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Contentment. We war gittin' on tol'ablo well? Matildy, the childera an' me? If we didn't cut much of a swell, We war snug as we wanted to bo. Ther war plenty to do in them times, An,' a'though 'twa'n't so very big pay, We managed to save a few dimes On our dol'ar'n a quarter a day. But there came a rich banker along, An' ho built a house over the way. Then cv'rvtbing seemed to go wrong With Mati'dy an' tnefra that dayOur cottage got dreadlully small, An' we wanted, as never before, A porch, an' bay-window, an' hall, An' our nnmc on a plate on tho doo Now, I never was much on advice, But there's one thing I reckon I know: When a man's got enough to suffice, He'd better just keep along so, An' mind his own business alone, An' not give his jealousy vent, Tor the best thing a poor man can own Isn stork ofVood-nntured content. ?Chicago .Yews. CURED. Peter Patterson was ill?at least he thought so?and depressed; he had a headache and he hated the dusty streets,' in which the summer heat burnt and the summer sun shone before the green leaves had draped the trees, and potted geraniums, which had come to.be so blessedly popular in New York, lent their summer freshness. "What shall I do. doctor?" ho said. "You say nothing .ails me, but I can tell what my feelings are better than you can. I know 1 snail ue uown with something soon. I rode in a car with a half-dozen dirty children the other day?to the small-pox* hospital, I haven't a doubt -very red and nastylooking, all of them; and while I was buying something in a store down Broadway the other day a horrid old woman begged of me because her husband was sick with typhoid fever. No doubt I have caught both diseases, and it's the complication that puzzles you. Couldn't relish my coffee this morning; left my milk toast untouched. Hateful life, that of a bachelor at a hotel. Oh, dear me!" "Why don't you marry, then ?" said the doctor. "They need so much courting," said Patterson. "You spend six months or so, at least, dangling at a woman's apron strings. *You must go to the tneatre ana opera 11 sne is gay, anu 10 church if she is pions. At fifty a man likes his slippers and dressing-gown and 1 chair of an evening. If it was just i stepping over to the clergyman's and j getting married, putting a ring on her linger and saying or nodding yes two thre^^nes, why ^ I woi^nj^nij^l robbed the orchard like a scnool-bov, and reclined over the strawberry shortcake after a fashion that would have made his reputation at the bar. Then, too. Mrs. Muntlc did not smile at his | aches and pains and insist that he must be perpetually well because he had a fresh complexion and dimples on his cheeks. She had savory herb teas and potions which she produced when he complained of feeling miserable. For two months and more, Mr. Patterson boarded with Mrs. Muntie, and happier months he never lived through. Then he went back to the city for a few weeks, returning in urgent need nf mnrfi pellets from the medicine , chest, and staying until the last pink i chrysanthemum was blooming on its withered branches. He bad grown so fond of his little room, with its white curtains and fresh grass-bleached linen, of the country good things and of the buxom Mrs. Muntle, that he could not bear the thought of parting with them altogether. After all, why could he not buy a house and get Mrs. Muntle to keep it for him? Perhaps she would. He would offer a high salary, and she could have plenty of servants. Then, indeed, he might have friends to dine with him. and be as karmv as nossible. If only he could approach his hostess, showing her as he did so that he considered her his equal and a lady?and all that she certainly was; a clergyman's daughter and the widow of a country doctor. After much consideration he finally mustered courage for the effort, and walked into the front parlor and sent the servant to ask Mrs. Muntle to please step there for a moment. "Gracious 1" thought Mrs. Muntle to herself; "what can he want?" Then she blushed brightly, settled her necktie, took off her apron and walked demurely in. "Be seated, ma'am," said Mr. Patterson. "Sit here please. Allow me to sit near you, as I have something to ask which may require some consideration." "Oh, dear, it is coming !" thought Mrs. Mantle. "I suppose you know I'm a man of considerable means, ma'am," said the olcl bachelor, "able to buy a nice house, furnish it well and live in it comfortably ?" "So I've understood, Mr. Patterson," said the widow. "And of course it is pleasanter to live that way than at a hotel," said Mr. Patterson. "I should judge it might be," said Mrs. Muntle cautiously. "You judge rightly," said Mr. Pat AMONG THE ABYSSINIANS. Their Civil and Religious Mar- > riage Rites. c ) Curious Superstitions Which Prevail s Among the Peopla Romance is rare In Abyssinia, writes 1 0. A. Bierstadt. "When a girl has 1 reached the discreet age of 8 or 9 she 1 is considered to be in the matrimonial 1 market. If she owns a few cattle or ] some other desirable property, a boy with half her wealth generally propos- 1 es to her father for her, and a bargain ' is driven over her quite as if she had ' no more sentiment in her than a cow, 1 which doubtless is often the case. The ' engagement last usually three or four | months. Though the groom often sees ' his prospective father-in-law, he never ' lays eyes upon the bride unless he can ! bribe some female friend to allow him J a stolen glance. The