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WHAT BIGHTHAVB YX1 * ?I M. V1CTOB BTALEY. J* What right hive ye to murmur \ If >a cloud perchance appears To dim the blue horizon Of thy hopes by puteiLg fears? What right have ye to^uesticn S The wisdom of tny t>ou If 'tip Bis -will that ye shock pMl "BenbaSh the chastening ro:l?" i What right have ye to Bono*1 For those hopes unrealized? t Tbaugn lost, 'why 6hould ye shed te&ra ' For treasures that ye prize? I What, though thy castles built of air t In hopeless ruins lie, Think ye that structures frail as these Aiv even worth the sigh? O, be mot so soon o'erwbelm ul ? By trifling_griefs like these, Once more resolve?they vanish, all, .Like clouds before the breeze. Mount upward on thy blasted hopes, And be discouraged never; For failure ve-shall never know If ye will tout endeavor. 4 - Let this tiy motto be through life, Ana e'er give it assertion : "If a thing is -worth the striving for It's worth each new oxertion. Lawrence University, Appleton. Wi?. ~ THE BANKER'S CRIME; V\"-~ ??Oil ^ Diamond Out Diamond. L BT NATHAN D. DRNER. > CHAPTER XLIV. TWISTED THBEADS UNRAVELED. )|n^ interrupted. Th? ^persons assembled n were the same as before, but with the add i t i on al presence of Noel and Gwendoline, both Jasper | ^j5|lBIP and Mr. Hartwelll having ini . Bisted on their being present ' iSmrat revelations that wera t J?~ about to be made. ? The young man and the y young girl remained standing * near the door, while the rest maintained about the same relative positions in the room as at first; that is, with ; the banker and Croak sitting side by side omewhat apart, and facing the accusaftpry line of seats, as may be denominated ftfinoa /M*<vnnipd hv th? T.ondon lawver. L Jasper and bis wife, Mr. Dalhousie and Mies Winford. "Painful and remarkable as has been -this interruption," said Mr. Hartwell, Jowly rising and reproducing the piper Jfbich he had been in the act of reading M the time of the accident, "ourproceedinge are such as will not admit of delay. Mr. Gilbert Marlowe, in addition to the Ather grimes with which I have charged ^ou and yonr confederate, there at your ^de, there remains to briDg home to you anotjjgr njid ? graver charge pf much/ j elder date. I chafge thai y&tf did forge t?e name of Ihomas Alworth to a draft r for eighteen thousand pounds sterling, on b?\ the bank of Messrs. Soundman & Golds' berg, London, eighteen years ago, the exact date and circumstances of 6aid forgery to be hereafter specified. "I charge that you did, with the active complicity of Mr. Croak, execute said forgery in the latter's office; that you did then proceed to London in disguise; and; after fraudulently securing my identification of you as Thomas Alworth at said bank, that yon did then and there obtain | and approprate to your own use the said ! mm of eighteen thousand pounds; to the [ total impoverishment of said Thomas Al- j Rgv worth, wnom yon ha?e 6ince that time : l<'. cruelly and persistently misused." Ee c.ime to a pause. Both Noel and Gwendoliue seemed thnnderstrnck. Gilbert Marlowe and Croak Btill retained the outward appearance of self* possession, though the former was dripping with perspiration, and he had almost despaired from the moment of Jasper's receiving the paper from Dip. ! "Merciful Heaven! Thin charge is an awful one," groaned Noel. "Father, of coarse you proclaim it false?" '"YeR, yes; as a mritter of course, I do!'1 axclaimed the banker with an effort. False, false, false! Preposterous!" "If other proofs were wanting?whic^ may not be the case?the contents of this ' paper would be sufficient evidence of the J truth of what I charge," continued Mr. Hartwell, unfolding the j aper. "It is in your own handwriting, sir; it bears jour own signature; it is a full confession of your own gniit and that of your partner m the crime charged. The panicatricken haste, the false sense of security, the infatuation, or the delirium that indnced yon to execute and place in the j C? hands of another, puch a niece of selfaccusation , .otally beyond my comprehension. Its origin can "only be explained, if at all, by a reference to "that i blind fatality, which 6eems so often to -Wait on evil deeds, and to eventually unr\ fold the perpetrators to their own undoing. It is, nevertheless, here before us, in plftfk f?r.d white; ;n<l I ?b?U Kr.djt," v..j, iiov^fcver, oftgun to read, bel^-N the banker, who had caught a glimpse of the written page as it curled t>v?r t^Ji^iter's h?nis, ten_t f>ir forward, with nis eyes fixed upon it, and a aew hope springing into his face. "Ha! he cried. "Man alive, yon have overreached yourself! Preposterous! That is not in my handwriting, at all! I defy even Jasper, there, to identify it as > auch on onth?" Mr. Hartwell could not but be struck by the evident sincerity of these exclamations, even from the banker's lips. . * fn-r ?? ovnl on nfi nn in JUC i.h ULtO IU1UVU ?V1 UU .V- ?w Jasper, who hastily arose, and looked at the paper. "Ho speaks truly?this is not the paper that was stolen from me!" he exclaimed, in consternation. "It appears to be a perfect copy of the one I was deprived of?it has the same meaning, but it is in Bn altogether different handwriting! What Borcery is here?" "Soicery, indeed!" cried the banker, . ,?rho was secretly as much mystified as any one, but was, nevertheless, overJoyed at the fortunate accident that was CO mnch in his fuvor. "The onlv sorcery is in v nr own chicanery. Fool! the nj. per is or yonr own laencation. I W8| 'jg; never the author of any such paper as k