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THE ST. LANDRY DEMOCRAT. Opelousas - The Mosquito a Blessing To Man. A lecture was recently delivered at Mad ras, India, on that interesting and fami liar ptet, the mosquito. The kcturer, Mr. H. Bullivan Thomas, asserts that it is only the female mosquito that doe3 the biting, lie considers the mosquito auseiul pest, seven-eighths ot its existence being devoted to the sert ice of men and only one-eigth to their annoyance. It exists in the larval state twenty-one days, and during that period engages in sanitary work 'with ardor and thoroughness. Wherever there is dirty water, wherever there is a filthy d ain, there the mosquito larvae are to be found in hundreds, vor aciously devouring the contaminating matter.— New Orleans Time» Democrat. The Motor Ganglia. Tear oat the heart of a human being qnickly and it will continue to beat for some seconds after it has been parted from the body. A frog's heart will pulsate for twen ty-fou» hours after it has been taken from the batrachian. Ignorant persons suppose this to mean that the heart is still alive, and their notion is very natural. But the fact is merely that there are in the frog's heart certain groups of movement nerves, called "motor ganglia," which keep on agitating the organ until they are starved out by want of nutrition, though no actual life is present. There are motor ganglia in the human heart also, but they are not so strong in their action. When the flesh of a turtle is cut up in pieces for a stew the scraps continue to quiver for many hours. The popular notion is that the turtle is so tenacious of exist ence that it keeps on living,though chopped up. In reality, the fragments of the motor nerves in the flesh, stimulated by cuttiiig, keep up an automatic movement. Galvan ism was accidentally discovered through the chance contact of an electric wire with a frog's leg on Galvini's table. A human being, dead for quite a while, may be af fected in like manner by the electric cur rent.— Washington Star. "Look to Thy Conscience." Wouldst thou preserve thy faith, look to thy conscience. A good conscience is the ship faith sails in ; if conscience be wrecked, how can it be thought tüat faith would be safe? If faith be the jewel, a good conscience is the cabinet in which it is kept ; and if the cabinet be broken, the jewel must needs be in danger of losing. Now you know what sins was>te the con science—sins either deliberately committed or impenitently continued ;it. Oh, take heed of deliberate sin ; like a stone türown into a clean stream, it will disturb thy soul and muddy it, that thou, who even now couldst see thy interest in the prom ise, will now be at a loss and not know what to thinfc of thyself. They are like a fire on the top of a house ; it will be no easy matter to quench it But if thou hast been so unhappy as to fall into such a slough, take heed of lying in it by impen itence ; the sheep may fall into a ditch, but it is the swine that waliow in it ; and therefore now hard wilt thou find it,think est thou, to act thy faith on the promise when thou art by thy filthy garments and besmeared countenance so unlike one of God's holy ones ! It is dangerous to drink poison, but far more to let it lie in the body long. Thou canst not act thy faith, though a believer, on the promise, so as to apply the pardon it presents to thy soul, till thou has renewed thy repentance.— Ournall. Floating Islands of the Aztecs. Probably the most curious craft—if we may call it a craft—that man ever con structed or handled was the floating isl and (Chinampas) of the Aztecs. They were the outgrowth of necessity. Being environed by enemies who occu pied the main land, the Mexicans were obliged to construct these boat gardens or subsist without fruit and vegetables. With branches, roots and other light materials they made a float; on this they placed weeds and earth dredged from the bottom of the lakes. Some of these islands were forty-eight feet long, eighteen broad and raised about a foot above the water. These floating gardens have one great advantage, If the proprietor's neighbors were undesir able, or if the proximity of an ill-kept field endangered his own crop, he could pull up anchor, and jumping into his canoe tow his real estate into a more desirable locality. A few years ago there was a natural float ing island drifting about Greenwood lake. It hap since become fixed near the lower end.— Rudder. Men of the Hour. The memoir of an old Italian navigator ends with these words: " His voyages brought no advantage to his country be cause he was a dreamer and not a man of affairs. Though he had been all over the world he never was in it." Of Goethe, on the contrary, it was said: "He seized the passing hour as a bee does a flower, held it, wrestled with it, sucked it dry of all its honey, and then left it be hind forever." The world h«s use for the man who looks forward, who is in advance of his time,who gathers facts whijh another who comes after him may cause to yield their lesson, who theorizes and speculates and discovers new laws. But it is among the men who live in the present and make it their aim to influence their own generations that we find the Gladstones, the Bismarcks, the Webster?, the Lincolns —all the meu who force the world to call them great.— Youth's Com panion. - Free Delivery. There is a bill in the Senate, which will pretty surely become a law, extending the free delivery of letters to all towns of 50C0 inhabitants and more. The measure is a good one, so far as it goes ; but it is at least an open question whether it might not go further with ad vantage. Sooner or later, presumably, the free delivery system will be extended to all letters in this country, as it is in other civilized countries, and the committee having the present bill in charge would do well to consider the question whether it Height not be practicable to extend the privilege now to much smaller towns and villages than those of 5000 population— say to all of 1000 or over. The expense of hiring a letter carrier in a village or country town to distribute the dtfily mail would not be very great, and the convenience to the people would be considerable. The cost of the servies would be offset in a large degree by the increased use of the mails. Ultimately free delivery will be univer sal without doubt, and even the dweller in the country will have his weekly or Betri-weekly mail delivered at his door.