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HEARTS OF GOLD; ore, The Heiress of Maz>le Leaf Farm. BY GENEVIEVE ULMER. chapter i. WHITE VIOLETS. Maple Leaf Farm lay bathed In the golden sunlight of a rare autumnal day. They had named the place well those sturdy old Forsythes who, for three generations, had drawn from its soil the rich fruits of an inexhaustible fertility, redeeming the broad acres from the wilderness, and building and improving until the square mile of field, timber and brookside resembled some notable English grange. Where the many gabled house stood, the thrifty maples shut it in to a nest floored with golden-hued fallen leaves, and fanned by crimson beauties still pendent to the mother stem, flaunting their gay tintings like vari-colored banners. It was now, when the glories of the harvest still lingered, when each field looked like some swept lawn, and the barn groaned with' golden store, and nature, man and beast seemed resting for ft later battle with winter and storm, that Maple Leaf Farm looked its beBt, and it was now that stalwart, iron-knit John Elliott, gazing across the fencedin paradise of his hopes and ambitions, thrilled proudly. * * - -1 1 1_A VI Ten years agone ne naa urougm a? motherless child, Ruth, to the farm, to be welcomed by old Geoffrey Forsythe, his dead wife'6 bachelor brother. "I wrote for you," the sad-faced recluse had said, "because the farm was going to ruin, ai^d you have the vigor and the ambition to redeem it. I am failing daily. I give you the use of the place as virtual owner while you live. After that"?and he gazed affectionately at golden-haired little Ruth?"she shall be my heiress, and her husband shall carry on the work you begin." And then Geoffrey Forsythe had kissed the wonder-eyed child who so resembled his dead 6ister, had retired to the gloomy atone residence he owned in the village of Ridgeton, a mile distant, and dropped out of their lives as fully as though he had gone to foreign parts. A recluse, an invalid, once a year he came to the farm, once a month Ruth visited him in the hermitage, where he seemed to dwell only to brood over a V 1 ~ UTVA.CLI yjcvoi/. They told of a love episode In hie career that had left him in its wake only heart-wreck and sorrow. She had jilted him, but he could not recognize the ooquette In the fair being who seemed an angel to his blinded, longinggaze. 8he had wedded another. They had both died, leaving a son, Ralph, and when John Elliott came to the farm old Geoffrey had said to him: ' < "I make but one restriction to your exclusive control of everything. A sense i of duty impels me to keep her boy out of the poorhouee. You are to take Balph, make a man of him, and some day, may be, he and Rath " Glim John Elliott understood, and Balph had become a member of his family to all eyes, except the blind ones of Geoffrey Forsythe and John Elliott, developing traits of secrecy, cunning and rudeness that carried out the defective training of a deceitful mother and a reckless, unprincipled sire. Since then the years had gone od, each one adding to the beauty and value of Maple Leal Farm, and John Elliott might well experience a flush of joy as he surveyed his goodly heritage that bright, glowing afternoon. "It took time to get the hang of things," he murmured, with self-gratulation, "but I managed it. There isn't a farm in a day's journey that equals this. The last year has mended every broken fence, propped up every crooked born, : and the profits?I shall be rich before I die, very rich!" Farmer John spoke truly. The last ' ear had been a golden one indeed. In his stubborn pride he took all the credit ' for it, but his was not the hand that had wrought the change. i He half guessed it, as a tall, manly : fellow of about twenty-five came from 1 one of the granaries. : "Mr. Elliott, the wagons will be here for the wheat to-morrow," he remarked. > "Very well, you can attend to it. And, Bay, Dalton, we had better cast up accosts to-night." 