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S PHILosoPHICAL OBSERVATIONS , PB' BYRON WILLIAMS. "More water glideth by the mill Than wots the miller of." A wise king sought a satisfied man. To this end he advertised a prize if gold. It was a "free-for-all," a Eoiree in which the contented poor anr, the favored rich might participate. Having Eet his trap 'he hoary old 'wiseacre titled his crown, a Ia Lilliann Russell, and "smoked up." Man came to claim the reward, their faces wreathed in happiness and with songs .on their lips; but each was turned away with the question, "If satisfied with your lot ii life why seek ye this prize?" And they went away crest fallen, while the' Jolly old king burst the -buttons off his royal vest laugh ing. turned away with the question, "If satisfied with y'ur lot in life why see!; ye this prize?" And they went away crestfallen, while the jolly old king burst the buttons off his royal vest laughing. The babe at its young and buxom mother's breast wants the moon. When t*he infant has grown to manhood's estate he wants not only the moon, but the world with a barbed wire fence around it. He seems unmindful of the truth that the earth would be as much "an elephant on his hands" as would the moon have been in his adolescent days. As a babe he was not satisfied with that sweet mother's breast; as a man the blessings innumerable are not sufficient. He sees not the glories about him and the water runs away, past his mill while he sees it not. A young man walking along a sinous path of nature with beauties at every step, discovered a coin of gold in his path. Every afterward he bent his eyes earthward to the'rude path beneath his feet in search of pelf, for getful of the glorious world about him and the sun setting in golden aureoles upon the mountain beaks of life. He died a miser and the water that gurgled by his cabin door laughed onward in derisive requiem. Amid the flowers of the country, the anemones that burst in the spring time and are called by the children "dew-drops," the forget-me-nots of ad vancing sunshine in shaded nooks, the wild roses that tincture of a rara ' avis perfume, the apple blossoms and the lilacs, the lilies of the valley and the violets-amid all these god-like, heart throbbings of nature, the pastoral people long for the unnatural city. The glad cry of the water as it sings past the miller is not heard-there is sighing for coal smoke and turmoil and struggle. Thus it is with us ever, the water of life plunges by us unheeded -we long for the sandy desert and the artificial things of life. Yesterday the miller beheld his wife, his children and that dear old mother's face. In a non-committal sort of way he noticed them as he hurried home to sleep. The next day he was blind. Instantly the mind, springing to supremacy, upbraids him. Never again may he see the waters at his very feet. In a vague, weird, rhythmn he hears the plashing nectar. He knows that millions of prism-like drops are flashing rainbows in the sun, but he cannot see. The disregarded brook has become a river of life he cannot lave in-the beauty about him is no more and there is nothing left but darkness, longing and despair. In life we sully our sight with things which do not satisfy and from the busy mart and strenuous brawl of existence, yearn to reach back with innocence to that brook which rippled past our early youth. Alas! It has grown muddy and commonplace, humid and fishy-the glass is shattered and the golden bowl lies in cutting fragments at our heart. "More water glideth by the mill Than wots the miller of." Happy the man who sees the glory of the rainbow, the iridescent scintil lations of a vari-hued joy, in the things that are true and simple. "The mill will never grind With the water tfiat is past." A luckless editor recently advised his constituency to kill their dogs and buy pigs. He was a practical publisher and he knew many people could better i afford to feed their waste food to hogs than to canines. A storm of protest followed the editor's suggestion. One writer says in reply: "Yes, kill your dear old faithful, mindful, thankful, trustful dog and buy a pig. But when you come home after a hard day's toil don't expect that same pig to meet you two blocks away with a joyful little cry of welcome at every t jump. Sometimes when you feel unusually blue and it seems that the whole world is knocking against you, don't expect it to nestle up to your side and, laying its head within your lap, wag out its unalloyed sympathy." f