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- >v-f IP*? "Tmexican meal ?ats?bles and Drinkables at a Wayside Inn. Bread Like Oannon Sails, and Native Traits Washed Down with "Pulque," p ' ? At an Indian village of unpronounceable name, says a letter from Mexico to the Philadelphia Record, we stopped for luncheon, in its only public resting-place ?a typical faudita, which is Spanish for 'little restaurant." The earth floor of this wayside inn was neatly swept, and its whitewashed inner walls hung with pictured saints wreathed with gaudy paper roses. Rickety-legged benches were ranged (immovably) around the table; and the only two chairs the establishment afforded?which were kept as articles of vcrtu, of little actual use to their owners--were brought for the accommodation of I03 Americana8, who > \ V ; ' ? were suspected of not wishing to conform to the rural custom of squatting upon a petate (straw mat) spread on the floor. The windows, of course, were guiltless of glass, and had the usual iron bars before them, but I observed that the rude baru-door-likc shutters were of solid Si* ' mahogany?a woo3, by the way, which Ik cheaper in many parts of Mexico (because less rare) than common pine. The great oaken door, with its enormous hinges and lock like the breastplate of a mediaeval warrior, was quaintly carved? probably not less than a century ago by ^ some long-forgotten artist. There are J many thing* in this wonderful country which are calculated to arouse the spirit ^ of highway robbery in the breast of the most honorable tourist. I longed to tear that door from its hinges and run off with ^ it, or to seize from the shoulders of the master of the mansion his zarape?a native blanket of softly-blended oriental j hues, with the national cscutchcon in the centre (a big eagle perched upon a 1 cactus bush, with a serpent in his beak) ?which would make a most ravishing portiere. Our refreshments were speedily served 1 upon a well-scoured table to which the ^ addition of a cloth would have been an incongruous superfluity, and the menu Was as follows: Stewed frejolea (red ] beans), with our choice as to *'seasoning"?whether we would pour rancid goat's milk over them or molasses from ' the Chinese sugar-cane ;small black loaves i cf Mexican broad that would have made 1 excellent cannon bails, of course without I butter, which does not "grow" in this < country; watercresses and fresh olive oil, I from which we compounded a salad fit i fbr an emperor's table; wild honey and i tewed apricots and a basket of ripe tarn- ] rinds, pomegranates, figs and mangoes, j arranged in their own green leaves, as i Che poorest of these people have a taste- i ful habit of doing. The inevitable 1 pulque was at hand in a pig-skin "bot- i He" which retains the perfect shape of ] the animal, minus head and tail, and i gurgled an approving note, alarmingly j , like life, while its contents were being \ emptied into our mugs. These so-called i "pig-skins" arc really the undressed hides ' of sheep, with the woolly side turned in. , Nothing else is considered so good for ] holding the popular beverage, though , t we are told that a skin of small size costs lot less than $2.50, and lasts little more , than a month, as the constant fermentation going on insido soon cats the wool off. In this volcanic country the traveler must eschew water, or suffer serious \ consequences, and one must drink some- , tiling besides the bitter Mexican coffee; therefore we long ago made up our minds to pulque?the cheap drink of the na- ] tives?-and pulque it is, every day of our ( fives at dinner. I confess, how ver, that < it required considerable effort to educate ( ourselves to it, and it was only accom- : plished by resolutely fixing our thoughts , Upon that glorious product of the year? , the century plant?from whence it came, and by repeatedly assuring one another that the thick, white, nasty liquid resembles home buttermilk, though we know it to be an outrageom libel on j northern dairies. But, even now, 1 Betsy and I sometimes amuse ourselves 1 I? ..... ' iu tcisuro moments striving to computc ' the quantity of sheep's wool which wc must have absorbed in the course of the last two years, since the contents of each 1 alleged pig-skin coutains a good deal of it?"in solution," so to speak. 