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TRI WEEKLY EDITIO( \WINNSBORO, S B Y 23, 1899. SPRINQ I gurely,surely bes are humming In the mazy tangles sweet; Spring.with April smiles Is coming: There are lilies at her feet! Moaking birds in beach-blooms singing thrill . with joy the dreamy air, And the green Is on the meadow, and the wild flowers cluster there! AN INLAND B Y C. A. S Rufus Runelett is another instance to prove that "the boy is father to the man." When 16 years of age he helped to invent an armor-clad coasting sled, "the Rantum-Scooter," and he alone steered it down Wilkin3 h1 to victory over the "Number Seveu" boys; and now he is commander of an armor-clad ship, quite as capable, I doubt not,of routing an enemy. The schoolhouse in "Number Six," where we underwent a mild form of education together, stood at the forks of the county road, with the cross town road, which led down Wilkins hill, on one side and Mill hill on the other. The county road extended morth and south, along the crest of a .fine, broad ridge of land divided into ten fertile farms, owned by as many well-to-do farmers whose families made up our school district. We young people of Number Six had always been a little inclined to look down on the boys and girls of Number Seven at the Corners, near the foot of Wilkins hill, for the deni zens of Number -Seven were a some what poor and shiftless lot. The larger boys were pugnacious and ill disposed, and unless a schoolmaster were strong enough to thrash four or lve of them, he must suffer the hu miliation of being carried out of the schoolhouse. At Number Six,on the contrary, the pupils were well-advanced, self-re specting and orderly. An able teacher was required, but less to govern than to instruct. Still, I now think that the contempt in which we held the Number Seven boys was rather phar isaical, and I do not- wonder they re sented it. We nicknamed them "bog trotters," and they retorted by calling , ;f1hill dogs." The two districts also belonged to two rival political parties, a fact which sha.rpened the animosity between them. Wilkins hill was the best coasting place in the county. It consisted of five steep pitches, with intervals-of less abrupt descen.t between them, which made altogether a run of mre. brook. It had always been, and is to this day, the favorite coast of the Number Six boys. Indeed, we boasted that few, save Number Six boys, dared steer a sled down that hill. When the road was. smooth and icy terrific speed was attained on the low est pitch, and any error in steering might easily cost the coaster his life. Boys from other places were usually afraid to try the hill, but if a Number Six boy had not made the "run" at 13 or 14 yeats of age we deemed him a backward lad. The coasting, sleds most in favor with us were small and narrow. They were shod with half-round steel shoes, which were slightly bowed to make a "spring" space of an inch at the mid. die of the runner. Our favorite pos ture for coasting on this hill was face downward, with toes extended behind to aid in steering. Usually in start ing at the top of the hill we ran f or ward, one after another, Baung our selves down on our sleds and thus set off at speed. On moonlit erenings, when there were girls in the party, trains were often made up of ten or twelve sleds --some of them large hand-sleds, on which four or five could sit at ease. The for.ward or leading sled was called the "engine"~ andl was steered by one of the oldest, strongest boys. Such a train,humming down that longhill by 2noonlight, gaining speed at every pitch til it shot past the Corners at Num ber Seven, going 60 miles an hour,af forded an exhilarating spectacle. There was an almost uninterrupted lyiew from top to bottom of the long descent; and besides the steerer on the engine there was a "hornmnan," whose business it was to blow a tin horn if we saw a team or pedestrian soming up. All the others, too, joined in a ti-emendous shout of "Roadl roadi road!" The hill was so long that not more than three or four coasts could be 2nade in an evening and generally not more than one during the noon inter mission, when sohool was in session. A hired man from one of the farms, with a span of horses and a long pung sleigh, saved us the drudgery of pull ing our sleds up the hill. Laws relative to coasting were not then very strict in Maine, and we sup posed we had a right to coast down the road at 60 miles an hour. Nobody had ever made any objection. The only drawback to the sport was that we had to run past the schoolhonse in number Seven, and the bog-trotters were *ccustomed to rush out and pelt us with snowballs. The place was locally known as Wilkins Corners. There had been good coasting for iee or four weeks before Rufus Bandlett devised the Rantum-Scooter; /the entire hill was smooth as glass. N early every morning, noon and night some of us Number Six boys were eoasting, and often there were parties of 20 or 30. The loafers and bog-trotters had e red at us as we flew past and snow balled us as in former years, but be *ore long the Number Seven boys .atually undertook to stop all Number 'coasters. They rolled groat snow WINTER. There's a sense of summer sweetness in the broad flelds and the dells And a chime-or is it fancy'?