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THE TRANSFORMATION. ;When Love was young, it asked for wings, That it might still be roaming; And away it sped, by fancy led. Through dawn, and noon, and gloaming. -Each daintiness that blooms and blows . It wooed in honeyed metre. And when it won the sweetest sweet, It flew off to a sweeter: When Love was young. When Love was old, it craved for rest, ""For home, and hearth, and haven; For quiet talks round sheltered walks, And long lawns smoothly shaven. And what Love sought, at last it found, A roof, a porch, a garden. And from a fond unquestioning heart Peace, sympathy, and pardon: When Love was old. ?Austin Dobson. THE BED GULOH~STAGE. BY CHARLES M. HARGER. Click, click, click, click, went the types as they were thrown into their respective boxes by the type setters in the Daily Calliope office. It was early Sunday morning, and they were almost through with the night's work. One of the compositors, a dark-haired girl, was particularly cleft at her task; and the nimbleness of her stained fingers as, without an error, she rapidly sorted the letters, was a sight worth watching. Though the only lady in the office, and but a child at that, she was as quick and rapid a worker as any. The Calliope was one of the experimental dailies, that had started in Western j towns for "booming" purposes. The city would be called a mere village by Eastern visitors, but standing as it did far out on the plains, amid the foot hills of the Rockies, it had quite a metropolitan appearance. After the leagues upon leagues of unbroken prairie or rolling blulls and precipitous banks, it really appeared like a centre of civilization, and despite the rambling character of its buildings and the smallness of its population, its daily paper, electric lights and water works did not seem so much out of the wav. As the fingers of the girl were nearing the end of their task, a voice was heard behind her. She recognized it as that of Mr. Ferard, the editor. He said: "Miss * Madge, here are three short items I wish you would put in type. Take pnins, please, for I will not have time to look at your work." The morning paper was nearly ready for the press and handing her three slips of manuscript covered with his almost unreadable scrawl, he left her and went to attend to other matters demanding his attention. "I wonder what that can be," thought the girl, puzzling over the badly-written sentences. "Oh yes, I see now," and she quickly, put it into type. It was a short editorial squib. Then she took up the next one, a news item: We learn thai Ben Haven, the well known stage driver on the Colorado and Kansas line between here and Red Gulch, has been discharged and his place filled by John Horris.1 Horris started out on his first trip Friday morning, and will return to-morrow night. , The girl hesitated. She disliked having the words go forth to the world. They told of her father being thrown out of employment, and though the editor had not said so, everybody would know that Ben Haven had "lost his job" on account of his dissipation. "I must do it though," she thought, "for I want to keep my place here now," and this item, too, was made ready for the press. The third, and her last work of the night, had evidently been handed in from i the telegraph office. It read: A terrible blizzard, said to be the -worst of the season, is raging in Wyoming and Western Nebraska. It is sweeping southward and will reach here about noon Sunday. Coming so late in the season, it will find many unprepared and will do much damage. That was all, and throwing her thin cloak around her, she left the office, and, through the chill, gray morning, sought her unattractive home?a frame cabin, perched far beyond the outskirts of the town, on the side of Indian Hill, with only the Government stage road between it and the Smoky River. There was a peculiar clearness in the air and the stars -K- twinkled with a strange magnetic brightness. She thought little of it, however, and before the sun rose or the noisy carrier boys had delivered the morning Calliope, she was fast asleep, resting from the labors of the night. "Madge," called her father, six hours later, "haven't you slept long enough? I'm hungry. Get up and get me some dinner." The girl wearily arose and began getting the meal that her father had so roughly demanded. They two were alone in the world, and the double duty of the printing office and the kitchen fell upon the girl's shoulders. Her father had come to make his days much like hers, when he was not employed?sleep nearly all day, and alas! be down town all night. Now he sat by the kitchen stove lazily blinking at the morning Calliope which had long ago arrived. "Madge, did you see this about me?" he suddenly exclaimed. "What, "father!" 