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r-r * X ^______ STORY OF THE EARRING POSSIBLE REVIVAL OF A TIMEHONORED FASHION. A Cause of Servitude Anions the Hebrew# nnd Phivnician*? In Ancient 1 Koiue Earring* Were Generally Worn, and Very Heavy?Once Worn by Men. Iu England the Queen's jubilee seems to have created a tendency toward the revival of the earring, and a writer in the Golden Penny devotes some space to a history of that relic of barbarism. The custom of studding the person with gems is of extreme antiquity, and the fashion of piercing the ear lobes for the purpose of sustaining gems set in gold has been followed by most races from tlie earliest times to the t present day. Homer describes how Juno placed pendants in the lobes of her ears. Ear-drops were presented by Eurydamas to Penelope, aud among . the Athenians it was a mark of nobility to have the ears bored. Among the Phoenicians, however, the wearing of earrings was the badge of servitude, and the same custom obtained with the Hebrews. The rabbis assert that Eve's ears were bored when the was exiled from Eden as a sign of slavery and submission to the will f her lord and master. The Egyptian women wore single hoops of gold in their ears, and in Biblical times the custom appears to have been universal. They appear to have been regarded as the most cherished possessions of their wearers, and were only parted with under great stress of necessity. Thus the golden calf is supposed to have been made entirely from the gold earrings of the people. Among the Arabs the expression "to have a ring in one's ears" is synonymous with "to be a slave," and to the present day an Arab BrZAXTIXK (sixth cexttbt). who has been conquered by another places a ring through his ear as a sign of obedience and servitude. So general was the use of errings in Borne and so heavy were they, that there were women whose profession ,wss that of "earhealers" who tended the ears of those ladies who had torn or ijijured the lobes vith the weight of the pendants. These specialists were known as anriculoe ornatirei. At one period the Roman man took to ' wearing earrings, but the custom was forbidden by Alexander Severns, while in Greece the children wore an earring in the right ear only. Coming to more modern times, the fashion of wearing earrings appears to have been general in England from the Conquest. The early Saxons appear to have worn rings of plain gold in their ears, while in the fourteenth century these appear to have been decorated with small pearls. In the reign of Elizabeth earrings were adopted by men of fashion and, the custom spread nntil James I's time all the coortiers had their ears pierced. The earring worn by men took the form of either plain wire rings, or crosses or triangles or gold studded with gems. There is a very ancient notion which is still held by country folks that the piercing of the ears is good for the sight. The origin of this belief.is lost, but it has obtained for centuries. It is scarcely necessary to state that the belief is quite without foundation. In the middle ages it was the custom 1UI IUVCfO W piCOCiiV cannier w vuvu mistresses, the persons who were about to be married used to stick a flower through the ring or over the ear, much as a clerk would a pen, as a sign of their being engaged. A curious variety of earring much worn during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I. was the ear string. This has been alluded to by many writers. cmK ? tX#/i H?4 jL < * > ( it u Thns in the Westminster drolleries we find: Yet for thy sake I will not bore mine eare To hang thv dustless silken shoo ties there. And Marston, in his satires, published in 1598, has: What maanst thou, him that walks u'i open-breasted. Prawn threw the ear with riband*? As to whether sh? wearing of wires through the ears is likely to come into general fashion again in this country we do not offer any opinion. There ? THE EARTH'S POPULATI OCEANIA ET? J 0,00,0^ EUROPE 400,000,000.. On the Continent of Asia live 9( more than the nnmber of North and Sot must, we should imagine, always be a prejudice against the mortification of the flesh necessary, and the custom of having children's ears pierced has ceased to be general for many years. Pni Vn-v /lirttntfip a? ^qoViiaa ava aV 1 a UUb vuu uiviaroo vi la^uivu tu u uvja??7? i and it is just possible that we may see leaders of fashion wearing both ear ! and nose rings before the close of the century. Who knows? A MOVING FORTRESS. Claimed to be the Most Destructive Agent Ever Used In Warfare. The German Emperor is having a new fighting machine constructed for army use in the field which, it is claimed, will be the most destructive agent ever used in warfare. It is known as the battle-line destroyer, and it has been chiefly designed by Krupp, the great gunmaker, at whose works at Essen it is now building. Many features of it, however, have been suggested by the Emperor himself, who will personally take possession of the first one constructed. The battle-line destroyer will have a.i 1 a t a ?