1 The young man bowed with a dignity that told of a past career considerably above the level of farm culture. Farmer John turned and watched him with a calculating eye as he strolled toward the road. ;j "I can't make him out," he muttered. I never could. I never will. He came here, quiet and gentlemanly, a year ago, and asked for work?no friends, no references. He thrashed like a bound hand, but I'll wager he never saw a flail | 'Kafz-.oa Ttion T rm+ him in chnrfrfi nf t.hA men. Then he began to help me out | with my accounts, and he's been a | Jewel, earning double hi6 wages, saving me four times as much, and always the | quiet, gentlemanly, unassuming fellow | ?Great Goshen! it never struck me before. But suppose it is him him that's ( ?t the bottom of the new mischief I've cented!" Farmer John brought his sinewy fist down on the fence till it quivered, under the force of a new and overwhelming idea. Black as a thundercloud grew his broad, bronzed face, so lately wreathed with smiles of satisfaction. "Some one is at the bottom of it. Some one's robbing me systematically. It can't be him, but?who knows? He's a stranger; he knows where the keys are, and?I'll watch!" Muttering, black-browed, the farmer took his way slowly towards the house. The sun had gone under a hazy cloud,* the first forerunner of damp weather. Nature was in sympathy with the dark shadows that the impression of a wilful uspicion was about to cast about the peaceful home. Paul Dalton, the young superintendent, all unconscious of the web with iron warp and woof of steel that fate had just begun to weave for him, walked on till he reached the grove of maples lining the road. Farmer John adjudged him a mystery, and Farmer John was right. One glance at his expressive face, intelligent eyes, expansive brow, daintily shaped hands, told that he had not always been a tiller of the soil. Something in the half-veiled oyea spoke of a hidden pa?t, of ambition thwarted, of a soul bound to iron-like, uncompromising duty for the sake of others. Something, too, just then awoke the sentimental in the heart of the inexplicable mystery of Maple Leaf Farm that would have made hard, practical Farmer John stare in wonder, had he been there. Whistling softly to himself, Faul Dalton, glancing down, saw some tiny Dowers growing at his feet. He leaned over and picked two of them. They were violets, late stayers, sheltered by the protecting hedge and nourished by the rich damp soil around them. "White violets," he murmured with a bright smile, "the first I have ever seen, though, from the dairymaids' talk, they are common enough to the faithful lover. Little of that for me," he sighed grimly, "but what superstition shall I fll to them. "Cross the stile with violets white, Your lore shall pass that way ere night I'll pave the way for some loyal swain. Here goes." He smiled dreamily, the poet's reverie in his fine eyes, as he bound the two pretty flowers with a thread of grass and caught the brittle stems against 8 6plinter in the . slanting rail. Then, more serious, as some duty of labor was suggested fo his mind by observing Che workmen ifHincr about a hav-mOW. he crossed the field. Half way thither, turning he saw Rutb Elliott passing the spot he had just left, a book in her hand, her steps directed toward the grove. A faint glow came into his oheekB. Perhaps he thought of the violets, and the superstition his ready mind had associated with them. At all events, he thought of the pretty, wild-rose face, and the trim, dainty form, for his eyes grew somber, and he directed the men at their work in a preoccupied," mechanical way. Some fascination of destiny came into his cheerless life as, at liberty again, he wended his way toward the grove where Ruth had disappeared. "His "heart gave a quicker bound as he caught sight of her pretty blue dress through the shrubbery. Then a frown darkened his brow, bitter and distrustful, as he observed that she had a companion. "That idler, Ralph Prescott!" he murmured. "What does Mr. Elliott keep that man about here for?" An unwelcome companion was the favorite of old Geoffrey Forsythe just then to the dainty Ruth, however. Paul Dalton knew that a moment later. For, as he was about to retrace his steps, a fluttering, indignant outcry reached his ears. . "How dare you, sir!" Ruth's mellow tones, robbed of their usual gentleness, spoke. The reply grated harshly. "Dare? That's good, Ruth! Give me the books, I say! I saw; I was watching. You've got them between the leave. You won't take a keepsake from me. I ain't handsome enough for that, but some other fellow?I will have them!" "You cowardly spy!" gasped pretty Ruth. "Oh, I hate you! I hate you! Help! You shall not have the book!" "I