University of South Carolina Libraries
ABBEVILLE PRESS AND BANNER. ! _ - ***' BY HUGH WILSON AND H. T. WAKDLAW. ABBEVILLE, S. C.. WEDNESDAY, MAECH 15, 1882. NO. 41. VOLUME XXVI. What Is Life? Eyes opening to the light, a feeble cry ; A few short year*, some joys, more tears ! Eyes closing into night: a quivering sigh; And this is life. Hands toiling, ne'er at rest, Out more and more Eager for gain; oft tired in vain: Hands folded on the breast, the battle o'er; And this is life. Heart beating warm with love, a spirit brave; A dauntles* breast, where weak may rest; Heart-eileat, ne'er to move; a quiet grave; And this is life. A promise of rich harvests, sowing done; Bright herns an I trust*: b it " D ist t > d ut la murmurod sadly o'er the setting sun ! And this is life. A dawnin? fair and bright, a toil-filled day, 8)339 pass s'loweri that brin^ forth flowers Vt oven-tide li;ht?a heavenly ray; And this is life. FOR LIFE. Z5^ ~ Eleven days on the road. By no met^ns tfce Fnion Pacific, or any other l'ne of continuous travel, where the minimum of bounce and jerk is combined -with the maximum of comfort possible ur.der steady motion. A road still unknown to surveyor or engineer, beyond reach or thought of railroadman or speculator, and but just opening up its two hundred miles or more of primevr.l forest. A road trodden only by Indians or crossed by stealthy foxor lynx, its length winding through troachcrous marsh and bog, and swiftstreim and deep, unbroken forest, only a " blaze" here and there, indicating at some points the course to be followed, ! and where too obtrusive trees wero cut j away, the ttumps left standing at just! the right height for impaling wagon- j bodies aDd st>'r ing up a degree or two | of profanity in the drivers. From Pembina to Crow Wing, and in those two hundred miles of a loneliness only the traveler of that region can j know, what had not the patient oxen ! undergone ? Twelve miles the average ) day's accomplishment, until Leech Lake j and some suggestion of a civilized road | had been reached. Heavy rains, swol- j len streams, fathomless mud-holes. Often a morning was spent in hauling i wagons across a turbid and turbulent j 1 A r>^/l trkilA iVio ATnn cfnA/1 1 Jlbiic iivcx, auuf wiaixu mc uacu oivuu : drenched and dripping after their re- j luctant swim to the other side, bringing I over the loads, package by package, on j a fallen tree, if suck bridge could be j discovered, or vaiting while the two j half-breeds swam across with them on , their heads. Neddo, silent and calmly j acquiescent in whatever fate might bring, served as fore and background ! for Boulanger, who swore in all dialects from French and English through to Creek and Chippewa, his black beads of eyes shooting fire, his small and gayly-bedecked legs dancing wildly among the packages, and his lean arms emphasizing the whirlwind of invective. Even this had ceased to amuse. Drenched through by constant rains, tormented day and night by mosquitoes, in size, numbers and ferocity beyond the wildest imagination of the Eastern mind, endurance was all that remaintd. Even water lilies palled, and for weary j bndy aud more weary mind but ono j desire had torce?to see the low stockade cf the Crow Wing agency, and an . actual inn, whe-ro a real bed, even if one of fonr in a row, would be hailed as deliverance, and where one would find a poatollicd and u daily stage, con- | nectinK this last outpost of civilization j with St. Cloud, eighty miles below, and | the fiist- point where railroads could be reached. Ag&in s broken bridge prave another morning of unloading and swearing and reloading, and when at last the rushing river was passed and the wagon once more under way, a treacherous and shelving mud-hole suddenly swallowed up oxen and fore-wheels, dumped load and owners into its very depths, and for five minutes seemed likely to hold them there. Then all struggled out together, and while Boulanger shrieked with rage and Neddo examined pole and wheels and fished out the provisionbasket, putting the contents on a damp log to dry, patience at last took flight, aod like the ancient prophet in one of his very many trials and predicaments, " I spako with my tongue ; I opened j rri/lo YTiTr m/Mifli " TTIViU Ui t UlVUVUi " I will net i-tay in this nest cf mosqaitoes and flies and wait lionrs for this fiEalcatastrophe to unsnarl. I shall march on to Golf Lake, where there is a beach, unless this last flood has turned it to water, and there I can sit | intheFacd and get dry. Of course,! now there i6 no reaching Crow WiDg I to-night, and we must make our camp i at the lake." For this journey was by no means a : first or second one, and the ox-team was | simply one more experience of frontier j traveling. Canoe and flat-train and Indian pony had all been tried, and j either was better than this frightful | crawl, inch by inch, as it were. At; Gulf Lake, the first camping-point the previous year, ten miles above Crow .Wing, had been a solitary wigwam, tenanted by a toothless but amiable squaw, who gare me fresh pickerel roasted in j the scales over her fire, and affording a ; new 6ense of what flavor and savor | natural methods may hold, and pota- j fV?or? tttqInnfc Knf i KUtO UU1 VliJ iuuu nwiuvi'U| vi?w | dug in my honor from the field the had : planted. Perhaps she would be there to-day. In any ca?e, alono or with snch j society as she could give, there waited ] for me the clear, still, bine water in its j setting of silvery sand, the blasted pino ' with it3 eagle's nest, the hnsh and se-1 renity of the silent forest. Five miles j under tjie pines, where one was less ' tormented by mosquitoes, and then J came a final one?a wade rather than a walk. 1 had forgotten the bog and the > corduroy had sunk quite out of sight, i though I could feel it now and then I below the black mud which held tena I ciously to each foot by turn and yielded | with a long, slow suck, like a smack of j evil satisfaction over my tribulations, j Ten thousand hands could not have j availed against that gray column of: mosquitoes, whose sound seemed at last a trumpet call to other columns, and, which, in spite of headgear and leather j gloves, penetrated the unknown and! unguarded chink or crevice. Through the swamp at last and out j once more under the friendly pines, : and I ran, knowing the goal was near, and seeing soon the flashing sunlight on the blue water. There was a bending figure near the lake. Along the j brook emptying into it corn and peas and beans were growing, and, actually, j balsams and even sweet-peas at the end! 44 Mr ennftw VinQ he#vn hrnncht over to white mail's fashions," I say half aloud, and then stopped short, as the figure sprang up and turned with a subdued "my gracious 1" when she saw the mud-coated and caked, torn, and most disreputable-looking apparition "before her. So wan a face, such watery and faded, yet somehow intense blue eyes, so infinitesimal a nub of hair, so shadowy yet resolute a wraith, 1 had never yet encountered? even in remotest and most unfrierded cabin, where a woman's life meani the speedy loss of every trace of comeliness and grace. "Well, I call it a providence ! " she said, coming forward with a sort of silent rush as if carried by the wind. " The first day I've ever been lonecome a mite or thought to care, but he's gone below three days now, an' Sbahweah off or berries, an' I did sav jest now, be the pond there, it was a leetle lonesome. An' then to think of a white woman bain' what I should Bee! It does beat all! W'h^re be you from ? I reckon it's a dry conntry you've left behind you," Bhe ad^ed with a twinkle, " for you have brought all the mud with you. Now you come straight np along ma oil' T'll c/ivarta ttah r.ff enmn " nu uiC) ?u a. At cvmjju j vu vu ovfcuv* Where's your folks ?'