Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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.. ■ The Darlington News. H. T. Thompson, Ed. A Prop. The new town of Judsonit, Ark., bu a canning factory that handies 100 bush els of tomatoes and half as many of peaches every day, and a box factory that ute) up four car loads of lumber oer ' month. M. Chevreul, the aged French sclen list, has just reached his one hundred and second birthday. It is probub!* that he will not lire through the winter, as his strength is rapidly failing. He spends the greater part of his time in bed, though he goes out driving on phasant days. Parisian students whe called on him a few days ago were not allowed to see him, but we e received by his son, a charmiug youth of seventy, nine. Ten years ago a London clergyman established a plan of tree marriages at the Red Church, Bethnal Green. They have been in vogue there ever since, and s bank holiday ia a great marriage day. On a recent Monday there were hundredt of couplea standing in line dresaed in their best, while their friends who crammed the church made the occasion one of nniiiual merriment. They were married in batches of from four to eight couples at a time. There was unlimited kisaing, and volleys of old shoes were at timas dsntrerous. Modern science has unquestionably made greater the average duration of life, obaerves the New York Sun, but its known accomplishments in this respect have been chiefly in the saving of child life. How much influence it has had io prolonging life at its advanced periods can only be surmised; but baving already almost abolished pain, it is likely to at- ta n to more certain methods of pro longing life, so that M. (hevreul. the Trench scientist, and the other centen arians will not be the rare exceptions they are now now. SUNSHINE LAND. They came in sight of a lovely short. Yellow as gold in the morning light; The sun’s own color et noon It wore And had faded not at the fall of night; Clear weather or cloudy—’twas ell ae one, The happy bllla seemed bathed with the tan, Its secret the sailors ceaM act understand. Bat they celled this country Sunshine Lend. What was the secret?—a simple thing (It will make yon smile when once yon know): Touched by the tender finger of spring, A million bio.toms were all eg'ow; 80 many, so many, so email and bright. They covered the bills with a mantle of light; And the wild bee hammed, and the glad I reeze fanned. Through the honeyed fields of Sunshine Land. If over the sea we two were bound, What port, dear child, would we chooeo for ours? We would sail, and tail, till at last we found Thie fairy gold of a million flowers. Yet, darling, wn'd find, if at home we stayed, Of many small joye our pleasure are made, Viore near than we think—very close at hand Lie the golden fields of Sunshine Land. EditU M. Thomat, in St. Nicholas. AT RED-HOKSE CREEK. The Panama canal ia suffering from red tape, according to this paragraph, which a Boston daily publishes; On one occasion it took sixteen days’ time and two hundred miles of travel for vouchers for some lubricating oil, which was lying alongside of the dredge for which it was intended; and these dredges lay idle at a cost of $3000 a day until they could gt.‘ the oil. On soother occasion it took (even days to get five cents’ worth of vaseline out of the basement of the build ing in which it was needed on some in. •truments of precision to prevent rust- lr.g. The veterinary art should flourish in England, says the C hicago Ti i'mnc, if distinguished patronage be an advan tage. At the annual meeting ot the Royal Veterinary College the Duke of Cambridge presided, and he was sup ported by several Feers and meml>ersof Parliament; but the report, though sat isfactory, does not give evidence of much ambition on the part of young men to be come professed healeis of animals. The number of students has during the past year increased by six only, ana the total number of those who possess the diploma of the college ia 201, which is less by a good many than lovers of animals would wish it to be. Throe hundred surgeons are not sufficient for the whole country, and hence it is that the unlicensed prac titioner, whose pharmacop i ia consists of tobacco and areca nut, flourishes on the wretched animals he is permitted to kill. The world is gett : ng ust at last, in the opinion of the A'lan‘ic Constitution. A hundred years ego it was cons dered •wift returns if an inventor's children reaped the reward of his invention. Now the money comes pouring in before ths stamp on the patent papers is dry. Mr. Thomas A. Edison has just sold the right for North America to the phonograph perfected a month ago, for $1,000,000 tc himself and $*i2.’,uoo to his associate, Mr. Gilliland. Besides this he gets $15,. 