1 Immediately following this dainty repast the mistress of the fondita produced her private cigarette holder and tendered OA the customary courtesy with the air of a princess, an act of kindly hospitality which we would not for the world have wounded her feelings by refusing. ss ? = Changed His Mind. ' Don't you tliink we had better send dear Clara abroad to complete her musical education?1' asked Mrs. Mullcthead of her lord. "And have me go to the poorhouso? Hot by any means," ho growled in rep'y An hour later?Clara vainly trying to yeach the attic of the scale to piano nceompaniment. ? '. "I do think dear Clara should be sent abroad to develop her musical talent," ventured Mrs. Mullethead again. "Send her away by all means,", was the still more ungracious response; <fbet ter that I should become a pauper than a lunatic.?Tut Bit*." >ivv j :' ' > >. , mm' ' -v. < v^fea Types of the Cowboys. The steadfast, most reliable, and hardest-working cow-boys are those who aro bom in tho cattle regions, or the oldtimers, who have lived there so long that they have forgotten tho manners and customs of a better civilization. There are cowboys following tho trails who aro uot yet in their teens, and there are many ! who are crowding on to seventy. Some of | these old boys are as erect in the saddle : and throw their lassoes as unerringly as any of the younger ones, but others aro bent and wrinkled, and should never go on a range. It would kill them to leave tho camp, though, and many of these old-timers will dio in the saddle. I know boys not yet fifteen, who aro expert in running a steer on a round-up, or in manipulating stampeded cattle, as any Mexican that ever threw a lasso. Tho Mexican cowboy, you know, is generally regarded as the master of the horse and lasso, and it is the custom for people to say, "Ho is as smart with the rope as a Mexican." Taking it all in all, I think the white cowboy is superior to the Mexican. The white man is cool, patient, and of better judgement. If a Mexican runs a steer for any length of time lie gets wild, and soon uses up his horse. He is apt to injure the cattle in his hot mood. Besides that, the Mexican is superstitious and when his religious fears come upon him the cattle in charge are a secondary consideration. I have known a herd of 3,000 cattle in charge of Mexicans to bo stampeded in a thunder-storm because the Mexicans were afraid of the thunder und lightning, and threw themselves From their horses, stripped themselves ind lashed their naked bodies with cacI bus as a penance for some sin, while the herd rushed wildly away in all dircc- j tions, and hundreds were lost. It is not an uncommon thing for Mexican cowboys to stop on the tiail to punish themselves for their sins. Frequently their wild cries cause a disastrous stampede if the cattle in their charge. I have seen these Mexicans walk barefooted for rods over patches of prickly cuctus, while a companion followed them and lashed their naked backs with the same thorny plant.?New York Sun. How Stanton "Tapped" the Telegraph. Major Johnson, of Washington, who was Secretary Stanton's confidential clerk, ?aid the other day: 4 'About one of the 3rst acts of great importance which 3tanton did was to establish the headquarters of the telegraph of the United States in the War Department. This meant that all the telegraphic communications with relation to the war should pass directly into the hands of this amazing Secretary. At his orders I made a record of every telegram from and to the President) from and to all the Secretaries, from all the generals in the field, to any and everybody. A record was kept of all the dispatches sent by General-in-chief Halleck, by General Grant, and all the commanders of the army of the Potomac, and by General Sherman and all the generals of the army of the West. The dispatches of the Secretary of the Navy and all the movements of tlis gunboats were put on record, and all cipher dispatches received at the War Department deciphered by General Eckr?rt. and rprnrrlml Kir mn "Pir/ifrr nti?n !? the country was tapped and its contents ? run into the War Department and made a mattei of record if it in any way related to the war or was in cipher. The telegraph operators of the department, under this censorship, became the most expert, probably, in the world, and they now hold high positions in their profession. They were Bates, Tinker and Chandler. Some of the dispatches in cipher intercepted were from corps commanders in the field relating to gold speculations in New York."