Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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je Me tgab I etatb, TRI-WEFKLY EDITION. WINNSBORO, % C., FEBRUARY 28,, 189A. Air______ THE TELEGRAM The darkness and the silence lie Between your soul and mine. Like some great river rollinn by Beneath a night of stormy sky, Where not a star may shine. But, as beneath the sullen brine 'Twixt lands of kindred speech. There runs a slender, living line O'er which there flash, by lightning sign, The thoughts of each to each. So, 'neath the parting flood of death There runs a living line 01 steadfast memory and faith. Of love not born foi mortal breath, Between your soul and mine! OLD MISTER RALPH "I'll take them," said Jessie Fletch er, promptly. She stood by the snowily-scoured table in the little sunbright kitchen, and swung her pink sunbonnet by the strings. "I think yon must, dear," consented ner mother, a gentle, careworn, little woman. "I was afraid when Jimmie was so restless in the night that he was on the verge of illness, and now he is I -eally sick-quite sick." "I can deliver the baskets, of course," declared Jessie, with decision. "Next time Jim may take them, as i usual-for he is never long sick, you know. Now I'll run and braid my hair." "How the child heartens one up!" murmured her mother, with a smile, as she went on packing the two long wil low baskets that stood on the kitchen table. One she lined with large, fresh cab oage leaves, and that she filled with pungent, curly, dark green pepper gress. The bottom and sides of the other she deftly covered with twigs from the lilac bush, and that she heaped with long-stemmed sweet peas, which looked like a swarm of brilliant butterflies-pink, purple, azure, rose and pearl. Over the contents of both baskets she sprayed water and tied a Aamp paper cover down over each. "I don't know what we'd do without our garden, mother," said Jessie, gaily, as she canie back. She had brushed her long dark hair and plaited it in two heavy braids, tied on a white apron over her trim ging ham gown and put on a demure straw hat in place of her usual pink sunbon net. "Nor I, dear. When your father died five years ago and left me with you, a ebild of ten, and Jimmie, a sickly ad of seven,I hardly knew where to turn or what 0 do. But I had always. been so successful with plantt, I decid ed to buy this little place with the few hundred dollars left me, and try raising flowers and vegetables for s le. To a cer tain exter't I have been successful, but it it has been hard and tedious work. Jeesie's bright face grew grava for a moment. It was a delicate, pretty face, with deep, blue eyes, a milk-white complexion and thin, scarletlips. "Well, I'll be done with school next summer, mamma, and then I can help you ever so much! Now, which of these is for Gale's and which: for Sex ton's?" Her mother tied a string around the nandle of one of the baskets. "The sweat peas for Mrs. Gale are in~ this. You won't forget, Jessie-the cowers in the basket with the string on the handle. And the pepper grass for Mrs. Sexton, who keeps the fine board ing house, in the other." "-I'll remember. I don't wonder they are willing to pay well for the things you sell. They are always the best of their kind, and you put them up so iaintily!'' She hastened mnto the sitting-room to my an encouraging word to poor, fever sh Jimmie, kissed her mother, took up he baskets-one in each cotton-gloved iand--and started off. It was a balmy, blue-skied, odorotus summer morning. The due was not yet fried on the wayside grass. Meadow - .arks and robins sang in the hedges md Jessie enjoyed her walk in from the ittle cottage in the suburbs to the big, ,ustling, prosperous town of Blooming ton. She easily found the tree-embowered some of Mrs. Gale, who was an invalid, mxd one of her mother's best customers for flowers. Three times a week Jimmie 2ad been accustomed to bring them in :o her. On the doorstep she hesitated. "Let me see-what was it mother said? Oh, yes, I remember now! The pepper grass in the basket with the string on the handle, and the flowers in the other. Good morning!" as the servant opened the door. "Jim was not well, so I brought in the sweet ueas." "I'm glad of that, said the girl, as Mrs. Gale was asking for them a min ate ago. Here's the basket that was beft the last time. Ten minutes later, Jessie Fletcher' stood on the high