Newspaper Page Text
CAPTAIN TREMfllffS WIFE. A Thrilling Story of the Days of the Amer ican Revolution. BY MARTHA J. LAMB. CHAPTER I. "Isn't lhat a boat, that spook upon tho river near the other shore?" Tho questioner, a pale, blue-eyed young man of perhaps 25, bore the marks of rough experiences. One eye was closed and one side of his fauo swollen and discolored. His clothing was in disorder and his left arm badly Bprained.' He was reclining on the damp earth at the mouth of a shallow cave on tho shore of tho Hudson, near what. is now tho western terminus of Christopher street. It was in tho fore noon of a sultry day in tho month of June, 1776. In striking contrast to tho limp figure of the bruised and battered Harry Ship ton was the self-poised, faultlessly at tired, gentlemanly looking man of some thirty or more years who stood before him. He was in citizen's dress, but of unmistakable military bearing, tall, well proportioned, with a shapely head, and features of unusual manly beauty. He kolied toward the object indicated. "Yes,""lie said, quietly, "that seems to be a boat, probably somo fisher man's." Then, turning and fixing his pitying eyes .upon the disabled youth, he asked, "How did you get through tho night?" "Horribly. Such a hole as this to stay in, and my head and arm splitting With pain!" "It is bad. Perhaps you would rather I had let them drag you to tho old jail— but that might not have been the worst of your trials." "Oh, no this is a palaco to that. Don't think I am ungrateful, but I am In agony. What shall I do? Do you know whether those devils are still hunting for me?" "I think they are, but not in this direction. Someone raised the cry that a Tory had placed you behind him on his horse and galloped off to tho north in the darkness, and a lot of troopers started on tho run expecting to over take you. Meanwhile you found a refuee hero." "You found it for me. It is a mystery to mo how you ever" brought me here. I don't seem to remember." "Let that pass now. How would you like a bit of breakfast?" From his pocket meanwhile the speaker exhumed a small paper parcel and placed it upon a lace-edged pocket handkerchief which he spread upon 1lie ground before the young man for a tablecloth. It was a delicious sandwich. A little flask was drawn from another pocket and some wine poured into a tiny silver mug and placed beside it. Harry Shipton had fasted for nearly twenty-four hours, and having one free hand he helped himself like a starving man. He bright ened ut once and said: "You are jolly good to me, and yet I do not even know your name." "I am plain Dr. Harris for the pres ent. I cannot tell you my real name, because these rocks may have ears, and these are war times." "Is there any way for mo to get off the island to-day, Doctor? Did you soo my brother last night, as you promised?" "Yes, I Raw Charlie Shipton, if iie is your brother. I went immediately to him on leaving you here, told him of your misfortune and your Injuries, and where you could be found, and urged him to provide means to help you across the Hudson to your family. He was un civil to me and abused you. He said you were a traitor to your country and deserved to be hanged, and that he nei ther could nor would do anything for Perhaps you know that ho has enlisted in a rebel artillery company under the captainship of a young man by the name of Hamilton, to whom, by the way, I had to apply, in the guise of a doctor, tor a permit to speak to your brother." "Really, that is picturesque! Charlie under Alexander Hamilton, is ho! Did Hamilton know of the nature of your errand to my brother'" "Of course he did. I could accom plish nothing without telling him, and I was convinced he would not betray you. Ho expressed great sympathy for you, and sorrow that you were on tho wrong side in the controversy said you and ho were chums in college and that he liked you immensely. He made it easy for me to confer with your brother without eavesdroppers, and you know tho result." "What could have turned Charlie intp stone?" moaned Harry Shipton. "He has always been tho dearest boy in the world until lately, so tender-hearted, so generous, so true. Hamilton was a clever lad, forever drilling the boys in military gymnastics in the college grounds and then orating on politics and war. I could beat him in recita tion, though, every time. I was at .the head—and now to think of my boing a fugitive, hunted to the death in my own native New York, and my biother willing to let me die! He is a mon ster! "War always makes men into mon sters." "Look, Doctor, look! That boat is certainly heading for the shore, just be low us here," and Harry Shipton pulled himself up for a better view. There was no available landing place In the vicinity and the little craft was in obvious danger. Gusts of wind had been for some time stirring the broad Hudson into a tumult and the boat