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LIFE. To bare hoped and suffered in cheer and woe, To have trusted, betrayed and grieved, To have doubted the things you best might know? This is to have lived. To have sinned, repented, and been forgiven, To have lost what was once received, To have fallen again from the gates of heaven? This is to have lived. To have loved, and tasted the Dead Sea fruit, To have pledged, to have been believed, To have seen love wither, from branch to root? This is to have lived. To have stood in the strength of virile might, When baffled, betrayed, deceived; To have ground your teeth in the rage of fight? This is to have lived. To have trodden the wine-press, weak, alone, Of our life's fair fruit bereaved; To have slain your sorrow without a moan? This is to have lived. To have given the helm to a stronger hand, To have listened, lo have believed; ffo have yielded life to a high command? Thi9 is to have lived. ?David A. Curlis, in Once A Week. iA CRUISE FOR CORAL. I BY AMOS COMES. "That's a handsome head of rose coral ^hich you have there: a very pretty bit. It cost you about twelve dollars, didu't it? And I'll wager the price of it that I can tell you exactly where it came from. Tact :s, I think I've been on the very #pot where it grew." >ly old friend, Captain King, was pending the evening with me, and after dinner we were looking over my nondescript collections, when the captaiu's eye happening to fall on this particular peeimcn of coral, he had thus bantered . JJUV ao IV IkO Uii^rn. 1 ' ) ou're a little off on the price," I aid. 4'Ten dollars was what I gave. Uow where did it come from?" "You think that 1 shall say the South fea," :espoiided my nautical friend, with * chuckle, "or ehe the Caribbean, or the <3ulf of California; but I shan't. That *lu?ter of coral came from a little group 'keys,' about thirty-five miles due ^eest from Key West, called the Markeys. Am 1 wrong or right?" J was obliged to admit that he wa3 J>robab!y not far wrong. I had bought t of two "Conches, "' who own a schooner wh <:! Miey run between New York and the U est Indies. The price they asked .s uficun dollars, but they hud sold it for ic.i, nml had told me that it came fr tn ihe v.cinity of Key West. "But ti .e are no such islands or reefs as the irkeys," I addled, consulting a ma >. ".no, the map name is Marquesas Keys, l> a no one at i\ey West ever speaks of t em in that way. The fishermeu and i uiters all uay .Markeys. Oh, I know ?;<out them for a very good reason; I * .-ntiheie after coral once myself." "Then this specimen of mine was not ? lja-1 bari:a u at ten dollars, you think?" \\ good bargain. Really, it was * orth the til tee. i dollars the dealer asked ffor it. i ou would say so yourself, I fancy, if jou had to dive in thirty feet of water fur it, and perhaps dive twenty times before you got it up." "very UKUl^'v IttWUKU, UUI, TT touio v' 7?u to go to the Alurkeys? iou have ^ nerally served !n a rather different capacity trom that of diviug for coral, if I ttistake not." 'True; but one *ce3 all sorts of fortune, good, had and indifferent, in the t#ourse of a lifetime. A few years ago, +ftvr the wreck of the fruit steamer Cucu\ <>s, 1 found myself out of a job, fed nU ift at Key West. Even then there %a?u considerable trade in coral, sea hells and other marine goods from that port northward, and I there made the ?fquain:ance of two brothers named Bannost, who owned a sloop, and were cruising about to pick up such curiosities for shipmeDt. > "They otlered me a dollar day and rations to embark with them on a fortnight's trip to the 'Markeys'?a place I pad never heard of till then; and as I |cnew of a fruit steamer, on which I oxipected to get passage to .New York, that Bras likely to pat into Key West, bound piorth, in the course of^ three or four fweks, I accepted the offer. ' ,4\Vo bjat outof the port at sunrise the following morning, with a pretty ?tiff nor'westerly wind blowing, which afterward shifted northerly a little, and ' by four o'clock that afternoon dropped nchor among the Markeys. "These islets are nothing more than a tot of reefs and sand spits. Not one of them is lnrge enough to be spoken of as ?n Hand, but around them lie some of ithe choicest beds of coral in the world. At any rate, I have never seen anything o beautiful elsewhere. ' "The Bannost bo s, whom I went out With, had their collecting-boat made Vlth a large pane of glass set in the bottom, so that one man could lie down and place his eye to it. A clearer view ?f the coral beds was thus obtained, particularly when there was breeze enough to ruffle the surface. "Early the next morning we three set SB from the sloop, in this ela'S-bottomed oat, to examine the coral flats. Hither* to, like so many other sailors, I had been but an indifferent swimmer, but 1 now found that, to do anything at collecting corals, I mugt not only swim well, but must be able to dive like a pearl-hunter. "Submarine divers' suits had not been made use of in this business, as indeed they are at present. The entire outfit for getting up the coral consisted of iron bars, boat hooks and tongs with lines Attached, for hauling up the heavier specimens. There wa3 also a kind of Ylpaw crmnnpl rnllpr) a 'pnral Vinnlr ' fnr dragging on the bottom and tearing up the coral, but this was not found to work well. ".Both the Bannost brothers and a Cuban, named Martini, who had accompanied them on this voyage, were good divers, and they at once initiated me in the art. I made my first attempt In about fifteen feet of water, with a line -looped under my arms, and after a few hours' practice, found that I could go -down nearly as well as the others did. "But in deeper water I experieuccd /much difficulty, and, in fact, I never .fcave learned to dive well in thirty or thirty-five feet of water, unless with a weight to help me d;>wn, and a line to give me con idence. "The beds encircle the reefs, extend out into from te i to forty fei't of water, with channe s of deeper water between -them. There are here half a dozen different kinds of coral, g enerally apart and separate one from arother, at different depths of water. Thd most abundant is the 'branch coral,' wide beds of which are found on the shallow flats, fifty, : seventy-five and a hundred acres in extent. a true submarine grove, through ' the brauches of which play great schools of parrot-fish, angel-fish, 'yellow-tails' And 'grunts.1 "These groves of branch coral are of a rich olive-brown tint, and amidst them you are sure to see the waving 'whips' of numerous crawfish, and discover nests of , Spiny 'seae^gs.' $Vk ! V 4, ' ' Then there ia the *brin coral,' more massive, and generally found ia smal'er beds. Also the 'pepper' coral, and a variety which, when dead, is so light that it floats on the surface of the water, although it seems to be composed of the same substance a9 the other kinds, t "We speak of coral as dead when the living creature?a mere little jelly-like dot?wh'ch produces it has perished, j leaving a tiny hole, like a pore in the coral stone, where it lived. "liut the most valuable of all varieties, and hence the most eagerly sought for, is the red coral, or ro e coral, and i i naturally, as with all other precious. things, this is the s arce>t and most dif- I licult to obtain. The depth at which it is found at. the Markeys varies from | twenty to thirty-five feet, and it is rare to find a specimen there much larger | than this ono of vour3?about the size of j a man's two hands placed togeter. "Ah. it's a pretty sight to look down through the clear water, and see a fine ; hea 1 of coralium rubrum directly be- i neath your boat L "When the sun is well! up in the sky, you can see the bottom quite plainly in thirty feet of water over . the side of the boat. "On the second day we were there, I dropped down in thirty feet and had no trouble, though the pressure affected my head a little. But an adventure which j befell me a few days later, spoiled my i courage, and nearly cost me my life "1 had gone down in about thirty feet i of water over a bend of branch coral, with an iron bar iu my hand, intending ! to break and pry out a few branches, | then rise for breath and afterward to go i down and fetch them up, one at a time, or if they were too heavy, haul them up with a grapnel line. "Attached to a ring in the end of our bars and boat-hooks were small lines h'tched to rings in the boat above, so that we could cast off these tools at will, and yet recover them with ease. "The coral grove on which I landed was a veritable thicket of candelabra- ' like branches. Having the iron bar in my hand, I came down upon it with such forcc that one of my feet was thrust dowa into a crevice among the branches, | and stuck fast. I thought that I could j pull it out and, bracing myself with the j | other foot, attempted to do so. To my ; horror, I found that I was hard and fast, j My leg had gone down below my knee, ' into the crevice among the stiff coral, I and, do my best, I could not free it. "Of course, one has but a few seconds in which to work while holding one's breath under water. It was a rough, ugly place, too, and I could not place my leg at the same angle it had descended into the chink. "After a wrench or two, I seized the crowbar with both hands and beg in to j prod and pry at the masses of coral. But it was 'green* and tough. I broke i away several pieces, then tried to wrench I out my leg again; but my foot, in its I laced boot, stuck fast. Three or four j times I exerted all my strength, desperately, then snatched the bar again. | "But by this time I was nearly suffo; eating for want of air. My exeitement j'and fear added to my need of breath, I suppose. Stiil I struck wildly at the j coral with the bar, and several times hit my own leg. It was an awful sensation, to be thus caught and held down uuder water! .Still I tried to keep my breath in, and once more wrenched at my foot, foot to get it clear. "Then my breath went, in spite of myself. I looked up and saw the boat j over me, and Charles Bannost's face, i gazing down. I tried to cry out to him, but choked, struggled and immediately lost all sense of what wa9 occurring. "Banuost had sat looking down at me. He could see me, though not very distinctly; and ho thought, nil the time that I was p.ying and twisting at my leg, that I was working o.I coral. Soon he began to reali'.e that 1 was remaining down longer thin usual, but did not mistrust that anything was wrong with me till, suddenly, a whole string of j bubbles rose to the surface of the water. | He knew that these bubbles must have ; been made by air from my lungs, and at once concluded that. I was in danger. ' I "He instantly dived, and alighting on i the coral within a few feet of where I ' lay, still struggling, he was not longdis! covering what the trouble was. Hut it j was a task that still required some time j to break away the coral su'.liciently to \ extricate me from my subaqueous j hobble. ! "By this time I was too full of water I to rise to the surface without help; and he was compelled to come up for breath, and then dive again, with a line, before he could haul me up. "By this time I was about a? near ; drowned as any person can wen oe ana be revived, but Charles got me into the I boat and then rolled me on a thwart, j worked ray arms to start my breath, and | slapped and chafed me, till I came ' round. He declared that it was fully I ten minutes before I was breathing regularly again. I afterward found that ; my leg and