yonr wiseacre Londoner hints of!" Forgetful of the other charges that had been preferred against him, he was EK - growing comparatively radiant, and Croak, sharing without understanding " hi* new confidence, was likewise brighteniDg np wonderfully; but theii rejoicing was exiremely 6hort-lived. "I can explain and rectify this apparent mystery in short order, gentlemen," suddenly observed Miss Win ford, rising, with much diyuity. "The paper in your hands is certainly not the or.ginal one. It is a poor copy that I myself made. The original s here!" And she coolly produced and banded to Mr. Hartwell another document, of very much the same external appearance as the one which he now per? mittedtofall to the floor. "Let Gilbert IHarlowe deny that paper if he dare!" Both Gilbert and Cioak suddenly collapsed, the triumph fading out of their laceB as suddenly as it had come. "Who and what are you?" gasped the banker, fixing his e\es upon the housekeeper, and sinking back with a groan. "Ha! you may well ask that? jou may eak in vain to oierce the disfigurement oz tue race tnat you once found so fair, false and injurious man!" cried Bhe, bitterlr. "Knew me, then, at last, for what I was. I am Harriet Loop, the girl of fiithe, to whom yon once pledged your heart and hand. I see you recognize me sow. -i,on cruelly, basely deserted me bo* | cause my father died -without leaving me tbedowry you had expected to receive with me; and then married the richer girl, whom your systematic harshness drove into an early.grave. I disappeared in the whirl of London, biding my opportunity for sevenge. "It came at last, in spite of the cruel epidemic that intervened to disfieure me &6 you -see. Mrs. Jasper Marlowe cad been my friend before her marriage, j After heriflight to London, where she was j to beoame a milliner under an assumed name, the better to elude your pursuing inquiries, we came together again. "It wtw at her prompting that I came hither to be your housekeeper, which my disfigurement effectually has enabled me to be, without your suspecting my identity with the woman whom vou had w> meanly, 60 mercenarily abandoned. "She had her object in sending me hither iu this .character?she can explain it in hex own cood time. I had my object, which was that of vengeance, and vengeance alone. I blush not to avow that I ha<re beeu a persistent ppy upon you from the first hour of my setting foot in thi6 House.. "A careful inspectian.0f a certain plant, concealed cook in yonder conservatory, J directly behind those painted glass panes, i would sufficiently explain to you my means of seeing and hearing even-thing of any moment that has taken place in this private office. At last, after years of patient waiting, my opportunity aawnea. "It was I who thus witnessed your murderous assault upon Jaejxer Marlowe here in this office last Saturday sight. Yon thought that you had obtained that paper at the cost of a murder. Noel's steps were heard approaching. Too frightened to shut and lock the office d&or, you threw tbe paper back upon the table, snatched up the insensible form, and had just time to bear it out of eight, arcund the angle of the safe, when l\oel enteced the room. "You managed to reply without a tremor to the commonplaces that he uttered, and he, hastily rolling up a newspaper he had come for, took his departure. But, in doing bo4I saw that he__was unconBciousl/ carrying away me precious document, which be had, inadvertently, gathered up in the folds of the newspaper. Thus relieved of his presence, you hurled your insensible burden into the vault, and locked the massive door upon it Then came your frantic disappointment and terror at missing the paper, for which you bad risked the gallow6. How I reveled in watching your frenzy, your , despair! "You still, however, thought that you had the secret of your supposed murder secure. On the following morning, when all the rest of the household were at church, you made your preparations for the disposul of the body. Ilou even had the grave ready to receive it in the back cellar. "Then came your second mystification. The body was no longer in the vault in which you had cast it. Of course, it was I who had effected his deliverance and restoration. It were a tedious tale to ! describe the mode of this now, further than to say that I have for years had in my possession duplicate kc-ys of every room in this house, Including this money vault. He thought, poor man, that he had the momentous paper still in his possession, when I assisted him out of the back garden-gate at gray of dawn on that succeeding Sunday morning. 1 knew that, for his own saftty and the security of the paper, it was best to leave him temporarily in this delusion. I knew, likewise, that it would be equally insecure in Noel's possession?that it would be' thoroughly safe in only my own custody. "I therefore stole into the young gentleman's chamber, while he slept, and took the paper from the folds of the newspaper, just as he had inadvertently thry.st it_awav into hi' coat pocket. Still wiiling that fie might be sup^oseclio have it in his possession, by one or another of those whom I felt ceitain would be madly in search of it, I took another precaution. I carried away the document, 1 it a nAnfnnfa am) oiomutrirA in fA.r?Ari ink, on the oldest and mustiest paper I could find, besides making a clumsy attempt to imitate the chirography. Having this, I re-entered Noel's room, put the imitation back into his coat pocket with the newspaper, and retained the original, which is now produced. "That