Pig vs. dog! That is the question. Whether 'tis better to suffer the stings c and arrows of poverty with the friendship of a dog, or to eat spare-ribs and I brown gravy with no dog at the corner of the tablecloth waiting for the bones. I This is a momentous question when one looks the faithful old dog in the eye, a as it were. On the other hand, it is equally as great a proposition when one hears the contented grunt of the rotund porker sloughing in his swill. It is, however, merely a battle between friendship and plutocracy, and there is yet ] the problem to consider from the standpoint of domestication. The young woman in her hoity-toity, glad clothes, cavorting down the boulevard with a squealing little pig under her arm would undoubtedly create quite an impres sion as she progressed. Besides making a spectacle of herself the din raised by the young leather-lung would completely drown that very desirable little "frou-frou" every woman loves to hear her silken petticoats make. No, this wouldn't do at all. The pig as a pet is simply impossible. The proposition is a cold-blooded one: Shall we kill Towser, our faithful, wag- I tailed friend, for filthy lucre in the form of a little bunch of pork? That is h the question. But what about folks who are too poor to own either a dog or a pig? That is also the question. Keep the mind healthy if you don't lay up a cent. The slough of despond tl has nothing for sale that will benefit any one. Be joyous most of the time r despite your troubles. Don't be discouraged. Remember the man who had . good tight hold on the gentleman cow's tail, and hang on for dear life. The T Weakest thing any man can do is to give up. Keep trying and burnish brightly sr your hopes and expectations. Build air castles and live for their realization. { There is gratification in contemplation. We knew a well-educated man who was superintendent of city schools. He had a misunderstanding with a tl pompous member of the board. He lost his position and failed to secure an. hpl other. One night he gave up; got a revolver and shot himself. On the morn- ht ing mail, when his body was cold in death, came a letter offering him a better position than the one he lost. ca Don't give up to-day; wait until to-morrow. The sun will shine through do your cypress trees in time. Be of good cheer. All the world loves a laugher. pa Don't take this life so seriously that you must be miserable throughout it. cr Sip the honey from the chalice of existence and avoid the thorns. Keep your t mind filled with roses and the perfume of flowers, the love of children andto the patriotism of a nation. Be a man. If you cannot be happy yourself help others. This is a key which has unlocked many a rusty heart and set it to palpitating with rich, pure blood. Take an interest in things about you and life will soon be worth the living. There was never a night so black but . that the glorious sun broke through the clouds illuminating and sanctifying humanity. When God saw how wicked the primal men of this earth were he de- esi stroyed them, leaving only Noah and his family to perpetuate us. Just how inj wicked a world has to become before we have Noah and his ark upon us is eve merely-a matter of conjecture, but from hearsay it would seem that Noah's of second voyage is not being delayed by Chicago. WRonder what kind of a Noah thi Billy Mason would make! rex Seven has been a lucky number ever since Noah was ordered by the Lord or to take on board the ark every clean 'ieast to the number of seven. Just ani where eleven comes in is not clear, unless there was a poet on board. of By the way, do you really believe that story about Noah being 950 years tre old? m? It was terribly wet on the bottoms that season. the Noah's dove was the first homing pigeon known to history, no doubt. Sihe came home with an olive branch and Noah knew that fishing was not good on the the entire face of the earth. The water was receding and already chinch bugs were claiming the wheat. w What do you suppose became of that dove. anyhow? "She never came "on back"-that is, the third time she was sent away. eigl It must have been a great year for ducks! oth see bon Jones tried to please his wife, ate her biscuits and got dyspepsia. Jones the endeavored to please his employer and said employer used him for a hobby horse and a door mat. Jones, the editor, sought to please every faction antd jaw they said he was "all things to all men." Jones traded all over town to keel Co each merchant satisfied, and