Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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TRI-WEFKLY EDITION. WIINNSBORO, S. C., MAY 28 1895.0SALI~E 8~ INDICATIONS. 'Ine vernal robin's primal note Has not as yet been heard, The robin, after all, is a Discreet and foxy bird. He doesn't risk pneumonia By coming back to sing Before its time: and yet without His tune we know its spring. There is a softness in the air And alao in the mud. That bids man blithely to rejoice And purify his blood. The buds are starting on the trees, A haze lies on the hills. 'Tin time to pick out garden seeds, And take some liver pills. The noonday sun is getting high, Your coal is getting low: Your ontside windows are a bore, The dust begins to blow. The grass is starting here and there, Life shows in every thing, And baseball betting has begun Hail to thee, gentle spring! MISS AS GOOD AS A MILE This is a place to make one feel small, and no mistake!" said one of my com rades, emphatically. "We look no bigger, the whole eleven of us, than flies upon the side of a house!" - And well might he say so. We were making the ascent of Mount Blanc, and, although we had been tramping ever since sunrise, we were no higher than the skirts of the great mountain sven now. For hours we had been toiling over the seemingly endless expanse --f the nighty Glacier des Bossons--strug gling through knee-deep masses c.f 'ft snow, leaping recklessly across yawning clefts, scraabling up razor-edued rid ges, that cracked and splinted beneath our hasty steps, or scaling sheei- walls of ice, in which a flight of steps grew up beneath the blows of our guide's -ce-axe. Ever and anon one of our party would disappear from sight, having plunged into a snow-drift or slipped bodily down a soft crevasse. But as we were all roped together and marched in single fibe it did not take long to bring the missing man to the surface a'zain. Onward, ever onward, past pillared arcaldes of silver, and dim . depths of clouded steel; and dark blue pools of water sleeping in floating shadow, and bewildering mazes of bright points, rising lance beyond lance. At length, just as the stin was begin ning to sink, the vast black pyramid of the Grands Mulets rock was seen loom ing dark against the snowy whiteness of the higher slopes, with its ti plank hut perched in a hoio' at the top of it, like a taper sic -in a candle tick. This is our camnping place for the night before u-ndertaking the most dif ticult part of the ascent, and the weak er members of our party brighten up at the sight of it. But they are not to get there so easily. The storm clouds that have been rolling up ar. und us for the last hour' suddenly burst in a perfect torrent of rain, and now the it of the work makes itself felt in earnest. We have indeed a rough time, ere we reach the sheltering hut. Bit, once there, all is soon put to righis. A cheery fire is lighted, our wet clothes are hung up to dry, and a full measure of hot coffee-made in a charcoal bucket with three shovelfuls of snow, and stirred up with a pickaxe -sets all in a glow again. The accofmmodation is certainly of the simplest for the entire furniture consists of a table, a bench, a stove and the charcoal bucket above mentioned, while the crazy planking of the walls lets in the keen, frosty air through countless chinks. But one cannot be very particular at ten thousand feet above the sea level, and, in any case, we have only a few hours to spend in this hermitage, the final start being -isuaily made a little after midnight. To sleep, howe-er, was no easy mat ter, even after such a tramp; for all the planks of the floor were loose, and weever any one stepped upon them tewetup and down like the keys of a piano, making us feel as if in a state of chronic earthquake. Getting tired of this, I went outside and lay down behind a rock, wrapped in my'plaid, to look down at. a thunder storm that was raging three thousand feet below me-the lightning zigzagg ing among the hills and the rain sweep, ing like a torrent along the valley, while all around me was perfect still ness and cloudless moonlight. I was dozing~ off to sleep when I saw the head guide, old Gaspard Simond, standing beside me with a very serious 'ook on his weather-beaten face. "Monsieur," he said gravely, "I fear that English student will get us into trouble if we don't mind. He's not strong enough for work like this, and if he delays us en the upper ridges, where there's always risk of an aval anche, why, then-" A significant sweep of hi's hand com pleted the sentence. "Do avalanches fall so late in the season as this, then? 1 thought they mostly came in the spring