/ _ T>?ll tue uuiwuru xuirn auu oi^d ui a ? uuman car, with the difference that the wheels are not visible, the walls of the car reaching to the gronnd. These walls will be of the very strongest steel and fortified on all fonr sides and on top by many steel prongs stick: ng oat like the bristles of a porcupine. The walls will be pierced by numerous portholes, that open and shut automatically. Behind these portholes will be machine guns to thfow shot and explosives. The crew of each car will consist of only twelve men. Th& car will run on very broad wheels resting on immensely strong springs. It will lie on ite own rails and will be able to do so in any desired direction. The destroyers are to remain under the eye of the Commanding General until the battle is well under way. THE NEW FIGHTING MACHINE. Then, when great masses of the enemy are engaged, the car will be sent against them. Herr Krnpp is said to have demonstrated to the Emperor that the battleline destroyer will make cavalry attacks unnecessary. In fact, the soldiers win oniy engage in sKirmisning aiter the destroyers have been introduced. It has been a question whether the cars will* be able to withstand heavy artillery fire. Krupp says they will, the prongs warding off shot and the machine being too hea\y to be overthrown. A Gold Lrif Temple. Not in America, not even in the Klondike, but in the far-off East, at Rangoon, the capital of Burmah, is situated the famous golden pagoda of a Buddist temple, the whole 61 the exterior of which is one mass of shimmering gold. This generous coating of the metal is the result of years and years of offerings to Buddha, for devotees from all parts of the world come to Rangoon and bring packets of gold leaf, which they place on the pagoda. Daring the last century the King of Burmah gave his (literal) weight in gold to the walls of the pagoda, an offering worth .- 9000 sterling. A Bee-Line. The eyes of bees are made to see great distances. When absent from < their hive they go up in the air till i they see their home, and then fiy to- 1 ward it in ? straight line and with great speed. The shortest line be- j tween two places is sometimes called a ] "bee-line."?St. Nicholas. j uA:., .. i-K ION SHOWN BY COHPARATIVE; F M),000,000 beings, over twice the populi ith American inhabitants. Africa is th: TROT. PACE AND RUN. Description of the Various Motions of the Horse When Extended. When in fall motion the mnner strides with both front feet at the same time, following with the hind, and leaving the ground first with the front. In ether words it is a "foreand-aft" action. The pacer moves by lifting both feet of the same side simultaneously, and v - ? TROTTING, PACIN ~~ ~ r--~IT i is known as a "side-wheeler." it is a nature, gait. In the trot, when going slow, there is always one foot on the ground, a part of the time two and a part of the time three. When fast, there are two intervals in each stride when all of the feet are off the ground, the horse leaving the ground froia the hind feet in succession, while in the run he leaves the ground from a fore foot. The limbs of the trotter move in pairs, diagonally, but not quite simultaneously, even in the "square trot." The trot is not a natural gait. The fastest marks at the three ways of going, and the number of feet that the champion runner, pacer and trotter covered in a minute, are as follows: ' Kunner, Salvator, 1.35}; 1 minute, 3315 feet. Pacer, Star Pointer, 1.59*; 1 minute, 2660 feet. Trotter, Alix, 2.03}; 1 minute, 2559 feet. Unpaid Scavengers. The crustaceans are among the important scavengers of the sea and are also valuable as food for fishes. The collection of crabs, shrimps, and lobsters forms large industries all over the world, contributing directly to the support of man. In Delaware the horseshoe crab is used as guano, while the collection of fossil crabs, as