they said his trade didn't amount to anytthfig h Jones went to no church for fear of offendti:g his patrons in other churches, he and the preachers dubbed him an enemy to religion. Jones diit other thi,: and had a deuce of a time, pleasing none. Finally the docltors criticisetl him in because he did not petronize them anti hlie pondered. Ill~t wvh,. thi underta!,r brDi refused to speak to him because he didn't die candl patriy:fi:,-- Jim !Hm ... t prn -and resolved to please only himself. Moral--H lived happily ever afterward, d eum KANSAS BOOM TOWNS SNOW FARMING LAND. In almost every county in the state there are one or more lost towns. In the early days towns which were ex pected to become great cities were projected, and In some instances be came thriving communities. Now they are nothing but cornfields or prairie land. A county seat fight may have wiped them out of existence. A rail road may hAve come through and lo cated a new town a few miles away, and the firs1 town have been moved hodily to the railroad. In the western counties towns were projected during the boom days which were heavily bonded. Waterworks plants were built and other public im provements were made. All that is left of some such towns now are water pipes buried in the ground with the hydrants sticking up here and there on the prairie. A short distance from Fort Riley stand the ruins of the first capitol building of Kansas. Around it in 1854 was built the city of Pawnee. Nothing marks the site now except the old ruins of the capitol building. When Preston B. Plumb first landed in Kansas, a young man, he helped to lay out a town a short distance east ii where Salina now stands. A small pox epidemic swept through the town and drove away nearly all the settlers who did not die. The next spring Plumb went to Emporia and settled, and the very site of the town on the Saline is almost forgotten. There have been dozens of such lost towns in Kansas. Some of them have a history and some have not. In or der to preserve the records as far as possible George W. Martin, secretary of the State Historical Society, has addressed a letter to all registers of deeds in the state and many old-time settlers, asking for data and all pos sible information concerning these old towns. In his letter he says: "The Kansas State Historical So ciety desires to make a record of the lost towns of Kansas. Will you please consult with friends who were pio neers and make a list of the towns once existing in your county which are not now known-not on the map-an swering on this sheet of paper? In the material development of Kansas there were many who sacrificed means and ambitions-who did many inter esting things in which there was great enjoyment-that this state might be molded in their way. Please help put them on record. A few years more and if will be too late." In connection with the letter Secre tary Martin is sending out a blank on which he wishes detailed information. ARMY OFFICER SAVED SHAFT FROM FALLING. If there is a man in the world who might restore the placidity of Venice, which has been so disturbed by the fall of the Campanile and the precari ous condition of the other famous types of architecture, he is the new American major general who is short ly to relieve Chaffee of the Philippine command. For it was George W. Da vis who saved the Washington monu ment from destruction, and by the application of his ingenuity solved fundamental problems in his unique, off-hand manner that had baffled the highest engineering skill of modern times. After the great shaft to the father of his country had risen slowly to the height of 197 feet and rested there like a rough factory chimney, an unfin ished eyesore for twenty years, Con gress determined to complete it and gave the job to the army. Built on the edge of the Potomac marsh, as un stable as the soil of the queen of the Adriatic, the shaft had already leaned five feet out of plumb and nobody could be found to set it straight and insure its permanent stability until Davis, lately a quartermaster, then an infantry captain, volunteered to lift the hundreds of tons of masonry back to the perpendicular and build under it a foundation that would per mit the lifting of its top to the highest point ever attained by a monument erected by man. To hold the soft earth in place he built a huge barrel 100 feet in diame ter around the base and drove it deep into the earth below the tidal level. He bound together the inclosed mass with piles and braces, weighting it all down