-of remem bered heather-bells! And the miildet suns aro shining, and the skeare brizbt with b!ue, And in :rdens Love is twining all his rarest wreatb3 tor you! -Frank L. Stanton. IRON-CLAD. TEPHENS. schoolhouse and built a high fort clew across the road. Four o4 our boys who started to coast down were ob liged to take to the ditch. The bog trotters then rushed from their fort and by pelting them with snowballs forced them to run back up the hill., They shouted that So hill dog should pass that schoolhouse. But as their fort stopped teams as well as coasters, one of the selectmen of the town ordered them to remove it at once, and during the following evening a train of ten sleds from Num ber Six coasteO defiantly by. But the next noon they played a new and worse trick on us. Eight of ten of us set off to go down singly,one sled a few yards behind another, when, as we drew near Number Seven school house, Rufus - Rundlett, who was ahead, noticed that Matthias Monsen, one of the larger boys at the Corners, was standing on one side of the road and his brother Lem on the other. "Look out for snowballs!" Rnfus shouted back to us. N either he nor any of the rest of us saw that a new rope lay across the road on the snow til the Monsen boys raised it and caught us. Rufus' sled was capsized, and all the rest of us were piled up in a heap. Some of us were scraped off our sleds, some had their sleds upset; for the Number Seven crowd had three or four boys at each end of the rore, and as fast as a sled came along it was caught by the rope and jerked over. Meantime a dozen other Num ber Seven boys were raining snow balls upon us. We had to pick our selves up, recover ou7 sleds and get away as best we could. "Try it again!" they shouted after us. "If you think you can run by Number Seven try it again!" For a clay or two we had little dis position to try it again; they we:e too big and too many for rie to thrash, as we would, perhaps have bcen justified in doing, and we did not dare to try the coast; but we chafed under the re straint and beat our brains for a de vie to br-_f_lp ;l, was probably-the most energetic of our boys, proposed to run a big mar ket pung sleigh down, taking one of the thills under each arm as he lay face downward on his narrow coasting sled between them. This feat had sometimes been performed on the hill by the older boys, Dol's idea was that the pung, loaded with ten or a dozen boys, would break the rope or jerk it awn from those who tried to hold it. It as evident, however, that if the rope were so held as to upset his sled the pung thills would drop and the pung come to grief, to say nothing of the danger to Dol himself from being run over by it. It was then that Rufus Bundlett proposed to take the thills off the pung an steer it down himself, by lying directly beneath it on his own low sled and grasping one pung run ner at the forward upward turn in each hand and planting a foot against one of the iron braces of the runners on each side. He declared he could steer the pung in that way and be completely covered by it. The most of us were afraid, how ever, that the bog-trotters would scrape us off of the pung with their rope. At this stage of the argument Rufus proposed making the pung into a wooden armor-clad. Dol and he worked nearly all the following night. They took off the low pung-box and replaced it with one far larger and stronger, made of joist and pine boards. It covered the pungi runners entirely, being over eight feet long by four feet wide, and the sides rose to a height of over three feet, quite su&icient to shield all who sat within them. The box was made fast to the runners and had a kind of prow in front, projecting three or four feet in a wedge-shaped triangie. When they hauled it to the school house next day everyone who saw it,in cluding our woman teacher, agreed it was the most singular "coaster" ever seen in those parts. Rufus, when lying under it on his little sled to steer,was almost completely hidden from view; and a short trial trip down the first pitch of the hill showed it to be nec essary that he should be strapped to the little sled. Rufus was ready to start at once, but the courage of many of the boys was not quite