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\ -? Two Rooms. i. A beautiful room with tinted walls, A bust, where the oolorod sunshine falls, A laco hung bed with a satin fold, A lovoly room, all blue and gold And ennui. II. A quaint old room with rafters bare, A small white bed, a rooking chair, A book, a stalk whoro a flower had been, An open door and all within Content. ? Good Housekeeping. LITTLE KATE AND I. "Wo didn't wait for an income to -marry on, little Kate and I. "We had no rich relations to leave us legacies or to send pearl necklaces, diamond ornaments, or thousand dollar bonds for wedding presents. I was simply a brakeman on the -Eastern Michigan railway, a long and lonely stretch of rails over desolate marshes, steep mountain grades, and solitary sweeps of prairie laud; she was the bright-eyed waitress in one of the restaurants along the line. But when I fell from the platform when the great accident happened, you heard of the great acv cident, I suppose, when there was such a shocking loss of life?it was Katie's care and nothing else that brought me back into the world 1 had so nearly quitted for good and all ! MI would-have done it for anybody, Mark!" said she, when I tried to thank 'her. "Would you?" said I. "But it isn't everybody that would have done it for me, Kate!" So I asked her to marry me, and she said yea. And I took a little cottage on the edge of the Swampscott woods, and furnished it as. well as I could, with red carpet, cheesecloth curtains at the windows, a real Connecticut clock, and a set of walnut chairs that I made myself, with seats of rushes, woven in by old Billy, the Indian, who carried his baskets and mats around the country, and Mrs. Perkins, the parson's wife, made us a wedding cake, . * and so we were married. Pretty soon I found out that Kate was pining a little. "What is it, sweetheart?" said I. ^ Remember, it was a contract between <us that we were to have no secrets from each other I Are you not perfectly happy?" "Ob, yes, yes I" cried Kate, hiding her face on my shoulder. "But it's my mother, Matk. She's getting old, and if I could only go East to see her, | just once before the Lord takes her away I" It was then I felt the sting of my poverty most. If I bad only been $ Tich man to have handed her out a check, and said: "Go at once!" I think I could have been quite happy. "Never mind, sweetheart," said I, stroking down her hair. "We'll lay tip a few dollars from month to month, and you shall go out and see her before she dies!" Sk And with that little Kate was forced to be content. But there was a hungry, homesick look upon her face - which went to my heart to see. One stormy autumu night we were I belated on the road, for the wind was j terrible, shaking the century old pines and oaks, as if they were nothing more than tall swamp grasses, and driving through the ravines with a shriek and a howl like a whole pack of hungry wolves. "Aid the heavy rains had raised the streams so that we were compelled to go carefully and slowly ' over the bridges and keep a long look ahead for fear of accidents. I was standing at my post, in front of the second passenger car, stamping my feet on the platform to keep them warm, and hoping little Kate would not be perturbed at my long absence, ^ when the news agent came chuckling out: "We'-e to stop at Stumpvflle station," said he. s. f j "Nonserise," said I, "IJrnow better. *Thla froln w - ' "hmu uoioi oivjia MiurL oi wall- ! kensha city, least of all when we are running to make up for lost time, as f. we are to-night." ,, , , "Oh, but this is an exceptional occa- I \ sion," said Johnny Mills (which was j the newsagent's name.) "We'regoing to put an old woman off. She has lost her ticket, she says. More. likely ft sho never had one. Goes on as though ' she had her pockets picked." "Whico Is the one?" said I, turning ? to look at the end window of the car which was at the rear. "Don't you see? The old party at ; ffiif the back of the two fat women !n the ] red shawls. She's haranguing Jones t' now." i . "1 sod," said I. It was a little old ; ft woman ia a black silk poke bonnet, a I respectable cloth cloak, bordered with I 'nclent fur, and a long, green veil, r who was earnestly talking and gesticugating with the conductor. - Bat-tie shook his head and passed on, and she | f N vf *ank back In a helpless little heap be-1 hind the grocn >eil, and I could see i /: & <|*'''{??