Narragansett herald., June 19, 1897, Image 6

About Narragansett herald. (Narragansett Pier, R.I.) 1877-1???

Image provided by: Rhode Island Digital Newspaper Project

                
Domtnmnm
That is likely to
At Something some day,
My friend?
Or, do you belong
Io the great plodding throng
- On the broad, level way
That leads to Nowhere—
~ That will end, some day,
In Nothing, out there.
There are paths leading out
From this broad, level way—
You have seen them, no doubt,
For you pass them each day—
mmlead glo::o Somewhere,
us ’
Bo distan:, so !-!r
Like a mirage in space!
But these pathways, you cay,
Are so lt'gx and steep!
And the b , level way
Is so easy to keep ! Z
You have heard of Somewhere,
And you'd like to go there
If a way could be found
{ Ibhat was easy and wound
In a smooth, broad course that led on
around
And up the height,
Where the city stands, a floflou sight,
Peopled b{oonly immo , and where
mnu: nor for each that, at last, gets
re!
Abh! there is no way that is level and broad
Loullngh up to this glorious place, Some
where,
And no man yet who has only trod
A way that is easy and smooth and broad
Has ever suceeeded in getting there.
—B. E. Kiser, in Cleveland Leader.
g ADDIE'S APPLE PIE. §
““Now, Joseph, apail of fresh water,
please, from the well,” said Addie Sil
vester. ‘‘And some oven wood, and
a bunch of fennel, and some of those
big roses from the bush by the stone
wall. Not all the blossomed-out ones,
you know, Joseph, but buds and half
blown flowers.” |
““Yes, miss,” said Joseph.
““And stop by the hennery fence,
Joseph,and see that the brood of little
ducklings is all right and the calf
hasn’t jumped over the wall, and—
good gracious, me, what are you star
ing at, Joseph?”
The hired boy, a great awkward
lout of 16, turned very red. |
““Please, miss, I can’t help it,”” said |
Joseph. ‘‘But please, miss, I'll go as
fast as ever I can; and if I can’t find
no roses, please, miss, I know a bush |
of lovely wild honeysuckle down by |
the swamp.” ‘
Away went Joseph, swinging awk- |
wardly from side to side in his gait,
while Miss Silvester, standing at her
pastry table, reflected:
‘““How dreadfully awkward that boy
is! One would actually suppose him
to be all feet and hands. And I wish
we could break him of that dreadful
habit of staring with those gobble
eyes of his.”
Alas, how pathetically different
were the meditations of honest Joe!
““Ain’t she like an angel?”’ said Jo
seph, to himself, stumbling over the
stone fence and frightening the golden-
Jacketed little ducklings hither and
yon. “My! how them eyes of her’'n
do sparkle and them little white teeth
shine every time she speaks! I wish
I was a buceaneer, or the captain of a
three-masted brig, and then I'd marry
her, and we'd go and live on a desert
island, where there wasn’t nothin’
but palms and bananer trees!”
While pretty Addie, slicing up the
g;l(}en apples for pies, was glancing
8 at the sparkle of a certain ring
"upfi the )og‘aflngef of her left hand—
a plain, old-fashioned band of gold,
with four claws grasping a small but
brilliantly watered diamond—the en
gagement ring which Harry Fielding
had given her two days before,
% “And to think that it was Harry's
mother’s, 30 years ago!” said Addie
to herself, turning the pretty, apple
stained finger round and round, to see
the sunbeams splinter into colored
rainbows against the crystal facets.
“Oh, dear; I wonder how I shall look
30 years from now? But mamma is
quite right—l oughtn't to wear it
about my housework.”
And slipping it off, she laid the yel
low circlet on the table and proceeded
to shower a dust of sweet-scented cin
namon over the apple-slices as they
lay in their nest of crust.
And Joe returned, with a pail of
water, an armful of wood, a favorable
report concerning the ducklings and
the red calf, and a banch of delicious
pink roses, that scented all the air.
“Now, Joe,” said Miss Silvester,
briskly, *“‘you may earry these apple
parings to Bob, the pony, and then
you may go and pick some peas for
dinner.” ;
“Yes, miss,” said Joe.
And Addie fell into a deep reverie,
as she covered in her pies with a blan
ket of snowy paste and decorated the
same with the fantastic motions of the
mysterious little instrument which
housewives call a ‘‘jiggering iron”—
areverie as to whether she should be
married in a white swiss muslin, with
a wreath and veil, or in a brown cash
mere traveling dress and a brown hat,
with a erimson carnation in the side.
*“I suppose the cashmere would
really be the most sensible and useful,”
mused Addie, as she put the pies into
the oven and glanced up at the clock.
