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'V'.r A TimicL Ionian's Trial. Surprising Interruption in a Life of Monotony. JBY OCTAVE THANET. : u . , l "n. > CHAPTER I. y Never had there been a September like, that In all the autumns of Judith i Cre6t'$ life. The last day she went out to a little knoll edged by sycamore trees, only to gaze about the farm for .the sheer joy of possession. Yet 6he was not used to love the farm; born a timid and gregarious soul, 6he was oppressed by solitude. For twenty-two years that long hedge of poplars had looked to her as she fancied a prison etockade might look to a convict. Her I * eyes wearied of the billowy levels, tossing like an ocean aDout the trim . Jour-roomed house and huge, unpainted barns; they wearied of the dusty curxant bushes and the unfruitful orchard. Most of all they wearied of the one everlasting, relentless face of nature. 'l'nereiore sne spent nours aany nursing a pitiful little show of flowers such as had grown in the moist seashore gardens of her youth, and wilted under . \ the fierce Iowa summers. Indoors, ehe cut out pictures from the illustrated Journals that at rare intervals came Into her hands, and pasted them on her unplastered walis. She learned to make paper flowers. She hankered after the dazzling but unattainable loveliness of wax flowers in oval glass oases. 8he subscribed to a weekly household magazine named the Homestead, reading, in her hunger for ccaipanionshlp, the "correspcnjence column," wherein subscribers exchanged impartially theii1 domestic trials, their spiritual, wrestlings, the puzzles of rural etiquette, and the best fashions of washing blankets or raising a "sponge." Occasionally, in that oft-studied column, would appear a paragraph like this: "I would like to ask the si6ter from Marr if she makes her ohooolate frosting with the whites of eggs or boils it, and please send a receipt for presenting rabbits gnawing the rosebushes. "Lucetta." uT 1 r\TTn. Ia rrnf TTnmo. stead. I enjoy all the sisters say. Erminie "writes most beautifully! Please write again, Erminle, and let us know how to bear our crosses in the right spirit. I would be obliged, also, for a remedy how to prevent hair falling^out. "Lccetta." When she read these Mrs. Crest would blush with pleasure and feel the intoxicating delights of fame, for she was Lucetta. But for most of the time there was only work to break the loneliness. To' be sure, there was plenty of work and , had been all through the twenty-two years. Joshua, her husband, wa* a good farmer, but for a long while "unmerciful disaster followed fast and followed faster;" once, he liad been swept clean 1^? v of all 6ave hope by a cycione; once, he , had escaped only by a hairsbreadth losing his'farm through the fraud of a friend. Twenty-two years ago he had said: "Never mind, Judy, just let me make a few thousand dollars and you shan't - have to work on the farm. I'll sell out and buy a store in town and be post- | master * All his life Joshua had craveJ the leis nrely honors of office. He, too, was , social; he liked to talk, and he had a , gift for telling stories. How many times in the years those two simple j nnflfl+titflfl cfst/?lrari fhilfc afnra t will not try to count At first every Sunday ( night. They bought a book on bookkeeping and an arithmetics, and it was i (but principle would not allow anything bo like a game on Sunday) an exciting i diversion to practice making change < with the! numbered counters of pasteboard left by a tramping farm hand. They did not dream that the dingy red and blue and white disks were no less ( than wicked poller chips. Judith hacked , them into the proper sizes and numbered them neatly, so that they r^pre- j sented all the subsidiary coin. By consequence, Mrs. Crest's extraordinary j swiftness and accuracy in changing a dollar for, say, three dozen eggs at 17? , cents a dozen, or three pounds of butter , at 23 cents a pound, were the marvel of the Delmar shopkeepers. From coin to bank notes the transition is easy?in , theory; a scarcity of notes mado it less j * easy in practice, but by dint of years' study the pair came to know the look ana feel of a bank note well enough to ] enable Joshua to detect a very poor counterfeit $2 bill at a county lair. , From that day dated a reputation for Bhrewdness that he no more deserved , f-Vior* V*a rlirl fKo ctoIIawc j But the years slowly had dragged ( hope and dreams away together. The ( little children ca:ne; they died, one after another, and the desolate mother ' felt, deep down in her heart, that a doc- 1 tor near enough to come daily might , have saved them. Then, when the keeness of their grief was blunted and J they went for comfort to their old fancies, time and again their savings ] had been wrenched from them. The 1 man would have given up the fight in despair, but the woman clung to her shadowy hopes the more tenaciously. Finally, their patience and industry ' conquered. The great crop of 1891 had ' Increased their savings beyond the amount necessary to pay off the last in- j Btallment of the mortgage; thay would -actually have some hundreds in money. j Six thousand dollars and over stood to Joshua Crest's credit at the bank. "Only," said Judith to Myron Dwight, "I cayn't help felling kinder scary till > the 3d of October is past and gone. '' Myron was considered tho cleverest i young man in Delmar or in the county. < He had been to Iowa City to the uni- ' Versity; he went every year to Chicago to buy his goods, which added to his Knowledge of the world and improved his toilets; he was talked about for the Legislature. He was to be Joshua's partner. Myron was almost like a son to Judith. She had loved him, petted him, prayed for him, and no one except bis mother knew so well what things lie liked best to eat. Myron's mother was Judith's best friend?why should I make ft secret of it??she was the admired Ermin?e of tbe Homestead. She was a widow ivith this one child, wbora sho bad educated out of the proceeds of a liny bake shop and an infinite ingenuity. They lived in Delmar. To live in Delmar may not seem to the world a brilliant lot, Delmar being a flatlnland Iowa town, but beside the lonely farm life, a town with two churches, a bank and ehops looked like a populous paradise. In Delmar one could see people every Ly day, ju-jt by looking out of the window. wrv, "Seems like I couldn't wait to get to Delmar," said -Judith, "but I cayn't feel to be quite happy till after the iid." Myron luks at her kindly from the height of his six feet two inches. She ie eueb a wee creature in a black frock made tbut he does not know it) after a fiattern from the Homestead, with her itt;e peake'd, wistful, timid iace; her mild biue eyes and forehead wrinkled "by the constant lifting of her eyebrows, jjtering out to see distant objects on V - / those wide ana lonely plains, ner eyebrows are thin and gray, and so is her hair, which she curls on a slate pencil to resomblo tho hair of the ladies of Delmar. It would bo pretty hair If she w.<uld not disfigure it. "Yes," 6ays Myron, "Lorlllard Is a hard man to deal with, but you have the money In the Delmar bank all right" "it am x in uie Weimar DanK; 11 is in the other bank, Mr. Starling's bank at Ran^ord." Myron's black brows met. "Why, Uncle Joshua certainly told me he was going to put it in tho Delmar bank." "Well, be did start to put it there, but ho happonod to hear Mr. Maxwell was a drinkinx: man " "Maxwell! Why, he never was drunk in his life. He is as temperate a man as ever lived and as honest." "Josb.ua didn't hear anything about his honesty, but ? it was this way: Jo3hua had gono to Delmar with that money and he mot Mr. Starling in town. Well, I guoss Mr. Starling camo up to him and congratulated him on the high price ho got for his wheat and its being likely our corn would do well, too; and Joshua told him what he got an'l how he was on his way to put it in the bank. And, someway, that led them to talking "bout Mr. Maxwell, and Mr. Starling said he was sorry Maxwell was voting with the liquor party; and it come out that Mr. Maxwell sometimes took a glass of beer himself. Mr. Starling seemed to feel real sorry about it." Here Myron burst in: "Sorry? Why, he was just telling Uncle Jo6h that to prejudice him. He sorry, tho hypocrite! Then, I dare say, when Uncle Josh wanted to put the money in his bank, he wouldn't take it at first!" ISO, lie irui-y wouiun v, iiusaua. jjul you know your Uncle Joshua feels so strong about the temperance question because his sister, she married a drunkard; he snld he wouldn't let Ms money go to help tne breweries, and ho fairly made Mr. Starling take it." Myron was gloomily gnawing his mustache. "Did he get a deposit receipt?" said he. "They went right on back to Ranford and put the s^ney in the bank there." She stole a worried glance at the young man's dark face. For years she had trusted to Myron's knowledge of the great, dim, wicked mystery that she called "the world." Even she suspected that Joshua was simple as a child. "I hope?oh, there ain't anything wrong about doing that way, is there, Myron. Myron lauched; it was all right he guessed, and he would not stay for parleying, but swung his long legs over the barbed wire fence in a handspring, and was off to seek Joshua. Judith caught her breath because she always expected to see him "catch" on the jagged line of iron. Poor Judith! hers was a eoul that inclined to terror as the sparks fly upward. She was afraid of cows, ""J Tima V\n rro an^ VlArOOC UUU UilUC) auu V U?1V VUgO) uuu and hired men. She went to church behind staid oid horses, foeling that she was risking her life for her religion. When they first came to the prairie she had been braver and younger and used to ride; but since the brown colt ran away and threw her on the railway tiack in front of a train of cars she had never mounted a horse. She told Mrs. Dwight that if she had to choose between being shot and riding Starlight, the