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fCDS Tli** >I«r<-ury’» I’lalnt. I don't know why I'm slnndorod 80, If I ro bixh—if I go low— Them'* always ho him one who will say* ‘•JnHt *eo that/nercury today!" And whether toward the top I crawl Or down toward zero I may fall. They always fret, and say that I Am far too low or far'too high. And though I try with all my might 1 never seem to strike it right. Now I admit it seems to me They show great inconsistency. But they imply I am to blame. Of course that makes my anger flame, And In a fiery fit of pique I Htay at ninety for a week. Or sometimes in a dull despair, I give them just a frigid stare; And as upon their taunts 1 think Mv spirits down to zero sink. Wine is indeed a hopeless ease— To try to please the human raee! —Carolyn Wells, in Youth's Companion. Kronmny In ItstHIng. A certain little man of six had been mil eagerness in anticipation of a sum- uioi at the seashore. He could hardly wait for the first bath. When, how ever, he saw the ocean, with the great waves rolling on the beach, he could not be induced to go near it, and positively refused to put on the bath ing suit of which he had been so proud. One day his father offered him fifty cents if he would put on his •uit, and get wet all over once. He wanted the money very much, so he finally consented. Clasping his arms •round his father’s neck like a vise, the great undertaking was begun. After much shivering and trembling, he was wet about two inches above his ankles, when he exclaimed, “Papa, f guess—I - will—only —take— ten— cents’—worth—tliis—time. ” George’* Doll. “O—o!’’ eried Kittle, running into the ham. “Oh, dear, I am so fright- •ned!” Jack was making willow whistles, hut he,looked up. • f “What's the matter?" he asked. “Oh!” said Kittie, again, “I was coming across tho corntield, and tld ;e was a horrid man there and he tittod to catch me.” “A man?” said Jack. “Oh, yes. A great horrid, ugly man like a tramp, and all in rags.” “Don’t you be frightened, Kittie,” said Jack, who was a brave little fel low. Father and George are over in the east meadow getting the hay, but I’m here, and I’ll go and see what he wants.” fi Kittie begged him not to, for fear ’Ihe man might hurt him, hut Jack said stonily: “He might be after tho chickens or the new calf, and l must look after things ciien father is not here. I’ll take Towser.” He whistled to Towser, and ran off to the corntield. Kittie was afraid to stay alone, mid so she followed him, but at a safe distance. Baby Dick trotted at her heels. Just as they were getting under the fence they beard a ringing shout trom Jack, who wvas in tho middle of the field; and when they came in sight, they found him shaking the aim of the “trsmp.” “Oh, Kit, you goose!” he cried. “It’s only a scarecrow George made yesterday to keep the birds away from tho corn.” “Why,” said Baby Dick, “he’s ouffiu but a drate big dolly.” “Yes, that’s what he is,” said Jack. "“He's George's doll.” George's doll stood in the field all •ummer, and the children went often to see him. And so, when things frighten yon, if you can only be brave, like little Jack, and go right up and look at them, you will very often find them y>uly scarecrows. IWIlIy** Ru«lm«*»*. Milly had to get her lessons ready for the morrow. She was always sup. posed by her schoolmistress to spend •u hour over this work. As a rule, Milly’s mother sat with her to give her a little help from time to time, but that afternoon she was too busy; so she left her little girl,telling her to do ber lessons well while she was away. But Milly found it was very hard to -do as her mother told her. It was so hot she felt as if she could not think. 'Then she thought it was just the sort of a day when it would have been nice to sit in the garden under the trees and read her new story book. Instead of that she had to be at work iu the library! It was really almost more than she could stand without growing as cross ns a little girl could very well be. It was true that, once the hour was over and tea finished, she would be able to go into the garden and enjoy bevrelf as much as she pleas;d. Bi t that was ju$t the tiresome part. The hour would not pass. She sut with her face to the clock, for she thought then she should be able to see how the time w'eut, and that would help her to work; hut she felt very