or early summer," I exclaimed somewhat startled. -'So they do, but when there's so much snow as there is here, one can never be safe: they often come when you least expect them. Now, if we should have to run for our lives, ity would not do to have a helpless man among us. So I think we had better leave the student here, and pick him' up on our way back." I quite agreed with him, but the stu dent pleaded so hard to be allowed to go with us to the summit that Simond yielded against his better judgment. Half an hour after midnight. amid a silence in which even the whispered words of command sound unnaturally loud, we start once more up slope after ~ pe of smooth untrodden snow, batbad in the full eplendor of the moon light. All around is dazzling white, all above is deep, rich blue, and round and up we go, passing under threatening ice peaks, skirting dark crevasses, and seeming, with our spiked staves work ing oarlike along the snow, and our line of march I ending and winding with the ropes that link us together, very much like a gigantic centipede. The student, feeling himself put upon his mettle hy what the guide had said, bore up bravely for a time, but the labor of wading through knee-deep snow up a steep incline is too exhaust iug to be long sustained by any but a practised mountaineer, and by two in the morning-jist as we were hall way along the Petite Plateau-a deep, well-like gorge between the main sum mit and the Dome du Gouter, he be gan to fail so utterly that we were forced to make a short halt lest he should faint outright. "If one of those avalanches were to catch us right here, it would be very bad for us all," said one of my coi rades, a stalwart young American from the hills of Vermont. At that very moment, as if in an swer to his ominous words, there was heard far overhead, amid the ghastly silence, a strange, earthly whisper somewhat like the passage of a gust of wind through the rustling leaves of a reat forest. At the same instant one of our guides shouted, or rathet screamed: "Take care! To the left-quick!' He darted toward the frozen ridge that towered on our left, just as the ghostly whisperings above changed to a louder and sharper sound, not unlike the whirring of an enormous wheel. Then the awful truth flashed upon me -we were-in the track of an aval. anche! Quick as a flash Simond and I caught up the he pies student between us and literally tore our way through the waist-deep snowdrifts to the shelter of the overhanging ice-wall on the left. We were not a moment too soon, foi scarcely had we reached it when there c:me a deafening roar and a crash as if the earti were split asunder-the whole mouutain side above us seemed to break loose at once and to whirl it self into indistinct and bewildering motion-and then everything vanished in a storm of flying snow; and when the air cleared again we saw that the spot where we had been standing a few seconds before was buried fathoms deep nder a mighty mass of loose snow, a~torn rocks and huge blocks of ice. -Close thing that; but a miss is as gocd as a mile, I reckoa, said the Ver monter coolly. None of us, however, felt inclined to laugb when we learned that evening >n getting back to the little town below ,hat three men had been crushed to leath at that very spot only a few months before: and I inwardly vowed 2ever gain to scale a mountain iv :onpany witn an untried climber. Notes on Lions. The tongue of a lion is so rough th. t close look at it will almost take the skin off the looker. It Is not safe to allow a lion to lick your hand, for if he licked the skI.n off your hand and got a taste of the underlying blood, suppos ing it to be there, he would want the hid and everything adjoining thereto. Nothing more perfect in modern ma :hinery exists than the mechanism by which a lion works his claws. He has fie toes on each of his fore feet, anid ftmr on each of his hind feet. Each toe has a claw. Nothing about a lion is without reason. and the reason he has more toes on his fore than on his hind feet is that he has more use for them. If thIs were not so, the majority woule e the other way. The lion is nocturnal by choice. H. 