equal to taking passage in so novel a contrivance. Indeed, some little bravery was required, for if Rufus failed to steer it b oken necks might be the result Then, too, no one knew 1:ow strong the bog-trotters' rope would prove to be or what would happen when we ran foul of it. But next day, after we had eaten our noon lunch, Rufus having sent his father's hired man, with a span of horses, down the hill in advance,placed himself under the pung in position for steering. "Come on, boys!" he called, "who's afraid?" Dol Edmundis was the first to climb in, and nine of us fo'iowcd him. "Shove off!'' exclaimed Rufus, and in a moment more we were gliding down the first pitch. Altogether the pung, the heavy box and its load of. boys must have weighed a ton. It seeond pltdt It awep, hummed wros the level stretch and took the third pitch, faster and faster. It was amazing that Rufus steered so well, but he seemed to know how at once. My own sensations swung between terror and a wild elation. Down the long fourth pitch we ihot, gaining tremendous,heasaway. The pung was now going so rast that the jar and jolting motion had entirely ceased. It seemed as if the road had been oiled. The keen rush of cold air out our faces,and brought to my eyes, I remember, was a haze of tears, through wSich I saw dimly a wild pro" cession of hurrying trees and roadside fences. The '-;aber Sevdnboys had seen tie comin to re we headed-down,the fifth and* "- e rh we heard them shoutiu; and eight of them ran-acroqE the ".Wfy're stretching their rope! Dol exclaimed. Jumping to his feet, he pulled off hia red woolen muffici and waved it defiantly, while we all yelled like wild Indians. The bog trotters yelled back defiance and raisec their rope. In their ignorance the3 probably thought hat,witb five or sih boys at each end of th:: rope, the3 would be able to upset.us. But the next moment they receivee an impressive object-lesson. The mo, mentum of the heavy pung was some, thing prodigious! We .scarcely fel the rope when we struck it, and the next instant a dozen Number Sevex boys were taking most extravagaw leapa as they were jerked into the roac behind usl All of them had beei gripping the rope hard, and some o them were carried 50 feet before the could let go! They were about th most astonished-looking boys that ever saw! As for the pung, it did not stop til it reached the foot of the hill beyon the bridge over Longmeadow brook where we found the man and horsei waiting to haul it back up to Numbe Six. The bog-trotter boys had not wholl; recovered from their discomfitur when we went by; their school bel was ringing, and when Rufus politel; asked them what they thought of on blockade-runner they bad little to say 'T[o!" Lem said,feebly. "What d I we care for your old rantui-scoo'er.w And the name stuck to Rufus' armor clad. We soon came to call it th Rantum-Scooter ourselves. . The Number Seven boys knew bet ter than to attempt to hold a rope front of the blockade-runner agail but they stil imagined that the rop would stop us, if only the ends be made fast. Next day at noon, wqcoasted down,'*We found tht one en To a.r house and the other to a orse-por front of the grocery opposite. .T C rope snapped -like twine when w< struck it. A day or two later, as we coastei down, we found that they had collectei eight or ten ox chains, but they did not dare to use them; perhaps becans( they feared to kill some of us, or pos sibly because the selectmen had threat enad to have them punished if they seriously molested us more. After this they no longer tried t< stop us, but they pelted us hard witi: frozen snowballs. For ordinary snow balls we cared little, siaes we could draw our heads down into the box ai we passed; but soon 'Thias, Lem ani some of the others began hurling heavl lumps of ice into the pung. To set such missiles at defiance, Rufus and Dol rebuilt the box of the ping,maki2g the sides higher,putting a top on it and covering it with shee1 ron. During the following week we made the coast not less than 20 times witli this curious contrivance. Lumps o: ice and even stones were launched at it; but no violence 'whicn the dis gruntled bog-trotters could inflict pre vented our running their blockade as lng as the good coasting wveathei lasted.