University of South Carolina Libraries
I i } I i LADIES' DEPARTMENT. Old Superstition about Sneezing. Sneeze on Monday, Sneeze for danger; Sneeze on Tuesday, liviss a stranger; k. C?l.? ^Joccive a letter; Snjeeze on Thursday, Something better; Sneeze ou Friday, Expect sorrow; Snjeeze on Saturday, (Joy to-morrow. f Sew BusinessA San Francisco young woman has started a njew business. She goes about from I house to house mending jewelry andJ repairing clocks. When she has to Idrill a hole in a piece of metal, she 1 as drills and a lathe which she works jv attaching to a sewing machine. J ilmost everybody who has iewelrv ha* also a sewing-machine w ^ ? w Her trade flourishes. Most ladies have bits of broken jewelry lying about which they do not think it worth while to send to a shop, but which they would gladlty have mended should anvoue come tcf the house and Gx it up at a small prjice. In the regulating of I clocks also ?he does well. Beside her lathe and drill, she has with her, in a neat little l|)ox, a full kit of jeweler's tools, a spirit lamp, and blowpipa l . ltomancc of the Jasmine. It is alwjays pleasant to associate a romance with a favorite flower. The story of th<j; cultivation of the jasmine, with its djelicate yellow flowers and delightful bdor, in France, as told by the Xew ji'ork Mail, deserves to be remembered. The Duke of Tuscany, j it is said, fiad brought one plant with ! him from! the tropical countries he I visited, tuLd placed it, with many in- ! junctions jfor its careful tendance, in the hands of his gardener, intending to present it as an offering to the princess of F ranee. The gardener had a sweetheart, and, wishing to please her, I ' - -1!_ -? ?1 lie one aay> Droae on a sup ui mo uuw ished plant, and offered it to her. She planted it,1 hoping thus to preserve it for her wedding-day, and to her de. light it took root, throve, and grew into a stately i bush, from which she gathered flofvers salable for their rarity and so accumulated a sum of money which facilitated her marriage. To this day, the maidens of Tuscany wear a sprig of jasmine, in token that they can bring* a lucky dower to the man of ^^ their choipe. Fashion IVotes. The Langtry turban is as popular as ever. 1 Canvas woolen stuffs are all the rage. 1 Cloth bonnets are worn with cloth J?? UIC3SCD. Quiet colors will be generally worn this season. Silver white is the new shade for bridal dresses. Snowballs trim the bonnets and hats of many Brooklyn girls. Chatelaine watches are exceedingly fashionable in New York. Bison hair cloth is the fabric destined to supersede camel's hair. Carved wood ornaments are used to decorate dresses and bonnets. For morning dresses, white mull is gathered in the neck and sleeves. Felt corduroy bonnets are a pretty J novelty for morning and traveling ;vear. Large balls and spots are the newest designs for Oriental and Spanish laces. Plaited camel's-hair bonnets are worn with cloth and cheviot costumes. "White silk gauze with large velvet figures is the newest fabric for brides' dresses. Velvet spots are introduced into Spanish laces intended for dresses and bonnets. Round hats of felt have large, high, square crowns and stiff brims faced with velvet. Plain pleated and gathered skirts om more worn hv fashionable women than any other. Long redingotes and cloaks of Muscovite velvet are trimmed with dark gray and black furs. Dark blue wool dresses are elabo* rately trimmed with red braid, or combined with red wool. Muscovite velvets have large figures of cut velvet in high relief on the plain uncut velvet ground. Underskirts of velveteen are much ?tV>io oiitumn tionpnfh tiinina WVlli. MUVU^^ vv.?.ww and polonaises of tweed and cheviot. Brides' dresses are trimmed with Bilver cords, silver galloon, and an embroidery of silver threads and beads. Bonnets in the Princesse and Tarn O'Shanter shapes are now made en / tircly of white mull. They look very pretty. Silver braid and fine gray chenille cord, plaited in basket designs, make dressy bonnets, particularly when trimmed with white and gray ostrich feathers, and ornaments of silver. Suede gloves in the new shades of elephant, Pscnutt, and Russian gray, czar brown, and Moscow green, come j in the form of gauntlets, and with long wrists, with or without buttons. Modern Locust Plasnes. Recent events have enabled the world to realize more easily than before the dread