* " S.x miles back in a mud-hole," I answered, with the ghostly impression still strong upon me. The voice was on'y a husky whisper, anil a nearer view on It intensified the bloodlessness of the skin hardl.y hiding the poor bones below. The woman laughed. j "Youthink I'm a poor show," sh< ' said. " Folks ^in'ly do; but I'm healtl ! itself to what I was." "You were not here when I went uj a jear ago ?" ! "No; I come in November. "Wher you're in some of my clothes an* liav( , had a cup of tea I'll tell you all aboui it. There's the house. Aint that preth for Gulf L ike ? Kinder comfortable ?' j Comfortable! A palace could noi j have held a tenth of all the word meant i A "but, and a ben" only, but how j spotlessly neat! Morning-glories and | hops climbing over door and window, where white curtains hung; a snow white bed, shut in by morquito-bar ; 8 square of rag carpet on the floor ; stove ! and tins polished to their utmost capacj ity ? one of shining blackness, the I other of shining brightness?a dresser I holding civilized dashes ; a shelf, where ! two or three books lay?the Bible, j Whittier's poems and " David Copper| field," and a pile of well-worn papers; : an old-fashioned rocking-chair with j patch-work cushions, aud "light stand i near it; and, to complete the curious ; mixture of old New England farmhouse ! and frontier-cabin, a warming-pan liangj ing between the windows, its copper j face shining like everything ilse. "You think that's a queer thing to I tote out West?" said my hostess, who had already spread a cloth and put on fresh water to boil for tho promised cup of tea. " I 'letted on it before I was big enough to reach it, hangin' there in grandmother's kitchen up in Veunont, an' when I went West, leastways what was West forty years ago? to Pennsylvany? I took it along for old times, and then to Illinois an' Minnesota an' here we both are up here You'd say it wasn't much more use than Timothy Dexter's ship-load for the West Injies; but he made a fortune out o' that, an' I sort of expect good luck from this one. Now, before that kettle biles, you might freshen up a mite. The heft of it we won't do nothin' to till you've had your tea." Words can neve tell the delight of that freshening?first in cold water in a real wash-basin, then the tea, drank to an accompaniment of narrative poured out as if mere speech were a gift straight from heaven. An indomitable cheerfulness, a resolute grasp of these shadowy threads uf life, seemed tho strongest characteristic of this creature in whose faded eyes quick gleams of expression came and went, and whose alertness and even vivacity were miraculous testimonies to the imperious will that governed the frail body, no matter what human weakness interposed. In iho beginning, the story proved one I had often heard?the exodas of forty years before, when New England, moio especially its northern portion, seemed emptying itself into the West, the white-covered, heavily-laden wagons passing day by day through the old towns, gazed upon by the more conservative with apprehension and dismay. "I hankered after home; I do it even now, once in a great while," the shadowy woman vent on; "but I ain't goin' to dwell on tfcat. LiiKely's not, you've heerd forty folks say the same thing. But what yon hain't heerd I'm goin' to tell yon now. He cane from Maine, as maybe, I don't say?born a lumberman, an' his father one before him. An' so, when Minnesota opened up, it come easy to put out o' Illinois, where farmin' never suited him, an' where there wasn't a stick o' timber, except aloDg the river-bottoms, an' litalways half pinin' for it. He knows his business an' soon fed into work, an'we settled down in Minneapolis; that's about as folksy a place as you'll find. But you see I wasn't never over strong, an' I'd shook in them bottoms till it's my belief there wasn't an inch inside of me that kept jest the place the Lord had laid out to have it keep. Folks said the trouble wa9 your gall ran out into your liver; but I said your liver ran where it was a min i to, an' your stomach into whatever else there was, i an' morn'n likely interfered with your lungs an' kept you from having a long I breath. Thai's the way it looked to me, even after I got settled in Minneapolis, for mino got shorter an' shorter, an' at last, in spite of me, I was in bed, an' the folks savin' I shouldn't never see spring. " Now, the children had died as fast as they come almost. There wasn't one left; an' Hiram is set by natur' on what's his own, an' it seemed as if he couldn't stand it to lose me, too. We'd been unlucky, too?burned out once an' the bank broke that had our money in it, such as it wes?an' he was pretty low ; an' when time come to go no to camp he half broke down, an' he said: Malviny, I can't. Suppcsin' you hUouldn't be here when 1 came back. I had better go as hand in a mill, an' earn less.' "' Hiram,' I said, 'you take me along with you.' You never saw a man look more scared, for he thought I was goin' out o' my mind. But 1 hadn't noticed folks an' ways for nothin," an' I said: 'Don't you know jest as well as the next one that the doctors keep sendin' consumptive folks up into the pineries? an' if your camp ain't as good as another, I'd like to know. I can't more'n die, anyway ; au' I'm sick of bein' tucked up in brd an' an air-tight chokin' me day an' night, an' I'm gcin' with yon.' 'Malviny, you can't,' he said, 'it'Ball men. There ain't no place.' Then make a place,' says I. ''Taia't fit,' savs he. ' Women don't know anything * 1 - c t 4.1 ? i rpi aooui a passeiu; men cuyeiuei. iucu the more reason for hndin' out, an' seein' if they can't be made decent,' says I, ' if that's what yen mean. I feel to know I shan't die if I can git up there; but go I will," if I have to walk an' can't do more'n ten steps a day.' " Well, be knew I was set, an', though I didn't put mv foot down very often, I had it down then, square, an' he# set in a brown 6tudy awhile, an' he ?*aye: ' Well, Malvinj, 'tain't no time to cross you, an' i never wanted to yet. If you think you'll hold out, I'll start up the country to-morrow an' see about bavin' a separate cabin next to camp. They're fixin' for winter now, an' I kin go an' come in a week. But I don't see how you'll stand it, an' I don't believe you will.' ' Then I can be buried in the woods,' says I; ' I always did have a hankerin' to lay down for good under nino frooa. " Well, he weut 03"; an' I will say I didn't see myself how I could live till he got back, for I had another time of raitin' blood that very night, It came pourin' straight out; but I said: ' 1 won't give in. It can't all run out, an' I calculate there'll be enough left to keep me goin.' "Folks wouldn't believe it, but by | the time Hiram got back I could crawl ! to the window. I sot there wheu he ! came in sight, an' he was astonished as ! you'd want to see. But he had to lay 1 in an' git picked for goin' up, an' the j very morning all was ready I must neede j come down again. Well, he waited a ; day, an' then he says: 4 I'll go with the I load, Malviny, an' hx up a bit, an' then j I'll come back an' take you up on a i empty sled, eo's to make room for a bed an' things for you to go easier.' '] ! wan't to go now,' I says; 'I shall be ! dead if I don't.' Well we argued some : back an' forth, an' at last he say6: ' It ain't no use, Malviny. All's ready now, i an' I'm goin' now, an' I'll come back | for you as I said;' an' off he started foi j the barn. I was up tLat minute an ! into my waim things in spite of Mrs, ! Smith tryin' to stop me, an' when hf | drove round an' come in I jest walked { to the door. ' No, yon don't,' he says, ; an' jest took me up an' laid me on th( i bed an' run. I ' What got into me then I couldn'l tell; Lord carried me aloug, I reckon Anyway, I rnu tco, Mrs. Smith aftei me, an' Hiram jest drivin' off, an' then I 6tuck to the rnnner and wouldn't le: go. Hiram was pale as a ghost, an most crjiu', an'he says, 'For the Lord'i sake, go back, MhIvidv,' an' j J says, ' For the Lord's sake ] . won't.' aa' jest crawled np int< the bufialoes alongside o' him. 'There' one chance in a million of jonr gettin there i-Jive,' he says, 1 an', if you'r bound iu go on that one, we'll try it that's all;' an' off we went. I j: " Well, whether 'twns the notion or I ' the air away from the air-tight, or carI ryin' the pint, I couldn't tell, but I grew > more an' more chirp with every mil3. I | eat quite a dinner, an' elep' all night, t nn'Hiram he jest kept still an' waited. ; I knew he was waitin'. Bat we got t throngh at last, an' into these very pine r woods beginnin' at Crow Wing. I ' snifiVd 'em, an' knew life Wiis in 'em if t j it was anywheres. When Hiram drove ! np before the oamp, an' Smith, the r j overseer, come out, he looked a minute, [ j an' then swore light out: ' Be , ' you tnrnin' into a blamed fool at vour - j time o' life, to be bringiu' a dead i J woman into camp?' he says. But I s j knew I wasn't anywheres near dyin', . an' Smith knows it too, now. I'd j s j give a sight if he wasn't below. He's | so contented to have me round again, II he says lie dou't care if we never stir from here the rest of onr lives: an' I'm .! sure I don't an' wouldn't. I walk under : j them pines, an' small 'em deep in' an' I j says, ' Here's yonr life-elixir, an' no | mistafie; aa it ioiks Kne?? 11 iney | i, wouldn't die in little close rooms, but j i! come out under 'em. I was always a j master-hand for out-doors, an' lie helps j | along the house-work, so't we can gar: den together, an' Shaliweah does what j he an' me ain't a mind to. Mostly as i long as daylight lasts I putter round | outside; an' I ain't sure but what I shall be an old woman yet, even if I hain't but a piece of a lung left.' "As for them men, you never see twenty fellows more set on bein' agreea ble than they was. For all havin' to j whisper, I always managed to make 'em j hear, an' I did odds an' ends for 'em, ! an' they went in an' out, an' told stories, ! an' sung, an' one night I even danced ; ' an' I never had a more sociable winter. 