bride-to-be may 1 previously have romped with her in- 1 tended for years, but she would run ( screaming away if he were now to apnear before her. 1 As the wedding-day draws near, the girl is washed, an event so rare as to call for special note, in a pond where a certain saint's day is celebrated for being the epoch of the sole annual absolution of most of the inhabitants and a dass or bower of green branches : over a frame of stakes is erected. In this a great feast is given on the day before the marriage. All the hungry idlers round about strive by hook or crook to get in, and, squatting down on the ground, they gorge themselves with the quivering raw meat of the cow that has just been killed, and with other Abyssinian delicacies. The distinguished guests bless the bride, putting their hands upon her head and getting them well greased for their pains. Meanwhile a similar feast is given in the groom's abode, and next morning lie starts out with his friends, and from six to twelve arkees or bridesmen. They rig themselves up in all the plumage they can possibly borrow and, on approaching the bride's house, tire their guns and have a sort oC sham fight with a view, perhaps to al lay the groom's nervousness. When the happy man has taken the seat of honor in the bridal bower his bride is brought in, wrapped up in a cloth almost like a mummy, and placed upon a stool. Then the groom is asked whether he wishes to marry the woman before him; they crook their fingers together under the cloth, or, perhaps, kiss one another, and, after any priest t ? I A Vaccine Factory. A Greenwich, Conn., correspondent vrites: In a cow-house at the side >f the old turnpike road, in the quaint Milage of C03 Cob, two calves can be leen on almost any day strapped to a i jench, their feet sticking up in the lir and lots of quills protruding from ,heir bodies. Around the room are azors, knives, bundles of quills and opes. A man is usually in attendmce. This is a vaccine factory, one )f the first established in this country. The quills remain for a short time in ;he flesti of the calves. As soon as they become filled with mucus?vacjine, as it is called?they are pulled uut, sealed up air tight, and in time lo duty all over the world, finding their way to Germany and Australia. Some people imagine that the calves are killed by the process, or are 30 injured as to be unfit for use. This is not the case, but it is claimed that they are made more healthy by hav LDg these sores, ior mat is au me nunu done to thera. They seem to suffer very little, and after a few days frisk about as lively as ever. Calves of two colors are preferred at the factory, white and red, and only strong and healthy ones are. selected. "Oftentimes people come to the factory to be vaccinated," said the attendant. "They are afraid they won't get the right stuff?pure calf vaccina I am not a doctor, and the doctors don't like it very well. I just take this knife that I cut the calves with; so I cut the arm as I cut the calf. I pull a quill from the calf and put it in the cut or scratch. They smile, take a look at the calf, and go home, sure that it's took." There is more demand for vaccine at the present time than at any previous time during the five years past Church of the Preat&ent. For a great many years St. John's of Wnahinr?fnn hna liopn VUU1CU) (IV VV (?W>l4UgVWU, 44MW ^w?.. known as the church home of the presidents. It is a quaint little structure on II street, directly opposite Lafayette square and the White House. Ever since the church was built a pew Was reserved for the Chief Magistrate. In cases where the Presidents happened to be of some other religious faith it has been customary for the president to pay the pew rent as though he attended. Grant did it, although he was a Methodist Hayes was also a Methodist, but he did not burden the financial officers of the church with the trouble of cashing any of his checks whue he was the occupant of the White House. GArneld was one of the old-fashioned belli tea, b_ut he BARTERING ON THE CONGO Produce and Ivory Sold for Muskets and Cloth. Great Aptness for Bargaining Displayed by the Natives. An article which appears in All the Year Round, gives this interesting description .of the primitive methods of trade which still obtain in the new Congo Free State, South America: When a sufficient number of the men have crowded into the room to fill the space before the rail, they aie admitted through it by the headmen, and squat in squads upon the floor befure the weighing machine, at which the trader takes his seat, while his assistant stands at the shelves, ready to redeem the little chits or 'books," as they are called, which the senior man will give for the number of "longs" which he may agree to pay to each man for his produce. The producein little mat bags containing from ten to thirty-two pounds (an arroba), and sometimes but a handkerchief-full of rubber, peanuts or gum copal?he puts into the scale. If it is satisfactory in quality it is bargained for in the "Jongs" referred to?so many for so many pounds of peanuts, rubber or gum, according to the value of the produce. On tbe first bargain made there depends much, a3 the most ex ? .1 1 ?;i_ u..i. perienceu anu wn/ uiu uiauiv uauuujr offers the first bag of produce of each Jiind. By the price he obtains all the otheis are guided, and, where there are more factories than one in a station, where he goes they all follow. After the bag of produce is bought or "passed in," as the