** her take a small handkerchief from a small basket and put it piteously to her eyes. It's too bad, said I. "Jones might remember that he once had?if he hasn't now? a mother of his own." "And lose his place on the road," said Mills. "No, no, old fellow, all that sort of thing does very well to talk about, but it don't work in real life." So he went into the next car, and the signal to slack up came presently. 1 turned to Mr. Jones, the conductor, who just then stepped out on the platform. "Is it for that old lady?" said I. lie answered, "Yes." Said I, "How far did she want to go?" "To Swampscott," said he. "You needn't stop, Mr. Jones," said I, 'Til pay her fare." "You!" he echoed. "Yes, I," said I. "I'll take her to my own house until she can telegraph to her friends or something. My wife will be good to her, I know, for the sake of her own old mother out east I" "Just as you please," said Mr. Jones. We did not stop at Stumpville station after all, but put on more steam and ran as fast as it was safe to drive our engine?and when, a little past midnight, we reached Swampscott, where we were due at 7:30, Tier re llene, the Frenchman, came*, on board to relieve me, and I helped my old lady off the train, llat basket, travelling bag and all. "Am I to be put off, after all?'' said she. with a scared look around her. "Cheer up, ma'am," said I, "You are all right. Now, then?look out for the step! Here we are." "Where am I ?" said the old lady. "At Swampscott, ma'am," said J. "And you are the kind man who paid my fare?" said she. "But my daughter and her husband will repay you when?" "All right, ma'am," said I. "And now, if you'll just take my arm, we'll be home in a quarter of an hour." But," said she, "why can't I go directly to my destination ?** It's middling late, ma'am," said I, "and the houses don't stand shoulder to shoulder in Swampscott My nearest neighbor is a mile and a-half away. But never fear, ma'am, Tve a wife that will be glad to bid you welcome for the sake of her own mother." She murmured a few words of thanks, but she was old and weary, and the path was rough and uneven, in the very teeth of a keen November blast?and walking wasn't an easy task. Presently, we came to the little cottage on the edge of the Swampscott woods, where the light glowed warmly through the Turkey red curtains. "Oh. Mark, dearest, how late vou are?" cried Ivate, making haste to open the door. "Come in quick, out of the wind. Supper ia all ready, and ?but who is that with you?" In a hurried whisper I told her alL "Did I do right, Kate ?" said I. "Right, of course you did," said she. "Ask her to come in at once. And I'll put another cup and saucer on the table." Tenderly I assisted the chilled and weary old lady across the threshold. "Here's my wife," said L "And here's a cup of smoking hot coffee and some of Katie's own biscuits and ckicken pie! You'll be all right when the cold is out of your joints a bit!" "You are very, very welcome," said Kate brichtly. as she advanced to un tie our visitor's veil and loosen the folds of her cloak. But, all of a sudden, I heard a cry, "Mother, oh, mother!" "Hold on, Kate I" said I, with the coffee-pot still in my hand, as I had been lifting it from the fire. "This is never "But it is, Mark!" cried out Kate | breathlessly. "It's mother; my own mother! Oh, help me dearest, quickly, j she has fainted away!" But she was all right again, presently, sitting by the lire with her feet on one of the warm cushions, which Kate had knit with wooden needles, and drinking hot coffee. It was all true. TMvA linfnpf lin oto Moooi\/?n? vmuwvv fT iiUOO pocket had been- picked on the train, and to whose rescue I had come; was no other than my Kate's own mother, who bad determ ined to risk the perils of a journey to the far West to see her child once again.. And she has been with us ever since, the dearest old mother-in-law that P.Vftr A man hail tha nnmfnff A# ?"? _ v. ^ ?*iv wau&vt V VI UU& household, and the guardian angel of little Kate and the baby, when I am away on my long trips. And little Kate declares now that she is "perfectly happy!" God bless her?may she never be otherwise. In Ceylon the natives cover down newly killed venison with honey, in >Ift?g6'??prthen pots: these' are not opened for three years, and the meat so preserved is said to be of exquisite flavor. W. 5' yfc 'l V 'V"?? / .it NSB ' /.> f -' <ryV* / < a-'i .'. 'V v. ?