11 thought he'd be a leetle lonesome ! when they went below; but he takes a | sight of comfort in the paper?we've i had it from the beginnin'?an' he don't seem to mind one mite. I always read ' considerable, an' I go over an' over the ; few books we've got, an' find somethiu' new every time. And I expect you'll laugh when I tell you the only thing that ever makes me lonesome or skeerv. 'Tain't Injins; I don't see but what they're folksy enough, when you git over their blankets. It's loons. I say j they're the lonesomest thing in natur', j an' when they holler I jest crawl all I over. But then I can git along even . j with them. An' now I'd like to know I how you come here, an' all about it, : I every word ; but I'm dreadful sorry he j ain't to home."? Helen Campbell, in i 1 j^ippincou. I _____? An Ambush of Artillery. We were driven back at Seven Pines ; the first day, but on the second we gave j ! them a little " Hail Columbia," and j ! drove them back in return about half a ' mile from whero our outside line was i ! established on the first day. It was a i most terrible fight. I had never seen j ; anything like it, and as 1 have never | seen an account of a Confederate ! charge made that day, I will undertake j to briefly describe it. On a wooden emin- j j ence a short distance below where our j j firbt line had bsen established two or j j three batteries of artillery were I l stationed by Heintzelman, One section i i of two pieoes was drawn out from tho | 1 w?od and placed in the clear corn field j i beyond. Jt was rather a dangerous poj sition for a battery to be in without I support The section had scarcely un| limbered when from the woods in their j front there debouched four lines of I Confederates (Chetham's brigade), who, ' in regimental front and four | lines deep, came pouring down upon i the devoted section. "Fire with canis- ; , tort" nnm mondnil fVia TTpnV ll'fflfl VrttVp of the young lieutenant who com-! manded the seotion, and the Confederates seemed to laugh at the two little six-pounders opposing them. "Doubleshot wi.h canisterl' said the commander of the masked guns in the woods, and still the enemy came on and on, as if on parade. Not a musket was fired, and the seciion kept booming j away with terrible rapidity. I had j thought that the lieutenant and hisEec! tion would turn tail to the foe. He did not, but stood there and worked his J guns with the coolness of a brave man. ! All at once, with a yell, the enemy j started on a d "UDle-qnick, and in a mo1 ment more the section was captured ; and the lieutenant was a mangled j | corpse. Now came the most terrible j carnage I had ever seen. The capture I of the section had evidently greatly enj couraged the foe, and his lines i swept rip and up the hill until i ( within about a hundred yards of j 'the Union canon. It was a}, i magnificent sight. The lines had not | ( j broken yet, but kept onward, as if ! marching for review. "Fire I" rang ! out from the woods, and at least a , | dozen cannon belched forth tLeir , j storm of death. I can see it even now. Men in all the agonies of death piled i I like fence-rails one upon another, with j | their more fortunate comrades climbing i : over their mangled bodies to reach the I ; guns. The magnifient line3 of a mo- j j ment before wavered, then stood still, | j and then faded away like enow beneath I ! a summer's sun The charge was I | ended, aud but few, if any, lived to re- j I turn. The field where the onemy had j j advanced was a perfect slaughter-pen, , j indeed. The dead and wounded lay in j j all directions, and not one of all the | men who had advanced got back again, j ' It was a noble and gallant charge, and j to the noble and brave lieutenant who ; j commanded the section alone in the i | field, and who gave up his life to duty, ! was the credit of winning tho battle ' due. The enemy lost about 1,500 men I in killed, wounded and prisoners. Our ; loss was eight men killed and sixteen i wounded.?Philadelphia Wtekly Times, j The Congressional Lobby Worker. Mr. J. R. Randall writes from Wash- j 1 ington to his paper, the Augusta (Ga.) ! ] Chronicle : I think the great corpora; tions are often deceived by the lobby ; men. One of the most prominent of ; the gentry was brought before a sub| committee and required to testify under j | oath. He was asked if he had not re; ceived $25,000 from a railroad company, i and responded in the affirmative. " Why ! did they pay you that sum V said the j chairman. * "Becauso tbey thought I | was woith it," responded the agent, i "Did they think you could influence i votes?" The agent answered that they | did, 41 What dil you do ?" said the ! nhftirmnn. "I reported that Senator Blank war all right, and they were sat- | isfied," replied the agent. "Did you i approach the senator ?" said the chairman. "I did," the agent retorted, 4,and . asked if he felt all right this morning. F.e answered that he was all right. 1 ! so stated to the company, and they paid over the money like little men." I leave it to the reader to guess which ' was the more fooled, the railroad comi pany or the eub-committee. At any rate, the hero of this exploit is still on ' j hand and still plying his avocation around the capitol. One of the most > expert of politicians, who has held ' many high offices and always with i honor and distinction, tells me that the * lobby men do not after all have much I power over congressmen, as a rule. . Sam Ward used to spread epicurean i feasts, and his liquor-mixer Valeni tine dispensed seductive fluids, but ; the majority of congressmen who i partook of this refreshment never : sold out in consequence. I rather ' think that the corporations employing ' old '*Rex Yestibnii," grew weary of furnishing him with the sinews of war > and the raw material of gastronomic I luxury. He has gone; but his place is , filled by men who have none of his 5 scholarship, bat more knowledge of still-hunting. Whether they use cash t or condiments, I cannot say ; but their . existence is surrounded by sumptuous r appointments, and to hear some of them 3 talk one would be persuaded that they t owned congressmen in fee simple and ' +v>cm HQ p.nmfir lots to their em 3 plovers. My own opinion is that this is 1 mere brag and ' bonnce," and that they I would interview a royal Bengal tiger ; sooner than confront the majority of c< either house with a venal proposition, i' Still, they live and thrive and want for b none of those things that poorer people ; long for and sometimes imperil their reputations and souls to procure. ! THE FARM AND HOUSEHOLD. Ffed for Laying Hen*. A correspondent asks: " Can hens be I mado too fat to lay V Yes, indeed. Fat j hens rarely lay. If Lens are fed so ; mnch or so often that tbey begin to ! fatten rapidly they will soon stop lay! ing. He asks again: "Is there nny| thing bptter than corn to make hens I lay ?" No food is better than Indian j corn or ground corn (Indian meal), to J fatten hens, and of conrse it should be ] fed sparingly to laying hens. If hens i mt l.if? o?