?Washington Star. Disastrous Somnambulism. A rather amusing incident occurred recently in Hog: mountain district. A gentleman who is in the habit of walking in his sleep had a dream. He dreamed that he saw a fine covey of partridges running along toward an old house and then go in. Thinking this a good opportunity to capture them, he quietly slipped along until he got to the door, when he suddenly jumped inside and closed the door. What was his astonishment to discover a mad dog in there, which rushed at him at once. His only chance of escape was to jump through a window, and through he went with a bound. When he awoke he was lying outside the house on the ground, having jumped through a window iu his bedroom and carried the sash with him. He was badly bimised and his leg severely cut bv the class ns hn thprtnrrii ? * O Gwinnett* (Georgia) Tier all. Insect Sense of Smell* In an extensive series of experiments by Prof. Graber, insects and many other invertebrates perceived odors much more quickly and acutely than the vertebrates tested (birds and reptiles). The antennae proved to be not the only organs of smell in insects, although these appear to be essential to the perception of some fine odors. In some cases the palpi of tho mouth organs are more sensitive than the | antennae, but perception of smell through the stigmata or respiratory organs is not | rapid nor important, . - " v;> ' ' ' > y- :kvs In the Eagle's Caere. A crowd was gathered around the cage in which the eaglosare confined inCentrat , Park, the other day watching a few dar- | ing English sparrows that wore picking J up tho leavings of the eagles' dinner, j The engles sat majcstic and silent upon ! the make-believe trees, as though lost in | deep reveries. Suddenly a vulture dart- | od like a flash of lightning from one of , ...mi- U, A J -1 ! lug |IUILUU0 UUU SWUUJJl'U UUWI1 upon one of our own bald-heads with fiendish screams. The bald head answered with screams of terror and hastily retreated into a dark corner of the cage. The women and children drew back from the cagc in fear, and even the men exhibited a desire to bo beyond tho reach of Sir Vulture's sharp talons. The vulture stood silent on the bottom of the cage for a moment, while the other eagles moved uneasily on their perches. Then the condor, who had been sitting on the highest branch of all, gave vent to a shriek almost as deafening as the whistle of a locomotive, and dropped down upon the vulture. In a moment feathers flew in every direction. All the eagles screamed in unison, and i the little birds in the other cages crouclicd mute and trembling in the corners. The gray-coated park policeman who came rushing to the cagc shouted to the keeper,and in a moment the man who had charge of the eagles came running up. lie seized a pail of water from behind tho cage, and, getting as close as possible to the fighting birds, he doused them with it. The cffect was instantaneous. The fight was all gone out of them, and they crawled away to different corners dripping and dejected. The condor had had much the best of tho fight. He was bleeding in only a few places, while his opponent was covered with the sanguinary fluid. "The eagles fight very hard sometimes," said the keeper to the reporter. 4'Water is the only thing that will stop them, and even that doesn't always work. If they are very hot wo separate them with poles, and then yank them into a tank of water, where we duck them until all the fight is gone out of them. "The condor is boss of the roost, and none of the others care to dispute his supremacy. The vultures come next as fighters, and the bald head is at the tail of the list. Tho vultures can't stand cold water, though. In winter we liavo to take them inside, while the other eagles rather enjoy the cold. "When we want to have some fun with the eagles we throw live rats at them. Ordinarily they are fed with raw meat, but live rats are a delicacy to them. You never know how terrible their talona are until you sec them tear a rat to pieces. They pounce upon rats like cats and in a jifTy they have been torn into shreds. ? The rats go into the other bird cages of their own accord and steal thi eggs, but they give the eagles' cage a wide berth." "Do the eagles hurt one another in their.fight0''" inquired the reporter. "Oh, yua. If they were not separated they would fight until one or the otbei was killed."