawyer keenly. "No one I am a good gaoler to keep secrets fast"

"But it ifc time," said the notary. "Your case is safe. The old baron wan almost dead. I was called in to make the will by the man to whom the property was willed. His defence would not have a leg to stand on. " It was a very strange thing that while those two men were talking by the hollyhocks, considering the future law-suit which was to make the .Schwartzberg Castle change owners, at the castle itself the evil omen came again. In the old tapestried drawingroom young Schmidt was tolling his tale, leaning over the back of his little wife's chair, after a day's shooting. On the wall opposite to the windows there was onlv the sof tlv-shaded tapestry; but at one end of the room there was the portrait of Bertha, in white and pearls, as a bride; it had been hung there instead of the broken mirror. All at once the portrait dragged the long nails from the wall, and fell face downward on the polished floor. Even Ludwig Schmidt, man as he was, turned pale, and stood unable tc stir in the dead silence after the crash.

Then seeing his young wife's head sink forward, he turned to her in panic. Was she already dead? No, it was only a faint. The faint passed off, and the servants were gathered round her where she lay in the cool air on the terrace. Her eyes sought her husband's face, and the onlv words she spoke were, "I am to die!" Now, to a dead certainty and a very dead certainty indeed Bertha would die if sho sank as she was sinking during the month or two that followed the falling of the great picture. All the neighborhood had the tale ; the "Golden Dragon" had S6nt it round the bride at the cattle was wasting away and dying- The doctors found no disease, but she was fading as a flower tfades whose life is done.

IV. The Schwartzberg case began to fill the papers of Geneva. Two brothers had quarreled long ago, and the younger of the two had incurred hie father's anger, and gone away an exile from his home and country. He ran through his portion in a wild life, and never came back like the proJigal, But his son came back, as a stranger and a peasant, to live gloomy and discontented under the shadow of the castle, where bis father had lived as a boy. His father's brother was there, grown old now, and the heir was the grandson a boy with an elder sister just in the flower of girlhood. The young heir had been killed by a fall on the rocks. The old baron had died, and a man with no name but Schmidt was in the place of the baron: of Schwartzberg. The great case dragged on as a nine-days1 wonder. There were two wills; one produced from the safe of the old notary of Schwartzberg; it was written after the boy's untimely death, and gave the property to the next heir of the Schwartzberg barons, the male descendant of the absent

brother; the other will was written on the night of tbe baron's death. It was disputed because it had been drawn up when the testator was weak in nxifed.

on the brink of death, and :it had Lfeen done at the instigation of Schmidt himself. Well, all the village had been

amazed to discover who Fritz Hartmann was; there was no doubt how the case would go.

"But the poor lady it lei sad for

her' said one of the idlers outside the

inn.

"She is dying, anyhow, so it does not

matter," answered nother. "It does not make any difference to the dead whether they owned a castle or a hovel." "But is she dying?" with a shudder. "Yes," in a whisper; "the portrait fell it was the omen. Sho sickened at once. It will bo a great funeral. My lord will go back to his law-books ; his time at the castle was a short life and a merry one." But Ludwig Schmidt sped home from Geneva to his young wife. "Victory! the decision i3 for us." She raised herself from her couch to lean the fair head against his shoulder. "I am glad to think you will be here you will not be poor when I am gone," "But you are not dying, darling or if you were dying it was of fear, and you shall fear no more." "Do not blame me I can't help being afraid," Bertha's weak voice said. "I have heard of the Schwartzberg omen all my life." "Poor child! You have heard too much" - "And oh, Ludwig!" she went on, "I am almost afraid to tell you the night you went away the stone eagle over tbe gate fell down; and the night w&3 so still there was not a leaf stirring." Now, the fall of the eagle over the gate was a new form of the omen, and it set Ludwig thinking for dear life yes, and for a dearer life than his own. That very night again the eagle fell. For the second time it was put up, and mortared and cemented into its place. "Bertha is sheerly dying of superstitiondying of an old woman's" tale," thought Ludwig, exasperated; "and yet I cannot explain this evil thing away. If the poor child dies, it will not have been foretold, it will have been caused by the fall of that picture in the tapestried room and this eagle over the gate." The so-called Fritz Hartmann was leaving the village ; he was taking Martha and their child across the ocean to make an emigrant's home in the far West. He had refused a goodly sum of money from the castle. " He would have all or none. He was to go tomorrow; but it was a to-morxow that never came. "The eagle is down again," whispered the kelner to his master, "and the ivy is all broken and torn from the wall, and there is a man lying dead " Ludwig hurried across the courtyard, and found Hartmann dead on his face, with an ivy tangle beside him, and the broken eagle. Only then the kelner remembered that each time the omen had come it had shown itself after the visit of Hartmann with his carving. As for the fall of the antlers and the accidental death of the boy that, no doubt, suggested to Hartmann an easy method of clearing the old baron oat of the way; for certainly, w'tien the mirror fell, and the portrait, Hartmann the carver had f o xnd an opportunity to help ths nails out of