browstone steps of Mrs. Sexton's fashionable boarding 'touse. She was about to ring when the door opened. An old gentleman, erect, dignified, silver-haired, most carefully attired, :onfronted her. He was apparently about to take a morning walk. "Ah, little girl?" he said, "What nave you got there?" ''Pepper grass, sir,'' she replied. Pepper grass?" he repeated, his aria tocratic old nose smiling delicately. "I've an acute-an extraordinarily acute-sense of smell, and if I'm not :nistaken, you've a flower in that baa Let that used to grow in my mother's garden." He was evidently an old gentleman * who was used to being deferred to. lie took the basket from her in quite an authoritative fashion. He undid the string and removed the cover. Then hie gave a chuckle of satisfaction.I -'Ah! Just as I thought! Sweet peas "h, goodness gracious!" exclaimed Jessie. Tne old gentleman had stied hin: self on the settle, and was liftin the blossoms from their nest of lilac leaves with his yellow, taper o!d fingers. "% hat's the matter?" he demanded. "I've made a mistake, and left the pepper grass at Mrs. Gale's, where I should have delivered the sweet peas. "Well, you'll have to take her some more, because I'm going to keep these. And what's more, I want a bunch every day while they last. Ther bring me anything else you've got that's sweet-smelling and old-fash ioned." So Jessie went back to Mrs. Gale's, explained ber error, and promised tc bring in fresh flowers that very day. When she reached home her mothei met her with a white, frightened face. "Jim?" c'uestioned Jessie, in a whis per. "Oh, Jessie, it's brain fever!" After that, the need that the fruil and vegetables cantracted for should be delivered in proper condition and witi regularity was more imperative that ever. And the care of this fell on Jessie. She did her best with the inefficieni help she could secure, but she had neith her mother'sskill nor experience, and before long the little garden be trayed neglect. The sales fell off. Fin ally there came a day when the needs outstripped the dollars, and m.other and daughter looked at each other witb eves full of dumb dread. Write to grandpapa. He will hell uti. He is rich, you say." "Dear, my marriage displeased him. I frequently tried to meet him after ward, he refused to see me. I wrote my letters were returned unopened. I do not know if he is living or dead. We need money; we can neither earn nor beg it. We must sell our little home.' That evening a neighbor condition. ally consented to buy the property, and the next morning Jessie took in a cluster of mignonette and verbenas tc Mrs. Sexton's eccentric o'd. lodger. "I think these are the last I can bring, sir," she said, when he had paid, as he always did, generously. "Why, what are you crying for?" he asked, sharply. Then she told him. "Look here, Jessie-ihat's ywni name, isn't it-I'll go out myself and see the place where you are growing things so good to smell; some so gooc to eat. 'f I like it, I'll loan your mother a hundred dollars and take il outin flowers. That would tide you ovel your hard times, wuldn't it?" "Oh, yes, sir-yes! Less than that.' She had heard a great deal of the peculiar ways and immense wealth of "Old Mister Ralph," as Mrs. Sexton's star boarder was called, but she had not expected such an offer as this. She hall doubted that he would keep his word, but he did. He appeared at sunset in the little flower garden before the small gray cottage. Jessie. laughing and crying, met him &t the door. "The doctor says," she cried, "that Jimmie will get better. But old Mister Ralph was not look. ing at her. He was starmng beyond be] at a spare little woman with a sweet, care-worn face. A queer choking cry broke from hi' lips. He took ai step forward. 