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m ! couni Ex-Premier Crispi of Italy i» re* ported as saying that “great danger is threatening the principles and in stitutions of the Latin peoples.’’ Majors and captains will he as com mon in this country at the close of the present war as admirals in Spain and colonels in the Blue Grass region. The resignation of Spain’s secretary of the colonies may have been caused by the fact that the near future prom ises to make the position a compara tive sinecure. It is told without shame in Maine that an amateur photographer of Watervillo took a snapshot at a friend who had lost his balance and fallen into a lake, before going to the rescue. Cricket in Australia is suffering from the rooters in Australian “bar- rackers,” bleacheries. Mr. Stoddard, whose English team has returned home after a series of defeats by the Australians, complains that at every match a portion of the public hooted the players, Englishmen and Austral ians alike. Associate Superintendent of Schools William L. Felter of Brooklyn claims that the handwriting of the future will not be a verticle hand, but a round hand, with a slant off the ver tical from ten degrees to twenty de grees. Investigation shows that this is the stylo written by business men. These writers were taught the old slant. 'I hey have worked up to a slant of about seventy-live degrees. Why have they not gone up to ninety degrees ? Because they could not do so and preserve the essential element of rapidity. The surgeons who have been mak ing examinations of the members of the militia volunteers will make re ports that will be apt to discourage, though it may not extinguish the bi cycle habit, and particularly the low handlebars. It is said at the medical deimrtweut of tho army that a great number of tho volunteers who have been rejected for physical disability are bicycle riders, who, by that vio lent exercise, have developed diseases of the heart and spine which unlit f°r exposure or endurance. .These tronbles are said to. been lu tne" addle. xLis position nor only CORAL BEADS. F gome twenty years ago or more His ship was lost at sea, Alone and lonely for his sake, Yet still a maid is she; Her eye Is dim, her brow is seamed, Her cheek a withered rose. The glossy ripples of her hair Are touched with gleaming snows. But still she clings to girlish things With unforgotten grace. And frills about her faded throat— A bit of yellow lace. But little dreams her cherished string Of crimson beads are made Of coral from the sunken reef Whereon his bones were laid. Minna Irving, in Criterion. 0003000003000000000000C oKEEPING STEP' \ nr ST. CI.Alll CUBTIS. >300000000090000390001 O away; it’s no use, Mab,” said Prisey Cart wright to her sister. “The thing has been settled ages ago, so far as I am concerned. Hush up, now! hush up!” ‘Ages ago darHf f * induces curvature of the spine and if it h* other diseases in that part of the saved anatomy, but causes the other organs lug to crowd the heart out of its place, and him produce irritation which ultimately sel’ becomes chronic. As soon as they ti< have an opportunity to do so, the ex- amining surgeons will be called upon « for reports on this snbject. !»* Mab echoed, re fusing to “hush up”—“I believe it must be ages ago. Well, if you per sist in this unreasonable course.” “I don’t persist any more than you. Look at how you did with. Tom Yan- duren.” “That was a long time ago. I didn’t do it for an example, either And you said at the time you wouldn’t do as much for me. Then you went and did the very same thing, after all.” “Don’t care,” Prisev said, doggedly. “I will not marry off’ and leave you for any man under the canopy of heaven.” “Then, rny dear, since w*e cannot get onr suitors to keep step, so to speak, we might as well make ar rangements for a quiet aud dignified old maidhood. Let’s buy a parrot or something, Prisey The front door bell rang while the two young women were discussing their mutual affairs in their own room on the second floor. Just as Mab’s brilliant suggestion for the purchase of a parrot had thrown both the sisters into a lit of laughter, the servant gir of the boarding house appeared at their door with a square envelope ad dressed to Mab. . .