is all. I think the wisdom of my f?recautions will be conceded; forcertainy, without them, the paper would not now be here to speak for itself. The object of my long espionage is accomplished. I at la6t witness the shame and downfall of the villain to whom I owe my life's blight and hopelessness. I am content." Her words had gradually increased in rapidity and bitterness, until toward the last they had rushed through her lips in a burning torrent. Both Marlowe and Croak were now the piotures of despair. To the surprise of all, Mr. Dalhousie avaiw - 8 "Misa.Winford" tesuir ner seat, ana m.tae ner a stiir out elaborate bow. "I maun aixpress ma deep an' abidin' regrit, i?a lass, that' ye war nae boorn a man a detective! he observed, in a tone or unieignea aamirauon; aixer which he as gravely eat down again. Mr. Hartwell now went on with the reauing itorigijiB] paper?with whose contents the reader ?|?eady been I made acquainted in the copy?and wag cot again interrupted..'. ST~. \ . "Oh, tpeak. ?jrl" cried Noel, interrogating the pallid banker with an imploring gesture. "Ycu still can and will refute these terrible charges?" "It is useless?I cannot!" muttered Gilbert Marlowe, drawing a trembling hand across his eyes. "It has been a 3 j v._i :& iAni u:au, Illiiu gtiuie, uui il jo cuucu ai xasi, in shame, ruin and defeat!" Croak was scarcely less unnerved; find Dalhousie, stalking solemnly across the floor, placed a heavy hand on the Bhoalder of each as signifying that they were under arrest. "Oh, Heaven'" exclaimed Noel, in indescribable anguish; "then I must bid jou farewell forever, my love, my life, my Gwendoline! I dare not even call you wife, and at the same time own this man, tnis criminal as my fatherl" "Live, love and hope on, for he is not your father!" joyfully cried Jasper Mariowe, springing to his feet with his wife's hand in his. "I am your father, Noel, though it was but this morning that I was made aware that you were my 6on; an? see, this, this is your mother! "It is true, >ioel," murmured Mrs. Marlowe, with a loving but somewhat shame-faced look. "Oh, my son, my own child! can you forgive the deception I |have been privy to during all these years, when you learn it was all meant for your own good, though it rended my heart-strin; s to part from you? Your ! real name is Outhbert Murlowe?or as | such you were christened. "I took you and Gilbert's little son,Noel, i who was of nearly one agi with you, to Penzance, when \ou were little more th m . infante, for your health. While there you were botn dreadfully ill, and the lit- j tie Noel died, wh.le sou recovered. It . was then that" I listened to Gilbert Mar- j lowe's proposition that you should be brought up as bin own, while the dead child 6hould be buried under your name. J "Iyielded in this because I saw that he , would, indeed, transfer his fatherlineSB wholly to you, and bring you up in luxury and elegnnce; while, nt the same time, I i had forebodings that his insane persist- I ency in pursuing me with his unwelcome I attentions, under the belief that your > f..ther had died ii> a loieign land, must | eventually drive me away into a life of s ruggle, pjrhi.ps of privation, in which I h.d not tile heart?much as the thought of separation tortured it?to mingle your sweet young fate. i "80 it turned out. I was ere long comrelied to flte. to e.ek relief from pert - 1 cation in itne etscnmy 01 LonaoD, and yon w?M>roared and educated as the Noel j who had passed away forever. ; "Oh, Cathbert,my son! Can yon not ' guess my.object in sending Harriet Loop hither? It was not revenge, it was longing niotihor-'s-lovo for you, that inspired J the stratagem. Since then she has keDt me socretlv anurised of vonr welfare, : weekly, and.often daily. Often, when a j child, you have visited me in her com- ' pany, at my stop in London, without suspecting that it was your own mother who was so devouring you with kisses, and was evec at'last-so : loath to let you go again." "Am I .dreaming?" muttered the young man, who felt indeed: in a strangely unreal condition; while Gwendoline was silently weeping at his side. "Yes. I *eem to care a recollection Of such visits, | and of those kisses and.embraces." < Then hie ?yes <wondered from hi? ] mother to the banker, with an inquiring i look. "She says truly," growled Gilbert Mar* lowe, who, together with Croak, wa? stolidly undergoing tbo operation of handcuffing at the hands of Mr. Dalhousie. "I have tried to bring yon up worthily, bnt you are not my-eon Noel?you are their eon Cuthbert. Cf.n't you run us out of this scene, ourae you?" he fiercely added, tarning upon the detective, with an oath. ""Isn't fcbere enough misery in store for mo, that you must heap it on t? me here?" Cuthbert Marlowe, as we -must no* call him, lowered hie eyes, and, with his breast laboring with contending emo* lions, in which sorrow and pity Lor the wretch whom l:e had so long .called father were perhaps uppermost, drew back shnddcringly as Lhe prisoners were silently led away. Then, turning and seeing his mother'* hands outstretched imploringly to him, c he threw himself at her feet with a great, ? joyful cry. j It was then his father who raised him t up, and, after embracing him. linked bis f youthful hand with the weeping Gwendo- r line's. t Ton deserve to be happy together, and t I know you will be," cried Jasper. c "Hasten now together, hand in hand, to coDvay the joyons tidings to Mr. Alwortb. " Gladden his old heart with the news that * he has como to his own again, and that ? Jasmine Lodge is once again