““‘But, oh, dear! the white swiss and
the veil would be so lovely! And a
girl never can expect to be a bride but
once.”’
And she ran out to gather some red
raspberries for Grandfather Silvester's
11 o’clock bowl of bread and milk.
When she came back Joe was shell
ing peas at the kitchen table.
““Please, miss, there wasn’'t nothin’
to do at the barn just now,” said Joe,
“an’ I thort I'd help vou a spell.”
“That’s right, Joseph!” said Miss
Silvester, with the gracious mein of a
princess. ;
For the beautiful Miranda disdained
not the worship of a Caliban, and to
Adelaide Silvester there was some
thing rather amusing than otherwise
in the idea that Joseph, the gobble
eyed farm lad, was her humble slave
and adherent; for a woman naturally
likes to queen it over the lowliest
creature alive.
““Hello!” cried Mr. Hfi’ Fielding,
putting his handsome h into the
kitchen; ‘“‘how delicious your pies
smell, Addie!”
“I made them myself,” said Miss
Silvester, with pardonable pride, as
she looked down at the round, sun
shiny trophies of her culinary skill—
““without so much as a recipe book to
refer to. And--"
But just at that moment she
chanced to glance at the forefinger of
her left hand, her mind attracted
thither by an odd train of associations
with the apple-pie making.
The diamond.
She looked eagerly down at the
~ table where she had laid it. There
was no ring there.
- *“Oh, Harry, it’s:;u!” she cried,
~ ““What has gone?” said Harry Field
ix ““What are you talking about,
~ “My diamond ring,” said poor Ad
~ And then she sat down in one of the
St
THE WAYS.
began to cry.
““Not gone!” said Harry, cheerfully.
“My darling, how should it be gone?
It had neither wings to fly withal, nor
legs to run. It’s here somewhere, 1
don’t doubt; it must be here.”
But it was not. They searched
high and low; they swept the kitchen,
like the woman in Secripture, and still
no sparkling stone rewarded their anx
ious scrutiny.
“T have it!"” ecried Harry, slapping
his knees and bursting into a laugh.
““You’ve baked it in one of the apple
pies. It’s the old story of ‘The Maid
and the Magpie’ over again.”
And,then and there,the covers were
taken off the apple pies, and their fra
grant contents prodded with a silver
fork; and still no diamond appeared.
Mrs. Silvester looked hesitatingly at
her daughter just then.
“What is it, mgmma?”’ cried Addie.
“My dear,” said the old lady, “I
would be one of the last to believe
evil of a fellow-creature, but—"’
‘“‘But what, mamma?’ urged Addie.
‘“According to your own statement,”
said Mrs. Silvester, reluctantly, ‘‘there
was only one person in the kitchen
all the time you were making those
apple pies, and that person was—"’
“Joseph!” cried out Addie, a flush
of deep rose-red rising to her fore
head.
“Joseph?”’ echoed Harry Fielding,
sprigging to his feet. : <
‘“Your father took him from the
workhouse,” said Mrs. Silvester,
““against my advice and consent. His
uncle was transported for burglary to
England; his father died herein a
gypsy encampment.”’
‘“‘But, mamma.”’ pleaded Addie,who
had a sort of tacit liking for the un
couth creature, ‘‘we’ve always found
him honest and truthful in every re
spect.”
“Up to the present moment—yes,”
said Mrs. Silvester,cautiously. ‘‘But
there must always be a first offence.
And if it was not Joseph who took the
ring, who was it?”
There was a moment’s silence in
the room, and then Addie said, in a
low tone:
“I don’t want to believe it, but I'm
afraid it must have been Joseph.”
Of course Joseph denied it; but Jo
seph was not one of those fortunate in
dividuals whom nature has blessed
with a prepossessing appearance or
ready utterance,and his blusing,stam
mering denial was nowise in his favor.
And Joseph was ignominiously
searched, and the poor little garret
room was turned inside out, and Jo
seph himself was taken to the village
station house, there to await the de
cree of Squire Sam Birdsall, who
dealt out the law and order of the
neighborhood. And, of all the shame
ald degradation of the whole busi
ness,one envenomed arrow stung poor
Joseph sharpest.
‘‘She believes me guilty!” said Jo
seph to himself, over and over again;
“‘she thinks that I am the thief!”
‘“Has anyone remembered to feed
Bob?” said Grandfather Silvester, the
cheerful, chair-ridden old man, who
was mind, ears and memory for the
whole family. ‘‘Your father is away
at market, my dear, and it used to be
poor Joseph’s business, you know.”