1 'About my being discharged and that worthless Joe Horris taking my place?" "Yes, I saw it," was the meekreponse. "Why didn't you keep it out then? I don't see why the editor should attack me that way." "I couldn't keep it out, father. What j do you suppose I have to do with, things that go into the paper?" "Oh, you don't care. You're like that worthless brother of yours; if you were a boy, you'd desert me like him?that's all you care about your father." He was in a grumbling mood to-day and did not spare the patient slave who served him. She would not allow, however, the allusion to the boy who, four years ago had gone forth with a mother's blessing, to seek an honorable livelihood. "What has Will done?" she asked hotly. "To be sure, he has never come back, but he has sent you money and will some day come to us. But never mind, dinuer is ready." She saw that he was waited on, and ; then went to the window. Far down in the town she could see the people thronging churchward. The sky was covered -with a gray, misty cloud that was drifting swiftly to the southward. She listened to the gusts of wind that shook the building, and she thought of the blizzard that the dispatch had said was coming. "I'm goin' downtown, Madge," said her father as he rises from the table. "Stay with me," she pleads, but a slam of the door is all the answer she receives. It was a long and dreary day. The biting north wind grew fiercer and wilder. At three o'clock the snow commenced falling. Not in large, feathery flakes as in { well-regulated eastern skies, but in tiny, icy particles, that pierced the skin of the traveler exposed to them. The storm howled on, aud by five, when Madge saw her father come unsteadily around the coruer of the house, on his way home from a favorite lounging place where he had spent the day, the suow was blinding aud the cold had almost conquered the feeble efforts of the kitchen stove. "Well, ^ir ye goin' to the office?" asked Haven in a somewhat liquorweakened voicc. "No; there is no paper on Monday morning, you know," replied the compositor. "That's so, forgot about it. It's mighty cold here; what's the matter?" "The coal is nearly gone. Didn't you get some yesterday?" "Didn't have no money, an' now I'm out of a job, I can't get none. What'll we do, Madge?" "I'll have my month's wages soon, and then it'll be all right." "I heard somethin' ter-day." "What was it, father?" "liiat norris torn on me,so as to gut my job. Said to the comp'ny that I was a good-fer-notkin' an' got me discharged. I'll get even with him, doggon his doggoned picter," and the man clenched his hands angrily. Suddenly his face lighted up with a strange expression. "He comes back to-night from the Gulch, doesn't he?" he blurted out, and then went to the door. The wind was still fiercer, and the air was fairly white with snow. The thermometer had J>een registering below zero for two hours, and now was drawing near to the twenty degree mark. No church bells could be heard; indeed that Sunday is to this day remembered as one upon which no evening services were held, on account of the terrible storm. Up from the stream to which the steep banks, separated from the house by the narrow wagon road, led, came the roar of the waters as they dashed eastward, as if getting a good headway for their long sluggish journey across the plains to the sea. "I'll fix him," the girl heard him mutter in his half-drunken frenzy, and taking a lantern from the closet he went with it out into the night. "What can he be doing?" she thought, and waited with breathless anxiety for his return. It was a long time, but when he came, it was without the light and with a blustering and blowing that told he had been facing the storm. "Where is the lantern, father?" she ; IIRJUILGU* "It went out, and I had to drop it to hang on to myself," he replied with a leer. She is not satisfied, but can get no other answer; and as the fire is dying and the bitter cold is creeping over her flesh, she goes to the single up-stairs room of the swaying cabin, where she prepares to sleep. Before doing so, she peers through the curtainless windows. She can see nothing, but can feel the dust-like snow sift against her face as it is driven through some crevice in the wall. All is black outside. Just as she is turning away, however, she thinks she sees a twinkle of light toward the river. She looks again. Yes, surely it is there. Can a traveler be abroad in such a tempest? Surely not, for the light remains still. She puzzles over it a moment and then a thought comes to her that makes her tremble. It is the lantern which her father has hung out?why? There can be one answer?to misguide his rival, who must force his way through the storm to-night and bring throurh the mail and stage from the Gulch. The light will cause him to turn to the right and throw stage driver and horses over the bank, and send them rolling to a death plunge in the icefilled river below. "In his drunken fury he is not himself," she thinks, in excuse of the deed, and determines to undo the crime which was about to be committed. Hastily wrapping a cloak around her shivering form., she creeps back to the lower room. Her father is sitting before the stove, apparently brooding over his coming revenge. As noiselessly as possible she opens the outer door; and though the man turns and sees her slipping through, she has vanished into the blackness of the storm before he can call to her. In an instant he recognizes her errand; the thought of the slight, girlish form battling with the fearful tempest, sends the blood back from his heart and makes a sober man of him in a flash. He rushes to the door and calls: "Madge!" with all his strength. It is of no use. Nothing but the wind and the roaring Smoky reply. Putting on his overcoat, which, ragged as it was, would afford some protection, he starts to the rescue. He turns the corner of the house, and as the blast strikes him, he is almost driven back. But he struggles on and reaches the spot where he thinks he left the lantern?none is there, nor can he find a trace of the daughter whose body is somewhere 6eing drifted under the snowy covering. Back to the house, reached with difficulty, he takes his course, and in agony, alternately upbraids himself and mourns the abscut child. ijc $ $ >js Jjs % "Bless me, driver, but this is a hairy sort of a night," and the only passenger of the Red Gulch stage drew his ulster closer about him and even then shivered a little with the cold. "Yes, we'd orter hev stopped back vender until mornin', but the mail haz ter go through if we kin git it. Ye see, they is awful pertic'lar about it an' I ain't bin on the route before. I don't want ter fail on my first trip." "You don't mean to say you don't know this road?" "Wa'al, I calc'late I know it pretty 1%hij uuu x aiu t a iu^ ici uiivci, luatd all. The horses hez ben along here often enough." "Are there any bad places?" "One that's right bad, 'bout two miles this side o' town, 'long side of Indian hill. The road's between the hill and the Smoky lliver. Haven (he's the old driver) used to have a light in his house along there to guide hini when he kim in late. 'Spect there'll be one tc-night. The horses'll just bear off to the right o' the light, an' we'll be all O. K." The rickety old stage lumbered on for an hour. It was quite dark and the horses, weary and confused by the now whirling snow, were picking out the way slowly. "We're almost tliar," volunteered the driver, Joe Horris. "Most where?" asked the passenger, who had forgotten the former conversation. "Most to the river cut by Haven's house." "Say, driver, I know Haven, and I guess I'll get out at the house. You can take my things on down to the hotel, and I'll be down in tl*e morning,'? They had reached Indian hill, and the river's angry roar came up from below, vicing with the northern blast for supremacy of sound. Suddenly, midway in the cut, the horses stopped. As Horris attempted tc urge them on, a weak voice came from the blackness beyond their heads. "There's somebody there!" exclaim9 the passenger, and in a moment he is groping his way to the heads of the horses, and then lifting from the drift a little, girlish form which, while being carried to the wagon, dropped into insensibility and was like a dead thing in the man's arms. When, an hour later, the storm beaten company drew up to the hotel and the light of the office lamp streamed full upon the girl's face, the by-standcrs, who were watching for signs of returning life, were surprised to see the stranger kiss her lips and cheeks passionately. "See hyar," blurted out Horris, "no insults, young man, in these parts. "We know Madge Haven too well." "Insults?" repeated the youth (for he was scarcely more), as he relinquished his charge to the hands of the landlady, Kcl-io ic mr sister. " AO ? And so it proved; for when he signed his name upon the register, it read: "William Morris Haven, Portland, Ore." An hour later, Ben Haven came to the village to organize a searching party. His relief when he found his child safe, though chilled and still insensible, at the hotel, cannot be told in words. The shock and the agony of that night made a new man of him, and his tenderness toward the daughter who shared with him the secret of his remorse, though they never spoke of it to each other, was remarked by all who knew them. So effectual and lasting was his reform that the Daily Calliope was able to give, a few weeks later, on the same day that it told of Miss Madge's first appearance upon the street, this item: Mr. Ben Haven has accepted his old position on the Red Gulch stage line, his successor, Joe Horns, having resigned to go to the mines. The Great Kohinoor Diamond. The famous Kohinoor diamond, or "Mountain of Light," which, accorrding to a dispatch, Queen Victoria has been asked to restore to its rightful owner, Prince Dhuleep Singh, who was recently married to an English lady in Paris, is one of the great jewels of the world. During hundreds of years it has been looked upon with superstitious reverence by the Hindoos, who believed that its florm'/io TT7?+h if flm enrprpirrnf.v pUSSCdSlUU tamw ITAVU AV VUV I of India. On the other hand, it has been regarded an omen of ruin and disaster, and its history shows that every sovereign owning it up to Victoria lost either his life or his empire. It belonged to the Mogul dynasty of rulers, but there is a tradition that, before it shone in the Peacock throne, it was owned, countless ages before, by the mythologicalPandoos. At all events, sovereign has been stealing it from sovereign for nearly a thousand years. The court circles of London would, of course, be shocked at the application of this term to the method by which Her Majesty acquired the gem, but it is the very plain language of Princc Dhuleep Singh to the Empress of India. 'It will be useless for me," he writes, "to demand the restoration of my kingdom, swindled from me by your Government, but which I hope shortly, by the aid of Providencc, to retake from my robbers. But my diamond, the Kohinoor, I understand, is entirely at your own disposal. Therefore, believing your Majesty to be the most religious body that your subjects pray for every Sunday, I do not hesitate to ask that this gem be restored to me or else that a fair price be paid for it to me out of your privy purse." Queen Victoria has not yet replied to this polite request for restitution, but even should Dhuleep be successful in getting his kingdom back there is not much probability that he will ever see his diamond again unless he receives an invitation to Windsor Castle. The magnificent gem is, it is needless to say, part of the spoils of India. It was brought to England about 1S50 in the Medea, sloopof-war.?New York World. A Lead Watch for a Rich Man. Horace C. Wilcox, President of the Meriden