significance of a plague , of locusts. The locusts no longer revives reminiscences of Pharaoh and the Exodus; it is a terribly real scourge of the modern world. Europe is now invaded, and in Russia, Spain, ( and Portugal, locusts have turned into j barren deserts the most fertile provinces. Though their enemies are nu- j i merous and hundreds of thousands are killed by birds of prey and all sorts of animals their numbers do not decrease, | and until very lately little systematic . ! elfort has been made to oppose their -i i advance. The island of Cyprus is notable as being one of the first places to take up weapons against the foe. Said Pacini, in 1867, showed a strong determination to enforce the regulations for ^ the destruction of locusts, and his ofiicial progress from village to village, preaching war against the locusts, had sneh evnallenf results that r> few vears later it was officially announced at Constantinople that the locusts in the island of Cyprus had been completely ^ destroyed. One of the measures which ^ proved most successful was the simple expedient of compelling each rate-pay- t er to collect sufficient locust eggs to fill a large measure, which were then deo ( stroyed either by being buried in deep . pits or by being burned. But notwithstanding all precautions, a few of the ' eggs escaped, and Gordon Cumming gives an interesting account of the new locust war in Cyprus in the Nine- ( teenth Century. They "increased and ^ multiplied in so frightful a ratio that by the summer of 1880 their vast swarms threatened calamity to the island." The British authorities set to ? work in earnest to cope with the in- ~ sect. The measure of locusts' eggs to ^ be collected by each rate-payer was re ^ duced in size, and instead of being ^ made compulsory, as is the case in Turkey, the working of locusts' traps was paid for. If the measure fixed by ^ was imposed and by this means a trade in locusts' eggs sprang up, the searchers who were not lucky and those who had no taste for locusts' egg hunting buying their share from more fortunate or industrious brethren. The. quanti. c ty collected in 1879 was about twentysix tons; in the following year it reach- ? ed the enormous.'"'tal of 236 tons.? Pall Mall Gazelle. ?? i Wfurtrirrz* Plnrinotno. tjliailgv AIUJ Iiiiiiva* The singular fact that venomous < snakes will frequently permit children to play with them ancl handle theTn i without molestation had an apt illus* r tration in Eldred township, Mo. Two t little children, the one but two and 1 the other three years of age, were playing together. The former was the child of Franklin Smith, the latter the j child of John Ileins. They were play- ^ ing in Smith's yard. Mrs. Smith, hav- r ing occasion to go to the door, saw the > two children sitting side by side on t the grass. Iler child had a short stick in its hand with which it was giving ^ frequent light taps on the ground in c front of it. Mrs. Smith supposed they ?] were playing with a small land turtle ^ which she had "seen about the yard for j some days, and, after watching the i t children's mirth for some time, she I t walked toward them to see what they ^ were doing to the turtle. "When she ? had approached to within a few feet of t them she was horrified to see that the j , children were amusing themselves j t with a large rattlesnake. For a mo- t ment she was speechless and motion- j less. The snake lay at full length, ap- r parently enjoying the caresses and at- t tention of the children. At each touch \ of the stick the snake would simply raise its head, open its mouth and dart \ its tongue in and out. It was that that j made the children laugh. Recovering < herself, Mrs. Smith advanced a step or j two. The snake discovered her. Like a tlasli it threw itseir into tne con 01 j springing, by which it alone can inllict j its deadly bite. This movement \ frightened the children and they moved ( away out of its reach. Mrs. Smith ? then found a club and succeeded in dis- ] patching the snake. This done she fainted away. She was found uncon- j scious on the ground by a neighbor j who was passing with the children cry- . ing at her side, and the dead snake a , few feet away. She was soon resusci- , tated and told the above story. The snake was over four feet long and had seven rattles. < i WHY, OH WHY? "Hol," ISurriette. the Iltimorint, Jlonrnfully Ivjnculntes in the "Cincinnati