'Mary-my daughter, Mary!" ''Father!" She was sobbing all her sorrowful heart out in his arms. "Why did you never come to see me?" he asked, half an hour later, at they sat together by the little vine-em bowered window. "You never even wrote. I was willing to forgive you. My heart ached for you." "Aunt Dora said you would not see me. I called several times. My lettert to you were returned unread." "Mary, is this true? We must nol speak ill of the dead-and she is gone. But I can see now that she tried tc alienate us in order that I should leave my property to her children. A yeai ago I sold out in Pittsburg and came to Bloomington. I'll buy a beautiful ilace that is vacant not far from here. It is called Restwood. As soon as the laddie can be moved we will go there tc live. No more poverty. Mary. Jessie,' turning fondly to her, "why did you not tell me your name in full?" "Nobody asked me, sir!" she quoted archly. They are at Restwood now. Mrs. Fletcher is getting the roses of her girl hood back. Jimmie is still a little dazed by the luxury of his surroundings. And often when Jessie brings he, grandfather a bouquet of fresh, frag rant, old-fashioned flowers, she thinks, with a happy hieart, of the day that she delivered to Mr. Gale pepper grass in stead of sweet peas. Italto Type. Italle type was first made by Aldus thout 1476. The young people who attend collegee ine seminaries learn how to wear thelh ollege honors becomingly, if they don' learn anything else. The Atlantic Ocean takes Its name f-om Mount Atlas. Nothing occupies one like aconversa tion in which one has failed to say wha1 one ought to have said. it haunts yom like a melody of which you cannot fine the end. Loving kindness is greater than laws; and the charities of life are greatez than all ceremonies. We have long been accustomed tC set our expectations very low respect ing the result of reform efforts. How poor are they who have noi patience? What wound would ever heal but by degrees? GIBRALTAR AND ITS DEFENSE Possibilities in the Event of Attac] by a Hostile Force. Experiments at Shoeburyness havi shown that an Armstrong shell can bi thrown 91 76 yards-about five and one third miles-says a writer in Templi Bar. It is therefore absolutely clea that if all the fleet were temporarilj absent, either on some special inissioi or dispersed by a storm, hostile iron elads taking up a position within fou: miles of the eastward of Europa Poin jnight with impunity send shot an( shel Into the outlying ports of th4 fortress and cause much destru.ction o0 life and property. On the other hand the Governor of the fortress would no be idle, and the experences of the lato civil war in America have abundantl] proved that the cannon in fortresses, I: they strike a ship of war with theii projectiles, even at long range, may d( considerable mischief; while, on tho other hand, many shot and shell ma3 strike a fort and only do trifling dam age. It is practically impossible t( throw shot or shell over the high par of the rock, near Spain, and the cannoi ensconced in the unique rock galleries with their royal artillery gun detach ments, would be absolutely safe. Even If the neutral ground between Gibraltai and Spain were occupied by a hostil toe, comparatively little damage woul be the result During the writer's sta] it Gibraltar it was considered desirabl to try the experment of firing upwari from the plain on the Spanish side int the galleries, dummies being placed t< represent the necessary gun detach ments. A regiment several hundre strong was accordingly placed in post tion and supplied with ball cartridges The range, however, was unknown tnd. the fire being directed upward, 1 was. fully an hour before any of th< duiimies were hit, after the expendi ture of much ammunition. In actua: warfare, of course, the British rifi sharpshooters must have picked ou their foes by firing downward from thE -alleries. Bomb-proof barracks auf hospitals are potent factors against thE tiorrors of bombardment, and there 1 little doubt that there is ample room a1 3ibraltar for some amendment on this head. FROGS BETTER THAN GOLD. A. California Rancher Has a Million and Proposes to Supply the Mr rket. One of the queerest ranches that hai ever been heard of has lately been es tablished a few rods from Stege's sta tion, Contra Costa County, and in th< last few days it has attracted a grea Jeal of attention. It is a frog farm, an. bids fair to be one of the biggest pay Ing enterprises in the country. Tht ONE OF ME. STEGE'S MILLtONS. founder of the farm, Richard Stege. foi whom the station on the Southern Pa :ific Railroad near where the ranch is was named, says it is as big a bonanz: s a gold mine. He started a few months ago witi 2,000 California frogs, and now esti mates that he has at least 1,000.000 They are so thick that they jump abou iike grasshoppers when- they are dis :urbed, and fairly flecked the tops of ti calla lilies and nodules of mud in th, ond where they are placed. Mr. Stege had considerable diffleulta it first in keeping his frogs