the wall and leave them loose. If the young bride had died of superstition and fear, there would have been no heir but the man who had tried by legal means, and lost his chance. The lady of the castle bloomed into heal th ; she comforted the peasantwidow, and sent little thretchen a marriage portion in time to conie. But the evil omen of the Schwartzberg never happened again ; and the folks at the "Golden Dragon" refused the explanation, as credulous folk3 always do. "The outcast died by the omen itself at the castle gate," they said. "The stone eagle killed him. " "The wound was made by a fall," said the fiurgeon positively. And yet at the "Golden Dragon" the tale was told for many a year as the finest and most "creepy1' iustanco of the Schwartzberg omen. For if men will enjoy a shudder, they won't have an explanation.

Facts About Ocean Steamships. Mr. John Burns contributes to Good Words a paper which contains some? interesting facts with regard to the equipment and working of ocean steamships He begins by making a comparison between the pioneer vessels of the Cunard Line and the latest addition to its fleet. The Britannia, built in 1839, took 600 tons of coal, leaving Liverpool for her out ward voyage. She burned 44 tons per day; while her steam pressure was 9 pounds, and her speed a little over 8 knots per hour. The Etruria, built in 1885, has averaged a speed of 18 knots in nine consecutive voyages between Queenstown and New York, which is equal to nearly 21 statute miles per hour, or somewhat greater than the average speed of the ordinary train service on any railroad in the world. Her engines indicate 14,000-horse power. The total consumption of coal is 30G tons per day, or 12 tons per hour.

Besides the coal, 130 gallons of oil are used daily for journals, bearings, etc. Her crew is made up as follows : The captain, 6 officers, surgeon and purser, 46 seamen, carpenter and joiner, boatswain and mate, 2 masters-at-arms, 12 engineers, 112 firemen and trimmers, 72 stewards, 6 stewardesses, 24 cooks, bakers, and assistants; in all, 287 hands. For a single passage to the westward, the Etruria, with 547 cabin passes gers and a crew of 287 persons, had, when leaving Liverpool, the following quantities of provisions: 12,500 pounds fresh beef, 760 pounds corned beef, 5,320 pounds mutton, 850 pounds lamb, 350 pounds veal, 350 pounds of pork, 2,000 pounds fresh fish, 600 fowls, 300 chickens, 100 ducks, 50 geese, 80 turkeys, 200 brace grouse, 15 tons potatoes 30 hampers vegetables, 220 quarts, ice cream, 1,000 quarts milk, and 11,500 eggs. In groceries alone there were over 200 different articles, including (for the round voyage of 22 days) 650 pounds tea, 1,200 pounds coffee, 1,600 pounds white sugar, 2,800 pounds moist sugar, 750 pounds pulverized sugar, 1,500 pounds cheese, 2,000 pounds butter, 3,500 pound ham, and 1,000 pounds bacon. The foregoing seem enormous quantities, but very little was left upon tbe ship's arrival in port. The quantities of wines, spirits, beer, etc., put on board for consumption on the round voyage comprise lf100 bottles of champagne, 850 bottles claret, 6,000 bottles of ale, 2,500 bottles of porter, 4,500 bottles mineral waters, 650 bottles of various spirits. As regards the consumption on board the Cunard fleet for one year, Mr. Burns says : " We consume no less than 4,656 sheep, 1,800 lambs, and 2,474 oxen." Cheating the Law A family recently moved into a central Dakota county from the East. Three or four mornings after a lumber wagon drove up and a man got out and rapped at the door. The woman appeared and the man said : "Good niornin', ma'am, I hope you haint fished him out yet?" "What is it, sir?" "I way I hope everything remains just as it was that's the law in cases of this kind, ye know," "I don't understand you." "I can't see why you don't you must know what's happened an' what the