was dancing among the waves like a crazy thing as it neared the rough bank. "By Jove, it will be dashed to pieces! It is a woman rowing! She cannot man age the oars," cried Harry. There was no response, for the doctor had darted to the water's edge with the epeed of a whirlwind but before he was near enough to make his voice heard by the occupants of the boat (two women and an infant), the woman who was row ing made a spring to clutch some over hanging bushes, and partially succeed ing was dragged forward into the deep black water and disappeared. The boat rebounded from the shock, tottered a moment upon the crest of a high wave, and' then went over—the woman with the infant in her arms uttering a pierc ing shriek as she was plunged into the river. Tho coctor had tlivosted himself of his loose clothing as he ran, aud swinging himself down the branch of a tree lie dropped into the abyss and presently emerged with «. Ouidou Ui-u ta\ed all his strength to lift up the ragged bluff to a place of safety-. It was the mother with her in fant claspod tightly to her breast in a death-like embrace. The baby was ex tricated, and after a little manipulation opened its laughing eyes and puckered its pretty mouth and coo-oo-ed. The doctor squeezed some of the water from its clothing, and picking up his:coat from whero he had thrown it wrapped it about tho little innocent, which ho laid tenderly into a nest among the bushes. Then he applied all his energies to the restoration of thp mother, whose white, girlish face-was very lovely in her un consciousness. Great masses of brown hair, loosened from their fastenings, were so iangied about her neck and throat that he was obliged to cut some of it away wttli his pockot knife to pre vent her. choking. As she gradually re vived he placed the flash with its few re maining drops of wine to her lips—then fauned her gently with his hat. "My baby," she whispered without lifting her eyelids. "Your baby is safo," was the reassur ing response. "Is she dead? Oh, heavens, it is my sister Edith!" exclaimed some one be hind the doctor, and turning his head ho looked into the horrified face of Harry Shipton, who had hobbled to the spot from the cave. "No, Harry, not dead," came from the prostrate figure, whoso beautiful dark eyes were wide open now and fixed upon her rescuer with wondering interest. She lield out her hand and the Doctor raised her into a sitting posture—and it was necessary for him to support her thus for a few moments. "I came for you, Harry. I hope the boat is not lost, for you are to so back in it," she said, and Doctor Harris ob served that sho had the low, trained voice of a gentlewoman—a voice with a thrill in it that sent the blood rushing through his veins. "You came for me, Edith! How did you know I was here?" asked Harry. "Charley told us hoeame to us in the night—la6t night—he had special leave of ab3cnce from Captain Hamilton to inform us of your hurts, and papa and mamma were so distressed and uncer tain how'you could be reached and your life saved that I volunteered to under take the secret service. Matilga rowed me across the river and is to row you back. Where is she?" "I will look for her," said the doctor. "She fell into the water, upsetting tho boat, and I fear she is drowned." "Oh, no, I think not. She can swim like a fish, and is quite equal to saving herself," said the lady, as calmly as she would have ordered a chicken for dinner. Tho words had scarcely left her lips when a woolly head and a very black face appeared above a rock on the edge of the bank. -Up came one black hand, then another, and, finally, the whole figure of a fchort, stout negro woman was in sight. "Halloa, Missus! how's you got up dare? I'so been ranstacklng all frow do riber for ye. Seho, Massa Harry, youse ready, be's ye? I'se jest done beat a tryin' to catch dat boat, and I'se got him. Gome along wid ye." Surprises had chased each other so swiftly that Harry was completely overcome. He saw how he had mis judged his brother Charlie, and now here was his proud and handsome sister risking her life in a venture few men would have undertaken to get him out of the trouble he had indiscreetly, brought upon himself. Matilga came forward and surveyed him with' a friendly grin. "MassaHarry, wot you been adoin' to yer eye? Massa Charlie don't get no such bad looks. Bo's you tryin' to beat dis nigger on do color question? Come along wid ye." "What is your hurry? We cannot leave Edith here "Yes, you can," interrupted the lady, "it is all arranged. Nobody wants to hang me it is only yourself, Harry, that is in immediate danger. 