000 this year, $t.\00J next year, and $.5000 every year thereafter for improve ments, whether he makes any or not. He has sent Mr. G;ll land to Europe tc •ell the phonograph in that end of the world. Three years after Mr. Bell put the telephone on the market he presented hie wife with seven million dollars out of hia earnings. It is said the telephons baa earned over a hundred million in profits above running expenses in ths past six years. Go in and invent some thing to-night, and you will awake tc find Tour self famous—and rich I bt r. p. MonoAiv. “Speakin’ uv lazy men,” drawled Long Jim Prouty, “uv all lazy, trifling fel ers, Ike Rawson was the triflin’est. ” Located on the eastern bank of the best flshin-holc in all Red horse Creek, and bounded on the north by Mr. Hiram Pottle, whoso ability as a listener wae only surpassed by that of Mr. James Shores, who bounded the speaker upon the routh, it was not surprising that the elongated Mr. Prouty felt in a atory- telling mood. A« the representative of the law, Long Jim dispensed justice in the spasmodic and original fashion of counties where the locomotive whistle never founded and the at illness was only broken by the crack of inmo ’coon hunter's rifle or the harsh cry of the storm foretelling isin- crow. But his fame a* a Justice of the Peace was eclipsed by his renown as a atory-teller. He had been known to postpone dinner an unconicionable time to finish a story, and it waa said that he would interrupt a trial to relate some thrilling reminiscence. Now, as he reclined on the bank of Red horse Creek and watched the “bob” of his fish-line he seemed a veritable reminiscence mine, and self-working at that. “Say he was?” questioned Pottle, re ferring to the stigmatized Rawson. “les; uv aT lazy fellers, he was the captain. Tell you what’a a fact, he’d All the city editors of the New Yor’c; morning papers declare, accoiding tj the with one accord their readi> ness to go to prieon, if necessary, ti vindicate the journalistic right to publish details of executions This is apropos of the statement by Commodore Gerry that when the new law requiring the in fliction of capital punishment by elec tricity goes into effect, the editor who given » deecription of the act will le guilty of a misdemeanor, and subject to imprisonment. Considering that the death penalty will be dealt out, under the new law, without notice, and with out the presence of witnesses other than the officials of the jail, it ia difficult to •ee what occasion the City editors or their representatives will have to court martyrdom. The bare official announce raent of the fact that the criminal has had Ufa extinguished by an electric cur rant it about all they can recoft, inas much aa the very last moments, with alt weir horrible concomitants, which arc now ao faithfully reported, will have, ar the new system, nothing particu lar to distinguish them. And then, there ia the further reflection that aftei «]». if anybody ahould be sent to pruon for too copious reporting, it would $*obaWj be the responsible publisher or " proprietor of ths newspaper ant) pot it. Then the story rested till a wide- mouthed catfish had been jerked from his watery home to adorn a string which was already half filled with his brethren. “Lazy?’’ re umed the justice.” “Beat ary man ’Uixt this an’ anywhural Looked like h’it tired him to breathe! When they formed the Lazy Man’s Club, up in Clay County, the season the seven teen-year locustes e’t up the crops an’ thar wa’n’t nuth’n* to do for amusement but ” The extraction of another catfish from the creek interrupted the atory. “Wal, when the Lazy Man’s Club was formed, they Hello, thar!” The Ftory rested. There appeared at the edge of the little clearing three persons, whose chief characteristics, judging from appear ance*, might have been graded as bruised and bloody excitability, defiant dejec tion, and passiie disinterestedness. “Ole Man Hydom, Wicks, the con stable, an' that young Ohio chap. Wonder what’a up.’