law requires in such cases. This is the jury out'n the wagon an' I'm coroner don't delay us cause we're all anxious to earn our feea an' git back aa' git in a day's work karvestin' grain's powerful ripe, ma'am." "There hasn't been any death here, sir!" "There haint? Didn't yer husband fall down the well?" "No, sir!" "Didn't he git wanderin' 'round in the night an' tumble down an old well into four feet of water an' drown'd an break his neck both at the same time?" "No, sir, he didn't. He's out in the field at work now. One of our calves fell down an eld well last night." "D'ye hear that, boys? that's how the blame yarn got started ! Madam, tell yer husband to be very keerful in the future if we come again we shall hold the inquest whether he is dead or not!" Then as he turned and climbed in the wagon he added: "Bill, jes' keep that verdick ye writ up the durned fool mav drop down that well yet!" Dakota" Bell Hinting a Proposal When a lover is approaching the goal of matrimony he sometimes finds it difficut to announce his intentions. In any such case, he might find it advantageous to adopt the following circuitous route, unless he can find another one still more roundabout: A young native of Aberdeen, bashful but desperately in love, finding that no notice was taken of his frequent visits to the house of his sweetheart, sum moned up courage to address the girl thus: "Jean, I wis here on Monday nicht." "Ay, ye were that," acknowledged the girl. "An' I wis here on Tuesday nicht," "So ye were." "And I wis here on Wednesday." "Ay, an' ye were here on Thursday nicht. 99 "An' I wis herelast nicht, Jean." " WeeE," she said, "what if ye were?" "An' I am here the nicht again." "An' what about it, .even i ye cam every nicht?" "What about it, did ye say, Jean? Dd ye begin to smell a rat?"

THE "BAfH 01!' ISIS."

Waters Used by the Kgrptum Women to Itoautify the Completion. London Exchange. The Egyptian princesses wore renowned for their beauty above all the women of the earth, from the earliest records down to Cleopatra's time. "As beautiful m a princess of Egypt," was the superlative of comparison. No women in the world ever had such complexions or such skin:), aad there is nothing in the world to-day to compare with the skins of tho mummies of women taken from tb3 tombs. This distinction lasted over a period of 3,000 years, and was commonly attributed to the "bath of Isis," which was preserved for them with such zealous care; but it was really more owing to inheritance and the climate, united to perfect health and phenomenal cleanliness, than to the lotion. There lever was any secret about its components. It was made from lotus water and the adipocere of a rabbit. Tho trouble was to get the adipocere. None bui; the Memphian and Saisan priest? knaw how to convert the dead rabbit into adipocere. This secret they kept, and to this day it is not known how they did it, although ti l ere are a dozen ways mow by which it can be done. The lotus water was made by distillation, aa roso water is now made, and was in as common use among the Egyptian women as rose wa

ter is with the American. The adipocere was prepared in some way by w hich the saccharized c l was extracted, making it identical with our glycerine, by removing the waxy portion of the fatty matter. Cheops .ruined himself by building his pyr amid. His daughter then demanded from each ono of her lovers the present of a single stone, and with those given her by them she built the middle pyramid of the three facing her father's. " She had over fifteen thousand lovers. The priests of Memphis for this reason refused to grant any of the sacred "bath of Isis" to her, and one of her lovers, who was a priest, revealed the secret of the preparation of the adipocere. This secret m.ay have passed down in her family, bit must soon have been lost, for they couldn't get the acipocexe to prepare. If the bath was used by any of ti e Byzantine empresse if they probably used the adipocere known to them, w :iick was not of rabbits, but of human b ings and horses. It could not have boen of very good quality, as it would have beeu unrefined and mixed with lotus water in the wasy state. Liebig took the trouble to venfy it, to settle tie disputes about the translations. Lotus water is easy eno igh tc get, as it is a regular preparation in the East for the skin,corresponding to Florida water and bay rum with us. He took the trouble to make the bath first with rabbit adipocere, and then with the refined product of sweet oil; so that he obtained the identical "bath of Isis." He gtive it to his friends to experiment w:ith, and they found the former good