will!" In half a dozen sturdy strides, Paul Dalton reached the spot where the altercation was going on. An exciting scene greeted his vision. The great rough Ralph had just torn a book from Ruth's hands and she was striving to reoover it. "Give it to me!" she cried, her eyes flashing, her face aflame. "Oh, if I were only a man!" "Miss Ruth, here is your book." Quiok as a flash, Paul Dalton had acted. How it was ever done the confused Euth could not tell, but the nert moment hie athletic form had sprung through the shrubbery, the book was sna'tched from the astounded Balyh Prescott's hands, was tendered to its owner, and Ealph himself lay prostrate, ten feet away, seeing stars. With a growl of rage and muttered threats he limped out of reach of his indignant adversary a moment later. "What was it?" querried Paul, solicitously; "you will pardon me, but that great rough fellow " Trembling all over Euth Elliott confusedly turned over the leaves of the book. "I?I had something; it is lost," and then she burst into inexplicable womanly tears. "Was it something of value?" asked Paul, irnntlv. "Perhans I can helD vou find it." "No, I have found it." Paul Dalton started as from a shock A tell-tale blush on her face, hastily, guiltily, pretty Ruth Elliott had picked up at her feet the object missing from her book, the cause of all the exciting episode of the moment. Two white violets bound with a thread of grass. Comprehendingly, quivering with nameless emotion, Paul Dalton recognized them, and as she, shame-faced, fluttering, dropped the flowers again, he regained them and tendered them to her with earnest, searching, hopeful glance. Their hands touched as she took them ?and Bhe trembled! Their eyes met as he realized that they were precious to her?and he thrilled! CHAPTER 11. ' PLOTTING. Ill-favoied, sullen-hearted Ralph Prescott nursed his Bwollen cheek and his impotent rage in silence and solitude the remainder of that eventful day. He did not appear at supper time, and the ensuing day be mounted a horse larly and gave Maple Leaf farm a wide Mnfll offai* wi mi uuuii aiuvi uiua. Farmer John met him the next forenoon, and asked him what was up, but lie evaded a direct reply. Pretty Ruth only laughed slyly when Interrogated. He was too happy; she Baw too much of brave, earnest Paul Walton those days to get even the officious Ralph into trouble by betraying his rudeness. Once only she met the surly Ralph face to face. "I'm watching and I'm thinking," he told her in tragic accents of mysterious import. "You won't keep up your flirtation very long." "Poor Ralph!" she replied banteringly. "Don't think! The effort might bring on brain fever!" " Don't fret!" flashed out Ralph fiercely.. "You'll see what kind of a man thiB new lover of yours is soon. You're mine, by rights; It was always so ^understood, and ?I'll have revenge." Happy Ruth laughed at the dark threats and blushed at the idea of a lover. Ralph evaded Paul Dalton, anathematized him at a distance, refused to break Vlt?aqs4 of iha aamo fnhla wit.h him and the third night after the altercation stole cautiously into the house at dusk, stole guiltily out again, and made for the distant village much with the excitement and haste of a midnight assassin. "I've done it," he chuckled, gleefully. "Old Elliott has been suspicious for a week. He'll miss it, sure, and the way I've fixed it " Crafty Ralph seemed to feel very sanguine and very joyful over some plot that bid fair to materialize ere the evening had passed away. He reached the village and proceeded straight to its tavern. Arrived, it seemed necessary for him to prop up his courage, for he drained several glasses at the bar, and then, retiring to an inner room, sat at a table lost in reflection. "I'll give it time to come to a foous,* he soliloquized. "In about an hour I'll go home and witness the exp'.osion. lJaul Walton, you crossed a bad man's trp,ck when you crossed mine!" More meditation, the crafty face expressing varied and fleeting emotions, and then Ralph drew two photographs fr.un his pocket. At one he gazed fondly; it was that of Ruth. At the other he glayed venomously? hatred and jealousy held in thrall in one oon centra ted look. "I stole it from her room. He gave it to her," hi6sed the self-confessed thief. "How I hate him!" Paul Walton's placid eyes gazed up from the picture. Their