* said fhores. “Dunno. As I was a sayin’when t “Squire," cried the personification of gory excitability, “I want the law ontO| this ycre cuss! I’ve be’n 'saulted -* 1 “Wal,” drawled I ong Jim, inter- ruptingly, “you look it, Hydom. You wa'n’t never so mighty pretty that h’lt hurt you to pack yore beauty around, an now I’ll be switched if vou h ain’t ugl ier than original sin! I ” “That’a neither yere nur cornin’,” broke in O.d Man Hydom, angrily. “I want the law, an’ " “Wal, act down, Ole Man.” drawled Long Jim. “Be through with thisi •tory in a little bit. Was jest tellin’ the boys 'bout ” “Hang yore atory!" roared Hydom, so. fiercely that the little figure that had! stealthily followed them almost to the 1 edge of the clearing trembled in the con 1 cealment that the haw and hazel brush afforded. “Hang your story! I want) the law on this yere cuss fer tryin’ to kill me! Look at met Look—” “Wal, if you've got to have h’it, %’y I reckon yer ve got to,” drawled the jus tice, resignedly. “What’s the change?” “ ’Eault an’ battery, with intent to kill.” “Guilty or not, young feller?” “I beat him, but ” “Then yo’re guilty! Wal, I never had no use fer these yere slick Ohio fellera anyhow! Hadn’t bc’n for’cm. I’d ” “Course he’, guilty I” interrupted old Hydom. "An’ that thar hair’t the worst uv h’it. He ’tacked me because I ob jected to my girl’s runnin’ off with him I” "Wal.” The emphasis of that “Wal” spoke volumes. The lank justice drew his line from the water, and Pottle end Shores, the accomplished listeners, followed his sxampie and prepared to give auricular attention, and the Lazy Club was mo mentarily forgotten. The constable’s assumed indifference verged on facial vacancy. “I wouldn’t put h’it a bit a-paat him « ary other Ohio cuat,” said Long Jim. “They’d do anything. I— Ae* yore glrl’a oeIj a child, anyhow." Sheu seventeen,” cried the young prisoner, “andae beautiful—" “Shet up I” rcard the Justice. “What about her, Oie JCaaf” > ‘ “W’y, she’s jest back from three years’ schoolin', an’ this yere cum fol lowed her home.” He went on to tell how the “cuss" ia question had won her love at school, and had followed the asking for her hand by endeavoring to elope with her. Upon ur. llydom'a appearing in time to pre vent hia daughter’s dep irture, the old gentleman had been assaulted by the man from Ohio. “Had’nt much more than opened my mouth when he gave me aech a lick that I didn’t know whether I was a-foot or a> homback, aca ceir. Then he alammed me sgin the ground, an’, sex he: ‘That * the way we Join Ohio, when—”’ “That settles h’it! cried Long Jim. “If thar’d a-bin any provocation h'it'd a-bin differ’nt. He’s guilty, an’—” “But, there was provocation!" The haw and hazel brush no longer concealed the little figure that had fol lowed the three men. She hurried acroaa the clearing, and defiance suc ceeded dejection in the face of the young fellow from Ohio, as he placed one arm nrotertinorlv around tba trirl ’Yere!” roared the justice, striding forward. “Let up on that, Ohio! That thar'i my I.w'y, that’s yore—yore daughter, Hydom 1 ’Minded me uv ’’ He stepped back. “I’m gettin’ ole!” he muttered, hoarsely. “She's growed a heap,” he went on. “I didn’t know her at first. ’Minded me And that thar cuss was a-tryin’ to steal her “That'a what he was, an’ I want the limit uv the law onto him!” “You shall have h’it I h’aintgotno use for Ohio, nohow, an’ " “Squire,” interrupted the disinter ested-appearing Wicks, “tain’l my put in, but thar was a heap uv provoca tion.” “Go ahead, Wicks. H’aint got no use for Ohio, but go on. ” “Wal,” began Wicks, “a* I was a-My- in’, h'it h’aiu’t my p it in, precisely, but, I ’membered her, an’ thar was prov ocation. Me an* you went out together, occypied the same Yankee cell together, came home together an’ stuck together in hatin’ Ohio. Wal, when he, thar, come .-followin’ Bessie, yere, home, I had no more use for Ohio than I had be fore, but, some ’ays o’ nuther he packed himself onto me to board. Had no use fer Ohio, but I kep’ him when—wal, I teed she waa happy with him, an’ she looked to much like ” “A heap like,” said the justice, softly. “Wal, ’twan’t my put in. but Ole Man, thar, waa oppoain’ ’em, an’—wal, I aorto Helped ’em to meet. ’Twan’t my put in, but ” “Vere!” cried Old Man Hydom, the appearance of whose old face a bruised nose and dried blood had not improved. “That’s neither yere nor yonder! H'ain’t nothin’ to do with givin’ me the law on ” ) “H’ain’t my put in,” interrupted Wicks, “butlwisht’d you’d hold yore mouth, Ole Man! Not my putin, but when Ohio, ye;e, started over to Hy- dom’s this morniu’, I aorto follered along, knowin’ that he was goin’ to set fer an’ take Bessie if be could. Wal, I was behind the sand-plums when they met. When Ole Man Hydom come out, in a little bit, thar was some right live ly rarin’ on the ole man a part, an’ as h'it wa’n’t my put in, I staid behind the sand-plums. Then, when ( hio, thar, rared b iek an’ ast Bessie would she go with him anyhow, an’ she jest put her hand on his arm an’ aez, T will!’ she looked