Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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3 ■s /' THE LEDGER: GAFFTS'EY, S. C., AUGUST 25, 1898. LATE LOVE. Lovp rame to me through the gloaming, The dew on hla wings lay wet, And the rotce of his wistful greeting Wns wenry with old regret. -Oh, heart,” he sighed nt my ensement, “Must 1 wait for u welcome yetf” lie had oome with the early roses In the golden shining of morn. But 1 asked a gift he bestowed not— A flower that hears no thorn, iki through tin* gluro of the noontide He left me to toil forlorn. And now, In life's quiet evening, When long are the shadows cast. He .'omes with the few pale blossoms He haS saved from u hungry past, And Into my heart, unquestioned, I take him to rest at last. —M. E. Martyn in Clu*ir.benj' Journal A SECRET KEPT. “Why, Bister, isn’t this our birth day?” “Yes, I suppose it is.” “I declare, it completely slipped my ■mind, so ranch happening. I never failed before to stir np n cake. Did you re- I member it?” “Oh, yes, I remembered it I couldn't well forget it with such u fine present coming to us. ” The sisters were sitting on either side of a wide, oper fire in high back chairs. | So exactly alike were they in form and feature and dress that only one who : knew them well could have told them apart. Their fingers were busy with knit ting. Jane’s work was a scarlet and , orange afghan. HuJda was rounding olf the toe of a pair of gray woolen stock- iugs. In the cent'er of the room by the claw legged table a young girl sat, apparent ly reading, though her eyes rested on the two figures before the fire. “What present did you get, Jane?” Hulda stopped her work and looked over her glasses. Jane smiled and nod ded her head toward the young girl seated by the table. The tall clock that stood on the wind ing staircase at the end of the long drawing room struck 1. The three start ed and looked around, and the girl threw down her book and sprang to her feet, laughing. “Old Father Time has oomo to life,” she said. “He objects to our being so quiet. Como, Aunt Hulda; let us do something to celebrate Aunt Jane’s birthday. Aunt Jane, what shall wo do to celebrate Aunt Hulda’s birthday?” The eyes of the two elder ladies were still fixed on the clock, and they made no answer. The girl came and stood on the hearth rug, and, stooping, took Jane’s face between her small, plump hands and kissed her. Then, catching up the afghan, she ran down the room and up the stair and threw it over the face of the clock. The sisters laughed merrily. “That was the hour we two came into the world,” said Hulda. "Y’ou can’t say but it was rather startling fro have the old clock ring out that hour. It hasn’t made a move to my knowledge since you weut away, Amy.” “Oh, well, it just happened. Aunt Hulda,” Amy answered, with the hap py carelessness of youth. “Besides, it isn’t 1 o’clock now. It is only 7:80.” She danced across the room and seated herself at the piano. “Como, Aunt Jane; let us sing something. ” “Why, child, I can’t sing.” “You used to sing beautifully.” “I’m afraid you forget that wo’vo grown old since yon went away. Peo ple don’t sing much as a rule when they are 00. ” The girl wheeled about on the music stool and shook her finger at the cov ered clock. “You have done this,” she said. "You pretended to be sitting up there doing nothing all these years, bnt you’ve proved tonight that you’re up to your old triclis, running away with the years. ” The sisters laughed again. “You used to stand and talk to that clock when you didn’t come up to the drops of the weights, Amy,” said Hulda. “We’ve a long account to settle,” Amy answered, shaking her head “To come home and find you both so quiet and complaining ot growing old, when wo used to have such good times. Shall 1 get seme knitting and sit down in the corner and grow old too?” Hulda rolled up her work and stood up. “I suppose wo do seem changed, child, ” she said anxiously. “What can we do to amuse her, Jane?” “We might dance the minuet, ” said Jane, standing by her sister’s side. “That used to amuse her greatly when she was a child ” “Oh, do,” cried Amy. “I*d forgot ten about your doing that. ” She turned to the piano and began the stately musio of the minnet Dain tily the two little old ladies stepped for ward in time to the music. Their small faces at first were grave with the desire to please, but presently the melody en tered their hearts. Their faces lost the doll line of years and shone with the pleasure of youth. Jaue’i hair fell out of coil and bung in soft silver curls about her faoo. Hul da picked up her skirts and tripped air ily away, showing her