^The boyars MUQwiW! alrnw^* ftfi Wwjd at the signature, • fcus must be for you. It’s addressed to me—yes—no—wait a minute.” Then she read to herself: * My Dear Miss Mab—Do you intend going out this evening? If not, will you see me at 8.80? I have something to say to you of the greatest importance—to myself, at least. Jclich Clement. “Well, I want to think—that is, Julius Clement which curled with boldness and which he always palled when he was in deep thought. On this was in both,) and he ingly. “Do yon need a great deal ff gym- pathy?” Mab asked him. “I don’t know whether I say I do,” Clement answ had already worn out his first rassment and was beginning to his snbject. “Perhaps I oo§ht to consider myself fortunate, rath “Oh, may I ask—?” “Of course you may. I you know what answer I got? “Well, no.” “Just so.” He langhed n “But then 1. found out some think.” “What did you find out?” “If your sister said ‘No,’ is cause—it wasn’t because—it cause—because she wants alwj be with you, just as you are? Am I right?” Mab had a way of tightenufr her ips which Prisey called “shuttXig up rerself all to herself.” Shaf went through this process now. “We were talking of buying par- (i rot,” she said very seriously iter a ittle pause. “A parrot? What fyr?” “For our amusement and o nsola- tion. ” Clement langhed at this i ea so leartily that Mab began to wonder. “Tell me, seriously,” Clement said, “isn’t it something to know that some- body cares for you—even if ?” “Mr. Yanduren to see Miss Mabel Cartwright,” Jane interrupted, open ing the door at this point in the inter view. “Mr. Yanduren!” Mab exclaimed, not concealing her surprise. “Oh, I—eh—I intended to tell you,” said Clement. “He arrived in town to-day, you know. You hadn’t heard?” There was some embarrassment in the meeting between this young artist and the girl who, in the language of common report, had “given him the mitten” nearly two years before. Yanduren had taken himself off to Mexico and Central America, alleging an irresistible longing to sketch na ture in those parts. “You quite surprised us,” said Mab, as she shook hands with the bearded last arrival—“and very pleasantly, When did yon get back? Prisey will be so glad to see you again. Let me go np and tell her you are here. ” Without perplexity it would be im possible to describe Vanduren’s man ner of receiving this suggestion. There was more thau more embarrass ment, there was annoyance. Some thing seemed to have gone wrong, Mab saw this much, but was not/*lear You must not think me overbold If I re fuse to take your ‘No’ for an answer and come back again within forty-eight hours >f my defeat at the Jernay’s. Something leads me to the conviction that this is a specially favorable chance for me to ‘try again.’ Will you reconsider your decision, or is there really no hope for me? “In the latter case, mercifully end my suspense by an early answer. “Julius Clemsst.” “I wonder what he means by ‘some thing,’ Prisey remarked as Mab handed her back the letter. Mab was shutting herself np to her self to think. “I tell you what, Prisey. That man is no fool.” Mab paused a while for farther meditation. “Yes,” she went on, “it will take a pretty sagacious wo man to manage Mr. Clement. He sees into things, does Mr. Clement. Came here last night to ask for my sympathy, eh? Forgot to mention that Tom Van- duren was in town. My dear Priss, that man knew very well that Tom was coming here last night. It was a plot to force Tom Vanduren’s hand. If I thought Tom was half as clever ” “But as it is,” Prisey interrupted, putting an arm about her younger sister’s neck. “As it is? What?” “Why, Prisey, I think they’re keep ing step at last, don’t you?” “Then we needn’t advertise for a parrot,” said Prisey. And the two sisters wrote two little notes that evening. Mab% note was to Yanduren, and it said: “Come and get your final answer to-morrow at 8 o’clock p. m. ” Prisey’s was longer. But the effect of the two communica tions was mneh. The two sisters and their two suitors kept steps admirably a few weeks later to the tune of the Wedding March.— 3t. Louis Star. .If 11 . as to what was wrong. Clement Sibile jc- of chee .. /There are some questions which, like the poor, we have always with ns. One of them is the perennial and well-worn query as whether worn911 A sense of humor, remarks the Philadelphia Bulletiu editorially. A New York newspaper prints letters on the subject from half a dozen women prominent in various walks of life, in cluding Maud Adams, Emma Thursby and the president of the New York State Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, which declare that women have humor, though they point out that, owing to the conventional re strictions upon their behavior, their sense of the humorous finds less free expression than that of man. The New York Post says that these women are right, and that it is as foolish to ask if women have humor as it would be to ask if they have a sense of pathps or a knowledge of right and wrong. As normal human creatures, with faculties, perceptions and emo tions of the race of which they consti tute one-half, they possess humor just as they possess other attributes of humanity. The old theory that women were in some peculiar