colt, she would ask to be 6hot, "because it is an easier death," said Mrs. Crest. Of course she lived in dread of tho "hired men," except Axel Petersen, the latest hired man, who was to be married to a girl in Sweden and had told her about the courtship. Axel was to buy the farm. Most of all she feared tramps at harvest time; 6he feared them so much that she had secretly bought a second-hand pistol that would not fire, which she locked up in a drawer; and she was on the whole rather more afraid of its exploding than of the tramps. For a while 6he watched the tall, light figure bounding between the rows of corn; with the pensive admiration of age for youth's activity; then she walked slowly, a little stiffly, back to the house. It would soon be time for Joshua's cupper; perhaps Myron would stop to supper, too, and it would be worth while to make pancakes. CHAPTER II. But when half an hour later Joshua's shadow fell across the threshhold there was no tall young fellow behind him. Joshua stood in ihe doorway to watch i?r. The kitchen was large and 6unny, md Judith had papered it with her own lands, Had the paper not b( en bought )f a peddler to whom Judith had paid Iribute because she was alone in the iouse and he haJ "6uch fierce kinder jyes," it probably would not havo been i remnant of a pattern used In a country "opera, house," nor represented lowers of such startling size and color, lor needed to be eked out by a blue and jold ceiling paper. But Joshua said ihat the paper was a good quality, and he idmired it with a trusting neart. He was a short, rather stout, florid little man whose gray hair was brushed back from a large forehead, and whose blue eyes were as innocent as a child's. He stooped a little because he had bent sver a plowhandle so much in his youth. He wore a &hort gray beard, but his mouth was bare and usually was attractive in its kindly half-humorous smile. To-night ho watched his wife gravely. Eut his first words wore iheerful enough. "Mother, Axat's money will be here all right next month, and he can pay $1,200 down and the reat on two, three and four years' time." "That's eood," said Mrs. Crest; 'but why didn't Myron come back with you, rather?" "He eaid he guessed he'd better hurry borne." The old man did not look at her; he walked acro6U the floor to the Blnk and began pumpintj; all the while he was conscious of his wife's eyes on his back. "Father, did Myron tell you anything about that bank'" Joshua's face was over the tin hasln; a great eplashing noise oame to her, mingled with a grunt that the bank was all right; but Joshua's neok, fairwhero UIO bUIi UtkU UUb IUUCUCU lb, g?on itu and rodder. "Father, I Jest know he did!" she cried, "he thinks Starling's bank ain't safe; that's why Myron wouldn't stop to supper; he didn't want to be questioned. " "Mother, you're the scariest critter alivo! Starling i6 a good boy; ho is the superintendent?no, that's his brother, but he is a professor, and he's a straight ternperanoe man, and I ain't going to believe a word agin him." Judith was trying to fry her cakes; the grease sputtered and hissed on the griddle and spattered on her bare wrist; she did not even know that it had burned her. Her mild eyes were glowing, eho trembled, and her gentle voice was sharpened by pain as she answered: "Thon he did talk to you. Oh, father, don't?don't hido aaytbins from me.1" "I ain't hiding nothing, mother. Myron, he thought you'd worry so, that's hi 1; uiiu uuu l inucii ue bitiu. xiu d juuu^ and thinks he knows it all. Jest be cause tome Chicago fellor with his boots blacked has been BtulJin' Myron, ho thinks Bteve Starling', we've all known from a boy, is going to bust up." "Father, for heaven's sake, what did Slyron say?" "Well, if you'll be any wiser for hearin', he heard Bteve had been speculating in buckets in Ckicago," eairl the old man. with a visible prjde over his flu* 1 encj tfith the terms or llnance; "he has been going long, or else he has been going 6hort, on wheat, and kiting away with notes and lost money, but I don't believe a word of it myself." Judith took up the cakes with shak'ng hands; she laid the plate on the table and put the griddle further back on the 6tove in order to approach Joshua. Xover since their little boy died had he seen his wife's face a^-Lt looked then. 1 "Joshua," she saidJ'lf we lose that money it means we'U^have to spend all our days working on a .mortgaged farm. If wo cayn't pay up the third he can foreclose on us; and you know he's mean enough to do It; and if we borrow money to pay him we shall have to work it out! That'B the best can happen to us; the worst is we'll be turned out? on the prairie?noways at all can we go to town, and for how many years?oh, father " "Hush, hush, Judy"?he tried to soothe her, stroking her withered hand and patting it?"come now, it will bo all right, we'll go fast enough. I didn't know you wanted it eo awful much!" "Wanted it!" she screamed, while the patience of years seemed to