'as no particular objection to daylight but likes to spend it in the bosom of his family, or at least, adjacent to It. It should not be supposed that because lie roams atiout at night he neglects his family. He reams in order to fill the family larder. He kills to eat, not for amusement. He never bothers small game so long as there is big game with in reach. When feeling fit, he can take an ox in his monsth and jump fences and ditches like a professional steeple chaser. The Independent Sparrow. The sparrow has several character sties which are altogether admirable. V'ery few of the creatures who navigateI the air or walk upon the ground show greater capacity or willingness to take care of themselves. The sparrow, like the despised rat, has no little merit as a tiny scavenger; and, like the rat, where man goes he follows. It is safe to say nothing has been made in vain. Even those creatures which are es teemed by pian as vermin have theIr >lace and use in the wise order of Prov dence. This is none the less true be cause we cannot penetrate the wisdom f creation. Despite the persecution of his enemies and the vagaries of the weather. it will be observed that the sparrow flourishes. The merciful men and women who look after the vagrant birds and dogs and other creatures who mutely appeal to human sympathy these frosty and Inclement days wrill tot go without their reward. Young men put oft' announcing their mgagment until the last minute be ~ause they want to be popular with the~ irls as long as possible. Peddlers appear simultaneousba w-th the violets. The heart that wvorships doesn't put God. ofi' with a pinch, and then walk ome from church with a self-confident strid~e, feeling that it has done enough Cupid isn't any more like the pic lures we see of him than courtship is like marinae fIE1H NESTS OF BIRDS. PECULIAR STRUCTURES WHICh SOME BUILD. ,L Remarkable Australian Species That Builds a Nest 60 Feet in Cir cumference-Weaving Bird's Homes -Where the Warblers Live. An Interesting Studyi In the broad domain of nature ther are few more interesting studies than those of birds, and the nests of these creatures come in for a fair share of g.ttention. There is a variety of birds found Ia Australia and the eastern archipela goes of Asia which by a singular in stinct rely upon the decomposition of vegetable matter to supply the neces '=S1 OF THE AFRICAN OEOSBEAK. sary warmth for the hatching of their eggs. In some cases several pairs of one species collect an enormous heap of decaying vegetable matter and there leposit their eggs, usually at a depth )f two or more feet The heaps are pyramidal in form and are so large as to contain several cartloads of mate rial. The heat in the center of this mass often reaches as high as 95 de grees. Another species constructs large mounds of earth, often of an immense ize, varying from 20 to 60 feet in cir eumference and from 5 to 15 feet in height. In these the eggs are carefully buried to the depth of six feet An Dther bird of this group deposits her ?ggs in mounds of sand alternating wth layers of dried leaves and grasses. rhe sun's heat added to that engen Jered by vegetable decomposition sup lies the necessary warmth for hatch :ng them. These mounds are nine feel in diameter and three in height. The weaving birds construct peculiar aests. . The grossbeak of Africa sus socIAL wEAVER's NEsT. pends a very curious basket, woven of straw and reeds, from the end of a branch, usually over a river. This is in shape like an oblong bag, with the entrance from below. Within and on one side of this is the real nest Another species of the weaving gros beaks, social weaver, build an enor mous structure in shape resembling an umbrella. The grass is so woven as to be impervious to rain. Under the shel ter of this canopy each pair of birds build their own particular nest, placed under the eaves. Each nest is three or four inches in diameter and has its owr opening. The yellow-throated warbler of the Southern States builds a peculiar nest fELLOw-THRoATED WARBLER's NEST. of the long mosses to be found there. The mosses, three feet in height, are fasteed together into a woven bag of half the original length, and in the cen ter of this the bird constructs its tiny nest of the softest vegetable down. Indians as Hunters.. It is a remark often made by old-tim rs who knew the Western country hen the red man was as common there as the tenderfoot is now, said a sports man from the Rockies, that Indians never scare away game from a region in which they hunt. But, they say, wherever the white man comes with his firearms game is bound to be killed off or driven away. These sayings are true, with the qualifying statement that by reasonable game laws game can be preserved, and even when near ,-. -zt.rmal reatnrm to nAmnaet 1t4 original plentifulness In dmstrics not too fully occupied by man and his do mestic creatures. * Note the Indian Ir enting, as he sftrches out and steals upon the deer or wild turkeys with his soft tread of moccasined feet In the twang of his bow string and the flight of his whis tling arrow there is no explosive sound to alarm the creatures near the one he has