to be his I cherished home!" t CHAl'TER.XLV. TBF. ENDING OF IT ALL. Our varied tale may be brought to a r fitting close with much brevity. e Both Gilbert Marlowe and Lawyer a Croak were speedily brought to trial on y the crimes charged to their account. e The incidents of the trials were more v than usually dramatic, and they occasioned a gre.t public sensation, but on their conviction, which resulted on al] the counts of their indictment, no sym- 1< pathv whatever was manifested in theii n behalf; nor did they deserve that it should be otherwise. j; They were each sentenced to twenty years imprisonment at hard labor. Gil- P gert Marlowe survived the passing of his ti sentence but one year, at the end oi tl which time he perished in his prison ^ cell by hie own hand, dying very much ai | ? he had lived-a cold-blooded, irrepent- ? ant, and absolutely selfish man. EJ Croak was still serving out his sentenci when last heard from, at which time be it bad not more than half completed it II ti may be hoped, but hardly expected witi jt great confidence, that his imprisonment . will work a real reform in hie nature, and that he will issue from it, if at all, a bet- Ci ter and more useful man. Such thorough, ai xy guilt-tougnened natures as His nre bui seldom truly chastened by even the mosi exemplary punishment; or, if any changt is effected at all, it is apt to be in the di. rection of increased duplicity, cunninj and innate depravity, in a manner to ren- ? der them sp much the more dangerous tc r< honest society a! large. ? d \Vormer and his confederates, who6< ^ trial and conviction preceded those oJ r( the greater criminals alluded to, and were hurried through with much lesi ' ceremony and interest, resulted in sen- ? tences in accordance with the crimet S] brought home to them, end they mnj h well be dismissed as unworthy of an* n other thought. . Miss "Winford, who still continued t? s< bear this name, had been very pains- r: taking and saving of the fair wages thai had been paid her for the long eervic( ^ which she had chiefly devoted to a sys- J tematized espionage upon her master, s< ii that she found herself enabled to retirt to a neighboring village upon a 6mall bui a sufficient income. She had perhaps beet originally a well-meaning woman, and her personal wrongs had not been incon- c siderable; but the personification of tl coldly pursued, long-hoarded and im- o placable revenge can never be portrayed p attractively, especially in the feminina j. form, and she has therefore, even while T)lftvincr n useful nart. not aDDeared tc P particular advantage in our Btory. si Accompanying ner in her retirement, u and with a future equally assured, b thrQUiih -the remunerative acknowledg- ^ mentB" of " Jasper Marlowe, went one ., who-e characterization, though not con. spicuous, h..s been perhaps even more C( unenviable. No degree of resentment, a no matter how justifiable (and even adequate provocation was not clearly estab. lished in this instance), can palliate the heinous, the detestable guilt of childgt*aling by one pereon as a means of re-' e, taliaUug uf.cn ?notbp*; unless there can' bo urjA.i j^tcnuation, as charity will' j ? impel us to do in the case of Mrs. l>Sftne, 1 the morbid workings of a diseased or tl di-ordered intelligence. She like Miss ^ Winford, continued to retain her fictitiouo t, name, and at last accounts tbey were living together in on? cct'^ge, peaceful and ~ inoffensive livea, '' v - ii- -i-i * t.lt fi A settlement 01 me esia;ets oi uuiu Gilbert Marlowe and Lawyer Croak, by w court administration, resulted as a mat- p terof course in a complete restitution { of such wealth, with interest, as they had wrongfully appropriated; it thus re- 11 suited in botlj Jasper Marlowe and old Mr. I Alworth once mote coming into very easy r circumstances, while the residue of Gil- 1; bert Marlowe's property, which proved ? to be very considerable, was found at S hiB death to have been wholly willed to 11 his once adopted son?Cuthbert Marlowe. Cuthbert and Gwendoline were married on the 6Ucoecding Michaelmas. It was not an accomplished fact, however, nor 1 was their betrothal publicly made known f in time to prevent The cailow but well- i i meaning Lord Squauderall from making ' j another offer of his heart and hand. It , need only be said in this connection that Miss Alworth refused his second offer ' just as kindly and good-naturedly as she 1 knew how. in view of her having heard 1 of the good faith in which Le had been ( striving after reformation in his life and j habits,aud that be accepted hi6 fate with manly and becoming resignation on beinz ! informed that his old schoolfellow and ^ chum, "Noel" Marlowe, was in the Bhoes t of the luckier man. Mr. and Mrs. t'nthbert Marlowe are stiU livinc. Their.union has proved an exceptionally nappy one, ana a group ot 1 children are now giowing up around t them. They live at Jasm:ne Vi la with ( old Mr. Alworth, whose troubled days are , at last ending peacefully nmong tbe beautiful flowers and plants for which he has ' ever manifested Rich a touching fondness; i and they are often visited by Cuthbert'a father aud mother, who reside chiefly in London, and still more frequently by ' good Ar.nt Joan. I Though now somewhat decrepit, the j latter 16 6till the cheerfnl mistre-s of her cozy cottage by the 6ea, though the elder joint-owner of the Gadfly, l'eler, aston- . ished her greatly som9 time ago by marryin^' Christie, the smiling niaid-of-all. < work, and, a little later, it was ha d that i Paul, who had been long regarded as the . m061 confirmed old bachelor of the two, w-B paying assiduous intentions to ? 