— N. T. Worid. Syrup of Figs, Produced from the laxative and nutritions juice of California figs, combined with the medicinal virtues of plants known to be mnet beneficial to the human system, acts gently, on the kidneys, liver and bowels, effectually cleansing the system, dispelling colds and headaches, and curing habitual constipation. Experiments by means of photographic plates in the Mediterranean sea show that in the middle of a sunny day in sum mer the rays of the Bun do not penetrate the waters of that sea to a depth of more than 150 fathoms. In September the dis tance penetrated is much reduced, the de pression on the plates at the above depth not being greater than that made by star light.— -gî hwi* Republic. Ancient Signatures. THE MANNER IN WHICH POTENTATES OF OLD AFFIXED THEIR NAME TO A FA FEB. The practice of signing as a mode of giving formal assent to written contracts or charters is as old as, and in one sense older, than the art of writing. Among all people the act of authenticating a dccu ment was accomplished by the most illit erate persons either by affixing a stamp with the signet ring they carried or by imitating the process of signing by some other rude devise. Conspicuous among these more rustic sign manuals was that which Gibbon mentions as adopted by Theodoric, the great Ostrogoth, king of Italy. He had a gold plate made on which the first few letters of his name were cut in Greek characters, and when a paper had to be signed by him the plate was laid upon it and his nisjasty, passing the pen along the paper in the interstices of the metal, traced by these means the royal signature, which he could never remem ber in any other way. A still more barbarous and ungainly de vice was that which was invented, or at least practiced, by the Turkish sultans of icnnium, when that city was their capital They simply dipped their hand into the bowl of ink presented to them, and laying it flat upon the paper or papyrus, left the indellible impress of it in gigantic and ccnspicuous outlines. A somewhat similar habit is reported from Farther India,where landowners are, or were at a certain date accustomed to dip their thumbs in the sandal dye, and by pressing it on the paper leave their sign manual, or as in this case it would probably be termed their sign digital. This is the case with the rajahs who can not even write their names; but it is said that in another part of India a Brahmin that was highly educated resorted to a practice very like that of the Iconian sul tans whenever it was his intention to make a very generous and comprehensive grant, the character of which he thought would be the best typified by a mark made with the open hand smeared with ink. The origin of the mark with which illiterates now sign is enveloped in some doubl; bu' it would be quite wrong to suddoso that the cros they now use was employed in very early times. On the contrary, it is said that for many centuries after the "Dark Ages" those who could not afford to wear a ring or keep a signet used to make a special and peculiar mark, such as an ar rowUead, in which it was supposed, and perhaps rightly, that their autographs could be recognized.— St. Louis Republic. - Louisiana The Spider and Her Family. Every child has seen spiders in plenty, spinning their webs in some" corner ; or, after the web or tent is securely fastened and fki-lied, lying in wait for some unfor tunate fly or mosquito. Oftentimes in these webs small brown bags are to be seen, and these, it opened, will be found to contain a great many lit tle eggs which the spider has laid, or sometimes when you open them you will find that the eggs have hatched, and that there is a bag full of tiny spiders that have not yet seen the light. Spiders, indeed, have as many children sometimes as the "old woman who lived in a shoe ;" but, unlike that famed person age, they seem to know j ust what to do. It is very interesting to watch them, and see how they manage their little ones. One day as I was walking on a country road, where there was not much travel, my attention was caught by a large spider in the dust at my feet, so large that I stopped to look at it. Its body seemed rough and thick, while its legs were short. I look a stick and poked it, when, presto change! my spider had a small, round, smooth body, and long legs. Truly this was more strange than any sleight of-hand trick I had ever seen 1 had heard of snakes and frogs shedding heir skins, and many other queer stories of animals [and insects, but of nothing at all like this. I stooped closer to the ground to see if I could get a clew to the mystery, and found that the dust all about the large spider was alive with little ones t hat she had just shaken off. What a load ! And how did they ever get up on her back ? Did they run up her slender legs, and crowd and cling on ? How I wished I knew the spider lan guage, that I might find out why this mother weighed herself down with such a burden of little ones as she walked the street ! Was she giving them an airing, and showing them the world ? or had the broom of some housemaid swept away her web, and forced her thus to take flight to save her family from destruction? Perhaps she had been burned out. Or was it the first day of May to bei, and had her landlord forced her out of her house because she could not pay the rentî Ala3 ! she could not tell me ; and I left her theie in the road with all her little ones about her.