with stones and concrete, until he had secured a stability that would endure forever. Then he wedged up the monument and put an everlasting foundation under it and finally turned the work over to the engineers under Col. Casey, who eventually set the capstone 555 feet above the earth. Up to this day the great structure has not moved a hair's breadth and frequent inspection demonstrates how wonder fully Davis planned. But as he cannot be spared from Manila to save Venice perhaps it would be as well for the Venetians to come to Washington and study his triumph. Every youth will become a yeoman in some cause. PLAINSMAN'S STORY OF A RATTLESNAKE CHORUS. ft "Yes, sir," said the old plainsman, as he stood before a den of rattlers at the zoo, "I don't allow there's a more Interestin' rep-tile a-goin' than this here same breed. There is those as places the intellect of the rattlesnake on a low order an' I don't know as they have as good a workin' brain as G Qila monster or a tarantular, but I do know this: Their appreciation of the art of music is profound an' stir rin'. They takes to it like one of these here Wagner fellows does to a Theodore Thomas concert. An' they're smart to learn, lemme tell you. "Up to Routt county, Colorado, where I come from, there is most rat tlesnakes an' sagebrush an' a few peo ple huntin'. I remember a party of hunters passin' that-a-way last fall. In the evenin's they set about the camp singin' an' tdere was some man dolins along. Three or four times the party was scairt out by snakes that crept into camp to hear the music, though they should a-known better'n to be, for there's no harm in a rattler when there's music goin'. "But that ain't the curious part of the tale which I'm unfoldin'. I was along that place some time 'after the campers broke up and was attracted by a low musical sound from behind the bowider. Knowin' somethin' of tunes, I was s'prised to catch the chorus of one of the coon songs that had been popular with the campers. It was the one they call 'Ain't That a Shame?' Ponderin' over it, I Criept up on top of the bowlder and' looked over at some flat rocks on the other side. It was a sight never to forgit. A chorus of ten rattlers had their tails in the air an' was poundin' out the song for all they was worth! I lay there fasci nated and, by ginger, before they got through they done 'The Holy City' an' 'Go 'Way Back and Sit Down' as well's I ever heard 'em done. Kill 'em? 'Twould been a crime to break up a musical family like that." We all have a sacred niche in our hearts free from the contact of the world-for our sweetest, fondest re membrance. ONLY THE NINTH WONDER. John W. Mackay Modestly Gave Honor to Another. Of the late John W. Mackay's char acteristics none was more continually conspicuous than the unaffected mod esty of the man. Anything approach ing flattery was an affliction. One evening, seated with a group of men of affairs and good friends, some thing was disclosed of one of his cur rent accomplishments, some extra ordinary progress made in telegraph and cable enterprise, the consequence of which challenged Col. Tom Ochil tree (the genuineness of whose ad miration was never questionable) into the enthusiastic ejaculation: "By the Aboriginal! John, you are the eighth wonder of the world." "Oh, no, not so bad as that," an swered Mackay, showing amusement; "only the ninth, only the ninth. The eighth wonder is bigger than any other thing this continent will ever see." "And what is that?" demanded the bonfire-complexioned Texan. "What the devil is the eighth wonder, then?" "The man with the ball-bearing jaw," quoth Mackay. "Durned if I see the point," vowed CoL Ochiltree. At least that is what he said he said, for at the moment the Ochiltree voice had been drowned in a merry shout that filled the big, broad corridor. I don't believe much in luck, yit I don't mind takin' whatever luck iems my .ay-i.