--Youth's Companion. QUAINT AND CURIOUS The Ceylon yellow silk spider has a body that weighs nine ounces. There are 40,000 native pupils in the Sunday schools of the Fiji Islands. A West African king is the owner of an umbrella whi:h measures six yards in diameter and affords shadE for a table with thirty diners. An English guide-book makes the curious assertion that a large propor tion of those who have made the as cent of Mont Blanc have been persons of unsound mind. A subterranean city exists in Gali cia, Austrian Poland, which contains a population of over 1000 men, women and children, many of whom have never seen the light of day. The ancient Chinese and Japanese frequently used to draw pictures with their thumbnails. The nails were allowed to grow to a length of 18 inches, and were pared to a point and dipped in vermilion or sky-blue ink, the only colors used in these thumb nail sketches. Probably the most curious European oath is administered in Norway. The witness raises his thumb, his fore finger and'>s middle finger. These signify tih'inity while the larger of the uplifted fingers is supposed to represent the soul of the witness and the smaller to indicate his body. Dog Found is Way Hlome, Jeremiah Murphy, a well-known miner, living in Calumet, Mich., sold his big St. Bernard dog named Bar ny to a Klondike party eighteen months ago. The dog was taken to Dason City and performsd good ser vice there. The other night Barney reapeared at Mi rshy's home in Cal umet. How he succeeded in return F H.DE COLUM.S The 7ilow FaIrles. Ive just found out the queerest thing Sometimes, when I am good, And go to bed without a word Wher, m ma says I should, Th" fairies come there in the night They ny in with their wings And underneath my pillows white They leave a lot of things. One dav it was a penny new, One day a dolly sweet, And once It was a picture-boo And once a cake to eat. They do not always come-oh, They have too much to do, But when you are not thinkingo. They bring a gift tW you. And now it's fun to go to bed ' :3ometimes I lie and wait, To catch the fairies flying in They muct come very late. I never seem to see them gUief Although I hear their wngs; But-just then it Is morning ig, And time to Bnd my things. -Annie W. McCulloch, in St. a icholas. A Parrot Story. The family of a professi6nal man owns a parrot of such preedcity, wit, and enterprise that there oftin is some doubt as to whether the fapily owns the parrot or the parrot owus the fam ily. On Christmas day all! the mem bers of the household where this bird I holds forth, with some relatives and Inests, partook of a late breakfast, and ifteriward went into the parlors, where gifts were distributed, with the usual merriment and chatter. This started the parrot, -and. all day long it made more noise than a sewing society. This was amusing at flr but became monotonol;s as the houriaseed; and, I at last, after vain efforts to quiet the I bird by expostulation, its master took it from the cage .nd biffed its head severely. This had often proved r sufficient as a means of &scipline; but the master of the houst fled in terror F when the parrot, eockitV his head on 3 one side. exclaimed in falsetto, I "Thank you so much; fthat is exactly 7 what I needed!" ThOird evidently v had stored up the. exiessions of the morning. -Rochester 1emoorat. Toad's Old Cithes. Money is not verfplentiful In the 5 Stone family, and I1 other morning when Mamma Stone told Papa Stone that Freddy needed anew winter suit 2 papa loaad- very -gloomy and said he .; wishe ~/ '' wer e frogs and When fl. was ther 80he was )a frog or t Why, just . Ve frogs and I toads change the s. When it is time for the toad t ave a new jacket I a crack co aes dow he middle of his old skin on his bac nd another crack underneath his bo. Then he puffs himself up as big as hecan and begins to wriggle and twist just -as a boy does in getting off his' coat. He uses his month as well as his hands to help in the work, but the funniest thing of all happens when he rolls his old suit up in a bundle and swallows it. Freddy says he is glad Mr. Toad Idoes swallow his old clothes, for then no little toads will have to wear coats and trousers made out of their papa's old ones. A catnip story. We met some little girls going along the country road not long since with their arms full of catnip. "What are you going to do with all that catnip?" we asked. "It is for our cats," one of theolittle girls replied. "We are going to dry it, so, if they get ill this winter, we can give them catnip tea." It was interesting to those little girls, as we talked by the roadside, to hear about the catnip that was picked and taken to -Lincoln park to give to the animals there. The experiment had not been made before, and the keepers of the zoo w'ere curious to know what effect it would have on their charges, and this is the report they made of the result of the trial of the herb: The soent of the plant filled the whole place; and, as soon as it had reached the parrots' corner, the two gaudily attired macaws set up a note that drowned thought, and made for the side of the cage. poking their heads and claws through. When the catnip was brought near them, they became nearly frantic. They