— E. M. Davis in Fountain, The Cat and the Fer-De Lance. The cat, upon seeing a snake, at once carries her kittens to a place of safety, and then boldly advances to the encounter. She will walk to the very limit of the serpent's striking range, and then begin to feint, teasing him, startling him, trying to draw his blow. How the einerald and topaz eyes glow then! They are flames. A moment more, and the triangular head, hissing from the coils, flashes swift, as if moved by wings, but swifter still the stroke of the armed paw that dashes the horror aside, flinging it mangled in the dust. Nevertheless, pussy does not yet dare to spring. The enemy, still alive, has almost instantly reformed his coil. She is in front of him, watching, vertical pupil against vertisal pupil. Again the lashing stroke, again the beautiful countering; again the living death is hurled aside. Now the scaled skin is deeply torn ; one eve socket has ceased to flame. Once more the stroke of the serpent; once more the light, quick, cutting blow. But the reptile is blind, stupefied. Before he can attempt to coil pussy has leaped upon him, nailing the horrible flat head flat to the ground with her two paws. Au instant more, and he lies still. The keen, white teeth of the cat have severed the vertebrae just behind the triangular skull.— Midsummer Irip to the Tcopics. A Veteran Journalist on Newspapers, The obvious faults of the daily news paper of the present day are its inaccuracy and its partisan unfairness. From these failings the magazine is at least tolerably exempt. The daily newspaper has be come so untrustworthy with its looseness of statement, its disregard for truth and its often willing perversion of facts that fair minded men sometimes say that they tind more satisfaction in reading the jour nals of the party to which they are op posed than in those of their own political faith. No man can be certain that he has found the truth anywhere in the news papers until it has been affirmed by a majority of them all. If the monthly magizine ever becomes a daily newspaper let us hope its first and last purpuse in life will be to tell the whole truth accurately. In the feverish race to "distance ali contemporaries" the daily metropolitan jouranl too often thmws decency and discretion to the winds. Things have finally come to such a pass that none of these will balieve the others. They are all busy in the dis crediting of each other's news, denying the accuracy of each other's reports and undervaluing the enterpiseses of very one but one—their own journal. In such a state of thing3 what can be expected of the general public, looking on at the jealous contention from the outside t Is not the impartial observer tempted to say, as he often does, "Gentlemen, you tell the truth about each other!"— Noah Brook* I in Forum. The Dandelion. The bright golden dandelion is so com mon that ic does not need a description. We have all seen it so many times, with its yellow dises turned up to the sun, or its downy globes, nodding in the air, that we have grown so accustomed to it as to consider it only a weed, and pass it by without giving it a glance. (But the dan delion is not a weed, and although it grows so sturdily by the dusty road and in sterile places, it bears one of the most curious and wonderful flowers. If it were a for eign plant, and needed care and attention, how beautiful we would consider it !) It grows in many countries and climates, al most from the equator to the Arctic circle, and is found in Europe, North America, Central Asia and the Arctic region. The dandelion gets its name from the tooth like lobes ol the leaves, the word dandelion being derived from the French "dent de-lion" —"tooth of the lion." If vou were to examine one of the pretty yellow blossoms with a magnifying glass j ou would be astonished to find what a gorgeous field of golden blossoms your little dandelion had become ; for the dan dalion head instead of being a single bios som, is really a cluster of hundreds of tiny florets that must be magnified many times before their real beauty can be seen. Af ter the yellow blossoms have withered and fallen away, the dandelion blooms out into new and wonderful loveliness, for where each golden blossom was, there is now delicate ball of silver plumes. The first strong wind will send these tiny plumes floating all over the country, and then you can see that each bears a tiny seed to be planted for the next year's crop. These little seeds will lodge in many out-of-the way places, and they are so hardy that they will grow in almost any soil. The dandelion is an herb belonging to the sub-order Cichoraceœ of the nat ural order of Compositae. In til parts of the plant there is contained a milky juice that is useful for its medicinal propeities. The leaves are bitter, but are bleached and eaten as a salad ; they also serve as a food for silk-worms. The long tap-root has a simple of many-headed rhizoma, and is externally black. In some places the root is roasted and used as a substitute for cof fee, and an infusion, decoction and extract from it are used as a tonic, or for disorders of the digestive organs. When we consider how beautiful and useful this little plant is, and how widely it is scattered over the earth, we cannot help admiring it. It is one of the earliest flowers to bloom in the Spring, and one of the latest to leave us in the fall I have found the brave little blossoms shining like star3 when everything else wa3 with ered and dead, and*have seen them, also, in Spring before the snow was fairly gone. Upon a showery night and still, Withou" a sound of warning, A trooper band surprised the hill. And held it in the morning. We were not waked by bugle-notes. No cheer or dreams invaded ; And y> t, at dawn, their yellow coats On the green slopes paraded. We careless folk the dead forgot ; Till one da?, idly walking, We marked upon the self-same spot Acro*d of veterans talkiug. They shook their trembling heads and gray vVirh pride and noiselet-n laughter ; When, well-a-day ' they blew àway. And ne'er were heard of after ! — The Fountain. Laying Pipe Under Water. A civil engineer at Watertown has ac complished in a very simple, cheap and expeditious way what is usually a difficult and expensive operation—the laying of a long line of pipe in d»ep water. He had occasion to lay nearly 1000 feet of suction pipe at Rouse's point. The water was needed for manufacturing purposes, and as it was found that the water near the shore was more or less impure it was necessary to place the inlet a considerable distance out into the lake. He purchased for the putpose a steel pressure pipe of eight inch diameter. Plugging the end of the first length, he pushed it out on the surface of Lake Champlain and connected the second length, pushing this out in turn until the whole line was coupled. It then presented the unusual spectacle of a line of eight inch pressure pipe nearly 1000 feet long floating with a displacement of only three and a half inches of its diameter. When the requisite length had been connected the line was towed to posi tion, the plug at the end removed, and the pipe sank easily inrsixteen and a half feet of water without breaking a joint or re ceiving any injary. No buoys or floats were used in the operation, and no appa ratus of any kind. The pipe is now in use as the suction of a steam pump and gives perfect satisfaction.