Britannia Company, is one of the richest men in Connecticut. .Like the late Jim Fisk, he began life as a tin peddler. The other day Mr. Wilcox tried to perpetrate a little joke on Nathan Fenn, a Yankee watchmaker of the old-fashioned sort. Culling in at Watchmaker Fenn's shop, Mr. Wilcox pulled out a brassplated lead paper weight, cast in imitation of a watch. "There, Citizen Fenn," said he, as he laid it on the counter, "is a watch I think a good deal of. If you will make it run I'll give you $10." And with that left the shop, chuckling gleefully. The watchmaker was not to be easily stumped. He immediately set to work, hollowed out the lump of lead, inserted a set of old works, attached a pair of leather hinges to the case, made a crystal of a dark-lantern lens, and attached to the whole business a chain, the links of which were ingeniously constructed of peach stones. Thus armed he broke into the office of the Britannia factory the next morning and laid the wonderful watch on Mr. Wilcox's desk. The latter didn't say a word, but drew his check for $10, while the score ol clerks, led by Robert M. Wilcox, husband of the poetess of passion, who happened to be present, giggled outright.?New York Sun. The Uniform of the West Point Cadets. It is said that the main reason for the movement to change the uniform of the men in the first class at West Point is that they damage their systems with the present gray jackets. These jackets are cut almost to a corset tightness in the first place, and since they don't wear out as fast as the cadets grow they naturally get tighter and tighter each few months. The women have taught the boys to be very proud of the slim waists that distinguish the corps, so that each fellow hangs on to his jacket as long as he can. It is said that one day when a cadet fell into the water his commanding ofticcr ordered him to take off his jacket and wring it. An investigation followed, and showed that whereas most of the bigger boys had been obliged to discard their shirts, there were even some who had had to cut away the lower halves of their undershirts in order to button their jackets around their waists. This will not surprise soldiers. In every country there are swell regiments that achieve good looks more or less in the same way. There are even tales of the sort about some of the dandies in our own Seventh,?flew York Sun. i WOMAN'S WORLD. PLEASANT LITERATURE FOR FEMININE READERS. ALL POWERFUL WOMAN. What cannot woman do for good or evil? She is the worst and best of human kind? Either an angel or a very devil, Sour and belligerent, or calmly sweet inclined. As wife and mother she can make home heaven, Or bring upon it suffering and blight? By disposition kind and temper even, Or bosom full of bitterness and spite. The sweetest, grandest object in creation Is a good woman in her proper sphere, Winning the ardent love and approbation Of loyal husband Rnd of children dear. Earnest in her work, devout, untiring? Ever striving some new bliss to plan? To no great name but that of wife aspiring? The crowning glory God vouchsafed to man. And then, per contra, there is no one living More to be censured, dreaded and despised, Than n harl wnman constant trouble giving To those who should by her be idolized. Splenetic, sour, cruel and secitious, Careless of home, and fend of rout and ball, Willful, improvident, conscienceless and vicious, The friend of no one, End the curse of all. ?Francis S. Smith, in New York Weekly. DOG COLLARS ON GIRLS' WAISTS. Girls with slender waists have taken to wearing dog collars in the place of belts. Vanity, of course, is at the back of the fad,but it is a go nevertheless. The collars vary in appearance, but most of them are of the mastiff size, and nearly all of them can be let out. In a walk down Chestnut street yesterday afternoon five young ladies with this highly original kind of belt on were counted. Three of them looked as if they wanted to sit down and take a fresh breath, but the other two, who were more slender, were as easy and chipper as you please.?Philadelphia Inquirer. A STORY ABOUT BALTIMORE GrRLS. One of the latest fads of Baltimore girls is to dress in black from head to foot, with veil and gloves to match, and then, borrowing a neighbor's child, show it around the city. Of course, the natural supposition is that the child is not borrowed, and that the lady is a a widow. As a widow is generally supposed to be ready to recontract matrimony, the sympathies of the susceptible young man are readily aroused, first by curiosity as to how long the child's fof-Vinr nnc hppri dead; then, what he died of, and, since the widow :;eems to mourn for him, how she must hare cared for the dear departed. And, if she did care for him, why might she not care also for another, and why might not he be the fortunate individual, especially if the first husband left cash enough for the support of two or three, as the case might be. Of course, when acquaintance follows, the apparent widowhood can be easily and innocently explained, and the desired happy result follow.?Baltimore American. now TO KEEP A TRBI FIGURE. "Women who wish to preserve the slimuess and contour of their figures must begin by learning to stand well, says a writer in Dress. That is explained to mean the throwing forward and upward of the chest, the flattening of the back, with the shoulder blades held in their proper places and definite curving in of the small of the back. No other women hold themselves so well as the aristocratic English women. Much of their beauty lies