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T & rtlfrColUBD POPULAR SCIENCE. •t I Jr 4 flood Night Song. “Good ulgbt, little trees!” My little man says when the Sandman comes. And the soft-swaying breeze In the listening trees Wafts the answer, “Good night, little man, Good night!” “Good night, little star!” My little man says when the Sandman eomes. And a bright little star, in the heavens so far. Blinks the answer. “Good night, little man, Good night!” — B. E. Phillips, in 8t. Nicholas. Marvel of the Basket Trick. One of the most startling of all the exhibitions given by the stage magi cian is the “basket trick.” Formerly it was done only by the expert Indian fakirs, but in recent years western magicians also have done it. A child is placed in a basket in front of the spectators. Then the magician thrnsts his sword through the basket again and again, drawing it out covered with blood. The child screams fran tically for some time and then stops— as if it had been killed. When the basket is opened it is found to be empty and the child appears suddenly among the spectators. All this is done with such an aspect of reality that it often frightens the timid ones among the crowd, and yet it is simple enough. One side of the basket is double. After closing the basket the magician pretends to turn it over on its side. He really turns over only a part of it. The bottom and one thickness of the double side are left as they were, the ether thickness becomes the bottom of the basket in its new position, what was the opposite side of this becomes the top, and the old bottom is lying f$ee upon the ground, with the child upon it, outside the basket. But this old bottom and the child upon it are now under the mle of the magician. While the„ •fiiQjicmik is burning the basket back to its original position and running his sword through it the child escapes into the crowd. The Wood on the sword is from a sponge in the gasket.—Chicago Record. Thirty Mile* for an Acorn. Fred A. Ober contributes an article to St. Nicholas entitled “A Bird’s Storehouse, or the Carpenter-Bird.” Mr. Ober tells of the California wood pecker that bores holes in trees, and then fills them up with acorns. He adds: Down in Mexico there lives a similar woodpecker, who stores his nuts and acorns in the hollow stalks of the yuccas and magneys. These hollow stocks are separated by joints into several cavities, and the sagacious bird has somehow found this out, and bores a hole at the upper end of each joint, and another at the lower, through which to extract the acorns when wanted. Then it fills up the stalks solidly, and leaves its stores there until needed, safe from the depreda tions.of any other thievish bird or four-footed animal. The first place in which this curious habit was observed was on a hill in the midst of a desert. The hill was covered with yuccas and magueys, but the nearest oak trees were thirty miles away; and so, it was calculated, these industrious birds had to make a flight of sixty miles for each acorn stowed thus in the stalks! An observer of birds remarks: “There are several strange features to be noticed in these facts; the provi dent instinct which prompts this bird to lay by stores of provisions for the winter; the great distance traversed to select a kind of food so unusual for its race; and its seeking, in a place so remote from its natural abode, a storehouse so remarkable.” Can instinct alone teach, or have experience and reason taught, these birds that, far better than the bark of trees or crevices in rocks,or any other hiding-place are these hidden cavities they make for themselves within the hollow stems of distant plants? This we cannot answer. But we do know that one of the most remarkable birds in our country is this California woodpecker, and that he is well en titled to his Mexican name of £1 Car- pintero—the Carpenter-Bird. The Patriotic Blacksmith. On a border of the quaint old town of Newville, in the beautiful Cumber land valley, Pennsylvania, lies a church yard of more than ordinary interest to the antiquarian. Far off upon the South mountain the eye may trace the loop forming the Double Gap, while in the distance, on the other side, rises the North mountain “Ka-se ta lk,” or Endless Mountain of the Red Man. The land of which this God s acre is a part has never been bartered since William Penn bought it from the aborigines. It is part of the glebe of ninety acres granted by the state in a patent dated March 2, 1744,to the handful of staunch Scotch- Irish settlers, who formed the Big Spring Presbyterian church. More than five generations sleep among the limestone boulders of this quiet spot. Among the multitudes who here wait the resurrection morning are a score of soldiers of the wars of the devolution and 1812. Of these is one whose faithful service in troublous days earned for him the title of “Tbe Patriotic Blacksmith.” Early in the great struggle for independence, Wil liam Denning enlisted in the patriotic ranks. For some months he shared the hardships of Washington’s army, crossing the Delaware on the memor able Christmas night of 1776, and meeting the foe at Princeton ten davs later. But Lieutenant Denning’s most effective aid was rendered with the sledge, rather than the sword. Throughout the long, unequal con flict, but particularly before France, in the spring of 1777, sent two vessels loaded with arms to the colonists, the patriotic leaders were sorely straitened to equip the men who rallied in de fence of their dearest interests. At every available point throughout