lOnqulrer." There are some unsolved mysteries in the great problem of life that give me cause for reflection and anxiety. If I were rich I believe I would build me a lonely cell somewhere irt Chilton or some place like that, worth about $90,000, with a store-room like a whole sale grocery, where I might have plen. tv of help in studying there intricate problems in our daily economy, or ex. travagance, as the case may be. For often and often I wonder and wonderl Why you always put tea-spoons into the vase upside down ? Why the pantaloons of a godless atheist, who never said a prayer in his life, bag at the knees just as quickly as and decidedly as the breeks of the saint who spends half his days on his knees ? Why it is wrong to eat pie with a knife? What Washington said to General Lee at the battle of Monmouth? Why so many generals in the army iave been privates ever since the war ? How the directory of a railroad company can get rich while the stockholders gradually starve to death? How a receiver prospers and grows 'at on a buinbss that ruined the mer :hant? Why the man who "has gone out of >olitics" never misses a convention' tnd always keeps "in the hands (and ilso the pockets) of his friends?" What the State would do for penientiaries if all the rascals should sudlenly step up and confess ? Why a woman falls like a flash not wo inches from t|ie banana skin she iteps on, while a man falls like a cy:lone half-way round the block, bowing like a demon at every plunge,.and Lt last climaxes with a crash under a >eanut-stand on the other side of the treet ? Why "pure bear's oil" is always :heaper when pork is way down, and moms un like a balloon in the cholera rears ? Why, when spring chickens are so mall you have to eat them by the dozn to taste one, the price is so high 'ou have to buy them by the chicken? Why a man frequently tries to make timself necessary when he would serve luraanity much better by making him* elf scarce? Why it is so much easier to lose ialf a dozen bets than it is to win >ne? """* * ?Why Tom Thumb was always billed is "twenty-three years old" until the lay he died, when he nyide a jump of nore inaii ins liiewwer Why some people "remember the >abbath day" as though it was only a )arlor-car porter, and give it a quarter n full for all demands? Whatever became of the "blue-glass emedy ?" And what went with all the archery dubs? . I don't believe in philosophy wastng its time on trifles. If the wise nen want something useful and pracical to ponder over, here are their )roblems. Poisoned Arrows. Af q ronont. mpptinrr nf soiont.ists in ^aris, an interesting communication vas received from M. W. J. Hoffman egarding the methods employed by Sorth American Indians to poison heir arrow points. The Coraanches simply pierce the jreen shell of the "Spanish bayonet" >r yucca angustifolia with the points. The Apaches (Cayoters, sic) bruise up he heads of rattlesnakes with deer's iver, allow the mass to become putrid> hen dip the arrow points, and allow ,hem to dry slowly. The Chinouns Moquis of Arizona) irritate a rattlemake until he bites himself, and then lip the point and a portion of the voodofthe arrow into the blood of he animal. A wound with one of hese arrows generally proves fatal in :hr?e or four days, and its action is nuch more rapid if the stomach of he wounded person is empty at the ;ime the injury is received. Another poison is obtained by irri;ating bees, shaking the hive, and then rilling them when iri this state with .mail branches bunched together. The nsects are crushed up in a mass ivith mortar and pestle, and the arrow loints are dipped in the magma. It s probable that the active substance n this case consists in tne lorriac acia contained in the bodies of the bees. This preparation does not cause death, jut induces long continued sickness. Another very active but not fataj poison is prepared from red ants. It produces pa'n in the pharynx, considerible swelling of the part injured, and sometimes delirium. The patient remains feeble for a month. Roast owl was esteemed a delicacy in a recent Paris menu. ! ! A CITY'S AMBULANCE SERVICE. 