were given some, and devoured it, stem, leaf and blossom, with an avidity commensurate with the noise of their voices.. The keeper and the catnip carrier then made for the cage of Billy, the African leopard. Before the front of his cage was reached, he had bounded from the shelf whereon he lay, ap parently asleep, and stood expectant. A double handful of catnip was passed through to the floor of the den. Never was the prey of this African dweller in wild state pounced upon more rapidly or with more absolute, savage enjoyment. First Billy ate a mouth fuil of the catnip. Then he lay flat on his back, and wriggled through the green mass until his black-spotted yellow hide was filled with the odor. Then he sat on a bunch of the catnip, caught a leaf-laden stem up in either paw, and rubbed his cheeks, chin,.nose, eyes and head. He ate an additional mionthful or two, and then jumped back on to the shelf, where he lay,the very picture of contentment. In the tigers' cage there was a very young, but full-grown animal. When this great burly beast inhaled the first suiff of the catnip he began to mew like a kitten. Prior to this the softest note of his voice had been one which merican lion to shame. That vicio tiger and his kindly dispositione mate faily revelled in the liberal al lowance of the plant which was thrus into their cage. They rolled about i it, and played together like six-weeks old kittens. They mewed and purred tossed it about, ate of it; and, afte getting as liberal a dose as had Billy the leopard, they likewise leaped to their respective shelves, and blinke lazily at the sun. The big lion, Major, was either to dignified or too lazy to pay more tha a passing notice to the bunch of cat nip which fell to his lot. He ate mouthful or two of it, licked his chops in a "that's not half bad" way, an then went back to his nap; but th three baby lions quarrelled over thei allowance, and ate it every bit. Evangelist. Daisy Early's P'arty'. "When I give my party," sa'd Daisy to Mens, the maid-of-all-work, "ther is not going to be a mortal thing t eat but cake and pie." 'Tm going to have apples pie, an peaches pie, and custards pie, and-' "K-r-r-a-mps berries pie," inter rupted Meng, "it zo yoosy." "Yes,"' c6ntinued Daisy, "aud I' going to have every kind of cake yo can make and every kind mamma can make, and a dollar's worth fronh the confeckshininner beside-maybe. "I'm going to have four cakes.iu the middle of the table and one on each corner, and a whole pie at each place, just like some people set empty plates around. 'Tm going to have lemnade made with one lemmen 'and three sugars, so's it will be nice and sweet, and a piece of orindge rind floating on the top of it, so's we can have it to chew afterwards, "We won't do a mortil thing but eat and drink and "elp'' _'r4b-eatoJ more sugar in our lemnade whenever we want it. "You are goi" to be a real lady, too, Mena, all that day and go without your aperun and be called Mrs. Mena every time you are.apoke to. "Mamma and gan will be visitors and set at the en-f the room in rock ing chairs like-Qien Victoria and.her mamma, and they can have chicking sangwiches made with fruit cake, and. tea, 'cause they can't dijest cake, cause it hurts 'em. - ' - "There won't be a mortil piece of bread anywhere,. nor meat neither, cause I hate it, but r love apple sos. "Then whendhe party is all ready I'm o as the parkto theissylem four-ofrin litle girls, d.me and "a Oing to&~a ethbg-te when n' cake and pie and drinki t lemnade. '"a shall have a whole cake and a who pie and four glasses of lemnade and an orindge to take back home to the issylem. "Then when we've eat up every .mortil crumb of -every thing you and me shall read to them from my best story books--" "I tank I can't," said Mena,shame-. facedly. "Well, yon can show 'em my paper dolls and my real all-the-way-through dolls and my bisycull, and I'll play my new exercises on the piano for them and do every mortil thing I can. "I tank gameps iss nize," suggested Mena. "Games I Real ladies d'on't play games, and we'd be real ladies then, Why, maybe I'll have on mamma's blue organdy and her lace parisole and her hair bracelutsl Will you s her?" "I tank zo," said- Mena. "I wonder if I can have it neRt week? Yes, I think I'll have to, 'cause I can't wait another mortil minute longer. "Aunt Mtaud gave me twenty-five cents for not riding her bisycull and mamma owes me six cents--do cakes cost much, Mena?" "Oh-h-h, I tank zo!" snickered Mena. "Well, ~~~'l twenty-five cents and six cents--wait now, lemme see-nm um-um -- thirty-eleven cents - wait again a minute, now-six and five's eleven and, yes, ' that's right; will thirty-eleven cents buy eight cakes made in slices, like pancakes, with pired-apples and