— N. T. Telegram. A Missionary's Predicament. A missionary in Borneo is wrestling with a question relating to the evolution of species that would have puzzled the late Mr. Darwin himself. Among his con verts is a native, who in spite of hi$ rather exemplary conduct in other directions per sists in an old habit of running down and killing the dwarfs that form a low tribe of beings in the vicinity of the mission. He does it merely for sport; it is his way of hunting, and when remonstrated with by the missionary he claims that the dwarfs are not human beings, but animals that Christian savage has a right to hunt. The missionary admits that they exhibit few traces of the human being, and is in con siderable perplexity as to whether his con vert is right or wrong. To the wisest evo lutionists it would probably be a pretty difficult matter to say at what point the animal ceases and the man begins.— Chi cago Herald. The Pride of Matrimony. In his "Trials of a Country Parson" Dr. Jessup tells some amusing anecdotes picked up in Arcady. As thus: "It i3 very shocking to a sensitive person to hear the way in which the old people speak of their dead wives or husbands, exactly as if they had been horses or dogs. They are always proud of having been married more than once. 'You didn't think, miss, as I'd have five wives, now, did you? Ah, but I have, though—leastwise I buried five on 'em in the churchyard, that I did—and tree on 'em bewties!" On another occasion I play fully suggested: 'Don't you mix up your husbands now and then, Mrs. Page, when you talk about them?" 'Well, to tell you the truth, sir, I really du ! But my third hubband he was a man! I don't mix him up. He got killed fighting—you've heerd tell o' that, I make no doubt? The others warn't nothing to him. H'd 'a' mixed 'em up quick enough if they'd interfered wi' him. Lawk ha! He'd 'a' made nothing of them." Fame. Fame and good reputation consist in do ing the right thing in the right way at the right time Generals are famous who led the way to victory. Orators are famous who touched the heart of the people. Smith's Tonic Syrup is famous because it has ever accomplished correct results. Used in the right way at the right time, it invariably does the right thing. It never makes a failure. It never brings disap pointment. It was invented by the emi nent Dr. John Bull, of Louisville, Ky., as a substitute for quinine. It does its work even better than was expected. It has all the good qualities of quinine and none of its evil tendencies. It cures chill!; and fever, colds, influenza, la grippe, etc., even when quinine fads. It is pleasant to take, and children like it. It builds up a broken down constitution and fortifies it against the insidious attacks of malarial influences. Mr. Nooly—"Say, I want a coat of arms." "And your business ? " "Hain't got hone now—made my money in vine jar." "I see. How would 'What is iome without a mother? * suit yen for a legend?"— Drake'» Magazine, The Great Town Builder. SIXTEEN TOWNS 18 TUB NUMBER CREDITED TO W. P. BICE. Phil Haralson, says the Atlanta Journal, is a great admirer of Kiee. the famous town builder, who is now building Cardiff, Tennessee. "Talk about a Napoleonic boomer," said Mr. Haralson, "but I have never heard of one yet who could come up to Rice. Ile has built sixteen young cities, and nobody knows where ha will stop. He looks around and sees where there ought to be a town or city. He has plenty of money of his owq , and is backed by almost countless millions. He buys all the land around the proposed town, and goes to work. The first thing he does is to organize a national bank, and that is sometimes done before there is a single house on the site of the proposed town. Then he organizes various manufacturing establishments. Millions of dollars are spent in the briefest imaginable time, and vroods and Heids are transformed into thriving and prosperous cities. Fourteen months ago he started Fort Payne, in Alabama. There was nothing there except two or three small wooden stores. He bought all the land he could, but the fellows who owned the lit tle stores caught on and refused to sell, so he built his town three quarters of a mile above them in the valley, and left them alone in the outskirts. Fourteen months ago there was practically no Fort Payne. Now the population is about 8000. Rice's latest town is Cardiff, He is spending $800,000 there on streets. He has one avenue two miles Ion/?, a hundred feet wide and laid in asphalt. Not long ago the place was old fields. At a sale a few days ago property brought $278 per front foot. I saw 104 sleeping cars standing on the side track that had brought people there to buy at the sale. The people were wild. It is said that one deaf man got ex cited and bid against himself four or five times, he was so anxious to get a particu lar lot. Ilice's towns always have the latest improvements and conveniences for cities, magnificent building and manufac turing establishments with unlimited cap ital. Rice has built sixteen towns, and has a magnificent residence in each town, which, of course, he does not occupy, for he always has a new town on hand. I don't know where he will go when he gets through with Cardiff, but he can be counted on to start another town as soon as he gets through with that place. He beats anything in the way of a city builder that 1 ever saw." Soda Water as a Beverage. For beverages, instead of the cheap soda water, with its corrosive ingredients and syrups made from spoiled fruit, insist on having pure lemonade or fruit juices. Good soda water, as offered by the best city druggists or any man who understands his business, is not a bai thing for health or taste, although caution ought to be used not to peur down a large glass of iced drink when one is warm, after the almost invariable habit. The rule with everybody, men and women alike, seems to be to see how soon they can swallow the soda and depart. The result of turn ing a pint of cold, acid water into a heated stomach is to burden it with ton much liquid, reduce the temperature with dan gerous suddenness, and headache or cramps is in the direct line after this.