Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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ver ing point for imported figs, although a large quantity is received through Boston dealers. The duty on figs is now 2 1-2 cents a pound. It was raised a half cent by the McKinley bill. Large quantities are shipped from California, the only place in the country where figs are raised to any extent. Within the last five years the cultivation of figs has become quite an industry in California. There are plenty of fig orchards there and large quantities of figs have been shipped to the East, but there is very little de mand for them. They are dry and When packed are very dark blue figs with thick, tough shins and they have scarcely any seeds in them. They taste quite different from the white Smyrna fig. Fruit dealers say that Californians have not yet learned how to cure figs, but that they are improving, and that it is only a question of time when they will drive the foreign figs out of this market, just as they have driven out prunes and raisins. California con sumes most of its own figs. About half a car load—15,000 pounds—was shipped to this city last season. Most of these arc still in the hands of the dealers. They have a way of preserv ing tigs out there, and serving them with sugar and cream. This makes a delicious dessert. The California dried figs sell in this market at from 6 to 9 cents a pound. Some enterprising Californian has prepared what is called erystalized figs. They are put through a preserv ing process and then they arc packed loosely in one and two pound boxes. These are the most expensive figs in the market, as they retail for 50 and 90 cents a box. Green figs arc considered quite a delicacy in Califor nia, where they arc eaten like any other fruit, either from the tree or with cream and sugar. — [New York Kecorder. Help Wanted. Mrs. Simson—Now, Tommy, I am going to put the candy on the step to cool, and you needirt think you can touch it, because I shall be watching you from the window all the time. Tommy (meekly)—Yes’m. Can I ask the little Dingle boy over hero-* Mrs. Simson—What uo yoy want of Lim for? Tommy—I want him to help share my misery.— [New York Sun. Baby’s Vacation. Little Willie—Mamma, you told me God sent baby here, and now baby’s dead and gone back to heaven. ‘‘Yes; baby’s gone back to God.” “What! Was baby down here just on a short vacation?”—[New York World. tective, and I wfiTft you to go back with me and pay for them.” Shoplifters who steal for busine«8 and take as much as they can get dis pose of their stealings about their per sons only temporarily while in the store. Once outside, they find some quiet place in which to disgorge, and arrange their stealings, and the pri vate rooms in saloons are very con venient for the purpose. — [New York Sun. One of Nature’s Graveyards. ‘‘The Bad Lands of Dakota,” said Prof. J. B. Wilkinson, “are good for nothing on the face of the earth but fossils. It is a fact that every portion of the hills there, however, are absolutely filled with evidences of an imal life. Fossil insects, fishes, birds, the bones of the elephant, the masto don, of the lion, the tiger, and of scores, if not hundreds, of extinct an imals and species, are to be found in the same hillside. In one declivity? where the rain had washed away the underlying earth and a heavy slide had occurred, I found in a space not exceeding thirty feet square the fossil remains of seven distinct species of mammals, of seventeen species of fish^ and of five varieties of birds, while the shellfish and insect remains were too numerous to count. By what great natural convulsion this district was made the graveyard of millions of animals it is impossible to say, hut notiiing short of a tremendous and widely extended calamity could, in one comparatively small tract, have destroyed as many animals as must have perished there.”—[Globe-Demo crat. Keep Busy. The secret of success in life is to keep busy, to be persevering, patient aud untiring in the pursuit or calling you are following. The busy ones may now and then make mistakes, hut it is better to risk these than to he idle and inactive. Keep doing, whether it he at work 'or seeking recreation. Motion is life, and the busiest are the happi est. Cheerful, active labor is a bless ing. An old philosopher says : “The firefly only shines when on the wing; so it is with the mind. When once w'e rest,we darken.”—[British Printer. An Important Animal. Teacher—John, of what are your shoes made? Boy—Of leather, sir. Teacher—Where does the leather come from? Boy—From the hide of the ox. Teacher—What animal, then, sup plies you with shoes and gives you meat to eat? Boy—My father.— [New York WoriJ. which gives the right to every widow of offering her hand and heart for wedlock to any single adult of the borough whom she may like, be he a waiting widower or a bashful bachelor who may feel a hesitancy in popping the question. Reminding one of those primitive times in which a widow, having lost her male protector in cruel war or through fatal sickness, would either of her own free will re sort or by the order of her tribe be ap portioned to another masculine guard ian, this ancient privi'ege has not fallen into desuetude, but is fondly cherished to this day by every bereaved widow of this German town, once an advanced post on the border lines of the territories inhabited by plunder ing Slavic hordes. A German contem porary urges the introduction of this custom, aud its extension to all spinsters confessedly beyond thirty in the whole fatherlnad.— [New Orleans Picayune. 4 SUMMER DRESSES. There is a revival of dainty, old- fashioned muslins for cotton dresses for summer of corded dimities, of lawns, batistes and organdies. These sheer fabrics will rival without dis placing the thicker ginghams, per cales, cotton cheviots and sateens. In thin fabrics the first choice is for those with clear white grounds strewn with flowers or branching designs in pink, lilac or blue, but there are also many with dark colors as well as with black grounds. The new dimities are thinner than those formerly worn, and are woven in corded stripes pow dered with colored figures. Striped lawns are in great favor in broad widths, and in narrow quarter inch stripes of yellow, pink, pale violet or china blue, alternating with white. These come in the soft mousseline do 1’Inde, entirely without dressing. Em broidered batistes are liked in colors, while thinner organdies and dotted Swiss muslins have large designs of flowers printed upon them. Tailors are making tucked bodices and shirt waists of duck or of cotton cheviots for young ladies at boarding school and for yachting dresses. In thinner fabrics, such as washable silks, there are bodices and lengthwise tucks stitched all around the waist, giving the effect of a corselet, with the silk drooping above like a blouse. Coat sleeves, square cuffs, aud a turned over collar complete tucked bodices of duck or cheviot. The straight skirt has a fan plaited back. Spencer waists with yoke and belt are cut out in square tabs that fall low on the hips and give a coat effect, or else they are scalloped deeply and edged with em broidery. This design is pretty for ginghams and perca os. One of the ery of gold and eil pink and copper bea both and on to the s<3J full sleeves are dottcj ing. The chic of new gc bodice, as skirts are u? The fancy of the bodices with jacket froi dainty Zouaves, or Figj and varied ways. T| jacket is sometimes si square corners above with lapping stitched ed* a full vest—a pretty fas! flake wools or fine moha Gowns of decided clu] too light in color, alway effective in a large gatl' men. Or, if the color H pronounced, then the ton covering, gloves or para low or very dark, oi black ;|and very little tri, be employed. Some of fective gowns are in m that seen in the piece, d<| themselves to most peoj: Among new dresses^ prettiest are of black pattern made over shot feature in these dress^ skirt of shot silk covtj with net cut precisely shaped, then finished at| deep flounce of black with the flower baskl stylish example is of p : ] changeable silk, and ai; blue shot with gold. t| Reading by M 4 Reading novels at r_ light of the moon is n^i the Uni ed Stales, hi the English wife of S?>| vuelto, of Guatemala, mon thing to see a sem in a hammock with a Lc on her father’s verancU Cuca District, Guateuv’j and 1 o’clock in the Revuelto is a wealthy and is in this countr 1 by his wife and sisti; pleasure trip. The tra: Chicago yesterday, antf^ at the Grand Pacific H are no moonlight nights or in England like we mala,” said the Spanish yesterday. “The mo; periods of the month ifj it is as light outdoors | day. English and Al write about the subliml etc. They should sd Guatemala during tliej They would then ha\ go into ecstacies ahe Free Press,