trim little feet in blue embroidered slippera. “You do it even better than you used to, ” Amy cried, clapping her hands as the music came to an end. “I never saw any one more graceful and pretty than you two are. Sixty isn’t old. Why, you could go to Washington and be the belles of tho season yet if yon only wanted to. You have just staid here in the country, and you haven’t any idea how lovely you are." The sisters looked at each other and smiled. Jane slipped her hand into Haidar's. “We haven’t been discontented, or 1 suppose we would have made a venture dpt into the world.” she said. A “I wish you would make a venture this winter," said Amy seriously “There is no need of our staying here. Uncle James says he has invited you re peatedly to come to Washington. I said I’d stay all winter, but I don’t believe I can, it is so lonely. ” “We have never been lonely,” said Hulda after a short silence, “but of course we’ve always bud the thought that you were coming to live with us when you finished school. It will bo different when you go away this time.” Amy run and threw her arms around them. “It is a beautiful home, dears,*and yon know I love you both us though you wero my mothers, but it is so still and I solemn here, and you know I haven’t been used to it ” “We might recite her some of the plays, Hulda,” said Jane. “What plays?” asked Amy eagerly. “Yes, I’m sure that would amuse her, ” said Hulda. “I hope you don’t think, Amy, that wo are women who settle down and spend all our time and mind ou our work?” Tho two left the room, and Amy was presently surprised by their returning dressed in costume. With the first lines she knew they were dressed to represent Portia and Nerissa. With surprising ability in recitation and action they went through the well known scene frnm the “Merchant of Venice.” They could not have had a more ap preciative aodieiioe. Amy recalled them again and again with a storm of applause. The two little ladies had used tho years of their solitude and leisure in learning from beginning to end a num ber of tho plays of Shakespeare and for amusement had bought several chests of costumes and before the long mirrors in the drawing room bad acted many parts together. When they again appeared to Amy from an inner room, they were in tho costumes of Rosalind and-Celia in the forest of Arden. So perfect was their presentation of this part that it certain ly entered the borderland of art “Bravo!” cried Amy in great excite ment. “We’ll not go to Washington. We’ll have Washington come to na We’ll send a lot of invitations and have the gayest home party that was ever known in tho country.” To this plan Hulda and Jane gave slow consent A month later every guest chamber in the fine old country house was occu pied. The news of his sister’s wonder ful accomplishments drew tho beloved brother in Washington to the homo ho had not visited for 20 years. They wero mostly tho brother’s friends and Amy’s, who made tho place gay with laughter and song. But one room was reserved for a guest whom Hulda and Jane find spe cially invited, k was late one evening after all the others had retired that ho arrived. Amy was greatly amused and surprised the next morning when she met ou the stair one of tho nearest neighbors—-an old gentleman who lived just across tho country road. “Why, Mr. Weston,” she exclaimed. “Are you the guest of honor?” He was a tall, handsome man, with a most dignified bearing. “I’ve always been an honored guest in this house, ” he replied, holding out his hand. “The girls thought I couldn’t really bo one of the party unless I closed my house and oarae over bag and bag gage. Now, if you dou’t mind, Amy, just keeping it to yourself, let them think I’m a dignitary from some remote quarter of the globe, and they will ap preciate me, but if they know I’m John Weston, who lives across tho road. I’ll figure for a simpleton. ” “No, indeed, you wouldn’t, ” Amy laughed. “You’ll bo tho life of tho party. I hoped you’d come over every day, as you always do, but it will bo so much nicer to have you in the house. ” Half an hour later, when the merry party had gathered at tho breakfast ta ble, the guest of honor was presented. No one had ever a truer gift of conver sation than John Weston. Ho naturally assumed the position of his long friend ship with the family, and it was noticed that Hulda and Jane deferred to him in all things, as though they wore used to depending on his judgment. The following day it was rumored that the sisters intended giving the bal cony soeuo from “Romeo and Jnliet" in their first appearance before their guests. Amy hud been out sleighing all the afternoon with a number of the young people and had not known that her aunts intended representing these ju venile lovers. The drawing room was being set in readiness for the amuse ment when the party returned. John Weston, acting as stage archi tect, was banging a painted screen against the winding staircasa “I’ll have to run over home and get my screen with the woodbine,” be was saying to the man who was assisting him. There was a burst ot merry laughter in the doorway. “Oh, Mr. Weston, what are you do ing?’’ Amy exclaimed, running for ward, ’Aunt Jane and Aunt Hulda surely can’t act Romeo and Juliet ” “Can’t they? Wait till you see them try it You heard me say that I live across the rood, didn’t you?” be added, smiling at the young people who bod followed Amy into the room. “Well, we need both bomea to circle round in any way.” With a girl on each arm John Weston presently went down the snow beaten path and across the road to bia own homo among the evergreens. “I asked Amy who lived here the other day,” said one of the girls, “and ■be said, 'An old gentleman, who spent all his time with his hooka * Tve been •o interested wondering whut yon were like. What made you keep it secret that you lived here?” “Oh, Just for sport I didn’t really expect to be able to keep it all through the mouth. ” “But this is such a hoantifnl home.” "There isn’t a finer interior in the country,” said John Weston proudly. "Do you live heie all alone?" “Well, I’m over the way a great deal, and they are over here.” “Oh, how artistic," the other of tho girls exclaimed us they entered the hall. “You’ve been abroad. Only people who travel have houses that look like this.’' “I have been in every country that I ever heard of, ” Weston replied, smiling. “Now just roam around and make yourselves at home." One of th*' girls wandered away, but the other sat down and fixed her bright eyes on tho eject old man before lice. "Well, what is it, my child?” he asked. “Will yon think I am very rude if 1 ask you something?” “No, indeed. You may ack me any thing yon please.” “Do yon love both of them jnst the same?’ ’ John Weston’s face flushed like a boy’s. Smiling, ho shock his head. “Is that answer sufficientr” he asked. “But how do you know? They are just alike. None of u^ cau tell them apart.” “They are no more alike than you and I,” he replied gravely. “I suppose I shall know which it is if I wait patiently,” the girl said, with a pert little toss of her head. “ Never T* John Weston answered qnickly. “But if you live long enough you may know what friendship is when it is free from selfishness. ” Tho guests gathered in tho long draw ing room that evening wero prepared for nothing more then amusing melo- l drama. What could Jano know of Ju- ! liet’s supreme surrender of love? How could a little old lady of GO be other wise than amusing aa the ardent young Montague? Tbo room was bnt faintly lighted I when from out the garden tiiicket young Romeo stepped. His first words held his listeners’ best attention, “Ho jests at scars who never felt a wound.” If Jane and Hulda Wainwright had employed their years in earnest efforts to win tho attention of an admiring public, they could not have succeeded more completely than they had in pri vate study for their own pleasure and improvement. Tho old house rang with applause as tho scene came to an end. This was the beginning of a series of entertainments. SurtTy a month like this bad never been spent in the coun try! The sleighing was perfect. The wind had swept the river bare for miles. Every morning a p:irty of skaters were seen gliding in and out between the wooded banks. John Weston was tho leader of tho outdoor sports. Skating was a pastime that ho had clung to with the enthusi asm of his boyhood. It was good to see the halo old gentleman in his fur trim- pied coat and cap gliding on before with an ease of motion that only years of river skating oau perfect. The mystery of nutold love that bo- verod about him mode him of continual interest to the young people. The girl who had dared to ofwstion him wove many pretty little romances, m which Jane and Hulda alternately appeared as heroines. She watclied the sisters close ly, hoping to read tbo secret in one of their faces, but tbo brown eyes of each wore the same gentle confidence when ever they spoke with their friend. One evening, when the moon was full, several of the party had gone down the river to skate for un hour or two. The later hours were to bo spent in dancing, and the drawing room was be ing pnt in readiness. While they were buckling on their skates Amy preposed a race. “I’ll race the party,” said John Weston. “Ago against youth. If