-V's good. TO TEST DRINKING WATER. Simple Measures Which Will Prevent Sickness. The supply of drinking water for the family should be tested at least once a year. Water that at one time is pure and wholesome may become too impure for use, yet it may be without color, and have no odor or taste to show its dangerous qualities. A simple test of drinking water is the Meisch sewage test. Full a clean pint bottle three-quarters full of the water to be tested, and dissolve it in half a teaspoonful of granulated sugar. Cork it and set it in a warm place for two days -i12 Gung th is-ime it becomes cloudy or milky it is unfit for domestic use. If it remains per fectly clear it is probably safe. Be careful that the bottle is absolutely as clean as you -an make it and the sugar pure. The second test is also a simple one. Obtain from a trustworthy drug gist five cents' worth of saturated solutioni of permanganate of potas sium. Add about five drops of this to a pint bottle of water. This will turn the water a beautiful rose purple. If there is any considerable amount of organic matter the color will give place in the course of a few hours to a more or less dirty reddish-brown. If the color of the water in the bottle remains for twelve hours unchanged from the rose purple it assumed when the permanganate of potassium was first added, it may be considered free from organic contamination.-Health Magazine. ! . BITS OF INFIRMIATIOUN Big guns cost about $900 per ton to construct. ing The world uses 180.000 millions of matches a year. led, Man is said to be Subject to 1,212 different diseases. the Only one man' ii 203 is more than 6 feet in height. Canada has 100.000 Indians; the.United States 270,000. . lost Water to cover an acre one inch deep will weigh 101 tons. ave Aurora borealis once lasted a week on end, in August, 1859. or- There are nearly 2,000 stitches in a pair of hand-sewn boots as Wiur new books are published to each fresh edition of an old ary British prisoners cost the nation, on an average $165 a year has praece has about 4,000 duels a year and Italy $,800 on an of The otal length of hair on an average woman's head is fftt me Theldeepest colliery in the world is at Lambert, in Belgi- ios- 'lbA United Kingdom has but 503 hospitals; France has a old costs $10 to take a dog with you if you take a trip across the During the Philippine war twelve men were killed for every 1 So- The pig is the only domestic animal which does not suffer the In proportion to its size a fly walks thirteen times as fast as lo- One-third of the goods manufactured in France is the produe~ as labor. ire The number of dogs in Belgium used for drawing loads isf an- 50,000. In There are fewer suicides in Ireland than in any other country asg ,as Saxony. .ne The Norwegians are the tallest and the Laps the shortest er- Europe. , : 'at The first shock of earthquake recorded in America w be in 1663. sut In Denmark parish churches can be put up to public auction, re chattels. A silken thread is three times as strong a a flaxen one ot re- thickness. .- '' on Eagles fly at a height of 9,000 feet, crows up to 4,500 feet. The in. 3,000 feet. The world's tobacco crop of 850,000 tons is grown on two atn4 million acres. Five hundred and forty pounds of blood pass through the hes~nt a single hour. In a lifetime of seventy years the blood driven by a anla's 4,292,000 miles. A shipyard at Ominato, Japan, still in operation, was aY 1,900 years ago. ry An Austrian syndicate has offered De Wet $1,250 a week amd hai Id a lecturing tour. ir- Etna's main crater is 1,728 feet wide and 826 feet deep. Thr st 10,755 feet high. nt During the last twenty years the personnel of the German n#vaT tripled in numbers. ,. ie There are nearly 14.000,000 acres of land in Italy still unc,ý..' e- would bear good crops. =0 'P According to assurance statistics teetotallers may expect sevent 1. more life than drinkers. s3 The Nicaragua canal bill recently passed by the senate has the 11 containing only 486 words. -R b il The heating surface of the boiler of a modern locomptiVe' :*, Id space 50 feet long by 47 feet wide. [p Brass reflects heat better than any other metal. Silver aopmes g tin, steel and lead in the order named. id Even at the equator the average temperature of the sea at the ': ar a mile is but 4 degrees above freezing point. 1e The province of Asturias, in Spain, holds the record of possessing" Jape P eight centenarians in a population of 600,000. )t The 850,000,000 eggs produced yearly in America would, if latid-ty. it end, girdle the earth twelve times at the equator. -r: r- Beautifully clean streets and clear air have been obtained at it by sprinkling the roads with oil instead of water. e The largest geyser in the world is at Rotomahana, in New Zealand e area is just an acre, and its spouts rise to 800 feet d In a hurricane blowilig at eighty miles an hour the pressure square foot of surface is three and one-half pounds. Japanese are always buried with their heads to the north. Coues n no Japanese will sleep in a bed lying north or south. The largest wooden statue in the world is to be"'seen T It is 54 feet