so much like— Wal, then her father, thar, atruckherl” “Struck herl’’ The words of the justice were almost a roar. “Fes; xia’n’t my put in, an’I staid behind the sand plums. Ohio, thar, didn't need me, fer he hauled oil an’— Wal, look at the ole man’s face. I ” “’Nough uv this projiein’l” cried Hydom. “I want the law on ” "An* yon shall have h’it!” broke in the juatice, hoarrely. “Struck her? Seems like ” “Squire,” said Wicks, “’tain’t my put in, but couldn’t you marry a couple that loves each other, if some feller had ’lowed a license'd be needed an’ brung h’it along? ’Twa'n’t my put in but " “No!” roared old Hydom. “I ” The next moment Wicks was sitting astride of Mr. Hydom, who e face was crowded into the dirt and learn in a shameful manner. “Spite uv the objections uv the girl's father?”asked Wicks. “If I didn't hear them objections.” To guard against the poss bility of Hydom'* voice coming from the leaves and dirt to the justice’s hearing. Shores and Pottle, the accomplished listeners, moved by a common impulse,stood upon either aide of Long Jim. Each had a finger in a judicial ear while the cere mony waa performed that nr ado the clinging girl the wife of the j lung fel low from Ohio. “H’ain’t my put in,” said Wicks, when the released Hydom had risen to his feet, “but a man that rears that a-way is liable to strain himself!” The invectives and maledictions that the blood-and-dirt-covered mau hurled at all present did not disturb the equa nimity of any one but the girl, who now clung, trembling, to her newly made husband. “Pack yenelves oat o’ the country quick as tracks kin tiavel, fer I’ll make h’it too hot to hold ye! I’ll never for give yal I’ll ” “Hydom,” said the Justice, slowly, “yon wanted the law. • back the Revised Statutes, an* see that they air enforced,” broke in Wicks. “You*bet!” agreed the renowned listeners. “Never—fish—in—Fed hoes—again?” gasped old Hydom. “Noap!” Teh minutes later, after casting hia eyes alternately upon his daughter and upon the pla id, coffee-color surface of Red-horse Creek, Hydom grunted out a reluctant forgiveness for tba young couple. “Squire,” said Wicks, “I’ve beard that the Revised Statutes have be’n re pealed.” “They have.” ’•Wal, good-by, Ohio!” Long Jim called, as the young couple and Wicka and Hydom were leaving, and Shores and Pottle were casting their lines into the water again. “Never had no use for Ohio, nohow, but I wish you mighty well!” “Why is ho so bitter sgaiost my State?” the young groom asked, pres ently. “Wal," answered Wicks, “him an’ me went out together, an’ aeenu like h'it was Ohio soldiers we was allurs fightin an’ h’it was Ohio soldiers that socked us into a Ohio prison, an’—wal, he h’ain’t had much use fer Ohio sence.” “People say that I look very much as my mother did at my age,” said Bessie, presently. “You do,” answered Wicks. “Me n’ Long Jim—wal, he was sorto half way engaged to her when the war broke out, an’ we staid in tbe Ohio prison so long, everybody yereabouts Towed we was dead, an’ when we got back, yore maw had married yore paw, thar. He wa'n't never so mighty pretty, either; but a woman’s—” “She's buried on the slope in the shada nv the red bads,” interrupted Old Man Ilydorr, gravely. “I got married after a while,” went on Wicks, preiently; “but, some way, Jim never followed my example." As the hook and sinker of Long Jim's line entered the water with a gentle “plunk,” Pottle said, drawliogly; “I reckon Wicks sorto loved that girl’s mother long ago.” “Me an’ him was pardners then,” answered the justice. “An’ we both But whar was I in my atory? Oh, ye*, as I was a-sayin’, when they organized the Lazy Man’s Club, the season that the seventeen-year locusses e’t up the crops, they Tected Ike Rawson president. Nobody else got a smell at boldin' the office. The badge uv authority was a big Barlow knife. Wal, Ike was ao lazy that he wouldn’t pack h’it around. Tied a string to h’it an’ had hia little boy follerhim about, a draggin’the Barlow.” The oft-interrupted story was finished at last, and Shores and Pottle, tbe ac complished listeners, gazed solemnly into the coffee-bued waters of the best fishing hole in sll Red horse Creek, and, like the. patient Oliver Twists, waited for more. “She looked like her mother," they heard Long Jim mutter. Then the capture of a catfish concentrated the attention of all upon the business at hand.