foot nad been quite badly bruised by the coral and the bar. "The day before we left the Markcys, ! to go back to Key West, I had still ' another adventure, which was far j from pleasant and whirh left even worse j scars than the first. We saw sharks rov, ing about the coral beds quite frequently, j and occasionally the shadow of. one' would pass us, while down on the sea- i bottom. Yet they never molested us and we returned the compliment by letting them severely alone. "But there was a teu-times worse fi9h there and quite plenty, too, which they called a stingaree?a great, flat, disgusting creature, from two to three feet in breadth, and six or seven in length. | They have two powerful side fins and a j ta:l like a braided whip-la^h, and they get the name of stingaree from thrie I sting3, or bony 6pine3, placed one above :the other, just forward of the junction of this whip-lash tail with the body. i "meir sungs are uve or six jncues j long, with jagged edges like a saw. ! "The stingaree does not go swimming . boldly about like the shark, but creeps along on the bottom, aud when it come3 ; to some bol'ow, or depression, where ; there is sand, or bits of shell and coral, j ' it will begin to burrow, somewhat as a , hen does in a dust-hcap. Then when it, has half-buried itself it will lie and sun . ! itself for houra. "Getting entangled in the coral had given me such a fright, that I would ! never dive after that without a line around me attached to the boat, if the water was more thin fifteen feet deep. ! On the day I speak of. I was down with a line, iu about twenty-six feet, thumping away at a table of brain coral: there wa< a grand dome of it that I knew | would be worth five dollars, if I could properly detach it. " Just as I was about going up for air, j I caught sight of a prelty bunch of rose coral, a little way off from the big brain table, where the bottom shelved down into deeper water water; and before; rising I took a few steps that way to make sure I was right about it. "At the third step, I trod on something that seemed first to quiver, and then give a flutter and a tremendous | flop. I jumped?to rise; and with that, t the whole water seemed to boll under ; me, and whum 1 whum! rose, directly I under my feet, two big stiagareea that had been half-concealed in the sand and among the shells. "It seemed to me that they struck every inch of my body, from my legs up, as they rose past me. They did rake me most unmercifully, one on each side. Their stings felt like hot irons. I had on an old pair of oil-skin drawers and they tore those to strings. "I had a good grip on my line and wasn't five seconds rising to the gunwale of the boat^ and as I ro?e I kicked and struck at the creatures as hard as I could, you may be sure. "Dick Bannost and the Cuban, Martini, were in the boat. They saw the fracas and pulled me in as soon as I reached the surface. 1 was strangling and snapping for breath, and for some minutes was quite unable to utter a word. I felt numb from head to foot. "They took me aboard the sloop, and, on removing my clothing, counted up more than forty cuts and scratches, of all lengths and depths, from little abrasures oi the skin to wounds six inches long which had to he sewed up. My legs and arras fared the worst; but I had two or three scratchcs on my face. "The next day I was so sore and stiff all over that I could barely stir. Even after we got back to Key West, I could walk only with great pain for several days. I believe those stiiigarees had come near paralyzing me. "We brought back a good fare of coral, and the steamer that brought me Nonh the following week took also to New York a consignment of these articles, together with sea-fans, sharks' jaws, gulls' eggs, hawks'-bill turtles and sea eggs. The most of it went, 1 was told, to some college museum; but a good deal of this sort of thing is sold every season at the seaside resorts."?Youth's Coinj/an'on. Scottish Crofters. The gray wretchedness of the afternoon was a fit pralude to Barra. When we clime to Castle Bay rain was falling upon its waters, on the battlemented castle, perched upon a rocky, seaweedcovered islet, and on the town set against a background of high, bare hills. But the steamer stopped, and we went ashore to look about us. A few ugly new houses, shops with plate-glass windows, often cited a3 proofs of the island's prosperity, and then the real Barra, a mass of black cottages?compared to which those of Mull were mansions, those of Kilchrennan palaces?running up and down the rocky hillside. Only by a polite figure of speech can the stone pile in which the Hebridean crofter makes his home be called a cottage. It is, as it was described many years ago, but "a heavy thatched roof thrown over a few rudely put together stones." The long low walls are built of loose rock blackened by constant rain. The thatched roof, a!most as black, is held in place without by a net-work of ropes, within by rafters of drift-wood. The crofter has no wood save that which the sea \ elds, and yet in some districts he must p:iy for picking up the beams and spars washed up on his wild shores, just a* he must for the grass and heather he cuts from the wilder moorland, when ho makes his roof. Not until you come close to the rough stone heap can you see that it is a house, with an opening for doorway, one tiny hole for window. From a distance there is but its smoke to distinguish it from the rocks strewn around it. At Castle Bay, where many of these "scenes of misery,as Pennant called them one hundred years ago, were grouped together, there was not even the pretense of a street, but just the rock, rougb, ragged and broken, ns God mide it. The people who live here are almost all fishermen, and, as if in token of their calliner, they