1 comely green groeer^s wiaowoi tee neigfi. joifcood, with -similiarly unselfish and X)mpanioEabk) intentions. It remaine to -?peak of Adele and he* !>oy. Some further mystery continued to inger about them for a considerable ength of time. On the morning after :he death ?f Boncourt, Jasmine Lodge, o the astonishment of every o ;e, was round to be completely closed up and leserted. Th$ keysihad been left with a leighborimg oottager, nnd a subsequent sxamin ition of the interior, together with naairies at the railway station, simply eve&led -the fact that.everything belongng to Adele, including -the remains of ler brother, had been hurriedly carried n the direction .of London by daylight )f the succeeding day. The BervHnts?all )f them foreigners?'together with the worses and vehicles that had belonged to that irregular and unconventional establishment, had just as eilently and mysterously disappeared. It %vas understood that Adele would lave been possessed of considerable neans by her brother'e death, and it waa zenerally conjectured that she had thus inrrifid nnt nf cir'ht ud mind as the best neans of avoiding t&e soanaai wnicn sne aad bo much cause to dread. But nothing was definitely known until learlj a twelve month later, when it came o Mr. Hartwell's knowledge, through a ravelins: friend, and from him to the cnowledge of those chiefly interested, hat Adele was leading a retired an* jlamelese lifo in the port of Dieppe, atending to tha education of her promising )oy, who had been named Victor Roncerille, and being held in good esteem bj eason of her unobtrusive charities. [the em] Growin? and Packing Ten. The tea plant is as sensitive and deli:ate as a West Walnut street belle. It lourishes best on a mountain side, where t is neither very warm nor cool, where he soil is dry but the rains and dews are requent, where the force of the wind is >roken by adjacent woods or hills,where here is a maximum of sunlight and, ac:ording to the Celestials, of moonlight, nd where the surrounding ground is ;ept free from weeds or other vegetable growths. There are farms in Formosa, \>-Kien and other tea districts where nese coeuiuous caisl uuuuuugiu^ij, yhose tea crop is as famous and distincty known in the eastern world as the vaious chateaux of France are to the wine i xperts of Europe. Just as the millionires of Europe control certain vineards.so do the millionaires of the Flowry Kingdom control tea plantations rhose annual output is worth a king's ansom. Another point of the many we have to ;arn from the Chinese is the proper lode of packing the leaf. That which oes to America is dumped, as soon as it i "fired," burning hot into a lead-lined ox, the lead is soldered and the airight coffin is sent around the globe in ie hot hold of a steamer. The tea sveats nnd undergoes many changes rhlch alter its, flavor altogether and viits quality. The*Mongolian packs the poorest kind l strong paper packages, and these in am in mortuary lead; the better kind ?soft-tin paper covered boxes; still bet?r ones in silver foil inside of one-pound ases made of split sun-driel bamboo, ad the best in porcelain jars and vases. -Chicago Herald. His Life Devoted to Spiders. "Onf> of the curious thincs of this life." i marked an ex-Congressman, "is tho evotion of some men to an idea 'ithout regard to the opinion of the 2St of the world and without hope of jward. I know of a man from my tate who has devoted a lifetime to piders. He died in the Alps, where he ad been for two years collecting specilens of spiders. He sacrificed his life 5 spiders. He has left a collection of jme twenty-eight thousand distinct vaietics. You would hardly think there ere many more spiders in existence, 'his man has them stuck up in sections, 1 classes, fully labeled. "He began fooling with spiders when boy. He had a room that he would How no one to sweep or clean, and en ? .1 Al.? on fivfnnf ouraguu tuc epucis l>> suvu .? liat they would comc to him and feed n his hand. He discovered that by reeatedly destroying a web a spider cached a stage where his power of reroducing web is exhausted. When that Uige was reached the spider attacked other spider, killed hiui and took his all of web from him. Ju;t like a uman being, don't you see? Before lis man died he embalmed hi3 knowl3ge of gpiders in two volumes. He was spider crank."?New York Herald. Drollery in the Shah's Diary. Extract from the "Diary of His Maj ty the Shah," published in 1874? ^ej>^are oy^^key_j^flS_s.}eD, and asueu tue price "of it. The director" of le exhibition, a fat,white-bearded man, 'ho gave information about the prices, >ld me it was a hundred pounds sterling -equivalent to two hundred and fifty imans of Persia. I remarked, 'The ? :?4. ii.? aiue 01 ft 11VC UOHKUy IS at tuc uumiuv ve pounds. Plow is it, then, that this, rhich is but a picture of an ass, is to be aid so dearly for?' The director said, Because it is not a source of expense, s it eats neither straw or barley'?the 'a?tern substitute for hay and oats. 1 eplied, 'Trne?it is not a source of outly; but neither will it carry a load or ;ive one a ride.' We laughed heartly." "The Three O'clock Woman." Tliert is an old woman in Brooklyn vho inherited several thousand dollars iftccn years ago. On the day that the noney was to be paid her she was told jy tLe lawyer to wait till he returned 'rom the bank, and if he was not back jy three o'clock not to wait but come jack to-morrow. The lawyer has not teen seen or heard of