trilobites, is a peculiar industry. The fresh-water crayfish produces a concretion used as an antacid, well known to chemists. We owe many of the beauties of our summer fields to insects, all of which have their special functions and use. Even the persecuted flea may render man a'service by keeping the drowsy watch dog awake, while the mosquito in tropical conn tries may am in preventing tne numan inhabitants from living a continual siesta. The flies are among the most valuable insect scavengers. The spiders prey upon flies, holding them in check. The silk of the spider is used as a cross line in astronomical instruments, and that of a Bermuda species as sewing silk. Bridge makers have obtained valuable suggestions from these silent workers, from whose web one of the Kings of France is said to have made a coat. Grasshoppers and locusts are enemies of civilized man, but are eaten by the Indians, while in the Malay country the dragon fly is considered a delicacy.?Appletons' Popular Science "Monthly. Steel Harder Than Stone. It is easier to crush the hardest stone known than steel. Corundum was chosen for the stone in a recent experiment. A weight of six tons smashed the corundum, but forty-two tens were required to crush the steel. With a loud explosion the steel flew into powder, and sparks are said to have bored minute holes in the crushing machine. ' - v % 1QURES OF THE RACES. 0. nT^STAAE RICA '4^000,000- '' ^ t iuon 01 fiorope ana almost seven times Lrd in nnmber of people. Smallest Boos: la the World. The smallest be ok in the world is not much larger than a man's thumbnail. It was made in Italy by a firm of Padua publishers, the Salmin Brothers. It is four-tenths of an inch high and about a qr arter of an inch wide. The volume contains 208 pages, eaoh having nine lines and from ninety-five to 100 letters. The text is an unpublished letter written by the -fa^ ^ G AND RUNNING. mons inventor of the pendnlnm clock to Mme. Christine, of Lorraine, in the year 1615. The next smallest book is issued by the same firm. It is an edition of Dante's "Divine Comedy," being a little more than an inch high, a little less than an inch wide, with type so small that it takes a microscope to read the letters. Why Old Clocks Have HIT. AMA WIIA IA/vba of fViA /lia 1 I ilUV CYCIJ UUU WUU IWAO a? vuv vuat of ? clock knows that the four I's which are in place of the usual XV. to designate the number 4 are there because of the obstinacy of Charles V. of France. When Henry Vick carried to the King the first accurate clock ' the King said to him that the IV. was wrong and should \? changed to nil. Vick said: "You are wrong, your Majesty." Whereat the King thundered out: "I am neTer wrong. Take it away and correct the mistake." From that time tc this dc.7 the four I's have stood as the mark of the tonrth hour. ?Seattle Post-Intelligencer. P*rrot Hatche* Chicken*. J. D. Austin, a merchant at Kansas City, has a large Brazilian parrot that is the proud possessor of five little bantam chickens, which the big bird watches over and cares for as if they were her own brood. Some time ago the parrot, although unmated, laid two eggs. These were taken from her and POLLY AXD HER FIVE CHICKS. a half-dozen sinal^ chickens eggs were placed in ihe nest* Polly comes forth regularly with her little chickens peeping and scratching about her, and many people stop to view the strange sight. It is a very unusual thing for the parrot to breed away from its native land even under the most favorable circumstances, and it is more remarkable that the parrot should adopt the chickens as her own offspring. The returns show that the average cotton spindle in the United States produces more than twice as much yarn as the average cotton spindle in Qreat Britain. | THE REALM While no indication of the genuine 1 princess gown has yet appeared, says May Manton, there is a decided tendency toward producing the effect by means of trimming carried from the COSTUME IK SIMPLE PLAID DESIGN. bodice to the skirt in one continuous line. The costume shown in the illustration embodies the idea and is eminently well suited to such women as aim to appear taller than their actual measurement in feet and inches. The model is made from light-weight wool material showing a simple plaid design in shades of bleuet and trimmed with fancy black braid. The bodice is simplicity itself and is made over a fitted lining, which "JOB ^gOH V mi n TASTEFUL AND f closes at the centre-front, while