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' PLANT A TREE;: He who p'ants a t*ee, Plants a hope. Rootlets up through fibres blindly grope; Leaves unfold into horizons free. So man's life must climb From the clods of time Unto heavens sublime. Canst thou prophesy, thou little tree, What the glory of thy boughs shall be? He who plants a tree, Plants a joy; Plants a comfort that will never oloy; > Every day a fresh reality, Beautiful and strong, To whose shelter throng Creatures blithe with song. U thou couldst but know, thou happy tree, Of the bliss that shall inhabit theel He who plants a tree,? , He plants peace. Under its green curtain jargons ceas?. Leaf and zephyr murmur soothingly; Shadows soft with sleep Down tired eyelids creep, Balm of slumber deep. Fever hast thou dreamed, thou blessed tree, Of the benediction thou shalt be. He who plants a tree,? He plants youth; Vigor won for centuries, in sooth; Life of time, that hints eternity! Boughs their strength uprear, v' New shoots, every year, On old growths appear. Tbon shalt teach the ages, sturdy tree, Tenth of soul is immortality. He who plants a tree,? He plants love; Tents of coolness spreading out above Wayfarers, he may not live to see. Gifts that grow, are best; Hands that bless, are blest: Piant! Life doss the rest! Heaven and ea^th help him who plants a tree, And his work its own reward shall be. ?Lucy Larcoin, in Youth's Companion. |. A STRANGE ATTACK. BY THOMAS STEVENS. The jungles of the Umballa district, Central India, are in places swarming with wild monkeys. Generally speaking the monkeys are timid and harmless, and take to the trees when they see a i human being. Along the highways, ' kowever, they have become accustomed ! to the sight of people, and aie much , bolder in their demeanor. Here they j ometimes scarcely think it worth while to move out of the way for the native, and the sight of a European with his I white face sets them to making grimaces and chattering excitedly. The monkey> is held sacred' by the Hindoos, and they 1 are nftvnr hjirtfnfii] or ill finv iv.iv mnlflsfprl them; in fact almost every village in this part of India has a monkey population living on the most amicable terms i with the people. The soldier-sportsmen j ef tho British g-irrisons, however, have : bo scruples about shooting the sacred anthropoids. From some cantonments, I very clay sees soldiers out in tlie jangles on shooting leave, their chief port being monkeys. One day in the winter of 1S82 two ! on-commissioned officers of the regiment stationed at I'mballa obtaiued four days' shooting leave and struck out into the jungle. Twenty miles from the cantonment was the bungalow of a Scotch j ?ril engineer who was in charge of a section of the famous Jumna canal. This gentleman s oungaiowtne two sportsmen ; xpected to reach some time during the : second day, remain there over night and ; then shoot their way leisurely through : the jung'e back home again. The intermediate night, both earning and going, was to be passed in a little native village, ! occupying a rice-clearing. The officers met with good sport on the way and had | got within a mile or so of the outskirts of this clearing when they found them- j elves in a section of jungle that wa3 literally swarming with monkeys. The peepul trees were full of jabbering black- j jnceu apes, ana me uusnes ar.a canebrakes were fairly alive with them. | long strings, one behind another, in j Indian file, romped along the. narrow | bollock trail that they were following, their impish faoe3 looking back over Iheir shoulders at the white intruders. | The monkeys seemed to be getting vnduly bold and familiar, and with the idea of scaring thim off the Englishsen banged away at them right and left, knocking several of them over. To their astonishment, however, they found that this usually successful method ieemed to have a contrary effect. In-' tead of dispersing and making them-1 elves scarce the monkeys became greatly xritpd at. flip. nm?e nf thf> criin* and th? i Bight of tLeir fallen and wounded com- I panions. If the jungle seemed alive ] with hundreds before, it was evi-; ' dently peopled now by thousands. Every tree and every bush seemed crowded with monkeys, screaming, chattering and making grimaccs at the two sports- i ?en. The monkeys leaped with angry , cries from tree to tree in d o es, scurried through the jingle in long tiles, bowing their whi.e teeth and squeaking au^ry dcfiance. Far and near the jungle resounded with their cries, until j the officers could scarcely hear the sound f their own voices. More and more monkeys st-emed to be coming from every directi >n. The Englishmen now began to apprehend danger. Though such a thing as wild monKeys attacking human Leings was rare'.y heard of, it was very evident that the angry legions of anthropoi Is intended mischief, now if never before. The situation was alarming, to say the least. There is no animal so active as a monKey in nis native angles, ana large droves of them are feared a.:d dreaded even by the wild elephants aud tigers. The sportsmen hurried ai. jg toward the Tillage in the hope of leaving ihe swarms f monkeys to the rear; but their troubletome threateners were not to be so easily shaken off. They seemed to be getting angrier, and from the branches overhead commenced to fling down picces of dead wood. The bullock trail behind was filled with an excited crowd that ap}eared to be working themselves into a reu^y by making terrific leaps up and down, and giving utterances to hoarse grunts aud angry squeaks. Eemembering the effects of their last j ihots, the sportsmen thought it advisable to preserve their ammunition for a time when they misrht, peradventure, eed it to defend their live*. Everv minute the attitude of the monkey mob became more bold and