after he has them, but he has overcome that, ant ROUNDING tiP A FEW FOR MARKE. ow his pond is a safe prison, bein; surrounded by a board fence toppe( with sheet iron and tin. To an inter' viewer he said: "Shall I make any money? Well, ount that it is the best business Ii alifornia to-day. It is better tha: wning a South African gold mine. Ii summer good fat frogs never go belov 2.50 a dozen, and in winter the rulin; price is from $4 to $9." The British Mu~eum Cat. One of the best-known and mo~st p',p dar domestic pets in Lntioni is s ie British museum cat. It is .inst a b, I:welve months ago since the aniimal vhich had appgrently strayed fro2 oewhere, attached himself to th< >orters quarters, facing Great Russel treet Being a huge, gray, beautiful13 narked cat he was encouraged to re -ain instead of being unceremioniously riven off, as assuredly would ha'i een his fate had he been possessed o. fewer personal attractions. From thl tirst the animal has been a favoritE with the attendants and the genera public; now he constitutes one of thE attractions of the great establIshmen nd is eagerly sought for by occaisiona isitors, both adult and juv-enile. Lately the cat has considerably .' ended the sphere of his rambles. II< ccasionally invades the reading-room where he receives the attention of stroking from even the most reserve( 'and studous habitues. At nights ih< nimals parades the galleries and b2 n odd fancy seems to prefer the Egyp tian room, where so many embalmec anctifled specimens of his tribe are em baibited.-The London Chronicle. SAVED BY A BELT OF GOLD. Luck of an Englishman 4ttacked by Robbers in Tehuantepec. "Gold has a variety of uses," saiC Thornton Decker, an English engineer, to an American who met him in Tica S, "but I fancy my experience when first went over this route between baxaca and Tehuantepec was rather 4iovel. A lot of $20 pieces served very well as a coat of mail-so well that they saved my life. "As I said, I was bound down to Tehuantepec for a look at the railroad across the isthmus. I had heard that women there use your double eagles for Jewelry and paid a very high prem ium for them, so I got forty or fifty and sewed them into the form of what yoa might call a porous plaster. When I had them stitched into place on a bit of cotton there were two rows across my back and a th!rd row overlapping the other two. By putting straps over my shoulders they carried very cow 'ortably. "I got the gold up at El Paso, Tex.. out in some way one of the beggarly crew at the hotel at Oaxaca saw that I was carrying something in the small of my back, and the result of that was that I was followed when I set out for Tehuantepee. They allowed me to go on unmolested until I was within a day of San Carlos, and then one of them seems to have taken a short cut through the mountains and concealed himself in the brush until I passed. Then he gave it to me with a shotgun loaded with slugs of lead, and I caught it in 'he small of the back. "The force of the blow knocked mt lown over the pommel of the saddle. When there I had presence of mind enough to keep on falling slowly as if entirely done for. Meantime I got one of your American revolvers in my hand xnd cocked it "The beggar that had shot me, seeing me fall, came running from the brush, machete in one hand and gun in the other, while his partner appeared around the mountain, with his horse on the gallop. They yelled at my horse to stop and my guide to go on, and both obeyed promptly. I was still clinging to my horse's neck and could see them through its mane very well. I let them get within ten feet- of me and then dropped to. my feet on the ground and took my turn at shooting. They were so close I couldn't miss, but luckily, as I think, one caught his bullet in the knee and the other in the fleshy part of the arm, while their horse was kIid outright by a bullet In the head. "Seeing them both down and beggin; .or their lives I had a mind to kill them ror their cowardice, but I let tnemU oII with a good kicking apiece, and then called back the guide and had him car ry water and wash and dress the wounds as well as possible. Then I gave the man with the hurt arm a stiff hiorn of brandy and sent him back for ielp, while I continued on my journey. 