struck. He, like themselves, is In sympathetic accord with the tints and tones of plain and mountain and for. est, and while endeavoring to match their craft against his, they are satis fled with trying to avoid him without abandoning the region where he abides. It is when white hunters of the sportsmen variety invade ItS haunts, their presence heralded by the tread of their booted feet, their clothes alleV in appearance to the hues and contouri of the creatures of the wilds, and theii purpose shown by the crack and flas: of firearms, that game begins to mi grate to other feeding grounds. Add to this the increasing and Indiscrimi. nate slaughter for slaughter's sake that characterizes the white man's hunting, and it is easy to see why the depopula. tion of the forest and plain, when un restricted by law, is speedy and sure Ever since the adoption by Indians ol firearms for their hunting, it has not been found that large game has dimin. ished materially in regions in which the white man is an infrequent visitor, al though Sir Samuel Baker, the explorer, asserts of African game and predatory creatures that "animals can endure traps, pitfalls, fire, and every savage method of hunting, but firearms wil) speedily clear them out from the exter sive districtae. FUN WITH THE DOCTOR. rho Doctor Also Had Some Fun with the Joker. The other morning, as a belatet nember of the Owl Club was steering home through the dense fog, which the writer Is reliably informed hangs over the city at 8 a. m., he passed the house of a well-known physician. The vesti. bule of this residence was open, and on its side the dim rays of the moon, struggling through the gloom, produoe ed by the efforts of the city gas comn pany, disclosed the mouth of an acou stic tube, underneath which was the 'nscription, "Whistle for Dr. Potts." Not wishing to be disobliging abod jo small a matter, the Owl stumbled ap the steps, and steadying hitself against the wall, blew into the pipe with all the strength of his lungs. The physician, who was awakenet oy the resulting shrill whlstievne'% his head, arose; and af ter wonn'ering at the singular odor of whisky in the room, roped his way to the tube and shout "d: "Well?" "Glad to know you're well,' was th, .eply; "but, being a doctor, I s'pose ou can keep well at cost price, can't rou?" "What do you want?" said the max )f pills, not caring to joke in the airy nothing of his nightgown. "Well," said the party at the othe. mnd of the tube, after a few moments' neditation. "Oh, by the way, are you y oung Potts or old Potts?" "I am Dr. Potts. There is no younts Potts." "Not dead, I hope?" "There never was any. I have no son." "Then you are young Potts and ok. Potts, too. Dear, dear, how singular.' "What do you want?" snapped th4 doctor, who was beginning to feel aa though his legs were a pair of elongat d Icicles. "You know old Mrs. Peavine, whi lives in the next block?" "Yes. Is she sick? What's the mat ter?' "Do you know her nephew, too-l riggs?2" "Yes. Well?" "Well, he went up to Bridigepori shooting, this morning, and-" "And he had an accident? Hold ui. i minute. I'll be right down." "No, he's all right; but he got sixty wo ducks-eighteen of 'em mallards [ thought you might like to hiear it." And the joker hung on to the nozzlE ad laughed like a hyena digging ur , fat missionary. "I say," came down from the exasperated M. D., "that's a olly good joke, my friend. Wont yot take something?" "What?" said the surpiIsed humor it, pausing for breath. "Why, take something. Take this.' And before the disgusted funny marn ould withdraw his mouth, a hanstiiy compounded mixture of Ink, ip~eene, mid a.<afetida stjulrted fromt the pip.' and deluged him from head to foot, about a pint monopolizing his shirt ront and collar.I And while he danced franticall I mround, sponging himself off with his handkerchief, and swearing like a pi rate in the last act, he could bcear anD angel voice from above sweetly mun mur: "Have some more? No? Well, good iight. Come again soon, you funny og, you. By-bye."