earnest glanoe maddened his infuriated rival. He spread it out upon the table; he struck it; he spat upon it. Then, taking out his pocket-knife, he began to jab at it. "How I hate him!" He burrowed out one eye. "I wish it was his real throat." And the envenomed plotter described a skillful swoop across the cardboard. "There's his miserable heart!" Jab, jab, jab!?the blade quivered in the innocent picture, until it' was perforated like a bullet-riddled battle flag. "Hello! Queer amusement, I says." Ralph Prescott started violently. Tnrning quickly, he observed a trampish-looking fellow at his elbow. "Who are you?" he demanded, anally; what business " The stranger leered craftily at the picture, unmoved by Ralph's blustering manner. "Queer amusement, I says," he repeated, insolently. "Is it any of your business?" demanded Ralph, hotly, securing and hiding the photograph. "Oil, no," retorted the other, coolly; "only I can guess the truth?you hate that man." Ralph gritted his teeth vengefully. "And you haven't got pluck enough to deal with the real fellow as you do with his picture." " See hero1 " began Ralph, furiously. "No, you Bee here. I'm a keen one, I am. Mebbe I can help you. That man Is a rival, eh?" "Suppose he is?" "And you want to get even with him?" "What if I do?" "Well, I know something. It'B curious how I know it, but I happen to, &11 the same. Tou want revenge. Tell me your story, all about that man, and I'll , tell you something in return that will make your eyes snap. I'll show you a aratr rtf rflTOnM that will make vou Just ' get up and howl with delight." "Do you niean it?" muttered Ralph, dubiously. "Treat me right, promise me enough to pay a night's lodging and keep, and see if I'm boasting." Over their glasses Ralph Prescott reluctantly awarded the confidence demanded. "Now, then?" he cried expectantly, glaring in eagerness at his companion. "Now then ft is. When I saw that picture I was sort of startled," "Why?" "I know that man." "You know him?" "Yes." "What of it?" "His name begins with a W, first name P?Paul. Is that a olever guess? and how'6 Dalton for the rest of it?" "I don't see anything wonderful in that. Everybody about?. here knows Tee, but I don't live about here. Never .was here before, and didn't know that Paul Dalton was within a thousand miles of here." ? "Well, knowing now that he is, what of it?" "What of It!" repeated the other excitedly. "This of it. t If I can tell you something about that man that will sweep him from your path like a hurricane, if I can prove certain facts that once known wiJl drive him from Maple Leaf Farm like a flash, what then?" Ralph Prescott's face was white with eagerness and hope. "Can you do It?"" he panted. "lean. Is it $50 if I do?" "Yes, a hundred. Out with it. What do you know of this man, Paul Dalton?* The tramp leaned over. His blowsy lips touched the ear of the eager Ralph. He whispered seven wordB? words freighted with an intelligence that meant ruin and disaster to the innooent Paul Dalton?heart-break and misery for the girl with the trusting heart and the wild-rose face. Palpitating, his eyes glowing luridly with mingled joy and hate, Ralph Presn r? frv Vila fnnf tUl/U oj'iaug wv uio Avom "Prove that!" he gasped, hoarsely. "Prove it, and I'll give you, not fifty, not a hundred, but five hundred dollars. Oh, the luck of It! Oh, the joy of it. Paul Dalton, I have you in my power at last]" ITO BE CONTINUED, i POPULAR SCIENCE. A Swedish naturalist is hunting in Florida for new kinds of mice. In domestic architecture the pro portions of a room are as one to one and a half. The first record taken by American asttonomers of an eclipse was on Long Island on October 27, 1780. A belt recently made for the Brooklyn City Electric Railway Company is 116 feet long, seventy-two inches wide and weighs 1800 pounds. One hundred and twenty hides were used in its manufacture. The meteor which struck John Brown's statue at Osawatomie, Kan., recently, is said to contain the metal helium, one of the elements in the sun. This is the first known specimen I of the metal on earth. Where the telephone wires are overland the speed of transmission is at the rate of 16,000 miles a second; where the wireR are through cables under the sea the speed is not more than 6000 miles a second. Electricity, when unretarded by atmospheric influences, travels at