“I'll run out and feed him this min
ute,” said Addie.
For Bob was her cream-white pony,
her own especial pet and darling, as
far removed from the drudgery of the
farm horses as Jupiter above a glow
worm.
“Oh, dear! oh, dear! I didn’t know
we shouid miss poor Joseph so!”’
Bob whinnied pitifully as his mis
tress’ light footfall sounded on the
stable threshold. She went up to him
and laid her cheek against his satin
neck.
“Poor fellow!” she said, ‘‘are youn
hungry?”
And she looked remorsefully into his
empty manger,where lay two or three
apple-parings, discarded, for some ex
cellent equine reason, by fastidious
Bob, and—what was it that sparkled
like a drop of dew in their midst?
Her diamond ring!
The ring itself, with its slender
hoop of gold slightly marred by the
prints of Bob’s teeth (no wonder that
the sagacious quadruped regarded it
as an indigestible morsel and rejected
it from the juicy morsels which he had
elected to swallow)—the diamond,
sparkling as bright as ever.
With a low ery she caught it up and
flew back into the house, flushed and
breathless with delight.
“Mamma!'! grandfather!” she cried,
“it wasn’t Joseph after all! Look
look! it was thrown into Bob’s man
ger with the apple parings. Call
Harry, somebody! Tell him to go
and bring Joseph back! I declare to
goodness I could kiss the poor fellow,
to think how he has been treated!”
She didn’t kiss him, but her sweet,
apologetic words were like dew on the
fever of the poor lad’s sore heart,when
once more he found himself within the
walls of the Silvester farmhouse. -
“It wasn’t the jail, miss,” stuttered
he, ‘‘nor it wasn’'t the hard names,
nor it wasn’t yet the being suspected
by all the rest of ’em; but I didn’t
want you to think evil of me, miss!”
‘““And I never will again, Joseph!”
said Addie, fervently. Saturday
Night.
Guarding Powder Magazines Against
Lightning.
The buildings which are most care
fully guarded against injury by light
ning are probably some of the big
powder magazines, Some of these
are almost covered with a network of
connecting rods and wires. These
run down to the earth on all sides of
the building, are joined below ground
and lead away to a considerable dis
tance, where the rod- terminates in
moist earth. For many years the
Hotel de Villie in Brussels was looked
upon as the most carefully protected
building in the world, the subject
being a hobby with the proprietor of
the hotel. The roof of the great
building looked like an ancient
barbican with its dozens of minaret
points jutting up. These rods were
all connected and grounded in the
most scientific manner, but it is a fact
that the hotel was struck by lightning
at least once in spite of its elaborate
protection.
Sword Worth a Million.
Perhaps the most precious sword in
existence is that of the Gaekwar of
Barodo. Its hilt and belt are encrust
ed with diamonds, rubies and emer
alds. and it is valued at §1,100,000.
The Shah of Persia possesses a sword
valued at $50,000. There are some
costly swords in India, and both the
Czar and the Sultan possess jeweled
sabers of great price. The most valu
able sword in England is one that was
presented to Lord Wolseley. The hilt
is set with brilliants, and it is valued
at $lO,OOO.
The man who was most l\urgely re
sponsible for the passage of the act in
the lowa Legislature, making the wild
rose the state flower, was Major S. H.
Byers, the author of ‘“‘Sherman’s March
to the Sea.”
kitchen chairs and
THE SHIP'S BELL.
It Is Closely Identified With the Whole
Career of the Vessel.
Lieutenant John M. Ellicott, U. S.
N., writes an article for St. Nicholas
on ‘“What is Told by the Bell,” in
which he says:
Nothing in a ship becomes so closely
identified with her throughout her
whole career as the ship’s bell. Offi
cers and crew come and go; masts,
decks, engines, and boilers become
old, and are replaced by new ones;but
from the day that she first glides into
the water the same ship’s bell remains
always a part of her, marking her
progress all over the world, and fin
ally going down with her to a lonely
grave at the bottom of the sea, or sur
viving her as a cherished souvenir of
her existence and achievements. On
a man-of-war the bell is usually in
scribed with her name and the date of
her launching; and as it is probable
that it may some day become a me
mento of a glorious history, the bell is
often the subject of special care in
casting or selection. Sometimes the
hundreds of workmen who have built
the great ship contribute each a sil
ver coin to be melted and molded into
a bell which shall be the token of their
love for the object of their creation
and their interest in her future career.
Often the people of the city or state
after which a man-of-war is named
may present to her a magnificent bell
appropriately ornamented and in
scribed with words of good will and
good wishes. Such a bell is usually
presented with ceremony after the
ship goes into commission.