the colonies shops were established for manufacturing weapons of war. From childhood William Denning had been a aunning worker in iron. At his ingenious touch the rigid metal became a facile agent obedient to his skillful fashioniugs for use or beauty. This manual dexterity caused his transfer, probably early in 1777, to Philadelphia, where a band of artificers was placed under his charge. Howe’s approach sent them to Carlisle and Mount Holly, Penn. Here, with ore from the South mountain. Lieu tenant Denning forged bayonets, gun barrels, etc. Here he accomplished what is believed to be the sole suc cessful enterprise of that kind any where-the making of wrought iron cannon. The courage, skill and ex hausting labor required for this work can only be appreciated by consider- ing the meagre mechanical appliances at his command. For a time he could secure no aid in this experiment, his helpers being deterred by the intense heat required to weld the massive bars and bands. Upon a section of a tree he practiced his men in wielding the sledge until confident they would strike in regular order, then when the metal was ready the ffve men plied the great sledge in rapid succession. He succeeded in forging a number of four and six pounders which did good ser vice against the invaders. His efforts, however,to complete a twelve-pounder failed on account of the great heat re quired, which he described as so in tense as to melt the lend buttons from his clothing. It is said that this un finished piece lies where he left it, at either Carlisle or Mount Holly. Un less this be so, oblivion has hidden all trace of Denning’s cannon. It was long believed that the Tower of London held one, taken by the British at Brandywine, but Robert T. Lincoln, when minister to England, searched there in vain for any such trophy. While the intrepid smith, in the white heat of his forge, wrought his patriotism into the glowing metal, the British government sought in vain to barter large emoluments for his skill. He elected to continue sharing the privations and vicissitudes of his own people. We may wonder if ever to him in • his humble home on the Connodoguinet creek it seemed an irony upon his devotion that, in the pinching poverty of a life prolonged far beyond four score years, the goverrmeut whose needs absorbed the powers of his earlier manhood delayed all financial recognition of his fidelity until that life waned toward its close. For sixty years the grave of the artificer was unmarked, notwithstand ing repeated efforts of patriotic New ville citizens toward some fitting memorial. In 1890 the state of Penn sylvania honored herself by placing above his ashes a massive monnraeht of dark Barre granite. Surmounting the die, which rises from a double base, is a cannon, pointing eastward, A enp of very hot milk taken at bed- lime will effectually prevent sleepless- aess. Experiments in England have proved that fine coal is an excellent material for sewage filtration. It has been discovered that alcohol is among the by-products which can oe obtained from coke-oven gases. A prominent physician declares that a plentifol diet <rf omc—» carved m various ways, will protect children from many ills. An old physician once said: “If people fully realized what it meant to themselves to laugh and then laughed as they should ninety per cent, of the doctors would have to go out of the business.” To open the shell of an egg without spilling the contents, a new appliance is composed of two flat plates fastened together at one side with round aper tures for the top of the shell and a slot between the plates for the pas sage of a knife. To convert an ordinary bathtub into a vapor or medicated bath a flexible cover is placed over the edges with an aperture for the ueck, and the medi cinal ingredients are placed in a per meable bag suspended from the under side of the cover. The first spectrum photograph of a meteor is the remarkable object lately secured by the Harvard University. It is hoped that this will show some thing of the condition of shooting- stars and meteorites on first entering the earth’s atmosphere. Esquimalt,in British North America, is the only place in the British Em pire, according to a recent climatolo gical report, that exceeds London in cloudiness. Esquimalt is also the dampest place in the empire, while Adelaide, in Australia, is the driest. Ceylon is the hottest and northwest Canada the coldest possession that the flag of England floats over. The village of Great Catworth, in Huntingdonshire, England, is built upon an enormous boulder of chalk. This boulder is half a mile long and must have been carried coastward a distance of twenty-tive miles by some great iceberg. It was dropped to the bottom of the glacial sea, where it be came partly covered r.ud surrounded by blup-grxy boulder clay. A Russian chemist has discovered a most powerful anmsthetk*. It is sev eral thousand times mox'o powerful than chloroform, volatilizes most i-ead- ily and acts when freely mixedi with air at great distances. Experiments are being made at St. Peters burg to see if it cannot be enclosed in bombs, which would have the extraor dinary effect of anesthetizing instead of wounding the enemy. The Muskrat Went Fishing. Robert McWilliams, of near Sardis, is mourning the loss of abont 1000 German carp which he was raising in a small pond he had constructed on his place. Mr. McWilliams had watched over his pets with jealous care, and they were rapidly approach ing that stage when they would be suitable for the table. The pond was fed by a