|t p$:>y ( f. 7 Concerning^ Clover. Every group of organisms, every genus and every species of plant or animal, has certain strong points which enable it to hold its own in tho struggle for existence against its competitors of every kind. Most groups have also their weak points, which lay them' open to attack or extinction at the hands of their various enemies. And these weak points are exactly the ones which give rise most of all to further modiiicatlons. A species may be regarded in its normal state as an equilibrium between structure and environing conditions. But the equilibrium is never quite complete; and the points of incompleteness are just those where natural selection has a fair chance of establishing still higher equilibrations. These are somewhat llntrnpt. of-ifamnnta in tholr nalrarl form: let us see how far defmiteness and concreteness can be given to them by appliyng them in detail to the case of a familiar group of agricultural plants?the clovers. To most people clover is the name of a single thing, or, at most, of two things, purple clqver and Dutch clover; j but to the botanist it is the name of a vast group of little flowering plants, j all closely resembling one another in their main essentials, yet all differing infinitely from one another in two or three strongly marked peculiarities of minor importance, which nevertheless give them great distinctness of habit and appearance. In England alone we have no less than twenty-one rec ognized 3pecies of clover, of which at | least seventeen are really distinguished among themselves by true and unmistakable differences, though the other four appear to me to be mere botanist's species, of ro genuine structural value. If we were to take in the whole world, instead of England alone, the number of clovers must be increased to several hundreds. The question for our present consideration, then, is twofold: first, what gives the clovers as a class, their great success in the struggle for existence, as evidenced by their numerous species and individuals; and, secondly, what has caused them to break up into so large a number of closely allied but divergent groups, each possessing some special peculiarity of its own, which has insured for it an advantage in certan situtaions over all its nearest ccngenV Aii Outdoor Insane Asylum. The celebrated Belgian colony of the insane at Gheel has nothing in its external appearance suggestive of the ordinary lunatic asylum; its inhabitants give no superficial indication that a large proportion of them ar? madmen. If one would conceive what Gheel is, he must imagine a town of live or six thousand souls, in no way different from other towns of like importance, surrounded by a number of hamlets containing altogether, perhaps, about as many more inhabitants. Thece people have been, from a very remote period, in the habit of taking insane persons to board in their houses. The lunatics live in constant contact with the family of their host. They share in their labors and their pleasures if I so inclined and their means permit it. ! They come and go, in the enjoyment of an almost absolute liberty. It has, however, been found necessary for the good of the patients and of the settled population to organize administrative and medical services, in order to prevent dangerous and improper persons from being sent to the colony, and for the care of the mental and physical affections of the patients, and for se(llirinff t.rt t.hftin nrniiAP ap^nmmnHntinn c ? r? and treatment; and an infirmary has been established for those who need medical care. But the administration makes very little show. The whole of the Gheel district is an asylum; and the streets and the surrounding country are the promenade of the lunatics. ?Popular Science Monthly. Whales in the Faroe Islands. An average whale will yield meat and blubber (which is for the most part melted into oil) in worth about ?3 7s. 6cL A herd of only 200 srind. I successfully landed, will therefore be worth to the Faroese nearly ?700? no small sum, remembering that the whole fund of the Faroe Savings Bank stands at only 106,861 kroner (about ?6000). But, in this primitive community, actual money (though woll appreciated) is of leas consequence to the people than money's worth. The whales supply them with a store of meat; it is on account of this that they are specially jubilant. For months after the capture there will be plenty of feasting in all the houses within . the district of the killing* Some of the meat will be roasted and thus eaten fresh, though roost of it will be pickled. As to the blubber, what is not reduced into oil will be consumed as better, or dried, salted,* and eaten like rat bacon in England.? Saturday Review. . J, ft--'v-f S ''H'r'i&ikv,. -x ' V! ' .