Ships’ bells in general are made of
bronze, like other bells. The addi
tion of silver bells. The addition of
silver in their composition gives them
a peculiarly clear and musical tone.
They are placed in such a position on
the upper deck that they may be
heard from one end of the ship to the
other; and are usually near the main
mast or at the break of the forecastle.
One peculiarity exists in a ship’s bell
which is necessary on account of her
motion at sea. The tongue is hung
so that it can swing in only one direc
tion, If it were not so the bell would
be continnally ringing as the ship
rolled and pitched. The direction in
which the tongue can swing is another
important point. If it were athwart
ship the bell would ringatevery heavy
roll of the ship; and if it were fore and
aft the bell would ring at every deep
pitch; so the direction in which the
the tongue can swing is nearly half
way around between these two.
QUAINT AND CURIOUS.
Switzerland is the land of univer
sities.
To every 192 persons in the United
States there is a telephone.
In Meriden, Warwickshire, a stone
cross on the village green marks the
geographical centre of England.
Eighteen persons live in a one-room
shanty, sixteen by twenty feet, in the
town of Woodstock, Vt., not far from
the Bridgewater line.
A Farmington (Me.) man ninety-two
years old took a friend eighty-four
years old out riding the other day
behind a horse thirty-four years old.
In a railway collision in North Caro
lina a four-year-old child at an open
car window was thrown out of the
window by the shock and escaped in
jary.
In North Dakota the killing of quail
and English and Chinese pheasants is
prohibited until 1906 and beaver and
otter cannot be trapped or killed until
1903. -
The finished portion of the new con
gressional library at Washington has
about forty-four miles of shelving,
which will accommodate over 2,000,000
volumes,
A drunken Polander in New York
was found sound asleep the other
night while his leg was burning with
a big blaze. The leg was wooden and
got against a coal stove.
A Frenchman politely passed tooth
picks to a Turk at a banquet in Paris,
who declined, saying: ‘“No; thank
you! I have already eaten two of the
accursed things, and I wantno more !”
It is estimated that 1250 acres of
tobacco were raised in Suffield, Conn.,
last year, which probably averaged the
growers not far from $2OO an acre. At
this average, the total value of Suf
field’s ecrop would be $250,000.
Donizetti wrote a mass for the
funeral of Bellini, in 1839, which was
lost. It has been found again and will
be performed at the services in the
cathedral of Bergamo next summer,
commemorating the 100th anniversary
of Donizetti’s birth.
Lightning struck the home of Mar
shall Spring at Hiram, Me., and set
fire to six rooms, besides tearing up
a board under Mr. Spring’s chair and
melting a bronze bracket near which
one of his children stood. The whole
family escaped unhurt, however.
It is believed that the largest plant
in the world is the gigantic seaweed,
the nerevcystis, which frequently at
tains the height of 300 feet. The stem
is as strong as an ordinary rope, and
large quantities are dried and used as
such by people of the South Sea
Islands.
Maori Tattooing.
Major-General Robley, who has
studied the tatooing, or ‘‘moko,” of
the Maoris, represents that the cus
tom is no longer practiced among the
men. King Tawhaio, two years ago,
carried to his grave ‘“‘one of the last
really fine specimens of moko.”” Ap
parently every chief who was deco
rated had a special design, and a
variety of beautiful patterns in ara
besque arose. They certainly show,
the Athenzum says, that a variety of
designs can be derived from the adap
tation of scroll work to the outlines of
the human face, and exhibit much
techuical skill in dealing with an in
tractable material. The work was
done with a chisel made of a sea bird’s
wing bone or ashark’s tooth, a frag
ment of stone or hard wood, ground
down to a fine edge, which was driven
into the skin by a smart tap, causing
a deep cut and much effusion of blood,
which was wiped away with the flat
tened end of the mallet or with a wad
of flax. After contact with Europeans
iron chisels were sometimes used. The
associations of a special design with
the individual tatooed had the advan
tage of serving as a means of identifi
cation, and this led to the curious re
sult that Maori chiefs attached as
their signature to deeds and other
documents a facsimile of the moko
tatooed on their faces. It is said that
even an enemy would respect a head
conspicuous for a beautiful moko.—
Popular Science Monthly.
‘““You will be sorry for the way you
have neglected me when lam silent
in the tomb,” said Mrs. Peck. ‘‘Think
of that.”
‘““My dear,” said Mr. Peck, as inno
cently as he could, ‘I cannot imagine
such a thing.”—lndianapolis Journal.
A Bird of Letters.
““ABC, ABC, ABC!”
The parrot cried, proud as could be.
““We birds who know letters
Are surely your betters,”
He called to the birds in the tree.