helpless over it all. She had to find all the capitals of F.urope,aud murk them upon her map, and learn their names by heart. There was Athens, which would not be found. If the geography book had not stated so decidedly that it was in. Greece, Milly would have felt quite sure that it must be in some other country. She .supposed, however, that the man who wrote the geography book was right; after coining to which opinion she looked at the clock and sighed. Five minutes past four, and she had to work till five! She fell to hunting once more for Athens. It seemed to her a very long time that she had been wandering over that corner of Europe known as Greece, when she again glanced at the clock. Seven minutes past four. Only seven minutes past four! And hud thought at least ten minutes must have passed. She bdgan her search for Athens once more. At last she found it, and then she looked at the clock anew. Three minutes more had passed, that was all. Milly stamped her foot angrily. “It is too horrid!” she said aloud, as if speaking to the bronze man who held up the clock. “The time will never go!” - She glanced listlessly at her lesson book. She could not remember the names of those stupid capitals at all. They went out of her head as quickly as she found them on the map. Why did countries want capitals? Only to make another horrid hard lesson for little boys and girls. That was all; she was sure of it. 1 Milly drammed her fingers on the table for a few moments after settling this point and gazed wearily at the clock. Then she took a resolve. She would be a wise, good girl. She would read the names of the capitals ten times over withont stopping, and never look at the clock once until she had done. Dei eu d upon it, when she had finished her task, ever so much time would have passed. She started. Once—twice—thrice —faster—faster—faster—did she read over the names of those capitals which always managed to escape her. By the time that she was going' over them for the tenth time her speed was almost equal to that of an express train. ) « ^ Then she looked at the clock again. She did so with a delightful feeling of hope. More than hope; she felt sure ♦hat the hands must have moved on a long way. She looked and looked again, and then she sat and stared at it with grief and anger. 0 had untrustworthy clock—its hands had barely moved on five minutes! Barely five minutes! Impossible! It must have stopped. Yes, that was the reason it showed so little progress. There was but little doubt. Milly crossed the room, and putting her ear close to the clock, she listened hopefully. Alas! Alas! It had been wrongfully accused. It was doing its duty faithfully. Tick—tick—tick—it was going as fast as its works and time would allow it to. The hour would never pass—never —never-never! Milly sat on the hearth-rug and burst into tears. It was just at that moment that her mother came into the library. "Why. Milly,child, what is wrong?” she asked, raising her from the floor and kissing her. “The time won’t go,” she sobbed, "and I am so tired of doing lessons!” "Where hafre yon been working?” said her mother. “Oh, I see,” she added, as she glanced at the books on the table. “I see,” she repeated,then added, “Now I want you to be very rude.” J "\eryrude!” Milly said with sur prise. "Why, you are always very angry when I am rude.” "Yes,but I want you to be so now,” her mother said, smiling. “Yon know I have often told yon that it is not polite to turn your back upon any one; but I wish you to do so now. I wish you to turn your back upon this bronze gentleman who holds the clock. I think that you will work much better and the time will go much faster.” So Milly did as her mother wished, and she was quite surprised when tea- time came and the hour was over. "It really was very, very funny, mother," she said. “The time went so slowly at first, and so quickly after! It must have been because when I be- R»n I had my face to the clock and afterward 1 hud my back to it.” That was it," replied her’mother. "And if one is feeling idle, and more inclined for play than lessons, it is much better to work with one’s back to the clock. It is wonderful how it shortens the time.