Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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w THE FARM AND GARDEN. Around the Barn. In hitching horses in stalls give rope enough only to allow the animal to get his nose down to the floor, or very near there. Bc'ter still ?a plan adopted by many?attach a weight to the inner end i %JL luu liuyuiu^ atiajj, gniUij uiv t?wV4 froe and easy play over a roller or smooth substance. The weight should be sufficiently heavy to insure that no slack occur in the hitching strap, which should 1 have no more weight than needed. Colts or horses that have been entangled in the stall in the manner referred to are very i likely, later on, to struggle fiercely, if, through any mishap, they have trouble 1 while in harness. Hired men and boys i very seldom have any system in hitching, 1 but the sliding strap is a reliable sy>tem within itself, and, like a rubber band, never slips. Leather of all kinds is best preserved by filling its pores with oil of some kind. !Neatsfoot oil, obtained from the feet of cattle, is regarded as best for the purpose; but castor oil, the same a.* that employed medicinally, has bieu found of great value in softeniug leather. The usual method is to take th" harness apart, wash it with soap and water, allow it to partly dry. and tben oil and put the parts together. It is regarded as a better way to first oil the harness throughout with -castor oil and lamp-black warmed, so that it will penetrate the leather readily. Then go over the parts of the harness ; "with a sponge dipped in warm soap-suds, | which will remove all the dirt. When t i -dry, go over the whole with a mixt ire of equal parts of neatsfoot oil and tallow, melted together, with enough lamp-black or powdered Prussian blue to give sufli cient color. Apply this in small quantities, well rubbed in, to leave a smooth, clean surfa; e. Horses get- some rest standing, provided the position be reasonably ea-y, but no full rest except recumbent. It is known of some horses that they never lie down in a stall, though if kept in pasture they take their rest habitually iu a r^ cumbent position. It is well to consider whether this habit has not been forced upon the horse by some circumstance connected with the stall he was made to occupy, in that it had a muddy dirt floor, or one made of dilapidated plank, uncomfortable and offensive to the horse that has been accustomed to select his own bed in the pasture lot. If the horse can have the privilege of selecting his own position for resting in i the stan ling position, he can sleep1 standing; but while His muscles may be to a degree relaxed, and get rest in this , " position, what can we say of the bear- j mgs at the joints? "Without relief j through the recumbent posit on the joint surfaces are forced to bear a weight vary- ; ing from 1,000 to l,b00 pounds'continu- j -ously. This must act unfavorably, ! -especially upon the complicated struc- j tures with:n the hoofs, which natu e in- , tended should have periods of reSt each I dav. It will be well before the horsts ^md cattle are put up for the coming win- j tcr to settle the question of comfort by ; repairing the floors and providing j abundant bedding. When at the end of their season of work farm machines are stored away until again required for use,their driving bands and belts should be thoroughly impregnated with castor oil. This will keep the leather soft and flexible and __ reaay for use. The bands and belts i -should be removed from the machines and stored in a tight box, which will keep them from the dust, and also protect i them from rats, which are often very destructive to leather, especially if it has been well oiled.?JVcc York Observer. Farm and Garden Notes, Strike a furrow in the low place in the wheat field. Give the cows in the winter warmed water if you can. Turnips are a native food for sheep. ! Farmers in England feed scarcely any- 1 thing else. One great mistake in attempting to | raise fowls on a large scale is crowding i them too much. The potato rot the past season has j V been more destructive and widespread than for many years. Remember, in time, that the only way to head off the curculio is by jarring the trefe or sprayiDgwith poisoned water. I t Harness properly cared for will last | more than twice as loDg as harness neg- j lected. Thus also with boots and shoes, i I A Michigan cultivator thinks that by careful culture, close pruning, and I fertilising with bone and potash, we may secure m a great, measure Heupuoa j from the yellows in peaches. Speaking of