aud mysterious degree essentially different from the masculine portion of mankind is no longer domiiint among intelligent people. The enlightened modern tendency is to consider a woman as neither a queeu to be worshipped nor as a slave to be driven, but as a thor oughly responsible, fully equipped human being, who should be held to the same degree of accountability as man. It is true that there hare beeu no great women humorists entitled to rank with Cervantes, or eveu with Mark Twain; but this proves nothing. Woman’s humor is likely to be of a finer, less robust character than that of man, aud she is seldom able to ap preciate a joke against herself. But any man who declares that women do not possess both wit and humor is blind to some of the. moat obvious “Here, Prisey, read this.” And Mab banded the letter to her sister. “What do yon think he means?” Then ehe added, speaking gently, to avoid being heard by the servant girl, who was waiting at the door, “Do y u u think he’s got us mixed up?” As Prisey read the note her blue eyes widened in amazement, but she only said, “You’re keeping Jane wait ing, Mab.” >Iab turned suddenly to the door, you care?” Mab said at the me?” a But very “Tell the boy ‘Yes,’” she said. “That’s all the answer there is.” The door having closed behind the servant, there was a silence of some moments between the two sisters. They seemed to take the incident in contrasting ways. The brunette Mab stared, as a child might stare at an elder sister—Prisey was her elder by a year—who has met with a calamity and perplexes by her coolness under it. 1 risoy went on with her occupa tion, which happened to be pulling feathers from an old hat to rearrange them cn a new one. g These two orphan girls had been alone together in the world for so long that each expected to understand every inmost feeling of the other by intuition. “Dout last. “I?” said Prisey, looking up from her feathers for one moment. “What for? Why shouldn’t he?” “Was I right, Prisey?” “Perfectly right, child.” At the appointed honr Mr. Clement rang the bell and asked for Miss Mabel Cartwright. “Did you say Miss Mabel?” Jane asked. “Yes, Miss Mabel.” Jane really felt uncertain as to whether Mr. Clement’s memory had not played him a trick. J “So you have something of greatest importance to say to Mah asked him when she had taken „ very strait chair opposite her visitor I r yes, Miss Mab. I hope you won t hurry me though. Did I 8a y the greatest importance,’ in that not^ I sent you? Oh. well ” ‘To yon,’ I think you said. I don t want to hurry yon. It’s sloppy out of doors, isn’t it?” J? 0 ’ 4 fan of me!” •‘R Il0W ' r ^ ab i . a8ked innocently? Because I asked if it was sloppy?” • / ^! ght as wel1 come to tke point, said Clement. “Look here, Mris Mab, of coarse you know what hap pened last night—at the Jernay’s-to me, I mean.” j » Mab only fixed her dark eyes on him and when “Go on.” hesitated. perfectly, at liberty to take for absent Accordingly, Mab left the room and the two men stood faee to face. “You seem amused, Clement,” said Yanduren, breaking the silence. “Well, why shouldn’t I?” Clement answered. “What did I tell you to day? Of course, you didn’t tell me you would be here so soon—very first evening, you know. “I didn’t think it necessary to ad vise you of all my movements be forehand,” said Yanduren, coldly, while he stood before the mantlepieee critically examining an applique drap ery. “That’s right, Yanduren—quite right. Now, before they come down, let me tell you something.” Van- dureu turned quickly and faced the other man. “We have np time to lose,” Clement went on hurriedly. “You may not know it, but you are my ‘god out of the machine’—that’s a classic allusion, you know. I’ll explain' it another time. See here, I knew well enough you’d be here to-night That was why I told you I was coming. Now you want me to get out, don’t yon?” For answer Yanduren only stared. “Yes, you do. Miss Prisey won’t come down.” “How do you know that?” “Never mind. No time now for argument. I only, want to make a straight-forward business proposition *0 you. If I get out of this will you promise to propose to Miss Mab this verv night? Yes or no?” “Well, I’ll be shot’” Yanduren ex claimed in an undertone. “Yes, I know,” said Clement. “It does seem a queer and quaint idea, but there’ll be time for explanation later. Yes or no?” A rustle of skirts could be heard on the stairs. “Yes,” said Yanduren, making his decision hurriedly, as one who’leaps iu the dark. “Good for yon—for us both,” Clem ent whispered to him, as the skirts came nearer -the door of the sitting- room. “And tell her to take a day or two to think it over—not to hurry.” “I’m so sorry, Mr. Yanduren,” said Mab, opening the door. “Prisey