sluice from a little run which gargled along to one side of it. When the late drought was on the water in the run got so low it would not enter the pond through the sluice. The bottom of the pond was higher than that of the run. It was about this time that a mnskrat took up his abode in the run. Now, muskrats like Ger man carp as well as any man. This muskrat went fishing. One night he drove a tunnel from the run up into the bottom of the pond. The rush of water that must have come down the tunnel probably astonished his ratship. When Mr. McWilliams went out to see his fish the next moruing the pond was almost dry, German carp sticking all around in the mud. In a little ppol, all that was left of the pond, were several hundred carp, some of them still gasping for breath. Some of them were dipped out and placed in the watering trough. There was no way of saving the others, and they had to die in the mud. If that musk rat should come back to the McWill iams neighborhood he will be assured of rough treatment.—Kensington (Penn.) Keystone. Germans Fond of Africans. Owing probably to the relative scar city of Africans, the Berlin people are inordinately fmvl of then, writes Wolf von Schierbrand from the German having four cannon balls piled about capital. One hears of many marriages it. Beneath this is a bas-relief medal- ^ er e between white women and colored ion of a primitive smithie forge, and men* Sh below, this inscription: “TbeState of Pennsylvania Erected this Monument to the Memory of the Patriotic Black smith, who Forged Cannon for the American Revolution. Born 1736. Died 1830.” Upon the polished face of the upper base appears the name, 'William Denning.—New York Ob server. A Disappoarnnce Explained. “I have no fears as to my daughter’s nltimate success,” said the ex-puma donna,” “for she has inherited my voice. ” “Indeed!” replied the visitor. “I’ve often wondered what became of it.”— Chicago News. men. Since last year a little picka ninny, by name Qnassi, son of a Cam- eroons tribal chief, is being educated here in the house of a wealthy dealer named Antolmann. This little fellow this winter is the declared darling of the highest aristocracy, especially of the ladies, wb# kiss and hug and squeeze him fervently on all social oc casion., recepAhis, basasjs, halls, etc. The t ay felltnr. who is as black as the ace of spades and has not yet forgot ten the war dances of his native tribe, nor other heathenish customs, bnt who is, on the whole, rather a pretty sort of little chap, has grown so use to be ing made mach of that he takes it ar his simple due and puts on airs. He has learned German like a native with in fifteen months.—Chicago Record. An Afflicted Mother# PVom the Times, paw 1'air, T?. A resij«»nt of this town who has lost two Shildren .luriusr tho past six years, i.v vio lent deaths has lieen utterly prostrated bv the shook, and seriously stek as a result of 0ne (SRed was killed bv a oy- olone in 'JO while at sohoot; another, three years later was run over by a Burlington 11. K. train. That grief* and in is fortune* may so prey on the mind as to lead to serious physical disorders haw been well demon strated In this case. As a result of them, her health was shattered ami she has boeu a constant sufferer since 1890. Her princl- pal trouble has been neuralgia of thestom- aeh which was very painful, and exhibited all the symptoms of ordinary neuralgia nervousness and Indigestion.’ Physicians did her no good whatever. She was dis couraged and abandoned all hope of get ting well. Finally, however, a certain well known pill was recommended fDr Will iams’ Pink Pills for Pale People). She supplied herself with a quantity of them and had not taken them two weeks when she noticed a marked improvement A Constant Sufferer. in her condition. She continued taking the pills until seven or eight boxes hail been consumed and wbe considered herself entirely cured. She can now eat all kinds of food, which is something she has not been able to do for years. She is not trou bled in the least with nervousness as she was during the time of her stomach troubles. She Is now well and all because of Dr. Williams’ Pius Pills for Pale People a com plete cure has been made. If any one would like to hear more of the details of hersufferingand relief gained by the use of Dr. Williams’ Pink Pills for Pale People they may be obtained prob ably, by writing the lady direct. Bne is one of our well known residents, Mrs. Ellen A. Oderkirk, Paw Paw. III. Increase of Population*. During the hurt sixty-five years the Increase of population has been: la France. 18 per cent.; Austria. 45; Italy, 48; United Kingdom. 63; Germany, 75; Russia, 92; Brltiab ooiooJos, 510; Usl- ted Mates. 628. The wind Tins a great denllo Go'vvlrii making the weather-vane. NEUTRALIZING CURES DIARRHOEA. NORMAN’S NEUTRALIZING CORDIAL CURE5 DYSENTERY. NORMAN’S NEUTRALIZING CORDIAL CURE5 CHOLERA MORBUS. NORMAN’S NEUTRALIZING CORDIAL CURES CHOLERA INFANTUM. KORMAN’S NEUTRALIZING CORDIAL Absolutely Cures NORMAN’S Indian Worm Pellets. THE BEST LIVER RILL MADE. Sale, sure and quick In their nctlea. PRICE, 10 AND 25 CERTS. SOLD EVERYWHERE. ^ a A A; A. -jk * TIRTTZE. * Riee’sBooseGrease Liniment Is"lways sold under a guarantee to cure all aches and pains, rheumatism, neuralgia, sprains, bruises and burns. Itlsalso warrant ed to cura colds, croup, coughs and la griptie quicker than any known remedy. No cure no pay. Sold by all druggists and general stores. Made only by i.OOSE GREASE LINIMENT CO.. 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