green manures, a Pennsylvania farmer says: "When a crop of j1 clover will not be in the way of some other crop of more value, it is no doubt ) the best to grow for plowing under. - Corn burned to charcoal, the grains ! retaining their shape, is greedily eaten by fowls. The effect of such diet is a ; marked improvement iu health, a bright ening up of their combs, aud au increase 1 , in eggs. The proper way to plow land is to take j the trouble to find the middle of the field, ; start the plow there and finish on the | outside. .Many contend that ?id thus; treated will produce better than in any other way. Parsnips and salsify m ay be left in the ! ground after frost, but beets, turnips j and carrots do not withstaud excessive j ? -cold, and yet, to retain the fresh, crisp flavor they should betaken np as late as I possible. 'i Careful selection of seed and prepara- ; tion of the soil, careful cohering and j sowing, will assist the farmer not only in holding a high average, but in incrcas- ' ing the average from year to year until | mo vimnm nf r?rr>fl nrHrm id rp.icVipd IFeed horses according to their age and the work required of them. Full j feed and little work disorders the diges- ; tive organs. Select only such hay as is j the be-t quality. Poor hay is dear at j yiy price, as '.here is no proper nourishment in it. The Chicago Tribune opines that the skill of the plowman has declined with the introduction of improved plows. The modern plow seems to leave nothing to be desired, and yet the performance of the plowing itself is but little in advance of that done with rude implements. VjVAiV Magazine says facilities for the rootinu of cuttings are now greatly 1 iiproved, vet for hardy plants, more, especially, we might return to the oldfashioner! habit of planting slips of many things with advantage, and especially when cuttings have been tried and failed. In selecting a dairy cow, the most important point is a good constitution, indicated by large lungs, stomach and digestive capacity. She should come from a good milking family, the eye should be bright, mu'-zle broad, nostrils thin and large, chest and lips broad, legs fat, udder broad, milk veins large, and head small. # Farmers talk about "clover-sick'' fields, but if you keep the land in the same crop year after year, it will become whect sick, c^rn sick, potato sick, and so on. Notation of crops is a necessary operation for keeping the land in the hest condition. Each species exhausts its modicum uf plant food, and what suits one crop does not sausiy an. I Professor Roberts, speaking of the greatetliciency of modern lubor-saviug implements and machines, says that "the i boy of to-day, with his sulky plow and self-binder, can rob the soil of more plant food in a year than his grandfather could in all his life-time, though his muscular grandfather might have carried oil with ease two such boys, one under each arm." TJhe following advice, from the Indiana Farmer, is commended to the consideration of beginners in the dairy business: "Feed the. cows one day and starve them the next; belabor them with milk stools and prick them with u fork under the rib occasionally; kick them with a No. !) boot and address them in a fog-horn pitch of voice?you may be sure their milking qualities will not be very highly developed." Ralph Edge, of Hopewell, NT. J., ' says: I have tried hot tfater of about a temperature of ,170 degrees or above, hot enough to dress hogs, for yellows in the peach; half a pailful to each tree. Dig a little cavity about the tree and pour on the hot water; it kills every insect within reach. A quince tree honeycombed by borers if liberally treated with hot water in this way will be freed from the pests and it will" not injure the tree. This is not theory, it . practical experience. The be?t of roots for the horse in winter is the carrot. Enough should be provided to give two or three messe3 a week, though where they are plenty a still better plan is to feed some every day With oats or other grain, the ration of which may be proportionately diminished. To buy them they are generally ns dear as oat<, but may be grown foi much less cost, a good crop of carrots yielding 200 to 000 or S00 bushels per acre, according as the small or large varieties arc grown. New Facts About Cannibals. It lias long been known that a few tribes of canuibals lived in Africa, but there was until recently no reason to believe that the tribes of anthropophagi arc numerous and that cannibalism is practiced in quite a large part of that continent. The new discovery is the