and the latter excellent He afterward

made it from our rose water and

glycerine, and this was much better

than either of the others. The propor

tions vary. To keep the skin soft one-

tbird of glycerine to two-thirds of rose

Wilier, and this was probably the pro

portions in the "bath of Isis," and its symbol was thus divided; but Liebig's ex periments showed that half-and-half were about the proper proportions wien bringing the skin into conditionSixpenny worth lasts a month threepenny worth of the rose water of commerce (mode from four drops, of rose oil to an ounce of distilled wa.ter) and threepenny worth of the ordinary glycerine; but by usitig the genuine rose water, made by distillation and the chemically pure glycerine obtained by a second refining which cannot be had at every druggist's you will get a much better article than the "bath of Isis" ever was. This lotion is alluded to :tn the oldest book in the world, now in the National Library in Paris I mean the one written by Prince Hoteg, and taken from his coffin after it had lain beside him for over five thousand eight hundred years. The reason why our women have bad 3kins is because they are not cleanly. The Egyptians were the healthiest people ever known, and. this was because they were the cleanest The woman who took only one bath a day would have been looked upon as we regard cue who wasihes but once a year. Linen was no eer worn the seconcl time without washing. The princesses bathed in diluted lotus water many times daily, ami night and morning used the "bath of Isis;" they had a regular day each week for medical treatment, and with all Egyptian women, devoted three das in each month t) medicines to keep clean the inside as well as the outside! of their bodies; so hat had there boon no "baths of Isis" they would not have failed to have beautiful complexions. This "bath" merely gave their skid the satin touch and velvet softness Their perfect health did the rest. With perfect health alone, their hide might Lava been as rough and coarse as that of a hippopotamus, but no "bath" eveir made will bleach the yellow face of a person suffering from jaundice, or remove the pimples that come from constitutional weakness and the breaking up of cellular tissue.. Geoliogy as a Study for GU Is. I wish to make here a not based upon my personal observation. The gist of it is. that girls ancl ladies possess a very decided relish for the study of geology and aptitude io. acquiring the elements of the science. I ought to add thai women of all ages have been the moot enthusiastic readera and st udents of tae subject in all case. a where I have had personal cognisance of the direction of a ttention to it. In my university work I find young ladies quite as enthusiastic as" young men, and quite as successful in acquiring exact and substantial knowledge. Why should they not ? If powers of observation are needed, the girl equals the boy as truly in the inspection of mine rals, rocks, and fossils as in the determination of a specimen from the vegetable kingdom. If ii aagin&tion is demanded; the girl notoriously possesses as ready a gift as as tlie boy. In the reasoning processes of generalization if the majority of girls are not so apt as the other sex, many of them are equal, and all have aptitude suffi cient for the fundamental principles of the science. To say the least, amoag