have fashioned the * -T I t?ut.CU 01 tneir roois luiu Iiic aimpe ui boats. One cottage, indeed, is topped with a genuine boat. There were a tew chimneys, but smoke came pouriug from the doors, from holes in the thatch and walls. Many of the roofs had a luxuriant growth of grass, with here and there a clump of duisies, or of yellow flowers which give color to Highland road-sides. But this was all the green we saw on their hill-side of rock and mud. Through open doorways we had glimpses of dark, gloomy interiors, dense with smoke. We did not cro?s a threshold, however; to seek admittance seemed not unlike making a show of the people's misery. The women and girls who passed in and out and stood to stare at us, looked strong and healthy. Theirs is a life which must either kill or harden. Many were hand3ome, with strangely foreign, gyp3j--like faces, and so were the bonneted men at work on the pier. It may be there is truth in the story which gives a touch of Spanish blood to the pooj lc of the Outer Hebrides. If the ships of the Armada went down with all their treasure, it is said their crew survived, and lived and took unto themselves wives in the Islands, from which chance of deliverance was small. We heard only Gaelic spoken while we wpre I at Castle Bay. The people of Great Britain need not go abroad in search of foreign parts; but an Englishman, who only wants to see the misery and wrongs of nations foreign in name as well as in reality, would find little pleasure in Barra.?Harper's Bazar. Greenland Glaciers. Fields of ice, sometimes having an area of one hundred square mile9, are aetacne J, ana a irec exit anoraea 101 the imprisoned icebergs. Icebergs and field ice are borne to the southward by the cold current that follows the bend ol the land from Labrador to Florida, Field ice is formed on the sea surface during the Arctic winter, but bergs have theii origin far inland, and are the growth of years. Greenland glaciers glide gradually down their gentle slopes into the sea, and the upward pressure of the watei breaks off their snouts to form the icebergs of the North Atlantic. Some hardy Norwegians are about to cross Greenland, and intend to make a special study of the movement of the coast glaciers and this setting afloat of bergs. Ancient glaciers have written their story on the mountains of ( reat Britain, and bergs were formed a little way off the west coast of Ireland during the glacial epoch.?Scientific American. Wild Beast9 in Civilization's Haunts. It is strangfi how fast American rifles have rid the New World of the larger carnivora. Within the last fifty years wolves and bears have entirely disappeared from hundreds of thousands of square miles in our Eastern States, where they once were as numerous as rabbits. Hungary has been a quasi-civilized country for six hundred years, yet in the neighborhood of the large town ot Temesvar three wolvej were recently cornered in a ravine, and clubbed to death by a posse of excited rustics. Bears are seen every year in the highlands north of Hcrmanstadt, Transylvania: and even in the French Cevennes, less than a day's journey from the "capital of civilization," wolves raid tne upland farms in every hard winter.? Yankee Blade. Of the twenty-two Presidents of the United States fourteen have had no middle name. - - BUDGET OF FUN. HUMOROUS SKETCHES FROM VARIOUS SOURCES. Silent Be, It Was .'the Cat?The Only Substitute?Gibbon ExplainsA Difficult -Literary Performance, Etc., Etc. "What is the matter with your face?" iuquired Merritt. "That pesky old cat scratched me," replied Cob winger. "But she'll never uo it again, i cnaseu ner up ru garret and then kicked her ol ihi roof." "Ah, ah!" laughed Merritt. "That is what you might cail toeing the scratch."?New York Sun. The Only Substitute. Stranger (from Dakota)?"I hear you are making mustard plasters by the yard, always ready for use." ''Druggist?"Yes sir. Would you like to try one?" "Not now; but if you'll warrant'em good and hot you can send me about forty yards by express to Bli^zardville. Dakota. Cold weather is coming on and wool is too high for poor folks."? Philadelphia Record. Gibbon Explains. Tom Bigbee (ferociously)?"Hang it, Gibbon, 1 can't see why you have adopted that idiotic way of carrying your umbrella! Your're jabbing everybody, back and front." Howell Gibbon?"You can't see, eh? Why, it's absolutely necessawy. I get the blame thing tangled in the skirts of my new English trousers if I didn't carwy it in a horizontal position." A Difficult Literary Performance. Young Author (to friend)?"I say, Fred, did you read my last article in the Ezery Other Monthly?" Friend (enthusiastically)?"Yes, indeed, old boy; I read it through twice!" Young Anthor ? "Oh, then you must have found it very interesting?" Friend?"Well?er?no, not so much that; but Fred Smith bet me $10 that I couldn't read it through twice, and I bet him $10 that I could."?Life. Resenting an Insult. Kobinson?"Jackson, I hear that Brown called you a liar last night." Jackson (bitter.y)?"Yes, he called me a liar." Robicson?' And did you resent it?" Jackson (warmly)?"Resent it, you bet I did! I told him that was simply a matter ot opiniou and not of fact. No man can call me a liar and get away with it." ?Life. Reirard for Appearance. Mrs. Bliffers?"An agent for a new burglar alarm was here to-day and I told him to call again when you were at home." Mr. BlilTers?"Huh! Burglar alarm! There is nothing in this house to steal." "No, but when the neighbors hear we have fitted up our h'mse with burglar alarms they will think we have something to steal, my dear."