re- ; suit of explorations in the Congo basin, where it is now believed cannibals are more numerous than in any other part of the world. There are some striking differences with regard to this practice among the various tribes. \> nen. j.ieiuenanis ivuna ana iappenbeck were traveling between the Wambu and Kwilu Riveos there.pJnnc along the gentle and timid,' tribe'^of the Pamballa, Mho confessed that the.v were man-eaters on a small scale. "It is true," they 8aid, ''that we eat people when we have any pc pic to eat,but that is not very often." This announcement has a tinge of sadness due to the fact that the Pamballas, not being warlike, are generally the under dogs in the fights that surround- i ing tribes force upon them, and they : think themselves lucky if now and then ; an enemy falls into their hands. Quite different was the conduct of the 1 man-eaters whom the same travelers met a little further east. "Why," they insolently shouted, "do you not give us some of your men to eat? You arc no friends of ours. When the Malaccas come among us they never fail to bring us some men to eat. 'J hey are our friends." Other cannibals in the Congo ba^in deny that- they are man-eaters, and will not admit the truth as long as they can conceal it. Few of the Bangalla-; will talk on the subject to white men. The practice in their tribe is generally confined to their chiefs and leaders, they being considered as specially privileged. It is impossible as yet to say what causes confirm some tribes in the practice of cannibali m, while nearly related j tribes abhor the very idea. The Monbuttus of the Welle Makua, who are exceptionally advanced in their arts and industries, are cannibals. The Wagandas, j on the other hand, who live about 400 j miles southeast, and who are of the same j stock as the Monbuttus and like them in | tlioir rlpvflnninfint wmilrin't flivnm r>t eating a human body, notwithstanding j the fact that they are very fond of meat, I which is the greatest luxury the common j people can have, as they arc confined al- J most wholly to a vegetable diet.?JVctc I York Hun. Willow Culture. There are about fifteen farmers and others in Wayne County now engaged in raising willow-shoots for market. The willows are used in the manufacture o! ba-kets and chairs and considering the small expense of planting and cultivating this peculiar crop, it is one of the most profitable in all this region. This sea:on it promises to prove far more profitable than peppermiut oil. I.ow. marshy land is preferable for raising willows, but is not necessary. The cost of planting? small shoots or twigs being used?is about $14 an acre, and there is but one planting necessary for years and years. The only other expenses are for trim mmg anu ga meruit:. lui'iuimur ujiurution costs if G an acre, and the latter about $17. Afier the willows are gathered they." are bound in bundles, and shipped as soon as possible. They are sold by weight, the average price being $1(5 a ton. Two years ago $H) a ton was paid. Six tons to the acre is the average yield, so that an acre of young willows is usually worth $1)6 each year. There is always a goo 1 demand for the crop in Ne# York aud Philadelphia. ?Lyons (2VT. J.) lieyubli:an. , > Sectary Lamar has reversed the rule that a woman making a homestead entry and marrying before completing the same fprfeitcd her right to acquire title. GIRLS WHO BIND BOOKS. FEATURES OF THE WORK IN A JBIG BINDERS', What the Feminine Employes Earn ?The Hiirii'ul Bronze?A Talk "With a Bindery Girl. "Our girls earn on an average $0 a week," said the proprietor of a large bookbindery. "Some of them earn $1J; the beginners earn all of thera work 'by the piece.' They can do any sort of work, and the finest books we have are sewed by thein. They cover the pamphlets. but the bound books are done entirely by men. The stamping and such work is done by machinery. Our girls work ten hours a day, and sit down during the whole ol that time, or at least the greater part of it. The girls who work on the 'dry prcs-.1 arc obliged to stand. The dry press is a machine for pressing the matter over night after it has becu folded." "What sort of girls are they?" "Good, quiet-going girls for the most part. The majority of them live at home. They are as neatly-dressed as any girls you see on the street." "Do you employ them steadily?" "Weil, some of them we do. Of course, when it is dull we let our girls go. but when we have a big job we advertise and get a lot for the time being, or if we know of some good hands we send for them." Several other publishers said substantially the same thing. -1- .1 1-?? 