- ' ' ' 1 TOPICS OF THE DAY. tin 1 thi The champion swimmer of the world 5s an Englishman, appropriately named ^ Flnn}'- __ sir A California miner has invented cal what he calls a mechanical mine finder, ?* by which it is claimed metal-bearing veins can be detected with accuracy. He has already directed the attention of several capitalisis to deposits of antimoney, silver and gold. ? ph Asia possesses the most powerfully ^ equipped hornets. The Indian Medical Gazette tells of a man who was bitten on the neck by one of them. pe Within ten minutes he became cold, a^( pulseless, and unconcious. He was a robust man, but the use of active rem- ,.jt edies only brought him to after a pe couple of hours. The hornet was of nu medium size, bright yellow anil striped with black. ~ er As a horse and cart, apparently with a load of hay, were about to pass the ea Custom house of Vroenhoven, on the Belgian frontier, the animal suddenly trJ stopped, and either could not or would gc not budge an inch. Two custom oflicers came up to lend a hand, where U[IU11 LI1C U11Y d lUUh IU II10 IICOIS. -Ll< |.^J turned out that the hay concealed about 750 kilos of Dutch tobacco. ^ Conscientiousness must now be added at( to the other good qualities of the ^ horse- cei 63 The last formulated idea in crazes is an international cooking-match. This is to take place in the aquarium in (t Westminster, London. It means the production of the favorite dishes of ^ each nation. The Briton will present f ??u his plum pudding and roast beef, the Spaniard ola-pod-rida, the Italian mac- _ aroni a la garlic, the German his bratwurst and sauerkraut, the Russian his kapoosta soup, the Frenchman his fri- ?.r< casaee, and the Norwegian will teach how to cook eggs in that variety of U ' ways which astonishes the traveler in nU his clime. w r An ingenious Frenchman has con- ? ceived the thoroughly Parisian idea of preserving bodies by covering them , with a metal skin. Burying, he says, ^ has been condemned by experience; cremation is bad, as it destroys all evidonee of crime in case murder has 8 been committed, and embalming is ex- an pensive. But galvanizing is safe and ^ cheap. The poor can be zinc-plated, ^ well-to do individuals may acquire a copper coat and the milionaire can enjoy the luxury of silver or gold plate, ^ M. Kergovaty, the inventor of this method, says he has already used it successfully eleven times in the case ? of human beings, and over 100 times 1 * , oui for animals. 8 w To deter boys from climing the tel- str ephone poles at Fond du Lac, "Wis., pei ti.o I VIIV I'iUU V/J. OVUllVUiUg W ll'U IU tut) spikes and conneoting them with a tre battery was conceived, and it worked oui to perfection.The first day no less than rot 200 boys attempted to climb the poles, th? but immediately received such a shock co' that they retreated in dismay. Later, ou however, a farmer drove up to the ? hole and hitched his aorses. One of Fr the animals unsuspectingly caught ani hold of the spike, and immediately there was a start and a jump, and the w* hitching strap snapped and away went the team. The farmer suffered the *nf fracture of three ribs in attempting to m< stop the runaways, one or more wnniAn warp r 11 n nvor onH Hio wmnn tf?I ff MM W* V* ??uv? vuu ?l M^v/U smashed to atoms. br< th< An American expedition sent out wfl last year by a wealthy New York lady an to find the site of the Garden of Eden sti reports important Geographical discov- zir eries in tho region of Chaldea, south of Babylon. The best encouragement, , however, was in locating definitely the ^ original city of Sippora, on the bank J of the Euphrates. It was here that, according 10 ancient Chaldean history, ^ ^ Xoah was commanded to bury all the records of the anteduluvian world be- . Pc fore he embarked in the ark, in order ? Er that they might be preserved. " "We ^ mean to dig ud this urround thoroucrh " ? ? TjJj. ly," says the leader of the expediton, " and maybe shull find something astonishing." ne Whale fishing in ?mall steamers off ne the coast of New England is getting nw to be a business of some importance, ac< four steamers (formerly catching men- lea haden) having been steadily engaged na during the past season. They cruise 60 off the Main and Massachusetts shores St as far south as ? Cape Cod. A bomb Ca lance, fired from a gun held at the wi shoulder is the weapon employed in fe< killing the whales, about fifty of de which have been taken this year. Ai They will average sixty feet in