term is, it is paid for in the various articles of the trade, at the discretion chiefly of the trader? that is to say, no native can have his produce paid for solely in one article of trade. lie cannot have all cloth, or all muskets, or all powder; but he must take a selection of articles, the relative values of which are fixed bv the "long," the standard of quantity and quality. This consists of six yards of common cotton cloth, or panno tui costa; less of finer cloth, according tc quality; more of coarser cloth; and sc on until every article of the trade, tc muskets and gunpowder, the most valuable in it, are disposed of in relation to the "long." As the bags are rapidly passed in the contents are emptied out in heap: on a clear space of the floor, and ther the ivory men, or "bushmen" as thej are called, knowing they have the mor< valuable articles to sell, though smal ' ' 1 SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. f The London Medical Times remarks that the treatment of snake bite by ^ putting gun-powder on the wound and touching it off with a match, though rough, is often successful. ^ The recent assertions by masters of vessels, that refined petroleum in tin cases exerts an influence on the compasses equal to the same amount of * iron or steel, has attracted much at- I tention, and it is expected that means c of protection will in a short time be ^ devised. 1 Experiments are making in Phlla- j aeipnia wicu tuo icicpucm^c ojowlu. The object is to transport packages, up 1 to eight hundred or one thousand pounds' weight, upon cables strung on wires, by means of electric motors. 1 Two cables are used, one above anotk- ' er, the package being suspended on . the upper and steadied on the lower one. It is an English invention, and has been used in a South American mine. In a paper on the size of the brain, in extinct animals, Prof. Marsh, of Yale college, has brought forward the remarkable fact that in the race for life during the past age3 the survival of any particular group of animals depended on the size of their brain as compared with that of tlielr contemporaries of the same class. Brains won then, as now, and the brain of animals crushed out of existence was always found to be relatively smaller man mat ui muse uuuiyiujj uicuh A wild aquatic plant, .called the Elodea Canadensis, first discovered in the rivers of Canada at the beginning of the present century, has recently been found on the banks of the Oka river, near Moscow. In Germany the plant is called the "Wasserpest," (wa ter plague,) its vegetation being so rapid that, under favorable conditions as to soil and climate, it soon forms such a dense tangle of leaves and stems as to make navigation impossible. The curious question has been asked, 1 why oaks and elms are especially lia 1 bie to De strucK oy ngniumg. xi, ?y<?3 1 declared in 1787 that tbe elm, chesnut, ? oak and pine were the trees most ofI ten struck in America; and in 1860 II Mr. G. J- Symons stated that the elm, ' oak, ash and poplar were the most frequently struck In England. A . Madgeburg record reports injuries to } 265 trees, 165 being oaks, 35 Scotch 1 firs, 22 pines, and 20 beeches. It has r been suggested that the frequency * with which oaks are struck is due to HEAP LODGING HOUSES. /Vhere Many People Find Shelter in the Metropolis. Jso Some Facts of Interest About 'the Oostlier Kind of Acoommodation. A New York letter to the Rocheser Democrat- Chronicle says: Tbe ap>roach of winter brings a great inirease in the straggling portion of Srew York's population, and this leads ;o a brief notice of the accommoda,ions which await them. These are ;he lodging houses for those who have noney and the station house for those trho have none. Cheap lodging houses abound in the vicinity of the great arteries of life, such as Chatham jtreet and the Bowery, and in some instances they are very profitable. For a dime a bed may be obtained in a room with others?often ten beds being in one room. For a quarter yon get a room by yourself with a rear /tanfa orMIHnnal WIL1UUW, ttUU 1UI LOU OOUWO auu*wiv?w. a front room may be had. Of course, guests at places cannot expect clean linen, or escape from the inevitable vermiD, but the men who have no homes must accept the alternative and there are manv obliged to sleep at such places who in eddcation might be worthy of a far higher, lot Hugh Miller refers to similar scenes in London in the following painful manner: "I remember in crossing Westminster bridge that the Poet Crabbe wiilkfld there all niorht when his last shilling was expended, and these were the very streets which Samual John* son had so often tfalked from night till morning, having no roof in which to find shelter." A still lower depth is found In the five cent lodging honses, in which an army of homeless miserables seeks nightly shelter. They are chiefly basements which jare hired for $200 a \ year. The tenant fits them up with?benches and straw and a bit of carpet for a^cover--^' ing, and this is much better than "taking the plank" at the station house. A dozen lodgers are ehough to pay the rent, and then the average crowd yields sufficiently to clear $3 or $4 a day, which is a good business, i'ne five cents lodgers includethie wretched of all classes except the newsboys, who have a lodging house of tbteir own at the same rate. This is a superior institution, endowed in. a permanent ' manner, but its advantages We limited to this class. I When you rise to $1 per \night, a