-Loulisville Med ical News. Printing on Envelopes. Postmaster Sahm, of Indianaponb ns received a construction from the department at Washington that he re gards as novel. The American Collect Ing and Reporting Association asked to have stamped envelopes mailed on which the words "collecting and re porting" appeared. On the small en relope the type was proportiozately smaller than on a large one. The de partment holds that the largest envel ope is objectionable and unmailable, because the words are too conspicu~ous The smaller one is mailable. the de. CHEAP INSURANOL Why the Ratea Are So Low on Swedleb Risk. While Mr. W. W. Thomas, .r., was 3-nited States Minister to Sweden and Nodway he had occasion to Insure his household goods in Stockholm. The amount of the policy was ten thousand crowns, and he was astonished to find the premium-for one year-only five crowns. That was but one-twentieth Df one per cent. There must be some nistaka, he thought, as he had been ac :ustomed to pay twenty times as much n the United States, although his fur aiture there was in a "first-rate brick )uildIng." On inquiry, however, he !ound that there was no mistake, but hat the agent was charging him the unt .'orm Swedish rate for such a risk. Furthermore, Mr. Thomas found that 'or seventeen dollars and fifty cents a :housand he could insure a first-cass iouse forever-the house then standing and any that might be built on the same site to replace It. In other words, . premium of one and three-quarters per cent. once paid, will insure a Stock holm house to the end of time. Why is this? Mr. Thomas asks. Stock iolm has an excellent fire department, out so have New York, Chicago, Bos ton, and all respectable American cities. American firemen are the best in the world. They ought to be, Mr. Thomas remarks; they have the most practice. Stockholm has a good system of xfater-works, and is situated near great bodies of water. But the same is true Df Chicago and Boston and Portland, three cities that have been swept by %wful conflagrations. Stockholm owes its exemption from lestructive fires to its building regula tions and the strictness with which they are carried out. Some of the prin :Ipal of these regulations are as fol ows: 1. First-class houses must be built of stone or brick. 2. The stairs of every house must b4 )f stone or iron, laid in stone walls at least one foot thick from cellar to attic. 8. The cellar must be built of massive arches of stone laid in mortar or ce ment, and supporting the ground floor. rhis floor generally has beams of iron, with the spaces between flled with broken brick, gravel, clay, and mortar, and is thus phactically fire-proof. 4. The attic floor must be of fire-prool nasonry, not only filled in between the beams but the upper surface must be uilt of brick or tiles laid in mortar or -ement, and form one continuous solid loor on top of the beams. 5. Iron doors set In stone doorwayt ,hall be used to close both attic and eel !ar, and these doors are locked at night and whenever not In use. & Where elevators are permitted, the ilevator shaft shall be of solid masonry, and all doors opening out of it shall be IrOD. 7. The roof must be covered with iles, slate, or sheets of metal. S. There must be fire-proof walls a oot or more in thickness on each side f the house. 9. The height of no dwelling-hous4 ihall much exceed the width of the treet. In no event shall it exceed ;xty-eight feet. 10. Only two-thirds of a lot may be uilt upon, except In the case of cor aer lots, on which the house may cover hree-fourths of the area. 11. All flues and chimneys must be of imple size, and must be regularly wept and officially inspected. Life in the Colorado Desert. Salton has one of the largest salt orks on the Pacific coast. All the proprietors had to do was to scrape the alt from the surface of the soil and lean it. Few white men could do the ork, as the temperature was some :imes as high as 125 degrees in the shade and 145 degrees in the sun. Says a man who has been there: "If a man makes the least exertion, erspiration pours from him like water. fou cross the room, and your clothes will be wringing wet, yet in ten min tes all this water has evaporated. To eep yourself alive you are forced to Irink water by the gallon. If you have ao water, your tongue swells, you suf er the torments of the damned, and if water does not reach you In twelve or ~ourteen hours you will perish miser tiy. The Indians can stand the heat nuch longer without water. The cus om Is to keep a small pebble in the nouth, and only take an occasional wallow of water. In this way they will travel forty or fifty miles in a day, ing on a dog trot. The Indians are ery extravagant, and those who work it the salt mill, though they earn good wages, never have anything. They ;pend all on canned fruit and other ostly articles, as well as on gaudy loting for themselves and thei iguaws." 