one reaches the bridge before me, I’ll pay any forfeit he may ask. ” They ronnded tlm wooded point and wero off for a clear half mile to tho bridge. After tho first few minutes tho competition rested between two. Amy and John Weston were speeding ou together. Shouting and cheers fol lowed them. The white arch of the stone bridge was but a few rods ahead. Now Amy was in advance, waving her muff above her head. A moment later they had reached tho bridge and wero resting in the shadow. “Well, little girl, what is my for feit to be?” John Weston asked, laugh ing. “Oh,” said Amy, breathing hard, “whom do you low best in all this world?” "That isn’t fair.” “Yes, it is,” she laughed, “If you had won, I should have paid any for feit you asked. ” “When you are as old os I am, you will not make a jest of lova I’ll pay my forfeit, hut I’m disappointed in you, Amy.’’ He loaned forward and whispered the name in her ear, then turned about and skated under the arch of the bridge. The poor little victor flew after him. “Oh, forgive me,” she cried, cling ing to his arm. “It was all in fun. I didn’t expect you to tell me.” He put bis arm around her as they still skated on, but made no reply. Aft er a few moments they were overtaken by the rest of the party, and all, joining hands, skated hack np the river. When the bouse was reached, the dancing hod already begun. Amy stood at one side, with John Weston’s confi dence heavy at her heart, watching her aunts in their pretty lilac silks as they glided by her. They seemed more alike to her than ever before, but she kntw even better than John Weston bow un like they were. She knew, too, how inseparable was thetr love for each other. It was like reading a story unfinished and very sad, she thought Bnt afterward, in thinking about the near friendship the throe enjoyed and their life ct study and close interest, it did not seem so sad after all. Before another year bad passed the names of Jano and Hulda Wainwright were widely known, and their boms canm to be in time a Mecca to all artless and students of Shakespeare.—(Jestrnds Smith in Chicago Record. ORDERS BY SIGNALS. THE SILENT SYSTEM OF A LUNCH ROOM IN CHICAGO. Over One HandreU and Fifty Different Articled of Fowl Which the Waiter* Can Call For by Simply Making Motion* With Their Hand*. The other day a man slipped into a Monroe street lunchroom, ordered me dium boiled eggs, and when he had done so he ducked instinctively that the waiter’s voice might passover his head, but it didn’t. Tho waiter snapped his fingers vig orously, looked across tho room and then raised his right hand with tho thumb and forefinger held to form a circle and the other three fingers in the air. Then be turned to an uni to dray the coffee quietly and in good order. “Ain’t you going to order ray eggs?” the man asked fearfully. “Eggs is ordered, sah. Got ’em on the fire now,” replied the waiter. “How is that?’’ asked the customer suspiciously. “I ordered 'em as soon as yon gave me the or^er,” said the waiter. “All 1 got to do is just that,” and again he made the cabalistic sign with his'thumb and forefinger above bis head. The man was almost overcome by surprise. At last he had found the place he had so long sought, where he could eat in quietness. When he had finished the eggs and coffee, lie sought ( it the manager of tho house and said: “I want to buy a ticket to eat here tho rest of my life, and I want to find 1 out some, things about this system of 1 yours.” Tlie manager took him aside and told him the secrets of tho queer messages which had passed from waiter to head waiter and back to tho kitchen, i The distance is too great for a waiter 1 to walk back and transmit every order to tho cooks and then return to his cus tomer. Years ago two waiters who should go down to fame for their serivee to dys- ! peptic and unhappy mankind devised a 1 system of signals for all the articles of j the bill of fare. At first tho system was . quite simple the, signs were few, 1 calTing only for th^principal things ou the card, but it has grown with time ' until now there aro over 150 articles of food which can bo ordered by waves and motions of the hand. No other ros- 1 tanrant in tho country has a system like | it. 1 A bendwaiter or his assistant stands tho center of tho floor during tho ONLY A FADED FLOWER. in rush hours and keeps an eye ou tho waiters behind tho long counters, sur rounded by “stool climbers.” If a cus tomer orders roast beef medium, the waiter snaps his fingers to attract the attention of tlie head waiter. Then ho makes a ent across his left hand with bis right and sticks up his right thumb. Instantly tho bead waiter repeats