1 am going to stay on this side for the present. I ex pect to pay a visit to General Washing ton and ask for a permit to join my hus band." "Come along.wid ye, Massa Harry. I hear de guns dis berry minute." "I think, Shipton, you had better lose no time. I will look after your sister," said tho Doctor, assisting the young man as best as he could toward the shore. "Good-by, Missus. Ursula will fix: you up skrim," cried Matilga, as she vanished beyond the bluff. i' CHAPTER II. Under the hot skies of that memorable month of June, 1776, Now York was one of the most stirring places on the West ern Continent. The erection of an in dependent empire on this side of the Atlantic Ocean was the all-absorbing topic o, thought and speech. War and bloodshed was on the wing. Men were working day and night on the fortifica tions. For many weeks New York had been in a state of agonized alarm. Families were making- their escapa as best they could, taking little or much with them as the circumstances permit ted. The rich knew not where to go for safety, and the poor, thrown upon the charity of interior towns, suffered from a complication of ills. Hundreds of men were suddenly deprived of the means of supporting their families. Inhabitants as well as soldiers were subject to strict miiitaiy discipline. Washington had reached New York on the 13th of the previous April, and was in almost hourly consultation with the principal men of the New York Con gress, several of whom were appointed to military, office. Troops were march ing into the city from all points of the compass in variegated costumes that must have seemed grotesque to the En glish soldiery. The old red coats worn in the French wars had been brought from the garrets and brushed up for use by the Connecticut men.. Thus every now and then was seen a dingy regi mental of scai let with triangular and much tarnished laced hat among the tow-froeked volunteers. Some of tho Marylanders wore green hunting shirts with leatgins to match. Troops from Delaware came in dark blue coats with rod facing*. Some of the Jersey rifle men were in short red coats and striped trousers, others in short blue coats, old leather breeches, light, blue stockings, shoes with brass buckles and wool hats bound with yellow. The Pennsylvania regiments were in all the colors of the rainbow, brown coats- faced with buff, blue n.oats faced with red, black coats faced with white and studded with great pewter buttons, buckskin breeches and blue cockhats with white tape bindings, also blue coats faced with white while several companies came without any coats-at all, each man with but a single shirt, and that so small that the' New Englanders made fun of them. The Virginians were in white smock frocks furbelowed with ruffles at the neck, el bows and wrists, black stocks, hair in cue, and round-topped, broad-rimmed black hats, although ere long their light dragoons were uniformed in blue coats taced with red, or brown coats faced with green. Washington's guards wore blue coats faced with buff, red waist coats, bupkskin breeches, black felt hats bound with white tapo and bayonet and body belts of white. Hunting shirts with breeches of the same eloth gaiter, fashion about the legs were seen on every side, and as theso were convenient garments for a campaigning country, they were soon adopted by tho British themselves. This was the origin of the modern trouser or pantaloon. The question of what to do with the Tories was anxiously being discussed by tho patriots, as they were making mischief on every hand. It was difficult to discriminate between those who were really criminal as covert enemies and such as indulged in a peaceful difference of opinion. Many were seized on sus picion and imprisoned by the Committee on Conspiracy. The popular element was fierce and uncompromising and compelled neighbors to show their colors. It was unsafe to breathe a syllable against the American cause. Neutrality was not tolerated. All who did not declare themselves "for liberty" wore, in the lower class particularly, pronounced traitors and pursued with merciless rancor. They were chased like beasts and obliged to secret them selves in the woods, swamps and other hiding places and wait for the coming of the British army. Even in tho best families fathers and -mothers were doomed to see their children arrayed against each other, as in the case of Harry and Charlie Shipton. Wives saw their husbands arming against their own blood. Personal and domestic happi ness was jeopardized on all sides. The Shiptons lived in an elegant house in Broad street, and were greatly beloved by their associates. Colonel Shipton was a retired British officer, but his three children were born in New York. His only daughter, Edith, had, 'in 1774, married her cousin, Roland Tremain, a young man about her own age. When, hostilities were dawning he had defied all his relatives and family interests and joined the patriots. Charles Shipton did likewise, despite his father's protest and prayers. Harry Shipton's sympathies were with his father and with British rulership, and he combated with his brother Charles on the subject until coming to toiling heats the father interfered, and told each to go his own way. They loft the family fireside one sad evening, by different doors, and before midnight Colonel Shipton wa3 privately informed that he was himself under suspicion and to be arrested by the "Committee on Con spiracy" during the next forenoon. This was to him an unexpected blow, for he had no intention of taking part in the coming conflict. There seemed but one course, however, for him to pursue he secured boats and in the darkness of the early morning he and his family were convoyed with a few necessaries to the Jersey shore of the Hudson, where they took possession of a farm house on their own property, some half a mile from tho river. 