—Frank Leslies. CAIililH PIGEONS. WONPKRI-T WORK OF THESIS AKKIA LM KSSENGER8. Value of thrfllrds In War—Mag* neilo Atactlnn of Place— The Inalot That Taken a Phon Home. Pure Air for Animals. “Formerly, in the French army, the mortality of cavalry horses was enor mous.” A French authority informs us that after an enlaigement of the stables the mortality was reduced in ten years from 100 per 1000 horses to 6^. “In the Italian war of 1850, M. Moulin kept 10,- 000 horses many months in barracks opening to external air in place of closed stables. Scarcely any horses were sick, and only one case of glanders occurred.” Among English cavalry horses, Wilkinson informa us that the “mortality (which waa formerly great) is now reduced to 20 per 1030. The food exercise and treatment being the same, this result has been obtained by cleanli ness and the freest ventilation. The ventilation is threefold: that for dry ing the floors; a ceiling ventilation for (he discharge of foul air; and a supply of air beneath the horses’ noses to dilute at once the products of respiration. It has long been t notorious fact that among the lower animals confinement in an imperfectly ventilated atmosphere is apt to render them tuberculous.—Pic ayune. The “Ponnit” ef Old England. The word “punnet" is given in Eng lish markets to various si 'es of what wo would call amall measures or basket*. For instance, a radish pnnnet, if in tended to hold “six hands,” is eight inches in diameter and one inch deep, nnd a twelve hand punnet is nine inches by one inch, and a sea kale punnet is eight inches diameter at the top, and seven and a half at the bottom, and two inches deep. Fruits and vegetables are sold by the aieve, hand, bunch, bundle, bushel and pottle; the latter is used for strawberries, and ia a long tapering bas ket, supposed to hold half a gallon, but rarely holding more than one quart. The •yatem of measuring, practised in our markets is most absurd and unsatisfac tory to purchasers, but that in general use in the English markets is no better. —Art# York Bin. vised Statutes says that no roan what won’t forgive his daughter that looks like Wal, h’it saya ha aha’n’t never fish ia Red-hoes Creek from end to and. Reversing the Order of Tkings. The transfer of the “steerage” to the ■tern of the ocean steamship may not prove so desirable to the “cabin" passen gers if they ara to lie sub jected to such risks as they encounte ed in the collision off Sable Island. Draw iog room coaches on the railroads are given the preference of a pla e near the locomotive to escape w*i ik n thedu,t *nd cinders, which do not settle wm, the lie- until the rearoars come along. But there via man m ° ere still nervous people who prefer to ride in the end of the train for the sake of supposed greeter safety. The seme dam of people would prefer to have the _ •teamship “cabin” in the old place.- “Aa’ pm an’ Sfcoree *»’ PotUn will Brookh/n, Qitkm. In Belgium the present season of the year, and tw lessei extent in this country, the sp< of pigeon flying is in full progress, fethis is the time when the great raccsf these aerial messen gers occur. In rigium, at least, every Saturday vast tn loads of homing, or “voyageur,” plpns are sent to various trainihg or racimtations on the Conti nent, and are brated there at stated times. Immedely tbe baskets are opened the air ihickened with them. The best “voyaprs,” after first rising skyward, will sin for home. Otters will career arounmee or tsyice, as if to find their Ixarii, and then make a bee line for tholaco of their abode, whether it be 5t>r 500 milea distant. There tbe ownene anxiously awaiting the arrival of thelirds. For the great races swift-foots messengers are em ployed. The nuent the bird arrives it is caught, ansrithout the loss of a moment ia taken the club room, where the officials are wing to verify times of arrival and to idefy the pigeons. In Be’gium, almostvery village has its pigeon society, es? town several clubs, some of which pas exclusive in their membership as is 3 jockey club. So cial standing ia; important factor in the acceptance objection of members. It is estimated thithere are upward of 1000 pigeon soclm in the Netherlands, and that during tltraining and racing season there is »avenge of over 100,- 000 birds sent evpSaturday, for Sun day is the great rag day, to the vari ous stations. How much is tb^ht of the pigeon as an addition to t fighting forces of Continental natiofcay be inferred from the excitement cad a few months ago when a German eon was found at Tours. In ouiEnglish military maneuvers Major itt baa shown how rapid communicats can be made be tween different seqis of an army, and how the outposts give information to headquarters, ere probably the telegraph would bsmvailable. But it is not only in tli«s of war that the homing pigeon hrroved capable of great service. Thare