?Nets York Sun. Notriment in Food. Fat pork contains a large amount of nutriment. Fish is less nutritive than meats, but five pounds of nutriment being obtained from 100 pounds of material. It usually contains about 5 per cent. Salt mackerel is among the most nutritive and flounder 5s one of the poorest. In a pint of milk aud a pint of oysters there is the same amount of nutriment, although the oysters contain more protein and the milk more fat. Cheese contains a large amount of nutrition. Butter has 87 1-2 per cent, of nutritive matter. The pseudo-butter, oleomargine, has about the same value in food properties. The breads representing the carbohydrates contain about 33 or 35 per cent, of water, flour from 9 to 13 per cent., corn and maize meal still more water. They have less protein and more fat; oatmeal has, on the contrary, more protein and less fat. In general, this clas9 contains most all nutritive material and but little water. Wanted to Change Places. The Washington Capital tells this story of a little fellow who wanted to change placcs, notwithstanding the cxaltcred inducements offered to remain. During the terrific thunder storm that came over the city last week a little eight-year-old boy living in the northern part of the town was awakened, and called his mother, who was sitting in the drawing-room down stairs. She sat with him a while, and told him ho need have no fear, because God took care oi little boys, and would not let the lightning hurt thom. "But God is away up in heaven," said tho child. "Yes," re? plied the mother, "but he is here, too. He is staying right in tho room with you. Ho can protect you, but I cannot. As long as God is here you need not be j afraid." The child was quieted, and I the mother left him and went back tc the drawing-room. Pretty soon then came another deafening clap of thunder, when the boy, crawling out of bed, came to the head of the stairs and called again; "What do you want George?" asked hii mothtr. "You come up here and staj with God a whilo, and let me go dowi itairs," was the reply. '511 :;vy' "T: *"' ' ' . - - ? A Theory of Soap. ; A new theory has been started with regard to the use of soap on the face, j Women who for years have been careful I of their complexions would never, under | any circumstances, wash the face in soap, as it was said to roughen aud coarsen the skin. Now, this idea is exploded, und a well-known physician in the metropolitan profession recommends his women patients to use it freely uvcry flay, lathering the skin well. Of course, a fine, oily and pure soap is hiost desirous. This being secured he states that none but tho most beneficial results will be affected by his method of improving the skin. J IIo holds?with considerable plausibility * ?that the pores of the face become as * much clogged by grease and drrt as the hands or any other portion of the body, i And if soap is considered a necessary pu- < rilier in the bath, its n-cds must bo felt i equally on the face. By an abundant 1 and regular lathering the facial pores, he ' claims, arc kept open, free from the clogging matter that produces unsightly ( black heads, acne, pimples, and a pure, < healthy, fresh and brighter complexion ? is the resultant. Not mincing matters, j he says that the trouble with most women who have sallow, pasty skins is that from year's end to year's end they never have a really clean face. An ar.iclc published in Good Housekeeping says: "Hands kept dirty arc never smooth and white. Absolute cleanliness is necessary. Many people who do not work seldom wash their hands. The day's accumulation of dirt is allowed to remain on the hands all night. Upon rising the hands arc washed in cold water; then the possessor wonders why when she docs no work her hands do not look any better. The hands and face should always be washed in warm soap suds before going to bed. White soaps are safest. Highly scentcd and colored soaps are almost invariably made from rancid and ill-smellinc: fats. After drying them thoroughly use a few J drops of mixed glycerine and camphor, which the druggist can prepare for you. ( Drop into the palm of your hands and ] rub well, and this will be all that will be 1 necessary to show decided