threatening;; missiles came in showers from the tree- j tops, monkeys leaped and bounded through the bushes close around them, ; evidently screwing up their courage for a direct attack. Once the soldiers charged with clubbed . i .1 i .r. 11 : i yun$ among tne raou inac was iouowjug them at the distance of but a few yards. For a few minutes they succeeded in j dispersing the labble, but both were I badly bitten in the fight, and before j ihey had gone a huudrerl yards the j lubbub at their heels was more an^rv ; and threatening than ever. Kepeatedly ; they had to turn round and make feints at their assailants to prevent actual attack, and still the active array in the trees made matters decidedly interesting from that direction. It was evident that matters were coming to a cris:s, and the o.i.cers began to get seriously alarmed for their own safety. They were still more than half a mile from the clearing and about twice that distance from the village. Every moment they expected ! the monkey mob to attack them in force, when, with such overwhelming numbers, they would in all likelihood be literally bitten to death. In this dilemma they were almost at their wits' end for a measure of self protection. Against almost any other form of assailants there would have been a J- I.. TjrJtTl reaay reiuge m my uu> 'monkeys they wonhthave been far worse off than on the ground. Yet something must be done, and in very short order, too. At this juncture they reached a big banyan tree with a hollow trunk. The hollow was large enough to admit both and protect them from the rear, and it was open in front. Secure from rear attack, it was not much trouble to keep the enraged monkeys at bay. They were not now in any immediate danger, and the situation developed into a regular sie^e. The officers were without food or drink, and the intense heat had produced both thirst and fatigue. Dusk was settling down over the jungle, no assistance was likely to arrive, and the monkey mob had takeu possession of the banyan, watching eagerly for the opportunity to harrass and assault the intruders anew. Xow the Englishmen could use their rifles with good effect, for after the first few minutes the monkeys had ceased ' J?? i- A4- nl/^A ..linrffiro TVlATT I tryiug IU lllUlUtV. at tiuou ijuuuvio. amvj hud plenty of amunltion, and before darkness closed over the strange scene, they literally strewed the ground with dead monkeys. The slaughter caused excitement among their fellows. They chattered and grunted horribly at every shot, and menaced their prisoners from the branches. But their rage was impotent against the sportsmen in their retreat. All night long the monkeys kept up the siege, milking night hideous with their cries, and when the morning J 3 n+*ll An V?or?rJ rinnnp* u;iwueu lliujr neic 3mi uu uuuia, jyv.* ently as determined as ever. The prisoners had kept watch by turns through the night; each had slept an hour or two in a sitting position, but thirst and fatigue now lore heavily upon them. Their chief hope lay in tiring out the patience of the monkeys, or in attracting the attention of the vi llagers a mile away. To this latter end they lired their rifles simultaneously several times, and kept up their warfare upon the monkeys. At every crack of the guns a dead or wounded monkey would come.toppling to the ground, but theuntern ified survivors showed no disposition to flee the field. Several times the sportsmen ventured from their strongho'd a short distance, hut tVioir u-prfi :ilwftvs comDelled to beat a ha?ty retreat. Every time they sallied forth "the monkeys c .me swarming down from the branches of the banyau, in which there seemed at least a thousand. Thus the morning passed away, high noon arrived and no sight of relief. Their situation was becoming desperate, their thirst hud developed into torture, but happily relief was now soon.to come. It was about 4 o'clock, when, in reply to tneir shots, they at length heard shouts. Their own throats were too parched to shout in response, but they shot off their rifles. Ten minutes later several villagers appeared on the scene. Strange to say, the monkeys allowed th* dusky Hindooryots to approach without exhibiting undue excitement. The superstitious natives were shocked, and terrified at seeing the ground strewn with the carcasses of not less than fifty sacred monkeys; but (hey quickly comprehended the situation. They were only too glad to be of assistance to the Sahibs under such trying circumstances, and had little difficulty in rescuing them and leading them to the village. A night's rest and plenty of food soon restored the fagged energies of the two Englishmen. They had to abandon their trip to the Scotch engineer's bungalow, however, for the monkeys had fairly Bto!en one day out of their four day's leave. On the following day a party of natives escorted them through the | monkey-invested portion of the Jungle, \ whence they made their way back to j the cantonement without further misadventure.?Nino York Commerdil-Advertiser. Characteristic of Old Age. The characteristic changes which go along with old age, and to which the final stoppage of the machinery of life is due, are seen to be mostly degenerations of structures in which the normal active tissues are replaced by materials of inferior quality. Fat aud lime salts are very poor substitues for the healthy, contractile musc'e, or the transparent structures of the eye. It has been thought by some that if we could prevent the introduction of earthy salt* into tne body by way-of food and driuk, the right arteries and degenerations) generally of ngc might be prevented. The plan proposed for thus forestaling age is as follows: Prink nothing but diluted water, or a drink containing phosphoric acid and the juice of lemons, of which distilled water is the basis. Eat no vegetable containing much of the earthly salts. Th:s would exclude spinach, cabbage, etc. No tea nor coifan T..L-a nlonfir of mill.