many peaceful operations where :s able to convey news more rapid lyan can be sent by any other means, intry doctors often employ homers to urn with prescrip tions to their surfes in special cases, and tlrey are frequly used by pilots to announce the apl of vessels off the coast. But perhjno section of the community utilizes voysgeur pigeon more tbsn does these. Under many circumstances it cqeat the telegraph, i for there is the m*at advantage that it is ever ready, ukan be dispatched from any point ofle place. Whence comes tlpower, this mag netic attraction of (place, which will make a bird seek ittne in spite of ob stacles apparently innountable? What this instinct wh chins never to be lost? It is recordeia bird sent with many others to be A from Rome to Belgium in a race ae the Alps, that it returned after twars. Nearly all its confreres were 1< The great chain of mountains wer barrier against which they could nontend, and they had probably gone in wrong direc tions. This one baidently, from the marks on his feathaeen captured and held prisoner for time named; but he still longed foome. When the moment came and las free, then he sought and found < more his well- known loft. A notease is told of a Belgium bird sent ttwea«tle-on-Tyne, which accidently fed. Never be fore had he crossed ocean, but the next morning he back again at Brussels. It must?e that instinct which enables it to eve the object foi which it strives, am the most rapid manner, and it mustowerful in build, with strong mucles^e to withstand the enormous strata long flight, of ten against the mosterse influences. It may, therefore, Ixen as the athlete of the race U’olumbiil exactly the re verse of the pnmpererlings of the or- dinary pigeon fanciihich are to b« seen preening thenes in the show pen. Many methods Insmitting the message are employ (Sometimes it jg tied to the tail fcatheut usually it is written on a narrow, of paper which ia wrapped around leg and either held there by a pieegummed paper, by thread or a finetic band. The weight is infinitess] the free move ment of the bird usded, and as the legs are carried npk the body dur ing the flight the |go is protested from rain. A goober enters its loft at once and many? are fitted with an electric arrangenby which a sig nal is given the md it alights. i„ , races all the compel birds are vatcly marled to-ent fraud, and these mark must Irifled ere a prize isawarded When bird* have re turued th vclocitfcre worked out, and those t int havered the distance most rapid r are d.ed the winner* \cioritiosjf boo ^1000 yard* mi minute ovi a couqf 100 miles are quite comjon, andj) tol500 yardt per minut( for thattance have often been doneewhlle aoerage of half i mile per liiute haem mile ia races of nearly Mr hundsnilesU/Wf Budget. LADIES' COLUMN. Tbe Honorable 01(1 Maid*. A thoughtful writer calls attention to the growing willingness of women to go through life unmarried. Once it wae considered a bad thing to be an old maid, and light-minded people made fun of one. Now it is different Some of the brightest and prettiest women be come so mnch interested in the serious work of life that they regard husband* as altogether unnecessary incoveniences. They are satisfied with the state of sin gle blessedness, and appear to be just as happy and useful as their married slatera. It is all right If a woman remains sin gle it is her own affair, and outsiders need not concern themselves about it Aa a rule an o'd maid is an intellectual and interesting woman. “Smookln?.” The newest industrial craze ie “smock ing.” Now, “smocking” is a revival. Years ago our grandmothers “smocked" or honeycombed” their best bedspreads and towels. Now it is being used con siderably for trimming dresses. It ia very ornamentnl. The pattern ia usually a diamond-shaped design, and it is said, the knack once acquired, the work is easy and rapid. Curious it is how fash ions reassert themselves in all branches. Take a group of ladies chatting ovet their morning fancy work. The needle of one speeds over a band of smocking work; another clicks a bewildering num ber of long steel needles, ronoding ths toe of a silk stocking, and anothei crochets a quaint coin parse, just as did the dames a century ego.