'he slugs had hit the gold pieces, three of them. I had a lame back for a week or so, but I was otherwise unhurt What became of them? I afterward met the one that caught it in the knee. Hie was going about the market in Daxaca on a Peg leg peddling reboses and telling the people he had lost his leg in a fierce encounter with highway mna. IIe said hIs partner was on a journey, but I fancy that he meant lbe hiad been detected in some rascalityv and sent to prison." Japan Ahead of China. Japan, In spite of her mistakes, stands for light and civilization; her institu tions are enlightened; her laws, drawn up by European jurists, are equal to the best we know, and they are justly administered; her punishments are hu mnane; her scientific and sociological ideas are olii own. China stands for dar.iness and savagery, Her science Is udicrous superstition, her law is bar. barous, her punishments are awful, her politics are corruption, her ideals are lesolation and stagnation. In thousands of Yanmens throughout China men are tortured every day, hung up by the thumbs, forced to kneel upon chains, beaten with heavy barn boos, their ankles cracked, their limbs broken. Every week men are publicly rucified and hacked to death by the *'housand cuts." How is anybody to desire the extension of the sway of the latter rather than that of the former, without avowing himself a partisan of aavagery ?-Oontemporary Rleview. In a Peanut Factory. When the peanuts arrive at the fac tory they are rough and earth stained, and of all sizes and qualities, jumbled together. The bags are first taken 'ap by Iron arms projecting from an enl less chain to the fifth story of the fan~ tory. Here they are weighed and. emp tied into large bins. From these bins they fall to the next story. Into large cylinders, fourteen feet long, which re rolve rapidly, and by friction the nuts are cleaned from the earth which clings to them, and polished, so that they tme out white and glistening. From this story the nuts fall through shoots to the third and most interesting floor. Imagine rows of long, narrow tables, each divided lengthwise Into three sections by thin, inch-high strips of wood. These strips also surround the edge of the table. Each of these : Mus is floored with a strip of heavy white canvas, which moves incessantly from the mouth of the shoot to an open ing leading down below at the further end of the table. These slowly moving canvas bands, about a foot wide, arr alled the "picking aprons." Upon the outer aprons of each table Aribbles down from the shoot a slender stream of peanuts, and on the other side of the table, so close together as scarcely to have "elbow room," stand rows of negro girls and women picking ant the inferior neanuts. as they ,pass and throwmhgf them into t6 centfral see tion. So fast do their hands move a this work t' one cannot see wha they are doing till they cast a handfai or nuts into the middle division. By the time a nut has passed the sharj eyes and quick hands of eight or ter pickers one may be quite certain tha it is a first-class article, fit for the fin& plunge down two stories into a bag which shall presently be marked witb a brand which will command for it thi iighest market price. The peanuts from the central aprons fall only to the second story, where they undergo yet another picking ovs: on similar tables, the best of these forming the second grade. The third grade of peanuts, or what remains at ter the second picking, is then turneod i.nto a machine which crushes the shells and separates them from the kernels These are sold to the manufacturers 01 :andy, while the shells are ground up and used for horse bedding. So no pari of this little fruit, vegetable or nut whichever it may turn out to be, is finally wasted, but all serve some use ful purpose.-From Blue and Gray. Glass Houses. Experiments recently made wlth waste slag from glass factories prove beyond question that the material is the very best possible for building pur pcses. It is run into blocks of conve nient size and shape, which are laid in cement mortar. The cement incor porates itself with the surface of the glass, uniting the blocks into one masa The glass may be tinted to any color, and the mortar being similarly tinted, the wall can be made of a perfectly uniform hue without joints or seams, The wall thus laid is impervious to moisture, a bad conductor of heat and cold, and practically indestructible, Nt-arly all building material in use is, if metal, subject to oxidation; if stone or brick, to infiltration of