- X mnr>}i mnrfi rational diet would be one containing but little albuminous food, plenty of milk, no e~g? nor lean meat, but as much fats asctui be taken without discomfort. It has been observed that calcareous degeneration is almost always preceded by chronic changes in the kidneys, and these are certainly hastened by a diet of lean meat, eggs and the like.?GlobeDcnocra The Marching or Armies. The best examples of forced marches in modern times are, perhaps, those psrfornied by Havelock and Lord Clyde in the Indian mutiny of 1856. Perhaps the finest examples in all history of strategic marches are found in Napoleon's campaigns in Italy in 1796 and the campaign on the Danube in 1S03. _ During the Civil War the march of the Second Army Corps, October 14, 180?, of seventy-six miles in fifty-six boars, figuring two engagements, crossing two rivers aud guarding baggage, is exceptional. During the same war Hooker's corps, the Eleventh and Twelfth consolidated, 22,000 strong, was removed from Virginia to Bridgeport, Tenn., with all its baeg'igcand supplies,in seven days. The advance of Washington on New York in 1782, and his deception of the British thereby, while he really marched on Cornwallis at Yorktown, "must also ever stand out as a strategic march of the highest order Another instance of successful water transportation is the move of the Twentyfifth Army Corps from City Toint in Texas in May, 1805. The corps consisted of 2~>,000 men, 2000 horses with guns, wagons, ammunition, ambulances, etc.?Detroit Free Fret'. . - ''' v; * ' ' <:L "\VOMAN'S_WOftLD. PLEASANT LITERATURE FOR FEMININE READERS. Satisfied. As flowers lean outward to the light, I lean to tbee; The one who makes the darkness bright; The North Star in a moonless night Thou art to me. As children trust and know no fear, I trust in thee; Heaven, in thy presence, seemeth here: Where thou art, whether far or near, 'Tis sweet to be. As travelers long, when worn and tired, Their home to see, So my heart, wandering far and wide, Finding its goal, is satisfied To rest in thee. C<vma?7I V KJKAI U(? A Convenience to Housekeepers. The New Century Guild of Workingwomen in Philadelphia has made arrangements to send out by the day or half day expert persons to sweep, du3t, do chamber work, clean silver, wash windows and all the many things necessary to keep a house in order. It is thought that a better class of help can be thus obtained from young women who do not object to the work, but to the living out. There are a great many of the new flat buildings which have restaurants, and the families occupying the-e flats dispense for the moit part with cooks and have their meals furn:shed. The Guild fur ..I :i.. 1? ? J ? UlSliCS muni a waitress uy me uay auu a girl to come in for two hours every moruiug to sweep and dust, and by this anangement they not only live far more cheaply, but dispense with the discomfort of having to furnish sleeping apartments for servants in the narrow limits of their fats.?New York World. American Girls Have Small Feet. The feet of American women are small compared with those of English women, as everybody knows. Means are offered of making notes of this fact in traveling in England. At Abottsford not long ago a party of tourists, chiefly women, were seated in the waiting room till the guide should appear to take them on a tour of inspection. An American, who had a place outside the partial circle made by the visitors, happened to have his eye attracted toward the fifteen or twenty pairs of feet before him. Without looking up he glanced from one pair to another. After the examination he dccided that all but two were English. When he turned his eyes upward to thd faces he found that the owner of one of the pair of feet he had picked out as American was his own sister. The other, who soon after expressed her contempt for some article under inspection, could not be mistaken in either accent or tone of voice for anything than a ''down Last" cotintrv woman of the most pronounced type.?Nexo York Prets. Women's Rights in the Orient, Ladies in the district of the Celestial Shun-te ought to be admired by the ad vocates or women s rignts wnerever mey are to be met with, if the manner, in which they assert those rights, as related by the C'dnta: Timebe not an exaggeration of the truth. It is stated by the paper referred to that young ladies in that part of China league themselves into societies, each member of which takes a solemn oath that she will not warrj-, or that, if she marries, she will not live with her husband until every member of the society has entered into matrimony. Aud, strange to say, according to the Chinese Times, the vow is kept, and brides, after the wedding ceremony, invariably return to their homes, declining to make their appearance among their husbands' families again, save on the occasion of New \ear, or some other festival. Then they condescend to bestow a little attention upon their husbands; but they refuse to partake of i* ^ AO Jainlr V\ in T-AA f on/1 /\? Art IUUU ur utiurv uu.ici uio A Wi, auu vuvw the festival is over they depart again with the ulmost expedition. Husbands, we are told, are, in consequence of this extraordinary oath taken by the leaguers, frequently deprived for many years of the society of their wives; but they submit meekly to the conditions imposed npon them, it rarely happening that force is employed to detain the ladies when they deign to pay their partners a Hying visit.?LmHori ^Standard. Birds and Bonnets. In a single metropolitan auction room, in one or two weeks of the season, there were sold upward of 6,000 birds of paradise, 5,000 of the lovely "Impeyan pheasants," hundreds