high and the head will holdtwenty people. .. Galvanized iron is merely iron dipped in molten zino, The applied electrically, as the term galvanized seems to imply, At Plinitz, near Dresden, is the largest camellia in Europe. old, about 50 feet high and has 40,000 blossoms each season. France holds the record at present for pictorial pos millions go through the post yearly. Austria uses x1,000 . : f The first practical electric motor ever exhibited was a bition in 1873. It was a pump worked by a wire 1,400 yard g. Germany employs 537,122 people on her railroads-that, is n i cent of her entire population. There are 17 to every mile of lipe. i A Copenhagen daily newspaper announces that publication is a f for three months to enable the staff to engoy a long summer holiday. 3 Every IKaffr in Cape Colony must pay a labor tax of ten shillings t unless he can prove that he has worked for three months of the ear. t The fishing industry of France has remained stationary There are 12,000 fishermen to-day; just the same numb as in 1 ¶The unique gift by the governor-general (Lord Hopetoun) of 340 SCthampagne to the starving unemployed in Melbourne has been distrib France hmakes annually 143,000,000 pounds of chocolate and bon , this respect shfl stands second only to Great Britain. Germany ranks Fifty-two thousanid One hundred and fifty-seven varieties of fungi are Scatalogued. No fewer than 4,009 species have been added, since August, 1 The center of a large hurricane, where perfect calm reigns, is sometit as much as twenty miles in diameter and the calm may last an hour and, half. The main wheel of a watch makes 1,460 revolutions a year, the eea wheel 8.760, the third wheel 70,080, the fourth 525,600 and the escape w 4,731,860. Mr. John Morley will have to sit up all night in future if he pro to read all the 100,000 books which have been gifted to him by Mr. Carnegie. Vanadium, one of the rarer metals, has the property, mixed with cop ', of allowing that metal to be drawn into very fine wire. Vanadium costs $ pdr pound. Among the richer classes 343 in 1,000 live to sixty years of age, in th middle classes 175 do so, and 156 only of the laboring class survive to reach sixty years. While trying to rescue their dog from a quagmire near Paris ragpick -man and wife-were themedives caught in the mud and slowly sucked tl with their pet. Mr. Harry de Windt, the leader of the "Express" expedition, describes the Tchuktchis as a brave but dirty race. When drunk they try to kill every whitr man they can. The estimated value of the falls of Niagara, if the whole force of the falling water were employed electrically, is £300,000 a day, or 108 millions sterling a year. Clement, the assistant executioner in Paris, has just died. He was a curl- ' ous character and was greatly indignant at the increasing number of reprieves in recent years. Chinese coffins are made of timber 8 inches to 10 inches thick. It i.s culateld, therefore, that over 8,000,000 feet of timber are utilized yearly for coffins in China. The great Assouan reservoir scheme, now completed at a cost of about ., five and a half millions, will probably increase Egypt's wealth by nearly $16,. 000,000 annually. Mr. Carnegie has taken to presenting sets of stereoscopic views and stere oscopes. Five of these sets have just been gifted to different free libraries in the north of Scotland. The rare event of the seventieth anniversary of a marriage was celebrated -r bl)y Ierr Arnault and his wife at Ressmersiel. The husband is ninety-six and the 'ife ninety years old. John B. M'Ghee, in jail at Rome, Georgia, charged with the murder of F. L. Miller, a confederate veteran, killed himself in his cell, literally cutting his throat with a shoestring. . The word "garotte," the name of the Spanish instrument of execution, simply means sti_ This is because originally the cord round the neck was twisted by means bf a stick. A Budapest student has created a record in duels by fighting eight in suc cession and disabling each of his opponents until the eighth was reached, when he was wounded in the wrist. At Vienna wasps have invaded an eight-day clock, into which they mal'k their entrance and exit by means of a keyhole. The insects, it is stated, never interfere with the inmates of the 4ouse. A London Times leader writer remarks of the late Lord Acton that he was a man "who could literally suck in a dozen volumet' in a couple of days." It. Is to be presumed that by his "literally" the writer means precisely the oppoi _y '.. ,i i_.,