the blonse proper is fitted with shoulder and under-arm seams and closes in- I visibly at the left side. The material ' is so cut as to allow the fulness to droop 1 over the belt, and the left-front is ' slashed to form the two squares in i each of which an ornamental button 1 is plaoed. At the edge is a fall frill ' of ribbon, which matches the color of 1 the gown, but both neck and waist- < band are of black velvet The sleeves are close-fitting, except for the slight puffs at the shoulders, which support the epaulettes. The outer seams are left open for a short distance above the wrists, where bands of trimming and frills of ribbon make a graceful finish. The skirt is five-gored. The left side of the front laps over onto the side gore and is cut and finished to harmonize with the blouse. Both front and sides are fitted smoothly and without darts, the back being laid, in deep plaits to give the fan effect The entire costume is eminently stylish OT..1 m-anafnl while the line from the shoulder to the edge of the skirt carries the eye upward and gives the effect of height Plain materials and those showing stripes in place of plaid can be trusted to still further enhance the effect; but even cross lines can be worn without the disastrous effect common when women of little stature don horizontal decorations and ignore jesthetic law. To make this bodice for a lady in the medium size will require two and one-half yards of forty-four-inch ma- . terial. Ladien* Cape Wrap. However much jackets may take precedence as wraps, writes May Manton, something that partakes of the nature pf a cape is |lway3 needed. The tasteful and stylish wrap shown in the j illustration exemplifies the latest style i i and is sufficiently snug-fitting to avoid i chill at the same time that it allows of wearing an elaborate bodice without 1 danger of rumpling. The backs are < ' ' - . . .ltV .*' 1 OF F^inc^J seamed down the centre and tight-fitting to the waist line, below which tbej are laid in plaits. The loose fronts are laid in doable box-plaits, one at each side of the closing, and the ample sleeves, of bell shape, are seamed to the backs and shoulders, bnt are so constructed as to become part of the fronts, there being no seam below the shoulder joint. Attached to the waist at the back are black silk .' ribbons, which pass around and tie aft - t the front. As illustrated, the material ' is silk velvet, with handsome jet passementerie as trimming. The collar is i Medici style, but cnt in squares, which not only increases the flare, bnt is . universally becoming a? well. A* the I throat is worn an ample bow of chiffo^ i lace, edged, and a toque of velvet and ' feathers completes the costume. The wrap is lined throughout with taffeta silk and has an interlining of splift wool wadding, which renders it amply warm without being in the least > clumsy. Cloth, with rough or smooth- faced seal plush, and all familiar clockings are suitable. To make this wrap for a lady in the medinm size will require two and onefonrth vards of fiftv-four-inch material. Child'* Empire Jacket in Tale Bine. Among all the styles shown for .lit* tie girls' outer garments there is no one that is at once more serviceable v and generally becoming than the Em- ,1 pire coat The model shown in the illustration is made of smooth-finished cloth in the popular Tale blue, the trimming being a combination of rib- . J bon frills in the same color and blaek mohair braid. While the whole effect is stylish in the extreme the pattern is simplicity itself, as the fitting ie \ effected by shoulder and under-arm. seams only. Two box-plaite are laid at the centre-back from the neek to the edge of the skirt and the front shows one at each side of the closing; which is effected in the centre-front with large pearl buttons and button STYLISH WBAP. J ;Tv?. holes. The sleeves ere tiro-seamed ^ with the fulnees arranged either in gathers or plaits at the shoulders. Over each falls a simple "oblong epaolette trimmed with ribbon and braid, and a deep, seamless turn-over collar ' finishes the neck. Tie entire coat is M Lined with taffeta showing a brightfined plaid and glimpses oI the gsj coloring are caught beneath the collar and epaulettes. To make this coat for a girl of eight Jj child's e^ri^r. ^ac^?T. years will require one and ^hrea-* fourths yards of forty-four-inch ma- -VflM Skamania County, Washington, <^0 t>oasts a railroad foor miles long vhielL x)st $3,000,000 to build.