1 1J1U gins lUUUXOClVUO HWiW UUV AW~ luctant to talk upoa the subject. One of them, when asked how she liked the | work, ran her hands through her shock of curly red hair and protested that it was "awful 1" "What is awful about it?" "Well, for one thing, the bronzing." "Js that a necessary and useful part of j the work?" "Any of us are likely to be given a job of bronzing at any time. We're here to be generally uselul, and if the boss says bronze 50,000 covers for advertising pamphlets, why of course we bronze 'em." "But it is said you can most of you do only one thing well?" "What nonsense! Besides, any one could bronze. All it needs is a little care." "What hurt does it do?" "Hurt enough! If you don't wear a sponge over your mouth and r.ose the bronze will get in the throat and make j terrible sores. A girl who worked here j once got ulcers in her throat from workI ing in bronze, and was laid up four j mouths." "Does it make much difference to you i what kind of work you are cngaed j U?SVU i "O, my, yes! We make a great deal ! more at some kinds than we do at others. | The finer the class of work the less we ; make at it. Heavy, expensive paper is j a great deal harder to fold than light pa! per such as is used for railroad guides. I : guess railroad guides are nbout the best paying work we have. We fold thera, you know. Some of them have sixteen or tweuty folds, and a girl has to be real | 6mart to remember all the twists and turns so as to make no mistake." "So that is the best paying work?" "Yes." "How much can you make a week at it?" "There's a girl over there that has worked six years in a bindery, and now and then she makes $9 a week. But then she works through the greater part of j the noon hour." 1 "Not many of the girls make that : much, then?" "Well. I should say not ,, There's one j poor little girl here that never makes a ' cent over $:>. She's such a slow little \ thing and she can't remember from one j time to another how to turn a fold or | make a knot. You know we have an odd j way of making a knot with our needle | in the thread as we sew the sections. There's one good thing about the bind- ! ing busine-s. You sec most of us can sit j down all day long. They have long J benches in almost every factory where where we can sit." "Is there a uniform price among publishers? Do all houses pay the same for j the same work?" "No, indeed, they don't. Some of the j bosses are as mean as dirt. But after wc I find it out thev don't get any but green- I horns to work fos them. There is <iuite a ' difference in the prices the different ! houses pay." "Do you get steady work?" "No: and that's the very, very worst thing about bindery work. One week ! a man will have l .'o girls, and the next J he won't have more than ten. I suppose j it's all right. I don't see any way to fix i it. But it seems wrong to mc, some ' way. The man's work is done, but what t 1. ~ * U ? -1O TC 4.U* ? i:.. ucvuuic* Ui iuc ^irist 11 aiu u iiving with their folks tliey just have to run in deht for their board till they get more work. It's pretty hard, somtimes, ! I can tell you." ' What should you say was theaver! age wages made by the girls?" 'Four dollars and fifty cents and $oa week by the ordinary workers." "How much do the forewomen get?" "We have no foreladv, but where I worked last the forelady got $10 a week and nothing to do but just look after j us!" "Do you ever get cheated out of your I pay?" j "Not in the large establishments. [ Now and then some little concern will ! fail." "Do you get docked much in your wages?" "Not much. Some of those mean bosses I told you of make you pay if you sew a section wrong, or fold badly enough to spoil unything of value, or paste a cover on upside down. But, after all. that's fa r enough. There isn't much comprint to be made on the whole."? ViiicuQo Tribune. 