—Youth’s Com panion. ELECTRICITY ON FARMS. HARNESSING NATURE’! MIGHTY FORCE FOR THE FARMER > BENEFIT. Electrifying the Earth ar the Germination of Seed* Them to Elect rival Tn Ing Vegetables by Elec Since electricity beca various efforts have been termiue what effect, if upon the growth of plan tables. Many heated dii attended the tests by t’ entertained opposite th therefore particularly Stimulating Subjecting Iment-Grow. leal Process. know that tW* *jpenm for some tina iast at t Agricultural /tition Mass., indif,fc that t tricity by the farmer stimulus to nature and influence upon the seeds and the growth The A B C of the moat in favor of the r on the farm is that loose in the atmosphe; fund of electrical fc means of specially de can be attracted to ea ted through thegrou farmer has sown his r&tus by menus of w ty is caught afcd har of the farmer has tested at Amherst a be a complete sue scribed, it cod^ins copper spikes whici the top of a 5 i-fot gather the elc )trc to the foot o tie caught by wii erm a science, made to de- uny, it has and vege- nssions have e w ho have ies, and it is teresting to ts carried on Government t Amherst, use of elec- s a distinct erts a marked rminatiou of farm produce, eutists’ nrgu- of electricity aming around there is a vast e, which, by neath tile gr as much of t sires. So wandering a; phere that o and distrih several aerf With this have been in rized as foil subjected to u period of t found that o were germi tricity than sown in groi trical stimul charge of tin make a very current was allowed to si eight hours, per cent. m< iu th$ electri soil w^here spr in sefeuty-t had aroppei the use of the of stimulating the tests was sed apparatus, h and distribu- iu which the ed. The appa ll the electrici- ssed for the use en thoroughly has proved to ss. Briefly de- a number of are elevated at le. These spikes id and convey it pole, where it is ed arfew feet 'be- I distributed over as the farmer de- icl electricity is there i loose in the atmos- |these poles cau catch nough to electrify ound. aratus experiments evhich may besumma- ? After seeds had been electric treatment for rr-fonr hours, it was irO per cent, more seeds by the aid of elec- like quantity of seeds liat lacked the elec- As the scientists in eriments wished to letetest, the electric lied to seeds that were the ground for forty- was found that 20 eds had germinated ground than in the s had been left to conditions, and oBtirs this percentage r t( x, thus showing that rent for the purpose rminatiou under all cided success. Another int ting experiment was made by plant in tw’o sections of ground, the s< n both of which had been carefully ing exactly ali ing varieties: rot, turnip, rA and onion. To one ected to ensure it be- seeds of the follow- ■snips, lettuce, car- section of gro electricity was iplied. ing day the pi » in the mild current of The follow- electric plot began to appefthe turnips sprouting first. The ra: ty of the growth of he electrically pre- ;s far in advance of those plantedi pared ground I those planted! Ihe ordinary ground. The second di; the surface ini electric garde the more ra] was rank, an nearly twice non-electric p larger, and s| i euce in favor! culiarity was I for every pout pound of topi the other cast 1 there grew 1 lants broke through plots, those in the owing considerably growth; the foliage hen harvested was ligh as that of the The roots wereal o ed a marked diff'e.- ectrici y. One pe rn the e ect ic plot f roots very no r ly a produced, wnile iu every pound »>f to, s pounds of root, but the differencet^tie total was nl! in tv. VN ith reference etables, the letm e u both plots. The marked superiority 1 over those of the Tli' onion plants came favor of elec i to the other v proved a fail re carrots show 4 in the electri b non-electric. up in both hds fed grew finely for a time, then hist <1 and not one devel oped, either ilei ;ic or non-electric, this being tie nly case of all the vegetables t4*e where no tangible results were *bt ied. Next to th* p unips the radishes gave the nat grew rapidly, tl >3 in the electric gar- den being alwi were rank aud t When the hast < he radishes in each plat w ere pullet it was found tin taken from the two ounces mor taken from tli They were lar taproot longer, In Australian markets rabbits sell it six cents ar.;ece. soct* “Didn’t you l ing talk on ‘Ho tiful’?” “No; I was tl has owed me fo Free Press, pst results. They ahead. The tops roots were crisp. ashed and weighed, he six largest roots trie plot weighed mu the six largest non-electric plot. individually, the a finer flavor, of letter quality, i 'e brittle and every w ay superior to the aid of electr raised without awbaek*. ySplnrger’s charm- o Make Life Bean- ing of that 850 he n vears.”