has a headache. You are going to be here some time, are you not, in the city? That’s right. She told me to say she hopes you’ll come again soon. She was very glad to hear of your return. ” The rest, for ten or fifteen minutes, was small talk about traveling and art, Mexico and volcanoes. Then Clement, iu conformity with his promise, “got out of that.” Next afternoon the two girhu were together in their room. Priaey was turning over a letter that had come to her throngh the .mail. I think you might let m® **> said Mab. “I let yon see mine yes terday.” At last, after some hesitation, Prisey. said, | without speaking, handed her aiste - j the letter, which vead: One* Considered Insane. Some interesting stories about the enlistments of recruits to the Ninth have been going the rounds. One of the assistant surgeons of the Ninth gave a young man a rigid physical ex amination, under orders, as the young man was not thought to be e desirable recruit. After the applicant’s weight and height had been ascertained, and the color of his hair and eyes noted, the dialogue between the surgeon and prospective recruit went on as fol lows: “Were you ever rejected for life in surance?” “No.” “Have you ever given np an occu pation on account of yoar health or habits?” “No.” “Are you subject to dizziness?” “No.” “To fluttering heart, pain in the chest, cold in the head, shortness of breath, severe headache?” “No.” “Have you had fits?” “No.” “Nor stiff joints?” “No.” nve yon ever been considered insane?” “Yes, sir.” “What’s that you say?” asked the surgeon, scratching out the “No” that he had written in anticipation of a negative answer. “Well, I guess it’s all right,” re plied the recruit. “My mother said that I was insane to-night when I told her that I was going to enlist. As I had got tired of saying ‘No’ I just thought I’d mention it.”— Wilkesbarre Lender. WISE WORDS. In faith lies victory. Secrecy is'sin’s coat of mail. Honor dresses in home-spun. Pride is the national pickpocket. The man above suspicion lives above the stars. Man never makes truth—he only discovers it. Fame’s race-track runs across the rights of men. Society's glow-worms always shine with a sickly light. A big heart and a big pocketbook seldom travel far together. Wearing finery unpaid for, is re spectability going jailward. Too much goodness is as monoto nous as too much wickedness. The man who confesses his ignor ance is on the road to wisdom. Do your best to-day and you will be able to do better to-morrow. About the best water-proof for all kinds of weather is a clear conscience. The moral training of the little child is the future hope of the nation. If you don’t pay as you go some day you may have to go without pay ing. To marry for money may turn out to be like going to the hornet for honey. It is a great accomplishment to know how to make the best of life as it comes. Two Famous Naval “llemark*.” The answer of Commodore Stock- ton to tbe Mexican Governor of Cali fornia, when we took possession of that country, is worth recalling: “If yon march upon the town (Los An geles),” threatened the Governor, “yon will find it the grave of your men. ” “Tell the Governor,” said Stockton, “to have tbe bells ready to toll at eight o’clock in the morning. I shall be there at that time.” Commodore Tatnall’s “blood is thicker than water” won great recog nition in England in 1859. Seeing the British Admiral, Sir James Hope, ' ’ ' place under the fire of rts, Tatnall gallantly came rescue. In so doing he was of a breach of neutrality, but rer, “Blood is thicker than had the affect of condoning State Engineer Campbell Adams, of New York, does not pose to start the work of improving the highways, which is devolved upon him by the Good Beads law recently approved by Governor Black, for some months. Four petitions for the improvement of roads in Erie County have already been filed with him, and they will be the first considered. The Higbie-Armstrong Good Boads bill became a law on March 24, after several years of agitation and discus sion. It presents, for the first time in this State, a comprehensive plan for the improvement of rural highways It provides that any Board of Super visors may adopt a resolution declar ing that public interest demands the improvement of a certain piece o: highway, not located in a city or vil lage. and, upon a petition of the own ers of a majority of lineal feet of prop erty fronting upon such a highway, they must adopt such a resolution. A copy of this resolution is then trans mitted to the State Engineer, who is to determine whether the piece of highway indicated is of sufficient pub lic importance to receive State aid. If so, he is to have maps, plans and specifications for the work, and esti mates of