—Time-Table. Millionaire Crocker’s Plucky Wife. The announcement of the appointment of Mrs. Mary A. Crocker as executrix ol the $25,000,000 estate of the late Charles Crocker, of California, recalls, says the New York Times, an incident connected with her marriage. After Mr. Crocket left the West, many years ago, a com paratively wealthy man. to marry the daughter of his former employer, he was informed that his property had been de stroyed by fire, and he was again a pool man. When Mr. Crocker heard of th* state of his finances he urged his in* tended wife to remain with her family until ho had built up his fallen fortuns and made a home for her. This she re fused to do, and they were married and went West. Mr. Crocker repeatedly attributed his subsequent successes tc the assistance he always received from his wife, and his action in making bet executrix of h s will was his crowning recognition of her worth as a helpmate. Ladles’ Sashes. The newest sashes in broad moire rib bon are “pinked” all around the entin edge. They have been and still are pop ular in white, biack and leaf-green, and are sold at some of the large shops, all ready made up. Long soft silk scarfi for carelessly looping round the neck art also “pinked,” and have two ends drawn up like those of a long purse They aw made of a width of pongee silk, and are from three yards to three and one half yards long. They are to be, on dit, fashionable for the autumn. There art striped cotton washing sashes for chil- dern and adulta, rather over two and one half yards long, with twisted fringe ends, which are just now in the full swing of popularity. They are in red and white, blue, brown, black, or yellow and white stripes and moderate in price. The cambric shirt fronts for fitting into bodies, with neat collar and small ti* and alao silken ones, smocked or honey combed with the same colored or con trasting silks, are useful, and much im prove and every-day gown. If one ii toughtfora copy, it is quite easy t« make others at very small cost. Wh;U ones are particular'y fashionable.—JVta York Post. Catting • CralMr'a Rum. Describing the process of catting tha nm for tho new United State, crota! Bmi Francisco, the Sen Francsco Chronic e say* : At one o’clock Foreman J. W. Galvin, of the Pacific Rolling Mill*, accompanied by E. Francis, fori man of tha molders, ascended the stag. Ing on the sonth side of the monster furnace, where twenty-six thousand pounds of boiling, bubbling steel wer* imprisoned. A five-ton kettle had ia the meantime, been switched off on * side track, where it wax heated to a red- hot degree. On the command of the foreman, Galvin, it was lifted from its position on tha aide •witch, and placed upon a miniature railroad track leading from the mouth of the caldron where the melted ateel wa« confined. Having been placed directly underneath the apout, four sturdy workmen, by aid of. rum, drove the clay bulkhead from the mouth of tbe chute, and instantly after •o doing a stream of white metal steel waa seen to flow along the chute and In- to the kettle, sending up a shower of fiery sparks in all directions mogmfi. cently grand to behold. This imposing scene lasted just for two minutes and fifty seconds, when one of the workmen with a rammer knocked a section out of the chute and permitted the flowing steel to run through the (pace beneath The kettle was instantly ran along th* abort railroad track a distance of twenty, five feet, when it was stopped directly over a aquare shaped receptacle. A few sharp jerke of a lover, by one of the aasiatants, opened an aperture through which the melted steel ran into the re ceptacle already mentioned. At tha same instant a flash, with a report as if a concussion had occurrad, was seen to shoot up from an adjacent tube liks opening. This waa caused by an ex- plosion of the hot and cold air coming in contact in the apace prepared under neath for the melted steel, which has by thia time formed the prow of the cruiser San Francisco. In juat thirty seconds the twenty-six thousand pounds of steel had left tbe kettle through a six-inch nozzle and run into the mold. The casting was witnessed by Lieuten- ants F. P. Gilmore and R. H. Gelt, of the United States Navy, who have charge of certain sections of the work on the new craft on behalf of the Govern ment. Tho prow of the cruiser San Francisco will be raised from its mold and taken to the trimming ahop, where the superfluous matter will be chipped off, and the cut-water put in propei condition to be placed in position on th« vessel. Nicaraguan Beds The beds of Nicaragua do not invite to sweet repose, according to the de scription of them given oy E. G. Squier. “It was full midnight,” he rays, "when we were settled for the u : ght. And such a night! I had now my first intro duction to the kind of bed in common use in the country, and which I verily believe was instituted as a punishment for the sins of the ] eop'.e. It consists of an ox-hide drawn while green, tightly over a