of Argus pheasants, 400,003 humming and other birds from North and South America, and SOU,000 skins of gay-cclored winged things from the great Indian forests. It is quite obvious that this sort of thing IflUUUU gKJ Uil 1V1 tTOl, AXkJ ujhu MA- i ready nearly exterminated tho bison for the take of its skin and horns, and the nlephaot for its tusks, so in a brief time lie will have seen the last of many of the most gaily-plumed deni/.ens of Brazil, Guinea and the Southern States of America. Guinea and tho Papuan Island*, according to Wallace and D'Albertis, are being ruthlessly despoiled of Ijheir small remaining stock of birds of paradise, just as our own kingfishers have dwindled owiog to a love of mistaken "spoit," and the "common topaz humming-bird" is no longer common, but rare, in the places where it was once habitually found. To go on stupidly massacring these wonderful creatures, just in order to turn a lady's bonnet into a kind of second-rate ornithological museum, is the b^st way to make the race ? ? - * 4>a UrtrtAmm en US ex unci as il luit-aicus iu uguumv, w that it is much to be hoped that the mysterious influence which preside over the fashion plates will in this instance, at least, carry out the kindly intention with which they are credited.?London Tclegrajih. A Medicine Fakir's Rnse. A traveling melicine van stopped in the fashionable suburb of Stapleton, England. It was equipped wilh a lecturer, a comic vocalist, a violin player, and an actress. The charlatan himself made what he called a scientific medical - /vf TTTOD tKof t Vl Q UUUICta, lLLC pUtUl ml naiuu n?g vuwv sure way to be cured of anything whatever was to buy a bottle of his wonderful panacea. The singer and the fiddler ga'hered the crowd for him, and held it by songs and playing whenever his oratory lost its grip on their attention. Tho actress was not ostensibly a part of the show. the played a difficult and essential role. In the guise of a rheumatic'old woman, she hobbled in among the multitude on crutches, and was singled out by the practitioner. "Come here, my good woman," he said, "and I will euro you gratis." "You couldn't do it if I let you try," she replied; "more than a hundred doctors have failed, and I guess I'll have to die a cripple." She permitted herself to be persuaded, however, and at length was seated in a chair in front of the gorgeous wagon. The quack set a screen around her for several minutes, in the pretence that he \ was applying his miraculous lotion to her rheumatic leg. "When she was disclosed with a flourish to the gaze of the crowd again she stood upright, walked about on her supposedly cured limbs, and vehemently declared that a miracle had been wrought. The sale of the bottled liquid was brisk for a while after that. I should not have suspected the wo.nan of malingering, for she did it cleverly, only that I had seen her go through with precisely the same performance the week before, and less than ten miles away. I learned that she was a somewhat broken down but still clever impel sonator of old women, and the manager of the medical show is her brother. ?New-York Hun. Playinc on the Hnrp. It is a curious fact that few women care about the harp, yet there is not a aor<>ptf>r instmmAnt. and thfire is none bet ter adapted to women and the exhibition of her charms. Everybody has a piano, and the banging that is going on from one end of the land to the other, is a source of raucbf amusement to close observers, but harps are scarce and harpists are even scarcer. A harp, moreover, is an ornament to any drawing-room, library or parlor. With a pretty girl sitting by it and deftly touching its strings the picture is one which delights the eye as muvh as the music does the ear. "For a change a harp craze would be a great relief from the piano craze. Tnere is one great obstacle in the way of popularizing the harp. That is the immense cost of the instrumeat. What is known as a grand Gothic harp, made by Erard. of Paris, cannot be had tor less than $1000 in this country. Of that amount $350 goes into Uncle Sam's pocket for the purpose of protecting the harp-makers in this country, if there nre any. The Reeds, on State street, sold a second-hand instrument the other day for $800. "If a harp -would only cost $200 or $300," said Mme. Chatterton, the great harp artist and teacher, the other-day, "there is no doubt in my mind that tue uarp wouia soon D-Jcome popular in society. Now, a father will hesitate before he invests a small fortune in an instrument of which very little is known. His daughter may be ever so eager to play the harp, the fAther will perhaps fear that she may tire of it after a few years, or the young lady may get married and quit playing. The geueral knowledge of the capabilites of a harp is so limited that men "like Damrosch and Thomas even give it no other place in the orchestra than that of obligato. Yet there is much music in the harp. It is much like the human voice, capable of ever so much modulation. "Still, the composers have turned more attention to the harp than they used to do. Hector Berlioz has written some line music for the h:up, and Brahms' 'Enchanted Swans' is sublime. Both these composers understand the , harp and wrote their music in the proper ! key. Wagner had the harp in nis j orchestration, but his music for it was j arranged for the piano, necessitating on : the part of the harpist no mean talent1 as a composer in transporting the origi- ! nal music for the harp. The lack of proper music for the harp, and the ne- j ccssity of transportation, makes the harp 1 sound exceedingly shrill and spoils the intricate mechanism of the instrument. A pupil of the average musical talent can do more on the harp in two years than on the piano in seven. Of course it is : necessary to interest the mind as well as ! tVio Vianria Hero is xrhpro thft diftif.nltv I comes in. Our ladies are taken up too much with society. They are tired in the forenoon, go shopping in the afternoon, and are in society at night. In Europe every society lady, if she has any intellectual ambition at all, keeps some hours of the day to herself, and practices music, paints or writes. Though I must say that harp-playing has become more popular of late, ana were it not for the cost of the instrument, it would soon be a society institution."