'This was only a temporary refuge, and Edith, who went with them, intended to return to New York the first opportunity in order to be near her husband. "I am at your service, what can I do for you?" ihe Doctor had clambered up the bank from having seen Harry safely embarked on his trip across the Hudson, to find his patient convalescing rapidly. Sho had crept to' her baby and was amusing it by shaking bits of grass over its face. "There is a little habitation In tho woods to the north of us, not far, whero some of our servants are staying. I will go there. May I know how serious ly my brother Harry is injured?" "He has no wounds so far as I am aware that endanger his life, but lie he has such as should have im-iiediate care." "Was it truo what Charlie told us, that he just barely escaped being hung." "You might have thought so if you had seen the. irresponsible mob that had him in hand when I came upon the scene," said the Doctor, smiling. "May I go and bring somo of your people to you?" "Oh, dear, no I will go to them. If I had baby on my shoulder I could run away even from a band of Indians," and she laughed merrily in trying to rise to her feet, unconsciously seizing both tho Doctor's extended hands. "You had better see if you can walk before you begin to run," ho said, play fully. "I am all right. Yes, I can walk," she roplied. "Well, then, I wonder if baby will oblige me with my coat?" He picked up the little one, held it high in the air, and made it laugh out right, and, laying it on the ground again, put on his coat, and then took it in his arms quite naturally. A little later on a graceful, hatless woman, whose clothing, very much soilew and wilted, clung fast to her limbW, was groping her way step by step through a swampy field, followed by a man carrying a baby. Some negro women sunning them selves in front of a little hut among the trees saw what they at first thought an apparition, but presently recognized the woman and came running to meet her. "Wat' de matter, missus?" they asiced in chorus. "We have been to the bottom of the river Matilga upset the boat." "Lord's sake! Glory be's to God you's got out. Ware's Matilga?" "She has returked to mamma with the boat. Ursula, take the baby and relieve this kind gentleman who helped us out of the water." The order was obeyed with noisy de monstrations in the way of hugs and kisses, the be.by seeming well pleased with it all,, and in the midst of the com motion the Doctor took Edith's hand, raised it to his lips, and walked rapidly away, having left the words, "God bless you!" in her ears for a perpetual memory. "Dare now, guess I know dat chap! Say, m:*sus, ware did you find him?" "Fanning me, when I was tryiug to breatha. What do you kn*W 4bout him?" "He ware at Mtster Elliott's last year. He came along wid do Commodore, and he were de chap dat brung de gold claspet to Miss Agnes." "Well, he has been good to us, and that counts for-something.- You must not speak of him to a soul, lest they carry htm off to prison as an enemy. Are my trunks here?" "Yes, missus. We covered 'em up •wid leaves in de cellar." "I must have some dry garments at once, and so must baby dtess me up nicely, Ursula, for I am going to call upon Gen. Washington." Within an hour and a half the wet and snarled hair had been dried and combed and arranged artistically in the fashion of the day, and the sweet face of Edith Tremain framed in a picturesque gypsy hat, while a thin gown of some summer fabrio in white and blue set off the shapely figure to great advantage. The baby smiled approval, but cried with animation when tho bewitching object went, out of sight down the pathway. Richmond Hill House, Washington's headquarters, stood upon an eminenco to the southeast not far distant, about where Charlton now crosses Varick street. It was a country villa, a mile and a half from town, surrounded by fields of grass and grain, with a flower garden at one side inclosed by a hedge. The roses were in bloom, and Ursula, walking beside her mistress along the winding carriage drive to the entrance to the mansion, could not resist putting her hand through the fence and snatch ing one, which she fastened to Edith's hat, and then walkod on demurely. Suddenly there was a olatter of hoofs and twt horsemen galloped round tho curve toward them, one of whom lifted his three-cornered hat as he passed, and Edith blushed under tho admiring gaze of Captain Hamilton, who wheeled his horse to ask respectfully: "Can'I serve you in any way? "No, thank yo i, further than to take good care of Charlie," and away he galloped. [TO BE CONTINUED.] 