11 ? ... jiuiirjai/ctv? Honey-dew, a saccharine liquid found on leaves of trees and plants, issupposed to be caused in two "ways: by the excretion of a kind of insect, the aphides, and also by an exudation of the leaves themselves. The cause of this exudation is still an unsolved botanical problem. It is especially frequent on Linden j trees. It seems to be caused bv someI thing peculiar in the climate, and is said j I to be most often seen on islands in the j temperate latitudes. "Warm, dry weather seems to stimulate its appearance.? Inter-Ocean. HOUSEHOLD AFFAIRS. i Recipes. Flaky Soda Biscuit.?Mix together a quart of very dry flour, a teaspoonful of baking soda, two of cream of tartar and a saltspoonful of salt; pass thr<Migh a sieve, then chop in two ounces of butter or lard, and mix quickly with milk to make a very soft dough. Flour the board well, roll out, sprinkle with flour, double it over and roll out again; cut - ? V.nir An Pnl.'n I iiltu U13UUIC3 UU11 au XUWU wuwn. ummv in a very hot oven about fifteen minutes. Jellied Chicken".?Boil a chicken tender, take off skin, cut the meat into small pieces, taking out the bones; skim all the grease off the liquor in a pot; mix a tablespoon of corn starch with a little water, rub smooth and let it boil up good; season well with salt and pepper. Boil egg3 hard, peel and slice, lining the bottom and sides of a crock with them, then pour into this the prepared chicken, and set in a cold place to h irden. Turn out when cold. Snow Balls.?Half a cup of rice and the s'ame of pearl tapioca, half a cup of sugar a quart of milk, a half-teaspoonful of salt; soak rice and tapioca well, mixed together while dry in three cups of water four hours: salt and milk, dropping in a tiny bit of soda, pour upon the cooked cereals and let them stand together half an hour; set over the tire in a farina kettle and simmer slowly one hour; fill small cups with the mixture while hot, and when cold put on ice. Turn out in saucer and eat with cream. Potato Fritters.?Take five or six lnrge mealy potatoes and slice them nkAnf Ann fi/fK ftP or* inola in ICU^ CU V* IOC, aUVUbVUb-lUVU W I. UU n^u thickness. Have ready a deep griddle on the fire,' in which some lard or nice drippings have been melted; lay the slices in separately, and sprinkle them with salt, Fry them to a nice brown on one side, then turn and brown the other. Try them with a fork, and as soon as one piece is thoroughly done, dip it in batter [and return it to the griddle. By the time the last piece is dipped, the first will need turning. As soon as the fritters are browned on both sides, lay them on a heated dish and [put more on the griddle. They need constant attention to keep them from becoming too crisp or burned. Half a teacnpful of sweet milk, one egg, a little salt, and flour enough to make it as stitf as poundcake, is a good reccipe for the batter. Apples sliced and cooked in the same manner and eaten with sugar, make a good desert. i Useful Hints, Any gold jewelry that an immersion in water will not injure can be beautifully cleaned by shaking it well in a bottle nearly half full o? warm soapsuds, to which a little prepared chalk has been -"/l offo- rlntlrn, in aImk nnl/i auucvij uuu aiwi nu?iwg *? v>wu? vw?v? water and wiping it dry. What laundress that has ever used a wringer has not had her patience tried when soap and water and hard rubbing would not clean the rubber rollers of the colored lint that would bury itself, as it were, in the smooth surface and resist all efforts to remove it? A wringer can be cleaned in two minutes by saturating a cloth in kerosene oil and rubbing ic over; it will look like new. To remove furniture bruises, wet the part with warm wuter; double a p ece of bewrn paper five or six times, soak it and lay it on the place; apply on that a hot flat-iron till the moisture i9 evaporated. If the bruise be not gone, repeat the process. After two or three applications the dent or bruise will be raised level with the surface. Keep it continually wet, and in a few minutes the bruise will disappear. A child's bed should slope a little from the head to the foot, so that the head may be a little higher'than the feet?but never bend the neck to get the head on to a pillow. This has a tendency to make the child round-shouldered, cramps the veins and arteries, and interferes with the free circulation of the blood. Even when tho child is several years old the pillow should be thin, and made of hair, not feathers. Tin canned goods, when opened, should be immediately transferred to glass or earthenware receptHcles. Recent investigations show that cases of poisoning from eating canned goods have arisen from the acid of the canned food attacking the solder of the tins, and sometimes from decomposition accelerated by an electrical action between the solder and the irontof the tin. Kevei leave canned fruits, meats, or fish in opened tin cans. The Beetle In Motion. A letter to London Nature says: Much has been written on "the horse in motion." Can any readers of Nature supply me with references to published matter on the hcxapod progression? The few observations! have made may be summed up in a few words. 