— Shirley Dare, in N. Y. Herald. What is the Price of a Ruby ? What is "a price above rubies" ex pressed in hard cash? The question be cone« practically important in view of a decision rendered by the Virginia court of appeals. The husband of a woman who had been killed in a railroad accident brought a suit for damages. The court held that the amount which could properly be recovered would depend upon the real worth of the deceased. "If the wife," sajd the bench, "be loving, tender and dutiful to her husband, thrifty, economi cal, industrious and prudent, then her price is far above rubies. " An admirable decision, but just a trifle vague. "Her pfice is far ab ve rubies " How far above? And bow many rubies? And calling a good article of ruby worth how many rubies? And calling a good article of ruby worth how much?— New York Tribune. A German's Criticism. "What dignified people you Americans are !" said a German on a ferryboat irom Staten Island to New York Sunday night. "I fancy there are 300 persons on this boat, and probably two-thirds of them can sing. If you should find that number of Germans together anywhere on the face of the earth out for a holiday you would find them singing. Yet the Germans are no richer in popular songs or in voices that can sing them ordinarily well than the Americans. You are fond of music and your ear catches an air readily, but you seem afraid to sing in public places. You don't seem to get any enjoyment out of life, or, if you d9, you dou't show it. must be bad form in New York to show keen enjoyment."— New York Times. Matches in Hotels. Matches are another great item of ex pense in running a hotel. We buy them by the gro.'s boxes, and use thousands of tnem every day. About three out of every four guests at a hotel when they call for a box of matches put the box in their pock ets. I have sent half a dozen boxes to one room in as many days The guests think it is all right to carry off the matches, but when you figure up what a year's supply costs you will find it to be hundreds of dollars. It is not the big items of expense that a hotel manager has to look out for, but the small things.— Interview in Pitts■ burq Dispatch. The fertilizer chiefly needed for gj ape vines is potash. Other manures may make a stronger growth of leaf and wood, but potash is needed in perfecting the fruit. French and other European vine growers fertilize their vineyards by plow ing under the prunings. This, if the soil is heavy, helps to keep the land light and porous, while the green wood speedily de cays and returns to the soil whatever pot ash it had abstracted. But if the land be sandy this return is not enough. More potash must be applied or the fruit will suffer and the vine itself will have its vitality weakened.— Exchange. An Affecting Farewell. We shall leave Leary to cast out lot elsewhere. The p'ace of our future resi dence has not been determined. It is still probable that we sball cling t> the news paper business, for the ink stains are hard to eradicate when they fall upon a» yield ing proclivities as are ours. God bless you all and make clear the dark places in your pathways, and in the end may we "gather at the river," where bogus advertisers, delinquent subscribers, sorehead and run down politicians, political demagagues, village gossips, and the man who knows how to run a paper cometh not. And even to these may the mercies of heaven reach and save 1— Calhoun (Oa.) Courier. Baldheaded (and very homely) old gen tleman, to photographer—"Drat such pic tures ! Can't you make me look any better than that after five sittings?" Photog rapher (thoroughly exasperated)—"I think I can, sir, if you will allow me to take the back part of your head. It hasn't so much expression as the other side, but i s a blamed sight prettier."— Burlington Free Press. • _ . Undoubtedly Correct—"George," asked Mrs. Cumso, "what paper in the United States has the largest circulation? " " Pa per money,- replied Cumso, promptly.— Drake's Magazin«. How to Kill Your Town. Buy of peddlers as often and as much as possible. Denounce your merchants because they make a profit on their goods. Gloiy in the downfall of a man who has done much to build up the town. Make your town out a very bad place and stab it every chance you get. Refuse to unite in any scheme for the betterment of the material interest of the people. Keep up divided public sentiment with you ou the best method of increasing bus iness. Tell your merchants that you can buy goods a good deal cheaper in some other town and charge them with extortion If a stranger comes to your town tell him everything is overdone, and pre dict a general crash in the town in the near future. When you have anything to say of your town say it in such a way that it will leave the impresssion that you have no faith in it. Patronize outside newspapers to the ex clusion of your own, and then denounce yours for not being as large and cheap as the big city papers. If you are a merchant don't advertise in the home paper, but buy a rubber stamp and use it. It may save you a few dimes and make your letter heads and wrapping paper look as though you were doing bus iness in a one horse town. If you are a farmer, curse the place where you trade as the meanest on earth. Talk this to your neighbors and tell them the business men are robbers and thieves It will make your property much less val uable, but then you don't care.