?Philadelphia Record. The Haughty Housewife. "Do yousee how proudly that woman walks?" "I do. Is she a millionaire?" "Oh, no. It would bother her husband to raise $500 in cash." 4 'But she can't be proud of her beauty." "No." "Then what is iti" "She has made thirty tumblers of jelly this fall, and none of her neighbors has made over fifteen. She ha3 a right to hold up her nose."?Boston Free Press. Condoned His Fault. Old Man (from the head of the stairs harshly)?''Hasn't that young feller gone yet, Clara." C.'ara?"Xo, papa, he's in a serious i quandary. He forgot to deposit $13,000 in the bank this afternoon,and is nervous about carrying it with him so late at ni<jht." Old Man (in a softer tone)?"Tell him to wait a minute, and I'll be down. He can put it in my safe until morning. And you'd betier bring up half a dozen bottles of pop from the cellar."?Epoch. A Faithful Retainer. Mrs. St. Jones?"What is it this time, Edwards?" Edwards?"Mrs. Kerr-Bristow's card, ma'am." Mrs. St. Jones?"Did she leave any message {" Edwards?"Yes, ma'am; 9he said as how she was always finding you out." Mrs. St. Jones?"I hope you replied gracefully, Edwards!" Edwards?"Yes, ma'am; I said as how I wasn't aware that you'd done anything to be ashamed of, ma'am."? Timx. Peace Must. P/evall. Husband (impatiently)?"Is it possible, ray dear, that you cannot keep those children quiet for a moment?" Wife .soothingly)?"Now, .Tobn, don't be harsh with th? poor little innoccnt thin s: it is natural for them to be full of spirit, and they're doing the best they can." Husband ?"Well, if I could have a moment's peace I would sit down and write th it check for fifty dollars that you've been bothering me for." Wife (sternly;?"Children, go upstairs at once! and if I hear auother word from you to-night I'll punish you severely."?Life. Bore His "Weight of Years Lightly. The stern countenance of the Old Man of the Mountain, the great attraction of th? Franconia Notch, in the White Mountains, is productive of much merriment. The Drawer hears of several case3 in point which go to show that if the Old Man of the Mountain were possessed of any humor at all, instead of gazing tternly toward the south with an expression more indicative of wrath than of the sorrow attributed to him by the legend, we should expect to see him perpetually on the broad grin. It was in August of the season gone by that an aged spinster sat with a younger friend ga/.ing steadfastly at the Old Man's face, studying deeply the gigantic rocks which form the mouth, nose and forehead. \?.ary," she said suddenly, grasping the other by the hand?4'It's twenty-five years seucc 1 was here last, and he don't look a day older than he did then! Ain't it wonderful?"?JJarpei's"3rauer." Paid For His Cake. "Speaking of women," the Colonel said, after a long pause: "I was traveling in Missouri once in my buggy when I met a tall, slabsided girl of twenty in the road. I had taken a drink or two and felt jolly, and so I hailed her with-? "Howdy, Sal? Fine day?" "Howdy, stranger," she promptly replied. "Say," I went on, "I'm looking for a wife." "What sort!" "About your kind." 'Want rae?" "If yon'll have me." "Reckon I wilL Let's drive back and see dad and mam " "I was joking, you know, and so 1 told her that I was in a great hurry and would return. Three natives who came along just then stopped to find out what was the matter, and they set in with the girl to take rae back. The only way I eould get out of it was to bolt for the woods, leaving the hor?e and buggy behind, and five years later the girl was still driving them. That little joke of mine cost me just $310, to say nothing of being run through a patch of woods five miles wide."?Debroit Free Press. The Richness of the Soil. "'Twor in seventy-nine -when I left ole Kaintuck an' squat on a good lay o' Ian' up on Pine Crik, a leetle ther most han'som'st valley in this yar county. I sot ther house purty near ther crik, an' a-thinkin' ther crik might git on a rampage in thaw-time, I sot ther house on tree-posts, cut erlong ther crik, 'beout two foot up. "VVal, then I weat ter plantin', an' in .Tune, fer a fac', pertaters 'ud begin ter hustle afore we got 'em kivered in; an' ther corn, why, ye never heered sech a racket! We cudn't sleep o' nights, ther corn made sech a noise a-gittin' up! ifech a crackin', bustin' noise! Ev'rythin' a-shootin' an' awrastlin' ter grow! "Howsomfiver, that's nothin' ter what I'm going ter tell ye. One day, ter dinner, I says to my wife, 'Maria, why can't ye he v ther table sot even ? Are ye tryin' i fer ter spill ev'rylhin'f' and she says, *1 ain't done nothin' ter ther table. It's settin' squar' on ther t!oor.' "Wal, fer weeks thet yar house kep' a-gittin' more onev'ner, an' last I says, 'Maria, thet yar north post is a-sinkin' deown!' !-hc went an' looked. "Tain't no sech thin', lien, ther other post is arisin' up.' Fer a fac', them posts was agrowin', 'cept' ther north one, whai 'twas shady. We cud see ther sprouts! a-shootin' out! An' neow ther house J began ter snap an' crack, an' 'twor a- j gittin' dang'rou9, 'cos', yer see, 'twa'n't goin' even. Ther three posts was akeepin' tergither, but ther other, bein' shady, wor a-hangin' back. "Somethin' hed ter be did, un' Maria, she's 'beout as cute as ye'll find 'em, says: 'Ben, we'll hev ter water thet north post. Per'aps it'll ketch up.' Wa'n't thet an idea? Wal, we done it, an' ye never see sech a racin' o' posts. Enside o' a month thet north post wat up with ther others, and then therhouso went up plumb. "I tell ye, 'twor a sight, an' afort winter ther house wor up 'beout foui foot, an' ther posts a-puttin' eout branches an'a-throwin' o' them reound | ther house, kindex embracin' like | Thet's a-goin' on five year ago, an' them [ po<ts?trees they be neow?hev ben agrowin' ever sence; an1 ye'll hev ter 'cu e me, gentlemen, fer I hev ter start eariy, fer when I git hum, it takes 'beout het 'n 'our ter climb up ter ther