<1 om fnf. fpml liipm 1 >nt; V.W ? once a day?at evening just before they go to roost? giving what fcreenings, buckwheat and oats in such propor! tions as you judge beat. Throw the feed upon clean ground only so fast as they pick it np. Stop just as soon as vou see any of the flock begin to wander away. Let them forage all day for weed seeds, grass, insects, etc. They must have warm quarters, well ventilated at night, and a sunny rnn by day in winter. After a while begin to feed them sparingly a little meat scrap chopped fine, broken bones, oyster shells, etc., and they will probably soon begin to lay.?America?! Agriculturist. Sitting Hem. All things change in these days, and there seems every prospect of a real and great change ere long in the methods of incubation. There is much likelihood that artificial incubation will at last be pretty generally adopted in thin country ; we do not mean by the enthusiastic fancier alone, or the scientific experimentalist, or the wholesale poultry rearer; but that to the ordinary poultry yard in its ordinary routine an i incubator will become as necessary an adjunct as a greenhouse is to a garden. We are nat, however, prepared just yet, until we have had the opportunity of personally testing several artificial incubatois, to recommend the young fancier to trust all his eggs to them, and prefer, therefore, for the present to say something about the old-fashioned feathered one provided by nature. Chapters on sitting hens are wont to begin with disquisitions on the exact age which it is desirable for them to have attained before being trusted with egg?. We do not take the trouble to inquire into the years or months of broody hens, indeed at this season of the year we are seldom fortunate enough to have such a supply of them as to make us critical on such points. We have often known pullets of six months to make admirable mothers. It is a good plan as hens show si>ms of be- j coming broody co give them nests if i they have not already got them, which I can be removed bodily with them to the sitting-house. Of course there are j small establishment, where in a very only two or three in a run, it can generally be arranged to leave them where they have been laying, or about a large farmptead. Those which have chosen for themselves out-of the-way retreats may be left in them; but even in these cases there is always much risk of their being disturbed by intruders. As a rule it is far better to give up some house having a run attached to it for sitting hens. In this there should be Bome closo boxes with wire ironts for the confinement of 6trange or wild birds; but for the home hens, which can be quietly brought in at night, wo recommend that each bo set in the portable box or basket in which she has been laying. As soon as a laying bird shows signs of becoming broody her nest should be prepared. We prefer round wicker baskets to all other nests; fresh turf or ashes should bo put at the bottom and short straw over. There is much point in doing this beforehand, for no nest is ever at once so well fashioned as the hen fashions it for herself by laying in it a few times; it is then ready for eggs directly she is ready to sit. Hen and nest can be carried quietly together at night into the BittiDg-house, and in nineteen cases out of twenty she will sit on as if in the same place. In the case of a shy bird a rough wicker coop with some sacking on it put over her will givo extra privacy. At the time of removal another exactly similar basket should he placed in the laying-house, and any hens which have been laying in the one will not know the difference. This is our general plan with our home hens. It is, however, often necessary to get in extraneous help, in the shape of hired or bought broody hens. At times they are a necessary evil. We have known dozens wtiich" could be set anywhere, especially when they come from cottages where they are kindly treated and conofnnt.ir Viand led. Such are far prefer able to birds from large farmyards, where little attention is paid to them ; the latter are wild and unsteady at first, but with patience and management they will generally quiet down. For such we have rows of closed wooden nests with eliding wire doors in front. Oars are raised from the ground with ledges in front of them. We have seen eome similar without bottoms standing on the ground, wbich is perhaps better where there is no fear of rats or other vermin. A refractory hen should be put in at night with some china eggs and left quite undi6tnrbed till the dusk of the next evening, when she may be lifted off to feed and put back again. We have nearly always fonnd this treatment makes such a bird safe for eggs at the end of two or three days. Common aonaa und nhsorvfttion alone will tell I when a hen may be trusted. Eggs should crrtainly not be given her till she 6its down closely and till all the china e?gs under her have been found hot. A doubtful hen will often warm a few of necessity without properly incubating the whole nest. Now and then hens obstinately persist in standing upon the eggs, cickling and even scratching the nest to pieces.?(?., in Journal of Horticulture. Farm una Garden Note*. If worms are very numerous in a meadow, the best thing that can be done i3 to turn them under with the plow as deeply as possible, and plan the ground iu some crop that can be matured in the season, and that is ap-1 plicable. If -the meadow is new, and it is very desirable to preserve it for the next year, the farmer must then turn in hogs, etc., use the roller or adopt such device as may be most convenient so as to make the injury as light as possible, but with no idea of saving the present crop. The farmer should sign nothing, un der any pretext whatever, for a stranger; do not even give your address?"ju t as a memorandum." When least expected this address will turn up as a signature to seme kind of a promise to pay. Avoid every easy way of making money. No matter by what name it is called, the scheme is likelv to be fraudulent. Let every farmer and others, who live in the country, be sure that trees and shrubs with frait of heretofore unheard of excellence, or flowers of unsurpassed beauty, are not introduced by hawkers and peddlers. The making of manure is one of the most important labors of the winter season, or perhaps it 6honld have been said the saving of it. The value of a manure depends on several things, the leading of which Hre: the food given the animal; tho hind, ago and condition of tho animal fed, and last but not least the care which the mnnuro receives after it has bren dropped. Rich manure con only be made from rich food; if straw alone is fed the manure must be noor, as the animal adds nothing to, but instead extracts from, tlio store of plant food in the fodder. While on some soils salt produces no apparent resnlte, on otherB it is of marked benefit to wheat. Its utility can only be learned by experiment. It often has an indirect action, in enabling the pjant to take up silica and strengthen tho 6traw. Its effect in preventing the growth of those minute fungi which causn rust and smut is sometimes beneficial. After cold weather has put a stop to tho growth of the plants, salt sown at the rate of five or six bushels to the acre often in creases the health of the plant and im proves the appearance of the grain. Rccticn. Doughxtts.?Ono egg w*ll beaten, one tableepoonful butter, a cnpfu.' sugar, a cupful sweet milk, two teaspoonfuls cream tartar, a teaspoonful eoda, a little nutmeg; stir as 6tiff as you can with d spoon; dust fb.ur over your board, laj on the dough, and instead of molding pat it out with your hand. Cut ofl strips, twist them and fry in very hot lard. Pudding.?A delicate pudding is made of three teaspoonfult? of corn starch dissolved in a little cold water. Have ono pint of water boiling on the stove; in this stir the corn starch and the well-beaten whites of three eggs; ! lot it boil up once; pour it into an I earthen pudding dish which will hold I three pints; steam the pudding for tea ! minutes. Lemon Jelly Cake.?Take two cups t of su,ar, one-half cDp of butter, one 1 cup of milk, three eggs, two teaspoon: fuls of cream tartar, one teaspoonful of ; soda, three cups flour; mil and I bake in fine, thin layers. For the jellv, grind the rind of three small or two large lemons, and add the juice of the same with ono cup of sugar, ono egg, one-half cup of water, one teaspoonful of butter, ono ^tablespoonful of flour; mix with a little water, and boil till it thickens; then place between the layers of the cake. Giuvy Soup.?Take six pounds of shin beef, cut off half a ponnd of lean and put what is left into a saucepan; add four or fivo quarts of cold water and a large pinch of salt; when boiling skim it well and put in two carrots, one tur | m[j, mreu mrgu uuiulid, uvc ui oia cloves, a few peppercorns and any trimmings of leeks and celery; leave it to boil five or six hours, skim off the fat, strain it through a c! Dth into a basin, it to ccol; cut the lean meat very small, pound it, and work it into two whole eggs, a little salt and any cooked trimmings of cooked veal or fowl, a few trimmings of uncooked carrot, onion and celery, pour in the stock, stir it over a quick fire until it boils, leave it to boil from ten to fifteea minutes, strain through a napkin into a clean stewpan, let it come to the boil and serve. Sad Career of a Baron's Daughter. The recent death' of Mme. Laura Sweitzer, at Port Jervis, N. Y., recalls one of the saddest and most remarkable careers ever recorded. The story of ber life, as told by Mme. Sweitzer, reads like a romanco and seems almost too strange to be tru<<. Laura Von Puffnitz Steinburp, daughter of Baron Frederick Otto Von Fnffnitz Steinburg, was born at