the rate of 288,000 miles a second. Along a wire it is, of course, vastly slower, and a perceptible period of time is occupied by the electric current in sending telegrams over long distances. Mr. Stejneger describes in the "Proceedings" of the United States National Museum, a blind salamander which forms a new genus and species. It occurred both adult and larval in the Rock House Cave, Missouri. Whether the larva had eyes or was blind is not stated in the preliminary account published. The new cruiser Detroit proves to be as fleet a vessel as it was anticipated she would be, having made a run of nineteen knots, and showing that if need were she ^ou'd do even better. She is said to mind her helm , readily and to be very steady, all of which is as gratifying to all patriotically interested in the new navy as It is professionally to her designers and builders. How proud of a ship like the Detroit would a man like Decatur have been in the day when the Constitution was the ideal Yankee mau-ol'-war! "I nevek had so long a dry spell in my life," 6aid the Kentucky gentleman, who had been shut up for a week in a temperance town by the floods.?Ex chancre. [ THE BIG FAIR, THROUGH THE LAGOONS WITH THE GONDOLIERS. Gilded Craft From Venice Propollet py Expert Oarsmen?Conveyances From the Island of Madeira. OMING down th< | broad Bteps lead ^ $ Jl ing from the door way ol tne Agrictu ^ural Building t< * ^ /Pv^Px the grand basil one finds a chat * til - l*Trf? tering group o * rylT}'' a lithe and muscula: fJm*/} f| Venetians. Float Al ing in the basil ''wfmf and rubbing thei: ifMJn fretted bowi TmBk^k.J^rx& against the land Tn^^^^rfig are 8ondo las. They are cres ent-shaped a n ( their dipping keels seem barely t< touch the water. One is of blue, "witl beaded gold ornaments along the sides fringed cushions of blue plush and i gilded stem -wrought into fanciful de signs, under -which the velvet hang ings drag lazily in the water. Anothei is of yellow, with silver mountings ant knick-knacks. BEF0BE THE "WEST DOORWAY OP MANTFACTDBES BUILDINQ. One of these expert boatmen, says the Chicago Record, stands on the dancing bow of a gondola, with hit long, broad oar thrown across the twisted lock. Another balances oe tip-toe oA the narrow sterD, leaning 1^1^ I GONDOLA "WHARF IN FRONT 01 forward. As each pushes on his oai with sudden vigor the boat lifts itseli and darts forward like a released arrow. After that the motion is one unshaken glide. The oar at the bow and the oai at tho stern act co-ordinately. Nc word of command passes, but the gondola cuts around grassy points, between moving- launches and undej bridges. The ducks swimming sleeply along tho basin acream and glide oul ot the way. tiAGGo:: 3Etvtee:; electricity and u^xr factures buildings. Then the gondolas carry one to point* from which there arc perspectives, nooks and contrasts such afj cannot be found on land. They glide around the base of the golden Republic, move down the center of the grand basin anc swing under the bridge to the match less roadway between the Manufacture.' Building on one side and the Electricity Building on the other. This gives one of the vistas which satisfy the eye witl a suggestion of completeness. To b< sure the dark green palma along eithei side are still shackled with heavy ropes, and some of the triumi)hant column! arc crated in rough scaffolding, bin these are mere sheets in the massivf picture. Then the gondolas cross th< cnlm water to the west, where rises th< wooded island wit h the slashed Japanesi roof showing among the baro bushes To 1he east tho Government building stands in solitary pomp. The gondola) iind another unexpected path under i bridge and pass down by the scalj mm SLEIGH FROM MADEIRA. wings of the Fisheries building and be tween the posts of the stilted cluctric road almost to the gateway of the lak< and then undulate past the majestic fronts of the Horticulture. Transportation and Mining buildings and re-entei the oramped road under th<? shadow oi the huge Manufactures Building. The plain American citizen equate in the yellow plush with the silvered ornaments flashing around him, and _7T : <T~ rides past the pointing groups with as much easy dignity as any Prince of the realm. As the boat glides easily [ back to its starting place the gondoliers draw in their oars and tnrn about with a good-natnred grin. They