But the birds in the tree-top at play
All chirped in the jolliest way,
““We don’t know ABC’s,
But we're quite at our ease
In these higher branches,” said they.
—H. L. Bridgman, in St. Nicholas.
A Shipload of Lizards.
One day, not many montha ago, a
ship sailed from Pakhoi with one of
the strangest cargoes in the world. It
was loaded full of nothing but dried
lizards, thousands and thousands of
them, all packed in together like so
many sardines in a box. It had taken
hundreds of natives several months to
catch these lizards and to bring them
to the port. In doing this they chased
over the sandy plains around the town
of Wuchow, in Kwangsi, looking for
lizard burrows and digging out lizard
families by the hundreds. Thesedried
lizards are used for a very strange
purpose. They are all ground up in
to a very fine powder aud made into a
medicine, called ““lizard wine,” which
some people think very good for cur
ing sickness of various kinds.—Chi
cago Record.
Passing the Clothes Pegs.
For fun at a party the simple little
game of ‘‘passing the clothes peg” is
is about as good as anything you can
find.
Supposing we have sixteen players
then we require sixteen clothes pegs
or any smooth pieces of wood. The
players stand in two lines facing each
other, eight on each side. Each
player holds the left wrist of his
neighbor with his own right hand, so
that each only has one handatliberty.
Place a chair at each end of each line,
and at the top end eight pegs are
placed on each of the chairs. When
the signal is given, then each side be
gins to pass the pegs one at a time
and put on the chair at the opposite
end. As soon as the eight pegs are
landed, then pass them back. and the
side wins which gets all the pegs back
first. The thing to avoid is dropping
the pegs on the floor, as it wastes time
and loses the game.—Chicago Record.
Oldest Tool in the World.
If you were asked what was the old
est tool in the world what answer
would you make? R STECH
Hammers of course. When the first
native savage wished to crack a coco
nut or a clam he used astone, and that
was the first hammer. Even wild
monkeys are said to know how to use
stones and sticks as hammers. Pic
tures of hammers appear also on the
monuments of Egypt, built more than
2000 years ago. They look a good
deal like our hammers, only they have
no claws—for the reason that no one
ever had heard of nails in those days.
Claw hammers were invented about
the time that Columbus discovered
America, and since that time all sorts
and sizes of hammers have been made.
so that every trade has a hammer of
its own. The smallest one of all is
doubtless that used by the jeweler,
weighing less than half an ounce. and
used for the dainty work of watch re
pairing. The greatest hammers are
in the the mighty steel works of the
east. Some of them weigh fifty tons,
and make a noise like a whole battery
of cannon when they fall.
Lawn Cupolette.
Lawn cupolette is an interesting
outdoor game for young girls. It is
played with woeden quoits and large
wooden pins, fashioned with a slight
cup at the top, in which rests a ball.
There are seven pinsdriven into the
ground; six are set up in a circle, with
the seventh in the middle. The play
ers, divided into two teams, and any
number may play, stand at a given
distance from the pins, each player
being supplied with quoits, with which
she tries to knock the balls out of the
cups. Each pin is numbered from one
to seven, and before tossing the quoit
the player must give the number of
the pin at which she intends to aim,
and if she strikes off the ball she
scores one; if she strikes off the ball
belonging to any other pin the score
counts one for the opposing team. If,
however, she strikes off not only the
ball at which she aimed, but by the
same throw strikes off one or more
balls besides she may score them all.
A variation of the game is to try to
throw the quoits so as to fall upon the
pins after the balls have been knocked
off, and for every case in which she
succeeds she adds the number of the
pin to her score. San Francisco
Chronicle.
A Vegetable Fly-Trap.
There is an article on ‘‘Plants That
Feed Upon Insects,” written by
Thomas H. Kearney, Jr., in St.
Nicholas. The author says:
Perhaps some of the readers of St.
Nicholas have noticed the little plants
called sundews, that dwell in bogs in
almost every part of the world. The
commonest of these in the United
States and in England is the round
leafed sundew, which has a rosette of
roundish leaves on slender stalks. Out
of the midst of them rises a leafless
stem, bearing a number of small white
flowers, that open one by one when
the sun is shining. The leaves are
fringed and covered on the upper side
with small, dark-red bodies, called
glands, borne on slender stalks, like
tiny, round-headed nails. On each of
these little glands may be seen a drop
-of clear, sticky liquid that glistens in
the sunlight. And this appearance
earns for the plant its pretty name of
“‘sundew.” -
When an insect—a small fly, for
example, or a gnat—alights upon a
sundew leaf, he is caught and held by
the sticky fluid on the glands under
him. Then the stalks of the glands
near the edges of the leaf begin to
bend in toward the spot where the
little intruder is fastened, at the same
time pouring out an extraordinary
quantity of their sticky fluid. It is
like a puppy whose mouth waters when
he catches sight of a bone. This
movement of the gland-stalks is very
slow, and it takes many hours for the
outer ones to close down on the poor
little victim. When they are at last
completely bent, it is a number of
days before they once more begin to
spread.