break down, and her words rushed as a prairie lire spreads; "wanted it. Father, you ain't got no idea what it means to mo to get out of this loneliness and be with God's folks again! I ain't had a peaceful day since the children died. I couldn't work hard enoufidk to stop my thinking! I was scared all tne while., I never said nothing 'bout it, for what good would it do? We'd, got to live out on the farm; it would only pester you, and you had enough to stand, but ali day I'd bo thinking, what about the horses? what about the reaper? when it was going, and I'd seo you brought home all bloody. If I'd a 6oul to speak to it wouldn't have been so bad, but I knew we couldn't afford a girl, and how'd we get one if we could? And every time the wind blowed I was ex-' pecting a cyclone." "Why, Judy, and you so brave when wo did have a cyclone!" "SUKSISG A PITIFUL LITTLE EHOW 01 FLOWERS." "I had got to be brave then, but I waa awful ecared inside: but when I Been it coming and you off, I had to loose the horses, for I knew the barn would go. and I got what I could down cellar, 'cause I knew that was the safest place. But I am always afraid of it coming; again. But I won't mind it a bit in town; there's so many people. Oh, I cayn't tell you what it will be to bo where I can see the neighbors passing and go to church Sunday without riding! I'll have Myron, that's most like a sou to me; he was born the same day of the! month as our little Joe, father, and he'u! got the same sweet disposition and eyes jest like Joe's eyes; don't you remember?" "Yes, yes, mother," said the old man, sighing. In both their minds was the same vision of the love and joy and grief of their youth. "Now, father, it seems like I couldn't mn no risks. Say Myron and me are' foolish: there ain't no ri6k in taking the. money out, and there is to keep It In.' Jest to please me, father, won't youj take it out?" He had never denied her anything,) and he did not deny her now. He was frightened at her strange excitement,.1 and told her to sit down and he would ttnish getting supper. "And I tell you what I'll do, mother," said he. "I'll go U) town to-morrow, though before the Lord I don't know how to take the time.,' and I'll inquire 'round, ana It there Isany talk'bout the bank being bad I'll draw the money sharp. But, you see, I haie to make mischief for Starling, who is a good boy, running down his bank, so I jest got to go cautious, ain't' I? And it is a sight of money to draw out at a whack, now ain't it? Mebbe we'd better sorter give him warning?do like we'd be done by. you know?so he can git a good roady. What do you think?" "I think you'd better go and do Jest what Myron says." "Myron don't know everything, mother," answered her husband in a piqued tone. "You don't seem to guess I got any judgment of my own." She saw she had made a mistake, and nastenea to assure mm tuai ouo nucn bow good his judgment was and the like things that wives say to their husbands; but there was a little rankle left. Myron had always disliked Starling from a boy, he eaid. Myron was prejudiced. Nevertheless, he was as good as hla word. In the morning he drove to town. Ee inquired of the deacon of his ohurch if Starling was Bound. He had qualms of conscience lest such inquiry might be an injury to the bank, therefore he chose a known friend of Starling for the interlocution. "Sound?" exclaimed the deacon, whose name was on a note of Starling'6 at that moment, "sound, of course he is sound; but if you want to make him unsound that is the way to go at it; start a run and you will make plenty of mischief!" "I didn't mean to make any mischief," faid Joshua contritely. "I ain't that kind, but you see my wife got scared about-? "Does she know anything about business?" asked the deacon, with a caustio accent on the word; and Joshua felt that ipl ? I L*_LT.-rT ^ jobhca'8 TA.CZ was over the basis. ho cut the sorry figure of & man that was cajoled by his wife into doing unkind a3 well as unbusinesslike actions. The deacon left him wretchedly cleaning his boots on the wooden sidewalk to conceal his embarrassment, and hurried after Starling himself. "I will get that note back to-day," thought the deacon; "he was so liberal loaning without asking security that I j couldn't very well refuse, but ho has got to see me through." ' [to be coktinoko.] IP?:' A LOOK AT HALIFAX. POINTS OF INTEREST ABOUT NOVA SCOTIA'S METROPOLIS. Hallffoitlan Manners and Caatoms? 