1 use the letters r and 1 to signify the right and ( left legs respectively, aud number the limbs from before backward. When walking rapidly the appearance is as if 1 1, r 2 and 1 d moved lorward together simultaneously, alternating with r 1, 1 2, and r II. When the pace is slower it is seen that 1 1 and r 2 start together and come down at about the fame time, sometimes one sometimes the other being a little first. Then lifted almost but apparently not quite at the same time, 1 :5 starts. The motion of tins log being somewhat slower, and the limb having further to travel, the foot generally comes to the ground appreciably later than 1 1 or r 2, rJ he general effect is to produce at the. moment of pause between the strides a position which dilTers considerably from the conventional position delineated by artists who seek to represent the beetle in motion. Insuring Icehouses. A ~ i* ?f s>iva/m?ac4- foof 3 in tlm fi rp In. VUG U1 IUG l|UCbibOV iwwv? Aft* bMv mi v *? | surancc business is the hazardous character of icehouses. These establishments would be, one would say, next to icebergs themselves, about the last things to get on fire; and yet, so great is the ris? that icehouses arc classed as "extra hazardous," and some insurance companies will not issue policies on them at any rate. It is thought that the abundance of straw or shavings about an icehouse may account for some, at least, of these otherwise inexplicable tires, the the teamsters and others dropping sparks of fire from their pipes or cigars.? Hartford Times. WAYS OF KILLING CATTLE."" HOW BEEVES ABE SLAUGHTERED I IN VABIOU3 PLACES. ! . The.Brain Bolt?Thr<5saNCuttinff the favorite Method in Some Places J and Iiific-Sbtots in Others. At the "West Philadelphia abattoir j there arc two methods practiced every day. They are the Israelitish and the ordinar/ methods. The meat which is ' lr ll 1 n/1 mi on Ktt V? Y aill^U IKJL LUUSllliipilUU UJ lUb Wi fcUvrvavA Hebrews is callea "kosher," and the ' killing of it i9 done according to a Jew- I ish religious rite, the method employed being directed by the Mosaic law. There I are a number of private slaughter-houses < throughout the city conducted by the j Hebrews, but most of the "kosher" meat : is killed at the abattoir. The Hebrew butchers do not kill their j cattle themselves, as the rule of their faith is that it must be killed by a "schochct," who is appointed by the ( rabbi after a regular course of instruction , and an examination. His instrument is , a long-bladed knife, called iu Hebrew a cholif, the blade being of pure steel, without a flaw. The steer to be slaughtered is drawn in up to the killing-place 1 by means of a rope looped around her horns and run through a ring in the floor or wall. As soon as it has been brought to the right place it is "cast." This consists in fastening a rope to its hind leg and drawing that member off the ground and, with a skilful jerk, throwing the animal on its back. In that position its bead is placed resting on its horns and the animal's nose touches the floor, leav ing the throat exposed for the stroke of the "cholif.'" One stroke by an expert "scliochet" is generally sufficient to severe all the arteries, and the animal is allowed to bleed to death. The use of an axe, hammer, or other implement for stunning the animal is not allowed, as it is a requirement of the Jewish faith that none of the animal's bones dare be broken. Just before the killer draws the blade across the steer's throat he wets his finger in his mouth and rubs it along the edge of the sharp blade, and while he is making the stroke he repeats a prayer. For killing cattle to be sold for general consumption and not according to the Israelitish rite there are a great many methods, but all the cattle killed at the Philadelphia abattoir are treated in the same manner, The animals arc driven, seven or eight together, into one of a number of cages. The butcher takes his stand on a couple of planks overhead. From that position he hits the steers on the head Nvith a poll-ax and knox them down. It takes several blows of the ax to knock a steer off his feet, and it has | often happened at the abattoir that it i was neccessary to almost beat a steer's brains out before it fell. As soon as a beef has been knocked down it is dragged out of the cage, from under the feet of its companions, and its throat is cut and the dressing is done with dispatch, if not neatness. The chief end of the use of the hammer is to destroy sensibility and to make dcuth, as far as possible," devoid of suffering. The implement mostly used in America is the poll-ax, by which the animal is stunned and