in their proud carriage, the delicate erectness of their figures and the fine poise of their heads. The same aristocratic carriage is within the reach of any American girl who takes the pains to have it; it :is only the question of a few years of eternal vigilance, never relaxing her watchfulness over herself, and sitting or standing, always preserving her erectness and poise, the result being that at the end of that time it has become second nature to her, and she fifterward loses it. Another thing1 to avoid is a bad habit of going upstairs, which most women do, bent forward, with the chest contracted, which, as well as an indolent, slouchy manner of walking, is injurious to the heart and lungs. MKS. CLEVELAND MET 1TT.S. IIA YES. There was an incident at the Centennial ball which was as embarrassing to Mrs. Cleveland and Mrs. Hayes as it was amusing to the bystanders. Mrs. Cleveland had expressed a desire to be introduced to Mrs. Hayes, so was led to her box by one of the Four Hundred who was dancing attendance upon her. Mrs. Hayes being engiossed in a conversation at the time and not immediately recognizing her visitor, simply acknowledged the introduction and went on with her conversation. Mrs. Cleveland stood slightly embarrassed for a moment, and then turned and walked out of the box feeling decidedly chagrined. In the meantime Mrs. Hayes, who had supposed all along that her visitor was one of the numerous class of people who seek introductions on such occasions, looked up and discovered that the lady who had just been introduced to her had gone, inquired casually what her name was, and was much amazed as well as chagrined when a gentleman standing by replied: "Mrs. Cleveland? Mrs. Grovcr Cleveland?Mrs. ex-President Cleveland." And Mrs. Hayes frantically shouted for the General. "Call the General; bring him to me," and when the General arrived Mrs. Hayes was at once led to Mrs. Cleveland's box and was introduced over again to the ex-President's wife, where she apologized for and fully explained the reason for her lack of TT 7 TT 1J cordiality.?.mew lor/c neruiu. A PRIKCES8 OF FINANCE. I recently had. the pleasure of a1 chat with Miss Alice Cornwell (also known as Princess Midas), the successful Australian lady who has made quite a name as a business woman, says a writer in London Truth. She ht:s brought back three schemes in her pocket which she is about to placc before the British public. The first is the construction of a harbor at Port Adelaide, for which she has obtained a concession of a mile of the foreshore and which would greatly facilitate the unloading ol vessels which have now to make a detour of nine miles by the river. About $7,500,000 will be required for this scheme, which, however favorable for the shipping and the colony, will, I suppose, interfere with certain vested interests, such a* those of the South Australian Land Company. The lady's second project is that for floating a company to take over the Wyong estate, not far from Sidney,which contains valuable coal mines, timber and agricultural land to the tune of some 17,000 acres. For this purpose about half a million will be required for the present. The third scheme is one for bringing out bona fida Australian mines in this country. It -will take over Miss Cornwell's existing mines and will have ramifications in all the Australian colonies. This company is to have a capital of $'2,500,000 in $5 shares, but it is intended to call up only fifty cents per share. It will be seen that Miss Cornwell's schemes are ambitious, but to judge from the high character she bears, they will be honest. It will then remain to be seen whether they will be put forward in such a practical shape as to be acceptable to the iSritish investing public. A FASHIONABLE MARRIAGE IN RUSSIA. The Russians generally marry quite young in the upper classes, and amongst country people even at an earlier age; and to the honor of this society be it said, love marriages are the rule, and marriages for money are veiy rare exceptions. Dowry-hunting and marriages of interest have not vet made their ap peaiance in Russian manners. Girls ol high social position readily marry young officers of the Guard, who furnish the largest contingent of dancers to the balls of Petersburg. During the carnival fetes the two armies, the army in petticoats and the army that wear epaulets, learn tc know each other thoroughly, Friendships spring up, the young man pays court, and one day, without having consulted anybody, two fiances come to ask of the parents a blessing, which is nevei refused. The church does not marrj during Lent, so they have to wait until Easter week. Fashion demands for th< celebration of the ceremony the chape of some private house, if the couple have not sufficiently lofty relations to secur? the chapel of the palace. A family thai respects itself ought to have at its wed ding an honorary father and honorarj mother, if not the Emperor and the Em press, at least a Grand Duke and Granc Duchess. The honorary father gives th< holy image, which some little child re latcd to the families carries in front oJ the fiances. They enter the church, followed by all their friends ii gala uniform. The ceremony begins it is very long, and complicate< with many symbolic rites; a smal table?a sort of movable altar?is placec in the middle of the oratory; the coupl are separated from it by a band of rose colored satin; when the priest calls, the; must advance, and the first who sets foo on the band, whether husband or wife will be the one who will impose his o her will in the household. This is ai article of faith for all the matrons, wh< watch them at that moment. On the tab! is placed the liturgical formulary, th candles which they must hold, the cros which they kiss, the rings which they wil exchange, the cups of wine in which the; -i.