1 How Sew York Provide* for Accident* and Casuattle*. , To some of the down-town police ! precincts the ambulances are called | often half a dozen times in a single night. It is then that the great crop of drunks is reaped and that nearly all the-fighting and murdering is done* By day accidents to workmen and people in the streets engage the attention of the hospital surgeons. The ambulance horses stand all day and night in a Dutch cellar ready to turn out at a momentls notice Under the driver's seat is a little drug store containing the essentials ip emergency treatment. Frequently the call comes over the fire wires?twenty strokes of the hell ana the number of the br x where the ambulance is wanted. It starts from the nearest hospital. Rarely the ominous twenty-five notes spells out the message: 4 "Send all the ambulances in the "city," as it did the day when the Riverdale blew up. Then a race for life and death takes place from up town and from down town, for which all other traffic must give way. The ambulance, like the mail wagon, has the right of way everywhere. In the fighting precincts, Fourth, Sixth, Eighth, Fourteenth, all below Houston street, the hours between 11 at night and 2 o'clock in the morning are usually the busiest, particularly on Saturday nights. On Sunday mornings the term is stretched a couple of hours till daylight in, honor'of the excise law* In New York satan works hardest when the churches are open, and idle ness and rum are his tools. A police sergeant's life .is not a sinecure in these precincts. His responsibility is great, and usually he is not willing to take chances. Too many fatal mistakes of judgment arcrtte record. Any wound on the head or bad looking cut is cause enough to discard the doorman's sur. gery for the doctor's. If the "subject'' is a prisoner or refuses to go to the hospital, the police sugeon is sent for. Unconscious cases almost invariably bring out the ambulance. The single word, "poison," added to the message from head-quarters spells at the hospital the sentence, "Bring the stomach J pump, and hurry up." And they hur ry. jn ot long since an amouiance on the way to the scene of a reported accident ran over a man on Third avenue t stopped to pick him up, and returned with two patients instead of one. The sick-wagon, by contrast, comes at leisure. All urgent cases are for Mimhiitei^'a^d iVcajiOQLj^asg- _ them. Transfers from one hospital to another can be made afterward. With sick patients it is different Usually they can wait. They belong, as the case happens to be contagious or not, under the board of health or the department of charities and correction, if they have not the means to employ a doctor of their own, as they seldom have. The "sick cases" come from the tenements, the lodging houses and the streets. If the patient has been less than five years in the county he is refused by the ambulance and the sick_ wagon, and the emigration department's wagon comes after official delay of sometimes many hours to take the "case" to Ward's Island. The recently established night medical service has provided a most useful and welcome expedient in such cases, by putting into the hands of the police the means of bringing immediate relief, while insuring to the doctor his pay. Of the twenty odd persons benefited by the service in one month not one was able or willing to pay for the help rendered, but left that to the city at the rate of $3 a call.?New York World. A Startling Statement. "There is not in the Bible a single commandment against self-slaughter.' This remarkable statement was made by Mr. Samuel Yorke, one of the most distinguished jurists and scholars in this section, says a Washington letter. "I make that remark advisedly and it is literally true. From the beginning of Genesis, to the end of Revelation, there is neither prohibition nor censure of the act. Xo denunciation or reproach can be found in the Decalogue, nor in the Mosaic code, nor in the prophetical writing, nor in the historical chronicles; neither in the New Testament, nor In the apostolic epistles and teachings, nor even in the Apocrypha There are only eight cases of suicide mentioned in the Bible: Abiraelech, Samson, Saul, his armor hearer, Ahithophel, Zinari, Eazis and Judas Iscariot. In all these cases the facts are simply set forth without com nient either of praise or of censure, ex cept in the case of Eazis, whose "manliness" is commended. It may be said that the act of suicide is comprehended by the command to do no murder, but there Is no identity between murder and suicide. One is prompted by cupidity or revenge, and is directed / against the person of another; the