3Iost English of All the British American Possessions? Soldiers and Civilians. "IT" ~JT ALEFAX, at once the headquarters of the British J troops in North America and the principal navul station and summer rendezvous for their North Atlantic squadron, is unquestionably more English, says the Washington Star, than any other BritishAmerican possession. Built upon a succession of hills and upon a .rocky eoi), admitting only of limited excavation without blasting, the town occupies a peninsula four and a half miles long with a breadth varying from a half to two and more miles; is bounded on the west by the Northwest. Arm, a beautiful stretch of sheltered water, and bordered on the cast by the harbor, which, accessible at all seasons, is a mile wide abreast the city proper. JlcNaVs Island, with its numerous batteries of modern ordnance, whence the boom of a heavy gun tells the mission of the white tents of the practice camp, forms the harbor's advance guard and flanks the regular channel on the right of entrance, while occasioning the division known as the Eastern passage. On all sideu one sees the impress of martial preparation, pa3t and present, and appreciates the difficulty of attack against the cross-fire of the well_i J t L. piauuu lUJL'LCf auu icaii^co vuo wua~ r . r^VIEW OP parative ease of a successful repulse; while remarking the contrasting mission of the forty churches, whose spires rise lorin in peaceiui protest. The citadel, from whose signal staff the welcome news of inboand mails is spread, commands the city and the harbo:: at its feet, and is interesting on acconnt of what it might be rather than what it is, because it shelters a portion of the sixteen hundred imperial troops forming the present garrison, and for the wide view from its ramparts. There is little haste and no hnrrj; time always with the busiest for a civil direction if not further ccurtesy. The fitting softness of the twilight aspect; gives way for a daytime monotony of mouse colored, weather-worn, soot-stained structures of wood, unredeemed by the more pretentious buildings of the business section or the sad-faced freestone and the occasional briok front of i;he residential parts. Against this the Haligonian fills his | glass bound vestibule with the warm, rich coloring of the geranium, his windows with blooming plants, and every available ledge with further tokens of hib flower loving nature; while right in the heart of the city lie the gardens, a singlo reservation of more than seventeen acres of well kept grounds, where even the violent contrast of the vivid marigold, the magenta phlox and the scarlet geranium in mixed profusion are unable to offset the skilful landscape-gardening and the rich green of the moss like grass. But it is in the park, Point Pleasant Pfirk, the southernost part of the peninsula, that [the Haligonian - ^ ^1 CITADEL ENTBANCS? glories, and rightly fihould he. A natural reservation of evergreen of many acres, only so modified by skilful engineering and well made roads that one forgets the artifice that brings him ever and anon into tree arched byways or upon some charming vista of the distant sea, the arm or the sail fl.ecked harbor. One wanders amid its peaceful, balsam scented paths only to stumble upon the hidden walls of Torts Ogilvie and Cambridge or to find one's self at the foot of the heavy maBonry of Martello tower; the ground aglow with bunch berries and golden | rod, the scattered maples vying in their autumn glory with the bright relief of the scarlet berried mountain ash, while here and there a robin redbreast hops in peaceful assurance and peck6 away at the debris of a recent picnic. The city postoffice, a fine stone building, even with its quaint, queer 6melling, heterogeneous museum, is far less attractive than the market women who squat about its base on Saturdays, and, oblivious of the weather, spread out their country produce. To come in out of the wet and avail themselves of the market building meant the payment of a modest toll, against which tradition promptly set its face. Here the dainties of the sea lie out in all their glistening freshness and variety ; and here, also, the Indian women sell their sweet grass baskets and their bark canoes; while farther on the darkies?the descendants of Ja -i A : ? maicfln maroons auu niut-riuiu iciugco slaves?offer yon berries and herbs,the product of nature's bounty rather than the colored man's unwonted thrift. What we miss in paveraentS'?for the sidewallcs are usually grave).--we find balanced by the general excellence the macadamized roadways, with the bordert of fine shade trees, and by t] prevailing rectangular arrangement the streets, which, but for the conse utive numbering of houses without r gard to -interblock distinction, leav nothing to be desired in ease of searc '** POINT PLEASANT PARK. To Americans -for so we are styl< to the exclusion of the Canadian?tl first thing that strikes us, after ^ have pushed our timepieces an hoi ahead, is the military phase of Halifc in the soldiers we meet at every tur: in numbers, so we are told, to me u.ij.. -t- i xi l i everj uvkbwsj uuuui mo uaruur. not the relief squad, then, perhaps, single orderly bearing an official-lool ing bine-clad missive. Down the strei he comes, a strapping fellow, aflan in the scarlet tunio of the "king'f infantry, pipe-clayed, gloved and bel ed, his small, round, visorless cap ju saved by his right ear and the tigh ened chinstrap, while in his hand 1 twirls a small-boys' cane tipped wii something akin to tin. He