are not even breathing heavily, although an MOUNTAIN SLEIGH, f r American "boatman -would have been ready for the hospital. ODD CONVEYANCES FBOM MAnKTRA. The people of Madeira, says the Ohij cago Herald in an account of the Transportation Building, travel in sleds, not because snow and ice are on the ground at all times of the year, but because the highways and bywayb are so peculiarly constructed that runners are preferable to wheels when quick transportation is desired. The streets of the towns are paved with stones scarcely as big as baseballs, and so smooth have they become through 1 years of unceasing travel that they are as slippery as the surface of a well-swept skating rink. The well-todo man of Madeira travels in state. His 1 sleds, while not so elaborate as those of crazy King Ludwig, are fully as ample, | and look like a richly upholstered I closed carnage oi our day set upon clumsy runners. Seated in this conveyance and guided by the steerer or ; pilot, who directs the movements of ! the bullocks from a rear but honorable I perch, the worthy Madeiran travels about over the glassy but bare payements with all the complacency and comfort of a Laplander setting out for i a feast of blubber behind a team of reindeer and in the pulsating glow of an aurora. Another conveyance of i the people of Madeii a and one which i accompanied the bullock "cart" al> ready described is the mountain sled. > This looks like a church pew set upon i runners. The seat will accommodate ; i but two persons, however. It is up? THE AGRICULTURAL BUILDING. . holatered in red and has no covering r or side curtains. People of that far away country who use this conveyance l simply pit beside each other-before . making the descent down the well, worn mountain road and then when . the steerer is ready the sled plunges . forward with incredible speed. It is . said that it will slip over thirty and even thirty-five miles an hour. Hair as a Cleansing Agent. That the hair covering the body of an animal or the head of a human being serves the purposes of warmth and protection is manifest, but one wonld hardly expect to find that it also acta as a cleansing agent. This, however, appears to be the fact. The minute scales which cover the outer portion of a hair are fastened at one edge and free at the other, and the free edges lie in the direction away from the skin. The surface of a hair, therefore, is like that of a piece of fur or cloth covered with nap; rubbed from root to tip it is found to be smoother when rubbed in the opposite direction. This being the case, it is evident that particles of 5 matter in contact with the hair must , find their direction of easiest motion i to lie toward the tip end of the hair i and away from its root. So, by virtue ? I r\f +V10 nufMilinr Rt,rnr?.t,iUT> nf its surface I the hair serves gradually to remoTe from the skin which it covers all for? eign particles which may have found lodgment there. The oily secretion emanating from the follicles of the i hair probably assists this action by i gathering up the fine particles of exr traneous dust and of scales from the , skin, and thus enabling the hair to re* tain them, so to speak, in the grasp of t its curious system of brushes. E^ory i movement of the hair, however proi j duced, must tend to set the particles 1 I sticking upon it in motion, and, as we 2 have already seen, that motion can be . in only one direction.?New York ; News. 3 " i An Unlucky King. f The King of the Belgians said to a - friend of mine who asked him to stand godfather to an infaut sou : ' 'I should feel delighted did I not feel in a vein of ill-luck, and unlucky people should be avoided." He said to another person : "The world has no idea what an evil influence tracks me." His sister Charlotte is a lunatic; he lost his son; he adopted his nephew, and he died also. The Princess Clementine, hie daughter, has never got over the horror of seeing her governess perish in the firo at Laeken Palace, which de[ stroved the building and endless fam! ily relics, papers and treasures of all kinds. The tragedy of Meyerling was, perhaps, the greatest blow of all. One son-in-law perished in it, and the other - came out of it a black sheep at the . Court of Austria. The Congo State is > not what the King had hoped it was ; going to turn out, and has impover: ished him. The burning