improvement." ] When you rise in the morning do not use ' soap on your face, but bathe it well in * warm water. Do the soap-scrubbing 1 only at bedtime. ? Brooklyn Eagle. The Carious Young Lobster, The young lobster when first hatched measures about a third of an inch in length and looks like a small shrimp. < The eyes are bright blue, and upon its i body appear marks of orange and pink, ( making them very conspicuous. They ] are good swimmers during the first stage? i of their growth, before their claws and ( other awkward appendages are devel- 1 oped, and indulge in the most extrava- < gant antics in the water, turning somer- < I saults and going through other acrobatic 1 feats near tho surface. Nature docs not provide them with any yelk-sac, and the < little ones begin feeding voraciously as i soon as hatched, If they are not fur- i nished with proper food they attack one another with cannibalistic intent. Th< ' young lobsters in the aquaria at Woodi 1 Holl are fed upon their mothers, who are chopped up line for the purpose. In nature it is supposed that myriads o! the little lobsters upon rising to tho surface after leaving the eggs are consumed by predaceous fishes. Dr. Ryder, whe is investigating the little lobsters at Woods Holl, writes that he has found among them some curious monstrosities, such as twins with their heads fused, a central cyclopean eye and tails separate. The lobster grows by stages or "molt." The first molting, as observed at W oods Holl, takes place about five days after leaving the egg.?New York Herald. From the West Indies. In olden times George Smith was 8 well-known trader in the village ol Wayne. All storekeepers sold rum at j that day, and Smith peddled a lot of it. j lie drew it from a hogshead, in which o t plug took the place of a modern faucet. . A piece of leather under the plug 6haped the course of the stream. Some of Smith's customers occasionally bantered him about watering his rum, but g Smith always good-naturedly replied a that he never put water enough in it to hurt 'em. 3 One morning a customer came iri very early and nsked for a quart of the liquor, j It happened that the rum was low in the f hogshead. Smith canted it up, drew I out the plug and only a few drops came, t but a frog jumped through the hole and 1 hopped around as lively as ever. c "Gosh 1" said Smith, "that's the first r West India frog I ever saw."?Leioiatan 1 (Me.) Journal. i Exciting a Cow. 1 "Never under any circumstances do any- 4 thing to excite a cow while milking her," sagely remarks an agricultural paper. L^uito ngnt, quite rignt?we never ao. It never really seemed to bo necessary to do anything to excite a cow while we 8 were milking her. When a cow begins to kick with both feet hard enough to knock the hoops off a tin pail and then puts her tail up in the air and goes racing around the edge of a ten acre field with a cloud of dust following her we don't see how any sano person could think for a momeut of shooting off fire works or doing anything elaa to excite ier.?EtUUine {Dak.) EM. CLIPPINGS FOB THE CUIilOUS. A large number of women work in the nines in England, and it is a curious b? act that as a class tlicy seem to bo ir< tronjrer and healthier than the avnr.iom k. W ? ? O voman. lu Remains of wheat seeds aro found in tl: he ruins of the houses of the lake dwelors. The Chinese have records of its V( ailturc as early as 2700 n. c. Compared b vith wheat, rye is a modern plant. w A young man is living in Nebraska vho is twenty-six years old, thirty-seven Ul nelies high, and weighs but fifty pounds, lie has lived at his present home for y< wenty years unbeknown to more than b; ifty people. ?1 The driving-wheels of the first loco- ^ notive engine of New York and the third R* )ne constructed in America are interest- 11 r ng relics. Each wheel measures fiv? "eet in diameter and weighs 850 pounds. The workmanship is very crude. ?] During the later periods of Roman his. ^ ;ory the men and women rcclincd at -heir repasts; but the Greeks considered such a posture indecorous for females; a ,heir women, therefore, either sat at aseiv ri irate table or upon one end of the couch in which the men only reclined. ^ in tne Santa Paula Valley, Ventura bounty, Cal., many wild animals arc :aught and killed by getting into small ^ itreams of thick mineral oil or pitch, .vhich flow from the mountains