is amnsin in his stolid seriousness and contras juvenile trimmings, but significant] solid in his vigorous personality be the steady crunch-crunch of thoi l jjjj | ' "V HALIFAX. heavy, ugly boots that mar his fee His sailor brother is not so attraotivi nor has he the same trim alertness < the American man-of-war's man. The only regular approach to drei parade is garrison chapel. At 1 o'clock on Sunday, headed by the rej mental band, which also furnishes tt devotional music, the Protestant d tails of infantry and artillery are pi raded to the garrison chapel; and fc an hour?the prescribed period?ti visitor hears the Charch of Englan service/prayers for the Queen, listei to a sermon toned for the rank and fi! ?whose heavy scabbards and clumf boots shift restlessly as the tin: limit Wanes, while upwardly and on wardly rigid and intent, and then r< spondc to the collection with a bit < Unole Sam's silver. The service ovei the details form on the green withou and, after a few sharp orders and t many quidk, snappy movements, tu men march off at a rapid pace for the: quarters and* the "roast beef of ol England." With a population of 42,000, Hal fax boasts a militia of 1300, and, toe their parade to chapel is an interestin sight. Row after row they filled tl old round Church of St. George's, i all the finery of their well-kept traj pings, with here and there a gray hea ?his breaBt aglow with hard-earne honors; making the rafters ring wit their "Onward, Christian Soldiers, and then subsiding to listen to a wel directed lesson aad to hear the possi bilities of annexation described in th pleasant words of a "perennial honej moon of prosperity." Without distinction, street cars an 'buses are "trams"?confusion bein I avoided only by the scarcity of eithei | A line of single tracks doubles upo itself like a figure six, and runs with fifteen-minute frequency and a war ing willingness for passengers a squar away; a practice which, with the ii stallation of a trolley system and moc em speed?established possibilitie after six years' deliberation?may fis ure seriously in the future mortalit of unhasteuing Halifax. At once we pale-faced Americans ar struok by the fine coloring of the no tives, and especially by the gloriou natural glow of the fair-skinned wc i men with their heads of luxuriai | hair, which even the common clums method of dressing can mar only i part. If we wonder how the numeroi; schools are filled, tbe eight Bmilin urchins, their pockets aburst wit wild fruit, that pass us in tow of tw towering policemen and a colored jat itor, answer us and tell the const quences of compulsory education. To the inquiring, let him know the the fisheries and lumber, principall spruce,* form the chief sources c wealth and the staple articles of trad with the West Indses?the most im portant market for the Nova Scotian and tell him, too, that native soft cos is the cheapest fuel, but that the goli deposits, undoub tedly rich, are, asyel but poorly worked, thanks to the mar ngement of unprincipled speculators and to him wbo notices, let him laug at the postman's rig?so oddly suf gestive of the martial toggery of man years ago; let him wonder why th Haligonian turns to the left?a prac tice, in driving, that keeps his neigi bor'fl near hubs in full, view; let hii rejoice in the unaccustomed presenc of that civil, white-capped Englis maid, with her modest voice, wh ushers him past the dingy outer doo and into the contrasting brightness c the cheerful, homelike, drawing roor with its unfailing tea service and evei welcome cup; let him know that th young woman who bids him wait til her brother has changed his "flac nels" refers only to tennis dress; le him marvel why our paper money i received at par while our silver i taken only at a discount; and let hir ponder over our anglo-maniacs wh are more anglicized than the Englis themselves; but for ue, let us revel i the happy reetfulness, the indifferenc \ . V . of to dress, the easy reach of the woods iir and the ever-changing sea, and the lie presence of that cool, salt-laden tonio cf air, just warm enough for exhilaratc ing enjoyment and the appreciation e- of much that is delioions in the native es cuisine. Lincoln and the Feacli. I A young lady sends to the Tribune ' a little anecdote of "Abraham Lincoln. 7 She says that a good many years ago, when her father was a small boy, fcer grandfather brought Abraham Lincoln home one night to supper. He was then a poor young man practicing law in Woodford County, Illinois, i "It was a cold, stormy night, and grandma hurried around getting sup* ? per. To have something nice she i opened a jar of preserved peaches. Lincoln spent a long time over his ceach. and finally left it on the vlate. ? "Grandma noticed this, and as soon I as he and grandpa had gone into an- I ie other room she went to look at the ee dish. Then she saw that instead of a ir peach she had given the visitor the litIZ tie mnslin sack whioh contained the n> peach kernels and the spioe. She in hastened into the other room and be* If gan an apology, bnt Mr. Lincoln said: a " That was all right, Mrs.' Perry, [j. My mother used the same thing, and it was so good that I wanted to get all ie the juise out of it.'"