of his papers i^ the Laeken fire has thrown his af fairs into disorder. It would now f seem as though his crown were to go down in the hurly-burly of Socialist i revolution, and Belgium to be again [ the cock-pit of France and Germany. [ ?London Truth. ... . THE OSTRICH. HE ENJOYS LIFE AS MUCH Afl ANY LIVING CREATURE. The Giddy Waltz is One of His Favorite inversions?Facts and Fancies About This Interesting and Useful Bird. dance of the oej| trich is one of those J J peculiar native customs which certain j"*8" fowls develop, without any apparent incentive except it may be the law of heredity. It usually occurs at early morn, when the young, strong birds are let out of their enclosure, and is said to be entirely due to awkwardness and uncertainty. mv:_ 1 J_ XI Inm JL11IX) ICttUO tUClll tU nuYOUtc ouu uiuu j in a dervish like "whirl which is very quaint and fantastic as they float about i assisting their motions by their outspread wings. They circle and reverse almost as a waltzer would, and when a large number of these strange birds go through their dancing antics, it is al'1 -00 DANCING O most impossible to believe that tbey have not been taught the accomplishment by a dancing master. Their waltz often ends in disaster, as they break each other's legs, which is certain death, or become dizzy and fall down in a demoralized lump. The kick of an ostrich has been known to destroy life. In the opening chapter of Rider Haggard's "Jess" there is a highly dramatic 1 m r* -t- A M M?- H1.L account 01 a ngui iur me wiw ?u ubtrich, and it is historically correct. In fighting they are apt to break their own legs, they give such desperate blows. Indeed, it would seem as if all the vital energies of the great bird were centered in its long, ungainly legs, which are graceful only when going across their native grass-covered plains with a rapidity of motion that must be seen to be appreciated. This paper has nothing to say of the industry of ostrich farming, either in Africa or America?that profitable industry of growing fashionable feathers is quite too important a branch of commerce to be disposed of in a column. There are many books upon the subject which are very valuable and quite practical. I am only rehearsing a few of the peculiarities of the creature which have made it of interest ever since the days of Job, "which leaveth her eggs in the earth and warmeth them in the dust." It would appear to be an evidence of cunning rather than stupidity for Mrs. Ostrich to adopt this very simple method of incubation. However, it has its disadvantages, for while she is away getting a good dinner her oniAfl eueuijr, tuc vrmic-ucvabu v*vn, the unguarded neet. He knows he cannot break one of those mammoth eggs, and devises a shrewd plan to help him. Taking a stone in his beak he flies over the spot, calculates with bird sagacity the necessary distance, and drops the stone. Plunk! An egg is broken, and he descends to his feast. This is said to be the same kind of raven that fed the Prophet Elijah. His wisdom seems almost of a supernatural order. OLD LIGHTNING. It ie said that the cry of an ostrich is like the roar of a lion, and the Hottentots often ran from it in fright until they see the bird. The ostrich is a generous layer. Sixty eggs will be found in and around a single nest. One of these eggs is equal to twenty-four hen's eggs. The Hottentots and bushmen cook an ostrich egg by putting one end in a hot fire. Through an opening in the other they stir the contents, putting in salt and pepper, making a very palatable omelet. It is never safe to drop any article when walking near a covev of ostriches. Tlie ostrich will eat anything, seeming apparently to have no sense of taste. A story is told of a young girl tvho was visiting a zoo where a large ostrich snatched her kid gloves, which were rolled in?o a ball, and ate them. The ilext day the girl returned with the family contribution of a half dozen pairs of gloves, all of which were as readily swallowed. While the ostrich has absolutely no brain?see Job for authority?it has vicious propensities that show some sort of wicked intelligence. Some Cape Town people had a fowl fattening in a special coop near an ostrich kraal. The bird drooped and grew thin. It was watched and seen to peer through ===== the slats of its coop, carious to -vrstok its neighbors, the ostriches. Even