length mi and twenty-five tons in weight. Eaoh lai one yield* about twenty barrels of oil, two barrels of meat, five tons of dry is chum and two tons of bone, the talue th of which amounts to about $400. As tci V .v . ./ ' a men become expers in tho <upture 9 whales become shy and keep more deep water. This will be fatal to 9 business, as at present conducted, ice a dead whale usually sinks, and a hardly be recovered from a depth more than forty fathoms. Wall Street Slang. Stock-brokers have a dialect of their rn that is caviare to the crowd, ke the trade-marks and "shop" rms of merchants, it must be exlined to be intelligible to the multido. It is pithy, pungent, scintillat and sometimes rank. It precisely aracterizes every variation and asct of the market, A broker or operjr is "long of stocks" when "carryor holding them for a rise; >ads" himself by buying heavily, rhaps in "blocks" composed of any mber of shares?say 5,000 or 10,000 bought in a lump, and is therefore a ull," whose natural action is to lowhis horns and give things a hoist. 3 "forces quotations" when he wish- . to keep up the price of a stock; alloons" it to a height above its innsic value by imaginative stories, titious sales, and kindred methods; <es "a flier," or small side venture, i at does not employ his entire capiI. ?mtA? ?i x- ~ t-i- I I, luca Mies WilCU 11 tJ CAJIiUlUS Ilia jdit beyond judicious bounds; "holds a market" when he buys sufficient >ck to prevent the price from declin5; "milks the street" when he holds rtain stock so skillfully that he raisor depresses prices at pleasure, and us absorbs some of the accessible 3I1 in the street; buys when the larket is sick" from over-speculation; enly examines "points"?theories or its?on which to base speculation; nloads" when he sells what has en carried for some time; has a d imming market" when all is buoyt; "spills stocks" when he throws eat quantities upon the market, her from necessity or to "break," lnwpp t.hn T>ri*?A TT? "snHrMoa U10 irket" by foisting a certain stock on it, and is "out of" any stock len be has sold what ho held of it. Harper's Magazine. A New England Picture. The next morning, when the fog it screened the water slowly rolled ay, we saw a wonderful gli aining, >wing country, stretches of moor d meadow-land broken into by belt?S of trees and ridges green and )\vn in spots, or lying golden with ) cassia plants like English broom on them. At the water's edge there ire marshj' bends, whense seemed to vf forth ripples of light that reached to the bolder waters where the sun lamed as on a broken mirror, and > U'hlfa floila r\t hnata uiont ir? nnil b catching sunlight and shadow in ift succession. But away from this ong effect are bits that bring the acils of Gifford and Sartain quickly mind; old roadways with orchard ies, and windmills with the jagged tlet of water, or the cone-shaped >fs of the salt-works rising against ) sky, and everywhere in form and or suggesting, as nothing else upon r journey had done, the Old World Holland, perhaps, or some parts of ance. A peasant from the Loiri-Cher would have "come" admirar in one brown field we passed, lere the background was of gray j and pale green foliage; and cross* f K A of An/U KpI<1?A f A?l?n*/j T~\ rt?i I ? buu Ol/UUO L/llU^O uuvvaiu x/ai l>uth village there was all the setig of a Butch picture?the sombre les mingling with vivid green, the 3ken lands wit'i windmills active in a distance, and the curve of the iter with a boat all gray and brown d dingy green anchored in iis oue ong spot of light.?Harper's 'Magaxe. Great Cnnnls. The canals of America are larger an- those of Europe, but they are not 5 largest in the world. The Impeil Canal of China is over 1,000 miles ig. The Erie Canal is 350J miles ig; the Ohio Canal, Cleveland to irtsmouth, 332; the Wabash and ie, Evansville to the Ohio line, 374^ ie greatest canal undertaking on the iropean continent was completed in K1 Thla u'ua tha f'nniil r\f T.on. edoc, or the Canal du Midi, to conct the -Atlantic with the Mediterraan. Its length is 148 miles, it has >re than 100 locks and about fifty cjueducts, and its highest part is no s than 600 feet above the sea; it is vigable for vessels of upwards of 0 tons. Tbe largest ship canal in irOpe is the great North Holland .nal, completed in 18*25, 125 feet de at the water surface, thirty-one it wide at the bottom, and has a pth of twenty feet; it extends from nsterdam to the Ilelder, fifty-one les. The Caledonia Canal, in Scotid, has a total length of sixty miles, eluding three lakes, The Suez Canal eighty-eight miles long, of which cty-six miles ate actual can*!.?Bo* Biulgvt. * > ? . 