cohernuts spread real deep all over 'em?" Mena computed mentally at great length ere she replied. "I tank zo." "Then, I'll give the party next week," said Daisy, "and not a mortil. person shall know about it but you and me and mamma and gran and a fe others and Aunt Mand and th'e ofrins." -Chicago Record. Good Bear Huntinag in Pennsylvania. Not for many years have bears been so numerous in the mountains of cen tral and northeastern Pen nsylvania, Old hunters have been killing them right and left in the mountains of Clearfield and Centre counties. Sheriff Bell and* party of Blair county r cntly popped over three, while three others were killed in the foothills of the Alleghanies. Andrew Edgar of Lones. town has five large bears already to his credit, while John and James Schofeld of Du .Bois killed nyveinside of ten days. Bruin is particularly partial to the beech woods of Cau.eron and Sullivan counties, and up near the source of the Sinnemahoning one, hunter and trapper has killed 16 up to date. In the aggregate no less than 45 bears have been killed in that part of the state within six weeks. Baltimore Sun. The directors cf the poor of North umberland county, Penn., have de cided to abolish salaried physicians in the various districts of the county, and hereafter pay a reasonable fee to the doctors employed outside of the almahouse. n into a barrel of boiling oil." "Well, den, mees," was the reply, "you can haf it, sure, if you do Lut one leetle ting. My skin ra,s all spots vat you call 'peemples' an:- de dector he say it chang2 of climate. He den tell me to buy 25-cent vorth pho-*php.t*eA of soda. I take a teaspoonful in gia-se vrm vater at bedtime and de sa-ne before breakfast. It not nesty. So, for von veek I also take de same be fore each otbr meal; after dat for von veek I take cnly night and morning. In two v-3ek. behold me as now." Reader, I have followed the above advice for "von half veek" only, and already my* skin seems like "that of x little-child.. To- thos who desire tnhan thisk n poie skin Laughing as in Art. Young women in soniety are laugh ing a great deal no*adaye. -Ever those who are not naturally givcn to laughter send out peal after real of musical "Hal Has!" This * silvery laugh is the result of weeks and months of special training and hours and hours of patient prac tice. Perfection is attained only through private instruction. Ti.s laugh is a branch of musical training applied to embellish conversation in the most pleasing manner. The girl with the loud. hearty laugh is all'right in the mountain or seaside resort, but that same laugh is iabooed in the-drawing room. -She realizes this and so she goes to a musical train r and cultivates a merry laugh which is soft and refined and delightfui to bear. She can laugh in every known key and in every pitch. The tuning fork is a most necessary adjunct to this practice, although a piano or any musical instrument can be used. It isbest, however, to use the old-fash ioned tuning fork, says a very sue eesful trainer of the voice. There is a great difference in these silvery laughs and an art in their proper use: A part of the training is to distinguish the proper laugh. proper pitch and proper key to express various egrees of' pleasure, satire, interest or merely a light laugh which means nothing. Then there is a bewitching, low-keyed, mellow contralto laugh which it is not possible for everybody to attain. Of course, there is with these laughs the necessary expression of the eye, which is to complete the impression one wishes to convey.--New York Eer> Th'e99XHat. Smade a vert srccess Swith a new typer of a Lney have named the 9.?, whether in honor of the year or 12eeause it is the 99th mode inaugurated so far is not, known. The 99 is a simall Hack silk bat, with brim and crown some what on the Pickwick shap'e. -A1 bout he black beaver crown goesa a-fol!d of bright silk or velvet, o'r a sw~rrf of spangled lace, and a handomei b'ou uet of ostrich plumes is farmed with a bow and an ornament on the et This shining black hat on a londe head is an adiditio*n to the wiu er landscape, and blondes, by the way, whether the credit is due to art r nature, are on the increase. The esire of every wi~nm:m's life just now s to boast poa9p-on of marigold loade hair. Women continue to find a great utlet for theid ove of pretty things n collections of hiatpius and neck hains. Flying time has brought to ight a charming enterprise in hatoins f blond, perfcctly dark or ridhly mot tled shell,powdered with diamort,s or ubies, various shapes and set with olored jew"e1. The neekchain that s a newcomer consists of a black i-el vet cord strung at interrais with coral eads. The use of coral, by the way, is surely infectio,.:s. Heavy cream ad gray lace, studded with rosy they are using on mahogma vet costs and gowns. Outside the h satin and lace collar of her call dress, a fashionable woman will ar as many as six strings of corst s, lying flat, at the base of the roat. The dressmakers seem im nk that coral is a perfect .offset to, ack satin or velvet, or even'the ric' oths, and revers, panels, cuffs, etc., e encrusted with coral chips cut of e as the smallest jets, while no arter dancing dress has been seen is winter than one of pale blue silk uslin, worn over white and crystal ed with coral chips, in the design if ch fairy dora as is seen down under e sea.