tho signal to a man in tho back room, who transmits it to tbo cook, and tho roast beef is being prepared before the wait er who took the order oould have gono five feet toward tho kitchen, and there is no noise or fnss about it. If a small steak is ordered, the waiter holds his right hand at the height of his head, palm out, fingers joined. If it is to bo medium, he clinches his hand qnickly and lets his thumb project If tho cus tomer wants it well done, tho open baud sign is followed by two quick blows of tho right fist on tho left palm. Tho eye of tho interpreter must be quick to catch the changes in the sign, for a certain move of the hand follow ing another means something entirely different from what a certain move means if originally displayed. If an oyster stew is called for, instead of shouting “stow one” in strident tones, as is the custom in many restaurants of the lower price variety, the waiter snaps his fingers, and when ho has caught tho eye of tho interpreter he ex tends-his left arm with the fist closed and the thumb in tho air. If tho order is half a dozen fried oys ters, the right hand is thrust out with tho fingers spread far apart. For ham and eggs the waiter places his right IKilm against his cheek, that being tho signal for fried ham, and then extends his arm with the palm of the hand up and tbo fingers closed, which means fried eggs. Some of the signals are continuous motions, indicative of some process through which the food must pass. Thus an order for oorned beef hash is transmitted by a shaking motion of both hands backward and forward, in dicating how well shaken tho ingredi ents of the hash are Ixffore being served. For baked beane tho waiter holds up his right band and beckons rapidly with his foor closed fingers. For liver and bacon tho waiter scrapes his right index finger with the forefinger of his left hand, showing how the baoou is sliced, and then places a forefinger over his side about whore ho thinks his liver is located. Pork sausage, too, is a sig nal easily discernible. The waiter links his two little fingers together, indicat ing the links ot sausage. —Chicago Trib une. But It* Ix>«4 Koiumm) the Savage In the Man’* Nature. Hu was well past middle age, he was homely, and hi> soiled and shabby at tire didn’t fit. Evidently he was of the great mass of toilers, workers by hand rather than with brain, and his patient, lined face was of that dull, putty col ored pallor which comes from exhaust- | ing labor in an atmosphere heated be yond common endurance. He sat in an open car, bent and weary and toil stain ed, but there was a pleasant light ou his dull face, as of a smile hiding some where behind lips and eyes. In one grimy, thick fingered, broken nailed hand ho held, tenderly and caressingly, a tiny spray ot pink geranium. It was too big for a button hole, it was too slight and unpretentious to have been bought singly from skdl or store. Evi dently it had dropped from a bouquet somewhere on the street, and this son of the soil had found it and was taking it home. How carefully be held the pink blos soms in his clumsy hand, balancing the spray loosely between the first and sec ond fingers of one hand, that it might jot get overheated or rubbed and shield ing it with tho other open palm from the hot glare of the sun when the car bobbed post the open crossings of tho streets! I think he was dreaming a lit- ffe, too, perhaps of a woman or a child to whom in the noisy, dirty city this slight pink blossom would come as a message from another and a fairer world, for the unseen smile seemed to flicker more brightly, and his eyes grew thoughtful and faraway. Then, suddenly with a rustle of taf feta skirt, a nodding of wondrous plumes and flowers, a fashionably dressed woman sprang past the toiler, eager to catch the car and regardless of any one in her way. Her ruffled sleeve caught tho fragile stalk and brushed off : some of its pale flowers; Lct swinging j opera glasses snapped the ilelicate stem. The man tried in vein savejns treas ure. It was too late. The pink petals lay on tho floor of the car, nndthogayly clad woman was arranging her laces with never so much as a word of apolo gy. I suppose she thought it of no ac count, if sho thought of it at all. But there was a look in tho toiler’s eyes that I did not like to see. The smile had gone, and the look was like one I once saw on tho faco gf a beggar when a brutal passerby had kicked his | only friend, a little mongrel cur, but his. Sometimes life seems hardly just 8pd fair, ijp sjitg of one’s happiffi p^i- losopiiy. FlowersavctmouIi'C-uihstiojoy of the poor. They are what pictures, ! books, theaters, jewels, aro to the rich. There is nothing else, and knowing this, it almost seems sometimes that the flower mission is one of tho noblest on earth.