1 f- '* .-T ... " > ' ft'* *' ' J rT'1 '' |V ' , V i.% From Afar. 6weot, that I hod thee when thy dimpled smile | Breaks fresh across the stiver niiaty morn, And when thy sunny eyes Shame all tlio sunny skies, And no roso lovely ns thy lips is born? That is enough. Sweet, that I hear thee when thy mellow voioe Flouts down tlio twilight in hall-whispered song, While ovory wren and thrnsh And all the robins hush, And listen liko my silent lioart, and long? That is enough. Sweet, that I dream of thee in holy night, When tho tired world hath rooked itself t0 sleep, And when my yearning heart Lets day and oare depart, And findeth rest on Love's unbrokon deep? That is enough. ? IV. J. Henderson. HUMOROUS. Ther? has been a big jump in the frog market. Teacher?Define "snoring." Small boy?Letting off sleep. The school ma'am who married a tanner had evidently a glimmering of the fitness of things. Some malignant slanderer now states that a woman needs no euloigst, for she speaks for herself. Fond mother?Are you better, my dear ? Little EfTie?I dunno ; is the jelly all gone? "Yes." "Well, I'm well enough to get up, then." "It seems to me," moaned he, as he tied toward the front gate, with the old man behind him, "th?t there are moro than three feet in a yard." "lily son, how is it that you are always behindhand with your studies ?" "Because if I were not behindhand with them, I could not pursue them." --jlmu you uo noiuing to resuscitate the body ?" was recently asked of a witness. "Yes, sir; we searched the pockets," was the reply. A Sunday-school scholar was asked, apropos of Solomon, who was the great Queen that traveled uo many miles to aee him. The scholar?in fact, the whole school?looked as if a little help "Are your domestic ralations agreeable?" was the question put to an unhappy-looking specimen of humanity. 'O, my domestic relations are all right," was the reply, "it's my wife's relations that are causing the trouble." The principal of an academy, who bad just purchased a new bell to bang on the cupola of the institution, ajd also married a handsome woman, made an unfortunate orthographical error when he wrote to the Dresident of the board of trustees: "I hkve succeeded in procuring a fine large-tongu?d belle." 1 1 1 1 Schools and Press of Mexico. It is a lamentable fact that but a small portion of the Mexican people are able to read and write. The total number of illiterate persons ia not definitely known, there being no accupof a nan ana rof n ? ? c? f/> tirkinU - * < (?VV uvtmuo AUVU1UO tu HUlbU 1 CTJLCI CUfU can be made. The most reliablo estimate that can be arrived at places the number at 7,000,000, or full/ twothirds of the entire population. It is safe to say of all the daily papers published in the City of Mexico no one of them has a circulation of 500 copies outside of the city of publication, while it is more than probable that the combined outside circulation of all the dailies will not exceed that number. I have been in a Mexican city of 12,000 inhabitants, where not. single copy of a daily newspaper wa* subscribed for by the entire population, and where not fifty newspaper* of any kind were received at tho postoffice, except those addressed to residents and visitors of foreign bi'th.? Indianapolis Times. Fable of the Jackass and the Dude. At a meeting of the farm animals tVio Tlnrla nnnfl otforrirvftA ni>nfA Ul? Ui*w V4V?V VMVV ?*WVIU|/VW1? uv J^l&w Q '149 relationship to the Jacka3S. "Why," he said, vainly, "just look a? my ears I We must be nearly related." "True," returned the .Jackass, "you may be a degenerated mule; but though 1 have often heard men cal you a jackiiss, they have never yet io suited mo by calling mo a Duds." At this speech the other animal? burst into roars of laughter, and the crestfallen Dude slunk silently away. Moral: This Fable teaches us that an ordinary mortal should not attempt to claim the acquaintance of * hotel clcik.?Life. \, The Kernel of the Argument. A bushel of corn, v;',>en compacted into lard, or clie&se. or butter, can find its market anywhere in the world where the cost of sending the com itself would make a market for it im possible. Besides this, in the making of the lard or butter a manurial residue is left on the land, instead of being carried away to fertilize foreign fields. This is the kernel of the argument for mixed farming, instead of grain farming.?New Orleans Time*Democrat. \