Wismar, in Mecklenburg, Germany, on the 10th of Octo ber, 1819. Her father was of an ancient and highly-honored family, and Lanra wa-3 a younger danghter. She was given all the advantages of an expensive edncation in mnsio and the German language. At sixteen years of age she met a very poor young nobleman witb a very long and honorable name, the Connt Frederick Kolstedt Schleswick Sweitzer. The youjg man was handsome i and pretty well edncated, but hispov- | erty was a bar to their nnion. Lanra felt that she loved him so deeply that she conld marry no one but him. Her old father would not listen to her entreaties, and finally be sent her to Altona, a town near Hamburg, on the Elbe river, where he placod her in a convent until she became cured of her passfon. She contrived to let her lover know where she was, and thither he followed her. Having no money he applied for and obtained a pesitien a under-gardener in the convent at s modest compensation. He and Laura were thus enabled to meet daily, and affairs were going on swimmingly when the old Baron Steinburg, having found that Sweitzer had left Wismar, suspected tho trne state of aflairs, and came postljaste to Altona. He arrived in time to catch his daughter in an arbor in the convent garden conversing with the forbidden lover. The old baton and the young man exchanged hard worjs, and a duel, in which the baron was severely wonnded, resulted. Young Sweitzer and his sweetheart fled from Altona, were married, and camo to America, where they landed at Castle OardeD, Hew York, almcst penniless. Sweitzer obtained employment and they lived comfortably several years. Finally his health failed, and the couple came to Port Jervis, N. Y., and took up their abode in a little shanty in a suburb. Madam Sweitzer made enough money to keep them alive by peddling matches and notions among the farmers, and by begging during the winter. She frequently walked fifty miles a day, and on a recent occesion took part in a pedestrian contest in Port Jervis, where she made a record of ninety-eight miles in twenty-three hours, and earned considerable money. During her begging excursions she told the above story of her life. She was known in Pike county as "Mee?^y Maumie" or "the Countess." Her J~ ?? V.a GKa nr.a fwinff fn UCttlLl WHO IlUlllUlUi VJUO TT uo IIJIUQ ?w steal a ride on the night freight train to Middletown, thirty-four miles south of Port Jervis, when she fell under the engine and was so crushed that her body was scarcely recognisable. Her husband died a few years ago. The Floating Homes of Bangkok. | Boats are the universal means of conveyance and communication, and a boat thus becomes a necessary adjunct of every person's household ; to its dextrous use every child is trained ; men, women and children are equally accustomed. Perhaps the most common form is a stout skiff about twenty-five feet long, turning up very shapely and high behind, like a Venetian gondola. It is broad in the beam, and two-thirds of its length is housed over, leading a J little flat deck in front, and a stilll smaller one behind. Behind stands the husband and sculls; in front stands the wife, rowing and using a boat-hook to help their way through the crowds. The front of the boat is used for business, passengers or cargo. The rear third is given up to family and domestic i'urniture. For, incredible as it may seem, we soon see that each boat is "the home of a family, father, mother, girls and boys; who are born there, live there and die there. In the daytime the children and the furniture are crowded into a space not over four feet square; at night they can spread out over greater surface. I looked into these homes with attention, and never could enough wonder or admire how cloeely all was packed, without seeming to jostle or painfully crowd. Also that tho children lived so happily and contentedly in a spaco no greater than a large-sized Saratoga trunk 1 It is probably a fact that thero are many tenyear-old children in Bangkok river who have never waiked over twenty feet in a straight line, in short, who have never been on land. But then, when they come in proximity to boats whose little inmates they know, they would?beys and girls from five to twelve?jump out of their boathouse, and dive and swim away to visit and gambol around together; now free in the water, now hanging to the boat's side or sitting astride of the scull oar. And a friend tells mo that ho has seen them in their visits take with them baby, to whose shoulders mother has prudently attached a hollow gourd or other light float to insure its safety. la u. minor excurBiun up a biuo vnuui I found myself at the city residence of the prime minister?whose name I have not now time lo write ont in lull. J a ran my bo.at ail around through his pleasure grounds, and wondtred ! whether the worthy old gentleman con| sidered that ho was living on land or in the river. In one part of bis aquatic elyBium I Baw magnificent f-pt cimens of the victoria regia, whose leaves, round like a platter, were over two yards in diameter. Their rim was sharply turned up in a ledge an inch high, and on the raft thus formed were settled, quite at home like, a family of frogs. They, too, seemed to fall in with the humors of the country,?Chronicle. SUNDAY READING. A Pccnllnr Prayer. Rev. George 0. Miln, pastor of Unilj ' church, Chicago, baa abandoned peti' tional prayer, ami in place of paving 1 "Let n.? pray,'' now says. "Let us hold ! communion together." He prefaced n 1 recent sermon by the fo'lowiug ruonologne: Again we close onr eyrs upon the world of caro and toil, that we ma? open them upon a world of peace and pure reflection. We would leavo bei hind all sadness, all anxiety and all gloomy thought, and lake counsel at this time of our holiest impulses and our fiercest philosophy. We would give freo rein to all that is best within us?to "run and be glorified," and banish all that is unworthy and gross. We come here to think, in order that presently we may feel. May we think clearly and honestly. May we stimulate each other with such enthusiasm for truth as will lift us above servile regard for popular opinion. Ob, that wo may bo at least true, and uncon volitional, and brave with out bo.istfulness. And may the truth beget in us its most blessed fruits. May sympathy be our daily garb, and honor the habit of our life. May charity shine in all onr aots, and modulate with its sweet emphasis all our conversation. May we despise all littleness as unworthy of men. May we be true of heart, gentle of speech, honest in thought, modest in utterance, and above all may our communion with each other bo beget within ns tht spirit of love as that we shall be above unkind and stupid speech about each other. May we build up in ourselves and so also in others, true nobility of character, being kind to the poor, gentle to the siofe, merciful to the fallen and charitable to the rich, and thus help dispel the clouds which conceal the dawning of humanity's ideal day. Amen. Uollslons Intelligence. There are in Kansas 299 Presbyterian churches, with 12,044 members. The Baptist churches of Massachusetts raised for all purposes last : year $624,594. Mr. F. Wise, of Ireland, has given 8100,000 toward the restoration cf the cathedral in Cork. Michigan has 174 Presbyterian churches, with 16,156 communicants; Iowa 355 churches, with 20,812 communicants. Tho jubilee fund of th<* English Congregationalists now amounts to 8500,000, all of which hag been raised since October, 1881. The Mississippi Northern Mothodist conference reports 21,982 members, 2,853 probationers, 304 churches, valved at 820,165, and 364 Sunday-schools. Tlie Methodist says it has repoited 12,971 conversions in 1882. It thinks that as an evangelistic force Methodism shows no signs of weakening, but many of its converts go to other churches. It is reported in Japan that the gov x _ i l i :.i. cn.:~ ernmeut is uuoul iu re-eeunuiitsu qluii* toism as the religion of the state, jind to combat by all possible means Bnddhism and the progress made by Christianity. The total indebtedness reported by the Methodist churches in Philadelphia at the conference of 1881 was 8542,967. It has since been reduced to perhaps $500,000. There are but ten churches free from debt. Archdeacon Macdonald, an Episcopal missionary in British America, has a field of work on the confines of the Arctic circle extending over about twenty degrees of longitude. About 1,500 natives have been baptized, and more than 100 are communicants. The Mru Who Was Warned. During the uncertain days following the close of the war there were certain localities where a man who had a grudge against a neighbor got