damp and the expansion of frost, or the slow gnawing of microscopic mosses. A glass wall is free from these sources of decay; and, indeed, it is difficult to im agine anything except an earthquake or an explosion that would destroy such a wall. Objects made of glass are exhumed from very ancient ruins in perfect con dition, with the exception of a change of color, due to some slow chemical process, probably in the vast length of time. The material has, besides, the advantage of cheapness; and, even were it compounded especially, which it would have to be were it to come into common use, and the demand ex ceed the supply of waste slag from the glass factories, it could still be manu. facturea cueaper %nan cut bwua, 6vva brick or iron. Yet another advantage is the wide scope for ornamentation. The glass blocks could be made hollow, if necessary, reducing weight when de sirable, with little reduction of strength. Sir John's Advice. Many years ago, the late Sir John Macdonald was present at a public din ner at which he was expected to de liver a rather important speech.. In the conviviality of the occasion he for ot the more serious duty of the even nlg, and when, at a late hour, he rose. is speech was by no means so lumin mus as It might have been. The report. r, knowing that It would not do toi print his notes as they stood, called on Sir John next day and told him that he was not quite sure of having secured n accurate report. He was Invited to red over his notes, but he had not got far when Sir John Interrupted him with 'That Is not what I said." There was a pause, and Sir John continued, "Let me repeat my remarks." He then walked up and down the room and de ivered a most Impressive speech in the earing of the amused reporter, who took down every word as it fell fromi is lips. Having thanked Sir John for his courtesy, he was taking his leave, when he was recalled to receive th!s idnonition: "Young man, allow me to give you this word of advice: Never gain attempt to report a public speak. er when you are drunk.' Thrice Blessed Is She. The daily luncheon procession at D1 monico's presents to the eye of the im pecunious male foreigner the most gild. en vista of hope to be unrolled withimi mny quarter of New York. A young Englishman was the guesi the other day of two women of fashion, who, as the various women of society passed to their tables, posted hias promptly on their names, tame and, above all things, fortune. Not one wom an passed within an hour who was noi either the heiress or the mother to the ieiress of a seductive harvest of gold. --Ah. there goes Miss Caroline Duer," said one lady at last. "Beautiful, isn'l she? Good, charming, clever, a writer of no mean ability, a maker of the daintiest verses, artistic, pretty-every' -.hing." "And rich," said the Englishman, "0f 2ourse ?" "No," interposed the other lady. "Car. Aine Duer has simply everything whiclh money cannot buy. She comes nearem physical and mental perfection combin ed than any other woman I know in New York society." Bound to Have It. Mrs. Gotthere-My dear, pardon m3 rankess, but really I fear your daugh er can never be a social success. Mrs. Owtside-Why? Mrs. G.-Well--she has no-ni rplomnb at all. Mrs. O.-Is that all? She shall have une. Me and John will spare no ex pense with Mollie. She shall have the best article of ap-wha~tever that is that can be had.--Plttsbulrg Bulletin. Why Is This? Watchmakers rarely suffer from UP THE YELLowsT5ONL fesseoed a Bear and Then Something Unexpectedly Happened. George Bleistein, the proprietor eo le Buffalo Courter, is at the Waldorf, entertaining his friends with some sto ries of adventure in the Yellowstone Park country, says the New York Times. "We were riding along over the foot ils one day when our horse wrangler spied bear tracks, and we proceeded to follow them up. Suddenly, just around a huge boulder on the side of the trail, we spied old grizzly, a tre mendous brute, evidently waiting to receive us, The wrangler calmly re marked to me in one of those under tones which are distinctly beard for miles away in that wonderfully clear atmosphere: 'Just you wait and I'll lasso him, and we'll take him to camp.' He accordingly swung his lariat, and I saw it circle around the bear's head and fall over his neck and one of his arms. He touched up his horse for the purpose of taking the beast back Into camp, as he had promised, when, to