since, and every Jay the woman walks around the Courtiousc between eleven a. m. and three p. i. She is known as the "Three O'clock iVoman." An inquiry is to be made as o her sanity.?Nao York Witnm. A Williamsburg (N. Y.) girl was letected robbing the church oontribn.ion boxes during hor pleasant Sunday ask of counting tlie "taking3." The Williamsburg church iu the futuro rhould rely on tho method in voguo iu primitivo colored churches of tho South ?let tho dominie watch tho dcacon9 :losely from his elevated position, tako ;lio coin, put it in his pocket, and count it when he goes home. Now that they are mak'ng billiard jails, knife handles and such things )ut of milk, we may safely feel encouriged to hope that they will soon be uaking cane head.? fit and proper for >ur nice young men to suck. F(XND OF SNAKES. A MAN WHO HAS MADE THElIt HABITS HIS LIFE STUDY. ' Professor O'Reilly Characterizes fcoine of the Stories About tlu Habits of Snakes as Myths, I'ure and Simple. There is a man at present in New York who fairly dotes on suakes. He has seen thousands of them. He wishes to see thousands more. Hi? name is G. K. O'Reilly. His home is in Trinidad. Mr. O'Reilly has been the editor of a newspaper and a professor in Ireland. He, too, was a professor ot a school in Trinidad. He is a corresponding member of the Royal Zoological Society. He has beeD to the four corners of the world. Natives regarded him as a "witch-doctor,"' because of his knowledge of snakes. AFRICAN PUFF ADDER ABOUT TO 9TR1KE. Mr. OHeilly has lived with snakes night and day for sixteen years. He comes to the United States to wage war in behalf of his pets. He has brought with hitn a large collection of snakes. He consented to impart to readers of the World some of his scientific discoveries regarding serpeuts. These discoveries are the result of patient and enthusiastic study. Two representatives of the World, a reporter and an artist, visited Mr. O'Reilly at the Central Park Menagerie, where he has his collection. He had just taken a large and repulsive-looking boa constricter from its box for an airing. | The monster was squirming about on a beap of stoccs, hissing at intervals and now and again darting out an ugly forked tongue. The hideous flat head rose with a sudden forward movement and the jaws opened threateningly. Mr. O'Reilly's explanation that the 6Dakc vras frightened and merely on a voyage of discovery was unheeded. One glance at those distended jaws, and,with all due respect to science, the World men decided that the branches of a convenient tree were the best position from which to pursue their scientific investigations. Mr. O'Reilly informed the reporter that the boa was known as a macaiuel in Brazil. He then proceeded to show how ha hunted snakes. Taking in bis hand a long, thin stick bent at an angle of forty-five degrees about six inches from the end, he pinned the wriggling reptile's head to the ground. To catch it by the neck, preventing its striking, and | * ~ .m mntfor I IU JUL Jl u | > \> us IUUI au va.-j .uu>.?w . . , Mr. O'Reilly was ready to talk about i his pets. lie spoke with just an indi- \ cation of the County Claire brogue. I "People here don't know all they might | about snakes," said be, '.'and I've come here to eulightcn them. In the first place, i the idea that full-growu men arc swal- i lowed by boas 1 believe to b% a myth. | As for the Americau boas, I have seen i nenj that can swallow more than a halfgrown goat. An anaconda over tweuty i feet long is rare. i 'The largest snake on record,m IndiaD python reticulatu?, now iu London, is only twer. ty-six feet long. It weighs i about H24 pounds. lioas do not cover their prey with saliva before swallowing i it. The saliva merely lubricates the prey i (luiingthe process of deglutition. Young I snakes do not take refuge in their mother's stomach. Snakes sucking cows and hoop snakes rolling along with their tails iu their mouths arc inventions worthy of the author of the 'Aribian Nights.' "There's the fable about whip-snakes . limiirin.r from trees in Brazil and lashine | the UDSu'iicctia^ wayfarer. You'll find j it in mo&t natural history bonks. Hero are some of them"?he pointed to a glass-covered box containing two long and lean gray snakes with curiously elongated heads?"and you can see how \ .O i , vv>i ^ i. CATCHING THE BOA CONSTHICTOTl. their shape started the story. They are called scientifically cryiophi;e ncuminat;e, are about halt an incn in diameter at rue thickest part and five feet long. "Here is their exact opposite in shape/' Mr. O'Reilly turned to another cage,containing a South Africau puff-adder, or clotho arictans. It was three feet long and three inches in diameter. "There is a story afloat,'' he said, "regarding the manner in which this snake strikes. It is said to he able to turn over backward and catch at its prev. You cau sec what caused the delusion." Mr. O'Reilly aroused the adder with a pole. The coils unwound until the reptile showed the deadly arsenal it carried. The broad, low head was poised on a rigid neck. The forked tongue played in and out. The parti-colored eyes gleamed wickedly, and with a swift lateral thrust of the hea.l the fangs gleamed an instant in the sunlight. Then the snake shrank back suddenly to the watchful position in which the artist has taken it. The bite can be inflicted sideways, but the snake cannot turn suddenly around to strike. "I've no faith in the fascination of snakes' eyes," said the professor. "It's the same tear which draws birds around a hawk or owl, or small boys around