1 Not to Be Itesisted. The craving for freedom is so strong among prisoners that they will even throw away their chances of pardon for the sake of its temporary gratification. The author of "Tha American Siberia,"a"book describing convict life in the South, says that one .prisoner had served out a long sentence up to its last day. He had worked faithfully, and never violated a prison rule. All the officials had the utmost confidence in him. He was to be released the next day, and meantime was one of a squad of men working out of doors. The captain of the camp had oc casion to use a barrel left on the top of a neighboring hill, and said, jocose ly, to this prisoner "Do you think you could come back if I sent over the hill for that bar rel?" He laughed at the idea. "Why, of course, I could, captain," he replied. "I've had a hundred chances to escape, and, besides. I shall be a free man to-morrow." "Go ahead," said the captain. He started over the hill, and was presently seen returning. When the captain looked up again he was gone. And the result proved that he had run about a mile and then sat down to hammer off the irons. When he was captured he seemed half dazed,: and could offer no explanation except that he "just couldn't help it." Another prisoner knew himself bet ter. He was to be released in a few, days, and the captain said to him, in reference to some errand: "Do you think it would be safe for me to send you over there?" A singular expression overspread his face, and then, in one burst of candor, came its explanation. "Captain," said he, "you'd better not s(?nd me. If 1 got that far away I couldn't come back if I wanted to." Potato Legends* When potatoes were first intro duced into .Russia by a Mr. Rowland (the exact date of the introduction of the tuber into that -benighted country being a subject of contro versy, but usually set down at 1791) the people would neither plant nor touch them. They declared them to be the devil's fruit, and that they were given to his satanic majesty on his complaint to God that he had no fruit. God told him to "search the earth for food." Whereupon the poor devil fell to digging in the earth and found potatoes growing therein. A similar legend seems to have ob tained credit among the staid Brit ishers in Berwickshire, England. In' that shire the introduction of pota toes is popularly attributed to Sir. Michael Scott, once known all over Britain as "The Wizard of the North." According to the story, Mi chael and the devil formed a copart nership and took the lease of a farm on the Mertown estates, called the "Whitchouse." Michael was to man-, age the farm the devil the capital the produce was to be divided in the following manner: The first year Michael was to have all that grew above the ground and the devil all that grew beneath the surface. The second year shares were to be divided in just the oppo site way. His satanic majesty, strange to say, was badly beaten by the wily Michael, for that personage, with true Scottish foresight, sowed all the land to wheat the first year and planted all in potatoes the:-sec ond. So the poor devil got nothing but stubble and potato tops. How these absurd legends originated no one seems td know, but the fict re mains that the peasants of loth Rus sia and England even to this day fre quently allude to potatoes as "Devil's Fruit." "You are altogether too fresh," said tho potato to the egg, "and I have my eyes on you." "Now, look here, Irish," said tlje egg, "I dare say you have a good heart, but re member that when we come to scram-! tie for a living you're not iit it with me."—Life. THINK rigfc.t and you will act right AS KNOWN TO ANCIENTS. TJlo Methods by Wnicll Thoy Studied tlio Most Distant Worlds. We find in the tabic at the Rames seum distinct references to the bull, the lion, and the scorpion, and it is also clearly indicated that at that time the star Sirius rose heliacally at the beginning of the rise of the Nile. This word heliacally requires a little explanation. The ancients, who had no telescopes and had to use their horizon as the only scientific instru ment which they possessed, were very careful in determining the various conditions in which a star could rise. For instance, if a star were rising at the same time as the sun was rising it was said to rise cosmically, but unless certain very obvious precautions were taken the rising star would not be seen in con revuence of the presence of daylight. It is quite ^lear