other is a deed of insanity or of despair, directed against himself, and certainly without cupidity or revenge. We-are < then forced to the conclusion that s suicide is no declared, specific offense against God. The belief that it is, in- t culcated for so many centuries in t Christendom, had its origin in ecclesiastical economy. t THE TEXAN BANGEBS. IIow Ther Clean Out Deiperadoei In t the Lone Star State. A correspondent of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat, writing from Sierra ' Blanca, Texas, says: The average St ' Louisan has but an opaque knowledge 1 or what a tnorougn Drea icxaa k-migoi is, or what he looks like, and so I ap. i plied the syphon to Captain McMurray, i and learned the following facts: Adju. t tant General King,of the United States army, whose headquarters are at Aus- i tin, is the commander-in-chief, and has g for subordinates six captains, who are j appointed by the governor. The cap. tains of rangers are paid $100 per month, and are furnished by the state, which yearly appropriates $80,000 for J the service. They appoint and enlist their own men for a term of one year, ' ending September 1, each company comprising twenty-five men. The privates are paid $30, corporals $35, sergeants, $50, and lieutenants $65 per * month. No uniform is worn, and the men look like cattlemen, as they spend t most of their time on the plains or in camp. They are accomplished and dar- j j ing riders, intrepid and dauntless in action, and are armed with Winchester carbines and Colt's improved forty-two, ' being experts in the use of these arms. ^ The duties of the rangers are to pro. tect frontiersmen and cattlemen from the raids of horse-thieves, cattle-* hieves ? and border ruffians, but they do not in. terfere with smuggling unless called upon by the United States authoritiesThey are for the most part in the sad- ^ die, except such as board the trains running from St. Louis to Deming, in ^ which they ride between Fort "Worth and Colorado City, armed to the teeth and prepared to resist all efforts o* train robbers or hilarious cowboys. The United States does not own land ? in the state of Texas, and one of the { best known tracts of prairie land is the "Llano Estacada," or staked plain, ^ which is 120 miles wide and extends from the northern boundary of Texas J to the tracks of the Texas and Pacific railway, all guarded by rangers. While a sheriff may only make an arrest in his ?"i'ilSnMIM'lTl 11 yjar hend a person in any part of the state and swear in any number of citizens as specials to aid him in refractory cases. One of the most interesting.fights was that at Eanger station with a gang of ^ train robbers, who are now serving terms in the state prison. The captains make their regular monthly re. t ports to General King, giving the number of miles covered by their companies, the number and character of the t arrests effected, and a general resume r of the work done. Captain McMurray " is one of the most popular men in Texas, and his powerful form is well- r known to the patrons of the Texas and ' Pacific railroad, which his men patro] day and night to guard against train . wreckers. He was born in Franklin, ( Tenn., and was a confederate captain *" 1 ""r-.il ' unaer yycvuvci, aiuu nu^u uo I became deputy sheriff of Sherman,, and later joined the rangers, under Lee Hall, as lieutenant, being shortly promoted to a captaincy. During the con- ^ struction of the Texas and Pacific railg road Captain McMurray was in com- r mand of the rangers and a body of j armed men in th 3 employ of the rail* , road, who protected the engineer corps J from Indians, Mexicans and disaffected persons,aDd he was also one of the party ^ who killed that desperado and train wrecker, Sam Bass, at Denton,in 1878. j Monkeys as Torch-Bearers. The monkey, in combination with the hand-organ, has been found to be such a serviceable member of society that a brisk trade in that intelligent but unhappy beast has begun between Singapore and the Italian ports. Europe has done very little in the way of developing the talents of' the monkey, though Egypt has furnished through all ages an example of what may be attained in that direction. In the south of Abyssinia, upon the testi. mony of the late Sir Gardiner Wilkin. son, monkeys are still taught several s useful accomplishments. One of these j is that of officiating as torch-bearers at \ a supper party. Seated in a row on a t raised bench, they hold the lights until t all the guests have departed, patiently s awaiting their own supper as a reward f for their services. Occasionally an ob. c streperous animal will interrupt the t festivities by throwing his lightei^^ torch among the oromptly caned intq^|HflBHfiBBjK 1 ??ca??E PEARLS OF THOUGHT. "What is defeat? Nothing but edo:ation; nothing but the first step to ^ ioinething better. The sublimity' of wisdom is to do hose things living which are desired ,o be done when dying. Happiness is like a sunbeam, which be least shadow intercepts, while ad* rersity is often as the rain of spring Do that which is right The reaped )f mankind will follow; or, if it does lot, you will be able to do without it A wise man ought to hope for the lest, be prepared for the worst and iear with equanimity whatever may lappen. A man has no more right to say an incivil thing than to act one; no more igm to say a rude thing to another ;han to knock him down. J Great is he who enjoys his earthen- ( j vare as if it were plate, and not less I ?4-/-v oil hia J ?1 C<1 L 13 tlic lliau IA/ VYULVUU XAAW p .3 no more than earthenware. Of all the actions of a man's life, hit narriage does least concern other people, yet of all the actions of our live* ^ t is most meddled with by other people. SOLDIERING IN ANNA3L Composition of the Ann*mite Army and Its discipline. The St. James Gazette gives an in. eresting description of the army at ;he disposal of the king of Annam. It s reckoned officially at 200,000 men. )f these 40,000 garrison the capital, ind half that number is assigned to Janoi and the surrounding fortresses* STam Dinh. Ninh Binh, Bach Ninh, ind other placesmTonquin. The reat HH ire ordinarily disguised" Tfl~'cittHfU3?^0P ittire, and are not to be distinguished xom harmless agriculturists. When a nan is dressed in the customary vestnents of a Madras coast coolie?a landkerchief and a bit of string?it is lifficolt at the first blush to determine lis profession. In Annam, however, he matter is rendered comparatively imple. The law is, from every three nen one recruit. Except, however, in ases of extraordinary public necessity his rule is not acted up to; one man fom every seven or eight is much learer the average. The selections of he recruits is left entirely to the local Minorities, ana tne village mammrina . oake a good thing out of the annual evies. In default of squad drill the An- / lamese recruits are put through a i aiieto ot uuulf^ftnV-^periencfea jde~ ^ igned to test their courapBMiysical :ourage and endurance are supposed to )6 the primary requisites of a soldier* ind, after that, the knowledge of how o load and let off a gun. It is pleastntly assumed by the military officers hat the men chosen for the army are he worst of the population. The mandarins are supposed to keep their listricts quiet by - drafting all their 'mauvais sujets" into the annual levy. Chere is, accordingly, the less corapuno;ion in putting them through the pre icribed testa The first of these is to issault the raw recruit violently with i sabre. The sabre is a wooden one, :ertainly; but the drill sargeant hits lard, and knows from personal experience where it hurts most Operations jommenee on the back and end with slows on the head. The recruit who stands battering about the head for a ^ natter of about five minutes without lttering a groan or flinching, e^ en in. voluntarily, is hailed as a finished soldier, and excused further "drilL" ro shrink, or even to moan, when jeaten on the head with the wooden sword is considered pardonable, and ihe victim is noted down as an "ordilary" soldier, instead of an "able jodied" one. But the recruit who cries out when le is hit on the body or confesses by a vriggle that the exercise is painful is eported for punishment and then put .hrough a new course of instruction rhe punishment usually cons^ts in a :ertain number of blow/Trom a bju- * )oo. The military mandarins defend ;he system on the ground that it is ,-ery ancient, that it is unique in he military exercises of the world? ,he latter ascertion being incontroverti )le. EnergeHCDflTcersol the army j requently invent fantastics tests of a imilar character in additio^^^ttnB^B egulation exercises. 3 related of a "keau^SnSK^HHHG ?ay-son rebeUio^^H9S9iBHHBfl9H ncl filed rard. henflffiMBMHHH itoi(Hnm?wraa| r :iH 'fJHnSHHH