a wild bull, that leads little birds to curi/ / ously inspect a motionless snake. Then they get killed for their cariosity." "Do you not consider snakes slimy and dirty animals?" i 4 AI r? anobn ia nlimw All flfO ? ff J.W 9U?av AO OlilJlJ* Afcil t?l V clean ana odorless. The reputation of snakes for sliminess and vicious cunning is all a mistake, not at all borue out by facts. Snakes are the most timid animals in creation, and 'tis that very fear that occasionaly makes thom attack. Then they kill their prey quickly. I have repeatedly seen the rattlesnake and South American puff-adder strike animals dead almost instantly?that is, in three or four seconds." "How about the belief that a snake may live till sundown with his head 1 crushed ani broken back?" "Snakes are very tenacious of life, but as for saying that when a snake is killed in the morning it won't die until night ?excuse my Irish phraseology?this is j quite untrue, if the snake is killed prop- 1 erly," The reporter asked whether Mr. O'Reilly had ever tried snake-charming. "Snake-charming? There is no 6uch thing. I can do everything with a snake the so-called charmers do. I can make ! cobras dance without music, because cobras never hear the music, having no ears. Snakes are sensitive to souud when there is a vibration in objects in contact with their skins. They aiso have an appreciation of sound through the delicate nerves of the tongue. "Here is a curious fact: The sense of sight in snakes is very keen for motion, but very dull for form and color. For instance, I have repeatedly seen my EDakes and those in the woods pass within a few Inches of their prey without seeing it as long as it remained motion less. The moment it moved they resumeJ the chase. They have the sense of smell, but it's dull, as are all their senses. They must be studied from a different standpoint from all other animals on this account, and he who tries to explain snakes' actions from what I mi?ht call a ru.unmalian standpoint would be constantly in error." Mr. O'Reilly said he didn't believe in the stake remedies popular in many countries. "I believe in the knife, but not in cauterization. If a person is bitten in a fleshy part, and the venom not directly injected into vein or artery, cutting with a knife to the same depth as CARRYING HIS SNAKESUIP HOME. the snake's fang ha3 penetrated, ana afterwards suckiDg the place strongly,will remove nearly every vestige of the poison. Though never bitten nivself, I bave invariably teen that absorption from flesh-wounds is slo.v. "The supposed cures effected by socalled remedies are due to the fact that persons are often bitten by harmless snakes. Numberless instances occur rctioro dip thrmifrh sheer frisrht. ,?MVIV " 0 ? O A. glass of whisky to restore their courage is the best remedy, although the lommon belief as to large amounts of whisky forming an antidote is ridiculous. "I consider that snakes play a most useful role in creation, even the most venomous kinds. Were it not for the deadly puff adder in South Africa the country would be overrun by a species of field mouse. The adder destroys them by the thousand. In every country snakes prey upon the smaller destructive animals, and are thus the farmers' friends. My experience in about twenty countries is that harmless snakes are called deadly by the ignorant and unobservant. Thus it is that we hear of so many rattlesnakes, moccasins, etc. The innocent suffer for the guilty." English laundry maids get $6 to $8 a week, working from 0 a. m. till S p. m., on the following programme: Monday, * nronnro BA.qn put LUC llllU^O 1U OWHR, |/4W|/U?v . for the washing or for the tabs, and have everything at hand; Tuesday, wash all the body and house linen; Wednesday, colored things aud flannels; Thursday, mangle sheets, table linen, etc., starch shirts, collars, etc., begin ironing; Friday, finish the ironing. "IIow often should I water my pot plants?'' A general answer to this perplexing question, given by William Saunders, is: Never apply water to a plant until ft requires it, that is, until it is dry, and then apply a sufficient quantity to saturate the .soil, which will lie indicated by the surplus passing through the drainage. An Old Portrait of Columbns. An old portrait of Christopher Colum-? bus that was recently discovered at Como derives its value not only from scarcity of authentic likenesses of the great navigator, but from its art history, & Kmf j del fiomcoV r?>:;TKAiT or cm. raws, as ft was {tainted by Pebastiau del Piombo. It was formerly regarded as an heirloom in the family, now extinct, of the Giovios, and was ui the possessiou of the writer Paul Giovio, who refers to it in his works, and had it engraved. On the failure of the male branch of the Giovio family, the portrait passed, two generations ago, to the De Orchi family, and is now in the possess,on of Pr. de 0;chi, of Como.? Chiaujo Pott. ALBUQUERQUE. | ROMANTIC SURROUNDINGS OP A wr%trwr mm wr* v ?. mrvtirv I\ Ei It xunn, Rare Picturesquesnesa of the HI? Grande?A Fine Region lor the Cultivation of Finely Flavored Fruits. The new town is built after the modern fashion, its main streets?Railroad and Gold avenues?with their substantial business blocks, presenting the usual appearance of a thriving young Western city. All the principal streets are graded and provided with sidewalks. Many important additions and improvements have been made during the past year, including the expenditure ol $50,000 by the city government m beginning a complete sewer system for the town. In Albuquerque are held