Meantime the fluid which they pour
upon the body of the insect actually
digests all the eatable part of him,
leaving the hard shell or the thin
wings behind, when the glands return
to their places. Sundews will digest
tiny bits of meat if placed upon the
leaves. There is no doubt that the
plants are better for an occasional
meal upon an insect, for those that do
not obtain such food once in a while
thrive less than the plants that suc
ceed in securing it.
How the Jackknife Was Named.
Did you ever wonder how the jack
knife came by its name? We can
understand easily enough how its
diminutive brother came to be called a
penknife, and how it will continue to
bear that name centuries after the pen
is made of material so hard that the
knife would be useless to mend its
point and give it proper flexibility.
But how the jackknife came by its
name is not so evident. Doubtless it
dates back to the time when the two
came into common use, for otherwise
the name pocketknife would have dis
tinguished either with sufficient clear
ness from its fellows of the belt or of
the table.
A clue to the origin of this name
may be found if we observe that the
knife has it in common ¥vith the jack
plane, the jackscrew, and numerous
other contrivances for doing the hard
est and commonest kind of work. Now
the symbol of every such appliance to
the ready service of mankind in doing
drudgery has been, and is, the don
key, all the world over, and the prob
lem is reduced to this, to find how
this patient creature of all work came
to receive the now opprobrious epi
thet, but once pet name, of jackass.
It seems to have come incidentally,
and in a blundering way—as so many
other words have comato us—through
'the French. In that language, the
word genet is a name applied to the
finer Spanish or Moorish horses,
though it is said originally to have be
longed rather to the rider, and to have
been given to him from the peculiar
suit of armor which he wore. How
ever this may have been, it is certain
that genet did mean a fine horse. The
English, in borrowing the word, dis
regarding its gender, which is mas
culine, and giving attention to its
sound, seem to have confounded it
with Jeannette, and so the word was
written Anglice, ‘“‘Jenny.” At once
began a process of differentiation,
Jenny was feminine, and its corres
ponding masculine name was Jack.
Such seems to have been the way in
which the name arose, and its appli
cation came about.
As soon as the name became familiar
by a simple law of association, it was
carried into a wider field of useful
ness. Any contrivance for lifting
heavy weights would be a jack, pure
and simple. The plane that went
ahead and did the roughest and hard
est work was the jackplane, and the
knife that was destined to minister
both to the service and the amuse
ment of its owner was the jackknife.
On the other hand, any more deli
cately constructed and adjusted ma
chine, designed to do work which had
for all time been thought the fitting
employment for ladies, would take the
name of Jenny; and so we speak
familiarly of a self-operating spinning
jenny. But this inventionis as often.
perhaps, called a spinning-mule, and
this circumstance lends probability to
the account already given of what is
in the name.—Home Companion.
Surrounded by Monkeys.
I was married in India, writes Phil
Robinson, the author and traveler. I
engaged for our honeymoon a little
house—sixteen miles or so from any
other habitation of white man—that
stood on the steep white cliff of the
Nebudda river, which here flows
through a canyon of pure white marble.
Close beside our house was a little
hut, where a holy man lived in charge
of an adjoining shrine, earning money
for himself and for the shrine by
polishing little pieces of marble as
mementos for visitors. It was a won
derful place, altogether, and while my
wife went in to change her dress, the
servants laid breakfast on the veranda
overlooking the river. At the first
clatter of the plates there began to
come down from from the bigtree that
overshadowed the house, and up the
trees that grew in the ravine behind
it, from the house-roof itself, from
everywhere, a multitude of monkeys.
They came up singly and in couples
and in families, and took their places
without noise or fuss on the veranda,
and sat there, like an audience waiting
for an entertainment to commence.
And when everything was ready, the
breakfast all laid, the monkeys all
seated, I went in to call my wife.
‘“Breakfast is all ready and they
are all waiting,” I said.
‘““Who are waiting?” she asked, in
dismay. ‘I thought we were going
to be alone, and I was just coming
out in my dressing-gown.”
‘““Never mind,” I said, “‘the people
about here are notfashionably dressed
themselves. They wear pretty much
the same things all the year round.”