?Chicago Tri, > bune. gj. A Census ot Flowering Plants. t- The number of flowering species of ie plants described is, m round numbers, ih about 100,000. Bnt though explorag tions seem to be continually adding it- to the list, this number will probably; iy be employed for all time by reason of; id the different views of .species now en-; 38 tertained from those prevalent in the ? past. It is now known that in all; plants there is a great tendency to vary; and while in the past these dif fering ferms were honored by separate names and descriptions, the tendency I' now is to make descriptions broad i1 enough to cover what would be a num1' ber of species a century ago. So while \ new species are being continually brought to light as unknown lands are% _ searched, the union of older forms f under a single specific appellation keeps down the number of accepted species to the hundred thousand mark. In the lower orderB of vegetation, j nearly double the number of species have been described as of flowering 1 plants; but many of these are coming to be regarded as forms of one species. ?New York Independent. ? OrangOatang With High Forehead, k In the Zoological Gardens in Phila3' delphia is one of the few real orang1 outangs whioh have been brought to this country, and in his way he is a I wonder. Those who have seen him, says the Inquirer, in presenting his picture, will recognize in the cut the peculiar attitude in which he places himself when showing off for the bene* fit of visitors and when he swings his )r body sideways before the front of his L!j cage. 1 The orang-outang, or manlike ape, ?s has a close resemblance to that of a ? man in the general form of the bones, ^ muscles, nerves and brain. They ar\ j. the third in size of the anthropoid species of apes, and come from the ? low, marshy forest tracts of Borneo r and northern parts of Sumatra. * Their muscular strength is very ' great, and a powerful man would oe roughly handled in an enconnter. The | native name of orang-outaug means , head man, or chief of the woods. This animal, Chief UtaD, appears to be about six to eight years old, and is " now three-fourths grown. If he should ' live to reach his full size he will be twice his present age. He was captured four years ago in Borneo. He has many peculiar characterise ^ tics, one of which is his apparent e ' .8 the simian wondeb. ^ soperstition that if he swings a straw in the right manner some one will ^ bring him something to eat. If you go oat to the Zoo anvwh'ere near feeding-time you will 6ee Chief Utan waving a straw right and left with the k most solemn face he can pat on. He will keep this ap for an hoar, and ^ when his keeper brings him some }m food that is the last of tbe straw until nearing the next feeding-time. Acit cording to the artist he has a high forehead and wears his hair pompajj dour. ^ 6 Unearthed an Ancient Boman House. Near the Colosseum and the Baths j of Titus, at Home, in the Via Delle J Sette Sale, twenty-six feet below the I; surface, an entire Roman house has been unearthed, with black and white . mosaic floors and polychrome decorab tions on the walls, like those in the . house of Livia, on the Palatine. It L seems to have been the residenoe of e the proofectus urbis. Near the Forum large private baths have been dis[. covered at a depth of sixteen feet, ? * 11 ~ ? tttifTi 1 orrrA I n wnn passages p??ou mm e of basalt like those in the Via Sacra, k ?New York Sun. ? A Jiovel Attraction. r if Brussels is to have a novel attracn tion in the form of ft monument to be aristically lighted with electric e lights. The monument in question is II that erected to the memory of the late i- Burgomaster of the city, M. Anspach, it in the Place de Brouckere. There is is a figure of the Archangel St. Michael, is with an uplifted sword, overcoming a a dragon. The nimbus of the saint is o to be one sheet of electricity, and h small incandescent lamps will mark n out the figures of the saint and the e dragon.?London News. I THE LITTLE COMFORTER, V. HB I shall cot rail at fortune or at fat^-'v/ Y B9| While in the dark or light" I hear a footstep pattering to the gate' ' vH That closes on the night SB Bat for those little feet ' Each pathway shall be sweet? mMm The sad storms rimmed with rainbows, 1 where the paths of angels meet! flfl I shall not rail at fortune or at fate I While under love's own sties < BB My little queen walks where the rose3 wait raj^H And wins me with her eyes. , VjB For in those eyes I seem Bl To read the stars that stream On bright, celestial meadows whew' tl&VvJsMj Angels sing and dream! BH I shall not rail at fortune or at fate While still I feel the beat . - J Of her glad heart, and in life's twilight late- ' I Her rosv llns and sweet! Lovely as still thou art, -: Best oa my heart, sweetheart'< / Till God's white angel, smiling, kiss lips and jfi lives apart! . V ?Frank L. 8tantou. . . ; ? PITH AND POINT. I A dress does not make a woman; , ? but often breaks a man.?Texas Sift- -.