the cost made, and transmit copies to the Board of Supervisors. The Supervisors, with these facts and figures before them, may then adopt a second resolution declaring that such a highway shall be improved, or may refuse to go any further with the matter. If a county desires merely to know how much it will cost to improve a certain piece of highway, it need only adopt the first resolution and get the estimate of the cost free of charge Then it can refuse to go any further If it chooses, after ascertaining the facts, to adopt a second resolution, it may, but cannot be compelled to do so. If the supervisors adopt the sec ond resolution, they must transmit a copy of it to the State Engineer, who advertises for bids for the work. If no responsible bid is made within his estimate, he mnst make a new es timate and transmit it to the Board o;’ Supervisors, and if the board then adopts a new resolution, based upon the new estimate, declaring that nevertheless such highway shall be improved, the State Engineer mnst advertise again for bids, as before. When a responsible bid within his es timate is made, the State Engineer awards the contract; but if the town or county desires to do the work it self, it has a preference over all the bidders. This provision enables localities having scrapers and other appliances for improving the roads to utilize them an doing their own work under this act and so keep all the money ex o -g - — under the General Highway law, the power to elect a county engineer. If it has elected such an officer, the State Engineer must act through him. If it has not, he must himself super vise the performance of the contract. When the work is completed, he must draw a warrant on the State Treas urer for one-half the cost of the work, and certify the other half to the Board of Supervisors, which must levy thir ty-five per cent, of the whole cost of the work upon the county. The other fifteen per cent, is payable iu one of two ways, viz., if the Board of Super visors adopted the first resolution for the improvement without a petition from the adjoining owners, the Board of Supervisors must levy the fifteen per cent, upon the town in which the improved highway is. If the first resolution was adopted after such a petition, the Board of Supervisors must levy the fifteen per cent, upon the property owners on the improved highway. The act further provides that im provements of highways shall be taken up in the order in which the final resolutions are received by the State Engineer, but he shall not un dertake any work in excess of the ap propriation made by the Legislature for the purpose from year to year. The appropriation made to start the work was $50,000. This amounts to a tax of about 11-1000 of a mill on the State for the purpose of — r —„ the other counties which do undertake to so improve their highway*. The new law doe* not repeal or alter any existing law. The old High way law is left unchanged for those who prefer it. If towns desire to con tinue to work on their roads in the old way, it is their privilege to do so. The new plan will not be forced upon them.—New York San. sJ A Short Bead Sermon. ~ It is constantly being remarked in conversation and printed in interviews and editorials iu the papers that better roads are very necessary, but that they are too expensive—the community is too poor to do anything, and there the matter ends. This need not be so. There is hard ly a town or county in this country in which the money now annually ex pended is not sufficient to procure much better road surfaces than now exist, while a very slight increase in expenditure would make great im- jrovements possible. First. Road taxes must be paid in oney, and not in labor. ’ Good re- Its have never been obtained by working out road taxes, and it is not in the nature of things thai they should )e. Whatever is to be spent on the roads must be available for use in the employment of experienced help under intelligent supervision. Second. Proper grading must be secured, hills reduced and fillings made nntil no steep hill exists that the farmer mnst “load for” every time he hauls over the road. Third. Tbe bed must be thorough ly drained, or h good surface will be impossible, and the surface must ena ble the water to flow off readily. Noth ing ruins a road so quickly as water standing on it or soaking into it. Fourth. The road-bed must be crowned enough to shed water, and must be kept in condition by a system of regular repairs and continuous over sight. Fifth. After a good surface is se cured by the above methods, it must be preserved and maintained by per mitting only the use of wide tires on heavily-laden vehicles, thereby con tinually rolling and improving it. Cinders For Paths