house. I tell ye, thar's sile up thar wuth ownin'." ? Life. Bismarck in the Field. The following extract is from General P. H. Sheridan's article, "Gravelotte to Sedan," in Scri'mcr's Magazine: "I found him wrapped in a shabby old dressing-gown, hard at work. He waa established in a very small room, whose only furnishings consisted of a table?at wh chhe was writing?a couple of rougb chairs, and the universal feather-bed, tiiis time made on the lloor in one cornei of the room. On my remarking upon t ie limited character of his quarters, th? Count replied, with great good humor, that they were all right and that he should get along well enough. Even the tramp of his clerks in the attic and tne clanking of his orderlies' sabres below did not disturb him much; he said, is fact, that he would nave no grievance at all, were it not for a guard of Bavarian soldiers stationed about the house, foi I his safety, he presumed, the sentinels j tsixoy aioau guessuu <> >". one win uuusequently get the prize sewing machine promised to the person guessing nearest the number of seeds. The guesses were wide enough to cover auvthiog from a seedless pumpkin to a freight car load of seeds. One man guessed 0 aad another ."3,01)0,000.?Chicago Miil. Dead Cons Raise a Sunken Ship. A somewhat remarkable thing lately too.'t place in the river just below Kvansville, lud. A few days since the steamer Robert B. Carson sunk in forty feet of | water, together with thirty head of cat- | tie confined in the lower deck. For two or three days a number of hands did all in their power to raise the sunken boat, but without avail, and the project was abandoned. Early one morning, however, to the surprise of one of the harbor boats, the pilot house and hurricane deck of the Carson suddenly appeared above the water. When a crew was sent down the steamer was floating along sustained and upheld by some mysterious agency. This was subsequently traced to the cattle themselves, wh:ch had become inflated by gases generated in the carcasses, and the combined buoyancy of these dead bodies had actually lifted the steamer to the surface. The boat sank again when they were cut loose. Old steamboat meax declare it the strangest occurrence in all their experience.?\JVno Ink Bun. GARDENING. ANCIENT AND MODERN FARMS OF lUflAKI WUHiL Odd Conceits of Floral Ornaments tlon Among the Romans?Floral Representations of Birds, Beasts and Buildings. Most of the famous conceits of gardeners are very ancient; and there can be no doubt whatever that the western nations learned topiary work from the Romans? not directly, perhaps, but from the Latin literature. That the Romans were very fond of filling their gardens with birds, beasts and buildings in yew, box and juniper, and regaraed the fashioning of these things as an art, is indicated by the special name, topiarius, which they gave to the gardener who made such work his espccial business. Pliny speaks with evident pleasure of the forms of animals into which his box hedges had been trimmed. "There is a parterre before the house in which different figures are dressed with box. Beyond is a grass plot, a little raised; and beyond it the box repre ents differents animals looking at each other." The Romans were a vain people, and their vanity sometimes took the form of having the letters which composed their name cut in box alongside the alleys in their gardens. According to Madame de Stael. the Poman gardeners of her day still practised this curious art; but there is very little topiary work left now at Rome or elsewhere. To cut a hedge of box or yew iuto the semblance of a castle, a beast, a giant, or a bird's* nest, and to keep it tr.mmed so that it never looked ragged and always remained the same size, required constant care, some amount of taste, and the greatest nicety of hand and eye. When these conditions were fulfilled, topiary work would last as long as there was life in the evergreens; no snort span of time, for there are still some few gardens in England containing examples of this curious elaboration vrh ch must have been planted early in the seventeenth century-. When topiary adornments became fashionable in this country is very uncertain. It has frequently been stated that William I I. brought them into vogue; but we have seen that they were familiar to Bacon, who wrote his essay "Of Gardens"in 1025; and there is little doubt that they were to be found in gardens as early as the reign of Henry Vllf. From the time of Elizabeth until well into the eighteenth century no gentleman's garden was complete without a few figures cut in yew, box or holly. Whence we.obtained the fashion is by no means clear; but it is not unlikely that th8 diligent study of the classics which obtained during the later Tudor soverigns may have suggested it. The Elizabethans loved what they termed "conceits," and the liking for topiary work is assuredly a conceit if ever there was one. Moreover, this k'nd of thing ?sombre and sometimes not undignified ?harmonized exceedingly well with the stately Elizabethan country homes, and the builders of those houses knew it. Before the middle of the eighteenth century the taste began to wane , after a reign of nearly two hundred years. The topiary artist, not content with clipping his hedges into the semblance of ordinary and familiar things, by degrees gave such a loose rem to his imagination' that his creations ? ? ? ? ~ ivav/^ana from which insisted on protecting ana saluting the Chancellor of the North German Confederation in and out of season, a prceeding that led to embarrassment sometimes, as he was much troubled with a severe dysentery Notwithstanding his trials, however, and in the midst of the correspondence on which he was so intently engaged, he graciously took time to