And so my wife came out. Imagine
then, her astonishment! In the mid
dle of the veranda stood her breakfast
table, and all the rest of space,as well
as the railings and the steps, was
covered with monkeys as grave as
possible and as motionless and silent
as if they were stuffed. Ouly their
eyes kept blinking, and their little
round ears kept twitching. Laughing
heartily—at which the monkeys only
looked all the graver—my wife sat
down.
“Will they eat anything?” asked
she.
“Try them,” I said.
So she picked up a biscait and
threw it among the company. And
the result! About three hundred
monkeys jumped up in the air like
one, and just for one instant there was
a riot that defies description. The
next instant every monkey was sitting
in its place as solemn and serious as
if it had never moved—only their eyes
winked and their ears twitched.
My wife threw them another biscuit,
and again the riot, and then another
and another and- another. But at
length we had given all that we had
to give, and got up to go. The mon
keys at once rose, every monkey on
the veranda, and advancing gravely to
the steps,walked down them in solemn
procession, old and young together,
and dispersed for the day’s occupa
tions.—Our Dumb Animals.
His Malady.
Man From Red Dog—What caused
Polecat Pete’s death?
Alkali Tke—Throat trouble.
““The result of exposure?”’
‘““Nope; result of hoss-stealin’.””
Puck.
A Trenton (N. J.) dog has hatched
six chickens,
SOCIETY RENDEZVOUS.
CENTRAL PARK A MEETINGC PLACE
FOR NEW YORK'S FASHIONABLE.
Crowds Gather Imn the Great Pleasure
Ground of the Metropolis to View the
Well-Groomed Horses and Pretty Toi
lets —Economic Clubs - Fashion's Fancies.
[Special New York Fashion Letter.]
Economic clubs are being formed
here by maids and matrons who
frankly say their consciences prick
them in spending so much more than
they ought for dress. One of these
reformers, chatting with me the other
‘day, humiliatingly confessed that she
now does the family darning, instead
of giving the hoisery away. Butl
noticed that though saving so much
she has decided to wear the finest of
silk underwear; and, while saving a
few dollars by getting cheaper boots,
gloves and hats, she has her gowns
made by an extortionate costumer.
Truly, the logic of some women is
wonderful.
Central Park has become the ren
dezvous of fashionables between four
and'six p. m. Coaching parties meet
twice a week in the west drive. Large
crowds gather to see the horses, the
women and their toilets, just as they
do in Hyde Park, London.
The coaches number about a dozen,
and the best whip is considered to be
Mr. Frederic O. Beach. The ladies
of his party are always in the top
niche of social life. Last week, Mrs.
Jack Astor, resplendent in a biscuit
color gown, occupied the seat of
honor. She wore a brown chiffon
chemisette and a pointed open Eton
coat smartly trimmed with braid.
On Mr. Pierre Lorillard’s coach was
Mrs. Duncan Elliot, conspicuous for
her brilliant brunette beauty and the
elegance of her gown, which was an
open blue canvas over green taffeta.
The skirt was ‘“‘rippled,” and over the
green silk waist which had a deep
folded belt, a short roundjacket was
worn which gave a stylish and jaunty air.
Since the opening of the Grant
Monument the Park is used more than
ever. The Fifty-ninth street square
and entrance to the Park, faced by
three grand hotels and Cornelius
Vanderbilt’s mansion, have become
one of the sights of the city. The
Riverside Drive and Park, with the
beautiful Hudson and Palisades are a
perfect feast of beauty to the eye of
the nature lover.
Everybody is up in arms at the pro
posal of New Jersey property holders
BISCUIT COLOR GOWN WITH A POINTED TRAVELING DRESS WITH ETONJACKET
OPEN ETON COAT. OF NEW DESIGN.
to do away with, or virtually spoil, the
Palisades; and the public is appealing
to the government to buy these
picturesque rocks and keep them as a
lasting ornament of the noble river
which European visitors call the
American Rhine,
Mrs. Leslie—or Mrs, Frank Leslie-
Wilde, as she now is—has just started
for Europe. I saw her at the wharf.
She looked extremely well in a dapper
tailor-made gown of blue clay worsted,
with an open fronted jacket which
fitted closely at the back and sides.
She carries on unaided the great pub
lishing concern that bears her first
husband’s name. Since her short and
somewhat exciting married life to Mr.
Willie Wilde, the clever brother of
the more eccentric Oscar, she has de
voted herself exclusively to business
and travel. Williec Wilde will be re-
FROCK OF OPEN BLUE CANVAS,
membered as being packed off to
London by ‘‘Mrs. Willie”’ when she
found he would not rise till noon and
positively refused to ‘‘hustle,” as he
put it, while she was at her desk and
hard at work at 9 a. m.