-Now York Sui. . Earrings Out of Strle. Earrings form a more interesting tudy than the average man or woman uspects. They have been worn from ime immemoria Probably this is he first occasion in the history of the orld that they have been generally ut of fashion. But earrings are still worn in re ons that are happily beyond the phere of fashion's jurisdiction- In eed, many of these ladies go one bet r than their civilized sisters-they ear nose rings as well. For decorative purposes, however, e ear has always held first lace Is e estimation of ladies, who have ver been content to leave the lily painted. The wearing of the earring is really egacy of barbaric days. Even st.the esent time in several semi-civilised bes the custom prevails of subjit an infant, when only a few days to a species of torture, in ordee at in time the child may wear a ce ' peculiarly shaped earring. The lobes of the baby's ears are slit d a small weight attached. This uses the lobe to droop, and rond ' formation is fastened a long hel w rim of whatever metal the parents nr4to buy. Happily this cruel arstem 1 confined to races that as yet ave but seen the dawn of civiliz tion. One of the greatest ithoritiAis London on earrings is Mr. 1. Staple ton. For years he has made this a tudy and a business. Moreover, be as applied an inventive faculty to de gning new ways for ornamenting the ear, one object.being to avoid the pais f piercing the lobe, but his great aim s, to make the embellishedear a thing f beauty. Mr. Stapleton believes that he has ow accomplished .that-end. He herT atented an ornament whi ile *1oof the bottom ear and ,urres some ditan o - ~~h~or ge-t1ga~p* usee a..clasp to 8 and when properly screwed up i s nigh impossible for the ornament fall off. "But," mournfully observed Mr. tapleton, "I have no guarantee that the ladies will properly fasten the or naineut; therefore it has not met with bhe favor that I had hoped. "The want of rigidity in the lobe f the ear, which, in vulgar parlanes. is only a piece of gristle, has for ears rendered the invention of a noa iercing earring a matter of great-dif eiuty. "I have at last succeeded in over oming all obstacles for my new ear ing cannot possibly fall or be forcibly emoved if the screw is properly tights ned. I ought to know, for I:av xperimented with my wife's earLThe. earing of ornaments in the ears is at resent out of fashion."-Lendoa ail. Fashion Note.. Velvets, plain and mirrored. are reely employed in combination with ilk and woolen materials. Shirred ribbons are conaspicuonsly een on silk~ costumes, but more es eially for embellishing sheer fabrics for evening wear. The nea.t.little chapeaui irhich are ow taking the place of theatre bats -. . or ladies in Paris, are proving er eedingly.popular. . Gay-colored and;black ribbon rllaMa in narrow and meldim widths are in reat demand, sindre made constant nd effective use eL- as a single trim ing; or in combiation with faney imps and t.iny bands of fur. White linen collars are by no means ut of vogue. They are worn pith a.ilor gowns and are very ultitudi- - os. The four-in-hand and Ascol tie are worn with them. The pigne toks worn last season ares continued, ut style now requires'them to be stiffy storched. English walking coats, as closuk l~ itted in the skirt as a riding habit L ith rounded, open, or halt-open' - :rnts arching back toward the hips epresented the leading features $ priig shapes prepared for genaera~ c ar. Lengths vary greatly among hese cots the majority being o edium length. In order to produce the svelte sad tin ging style of dress, skirt linings aticularly for women of full figure are made of the softest undressed silks nd satins; and a.ll stiff moires and erip taffetas, failles, etc., are avoi. 1. Where expansion and breadt are needed, they are produced by ifar ng Ekirt seam6, undulating frille and ~onees, pleated rames, ruches ar.~ :ontess other popular skirt aec-. moes. co.tny Cogitations. Newed -A penny for your thoughts, darling. 2drs. Newed-Ohi,they will cost you Newed-What were you thinkin.g bout? .~ Mrs. Newed-The dress I eirdered esteday.-Pearson's Weekly.