- iT..:. 1;? ?j "Will moisten meir upa, uuu nuitu j called in the Slavonic ritual "the cup o bitterness." Pages relieve each other t carry with outstretched arms two heav; crowns, which must be held above th heads of the fiances while the ceremon; continues. At the decisive moment whei the priest is announcing the words tha bind them together, the couple walk thre times around the altar, followed by th crown bearers; until the third turn i completed there is time to turn back after that the die is cast, the couple ar united for life. Thereupon the singer strike up in their most strident voices th joyous hymn: "Let Isaiah rejoice." Th bride and groom then go and prostrat themselves before the Virgin of the Icon ostase, and kiss her filigree robe, afte which they pass into the neighboring salon, where they gayly clink glasses c champagne, while the invited guests re ceive boxes of sweetmeats marked wit! the monogram of the young couple. Harper1 a Magazine. FASHION NOTES. Soft silk is most used for tea gowns. Big classic loops, styled "Creole ear rings," are all the rage in Paris. "Witch stitch" is the newest craze c the crewel-and-silk-floss young woman. The Princess gown, either short c trained, is the robe of the day in Paris. The handles of the finest parasols ai of silver and gold, set with real jewels. The novelty in white embroidery th spring is the "hemstitch block effects." i Tan remains the favorite color for tli glove whether it be of Suede, lisle threac or silk. Western women who follow the fashior follow them much more closely than Easl ern women.' Lace, tulle and gauze parasols are d rigueur with dressy carriage and law party toilets. This season's collection of fans cei tainly surpasses in beauty and daintines any before shown. Hats of coarse braid are trimmed wit garlands of wild flowers and grasses artistically arranged. All fine umbrellas and parasols ha\ paragon frames, and the paragon fram is an American invention. The Lord Fauntleroy collar and cuff with a silk tie in bright color,are as muc worn by little girls as boys. Gilt galloon in open patterns, with tov, of jew beads upon it, is used to trii Dircctoirc costumes of black moire an lace. The long wraps are becoming moi dressy, so much so that they are moi like elaborate polonaises than street gai ments. The edges of some of the new laces ar finished in deep points, instead of th scallops to which we have become accus tomed. A beautiful lace fan in floral pattern was adorned with about fifty preciou stones, one being set in thi centre of eac! flower. Many of the new gauze fans are mountei upon sticks of mother of pearl, se promiscuously with garnets and tur quoises. Many straight skirts are plaited on t the belt. They are more stylish, howevei if shirred three or four inches deep am drawn to tit the foundation skirt. The shepherdess hats of dark neutral tinted straw, wreathed with Persian gauz and trimmed with violets, primroses, an< jonquils, are worn by young ladies. The new jerseys are made in many dif ferent ways, resembling in cut and styl the most fashionable bodices of the Direc toire, Empire, and Josephine gowns. A great novelty is a new French bon net made of one pie'ee of velvet. Ther is asoftcrowii, and the velvet is filled ii very close all around. The brim is sim ply of this velvet, double and oddl; bunched into an artistic design at one side This is turned back to frame the face ant hair, and is adjusted according to th fancy of the wearer. ?: .%C: ~. . > ' I ! FARMING IN (iHINA. I A PRIMITIVE SYSTEM OP CULTIVATING THE SOUL. I The Emperor's Annual Visit to the l Temple of Agriculture?Care in i Cultivation?The Rude Imple' ments?The Principal Crops. From legendary times down to to-day , the Chinese have been essentially an agricultural people, and their Emperors have done all they could to encourage it by instituting ceremonies tending to ennoble the occupation of the farmer. Every year the Emperor makes his annual visit, at the vernal equinox, to the temple of ! agriculture, and after plowing with his own hands a few furrows, offers sacrifices at the four altars of the gods of heaven, the gods of earth, the planet Jupiter, and the Emperor Shen Neng, the legendary socond Emperor, who invented agriculture in B. C. 2737, and who "first fashioned timber into plows and taught ' the people the art of husbandry." In . spi te o:i its great antiquity, and the great ; respect in which it is held, agriculture ( ha3 not made great progress among the Chinese. Their system of cultivation is ( very ca.reful and marked by attention to details, but shows ignoranee of the principles of rotation of crops, adaptation of I soil to particular grains, and an extremely r primitive knowledge of agricultural implements. The fields are treated like im, nwnse gardens; they are subject to the | most constant and watchful care, both at j planting and during the growth of the grain; the crop is gathered by hand with ' the utmost completeness, so that not a _ straw, leaf, or scarccly even a root is alr lowed to remain. In threshing, the grain is spread out on a smooth clay floor in the j open air, and then threshed with flails, , or by rolling a stone roller drawn by a ' donkey over it to detach the grain. The ^ chaff is