my surprise, the bear seized the lariat and began to reel it in paw over paw, just like a sailor. "The wrangler's horse reared and tried to pull back and the wrangler himself seemed to think that somel thing unusual was in progress. The bear gathered in the slack of the lariat with one paw and thrust it behind him and with the other held fast the strug gling horse. Then he began to haul away again, just as you or I would if we liked water enough to draw i1 out of a deep well on a hot day with a rope and bucket. "The wrangler saw that it was oil: a question of time when he and h1.i horse would be dragged close up with In reach of those dreadful claws. "'I can't stand this strain mue& (onger,' shouted he. "It was my first trip to the country and, never having witnessed anything exactly like it before in all my life, I 'at still on my horse and waited to see vhat would happen. "'See here!' yelled the wrangler, who was then within ten feet of the grizzly, 'I've got enough. Get ready to ride for your life,' and with that he whipped out his knife and slashed the lariat "'Ride, you fool, ride!' was the nex. thing I heard and I saw him digging his spurs into his horse, and naturally I followed his example. "Well, gentlemen, we rode like light .ing down through that gulch and out into the open plain. As we struck into the level stretch the wrangler and E turned our heads involuntarIly. -Tne grizzly had given up the pursuit, for tunately for us. But he wasn't more than 100 yards distant, and there he stood on his haunches, a wicked-look .ng brute, growling and swinging the iariat at us. It was a very narrow ascape-very. I shall never forget it" Fortified Churches. In the twelfth century Gelsa It., King of Hungary, sent heralds Into German towns to invite their yeomen to settle in his scantily peopled land. Thousands hearkened to the heralds, and sought in Transylvania-the land beyond the forests-the rights and prosperity denied them in their feudal home. To these Saxon immigrants the words "church" and "fortress" were synonymous. Each village churchl was built on rising ground, and sur rounded by fortified walls and a moat erossed by a drawbridge. When threatened by an enemy, the people used to retire to these fortified churches, and from the heights roll down heavy stones on the assailants. Some of these stones may be sieer. among the briars and weeds which surround the ruined church of Mich elsberg, They are moss-covered, and, being round, resemble giant cannen balls. In those days of wars and rumors ot Nara, it was necessary to keep a sup ply of these round stones, that they might be in readiness to be rolled down upon an approaching enemy. To maintain the supply, a law compelled each bridegroom, before leading his bride to the altar, to roll up hill to the church door one of these large stone balls. As the hill was generally step, and each stone weighed two hundredt pounds, the rolling of it up to the church was no slight test of strength ind affection. Once, when the Turks had begun to scale the walls of a fortified church a girl's wit saved the people from cap ture and death. Behind the church was a little gar' den, and in it a dozen bee-hives, which it was the girl's duty to care for. Sez. ing a hive she ran up to the fortress wall and hurled it down among the enemy. Again and again she repeated the process until ten or more swar-ms of maddened bees were stinging the Turks, They were blinded and dis mayed, and, utterly unable to cope with the insect foe, beat a hasty re treat. They had been discomfited by a girl's device,. Tallest MilitIa Company. Six feet and one-half inches! That is~ the average height of the thirty new recruits who are now seeking admis sion to Company A, First Regiment, . N. G. The company has always been noted for its tall men, having now in its ranks twenty whose heights average 5 feet 11% inches. Wlth the enlistment of these new gIants the ranks of Company A will be -much fuller than those of tihe average comn pany, and the average height of its en listed men will be 6 feet It will be, It is claimend. the tallest company In th~e News in Brief. - A horseshoe to be Plixed without bails has been iuvented. -The earliest form of the glove wa a mere bag for the hand. -The Russians are the most religious persons on the face of the globe. -It takes a snail exactly fourteer days and five hours to travel a mile. -Single stones in the walls surrouid. 