rid of him by writing him an anonymous letter warn- J ing him to leave the State inside of ten days or prepare to fill a grave over which no one would feel particularly interested in keeping the gr**s green. One day Colonel Blank, who had removed to Arkansas from Southern Michigan an'd was attending strictly to business, received such a missive. It was therule to turn pale as death, rush homo and pack up, sell out for nothing and skedaddle on the wings of chain lightning, bot the coloLel didn't follow it. It struck him that he knew the handwriting and he went home, buckled on a knife and a revolver, and took a ride of three miles into the country. He dismounted at the cabin of a longhaired, lone-legged old swamp owl, named Patterson, who was in the backyard mending a harness. The colonel approached him to within three feet, and after they had seated and discussed the weather, the Michigander reraaiked : "Patterson, I am going to leave Arkansas." "Shoo! Anthing wrong?" " I've been warned away." " You don't say !" "Yes, I've been given five days to leave the State." " And you calkerlate you will go ?" " Yes I'll have to be waylaid or hung up." " Yes, I reckon that's so," chuckled the old man. " But I want to take something with mo to remember Arkansas by," continued the colonel, " and I came out after your scalp." "l\lv what?" "bit still, old man, or I'll bore you through 1 That's it ? tip with your hands ! If I go back to Michigan and tell 'em I was warned out of Arkansas, and that I got up and dusted without firing a shot, they'll call me a coward. If I carry your ecalp back I've got something to show for the two years I've put in here and the 86,000 I've laid out. Old man, if you know the Lord's prayer you'd beter repeat it quick, for I'm in a dreadful hurry to get back." "Say, kurnel, don't you like the kentry down here?" asked Patterson. "Yes." " Is the cjimato all right ?" "First rate." " Chance to make money?" "Gocd chance." "Then, knrnel, don't go back! I don't keer two cents about my scalp; somehow I've got attached to you and it will rip up all my tender feelings to see you go I Let my old tcalp-lock stay riphfc whar' she is, and you stay right whar' you be, and if any of the boys look cross-eyed at you fur tho next ten years I'm a kyotte if 1 don't drive 'em into Mexico or make 'em lose themselves in the ground." The colonel ;.s down there yet, and old Patterson never meets him without anxiously inquiring if he's got over being homesick yet. ? Detroit Free Press. A Touching Incident. A touching incident occurred at the Midlothian mines, Virginia. Superintendent. Dodda mounted a coal car and addressing the wailing throng of women and children, eai;l: "My poor friends, it grieves me to have to state to you that for the present our search for the bodies of those you hnew and loved ? 11 l x . -1 J ,1 will uave iu ue uunuuuuuu. iuu nuuw what fire in a coal mine mems, and it may take months of watchiDg to subdue it. We will close the pit now." Tbo speaker's voice qnivered with emotion. When he fininbed, a beautiful little girl of fourteen years, Annie Crowder, the only daughter of one of the victims, uttered a piercing pcream and rushed to the mouth of the pit, crjing: "Oh, do not leavo my dear papa to burn down there. Let me get into the cage to go down after him. Let me s&ve him." The strong arms of the miners held her back as the fragile thing tried to make her way to the cage, oTirl mnw fVion nno hlnrtkmiArt face was made blacker as the hand went tip to wipe away the tears. Men sobbed aloud and turned away to conceal their emotion. The little girl, finding her progress barred, swooned at the mouth of the pit. FACTS AND COMMENTS. It is estimated that as the result of r ihe persecution of Jews in Russia, 100,-1 . 000 Jewish families have been reduced ; lo poverty; and property has been del btroyed to.the extent of ?80,000,000. " President" Taylor, of the Mormori churoh, recently married his twentyeighth wife-a Massachusetts widow. In fonr days sho had raised snch disturbances with the other wives, and proved herself to be so unsusceptible to discipline, that the " President" had to pension her and eond her to Sjn Francisco. Wilson WaddiDgham is a ?:=-w York millionaire whose fame has not winged itself very far away from home. He is said to have made a million in one operation in mining stock last year. He owns a million and half acres of land in New Mexico, there being upon the range 30,000 cattle. He has just built a 3100,000 residence in New Haven. A locomotive fireman on the Northern Pacific road became insane, overpowered the engineer, and ran the train at the rate of a mile a minnte. The engineer managed to get the upper hand of his maniac assistant, and to stop the train just in time to prevent a collision. The crazy fireman leaped from the cab, and 'disappeared on tho prairie. It was a freight train, but the same thing might have happened if there had been passenger cars attached to the locomotive. Tho practice of beeping hives of bees in Paris has spread so extensively that the prefect of ponce has issued an order forbidden it for the future, except, in the case of persons who shall have received a epecial authorization. The preamble of the decree represents the great dunger to the population of the existence of so large a number of beea in the nei?hborhood of the marketa, schools and refineries, as well as the opinion of the council of public health for the department of the Seine condemning the practice. Fishermen at Astrakhan were over taken with a shooking calamity during a recent storm that passed over several parts of RnsBia They are wont to go out in larqe parties to fish on the ice at the mouth of tho Volga, and 600 of them were thus engaged when a fearful gale swept over the place, breaking up the ice and apparently taking the life of every one of them. Much damage was done by tho 6torm at Moscow, trees being uprooted, and the roof o! the new exhibition building blown oft. The German carp, the valuable foodfish recently introduced in the United States, is making its way to all parts of ib with great rapidity. Mr. Abel Wright, who began with two or three dozens of the carp three years ago, thinks that he now has at least a million in his pond at Griffen, Ga He has sold more than 5,000 at twenty dollars a hundred, and cannot keep up with his orders. He bears out Mr. Seth Green's statement that one can almost see the carp grow, so rapidly does it increase in size. Mr. Green asserts that an acre of water can bo made as profitable as an acre of land, and it does not cost much to make the experiment. A village in one of the Middle States has recently undergone a most tingular experience. Two of the villagers keep some one hundred and thirty beehives, and as bad weather made other food scarce, the interesting insects invaded the stores and houses in quest of sweets. Half a bushel of them swarmed in one man's kitchen, of which they remained sole tenants for a week. In that house, on their account, all fruit canning and preserving had to be done at night, and lor many days an tee ?tamuy nai to climb out and in the windows, the bees ' laying siege to the doors. In addition to this whole orchards of fruits and arbors of grapes wero devoured by the i bees. Dozens of persons wero badly stung while passing along the streets, ' and such a reign of terror was established that recourse has been had to \ the courta for prevention of its recurrence. 