—Elmira Telegram. Th» TralU of the Kltton. All the cat’s habits show it to be by nature a solitary animal, says Louis Robinson in “Wild Traits In Tame Auimala” Even in early life, when family ties bring out tho instinct of as sociation, this is apparent. If you com pare the play of puppies with that of kittens, you will find in one case that companionship of some kind is an essen tial, for if a puppy has no playmate of his own species he will always try to make one of the nearest bipod, whereas a cork or a bit of string is all that is necessary to satisfy the requirements of tho kitten. The way in which tho cat takes its food is a sure sign that in its natural state it is not in the habit of associating with greedy companions. When given something to eat, it first carefully smells the morsel, then takes it in a deliberate and gingerly way and sits down to finish it at leisure. There is none of that inclination to snatch hastily at any food held before it which wo observe even in w<jll trained dogs, nor does a cat seem in any hurry to stow its goods in tbo one place where | thieving rivals cannot interfere with them. Indeed no greater contrast in natural table manners can bo observed anywhere than when we turn from tho kennel or the pigsty and watch tho dainty way in which a cat takes its meals. That a cat allows people to ap proach it while it is feeding without showing jealousy proves that it does not attribute to human beings liko tastes with its own. Privateers ami Pirates. One may dig out of the histories of naval wars in the past more interesting and exciting adventures of privateers than of the regular ships of tho line, and, if privateering is entirely omitted in modern wars, u picturesque and spec tacular feature of naval encounters must "go by tho boards.” Tho sixteenth and seventeenth century privateers brought more romance and adventure into tee literature of tho world than their less scrupulous first cousin, the out and nut pirate, and it today enlightened public opinion condemns privateering the memory of tbo heroes of the past must not bo blighted in the process of shift ing our moral views of warfare. There have been privateers who were pirates in everything except in name, and pirates have been hung to the • yardarm wlm were simply authorized ; privateers, serving their country faith fully and with all hokorablo intention , of doing their duty. Too often in the early centuries pirate and privateer were convertible terms. But it was no more than could bo expected, consider- j ing the license and freedom of action granted by nations to privateers, that many unscrupulous persons should bo attracted to the trade who would in the end degrade the term of privateer and make it synonymous with pirate.—Lip- pincott’s. A Sort of a Man Fish. There v a native living in Nawili- wili, district of Lihuo, on the island of Kanai, whom every one knows as Johnny, but whose family name is Kualokai. This latter name ho has had tattooed on his arm, together with the picture of a deceased sweetheart. In ap pearance he is a typical native, muscu lar, with ^ho appearance of auatjilete.. Johnny is a remarkably good swim- mor and, it is suid, was at one time very much addicted to the habit of stealing ducks. His method was very simple. He would hide in the bul rushes along the edge of the duck poiiflS and would, from time to time, dive out where tho djacks happened to be, snatch one or two from the surface, push them into* a bag, swim back .again to the rushes, there to tako breath for another sally. In this way ho succeeded in making quite a comfortable living. However, ho has given up his crooked ways and now resides like a peaceably inclined citizen, relying ou work that is given him from time to time. -cry fortuble habit of swimming a great distance into cave« thjit have no open ing above tho water. Beneath the rocks of these places he will feel around, never failing to come to tho top bring ing with him something to make glad the hearts of tho housewives.—Pacific Commercial Advertiser, Story Boiled Down. An amusing story is toklof the editor of a go ahead evening newspaper, who, in the eternal rushing to press to get ahead of the opposition, was constantly impressing upon his reporters tbenoocM- nity of condensing all news. A terrible explosion had token place on board a big ship lying at Ports mouth. "Get down there as bard as yoo can, ” bo said to one of his men. “If you catch the 11:40 from London bridge you'll be there soon after 2, and you can just wire u« something fur the extra special —but boil it down. ” And tbo reporter went Boon after 8 o’clock that afternoon they got a wire from him: “Terrific explosion. Melpomene. Boiler empty. Engineer foil. Funeral tomorrow. No flowers.”