3 , Notable by Its Absence. One of the most notable days of Feb. uary is the 29th, generally remarkable y its absence. The question is often sked, "-What is the use of a 29th of ebrunry? " The reason all the years ire not 36,5 days long is that the earth nakes the year by traveling round the fun, and it takes 365 days, five hours, 'orty-eght minutes and forty-nine and even-tenthS seconds to make the jour iy. We let the odd fractions of a day un on till they make a whole day, which we taick on to the end of Feb. -ary. yLut even this makes the year t few minutes too long, and so Febru ry must renounce all claim to its 29th lay in the years 1900, 2100 and In every ther hundredth year which cannot be livided by 400 without remainder. This rings the almanac year so nearly to he real year that it will take some housands of years before people find ut the diff'erence, and then, if poster ty be wise as we are, it may correct he time to suit Itself. - TRUMPET CALLS Xam's Horn Sounds a Warning NeW Or the Unredeemed. HE devil fears a praying mother. To know a good man is a call to know God. God's side of the cloud is alwayl bright Beauty In the heart writes Its name on the face. No man knows himself who is a strangerto Christ. T h e sweetest songs of faith are sung in the dark. The yoke of Christ will only fit the willing neck. When the church is wide awake sin aers cannot sleep. The man who walks with God keeps the devil on the run. A sin of any kind is a demand foi God to leave His throne. It never makes the day any brighter to find fault with the sun. God has never tried to make a man who could please everybody. The father who prays too little will sometimes use the rod too much. The prayer that starts from God's promise Is sure to move His hand. If you say "Good morning" to the devil he will spend the day with you. When you seek God, go as far as you tnow the way and he will meet you. Men see only what we put in the plate. God knows what we keep back. Hell will be the hottest to the man who goes to it from heaven's doorstep. When you talk about the goodness of God, don't do It with a frown on your 'ace. God never sees anything big In tk), gift that is made to win applause from men. There is no blood in the preaching itgainst which the devil never lifts e elub. Give us more mothers like Mary an4 there will be more Christians likt 3hrist. The religiont that sheds no blood inay have a good deal of zeal, but It has ne Dhri..L. Some people never think about e agion until they come in sight of S 'iaeyard. A path may look pleasant and yet be Pled with footprints made by ths doven hoof. When some men are baptized they rst put their pocketbooks where they won't get wet. There Is no promise in the Bible for the man who is not willing to trust iD 3od and do right. "Let your light shine." God expects that the man who loves him will find a ay to show it. God has no use for the religion that ves to have men admire it and tell it that it looks nice. The man who expects to outrun a lie ill have to travel on something faster than the limited express. It will cost us something to walk with Christ, if we would keep close nough to behold his face. Undertake to prove that there is no kell, and only those who are on their way there will applaud you. Every good deed that is done simply md only to honor God, will have some thing to do with making us more likr christ Don't conclude thtat you have said rood-by to the devil because you have ~oined the church. You may find hini there on a front seat The prea~cher is on dange'rous ground who is beginning to b~e more concerned ibout what men will say than abouf vhat God will think. A Dramatic Future. 1? biay bo that it is better for a man !o read anything than nothing, as the !aintest halo of belief may be some thing higher than no faith at all. But we are inclined to be of Emjerson's mind and shun the reading of any book that is not at the least a year old. 'ime will choose for us, and the muddy stream of periodical literature will not be worth our drinking until filtered by his agency. If this be true with hooks, it will even more assuredly be true with stage plays, which are but a subsidiary mode of education and by no means cessary for a right appreciation o' So we may be content to sit apart for a time, watching for what may come forth from the present theatrical chaos, that we may note judiciously the ulti mate survivors. For though in a sense we may be merely players upon the stage of the earth, yet our whole con ern is not with mummieries, and there are other things worthy mens notice besides masks and long speeches. Macmillan's Magazine. The Mutations of Fortune. Many years ago a certain magnate Ia ;he West of England-doctor of divin ity and Chairman of the Quarter Ses sions-was also an enthusiastic geolo gist. One day a farmer, who had seen him presiding on the bench, was riding along a quiet road, when he discovered the magstratte seated by the roadside on a heap of stones, which he was en gaged in bt-eaking with a small ham mer in