1 The Botanical garden at Washington bas a curious history. It has grown up with little help from the law. When tho Wilkes exploring expedition returned to the United States about forty years ago it brought back from tho South Pacific certain rare specimens of flora of those regions, and Congress appropriated SI,200 to have them properly cared for, and as a report oi the expedition was to be published under the direction of the oommittee on library the care of the botanical speci mens was placed under its supervision. Of course the thing grew, till now the Botanic garden is an " institution" which costs about 815,000 a year and upon which, first and lust, nearly $600,000 of the publio money have been expended. The garden appears to be useful only as " a thing of beauty," and in that respect mainly for the purpose of fnrnishing free flowers to official society. Persons holding polioies of life insurance would do well to examine tbem for the purpose of ascertaining if any of the fine print prohibit them from bathing. " In Cincinnati," says the Detroit Free Press, " a company recently contested a death claim on the ground that the deceased came to his end while bathing, and that death was not therefore caused by bodily infirmities or disease, but resulted lrom voluntary exposure to unnecessary danger. The court held, fortunately for the beneficiary in the policy, that she ' 1 At. - ? | could recover, Decause tue pruui showed that deceased died from cramp; but there is 110 certainty thaf. other courts will follow the ruling, especially in cases whero death results from bathing in a tub and not in the sea. To persons unaccustomed to the batb the former, like the latter, would bo 'a voluntary exposure to obvious and unnecessary dangers,' and might result in death. Wherefore, it is best to examine the policies." Sc;ii>kin Sacqncs. A sealskin sacque costs tifty percent, more than it did live years ago. Sealskins have not been worn more than fifteen or eighteen yeais. Fashion and the | discovery of new methods of preparing and dyeing, or first the latter and second the former, brought thera into use. Tho seal fur, as seen here, is the inner coat. When on the- back of the : seal this tine fur in hid by coarse hairs, which are removed by a process of paring down tho other side of the skin. The color of the fur as known to wearers is artificial. If the government had not taken measures to protect the seal new wearers of seal sacques would be few in I a short time. The Shetland seals were I once numerous, but have been citerminated. Tho Newfoundland seal is in tho market, but is inferior to the seel of Alaska. Tho islands of the Behring sea are the only ones in the world where seal catching has great commercial importance. From 1751 to 1870 the scientific world knew nothing in regard to the history of the seal. Tbe Smithsonian Institution did not possess a perfect 1 _ -1 - L ' i f 11- 1 .l.lwvnnl, 8K1D ami B&t-lfLUU U1 ILIO ncai, nuuuu^u j thousands of men and millions of dollars have been employed in capturing, dressing and selling fur sealskins for the last hundred years. The vast breeding grounds bordering on the Antartctie have been entirely depopulated. Between the years 1797 and 1821 1,232 374 sealskins were taken on the Pribvloy inlands; between 1S21 and 1842 458,502 skins, aud from 1842 to 18til 372 000 flltine. In the yeur 18G8 the nnmber of skins taken was 242,000. In 1870 only 0,965 were captured. During the lust ten years the 2atch has i been a little less tkan 100 000 per your The whole number twkeu between 1796 and 1880 was 3 561,051 skins. The seal catching is done in Jane and July. After that timo the fur begins to "shed," and is worthless. The natives are paid forty cents a skin for their labwr. SCIENTIFIC NOTES. The use of the telephone is making fapid progress in Germany. Berlin alone has now nearly 1,010 miles of telephone wires, Dr. Hartlg sta'es that a strong man working a hand fire engine with his utmost htrcnejt'i for two minutes can do work amounting to 0 4' 3 in the highest nl 0.227 of one burse-power in the owest maxiaium attainable. Dr. Siemens, speaking at a recent meeting of the Society of ArtP, referred to the open fireplace as possessing high sanitary qualities. It did not, like radiating hot*water stoves, warm the air of a room, bnt it heated the walls and fnrniture. I f the air of a room is hotter than the walls moistnre condenses on them, and mildew and fermentation are set up, to the detriment of the occupants. G. H. Darwin has taken pains to estimate the stresses caused in the interior nf Mia oarfli Vw fVtn woiorhfc nf ftnnfcinpntfs ?v VJ ?v ?-?and mountains, and be concludes that either the materials of the earth have about the strength of granite at 1,000 miles from the surface, or that they have a much greater strength nearer to tho surface. He confirms Sir William Thompson's theory that the earth must bo solid nearly throughout its whole mass, and he attributes the lava of volcanoes to the melting of solid rock which exists at high temperatures at points wheie tho pressure is dimin- . isbed, or to the existence of comparatively small vesicles of molten rock. The Curious Lacquer "Ware of Japan, The lacquer ware of Japan and China is already well \nown to collectors of bric-a brao. The lacquer ware of Bur mah is not so well known, and is distinguished by an extreme thinness and flexibility. The snpreme test of excellence in such ware is that the sides can be bent in until they touch without breaking tho ware or cracking tho varnish. These peculiar Eastern wares /1a ?/\f o/lmif. r\t Vw WaqI . em mechanics, owing to the peculiar character of the materials nsed. It wan once thought that the Chinese and Japanese lacquered goods were a species of papier mache,but it is now known that they are made of native woodB treated with the juice of the urushi tree. A Barman has furnished to an English paper an interesting explanation of the mysteries of the flexible Burmese lacquered ware. It seems that the smooth, polished articles of that sort are really bamboo baskets. In Burmese forests grows a huge tree whose leaves can hardly be seen for masses of creamy white blossoms, with a fragrant applo odor. These blossoms when oooled in a certain way make an i acceptable dish. From the truDk of i the tree is obtained a dark, thick juice i that becomes jet black upon exposure i ii.- - . mL _ a i 1..*i. J l l do me air. xue iiueiy pumeu utuiiuuu articles are coated witli joica Afterward pastes, composed of the thit-see jnico and certain wood dusts are laid on. Then follow pastes of the thit-see jaice and bore ashes. The surface is smoothed and polished by rubbiDg, and a fine gloss is given by the nse of a powdered, petrified wood. Red is almost invariably the ground color, but a curious checker work is i produced by rubbing down the red i paint until the edges of the bamboo I wicker work are brought up enough to ] show tho black wood oil through the i vermilion layer. The colors used in i trie decoration of the ware are red, green and yellow, applied in vegetable j oi's. In this way the Burmese make J ware of wonderful lightness, flexibility iind strength, from small drinking cups Ua-ah tin ^ a an nl.iKnrnfrt UUU UCLC1 UUAro U u l KJ OU V/iawiMbv structure six feet high, with seven sacrc-d spires, which the king sends laden with food under the royal umbrellas to a celebrated pagoda in Manialay. Tiie thitsee juice has many uses. Applied to marble or clay images it enables them to take on gilding. Umbrellas are always varnished with it to make them impervious to rain, and all the racing and war boats in the country are made by it more water-tight than the beat calking in the world could effect. How They Used to Travel. In the sixteenth year of the reign of Charles II., ol England, was established the tirst turnpike road where toll was taken, which intersected the counties of Hertford, Cambridge and Huntingdon. Until the middle of the eighteenth century, however, most of the merchandise conveyed irom place to place was transpi rted on pack-horses through short distances. Between distant places a cart was used, a pack-horse not being able to transport a sufficient quantity of goods to pay the cost of the journey. The common carrier between Selkirk and Edinburgh, a distance of thirtyeight miles, required a fortnight for hia journey, going and returning. Ia 1678 a coach for passengers between Edinburgh and Glasgow, a distance of forty-four miles, was drawn by six horses, and the journey to and fro was completed in six days. In 1750 the coach took thirtv-six hours to the journey. ;In 1849 the same journey was made, by a route three miles longer, in one hour and a half. In the year 1763 there was but one stagecoach between Edinburgh ond ? - ? > % it London. Tbey started once a monm from each of these cities. It took a fortnight to perform the journey. In 1835 seven coaches started daily between London and Edinburgh, which performed the journey in less than forty * eight lionrs. In 1763 the nnmber of passengers by the coaches between London and Edinburgh could not have exceeded about twenty-five monthly. In 1835 the coaches conveyed about 140 passengers daily. Until the close of the last century tho internal transport of goods in England was performed by wagon, ?nd was so expensive as to exclude every object except manufactured articles and such a?, being of light weight and 6mallbulk in proportion to their value, would allow a high rata of transport. Thus the oimviva fi-nm T.onrion to Lseds was at the rate of ?13 a ton, being 13 1-2 J. per ton per mile. Between Liverpool and Manchester it was 40d. a ton, or 15d per ton per mile. Heavy articles, such as coal and other materials, could only he available for commerce where their position favored transport by sea, and consequently many of the ricdost districts of the kingdom remained unproductive. Disappointments. Everybody can recall curious disappointments in meeting distinguished people, or looking on famous scencs or tasting pleasures long coveted. Char lotte Bronte wa3 disgusted with Thackeray, because he eat heartily at dinner. An enthusiastic young lady hovered near .Mrs. Martineauand Mrs. Somerville to catch snatches of high literary converse, and heard them talking of bonnets and gowns. A large company of clergymen met Archdeacon Paley at dinner, hoping for instruction from his rare learning. The only remark he made during dinner was on the best method of cook ing piums in a puuaing. Lord Maoaulay gives a comical account of his experience with certain dainties of food. "When I was a child I bad a notion of its baing the most exquisite of treats to eat plaintains and jams, anil to ilrink palm-wine. I have now ei j ned all, and I have found, like much greater men, on more important occasions, that all is vanity. " A plaintain is very like a rotten pear, eo like that I would lay twenty to one that a person blindfolded would not discover the difference. A yam is better. It is like an indifferent potato. I tried palm-wine at a pretty villago near Madras, where I spent one night. 