the sittings of the District Court of the Second Judicial District and the United States Court.' I The court-bouse in the old town, 4 modern and handsome building, contrasts oddly with the vista of antique portal* which front the street, with a wind-mill in the background. The scenery about Albuquerque is strange and picturesque. Eastward a mesa ten miles in width extends south* erlj, parallel with the river, between the valley and the mountain bases. In the northeast the lofty oblong summits of the Sandia (Watermelon) Mountains rise above this table-land, their rocky, partly timbered sides revealing in the afternoon sun varied hues of blue, brown, red and gray. South of the Sandias lies a lower range of mountains through which Tijeras, Coyote, and Hell canons afford passage from the eastern plains down to the valley and its city among the sands, and to the southeast ot these mountains rise the far-off crests of the Manzana range. The western bank of the long southward stretch of river is marked by low rolling bluffs, back of which rise from the plain the peaks of the detached mountain group, the Ladrones, a rendezvous in former times for robbers. Westward a chain of brown hills breaks the view, and in the northwest are seen, blue in the distance, the San Mateo and Jemez Mountains. Rising among the mountains of Colorado, at an altitude of 11,920 feet, th? Rio Grande, on its way to the Gulf of, Mexico, flows through New Mexico from north to south?a distance of 360 mile*, measured on the meridian, with a fall of 2200 feet in that extent. Much of its volume oozes under ground, percolatingthe sands, so that water may be found anywhere in the valley by digging to the depth of the river's surface. In the spring and summer overflows its muddy current deposits in the valley a sediment * of volcanic, granitic, and silicious soil. * JO ? ? v? forming alluvial bottom lands of great depth and inexhaustible fertility. The Rio Grande in its landscape * setting has a rare picturesqueness as un-. usual and individual as that associated with the scenery of the Nile Valley. Along its waters, deriving their sustenance from fields enriched by its overflow, are Spanish-American and Indian villages of low rectangular adobe houses about the quaint massive chuich standing against a background of mesas, mountains and sand-hills. The stretch of thick, muddy water, with its distant sheens of blue and silver, winds its long way amid prevailing gray and red landscape tints interspersed with the deep green of Cottonwood groves and low thickets which fringe its banks, and the lighter verdure of growing crops. Madwalled fields and gardens, irrigated by means of rude ditches which conduct the water from the acequia madre, or main ditch, leading from the river, surround the adobe houses scattered along the valley. The vice and fruit lands along the river begin at a short distance above the town of Bernalillo, seventeen miles north of Albuquerque, and from that point eouthward are many orchards and vine yards new ana oia. Appies, peam, quinces, apricot?, peaches and plums have been abundantly raised here, with little care, by the native inhabitants since the first settlement of the country by Europeans, and now all the small fruits are successfully cultivated. Especially is this part of New Mexico favorable to vineyard culture, and the grape of the Rio Grande Valley will compare favorably in juiciness, sweetness, and flavor with the product of any other locality in the world. The variety most generally cultivated is the Mission grape, intro-< duced at an early period Dy .Franciscan friars, but the Muscatel and other kinds of recent introduction are also found. By the aid of irrigation every plant of the temperate zone may be successfully raised in the Rio Grande Valley. Cora and wheat yield abundantly, and oats, barley, beans, and alfalfa are staple crops. Vegetables of all kinds grow te great size, and are excellent of quality. All the New Mexican fruits are of fine flavor, and they bring a much higher price in market than the similar California productions.?Harper's Weekly. Light and Electricity. Philadelphia scientists are prepariog to find out how fast an electris current travels. An experiment will be made, probably from the Franklin Institute, by connections over the Atlantic cable to Liverpool and return. A recent test appeared to show that an electric cuirent shuffled over to Europe and back in something like a second, or at the rate of only some 400,000 miles a minute, while light ambles along at a ten-millionmile-a-minute gait. American scientists arc not willing to give up the record to sunlight. The most rccent experiment was tried at McGill College, Montreal, to Liverpoo1 and return. The distance traversed was S000 miles. Time, one second and one-twentieth of a second. The conditions were not good. Ilence the necessity for another experiment. Some enthusiastic electricians claim that a current will speed aiound the world in a trifle over three seconds, or cover the distance to the sun, 9(>,000,000 miles, in three and one-half miuutes.? Chicago llcruld. Queer Rain Superstition. The telegraph wires between Madison and Greensboro', Fla., were disabled a few days ago, and the manager started out to discover the cause. A few miles from Greensboro' he found two mammoth siiaLes hanging across the wires in such a manner as to connect the current of each. The snakes had been killed, tied together aud bung out to bring rain, the work being done by colored people in the neighborhood.?Boiion. lYan* tcripL