explain that tht sudden movement northward from Barle-Duc was the result of information that Marshal MacMahon was endeavoring to relieve Met/, by marching along the Belgian frontier; 'a blundering, manoeuvre,' remarked the Chancelor,'which cannot be accounted for unless it has been brought about by the political situation of the French.' " A Pumpkin's Wealth of Seeds. There were 636 seeds in that pumpkin, at which everybody attending the Chicago Exposition took a guess. Mr. 1 II. Met all, the exhibitor, opened the big yellow rind at the Exposition. The guessing at the number of seeds had been exc ting, and when the count was announced there was a perfect blockade ' all around the exhibit. Mr. McCall1 split the pumpkin, which had shrunken ' nearly a third in size since it was first 1 subjected to speculation, and took out the seeds. They were distributed in a number of tin plates and carefully counted and recounted. Then they were checked over and (J3tJ was an- 1 nounced as the number contained in the I pumpkin. I About 22,000 people, representing 1 nearlc cverv eountrv and Drovince in the civilized world, bad entered tbeii j names and guesses, but of all of tbem only one guess was correct. Mrs. Charles Bixby was the lucky guesser, and the only one who h<is ever in the three years past guessed the number of seeds exactly at the tournament. A number of people guessed r>:jo and (>37, but Mrs. ? - * J at til WCrC Q itiUg!iIU? OlUV/Dj ouu guiuvuo| from beng over elaborated, became mere ragged wildernesses in which "simplicity" in its most exaggerated forms was supreme. Pope gives an example of the lengths to which topiary work was carried. "I know an eminent cook," he writes in one of his letters, "who beautified his country seat with a coronation dinner in greens, where you see the champion flourishing on horseback at one end of the table, and the Queeen in perpetual youth at the other." Someone else had St. George and the dragon cut out in box. "St George's arm is not quite long enough to strike the dragon, but will be grown by next April." Casaubon relates that in his youth he saw in a garden near Paris a representation of the siege of Troy, with the atI tendant armies and their generals, all fashioned in topiary work. A garden in the neighborhood of Chartres, a Gorman traveler records, was almost equally elaborate. JI ere was the Seven Wise Men of Greece and the Labors of Hercules, illustrated with Latin inscriptions, all cut out of living verdure. In the same garden were the Three Graces surrounded by the motto Gratia gratiam parit, and the heathen deities banqueting at a well-spread table. The German traveler was in raptures, and tells how | impressed he was with the "ingenuity ana industry of man, to-which nothing forms an insuperable obstacle." Very few examples of this curious taste now remain in English gardens. There are some at Hadaon hall and at Stouyhurst, and at the famous house of Lcvens hall, near Kendal, there is still an exceedingly fine collection. Here are i trees cut like gigantic chessmen, and all manner of coueeits in yew, holly, evergreens. Two of the principal figures are a king with his crown on his head and a queen "with her arms akimbo." These works date back probably to the early part of the seventeenth century. It is greatly to be hoped that the new specimens of tho ingenuity of our ancestors in this direction which still remain here and there in country-house gardens will not be destroyed. Some enterprising gardener may yet revive tho fashion, and a few models to copy from would be invaluable.?St. James Gazette. A Wife's Thou;htfulness. Here is a pleasant recipe, which can be commended to wives whose husbands tho spa without them, savs a cor respondent of the Pittsburgh lJispatch. On the first night out, just as my vis-avis at table was sitting down to dinner in the beautiful saloon of the City of New ^ ork, a steward stepped up to him and handed him a letter, saying; "With the Captain's compliments, sir." Every night this performance was repeated. Sometimes the Captain himself presented the letter. It was mysterious and interesting. The gentleman who received the letter seemed to be greatly astonished when it came to him on the first occasion, but afterward he merely showed signs of enjoymeut in reading its contents. He was a very delightful man and a great favorite at our table, but though everybody was dying to know where the letters came from, nobody had enough impudence to ask him. But on the day before we reached New York I happened to be standing on the companion way with this gentleman, when the Captain presented the letter, and the former said, as he tore open the envelope: "Queer idea of my wife, isn't it. She sent the Captain several letters addressed to me, and asked him to deliver one tome every evening before dinner. She thought I would be glad to hear from her every day, and I tell you it has been one of the pleaaantest events of the voyage, thU mail deliver/ in midocean 1" _ - :w v- ii v 'jSpJ fi "V.? V'*JP ?? ?? -i HOUSEHOLD MATT?B& Sweet Apples for Baking Most kinds of sweet apples do not easily bake soft as the best cooking soar varieties do. They have, besides, toe little acid to fit them for pies, though i y> here do other fruit can be had than j sweet apples the demand for pie may be met by mixing them with vinegar. Bat. they need no addition for baking by themselves. The Sweet apple thus prepared is excellent and healthful and being free from crust with its mixture of flour and lard they are easily digested : by even the most delicate stomach. There ought to be a much larger demand for sweet apples than there is. There will : > be when people learn how good they are. ?American Cultivator. Perfect Chocolate. A notion exists in the minds