removed by tossing the grain into the air in a slight breeze, the kernels of ^ grain falling straight to the ground, the chaff and dust being blown aside. The J two most characteristic features of Chij nese agriculture are the use of fertilizers j and the system of irrigation. The fertilizers are gathered from all conceivable sources?earth from canals, rivers and * city streets, hair from barbers' shops, ex^ ploded firecrackers, sweepings from the streets, lime and plaster from kitchens * and old buildings, soot, bones, fish and animal remains. A large number of persons gain their livelihood by the collection of these fertilizers. Many devices are B e used in irrigation; where there is running water, it is directed in channels I banked with clay, which are divided and sub-divided so that every part of the g ground is reached. Where there is no ? running water, wells are dug and the water drawn by hand and poured into the main ditches. g Chinese agricultural implements are of the rudest character, and are chiefllv the a plow, hoe, harrow, rake and stone roller. t The first is simply a broad blade fastened e to a rough handle, which never cuts a e furrow more than six inches deep, and g frequently only two or three; it is drawn . by teams of the most miscellaneous deg scription?horses, donkeys, mules, oxen g and human beings, for it is nothing une usual to see a man or boy harnessed with e one or two other of the animals drawing e the same plow. The price of foreign _ plow.*} would deter a'il but a few from buying them. The implements are all ? .made by hand locally. The principal | crops around Pekin, besides the fruits and vegetables, are wheat, barley, buck^ wheat, millet, beans, Indian com, sesamum, hemp, rice, cotton and tobacco. L ?L jti frrrr\ nrr\T\Q Irnnw JLq ?* Ut'iU 13 piauicu m unv ? the autumn and spring wheat, the former being the better in quantity and quality. It is planted not later than the beginning of October, and is harvested in the sum - mer solstice. The seed is not sown broadcast; it is carefully sown in furrows I about eighteen inches apart, leaving room for hoeing, and when the crop is partly grown some 'r vegetable crop is planted in the intervening space. About 130 pounds of e seed to the English acre are sown, and the Chinese farmers say the ground is should be damp. Spring wheat is only sown when, through unfavorable causes, ie the ground is not ready for the autumn lj crop. It is sown not later than April 5, and ripens at the same time as the autumn 1S wheat. Both crops are used exclusively for making flour. The various kinds of millet are grown in enormous quantities e for human and animal food; so are beans and Indian corn. Rice culture, however, ranks with that of silk and tea, as one of the three characteristic pursuits of the Chinese. All three are aided and en's couraged in every possible way. It is difficult to make a comparison of the h yield of Chinese and Western farmers, ?> owing to the great difference in the methods employed, and the total abscnce e of agricultural statistics in China. But it is ie ' probable, says Mr. Denby, that, in proportion to the quantity of seed sown, the 5 ! farmer of North China gets a larger rek turn than the average in the United States, because of the careful system of planting, harvesting and threshing,which r3 leaves no room for any loss. This involves, n i mncli extra labor. Thesvstem fj of growing two crops in the same ground at the same time, while advane tageous in some respects, probably leads e to a deterioration in the quality of both, if not in the quantity. China is essentially a treeless country, a circumstance 6 which doubtless has much to do with e the floods and droughts which afflict it. If it were not for the countless cemeteries, planted with pines and cedars, s trees would rarely be seen. The Yellow s River inundations have lately turned ath tention to arboriculture and afforestation, and Li Hung Chang has issued a proclaci mation all over his own province, requirt ing the officials to plant trees in certain _ public places, and advising the people to do so for themselves. The proclamation Q -contains eight directions for tree planting, and a recital of ten benefits to be j derived from it. The third of these latter that trees absorb superfluous moisture and preserve a just equilibrium among the geomantic influence. The sixth is ? that travelers can find shade and rest in the groves in the summer; the seventh is that the free operations of highwaymen - and banditti will be obstructed by trees 3 and forests. The other "benefits," how ever, are more probable, and of a more practical character.?London Times. e i A cement, said to be capable of use ! where resistance to the action of both . water and heat is required, is composed jr by mixing ordinary glycerine with dry litharge, so as to constitute a tough paste. 