—Spore Mo menta Navy Deserters. “I never knew a tailor worth keep ing, ” declared an old naval commander, “that would desert in time of war. But in times of peace, when everything uppers to bo going along us though it were greased, desertions W’ill begin from no apparent cause and will sud denly become epidemic. Away they’ll go, and it’s 2 to 1 that in a little while they will be bnnting around to see if they can’t get back into tho service without having to suffer punishment. I nsed to put in a good deal of time try ing to find an explanation of the thing, and finally presented it to one of my saperior officers. “ ‘Drop it, young man,’ was bis la conic advice. ‘Yon can’t tell why they do it and you can't stop them. If yon must worry, let it be about something where you may have a chance to acco*: - plish good. I’ll tell yon right now, if you were to sail a ship for heaven and were obliged to touch at hell for coal, half the crew would desert ’ ”—Detroit Fred Proea. A Cholera Amulet. According to a traveler who has spent yean in countries where cholera breeds, a person may become immune by wearing a small copper amnlet over the pit of the stomach. At the begin ning of New York’s latest cholera scare be purchased some sheet copper and made amulets for himself, his wife, his only child and three or four friends, tnen said to the latter: “Don’t be afraid. It is not necessary to run away from the city no matter if the disease comes next door. It is impnaaibla for you to have cholera while the copper is on your person. ” One of these friends threw away his amulet recently be cause, after seven years of wear, it bad become as thin as gold foil.—New York Press. The Saber Toothed Cat. The most remarkable of all tho ex tinct feline animals are those known to naturalists os the saber toothed cats or tigers, a group comprising tho greater part of all the fossil forms. They date back to the earliest times of which we know anything about the family in North America and reach down to tho time of man himself. A large and pow erful species described from the Indian Territory by Cope lived contempora neously with tho hairy mammoth, as evidenced by the commingling of their skeletons. There can be little or no question but that the hairy mammoth was contemporaneous with man in North America us well as in Europe. Their geological range is from the close of tho Eocene to the latter part of the Pleistocene. Tho chief peculiarities of tho animal are the extraordinarily elongated canine teeth. The tail is of unusual length and tho legs are short. The animal meas ured about seven feet in length aside from the tail. Tho lower jaws have a downward projection in front, duo to a flangelike widening of tho jawbones, which doubtless served as a protection to tho teeth, preventing their injury or less. In some of the larger forms from South America this flange was not pres ent, while tho canine teeth were even more elongated than is tho case with this species, attaining a length of over six inches and protruding far below the jaws when closed.—Popular Science. L’ofirofltable Adam. There is occasion for much beating about the bush for answers to many questions put by wise theologues to timid people, but one set of men found their match in tbo old Scotchwoman under examination for admission to church fellowship. “What are the decrees of God?” she was solemnly asked. “Indeed, I trow, he kens that best himsel’.'* “What kind of a man was Adam?” “On, just like ither fouk!” was the quick reply. • The questioner insisted on a more definite answer. “ Weel, ” said she, “he was just like Jeems Madden, ye ken." “How so?” “Weel, uaebody got anything by him, and tuony lost”—Ycnth’s Companion. Caban Courtesy. The ever present politeness of the Cu ban is a perpetual wonder. An Ameri can lady entered a shop on Obispo street some time ago and asked for an article which the merchant did not have in stock. “If the senora will pemit me, I will beg to aiwist her in finding it, ” said the obliging shopman. He thereupon closed and locked his store and acoom- pauied the stranger to shop after shop nntil she had been supplied. The Cuban then simply bowed and bade her “Adiosl” to return again to his place of business content in the tbongbt that he bad rendered only the kindly duty which a true Cuban bolds is always bia doe toward others.—Bdwtrd Page Gas ton in Woman's Horn* Companion.