? Chicago Herald. Fashion Notes. Bonnets are small and hats big. The Directory gown grows apace. Crepe is in high favor for headgear. Ribbons are worn in profusion and of all kinds. Flowing lines and long soft curves have the call. "Pomegranite heart" is the newest color introduced by Worth. , Coarse striped bonnets, draped with colored lisse, are a new fancy. Toe-caps of French patent leather are seea on many of the new shoes. Milan straw and French chip are again fashionable in hats an&bonnets. Many of the new dress trimmings are in the form of galloons, having straight edges. Pale pink and gray is likely to be a favorite color combination in cotton dresses. Black lace jerseys, beaded with jet, gold or steel, are in high favor for evening wear. Jerseys ot shot silk are shown, but they are not nearly as pretty as the plainer ones. x . I UVer-gauera arts iu msmuu ajmu, these .usually are of cloth of color to match the costume. Crushed roses, around or under the crown, are the favorite garniture for summer white hats. White laces in Chantilly patterns are extensively used, and are as pretty and durable as the black. Miniature high combs of jet are shown in sets, one for the ccntje and one for each side of the coiffure. Pretty pinafores for littlejchildren are runde of white striped nainsook, with a low bodice and full skirt. Satin ribbon, an eighth of an inch in width, is often thieadtd upon the embroidery used upon infants' cloaks. Soft silk, China silk and fancy combines are worn by lad es who prefer color to white in their und'.Tclothing. Shot silks are much used for the petticoat worn next the dress, or admissible even without a dress, and worn with a matinee. The newest lace9 are neither crram nor ecru, but might be called tea-tinted, suggesting the pale, delicate hue of the tea rose. The 4'common-sense shoe" has now a large patronage in spite of the fact that it is not comely, but then it ij so very comfortable. Wash dresses for little girls are sometimes made with full skirts and belted waists, with eight or ten feather-stitched <?iplra down the front and back. Sprays and clusters of faded roses, windtorn till sometimes but three petals cling to the stem9, are the latest "realistic" effect in bonnet flowers. Dinner gowns for summer are made short, and for while ones brocade lace over moire, with gold passementerie and standing collar of gold braid, is voted saylish. The new straw embroidery is the most stylish ga-niturc for white canvas and crepeline corsages, though they may have 1 : a bare suspicion of steel or gilt passementerie. Picture dresses are the rage with fair Parisiennes, and are copied to the minutest detail from the first empire, the directory or the reigns of the last three Louises. Corsages run more and more to extremes, are either short, round and very fully draped, or else pretematurally long, straight and slender, both in outline^ and in ornament. White blonde over a skirt of white moire, with many loops and big cabbage bows of mos3 green or bright yellow faille ribbon, is a bridesmaid's gown that has the merit of oddity. Many imported gowns are wholly with* out steels, and have but the bare suspicion of a cushion at the top; but the best native modistes use still a moderate i reed, nut twelve to fifteen inches below the belt. An Aeronaut's Awful Drop. "It is claimed by the balloonist, Baldwin, that he has dropped 5000 feet from a balloon with a parachute. I shall ' drop at least 10,000 feet, and shall ! attempt what no other balloonist ever ; did. I shall drop with the chute closed, i leaving it entirely to the air to open the j chute." So said Edward D. Hogan to a group of newspaper men, who had assembled at Jackson, Mich., on a large vacant lot to see him make his foolhardy venture. After he stepped in the car and gave orders for the ropes holding the aerial car to the ground oe cast off, the balloon aVint tin nlmnst straight to a distance of fully 10,000 feet. It then settled about i 400 feet and hung like a ball in the heavens. The anxious and ex ited crowd of people on the ground watched the balloon with bated breath. The reporters were provided ?with powerful glasses, and saw Hogan make ready to jump. "He'll weaken," said some one. "No," cried Another, "he is getting ; out." i The chute was closed. Hogan drew it up till he reached the ropes to which he lashed himself. He did not expect the chute to open for the first 200 or 300 feet, and he was afraid he might be shaken off the bar by the rapidity of the fall unless he took the precaution to fasten himself. When he stepped on the , edge of the car to spriug otf into space some of the spectators grew pale and sick. Surely this daring man was going , to certain death. i A shout of terror goes up. Hogan has Jumped. Down like a cannon ball 1 he fell for .".00 feet. The chute has not , yet opened. Down it came like a gigantic elongated bird. He was falling I like a meteor, and the spectators shut their eyes while still keeping their glasses elevated. Suddenly a shout goes up. The cbute ha9 caught the air. It opens like the wings of a monster eagle. Hogan's flight downward was almost stopped with a jerk. Then the chute seltlos down to a steady journey earthward with its passenger, and in three minutes from the time the reckless man left the