of some culinary writers that a perfect cup of ' chocolate is a difficult thing to prepare. Some of them therefore recommend preparing it the n;ght befo.e; others advise hours of constant boiling; both are radically wrong. Chocolate so prepared produces flatulency in the consumer. The chocolate so prepared looks like a dark brown muddy paste, And is anything but inviting. When well made it is a delightful'breakfast beverage. Break three ounces of sweet chocolate into small pieces, put it into a copper, tin lined utensil, with a gil; of milk. Place this over a brisk fire, ftir the in- ^ gredients rapidly, and when dissolved add haif a pint more of milk. ' Continue stirring, boil not over three minutes, and serve. This will make two teacupsfuL The secret is in the stirring constantly while it is being prepared.?New York Sun. ????? Domestic Uses of Lime Water. There are few grown people?to say nothing of babies?who can drink milk with comfort unless it has a mixture of lime-water. Those who commonly say milk "does not agree with them" can. <j usually inakc it agree by adding one or two tablespoonfuli of lime-water to the ^ goblet or full half-pint of milk. It ia well worth trying by those who complain of indigestion or billiousness," in drink- .j ing it by the physician's prescription. Lime-water by the gallon may be made with a few cents worth of lime and pore water. The water will not take up any 'r ;j more than it can hold in suspension, so you can pour off all th * clear liquid from one bottle and add more water to your remaining lime in your quart bottles. In | Boston they are quoting a aenust who advises his clients to rinse the mouth and teeth several times a day freely with j lime-water, to "harden the enamel and arrest decay." Perhaps some Philadelphia dentist will explain if this is really of service, as the teeth are supposed to j be nourished by the blood, ana not from 1 the outside. However, one of the dis- , tinguished fraternity here has recom- j mended exercise, that is, the deliberate H chewing of hard substances, such ai crusts of bread, to strengthen the teeth. So the lime-water bathing of them and correcting acid deposits, may not be as much outside the question as it appears. New York Witness. Poultices and Their Application. The use of poultices is to pt^mote ^ warmth and moisture, hence those which keep warm and moist the longest are the best. In making them the attendant should have them smooth, light and as hot as they can be made without burn': ing in their application. Cold light wheat bread soaked in sweet milk makes good ones. A beet fresh from the garden and pounded fine makes an excellent poultice. Linseed Meal: In preparing this the .1 basin should be scalded in which it i? made; pour in boiling water, according . to si/.e of poultice required; add gradu- , -11? onflRnlonf linocnrl muni trt form A Oil J <3UIIIWIUUV AlUwvwva 4UVM. _ thick paste, stirring it one way until of ? the proper consistency and smoothness; then spread it on linen or muslin and apply. Charcoal: Take two ounces of bread crumbs; soak for ten minutes in boiling water, say ten ounces; mix and add -j gradually half an ounce of pulverized charcoal and half an ouncc of linseed meal well stirred together; mix as above. cniormarea soaa consists 01 two parts of linseed meal to one of chlori- ? nated soda, mixed with boiling water. Yeast: This poultice is made by mixin? a pound of flour or linseed meal with haif a pint of yeast; heat it and stir carefully. All poultices are made with* boiling water, except yeast, and with this the temperature should not be over ICO degrees. Mustard: Take a sufficient quantity of powdered mustard to make a thin paste of the required size. It should be mixed with boiling water, with a- little vinegar added if a very strong poultice is required; spread it on brown paper or linen, with a picce of thin muslin over it. It should be kept on from ten to twenty minutes. If the skin is very, irritable afterward a little flour shDula be sprinkled over it. By mixing the mustard with the white of an egg it will I not cause a blister. | Mustard and Linseed: These poultices are often mixed with linseed meal when a milder form is required than of mustard alone. After the use of any kind of mustard poultice the skin should be wiped with something very soft, so that J no mustard be left behind.?Detroit Fret Pre*s. Blow in the Slot. A quiet man with a very florid face was in a crowd of hotel loungers up town the other night and the discussion turned upon 'beatiDg'' the weighing machines which respectfully request that a nickel be put into tbe slot. One fellow could beat it with a wire pushed in until it touched the spring which put* the weighing machinery at work and let# the needle loose. Another made it work by inserting a knife blade, and another put in a tinfoil nickel nicely adjusted as to size and shape. The quiet young man said soberly: "Why put in anything? Blow into the slot," aud jumping upon the nlatform he fastened his mouth over the slot, and, puffing out his cheeks, threw a small cyclone into the works. Sure enough, the old thing worked and the needle registered his weight as 150. "Well, I declare," said the man. "I'll be blowcd," said another, with a view of proprieties. "Try it," said the young man; "it's easy." So they all tried it; puffed and blew and distended their cheeks until every one of them were tired; but it didu't work. ' Blow harder." They all blew until exhausted, and still the needle never budged. "That's funny," and the young man stepped up, blew in the hole, and it again worked nicely. "Why can't we do iti" "Oh, you forgot to put a nickel in your mouth first 1" The crowd fell down in tha effort to reach the soda water stand first*? Paul Piontcr Prut.