stout framework of wood, and afterward elaborately polished, ao as to look like the bead of a drum. When dry, a slab of nmble is a soft and downy thing in comparison with it. It was on such a bed ns this, with a smooth and graiidily colored petate, or mat, and a single sheet spread over the hide, that I was invited to repose. I examined thia new instrument of torture narrowly, and finally turned in with heavy misgivings, particularly aa I found that Pedro’s mansion was full of fleas, which had al ready set my nerves on a gallop. I waa weary enough, but it was impossible to sleep the fleas came in hungry squad rons, and ihe hide bed grew momenta rily mo e rigid and obdurate. At last I could endure it no longer. A bed on pri- th ® fe , ‘ ound . with my saddle for a pillow and the iky fora roof, would have been luxury itaelf compared with thia. I got up, unbarred the door, and went out on the corridor. The cool evening air waa most welcome, and I vowed audibly not to go to that ox-hide bed again, and so remained outoide till dawn.” Early Saratoga Days. In a letter to the Cincinnati Enquirer, describing New York’s famous health resort, Saratoga Springs, the well- known correspondent, Gath, says: You may be sure to find a new apring here every year you come, though you should live to be one hundred years of age. The earliest apring was Nature’s own revealment, tbe High Rock, which, flowing out of a swamp, had deposited tufa, or impure magnesia, along its sides until there had arisen a cone three or four feet high, entirely made out of the dropping* of the water. It was essy to determine the age of this cone from the amount of organic matter deposited from each gallon. Hundred* of years hsd that cone been in the course of forma tion. At that time the ruling Indians of America were the Five Nations or Six Nations of Iroquois, who lived at no great distance from these springs; if you cut across the country from Saratoga to Schenectady, or a little above it, you are in Iroquois land. The British Govern ment, knowing that these Indians con trolled all the other tribes from the Atlantic to the Mississippi River and be- yond, gave them a superintendent who was equal to the superintendency of all the Indians in tbe country—Sir William Johnson, an Irishman. Johnson, of course, had to be half Indian to get along with the savages. He got drunk with th? Indians; he danced with the Indians. Iu the course of time old Johnson felt tho rgvages of disease. He had gone out to New *London to bathe iu the sea water, and that seems to have been one of the earliest watering-places in the country. At last the Indians, considering that they were to lose a great and good friend, as well as numerous gilt buttons, red shirts, doses of whisky, etc., concluded to take him to their medicine spring, which had been the cure of innumerable drunken Indian*. v whose stomachs had yielded to thq--* attacking power of rum, brandy, etc. They put old Johnson on a litter, other wise a stretcher, took him by concealed trail through the woods some thirty miles, to the High Rock Spring, which was down in a swamp, and its surround- 1 ings extremely dirty. Johnson drank the water,felt its agree able effects, and put it on record that here was an extraordinary fountain of health and restoration. Tie Cxai life is anftenjhreatened lately that t looks, kaerfi the New York ,.if bwighl ave to go to war to mewhat tU* * 1*4 Mr# k )«ra liff. •object* „ 8t€el Car Company is M id to be constructing * fire-proof steel, ar at Boa- which will contain nothing that can burn except the upholstery, and even hat is constructed of uninflammable cnal. Not only immunity from fire the r n h H #rea " ,B ' tr * D « th - a Casein the liability to telescope, and diminish ,. d are •• pasted to be some of the good features of the new car. The Cradle ef Samoa. • The Samoan cradle ia a torture box. The baby is lashed to aboard with strong thongs. Under the head is a pillow formed of more or rabbit sains, and a piece of wood is placed over the head a* at incline, and is held in its place b/ cords that reach to the foot of the quei* cradle. The forehead is bandaged, and the pressure of the inclined board grad ually flattens the head of the child to the des’red degree. Imprisoned thus, the baby passes the first eight months of its existence. Luring all this time it u never wholly relcated, though varioui bandage* are taken off at state 1 iatcrvnh from motives of cleanliness. A fatiy l is the Samoan type of beauty. It ia Mid that 1000 bushels of grain are killed by heat in the West where one ii in jured bv fjryt UdTfair to have a NaJ