- J "Stick to me and you'll get yourself ) . ' fl in a box," was what the envelope re- IB marked to the postage stamp. -States- H man. ' A Growing Demand: "They talk of m a new creation of peers in England.** f fl "For the export trade?" -Brooklyn ;,H Eaoe prejudice is all light if it leads' . .,9 I'a man to refrain from patting his fl money on the wrong horse.?States- fl Clergyman?"Some people think I . B preach long sermons. Do you think" \B so?" She?"Oh, no I They only seem , long."- -Puok. The glorious charge of the Light Brigade, ' jfl By Tennyson famousiy sun?, Is nothing to that wbirh my doctor made . 'B For taking a look at my tongue. wm ?Yeno wine's News. . ' 'Professor," said a graduate, trying . . fl to be pathetio at parting, '*1 am in-. debted to you for all I know." "Pray '-.M do not mention such a trifle," was the , m reply.?Tit-Bite. S "Farewell," he said, "we shall meet ' s B in heaven, and then?" "Then I will H love you," replied the gTrl who rejected him. "I expect to love every . /jfl one there."?Truth. 9 One?"Stickers has been telling us of marvelous sums he has made oh f If Wall street. Is he a Napoleon of finance?" Two?"Well, hardly?more - a of a Napoleon of narration!"? -Puck. . ..S Briggs?"What sort of a feUo^ia/r-^fl Sandstone?" Griggs?"Well, he is S the kind of a man who thinks his wheel ) is better than any other." Briggs? "I seel Just an average man."? Puok. I The Snapper Snapped: Miss Antique vg 'M ?"I don't see why young married IS people make such fools of themeelves!" Old Goodfellow?"Maybe it's because they have the chance I B A Sea View: Passenger?"Captain, how far are we from land?" Captain i'fi ? "About two miles." Passenger? "But I can't see it Iu what direction is it?" Oaptain?"Straight down, sir." s ?Tit-Bits. Von Blnmer (looking at his wife's -B check-book) ?"You don't mean to say , I you have given out a check for $100? Why, you've only got ?50 in the bank to meet'it!" Mis wiie?* mubf right, dear! If the cashier says &ny- - J thing about it I'll tell him to charge . fl it."?Puck. I Judge Noonan of the San Antonio I District Court is also the proprietor C of a etock ranch in Medina County. '1 He was recent! j called on in his official .1 capacity to pronounce sentence on a ' I horsethief. Said the Judge blandly: .1 "Are you aware of any-circumstance -? that entitles you to consideration afc my hands?" "Yes, your Honor, I ftm.<r-v ':^^OT "What is it?" "The horse I stole I didn't" belong to you. I think you I ought to take that into consideration-" I -r-Texas Siftings. Business-Like lieggars. % ^ The beggars of Paris have a Tegular I "Direotory of Benefactors," in two I editions?a small one at sixty cents . 1 and a large on for 31.20. These booka 1 give the names of persons known to I be benevolent, also their religion and I politioal faith; also the hours at which I they may be found at home, etc. The I "religious racket" is very remunera- I tive, it eeems. An old rag pioker at I Clinchy lately confessed that last win- I ter her child was baptised twelve I times in Protestant churches and ten I times in Catholic ones; each time the I mother received one franc and a new I dress. When epidemics are raging, the beggar asks for contributions on '''/ the plea that his or her offspring is down with diphtheria, croup, eta, . and many people quickly respond, ia & order to get rid of what they believe ' to be a very dangerous class of people _S?n Francisco Chronicle. Eitten Survives a Disaster. Workmten clearing out the last of " the debris in the cellar of the building ; j destroyed by the explosion at Detroit,- 'V < Micb., heard a wail in the remaining > rubbish, and on clearing it away a '' ofi Maltese kitten was revealed. Pussy bad lived for seven days id the ruins ; without food or water, and had passed through an upheaval that destroyed the lives of thirty-seven human beings. When the workmen reached tho auimal it was just able to make a movement, and shortly afterward died. The workmen said they would bury the kitten and its grave would be marked by bricks from the ruined structure.?Chicago Times-Hsrald. Longest Steamer in Mie lYorlil. Tho Pennsylvania, o^tiic Hnrabui^American Steamship Line, which wili go into commission in June, is the longest vessel in tho world. She has 20,000 tons displacement, which y'^ beats the Lucania by 15 per cent. Her 3 length is 500 feet, beam G'2 feet and ij depth 42 feet. She has four pole .? masts, and but one fnnnel, and, while carrying 30,000 tons dead weight, haa accommodations lor 200 cabin and 1500 steerage passenger#. At the of- : '{ licc of the company it is said that tho rnmor that th'j Pennsylvania was to , "/"to! have the eister ship.* is premature.? . Chicago Times-Herald. mf y , C - . ... ' >