that if we observe a soar rising'in the dawn it will get more and more difficult to observe the nearer the time of sunrise is ap proached. Therefore what the an cients did was to determine a time before sunrise in the early dawn at which the star could be very ob viously and clearly seen to rise. The term "heliacal rising" was coined to represent a star rising in the dawn therefore, barore tha sun. Generally throughout Egypt the sun was supposed to be something like 10 degrees below the horison when a star was stated to rise helia cally. We find, then, that more than 5,000 years ago the Egyptians were per fectly familiar with these facts and the difference between a cosmicaland heliacal rising was perfectly clear to them. But tha table at Thebes tells iis, moreover, that the sun's iourncy in relation to some of the zodiacal constellations was perfectly familiar 5,000 years ago. These, then, are some of the more general statements which may be made in.regard to the most import ant points so far discussed by those who have dealt with Egyptian as tronomy, and it may be added that all this information has come to us in mythologic guise. The various apparant movements of the heavenly bodies which are pro duced by the rotation and revolution, of the earth and the effects of the precession were familiar to the Egyptian, however, ignorant they may have been of the causes. They care fully studied what they saw and at tempted to put their, knowledge to gether in the most convenient fash ion, associating it with their strange imaginations and with their system of worship.—Nineteenth Century, Africa'* Prickly Pear* T" "Home Lite on an Ostrich Farm" the author thus describes the prickly pear of Africa, which is so tenacious of life that a leaf, or even a small portion of a leaf, if thrown on the ground, strikes out roots almost immediately, and becomes the parent Df a fast growing plant: Mischievous though the prickly pear is, it is not without its jrood qualities. Its juicy fruit, though rather deficient in flavor, is delight fully cool and refreshing in the dry heat of summer, and a kind of treacle is made from it. Great caution is needed in peeling the pricidy pear, the proper way be ing to impale the fruit on a fork or stick while you cut it open and re-, move the skin and woe betide the fingers of the unwary "new chum" who plucks the treacherous fruit. My first sad experience of the prickly pear was gained onavisit to the market-place of Algiers. The fruit was handed to us politely peeled, by the Arab dealer and thus as we made acquaintance with its delight ful coolness no suspicion of its evil qualities entered our niinds. A few days later, adding the excite ment of a little trespassing to the more legitimate pleasures of a coun try ramble, we came upon a well laden group of prickly-pear bushes, and could not resi3t the temptation to help ourselves to some of the fruit. The result was woeful. Concentrated essence of stinging nettle seemed all at*once to be assail ing hands, lips and tongue and our skin, wherever it had come in con tact with the ill-natured fruit, was covered with a thick crop of minute, bristly hairs, apparently growing from it, and venomous ancl irritating to the last degree. Our silk gloves, transformed sud denly into miniature robes of Nessus, had to be thrown away, perfectly un wearable, and the inadvertent use of our pocket-handkerchiefs before we had fully realized the extent of our misfortune caused fresh agonies, in which nose, as well as the lips par ticipated. For many a day did the retribution of that theft haunt us in the form of myriads of tiny stings. In dry weather at the Cape these spiteful little stings do not even wait for the newly arrived victim, but fly about light as thistle-down, ready to settle on any one who has not learned by experience to give the prickly-pear bushes a wide berth. -Writing for the Press. it is an excellent plan to use small note-paper size in writing for the press, for if any mistakes are to be corrected, or interlineations neces sary, one can re-copy the sheet and throw away the original without sac rificing too much writing. A most methodical author does all his work on very small white note paper, expressly selected, containing just twenty lines. In the author's regular handwriting, each line contains five words, so that the whole page contains just one hundred words. By this decimal sys tem he can estimate almost at a glance the amount of his day's work. Never inliict foolscap paper upon a long-suffering editor. Foolscap paper is heavy, awkward to handle or put down, occupying too much space, rov ers the ease ot the compositor, and jostles and breaks its corners in Uncle Sara's mail bag. Letter paper size may be pardoned, especially in a type written MS., but-foolscap, especially if it be rolled, is the nightmare of an editor. Several magazines advertise that