balloon he lauded safely in an open tield some little distance from where 4l?o oooonf H7<ia mndf> ?OInhfi-Demon) ut. Touching: Pica for the Owl. The owl is not a handsome bird, nor is it a tuneful one. In the pools of beauty the owl would sell in the field, and no buyer would invest a nickel on him in a one-hundred-dollar pool as against the California linnet or meadow lark as a singer. While not a beauty, however, . the owl has a broad, benevolent, open face?a sort of Henry Ward Beeiher cr I Daniel Webster physiognomy, and we ' would never accuse him of putting up an underground or a star chamber job on his fellow-birds on the eve of a conven, tion. The ground owl of California is ; in no way related to the Eastern owl, i who make* night dismal with his '? -j t?:J? screeciling, auu ueaiuea is jjaiuiunjr ignorant of the difference between meum et tuum, or, in other words, he is a thief. Honesty is plainly written on our owl's face. He is not, as a rule, aggressive or Combative, never even resenting a slur as to his lack of beauty or vocal accomplishment. Mice and snakes are his j natural enemies, and the carcasses of these worse than nuisances around his modest quarters bear testimony to the fact that when he goe3 for the snake or the mouse he is in the campaign for business purposes. A protest is here eutered against ' the small boy who either with muzale or | breech-loader wantonly turns loose and slaughters the owl?as the young sportsman (?) frequently does. The recent rabbit drives have lessened the number of jack rabbits hereabouts, but these rodents of prey?score one, reader, for : not inflicting "pests" on you?ar8 still j painfully numerous, and the young I marksman might profitably employ a few hours' relaxation from attending school or playing hooky, by practicing on the worst of the farmers' foes.?Fresno (Cal.) TP J^A^VOIW! . Transplanting a Rabbit's Eye. # One of the most delicate and notable Surgical operations performed in the world occurred in Philadelphia recently, it being the transplanting of a portion of the eye of a rabbit to a human being. The ob,'ect of the operation was to relie\\ the obscurity of the eye of the patient, which was caused by inflammation, and which produced in time an opaque surface. The patient was a servant girl, whose eyes had become almost X-A-.ll? 1 ?e? wJoiAn TT* a G PAn. loiuny useless, av iai no hdiuu ...... cerned, by reason of the whitish coating which made both of the orbits opaque, and she was so nearly blind that objects of a considerable size were barely distinguishable. The operation took place at the Germantown Hospital, under the immediate direction of Dr. L. "Webster Cox the ophthalmic surgeon of the institution, who witnessed one of the only two other operations of this nature which have been performed in the world?in Germany last vc;ir?both performed by Prof, von Hippie, of Glussen, Germany. The Professor had first devised aud had manufactured for the purpose a very delicate instrument, which, by means of a clockwork attachment, not only bores into the cornea of the eye, but also registers the exact depth of the puncture. In this way a very small portion or the cornea is cut from one of the eyes of a rabbit, and a piece corresponding m size it taken from the a'Hictedeye of the hu man patient, boti bpincr taken from a point directly in front of the pupil. Both the ralbit and the patient are first placed under the influence of the local anesthetic cocaine, and the rabbit's eye was selected by reason of its similarity to the human eye, and because it is a distinctly herbarious animal, the blood' of which is lc3s liable to contaminating influences than that of other animals whose food is composed principally of animal matter.? New York World. It is estimated that there are 12,000,5 00) Protestants and 7,000,000 Roman Catholics in the United States. It is the struggle and not the attainment that measures characters. "HOME OF "PATENTS." STORY OF THE GREAT PATENT OFFICE IN WASHINGTON. ' t The Final Abiding Place of the Products of American Ingenuity and the Oatcoines of the Eccentricities of Cranlcs. The great white marble building standiug on F street in Washington, between Seventh and Ninth, and covering a very large square of ground commonly called the Patent Office, is really the Department of the Interior, presided over by General William F. Vilas. The building haB tour fronts, with massive and imposing Corinthian porticos upon the south ana cast. It is built about an mien court, in the middle of which there is a fountain. Beneath the roof of this buildiDg are to be found the Patent Office, presided over by Benton J. Hall; the General Land Office, the Executive Department of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the offices of the Interior Department. Immense as this building is, it has long proved too small to accommodate the business which flows into it from all parts of the Union. Indeed, Mr. Hall iinds that he needs the whole of it for the work of the P?tent Office, if it is to be conducted with the expedition and efficiency which is demanded. In its early days the Katent Office waa simply a bureau of the State Depart ment, and had no building of its own. It once occupied a portion of the old Poitottice, and with it wa3 destroyed by fire in I806, when a large collection of models aud valuable records wa3 lost. The building now occunied is 270 feet square, and when erected was supposed to be fire-proof. But a fire which occurred September, 1877, destroyed the west and uorth halls of the model room on the top floor, and from one-third to one-half of all the models which had collected since 1836. This was an irre - % parable loss, and has been a source of great trouble since. The building was constructed from the fund of the Patent Office, which was the