'ng Baialbec weigh 3,000,000 pounds each. Charles II was the mutton eating King from his fondness for spring lamb. -Leon Lilienfleld, a young chemist in Berlin, has produced artificial white of egg. -1he African ostrich has bat tw. toes on each foot, and one of them has no claw. The s!ashes or openings in an outel garment to show the one beneath were formerly calle panes. -The fis st buildingand loan assoeia tion in the country was organized near Philadelphia in 1831. -Soldiers in the United States Arm) lose on an average twenty -one daya every year from illness. -An injured nail on the right hano "ill be renewed ten days or two weeks sooner than if on the left. Cast iron blocks are being substint ted for granite blocks along the tram way ra Is in Paris streets. -The two fields of Waterloo and Linden are each covered with a crop of erimuson puppies every year. - P ri-ians are introducing porona glass for windows cn account of ate alleged ventilation facilities. -According to Muller the total num. bcr of words, or ratherideas, expressed by Chinese characters is 43,596. -A fatal f,.l from a great height i. said tn be painless. as unconsciousness precedes the crash of concussion. -A new application of electro plat ing is the seautg of cans of fruits and meat, and of bottles of chemicals. -Tobacco seeds are so minute that it is said a thimbleful will furnish enough plants for an acre of ground, -Birds as a rule, cannot focus their ayes on an object have at a considerable dlistance, and then only with great difficulty. -Vienna, Austria, is to have an ele rated railroad with the wheelson top ol the cars, %hich will hang suspendad from the rails. oan ground to fill them" TheY are for window gardeners who live hagb above the ground. -Automatic machines have been devised for use on a moving train whict mechanically record the condition of every foot of the track. -Robbing graves is the only crime ander Chines law for which the thief may be justly killed on the spot by anyone finding him out. -Emperor William has just sen widow J ohanna Simple $25 in inrecog aition of her 1Oth birthday. She i the oldest woman in Berlin. -The extreme cold of the poles is .naini) due to the iact that the Arctic Ocean is certainly. and the Antartig probably, a land locked sea. -Lord Kelvin estimates that thb -'running slow' of the earth in its daily rotation round its axis amounts to twenty seconds per century. -Phthisis and pneumonia are more frequent and fatal among men than among women, while canoer and spo plexy kill more women than men, -Redfield was the trst meteorlogist to prove that in all extensive severe storms a system of surface winds is blowing in toward a storm center. To prevent lamp chimneys from cracking put them into a kettle of cold water, gradually heat it till it boils, and then let it as gradually cool. -In 934 a draught began in Europe lasting four years. 'The summers were intensely hot and the famine prevailed everywhere; 3,000,000 people died of hunger. -Careful computation shows that the total capacity of generature and mo tors in use in railway work in the United Statos aggragate half a million horse power. -Scientific research shows that mesta lish, milit, and other animal foods cost three times kre than flour, meal, and other staple vegetable foods to get the same nutritzcus result. - At the altitude of twelve miles the atmosphere has a density of about one tenth that of the surface- that is, the barometer would stand at about three inches. -Southampton, England has a fur nance for burning garbage which cost $18,0(00. It consumes from twenty five to fifty tons of garbage daily at an annual expense of $1100. -In Napoleon's early wars one ont of each twenty eight was killed, and in the early British conflicts as hbigh an aver. ge as one Ceath to each nineteen engaged is reported. -A colony of stin~gless bees from Honduras is now under observation at the Department of A.griculture at Washington, but the climate is toc cold for them agd they will die. -The ears of most defensive animah like the* rabbit are turned backwara, because these creatures are ir con stant app-rehension of pursuit; hunt. rug animals have theilr ears turned for ward.. -Soap has been substituted for wa on the recording surface of the phon ograph by a Berhn inventor. The advantage gained is that soap is unaffected b3 'rdinary changes of inmperature