they will return rolled MSS. un read one domestic periodical an nounces that all such MSS. will be burned unopened. For hisown sake, therefore, the writer should avoid a. sure method of rendering his work: "unavailable." T.ho Wonder of Alaslca* The Muir glacier, which is thegrcnt" wonder of Alaska, was doubtless dis covered by Vancouver in 1794, but Prof. John Muir was the first to de scribe it. Muir inlet, at the head ol' the Glacier Bay, is the termination of this great "river of ice." The wall of blue ice is there a mile long and about 400 feet high. It is worn into towers, castles and' caverns, and is continually discharg ing fragments from the size of a pav ing stone to that of Cologne Cathe dral. These falling into the sea cast up the spray for hundreds of feet into the air, and sencl forth [waves whiclt dash upon the shores and echo like thundr.r among the mountains. The Muir glacier is really a sea of" ice, with numerous branches in the val|ey, any one of which is as large as the' Gomar of Aletssh glacier of Switzerland. It is, .according fo Mr. S. P. Bald win, a recent vistor, as large as all the Alpine glaciers in one, beiDg 1200 square miles in area' The ice is 1000 feet thick at the-mouth in Muir In let, and the' glacier is estimated to comprise as much water as Lake Erie^ It discharges "7,000,000,000 cubic feet of ice as icebergs, and 175,000, 000,000 fe'et of water by melting every year. The center ot the glaciei, where the motion is quickest, is so rough and broken into crevasses that it is considered impassable. The eastern half, however, can bo travelled as far as the neve. Prof. Wright has found the motion' at the center to be as much as Go feet a day, whereas that of the Alpine glaciers is only 33 inches or so. As much as 90 feet a day has been found in the case ot a Greenland glacicr. The Muir glacier once extended much further into the bay, and is now receding every year, while the sources of the ice supply are failing. Men and Manners* There is infinitely more wisdom in* submitting to the necessary rules ol' civilization than in scorning them. They may be neglected, however, for want of knowledge, and in such a. case the offender is to be excused, though he may be laughed at. George Stephenson, on being urged to wear gloves when about to be ad mitted to an audience with the King of Belgium, said that he was only a plain man, and if the King of Bel gium could not receive him in naiuro's gloves, clean-washed, he need not rj ceive him at all. It is not probable that the King would have thought more of Mr. Stephenson had he worn gloves, but his failure to conform to a court rule, of which he was well aware, was a. lack of courtesy that might well be censured. A good-natured but ill-informed., man was invited to a large reception, where he was introduced to several ladies, one of whom he invited to dance. She accepted, but suggested the propriety of his putting on liis gloves before they took theirplaces on. the floor. "Oh, never mind me, madam," he exclaimed "I shall wash may hands when I am done dancing.' Applied Mathematics. tn an offhand sketch of Prof. Cbrys-s tal, one of his old pupils tells how this mathematician made his science aid him in the management of his class. The daring spirits—say, those who were going into their father's office, and so did not look upon Chrystal as a door locked to their advancement— sought to bring sunshine into the room. Chrystal soon had the blind down on that. To relieve the monotony, a student, at the end of bench ten dropped a marble, which toppled slowly down ward toward the professor. At every step it took, there was a smothered, guffaw but Chrystal, who was work ing at the board, did not turn his head. When the marble reached the floor, he said, still with his back to. the class: "Will the student at the end o£ bench ten, who dropped that marble,, stand up?" AH eyes dilated. He had counted the falls of the. marble from step to step. JKadlcally Different. Two things may look very similar ort the surface, but be entirely unlike at bottom, as in this case reported by the Memphis Appeal-Avalanche: The landlady of a boarding house in this city has an 8-year-old son who is remarkably precocious. Not long ago he went up town and bad his head shaved. Among the boarders is a gentleman whose l^Ur long ago bade him farewell. This gentleman came to the table the next day, and said: "Why, Charley, you haven't any more hair now than I have." "Yes, sir," said Charley, "that's soj but you see I have a lot more roots than you-have." Flower of the Air. There is a plant in Chili, ai-'l a similar one in Japan, called the "flower of the air." It has no root*, and is never fixed in the earth. It twines round a dry tree or sterile rock. Each shoot produces two or three flowers like a lily. It can be transported long distances, and vege tates as it travels suspended on a twig. -i