my own pupils during twenty-five year past the sterner sex have .geen littlo opportunity to boast over their sisters, I must add that more than once my admiration and wonder have been exciteel by the devotion, the fidelity, the enthusiasm, and real success with which individual girls and women, iguided by some unexpected incentive, have taken up singly the study of bowlders or fossils, and made acquisition of a fair stock of elementally geology. Do any ouo ask, what is the use of gology to women? I will simply answer, the same use of any other knowledge. I could explain ancl particularize, but I do not believe tho readers of the Swiss Cross need a word of explanation or particulars. On every consideration, I say, let the girls stud; geology. It is a pleasure, an air complishment, and a cultural and us ful acquisition. Alexander Winchvl in the Swisti Cross. The Oldest Man on Eaitiu James James, a negro and citizen of the United States, who resides at Santa Rosa, Mexico, is probably the old sat man on eart h. He was born near DorChester, S. C, in 1752, and while an infant was removed to Medway River, Ga, in tbe name year that Franklin' brought dawn electricity from . the thunder clouds. In 1772 there quite an immigration into South Carolina and his master, Janes James (from whom he takes his name) moved near Charleston, S. C, in company with a number of his neighbors. C:i June 4, 1776, when 24 years of ae, a large British fleet, under Sir Peter Parker, armed off Charleston The citizens had erected a palmetto-woo J fort ort Sullivan's Island, with twenty-six guns,, manned by 500 troops, under Col. Moid trie, and on June 28, the British made an attack by land and water, and were compelled to withdraw after a tonhours' conflict. It was during tl&iH fight that Sergeant Jasper distinguished himsslf by replacing the flag, which had been ehot away upon the bastion on a new &:aff. Bis master, James James, manned one of the guns in tliiB fight, and Jim, with four othor slaves, were employed around the fort as general laborers. Jim followed his master throughout tho war, and was with Ge o. Moultrie at Port Royal, S. C.: Feb, 3, 1779, when Moultrie defeated the combined British forces of Provost and Campbell. His master was; surrendered bv Gen. Lincoln at Charleston, S. C, on Feb. 12, 1780, to tho British forces, and this ends Jim'& military career. He reraemters of the rejoicing in 1792 throughout the country in consequence of Washington's election to the Presidency, he then being 40 years of age. In this year his first master died, agod about 60 years. Jim then became the property of "Marse Henry (Henry James), owning large estates cud about thirty slaves, near Charleston. On account of having raised. "Marso Henry" Jim was a special favorite with his master and was allowed to do aa he chose. His second master, Henry died in 1815, about 55 years of age. and Jim, now at 63 years of age, became the property of James James, Henry's second son. In 1833 the railroad from Charleston, to Savannah was completed, then the longest railroad in the world, and Jin, with his master, took a trip over the road, and was shown special favors on account of his age, now 81. James James was 10 years of age at his father's death, and when he became of age inherited large estates, slaves, etc., among whom were "old Uncle Jim and his family. James James lived in South Carolina until 1855, when he moved tie Texas with all his slaves. James desired that his slaves should be free at his death, and in 1858 moved info Mexico, so that they could be free bofore his death. James returned to the United States and died in Texas, and in 1865, after there was no longor slaves in the United States, Uncle Jim's children and grandchildren returned to the United States. Five years ago. at the age of 130, Jim could do light chores, but subsisted mostly by contri butions from the citizens, but for the past two years, not being able to walk, he remains for the most part in hiis littlo jacal,' his wante being supplied by generous neighbors. The rheumatism in his legs prevents him frora walking, but yet he has sufficient strength in his arms to drag himself a short distance fifty yards or more. St. Louis Globe-Democrat

Knew What Real Style Wits. Talk erbout style,'1 said a tall, angular specimen of the old-fashionei Texitn, as a crowd was reading soma items on social etiquette in the Sunday Mirror "Irs all very well to talk erbout wearing white kid gloves, and forkedtailed coats, and sich things as them where people don't have sense enough to keep comfortable. Bat, down in my diggins, sich styles would never pass. Now, there's Jim Dollinger, ther dandy of tha ranche. When he goes to a ball he goes in style. He don't put on any gloves just to ahow that he's got an invite. No, sir-ee. He goes down hi shirt sleeves, and wears a lariat around his neck fur a tie, and prances in and shoves a knife in his boot as he snatchea the putties' gal in the room fur a dance, and hitches his six-shootexa 'round kt front and gives a whoop, and sails in with his hat on. An', lemme tell you, if any o' ther boys happen ter have oti a coat it is soon shucked offen him in no time. It is the same to danoeii where the boys happen ter not be invited. It don't make no difference.. They goes anyhow, with moon&, and stars, and mavericks carved on their boot tops, and woolen shirts on. with

green an' red, an' blue strings for but

tons, ite voioneL Little Johnny's Bad Break, Little Johnny Fresh, aged 6, walked; into his mother s drawing-room before a party of guests, having come down from his evening's bath in his polt to make some complaint. "Goodness!" shrieked one. "Takc away that child! What a dreadful, sight!" "I ain't no dreadfuller than himtM shouted back Johnny, aa he pointed to a big statue of Cupid, and I got inoro clothes on. Look at my porous-plaster onto my back.0 Pittsburgh Post. A coxcomb is. ugly all over wit h tho affectation of tho tmo gtntleouuu