—Detroit LAND OF THE INCAS. A Retnrned Gold.Seeker’* Impression of Peru. Josiah Johns is in the city, having returned recently from Peru, whither he went with a party last March dur ing the gold excitement. Speaking of his exjieriences to a Record-Union re porter, he said: “I cannot too strong ly w arn Americans, whether capitalists or laborers, against going to Peru with the idea of benefiting themselves, for they will surely find themselves dead broke in a short time in a strange country—and a very hard one to make a living in—unless they take time by the forelock, as I did, and leave the country while they are able. to do so. In all my travels there I found only one man who was making anything, and he had taken a contract on a mine 17,000 feet above the sea level. “We were given glowing accounts of the marvellous richness of the plac ers on one or two rivers, where the Indiana dive down and bring up their hands full of the golden sands, but it is a miserable lie, and has been the cause of leaving many a poor fellow there and stranding him. We pros pected the rivers named, and found that there was no gold in them. When Pizarro conquered Peru the Incas, who were a highly intelligent race, had collected vast amounts of gold— nobody will ever know how much— from the sands of the streams. Pizarro and his men set the natives to work to collect more, and the work has been going on ever since. Then came the Portuguese, who were so successful that the Spaniards got jealous of them and drove them away. The result is that the placers were all mined ont long ago. It is very hard prospecting, also, as the streams are swift and the mountain sides rough and very steep. “There are rich silver mines there, but they are very high up, 17,000 feet or more, and the air is so rare that a white man cannot work, and the work is done by Indians. The native Per uvians work very little, making the Indians do their work. I know of only one successful mine as low down as 6500 feet. There is very little show, too, for a man to find employ ment in other directions than mining, for he must come into competition with the Indians, who are poorly paid. “The native Peruvians are the laziest people you can imagine. They not only make no provision for next week, bat none even for the next day, a meal ahead being about tho extent of their solicitude. Time is no object to them, and they pay very little atten tion to it. They do not like foreign ers, and delay and discourage them in every possible way. It does not make much difference whether they are Americans, English or German—they are all ‘gringoes’ to the Peruvians, as they are to his Mexican brethren, and he dislikes them all. This may be partly because they annoy him by their progressiveness, and wake him up out of his lethargy too much to suit him. “With thousauds of cattle he has no milk or butter, drinking black cof fee and living on soup twice a day, potatoes and dried mutton. If they can get this meal they let the next one take care of itself. They have herds of llamas, horses, mules and alpacas, but the horses and mules are inferior, the only good ones coming from Argentina, where the European stock has been brought in. There are many flocks of sheep, and they contribute largely to the welfare of the inhabi tants. ’’—Sacramento Record-Union. The Great Canal*-Their Cost. The Suez canal is about 100 miles in length and cost 81,000,000 per mile for its construction. The Corinth canal is four miles in length, and cost completed, with its approaches, one million per mile. The proposed Nicaragua canal will cost per mile, witn its terminals and approaches, certainly not less and probably more tii an the sum named. The canals of Suez and Corinth are real maritime can als, built without locks, upon the sea level. The one, that of Corinth, is situated in the temperate zone, where the rainfall is 37 or 40 inches per annum. The other, that of Suez, is located in a region without rain. Neither of these is threatened iu its course by streams liable to sudden and perilous floods, so common in the tropical region of Central America. These two great works afford no real parallel to the Nicaragua project,either as to cost or feasibility. The one work parallel to this undertaking is very near, very like it, both in place and circumstance; it is that of the Panama canal across the Isthmus of Darien.