result of an accumulation from fees paid in by the inventors of the country. This fund is now a large surplus, ?o:ne millions of dollars, and if the present building cannot be had for the business of the Patent Office, a new one should be erected at once. The various divisions, of which there are thirty-odd. are now,crowded into narrow, inconvenient, and even unhealthy limits. In the rooms whe^e the preliminary examinations are h' Id, where models have to be Examined, where documents are filed, drawings, etc., made, the clerks are crowded together too thick for comfort, good work or health. The whole number employed by the Patent Office is not far from 500 men and women. The records and drawings which should be assessible are now stored in dark corridors and byway iiio/toa -nrhppA cliuaifipAtinn is imnosible and where access to causes long search and delay. Besides granting patents the office publishes the Official Gazette, which has an edition of 6,500 copies. This is ajpurely photolithographic production and contains drawings of all the patents issued. The amount of business done in the Patent Office is simply enormous. About 800 applications for patents are made every week, and from o50 to 485 are issued. And these figures gradually increase with the growth of the country. The number of applications for patents received Ia3t year, all of which had to be examined, was 41,158. The number issued was 22,1)90. The gross receipts were $1,144,000, and there was a surplus above all expenses of $ 150,000. So there is one Government institution at Washington which more than pays its expenses. The model room of the Patent Office is, of course, the great show room of the institution. and is usually taken in by visitors in Washington as one of the sights of ihe City. This is an enormous hall, having a total length of over 800 feet, with gal eries and cases innumerable stuffed with not far from 150,000 models. The total number of patents issued to date is not far from 400,000. This model hall is, of course, intensely interesting to all kinds of people. It appears to the on looker in Washington to be a favorite resort for bridal couples, of which a large number is constantly wandering about the town in a sweetly dazed condition. TIiav st on before' the case filled with cor r - sets and bustles or before the good luck collection of horseshoes; they look at the first sewing machine made by Howe, the first electric instrument patented by Morse, the contrivance patented by Abraham Lincoln for lifting ships over sand bars, etc. Now and then a poor man is seen gazing with wistful looks at the case filled with overalls, for even these are patented. A b:g fat man was seen the other day looking at a case full of small chairs," while a delegation of Indians stood amazed before the many barrels of a Hotchkiss gun. Boys are naturally interested in the case of toy shops, and housewives have been seen studying the evolution of the cooking stovo from the log fire in the open fireplace. There are many odd things in connectibn with the Patent Office. The perpetual motion crank still lives and bothers the examiners. About 1875 the employes cf the office were stricken with horror upon receiving a real dead baby in a box, which had been embalmed by some patent process and sent as an illufctvatiou of it. Where the baby was ob taincd no one knew. Another dreadful dcvice was a gold trap to be swallowed with the hope of catching some internal parasite! There is just now a drive in the matter of electrical inventions, and car couplings follow hard on, closc pressed by beehives and churns.?New York Graphic. Misanthropic Wills. The Vienna papers publish the will of a half-pay Austrian officer, which has created considerable amusement. He leave* his fortune to his nephew, who 1ms a situation in the postoffice, on condition that he shall never, on any occasion, indulge in his favorite occupation of reading newspapers. The old gentleman institutes three persous his Trustees, whose duty it shall be to watch his luckless heir, and, in case of a single infringement of the will, disposes of his property to other members of his family. The sn id property consists of two houses, money in the funds and a landed estate. Another curious will story comes to hand from the sister capital?Berlin. A poor citizen of the big town on the Spree was recently left some 100,000 marks. Thinking none of his friends worthy of it, he at last determined to leave it to a bitter enemy, -who had a large family and no money except his daily earnings. He made his will to that effect: he made it a condition, however, that the heir should always wear thin white linen clothes and no extra underclothing. Should that condition be violated eveu once the money gjes to the hospitals.?Stephen.'a Eccivio ' . " . ' J/r. j ==sg i ' POPULAR SCIENCE. About 2000 species of insects, on an 'j aveaage have been discovered yearly during the last century: The Department of Education in Vienna has prohibited the use in the schools of books printed 1n small type ; as destructive to the eyesight A Georgia man has j?si, patented & "family ice machine" in'which that luxury can be made in less than ten minutes J and at a cost of 1-5 of a cent per pound. English physicians once led two dogs - :, with "nothing but sugar. At first they fattened rapidly, then weakened, sickened and died, simply because sugar did "V not contain the elements of food needed to sustain life. Silver, generally a very desirable metal, is a source of great annoyance in the manufacture of white lead, for if present in an appreciable quantity it spoils tha color of the finished product, owing to the well known blackening effect of light upon salts or silver. .