during ihc summer down ravines and river beds .vhich are water courses in the wet sea- ? c ion. g In Italy a living scorpion is often jj Iroppcd into a wide-necked glass bottle containing a few drops of olive oil of the v iucst quality. More oil is pourad on initantly until the bottle is filled and the icorpion dead. In its struggles to free tself it ejects all its poison into the oil, ^ ind this poisoned oil then becomes a ^ sovereign remedy for the sting of a scorpion. ^ The ancient'Britons had a great rcver- Q ;ncc for running streams, trees and serpents. The tree they most honored was ;ho oak, and, still more than the oak,the I * 11 nistletoe which grew on it. Whenever i plant of it was found on an oak tree ;here was a grand ceremony. A solemn ^ procession was formed, two white bulls tverc sacrificed and the sacred plant cut ^ with a gold knife. ^ Tho Alaska Islands. Alaska is a great idand region. One >f its archipelagoes is three hundred niles from north to south and about J jighty miles wide. It contains from s 1,000 to 5,000 separate islands, and tho a iggregate area of these is more than 14,- o )00 square miles. Six hundred miles u further west there is another group which t contains over 5,000 square miles, and the c ;otal area of tho islands of Alaska is cl argor than the State of Maine. li Alaska has the highest mountain peaks t Df the United States. It has volcanoes c and glaciers, and many of these volca- n iocs are in active order. The glaciers of s tVlaska arc finer than those of the Alps, t There is one that extends fifty miles to e ;hc sea, and there ends abruptly in a r perpendicular ice wall three hundred a feet high and eight miles broad. Thir- s ty-five miles above Wrangell, on the Sit- t tine River, between two mountains n 3,000 feet high, their is a glacier forty a miles long and four or five miles across i it the base. It is from 500 to 1,000 feet t aigh, and there are other glaciers through- c iut the territory from which great blocks containing hundreds of tons of ice are t constantly breaking off and falling into n ihc sea. v The rivers of Alaska are among the a inest of America. The Yukon is seven- i :y miles wide across its five mouths, and o it some points along its lower course one p bank cannot be seen from the other, a For the first thousand miles it is from a >no to five miles wide, and in some t places it is twenty miles from bank to j sank. It is navigable for 2,000 miles, I ind is computed to be 3,000 miles long, d ? Cletelaiul Leader. t n Getting a Quarter's Worth. This is the time of the year when the imall boy tears around to tho grocery itorc and says to the grocer: "llcv. Mister, can't I carry narmls fur O ' - J X rer fur a while?" tl And if the grocer gives the small boy a d ob, the small boy yanks the parcels n iround at a very lively gait until he a thinks he has earned a quarter. Then tl he grocer pays the quarter, and the small b )oy hastens to the circus, filled with a b lesire to learn the chestnut while it is tl ipe. And having arrived at the circus, tl le puts the quarter in his pocket, steals st n under the canvas, and pays the quar- 01 er to stay for the bad minstrel show af- ^ ,er the circus.?Puck vc ? hi The Beo Clock; C A new French clock contains a novel !N ipplication of the magnet. The clock ai ippoars like a tambourine with a circle w >f flowers painted on its parchment y? lead. Around tho circlo crawls two tl >ees, the largest requiring twelve hours 01 ;o completo tho circuit, while the smaller H nnkcs it every hour. Tho flowers rep- w esent hour divisions, and the bees, tc which are of iron, are moved by two g< nagnots carried, just under the mem- in >rane, by the clockwork inside the tam- tl Murine. ? CIENTIFIC SCRAPS. The thickness of tlio earth's crust is jlieved by Monsieur Fnye, the French ^ologist to bo greater under oceans than incatli continents, because ihe earth's ;at has always radiated more freely lere. Salts of copper?usually regarded as jry poisonous?have been administered y a French chemist to dogs and rabbits ithont serious elTccts, either from large dscs or from a long continued regular 30 of the substances. Surveys made during the past two sars have shown that the river Rhone as cut for itself a channel in the bottom [ Lake Geneva, through which it flows, etween parallel banks, like an ordinary ,ream on the earth's surfaco. The Ilhine lakes a similar passage through Lake onstance. An instructive display at the newlypened colonial exhibition in London is lat of the rice of India, which includes m thousand different varieties, all be nging to a single species. All colors re represented, from black to pale yel>w and white. Two species of wild ice are known, only one of which closel resembles the cultivatad varieties. On the Trans-Caspian railroad in Rusia, now approaching Merv, it is claimed >??