— Harper’s Magazine. A Turquoise for Talisman. The superstition concerning the changeable color of the turquoise denoting good or bad fortune to the wearer is well known. The Germans say the variableness in color indicates a capricious nature in the owner. The great Italian physician, Caudau, de clared that a turquoise set in a ring would prove a talisman against dis aster to any horseman wearing the jewel, but at the same time he said that though he possessed such a ring he never tested its value in preserving his life. Shakespeare makes Shylock say “he would not have given his turquoise for a wilderness of mon keys.’■’—New York Tribune. TWO WORTHY WOMEN. MIm Goldthwait, Typewriter — John flams’ Deucendent a Nurse. Miss Alice Goldthwait is said to be the most rapid operator on the type writer, under test conditions. In the world. At an exhibit of expert type writing given in St. Louis, Mo., a few days ago. Miss Goldthwait, In the test made, wrote 80 words per minute from dictation. In the second test of three MISS AT.ICE GOLDTHWAIT. minutes and ten seconds she wrote 302 words, an average of 95Vj words per minute. The dictation was from a sermon and other unfamiliar matter., Another interesting test was in writing a familiar sentence, In which Miss Goldthwait wrote 155 words In one minute. In a hospital In Philadelphia, learn ing to be a nurse, is a great-great-grand daughter of John Adams, second Presi dent of the United States and one of the founders of the government. Her name is Miss Ktr'mq O’Neill, and, de spite the fact that she Is scarcely more than 20 years old, she possesses In not a small degree some of the character istics of the distinguished family of which she is a proud descendent She is beautiful and much courted by Phila- MISS SMMA O’NKIL. celphia society men, but on her moth er’s death a year ago she decided to de vote herself to ministering to the sick. The Secretary of the Treasury re- -ports that during two years and a half only six American vessels are alleged to have successfully landed expeditions from the United States In Cuba, and of these all but one were small tugs or a pilot boat. Of sixty alleged attempts to land expeditions, forty-three were fail ures, most of them having been frus trated either by the Treasury Depart ment or by our navy. Only four of them were frustrated by Spain, and the Sec retary suggests that if the Spanish patrol of the Cuban coast had been one- half as vigilant as that of our coast by our revenue and naval vessels, no men or arms could have been landed. In five cases the principals In the expedi tions have been sentenced to prison by our courts. A Virtue end a Vie*. Vanity and a proper retard for the foe) otter* ahould both urte you to got disgusting skin disease. Whethei ahnalop, a chap or a burn, or W euohlo caae of Kcaerna, Tenor or 1 Totterlno will poalttroly, infallibly our* it Cur# Itsolt will stay oorod, too. 80 oonta a box at drug store*, or by mall for B0 sent* in caah or Gamps from J. T. Shuptrlne. Savannah, Ga. we he feeling* o# •t rU of that Row's Thu r Ws offer One Hnnti red Dollars Howard fo* — by 5»elr firm. Tbuax, Wholesale Druggl*ta,Toled<\ Ohio. Wholesale Druggists, Toledo, Ohio. HaU’» Catarrh Cure 1* taken Internally, act- ing directly upon the blood and mucous fmr* tf.** 1 * Testimonials sent free. _ Don’t TRY to keep house without Bln# Ribbon Baking Powdor. At all Urooera. B. R. B. P. Company, Richmond, Virginia. It ia said that the French eat snails, and yet they are accused of living fast FOR 14 CENTS W* wiah te g»ln USJtt a* w *■*• toman, »od h«*c«oS»r 1 Pkc.UDty Ilsdtah, lie 1 Pkg. K»rly Syriac Taretp, ISe l " K»rlW K*a Bwt, i»o l •• Bismarck Cucumber. ]Sc I H y?**? Victoria Lettu**, Uo 1 " Klondyk* Melon, Uo 1 " Jumbo Glast Onion, Jio S ” Brilliant Klowtr SosJc, Uo Wsrth gl.OS, fort* Mints. « Abon 10 Pkfii. worth $100, w* will mail yon fr««, together with o« greet Kent and Seed CaUlorti upon receipt of thle notice end It poetege. We inrite your trade** know when you onoe try Seiner rgetelosg wit! 'Great #1.6 lone tc. No. Aa _t CXOMt, WI