1 found it very like ginger beer in which the ginger had been sparingly used." Fenians were men of IriBb birth, cr immediate descent, who organized a secret society in the United States and in Ireland in 1877, with the professed object of establishing a republic in Ireland. Broken String. There is no minstrel ripe in years, But, as hia song ho sings, Fools musingly across his harp To find sonio broken strings. The earty songs that from his l.vro His youthful fingers flung, Havo lo-t their first Promethean fire Since lovo and life wore young. Tne world may lis'on to the strains Which from each harp-string float J But still unto his ear remains A discord in the note. And still his heart, unwtisfied, Seeks, yearningly, in vain, To find the music which h&a died And mend the broken strain. Oh, world! that listens, when too late, Unto the voice which Binge, And loves the music, when tho years Have shattered many string*, But littlo owes the bard to you For praises from your tongue, Who heard not whon tho harp was new, And lovo and life were young. HUMOR OF THE DAY. " I am not so bad as I am painted,'* said tin fashionable woman. Taking a bird's-eye view seems to be a gTeat oversight.?New York Newt. The bash'ul lover who can't express his feelings cften sends them bj mail. ? Though manufactured abroad, a home-spun article?A top.?Richmond Baton. Columbus made the egg stand, but Italians of less renown have made the peanut stand. Force of habit: "Stop the press!' the editor frantinally shouted to the joung fellow who was hugging his sweetheart.?Elmjra Free Press. A rich Frenchman who had a desire ? * * * 1 1J io Know now a camei roast wouiu umw, paid 84,000 for an animal to get hi? roast from. It tasted like beef. " If I thought I ./as going to become gray, I know [ should die 1" exclaimed Miss Sprinkle. When she turned gray, ^ she did dye. sure enough.?Boston Transcript. A certain doctor of divinity said every blade of grass was a sermon. The next day he was amusing himself by clipping his lawn when a parishioner Slid: " That's right, doctor?out voui sermons short." A le3son iu laigua^a: "S)* your daughter has married a rich husband?" "Well," slowly replied the father, "I believe she has married a rich man, but I understand he is a very poor husband."? Hartford. Student (not very dear as to his lasson) ?" That's what the author says, fcinv way." Fr fessor?"I don't want the author ; I want you 1" * Student (despairingly)?"Well, you've got me." ?Harvard Crimson. " I ne'er was more Infatuated Than now, beneath your glances," Said Jones unto the bonny maid Whose love his heart entrances; . "Except," said she, ' when in that tub Of butter you prostrated, That was the time, jou'll own yourself Still more in-lat-you-waited." r>/v "Man and wife are one, are they?'* said she. "Yes, what of it> eaid he, raapicionrt^. " Why in that case," said his wife, "I came home awfully tipsy last night, and feel terribly ashamed of myself this morning." Ho never said a word.?Texas Si/tings. V Johnnie, here yon are at the break* fast table and your face is unwashed." said his mother, with a sharp l*>ok. ' I know it,ma. I saw the animalcules in pa'a microscope last nTght, and I ain't going to have those things crawling all over my face with their funny little leg?." Professor James Geikie holds that "the construction of the Panama canal will have as much effect upon the Gulf stream and the climate of Northwestern Europe as the emptying of a teapotful of boiling water into the Arctic ocean would have in raising the annual temperature of Greenland." The Isthmus * "f vrrstnlr) UOTA fAKfl anhmflrffA^ Ul I auauiii nv?uu uw %j w w ? not less than 80n to 1,000 feet before the waters of the Golf stream could find their way into the Pacific ooean. This is a Fashionable Restaurant. Do you not see the pint Chewing Candy and the Angel Cake in the Window ? Angel Cake is Nice, bat yon can get more Molasses Ginger-broad for yoar money. Beetha.Yonng Man and his Girl outside of the Restaurant. Will they go in? He is telling her Sumo one was Poisoned last week bv eating Oysters at the Rehtauratit. S'le exclaims " How Dreadful 1" and says sho is glad they have other Thinps to eat in the Restaurant Besides Oysters. Yes, they will go in, but he Wishes he had thought of a better Lie to tell her.? Elevated Railway Journal. The Cat. The cat ic frankly and undisguisedly seltish; there i? no denying that. It lives for self and compasses its fnds without scruple, patient to wait, skillful to feign and tcheme and utterly pitiless and unrelenting. But should sportsmen be very severe on the crea* 1 ?1 AniAKfl n?ifa cmetrt lura luai tviuouuj rujujo i?iU ? Q ?? keen as their own Ihe pursuit of thehelpless prey which it hunt's and toys with, often as much for diversion as huDger ? One hopes, for the sake of the sportive birds and heedless mice, which it fascinates with basilisk eyes and captures with cruel paw, that there may be some occult provision of nature to disarm their fate of its terrors. Perliaps the theory propounded by Dr. Livincstone whnn he records his feelings while in the liou's oli\tch? that the sensations of the prey are rather plensiLg than otherwise?may be true. Wo hope so, but it must be confessed that appearances are not in its favor. Jn early yonth cat nature appears at its best. Once having emerged from the puling, sightless stage of its first nine days, the kitten becomes a winsome and attractive creature. " Cat like" is a leproachful epithet aptly applied to women of tho Becky Sharp type; but it is not considered derogatory to the most fascinating girl to be credited with kitten like ways? for the kitten is the embodiment of playfulness and graue. The cruel instincts of its tribe are not, however, slow to assert themselves, and it is comical to hear the mimic growl of Hinmlor uritti whifth thfl tinv crea ture gloats over its first moose. In the pages of fable. Pass Lob ever figured largely, but rarely after a flattering manner. His guile and subtlety form the salient points in the repre sentations, and his character is painted akin to that of Master Reynard, the master of craft. He is depicted as a demure hypocrite, a false hermit, a deceitful counselor, the ensnarer of the nuwiiry, the ally of wizards and witches Rats in council debate vainly hew to baffle him. It is hopeless, they find, to dream of ' bellinj the cat." Noiseless himtelf on his gloved feet, his keen ear is not to be caught nap? ping.?Trnplc Bar. How an Alligator Eats. An alligator's throat is an animated sewer. Everything which lodges in hia open mouth goes down. He is a lazy dog, and instead of hunting for someA-l-i A- --1- 1. 1 -L_ l_ tiling to cut ue leu* iiits viuiuaio uuu? for him. That is, be lies with his mouth opeu, apparently dead, lika the possum. Soon a bug crawls into it, then a fly, then several gnats and a colony of mosquitoes. The alligator don't close his mouth yet. He is waiting for a whole drove of things. He docs his eating by wholesale. A little later a lizard will cool himself under the shade of the upper jaw. Then a few frogs will hop up to catch the mosquitoes. Then more mosquitoes and pnats light on the fiogs. Finally a whole village of insects and reptiles settle down for an alternoon, picujo. Then all at once there is an arthqoaka. The big jaw falls, the alligator slyly blinks one eye, gulps down the entire menagerie and opens his great front door again lor more visitors.?Florida Litter,