knocked down, but in places where a large number of beeves arc kilhd every day, as in some of the beef-butcncring establishments of Chicago, they are shot dQjqj^They a!P 1 driven into a long row of single stalls, and a man armed with a repeating rifle walks along a gangway and shoots them in V?a V?nn/4 avnanf Iimtto fViqCO mnn J11 UCUVI. UU U XiUTU kugou UJI^U become that a second shot is seldom necessary. In Boston and other parts of Massachusetts the rifle is also used. In London, England, the poll-ax is used. It is a hammer-like affair, and the strong-armed butcher drives the poll through the skull into the brain, producing almost instant insensibility. Some of the butchers there strike the bullock on the back of the head, just at the base of the brain, with the same result. Another method employed in France and other .European countries is a mask which tits over the animal's head, face and eyes, either by straps or springs. Through the face of the mask there is an aperture for the insertion of a punch-bolt. A heavy mallet wielded by the strong arms of a brawny butcher will drive this bolt into the head of the animal, and death quickly follows the blow. In Spain the butchers must need have a strong wrist and a good aim, for they kill all their beeves with a broad-bladed dagger. ' The one selected to be slain is pulled down to a ring by means of a strong rope secured aroimd the horns. The operator tak<$ his stand at the head | of the animal, and with one downward j E lunge of his heavy broad-bladed knife e severs the spinal cord and kills the animal instantly. Another European practice, though not in general use, is killing by dynamite. A dynamite cartridge is fastened to the head just below the horns and in the center of the face. The cartridge is so loaded as to be exploded by means of a fuse, and its discharge sends an iron bolt into the head, and instantaneous death is the result. Another French implement causing instant death to the bullock is the guillotine, similar in construction to the terrible implement which came into such prominence during the reign of terror, and which was daily bathed in blood during that awful period. As it severs: the spinal cord at a single stroke it would seem to be a most humane contrivance, notwithstanding the horror which its name calls up. There are many other devices put to the same use, and all made for the purpose of rendering death to 1 food animals as devoid of suffering as j possible. Meanwhile the Philadelphia i butchers continue to slug the brains out i ( of bullocks with sledge-hammers and 1, poll-axes, and they will keep on in the i use of those instruments until they are ; foreed by the Society for the P/evention of Cruelty to Animals to use some more i humane system.?Philadelphia Noes. mm , A Waggish Bachelor. i Rev. Sam Jones paused in a discourse ' on patience at Omaha and said if there [ were one man present who never had 1 spoken a cross word to his wife he would ask him to rise. By and by a round- \ faced, good-natured man stood up. : ' Thank God," said Sam. "there's one man who never spoke a cross word to ' his wife." Everybody took a good look at the paragon, whenhe broke the silence . with the remark: "I naven't any wife. I'm a bachelor." ' SELECT SIFTINGS. More than 400 yeirs ago Eleanor ot Castile, Queen of Charles III.,planted an jrange tree in the garden of Versailles, [t is still flourishing. A French scientific journal records a fall of luminous rain during a thunder storm at Lottcville. The drops produced Bashes of red and violet light as they touched the ground. There are twenty-seven peaks in Nevada exceeding 10,000 feet in height. Wheeler's peak, 18,036 feet above the level of the sea, has the distinction of being the highest point in Nevada. It is well known by those who have tried the experiment that with letters cut in a piece of paper, as in a stencil plate, and wrapped around a pear or apple, the sun will print tho letters on the fruit A well is being sunk at Chico, Cal? for the purpose of supplying that place with water. At a depth of twentyeight feet a pan of gravel was washed out which gave no less than twentyeight "colors." Dr. Rein, of Frankfort, has calculated the number of possible combinations in a game of dominoes. They reach the fabulous amount of 234,528, 211,840. That is to say, two players playing on an average ten hours a day, would require 118,000,000 of years to exhaust all the combinations of the game. ii? n JUlgliuug me jraiaeco oaeicu uiu jo a? expensive and elaborate process on the institution of a new