and Roads. The valne of cinders for paths is enthusiastically dwelt upon by a Long Island paper, which says that they se cure firm traveling in all sorts of bad weather when anything else would fail to provide it, aud cites cases in town to this effect. It also goes fur ther and wants a stretch of roadway laid with them, in order to see wheth er they would give like satisfactory results under heavy travel. Their action may be determined as follows: “Fill a tub half full of loam; then fill it up with water. Now put on yout rubber boots and step in. You can readily force your feet down to thi Vvr.rfr.in nf 11) n each dollar of assessed valuation in the State. The first connties to ap ply will be the first served. It is ex pected that the next Legislature will appropriate at least $250,000 as the State share of the expense for improv ing highways next year. After a highway is improved the adjoining owners must pay their high way taxes in money, as provided un der the General Highway law, which permits such highway taxes to be computed for cash at one-half the reg ular rates. The act provides that the State Engineer mnst collect informa tion relative to the public highways, and give to all officers having tho care of roads, whether improved or not, such information free. He must furnish them plans and directions for the improvement of roads and bridges free of cost when requested by them, and they may consult him freely at all times and must aid him in collect ing data. Such, in brief, is the plan which has finally been approved by the Leg islature for affording aid in the im provement of rural highways. Al though the cities and villages of the State pay about ninety per cent, of the entire taxes, not a foot of highway can be improved within their limits under it. For every dollar so con tributed by the State it provides that another dollar shall be contributed by the county and town in which the im proved highway lies. If one county chooses to improve its roads, and an other does not, the county which does not need only contribute one cent upon the thousand dollars of assessed valuation, for each $50,000 spent by were used a quic would have resulted. Now try tt same experiment with cinder*. Tt water has no tendency to soften then You may stamp and stir them, hi yon cannot make mud of. them. Yo will stand firmly on the surface of tt cinders, and it is only with great effo that you can grind your foot dow into them at all.” The Wap on Rat*. When a road is rightly graded, Work of man and beast is aided. A “heavy” road means a light loot! We can’t make good weather, bn we can make good roads that ba weather won’t affect so sadly. A Pennsylvanian has offered t subscribe a thousand dollars toward macadam road proposed to be bnil near his home. The farmer who sticks to bad road because good ones cost a little monej might as well ent his wheat with cradle because a reaper would coe something. Easy and frequent social intei course depends on facility of rapi communication among neighbors an between country and town. Hard permanent roads will afford it, and wil help keep the boys on the farm. The possession of a “receipt” doe not prove that payment has beei made; nor does a road tax that ha been “worked out” indicate that i fair amount of labor, either in time o intelligent service, has been expends* on the highway. The terrible condition of countr roads has received so much attention from the press during the past winte: that it has often appeared that the; must be in a worse condition taai usual. Such, however, is not tb case. Our point of view is gradnall; changing, and we are beginning t! distinguish how bad they really are. To Protect Soldier* From Mogquitoca. James L. Foley, a well-known in surance man, has written a letter t< General G. M. Sternberg, Surgeon General of the United States Army suggesting a remedy for mosquitoes black flies, and sand flies, with whiol the troops in the far South are noi bothered. Mr. Foley served throng] the Civil War and has had consider able personal experience in the mat ter, having resided for several sum mers in different parts of Canada The preparation he recommends ii composed of olive or cotton-seed oil with a sufficient amount of North Caro hna tar to give the mixture the con sistency of ordinary cream. This applied to exposed parts of the body face, neck, and hands, a few timet during the day or just before retirini at night, will, he says, relieve the sol diers of alt insect pests found in warn climates.—St. Lonis Republic. 9800*000 Ice Hrealcer. Russia has ordered a 10,000 horse power ico breaker to cost $800,000. I will be ready in October, and will In used to keep open navigation to St ! - etersburg throughout the winter. Wmimi