- a>nc\c\ ?:i- i- ' " mi a.uKju.u .j>oyj\j units is ueiug saveo y the use of ozokerite, or mineral wax, 5i" ties. "NVhen purified, melted and lixed with limestone and gravel, the zokerite, which is abundant in the viinity of the railroad, produces a very ood asphalt. This is pressed into shape 1 boxes, and gives ties which retain tieir form and hardness in the hottest feather. The botanic gnrdens of the world,most f them scientific in character, arc reortcd to number 197, of which Gerlany has 34, Italy 23, France 20, Great tritain and Ireland 12, West Indies six nd the United States five. More than alf arc supported by government and nly five per cent, by private enterprise. A novel locomotive is to be built for rial on one of the French railroads. See:ig that big driving wheels were good or speed, the inventor proposes to build locomotive with six coupled wheels 1-4 feet in diameter. The tender and oaclics are to have wheels of the same [intensions, and the calculation is that with such a train a speed of from 72 to 8 miles an hour can be obtained. Quickness of Perception! The following story from the P.nn ![?nthly is related of Agassiz, and it is ufficiently characteristic of this remarkbly accurate observer to have the merit f probability. We are told that once ipon a time the professor had occasion ? select an assistant from one of his lasses. There were a number of candi ijites for the post of honor, and finding limself in a quandary as to which one ic should choose, the happy thought ocurred to him of subjecting thrco of the lore promising students in turn to the implc test of describing the view from he laboratory window, which overlookd the the side yard of the cottage. One aid that he saw merely a board lence nd a brick pavement; another added n tream of soapy water; a third detected he color of the paint on the fence, noted . green mould or fungus on the bricks, nd evidences of "bluing" in the water, tesides other details. It is needless to ell to which candidate was awarded the oveted position. Houdin, the celebrated prestidigitaor, attributed his success in his position nainly to his quickness of perception, k'liich, he tells us in his entertaining lifnhmrrronliir lio ooAiiirn/l Kir 0 l"'J ) "V UV(JUlll.U 'JJ liUUtlll,ng his eyo to detcct a large number ol / * objects at a single glance. His simple >lan was to select a shop window full of miscellaneous assortment of articles, nd walk rapidly past it a number ol imcs every day, writing down cach obect which impressoi itself on his mind. n this way he was able, after a time, to [elect instantaneously all the articles in he window, even though they might be umbered by scores. ?Scientific American. A Washington Character. general Joe McKibben is a character rho is a frequent sight upon the streets f Washington. The general is one of ie few men who can truthfully say that . uring the two years of his service as a lembcr of the house he never made or / btcmpted to make a speech. This is all 10 more surprising as years ago McKiben was acknowledged to bo one of the ??j. i uat pvjui/iuai opL-iiK.ura uiui cvor graccci le stump in California. Speaking upon lis topic tho other evening, the general lid: "I never knew any good to como nt of speech-making but once, and that as when tho governor ordered me to retain and take part in the campaign. I ad bought a ticket upon tho steamer entral America, intending to go to ' ew York. The steamer was wrecked id 600 lives were lost. Among them . as Lockwood, one of the brightest law?rs that ever graced tho bar. While io steamer was sinking Lockwood was -dercd to tako his place at tho pumps, e replied: 'Those who aro afraid can ork the pumps, but I shan't.' Then he >ok of! his money bag which was full of >ld and threw it into tho sea, exclaim- C g: *i came to California without any- - i ling, and I leave it equally wealthy,"? otton Traveller. ' ' V