— Arcadia Herald. A Week Too Late. A young man about 25 years of age, dressed like a farmer, had his feet on the car seat in front of him and was reading a novel, says a N. Y. Sun writer, when one of the boy3 went over to him and ob served : "I've just made a bet of $5 on you." "On me? What is it?" "I've bet |5 that you will suicide within a week. I've been watching you very closely for the last half hour, and all signs indicate melancholy and despondency. Have you selected anv particular line of killing yourself—poison, the rope, drown ing or hanging?" "Did you actually bet $5 ?" anxiously asked the young man. "I did." ' Pay if you lose?" "I have to." "That's too bad. I wish I could have seen you last week." "Why?" "Because I then had the ager every day right along—two cows were sick o.i mv hands—my girl had s*one back on me, and expected a windmill man was going to beat me out of $400. I did kinder think of suicide." "But now?" "All is changed. Cows got well—ager all gone—gal has set the cay for next Wednesday, and the windmill man is straighter than a Doard. Durn my hide if I hain't going to try and live 5000 years !" Equal to the Occasion. There lived some years ago in Western Pennsylvania an old circuit preacher, Father West by name, whose genial humor and general kindliness of heart had greatly endeared him to all the people of his district. He was a particular favorite with the young folks matrimonially in clined, and his opportunities to "tie the knot" were numerous. On one occasion he found upon his arrival at a certain town several couples awaiting his blessing. The old man was tired and wished to make short work of the job. "Stand up," he began, "and jine hands." Which being done, he rattled through a marriage ser vice, that, like himself, was original "There," he said, when it was finished, "ve can go ; ye're man and wife, ev'ry one o' ve." Two of the counles hesitated, and finally made it apparent that in the sudden "j'in ing" they had become confused, and had taken the hands of the wrong persons. The old preacher's eyes twinkled as he took in the situation, but he immediately straight ened up, and with a wave of his hand dispersed them. "I married ye all," he said, 'sort yourselves." — Harper's Mig at ine. Affection of the Frog. There is a vast difference between the bull frog and what is known as the com mon frog. I would not have one of the latter about me. The species that I have mate in the month of May. After they are mated no amount of coqueting, coaxing or flirting on the part of any of the other frogs in the pond, no matter how hand some or gorgeously nature may have al tered them, could induce them to abandon their partners. They are united for life, and remain faithful to each other until separated by death. If the female dies first the male becomes disheartened. He refuses food, mopes around the pond, and soon dies from pure grief. The female, on the other hand, especially if she is young and handsome, soon forgets the partner of her joys and sorrows, and ten chances to one by the return of another May she wi J be a bride again, although in some in stances I have known the reverse of this to be the case.— Interview in New York World. Delights of Swimming. Swimming is an athletic exercise that has not reeeived sufficient attention from those interested in physical culture for women. It is not only a delightful amuse ment. but said to be far more valuable in expanding the chest and developing the muscles than almost any gymnastic exer cise that is known. Comparatively few women, even among those who at the sea side enjoy a daily bath in the turf, are ex pert swimmers. They are entirely at the meicy of circumstances in case of sudden danger. The expert swimmer learns to be courageous and energetic in the water, and her skill may me the m^ans of saving her own life or others lives. Swimming is usually taught in a large swimming bath, such as are connected with some gymna siums.— New York Herald. Stammering and Stuttering Defined. It seems odd to the vocal specialist that there should be such dense ignorance among those persons who speak with per fect ease regarding the difference between stammering and stuttering. Nine persons out of ten believe that the terms are syn onymous. Yet there is a vast amount of difference between them. Stammering is an affection of the articulating organs. A stutterer has difficulty in producing vocal sound. The stammerer has the power of producing vocal sound whenever he wishes, but he fails to properly articulate words. A stutterer has no trouble in ar ticulating words, providing the vocalizing organs act normally. In one sentence, stuttering is a refusal of the voice *»ith perfect organs of speech, but stammering is a defective articulation caused by habit or imperfect organs of speech.— New York Herald. At ten years of age a boy thinks his father knows a great deal ; at 15 he knows as much ; at 20 he knows twice as much ; at SO he is unwilling to take his advice ; at 40 he begins to think bis father knows something after all ; at 50 he be gins to seek his father's advice, and at 61 —after his father is dead—he thinks he was the smartest man that ever lived. An English scientist says that if we were to visit the moon we should find the days and nights a fortnight in length, and if we "survived the scorching during the day we should certainly be,frozen to death during the ensuing night."" I WILL BE WORTHY OF IT. I may not reach the heights I seek. My untried strength may fall me; Or, halfway up the mountain peak, Fierce tempests may assail me; But though that place I never gain, Herein lies comfort for my pain,— I will be worthy of it. I may not triumph in succès?, Despite my earnest labor: I may not grasp results that bless The efforts of my neighbor; But tbeugh my goal I never see. This thought shall always dwell with me 1 will be worthy of it. « The golden glory of love's light May ntver fall on my way ; My path may always lead through night. Like some deserted by-way; But though life's dear» st joy I miss. There lies a name.'ess joy in this,— I will be worthy of it. —Ella Wheeler Wilcox. TOMMY'S DREAM. in as in of Tommy had been to the school treat, away out from the dirty, crowded, hot street in which he lived, into the beautiful green, fresh country. And Tommy bad enjoyed the treat ; but I am afraid that many of the butteiflies and other insects, and some of the birds, too, had cause to grieve that Tommy and his little mates had been there to a treat it was none for them. A great part of the day Tommy had spent in what he thought good fun He had chased beautiful but terflies, but when he caught them he could do little with them. They were a source of amusement to him for a short time, and then he would let them flutter away with spoilt and broken wings. He bad tried to capture the large bees which he saw liv ing about, but as he laid hold on one it stung him so thinking himself badly used, he let it go. Then he had frightened many of the birds by throwing stones at them—only fortunately he aimed badly and never hit his mark. And when he and some of his companions, wandering through the green fields, had come acro.