the course of a hunt for fossils. The farmer reined up his horse and for a minte gazed open-mouthed; then, shaking his head over the changeable ness of all things human. exclaimed in tones of the deepest comYmiseration: "What, doctor! be you come to this a'..aady-.The Cornhiill Magazlina. - News in Brief. -Edison makes rabies. -Peru was named from the Rive; Paro. -The longest desert in the world i: Sahara. -An instrument has been invented to measure thought. -Women smugglers are the pest of the Mexican borders. -The wedding of Princess Beatrice cost more than $250,000. -In all tropical countries the vulture is the natural scavenger. -The coming season's sunshades are bewildering in floral effects. -Barley is mentioned on some of the earliest Egyptian monuments. -Dahomey is the smallest State in Africa. It has 4000 square miles. --The late king of the New England gypsies leftan estate valued at $100, 0O. -The saline matter held in 'solntior. in sea water comprises one-thirtieth of its weight. -France's new cruiser, Le Friant, has been declared to be almost an ideal war vessel. - Platinum wires made white-hot by electric carrents are now used as saws for felling trees. -Miss Anna Gould nowthe Counten Castellane, ha-i her wedding trousseau made in this country. -Red phosphorus combines with eblorate of potash to make an explo sive of great violence. -Mail bags can now be taken on e and delivered from trains runn-mg Fixty miles an hour. -The sea otter produces the most valr able of all furs. A single skin has brought as high as $100. -When the Gulf Stream passes out of the Gulf of Mexico its temperature is about seventy degrees. -Five feet four inches is now the minimum standard of height for re cruits for the .B5ritish army. -Elephants annoyed by fies have often been known to break off a branch from a tree and use it as a fan. -The phosphate mines of Florida number 106, and they yield more than 500,000 tons of phosphats annually. -Thomas A. Edison intends to in vestigate the properties of argon the element recently discovered m the air. - A ton of cottonssed meal, when fed to cattle, just about replaces the fer tility which is sold in 5000 quarts of. milk. -A phonographio desk on which a speaker can record his own oration is soon to be tended in the German Reichstag. -Mrs. Clara Brett Martin, the lead ing women lawyer in Canada, hat been nominated for School Trustee o Toronto. -Miss Alberta Scott, of Cambrihge, Mass., is the first colored girl to enter the tiarvard "Annex." of rather Rad cliffe College. -The father of gas lighting was Wiliiam Murdock, who, in 1792, used coal gas lighting his works in Cornwall. England. --The longest mile is the German. which is four and one half Engliso miles, or, more accurately, 4,6808 English miles. -Heavy deposits of black sand. ol about the firmness of ordinary beach sand, are found at various points along the Pacific coast. -The bed of the North Atlantic con. ists of two valleys, separated by a mountain range that runs from the Azores to Iceland. -A cup of tea and a cracker taker< before a hearty meal, if you are tired, will fortify the stomach for the heavy courses in prospect. -remendous prices are being paid in London for prime poultry. A goose or a pair of ducklings cost a guinea (about $5.25). -The fashionable new Lady Camp bell violet is said te be a shoot of the old Neapolitan violet. It is hardy and of delicious perfume. -The high Spanish comb of silvet or tortoise-shell, such as our -great great-grandmothers wore inJosephmne's time, are much worn. .-A new marking Ink pencil has the solid color at one end in the usual manner and at the other end a recep tacle for a liquid mordant. -The Kremlin of Moscow containb the crowns of Poland and all the other kingdoms and prmncipalitier - which Russia has overthrown. -Arizona has produced more than $80,000,000 of precious metals. The exports of silver have exceeded $5, 000,000 a year, and copper .$4,000,. 900. - Higli-grade microscopes are saia to matke the human skin appear like a section from a fish-showing thousande of minute scales, each overlapping the others. -The nursery tricycle has appearea in London. It containis two seats, one for the mistress and one for the maid and her charge, and has two pairs of pedals. --W. H. Gray, of the Andovea iMass,) Pressi can stick type in German, Greek, Syriac, Turkish, Arabic, Samaritan, Ethiopic, Hebrew Coptic and English. -Male corpses flcat on their- ies, and female corpses on their backi -on account of the different dispositions of fatty tissues. .In the case of a lean woman and a fat man the positions would be reversed. -In all troplica countries the vultur