1 \ For uniting the joints of steam-pipes and e ? other similar applications,this preparation | is said to be very satisfactory. ... . . J ' I I CURIOUS FACTS. '* . . Signatures in lend pencil are legal. Columbus; in 1493, brought the first) domestic to America. Chain cables were introduced into the English navy in 1812. Canada was divided into Upper and Lower Canada in 1791. Albany, Ga., rejoices in the possession of a three-legged alligator. An English barber recently shaved twelve men in three minutes and forty seconds. . "'M Dan Walker, of Eustis, Fla., has an alligator that he is breaking to drive in harness. A man in Texas has invented a machine which will husk twelve acres of corn per day. Santa Rosa, Cal., has a floral curiosity in the shape of a hollyhock bush that bears jet black flowers. Mountain hunters of Pennsylvania are said to use indigo instead of whisky to cure rattlesnake bites. Letters in the handwriting of Piggott, the notoriouH Parnell forger, are now ad J -C YCrUBCU 1or attic at mu ^uuiuu An archaeologist at Monticello, Fla., ias a tree which bears quinces, pears and tpples. It docs not seem to be a graft. A pair of swallows have built their nests (n the very summit of the Eiffel Tower, right under the flapping folds of the flag, of France. John Allen, a New York hotel keeper, gives a free dinner to every man, woman . : and child who asks for it. And yet he makes money. Probably the richest bootblack in the jountry is "Prof." Jochrim Hooper, of Denver. He is a colored man about thirty-three years of age, and from a capital of $4 he has built up a fortune of $35,000. Michael Faraday, the chemist, went to Switzerland and saw the Alps. This is how his diary records the great event: "We soon entered among the mountains;' they were of limestone, stratified very regularly." John D. Davis, a farmer residing at New Diggins, HI., put his milk cans on the wood pile to dry, and the reflection of the sun's rays from them set the wood on Are, doing considerable damage to his house and barn. The famous Corliss engine that was built to drive the machinery of the Centennial :Exhibition of 1876 is now in the shops of the Pullman Car Company, at Sensington, near Chicago, HI. It is the largest ,. : engine in the world. : The newest device for killing time indented by the Briton is to make the men at a dinner party write out some account j of the ladies'gowns after the dear creatures have left them to themselves, and later, when tbe ellorts are reaa aioua m the drawing room, to give prizes for the best and worst descriptions. They have a great unknown in the St. Joseph (Mo.) work house. He was run . in as a vagrant and is doing time on the rock-pile. He is way up in the law, medicine, literature, politics, theology and science, but is completely silent as regards himself. In Shakespeare and the Bible the strange being is said to be a giant. The Dust Avalanche. The dust avalanche descends when snow is loose and has recently fallen. It is attended with a whirlwind, which lifts the snow from a whole mountain side and drives it onward through the air. It advances in a straight line, overwhelming every obstacle, mowing forests down like sedge, leaping (as an old peasant once expressed it in my hearing) from hill to hill, burying men, beasts, and dwellings, and settling down at last into a fomidable, compact mass without color and without .outline. The snow which forms these jStaub-Lawinen is dry and finely pow'dered. When it comes to rest upon the earth it immediately hardens into something very like the consistency of ice, wrapping the objects which have been borne onward by its blast tightly round in a firm, implacable clasp. A man or Tmrsp spi7pf3 hv a Staub-Lawine, if the breath has not been blown out of his body in the air, has it squeezed out by the even, clinging pressure of consolidating particles. A human victim of the dreadful thing, who was so lucky as to. be saved from its clutch, once described to !me the sensations he experienced. He was caught at the edge of the avalanche just when it was settling down to rest, carried off his feet, and rendered help? less by the swathing snow, which tied his legs, pinned his arms to his ribs, and crawled upward to his throat. There it stopped. His head emerged, and he could breathe; but as the mass set he felt the impossibility of expanding his lungs, and knew that he must die of suffocation. At the point of losing consciousness he became aware of comrades running to his rescue. They hacked the snow away around his thorax, and then rushed on to dig for another man who had been buried in the same disaster, leaving him able to breathe, but wholly powerless to stir hand or foot. This narrative reminded me of an anecdote told by Haydon, the painter, who nearly sacrificed a negro's life by attempting to take an entire cast of the man's body at one moment from the feet to the chin. "When the plaster of paris began to set the negro could not breathe, and he was only saved from asphyxiation by Haydon's tearing down the mold of brick in which he had been placed.?Cornhill Magazine. A Doctor's Queer Hobby. Dr. Bibby is a Bath physician with a * * ' TT * ? x. 1 queer UoDDy. .tie is anxious to nave mc ocean crossed in a rowboat. He sunk a round sum of money in fitting out a man for the voyage a few years ago, and the man was lost?at least he never has been heard from since he left the coast. The Doctor's ardor is not dampened in the least, however. He says that to a stout man who hasn't chick or child dependent upon him and is willing to try the experiment, he will furnish a lifeboat that positively cannot tip over and all the supplies for the voyage.?Leietiton (Me.) Journal. A Black Snake in a Mail Bag. The mail clerks on the Burlington and Council Bluffs division of the "Q" Railroad were treated to a scare a few days ago. While the train was going at the rate of thirty miles an hour, a black snake forty-two inches long crawled out of a mail bag and showed fight. It was; promptly dispatched. The reptile had j come from a pasteboard box six inches) square, in which a hole had been punc-1 tured for ventilation. The box was ad- j dressed to Miss Smith, California, Iowa, [ and was mailed in Kansas. ......