-s a large, scaly beetle, he had seized it, and in spite of its struggles, had put it in his pocket. And now Tommy was back from the treat and in bed. He had not long fallen asleep when he seemed to be again in the fields in which he had played all day. But all the butter flies and bees and beetles and birds seemed to Lave changed places with him in point of size, for they appeared as large as boys, and he as small as a beetle, and Tommj was terribly frightened. Oh," he thought, "I must hide under the sticks, or those great creatures wili catch me ! Oh, dear ! I wish I were home !" for Tommy was frightened. he hid quickly under seme small sticks until all the butterflies and other things should go away; but it was no u;e. Soon he felt the sticks lifted, and heard something scream out ; he did not know what the thing was at first, for he dared not look up. 'Oh, oh! come and look; here's such a funny thing! Four legs! And it oniy walks on two of them! And such a funny head !" Then Tommy felt himself snatched up and pinched; and screaming and struggling he looked up at the big thing that held him. It was a beetle of gigantic size, it seemed to him. "Oh!" screamed the beetle again, "come and look what I've caught. Such a funny thing; whatever it is?" "What have you got?" asked a butterfly about one hundred times Tommy's size, flying up. "Why, look here! I don't know what it is." ' Oh," said the butte ifly, ''it's only a boy. They're common enough. If you didn't live so much under the ground you'd know a boy when you see him. That's only a little one, but I've seen big ones, and I've good cause too remember tbem, too, they've chased me often enough." The butterfly spoke very fiercely for such a gentle creature, and Tommy trem bled. "A boy!" shrieked the beetle—"a boy ! I know something about them, only 1 didn't know this was one. Ugh! you little brute''—shaking Tommy—"you're a boy, are you? I'll pinch you " And the beetle did, and Tommy screamed and kicked; but the beetle held him tightly. "What's on here?" asked a passing bee, "What have you got?'' "Oh,only a boy," said the butterfly, "and we're only going to pinch him to see Lim kick." "Oh, oh!" screamed Tommy, "you cow ards! you wouldn't dare do it if I were not so small; ' but the insects took no notice of his cries. "Here, hand him over to me," said the bee ; ' I owe boys a grudge ; let me sting him " •'Wait a bit," answeied the beetle;"let'i have some fun with him first. You'll kill him if you sting him." "Not I Besides, boys can't feel." "They can! they can!" shrieked Tom my, but no heed was paid to his words. Just as the bee was about to sting its shrieking victim a linnet (to Tommy seemed the size of an eagle) flew up. The butteifly flitted away sharply, and the bee fuddenly became impressed with the ne cessity of going also, and went. Only the "beetle remained, holding Tommy tightly still, for the beetle knew that its scaly coat would protect it against the linnet But the bee and the butterfly had not such protection. "What have you got?" asked the linnet A boy. I owe boys a grudge, so I'm pinching him;" and so the beetle squeezed Tommy again, and again he squealed "Will you give him to me? I d like to take him somewhere," said the linnet So the beetle dropped Tommy,who was now quite sore, and the linnet lifted him in its beak Dreams are verv funny things. The linnet seemed to be suddenly in the room of a house, and Tommy saw it was his own bedroom. "What's the matter?" squeaked funny voice," It was Tommy's white mouse. "Why, said the linnet, and it seemed quite friendly with the white mouse, "I've caught a boy. What shall I do with him?" "A boy ? Let me look," said the white mouse; then added, fiercely, "Why, it's Tommy !" "Yes, please, Mr Mouse," said Tom my, "It's me. You know me, don't you?" Tommy was afraid of the white mouse, it seemed so big "Know you?" screamed the mouse. "Iv'e good reason to know you ! Yes ! and now I'll make you know me." Please, Mr. Mouse," said Tommy ; but the white mouse interrupt d him. "Know you? You're the boy that fast ened me in a cage without any food, and I was hungry. Worse, worse ! I wa thirsty, and all my water was dried up. My cage has been left unclean for weeks. Know you ? Yes ! and now you shall know me" Tbe white mouse rushed fiercely at Tommy. But suddenly Tommy awoke, and he was l»ing in bed, and of his natural size. Deàr me," he murmured, "what an awfu l dream I have had ! I declare I'll never hurt anything ever again. And when I get up I'll feed my white mouse. I forgot him yesterday " For Tommy had been so full of the treat the da/ be fore that the whits mouse had been neg lected. In fact. Tommy often neglected it Then he dressed, and went to the cage to attend to the little creature. But the mouse was dead. 'Oh dear, cried Tommy, "I must have forgotten it for two days! I'll never be so cruel again to anything." And he kept his word.— Band of Mercy. a a as a if pay rise I had chills and fever ; less than one bottle of Smith's Tonic Syrup perfectly otured me.— C. D. Clarke, Frankford, Mo. Act No. 46. making it a misdembanor for any per son to bell, give or lease to any minor, any pistol, bowie-knife, dirk < r any weapon intended 1 to bs carrieij ok used as a concealed weapon. Section l. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of tjie State of Louisiana, That nereafter, it shall be unlawful, for any person to sell, or lease or give through himself or any other p^son, any pistol, dirk, Bowie knife or any other dangerous weapon, which may be carried concealed to any person under tbe age of twenty one years. Sec 2. Be it further enacted, etc , That any person violating the provisions of this act shall be deemed guilty of a misde meanor and upon conviction thereof, shall pay a line of not less than twenty-five dol lars, nor more than one hundred dollars, and in default of the payment of said fine, by imprisonment not exceeding twenty davs. Sec. 3. Beit further enacted, etc., That all laws or parts of laws in conflict with this act be and the same are hereby re pealed, and that this act take effect irom and after i»s passage. S P. Hbnky Speaker of the House of Representatives. James Jeffrie*, Lieutenant Governor and President of the Senate. Approved July 1, 1890. Francis T. Nick ou. a, Governor of the State of Louisiana A true copy from the original. L. F. Mason . Secretary of State. Act No. 47. relative to crimes and offences against property of steamboats, railroads and other c a RRIKRS , Section 1. Be it enacted by the Gen eral Assembly of the StatKof Louisiana That, whosoever with intent^ to commit any crime or misdemeanor, shall in the night time break and enter a steamboat or other vessel or railroad car or break any seal thereof ; or having with such intent entered, shall in the night time break any such steamboat, vessel or railroad car or break any seal thereof, and any person present aiding, assisting or consenting in any such breaking or entering or accessory thereto before the fact, by consenting, hir ing or procuring such breaking or entering to be committed shall on conviction suffer imprisonment at hard labor for not exceed ing ten years. Sec. 2. Be it further enacted, etc., That whoever with intent to commit any crime or misdemeanor shall in the night time enter without breaking or in the day time break and enter any steamboat or other vessel or railroad car, or break any seal thereon, and any person present aiding or abetting, assisting or consenting in any uch breaking or entering or accessory thereto before the fact by consenting, hir • ing or procuring such breaking or entering to be committed, shall on conviction there of be imprisoned not exceeding five years, and with or without hard labor at the di.-cretion of the court. Sec . 3. Be it further enacted, etc., That whoever shall wilfully throw any missile or shoot with any firearm at any steamboat or other vessel or railroad train, engine, tender or car, or at any human being thereon, and any person aiding, procuring, advising or accessory before the fact in such throwing or shooting, shall on con viction thereof be punished by a fine not exceeding cne thousand dollars or impris oned not exceeding two years and with or without hard labo- at the discretion of the court. S. P. Henry, Speaker of the Hous a of Representatives. jame* Jeffries, Lieutenant-Governor and President of the Senate. Francis T. Nicholls, Governor of the S:ate of Louisiana. A true copy trom the original. L. F. Mason , Secretary of State. Self Supporting Stations in Africa. Bishop Taylor, of the Methodist Episco pal Cnurch, who haï just returned to this country from Africa, makes an earnest ap peal for missions in the Dark Continent. He asserts that the day is not far distant, if the Christian chnrch rise to its present opportunity, when the success of saving th" unconverted millions of Africa shall be assured beyond a peradventure. He adds: ' The thirty five mission stations I have already planted and manned in the mid«t of purely heathen tribes furnish but a specimen ana earnest of what can be doûe on a scale commensurate in breadth with the stupendous work to be done. With the finds coming to baad as re quired, I can yet, in the afternoon of my aay, by the will of my Father and Savior, plant and develop to a self-supporting basis a thousand stations in Africa before I quit the field ; and no station shall be tbe ultimatum of its own existence, but a center of evangelizing' light—a beacom amid the dark mountains and a base of evangelizing agency, extending the work in all directions." Little Danger from Lightning. It is not probable that a person can b9 struck by ligh'ning and live, if he be struck in the head or if the fluid passes down through the body. Most of the peo ple that claim to have been struck by lightning are not struck at all, but are af fected by the current passing near them, or are struck by little currents thrown off from the main one. Every one who is in a house when it is struck naturally thinks he is hit. B it the average swath cut by the fluid is but an inch or two across, and a house might be struck a dozen times without anyone being killed.— Boston Olobe. The Manufacturers' Record gives big news about plans for establishing manu factories in the South by the American Fibre Association. This corporation has bfen capitalized at $50,000,000 and pro poses to develop the libre indus .ry in every line that will yield a profit. It is experi menting with "cat tails," cotton stalks, flax and ramie. From the palmetto it is making at Fernandina a fibre that is used as a substitute for hair in plaster. But its chief enterprise is paper making, for which it possesses patent methods that greatly reduce the cost. It has made a contract with the Cotton Oil Trust for its annual output of 300,000 tons of Feed hulls, which it claims to be able to con vert into superior book and news stock "at a cost hitberio unheard of." This scheme, if carried out as the Record presents it, wili be of immense advantage to the Sou: li. An interesting judicial precedent has been established in Hamburg. M. Pollini, manager of one of the theatres, refused admission to a newspaper critic on the ground that the latter had given his per formance a bid notice. The court, afttr deliberation decided that the manager's course was illegal, and condemned him to pay the journalist five hundred marks for eajh refusal of admission — Sen Francis-o Argonaut. Unanswerable—The Old Gentleman — Liok here, Amy, it must have been sun rise when young Staylate left." Amy— Well, papa, the son had to rise before he could leave, didn't he?"— Drake's Mag azine. Mothers, don't let your children suffer with ill health, Try Dr. Bull's Worm Destroyers—dainty candy lozenges. It will do them no harm and may be just the remedy they need.