time it put its head out it reoeivedM' i blinding kick from its nearest neigoj bor, and would soon have died had it ' not been removed. A meek-looking ^ male ostrich stood about with its cow aort looking so dejected that some ? itors remarked, it must be hen-peckafl "Oh," laughed their host, "he is heat kicked," and they soon saw him zef . ceive a staggering blow from his gem <fi" tie spouse, which sent him wi? ?; droping feathers into a corner. Old Lightning belonged to an off* trich farm at San Diego, and was ? ' magnificent bird. He acquired hi* name from the rapidity with which h* fl could pluck a lighted cigar or piptf C I from a visitor's mouth, or remove hit 1 watch and chain or any other ors*j M ment he could discover. The noisleai fl manner in which he could steal up be- ' V hind one and then nip some personal property was remarkable. He was a * natural born thief. Once he snatched H all the flowers off a young lady's hat. At another time he attempted to fiwal low a diamond earring, but aa it waa ' l/, fast in its owner's ear, he could not manage it. Old Lightning's greatest feat was swallowing a lighted metfr* Bchaum pipe which he snatched from a \ visitor^ month, The keeper had seen. . STRICHE8. I him and caught around the neck", and. 1 the pipe 'was exhumed, the tobacco 1 still burning. ?Detroit Free Press. .,? rne urnnsaran i_;iuhju ivxsm At a recent meeting of the Associa- %M I tion for the Study and Cure of Ine- 1 briety in New York, one of the doc^: j tors present, according to the Sun, re- I lated some amnrnng incidents of faith; ;j cures where copper pincers were in- J strumental in bringing about the good results. I THE DRUNKARD S CLOAK* The Dninkard's Cloak was in use in >. M the early part of the Seventeenth Centurry in some old English towns, notably Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where the offenders were obliged to wear tubs or barrels, with holes cut in them, through. ^ the streets. One quaint old book says: "In the time of the commonwealth it appears that the magistrates punished scolds with the branks and i drunkards by making them carry a tub, called a Drunkard's Cloak, through the streets of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. We shall presume that there is no longer any occasion for the former, butf why has the latter been laid aside?" ; The brank was a framework worn ? upon the head, with a stick inserted between the lips of the unfortunate wearer. To this headdress was at- |^H toched a rope, the other end of which was held by a man with a long pole who walked behind It is not shown - ? * * * _ o it.. -1 _.t_ I wfcetber Uie mnaDiiaiii ox uie ciutta. was also accompanied by a rear guard, but it ifl certain that he could not have ? run far, could not sit down, and it would have been an impossibility for him to carry his hands to his face. Wealth Oat of a Poor Farm. There is a man in Alabama who, according to the New Orleans States, takes life very easy for the simple reason that his farm extends up and down the Louisville and Nashville railroad for a distance of forty or fifty miles. A great many persons will be disposed to doubt this statement, but nevertheless it is the truth. A short time ago the Alabama man was a victim of impecuniousity because his farm was so poor that the cats whould not stay on it, but one day the engineers of the road camc along and discovered that his farm was nothing more than a vast deposit of gravel, the very material , they desired to use to ballast for the * bed of the road. They endeavored to ^ buy the farm, outright, but, the old ' * * _ x- 11 ? man stUDOormy ruiusmg w nvu mw ? only home he had on earth, it was finally arranged to pay him a royalty on every car load of gravel taken from his land. The royalty has made him rich, and as the supply of gravel is practically inexhaustible he -will soon be able to boast that his farm ig th? * largest in the world and ^itcfida all the way from New Orleans to Louisville. ^ J The Episcopal Church of Scotland* according to the annual statistics just /' published, has no>w 288 congregations* including missions, and the membership has risen frfom 91,740 to 94,257.: The number of ?v?mmnnieants has in creased from 3/5,493 to 36,800. The new Scotland yard is the largest police statifon in the world. It contains a rofom in which 3000 men can be aesemnled. 1