*> There has rencetly been discovered in Southern Kentucky a very fine grade of onyx. Heretofore onyx hag been found only in Mexico. The mineral is extensively used for decorative purposes, and .the discovery of it in the United State? will tend to cheapen it and extend its ~J use. The seedless raisin is produced by simply arresting one of the processes of nature. When the grape is aooutonehalf ripe the end of the vine is. bent down and buried in the ground. This prevents the formation of seed and the . full development of - the fruit, but it/, ripens all the same, and has a 'delicious flavor. The French authorities are attempting to make use of carrier pigeons for conveying information from war ships at sea to certain stations on land, and with this object have fitted up on the St. g Louis a dovecote, painted the most gorgeous colors, in order to permit the birds : ,< . > to recognize their home from a great distance. rAnniliinhla att?nfinn liu Wn drftWn to the peculiarities of manganese steel by ? -v a paper read before the Institution of Civil Engineers by Mr. Had field. Not only is such steel entirely non-magnetic, but its electrical resistance is ex- " : tremely high. As compared with german silver its resistance is as 63 to 20.9, and with "platinoid'' as 68 to 32.8. The attention of the French Acadcmy of Sciences hat been drawn by JH. Faye^, the eminent astronomer, to the apparent geological law that the cooling of the / t.rrestrial crust goes on more rapidly under the sea than with-a land surface. From this he argues that the crust must thicken under oceans at a more rapid rate, so as to give rise to a swelling up and distortion of the thinner portions of the crust; in other words, to the forma* tion of mountain chains. A ? ~ <.?rUikU?Afl firof Af _ iVU ilCIUUUUUCJl CAUIUIHUU, wu uim v. . .. the kind ever held in Vienna, has been opened in the Prater. It contains a variety of models of balloons, with nuraerous instruments and apparatus em-. \ ployed by aeronauts.. Much interest i? ?3 shown in the journal Le Ballon Po^. ' /'% which in 1870, duringthe siege of Paris, was carried by balloons from the capital to the provinces of France. The exhibition includes three balloons in practical ^ operation. The largest of them is filled with 2000 cubic metres of gas. It carries eight persons, and will .make regular ~ aerial journeys, conveying visitors short distances. The molecular theory is classed by Dr. Roscoe, president of the British Associa- ':t tion, among the most notable of modern v scientific landmarks, and recent investigation has accomplished, as regards the si/.e of the atom, what was formerly re-. \ garded as impossible. Recent researches have extended the methods of atomie. > measurement, with the amazing conclusion that the distance between the centers of contiguous molecules is less than a five-millionth and greater than a bill* ionth of a centimeter?that is, assuming that the best microscop?s magnify v 6,000 to 8,000 times, a microscope which would magnify that result as ' much again would show the molecular structure of water. The Honey Bee in History. .JIt was estimated over 300 years ago ../Vj. by DeMoDtfort, who then wrote a work on bees in French, that between 500 and-*'" GOO authors had preceded him on the v subject of bee-keeping. Most of these books were written in Latin and are lost tn thA world, verv few having been handed down to us. From remote anT tiquity the practice ha3 prevailed in Egypt of collecting great numbers of hives in vessels on the Nile, and transporting them from pasture to pasture according to the su;cession of flowers in the different districts. A somewhat similar practice prevails on the Rhone in France, and the conveying of bees from Iplace to place has been usual in Greece, Asia Minor and Persia from the earliest !date. > . . Strange to say, it is claimed that the jhoney-bee was not a native of the western -j (continent. We are told that without ? doubt, there 0were no honey-bees here bntil introduced by the Caucasian race.' [This seems the^more strange, as it is said that all the continents and islands of the eastern hemisphere abound with' jthem. It is one more illustration of the ^ inextricable puazies connected with the geographical distribution of animals.' J>lt. nyuia, iu oiuujr, uu aiwuuu u> >w great variety of odoriferous flowers and abundance of noney, has been poetically, called the empire of bees, aud Hymettus in Attica, is in the same way famous. The German, black or brown bee, is the variety best known, as through all the ages it has been most widely distributed. We find, however, that the Italians were . known both to Aristotle and Virgil, who jsang of the variegated, golden bee,? Farm, Field and ttochnan. Origin of the Strawberry. Our common strawberry is one of the most widely diffused plants, partly owing to the small size of its seeds, which birds, attracted by the fleshy part in which they are found, carry to great distances. It grows wild in Europe from Lapland and the Shetland Isles to the mountain ranges of the South; in Madeira, Spain, Sicily and Greece; in Asia from Armenia and the North of Syria to Daburia. It is wild in the United States, in Iccland, in Mexico and around Qu.to, South America. Its habitat extends around the North Pole in temperate climes except in Eastern Siberia. The Greeks ana Romans did not cultivate this berry, and no one did until the fifteenth or the sixteenth century in Europe. The variety known as Yirto in^inronmia in Pon giuiau OLI a WWli J vv*g ?.** Vwuada and the Eastern Statea of this country, and is the source of some of the best cultivated varieties, in its crosses with the Chili berry. The Virginian berry was introduced into the English gardens in 1629. The Chili strawberry was brought into France in 1713, and after cultivation in the Museum of Natural History, it spread to England and elsewhere.?Good Houaekeeviiia.