temple. Sixteen dif- , ferent kinds of wood in 1001 pieces ol fuel are required to obtain the sacred flame, which is afterward fed with sandalwood, and the cost of tho process averagerages ?2,500. There are still three large and thirty-three small fire temples at Bombay. When they hear the loons, crying the Passamaquoddy Indians think it is a sure sign of a hard wind. If tho feathers are thick on a partridge's leg, or the bears den early, they believe a long, cold winter is coming. If they see a beaver^carrying a stick, a storm is approaching. It is a sure sign of death to have partridges hovering around the house. If a dog barks in the night a stranger will come next day. A new industry has sprung up in Delhi, India. Some enterprising natives, the London Graphic says, are taking advantage of the Government offer of two annas for every snake killed to trade on the old traditional tree and serpent worship. August 4 is the great serpent-worshiping day, and every Tuesday the pipal tree is worshiped by Hindoo women. Taking advantage of the reverence paid to snakes, a large number of men have set to work catching these reptiles. Then, taking them into the streets where pious Hindoos most abound, they announce that they are on their way to claim the reward, but they are ouite willing for a pice or two more to release the reptiles, and so save themselves from the sin of snake murder, which their poverty would otherwise drive them to commit. The appeal is invariably successful. Experiments With Fire-Flies. Dr. Dubois, a learned Frenchman, has lately published as the result of a very careful study of American fire-flies, an account of what he does not know about I^Uppjfhat is to say^iie^think^ie iafl ?' succeeded in demolishing p^Wma theories as to the luminosity of these insects, but advances no theory of his own to take their places. Since the only interesting thing about firc-flies is the light they emit, science has made no progress in studying them if it cannot explain the tiny spark which guides the traveling fire fiy in the dark. For science has made the discovery, which seems to afford M. Dubois much satisfaction, thut the light is the fire-fly's especial lantern, lighted up for his pri-' vatc and peculiar use, and not for the benefit of mankind, or even to enable some wayfaring mosquito to find his way to the spot where he may quaff a draught of the choicest human blood. The proof that the tirc-tiy glows for himself alone is simple. Cover the prothoracic illuminatiug apparatus oq one side with wax, and the creature will move in a curve. Quench both sides, and she will soon stop, after moving irregularly and feeling the ground with her antenna?. The cucujo, which was the animal studied, carries three lanterns, two ahead, the prothoracic, and one behind,' ventral, or abdominal. The prothoracic pair are lighted when she walks, the ventral only when she flies or swims. The eggs of the cucujo have the luminous property, and so have the illuminating parts of the insect when separated from its body. If the eggs bo dried at an ordinary temperature for a week they retain the light-producing power, when placed in water. Dr. Dubois dried the luminous organs of the cucujo in a vacuum, reduced them to powder in a mortar, and mixed the dust with water from which all gas had been removed by boiling. The whole mass of water became luminous. But all this gives no explanation how it is that the lire-fly can, by voluntary muscular effort, emit light. Dr. Dubois has a theory of the chemical process by which the light is produced, for he says that an albuminoid meets a substance of the diastase group, and apart of the energy thus liberated appears as light, but how the fire-fjy causes the two substances to meet is unexplained. ? Youth's Companion. A Japanese Order. The Prince of Wales is to receive the r\f flin PKrwcnntliomnm hlif if. ia not generally known that this order will be a most rare example of the finest Japanese art work. The Mikado has given c.arte blanche, so far as expense goes. Two of the very best workers in gold and precious stones \^hich Japan can furnish have been engaged on the Order of the Chrysanthemum for months past, iind the result is said to be well worthy of the reputation of the Japanese as an artistic nation. When it is finished, Prince Koiniten will himself bring the gift to England, and he will be accompanied by his wife, who is described by those who know her as a charming littlo Japanese lady.?London Court Journal. A pair of Connecticut oxen died of Paris green, carelessly left near a potato field.