Willie was too old to change his
ways; and although considered a bright
man in journalistie circles in England,
he was a bit too lazy to suit his ener
getic better-half. He now vegetates
in the fog of ‘‘dear old London,’’ while
the publishing house of Frank Leslie
just packs away in crates the golden
bird known as the American eagle.
Mrs. G. B. De Forest, one of the
finest amateur musicians in New York,
was also a passenger with Mrs. Leslie
Wilde. She was bound for Beyreutl
and the Wagner festival, Her travel
ing dress "had an Eton coat of a new
design, cut rather short in the back
and forming a tab at each side, under
which the belt was slipped. The
goods used was a pretty mixture of
TAILOR-MADE SUIT OF BLUE WORSTED.
fawn and brown cheviot. There were
deep sailor revers on the coat of plain
brown,
Mrs. De Forest has a theory that
intending visitors to Beyreuth must
understand the history of musie from
its earliest stage to fully appreciate
Wagner., There is some force in her
suggestion. If I had not studied this
up myself, before I joined the great
army of Wagnerites who yearly kneel
at the prophet’s shrine, it would not
be possible for me to realize how
great were his conceptions of extra
ordinary effects in orchestration,
whether one does or does not fancy
them for a steady musical diet.
The costumes illustrated herewith
were designed by The National Cloak
Co. of New York.
England has introduced compulsory
education in her prisons,
The Time For Taking Medicines,
Acids, as a rule, should be given
between meals. Acids given before
meals check the excessive secretion of
the acids of the gastric juice.
lodine or the iodides should be
given on an empty stomach. If given
during digestion the acids and starch
alter and weaken their action.
Irritating and poisonous drugs,such
as salts of arsenie, copper, zinc and
iron, should be given directly after
meals.
Oxide and nitrate of silver should
be given after the process of diges
tion is ended ; if given during or close
after meals, the chemicals destroy or
impair their action. Potassium per
manganate, also, should not be given
until the process of digestion is ended,
as organic matter decomposes it and
renders it inert.
The active principal of the gastric
juice is impaired and rendered inert
by tannin and pure alecohol, hence
they should never be given until after
the close of digestion.
Malt extracts, cod-liver oil, the phos
phate, ete., should be given with or
directly after food.
Remember that drugs of any sort
should never be given without the ad
vice of a physician ; but after a special
tonic has been prescribed, these rules
should be born in mind as to the best
time for administering it. Home
Queen.
The Water Bear.
One of the common curiosities re
vealed by the microscope in water is a
little animal that looks like a bear.
An extraordinary thing about this
tiny creature is that he is found in the
gutters of houses, where he is at one
time dry as dust and scorched by the
blazing sun, at another active and full
of life under a refreshing shower of
rain.
The water bear has the scientific
name of tardigrada, because he takes
life so easily. He is always fat and
plump, and spends his waking periods
in constantly grubbing with his four
pairs of legs among whatever rubbish
comes in his way. Having eyes,brain
and a nervous system, he is much
ahead of most of his tribe, and he is
altogether one of the most interesting
and amusing little animals known to
science.
Interesting to the Clergy.
A minister who used to preach in
Somerville had a little boy. A few
days before his father left the city to
go to his new parish one of his neigh
bors said to the little boy:
““So your father is going to work in
New Bedford, is he?” :
““Ohb, no,” he said. “‘Only preach.”
—Someryille Journal,
WHAT MORE?
And I have said, and I say it ever,
As the years go on and the world goes over,
"Twere better to be content and clever,
In the ctlendlng of cattle and the tossing of
over,
In the grazing of cattle and growing of
Than a strong man striving for fame or
Be even as kine in the red-tipp'd elover ;
For they lie down and their rests are rests,
And the days are theirs, come sun, come
While 'i:’ wish and yearn, and do pray in
vain,
And hope to ride onthe biliows of bosoms,
And hope to rest in the haven of breasts,
Till thg h?rt is sickened and the fair hope
“
Be even as clover with its crown of blos-
soms,
Even as blossoms ere the bloom is shed,
Khs’dbolzy the kine and the brown sweet
For these have the sun, the moon, and air,
And never a bit of the burthen of care;
Yet with ?dl of our caring what more have
we
HUMOROUS.
Tip—l hear old Snagsby left a cool
million behind. Nip—How else could
he keep it cool.
““How does it happen, Tommy, that
you have the larger apple?” “There
wasn’'t but one big one, Uncle
Harry.”
When a man gets away from his
wife and then refers to her as an old
hen, you can bet she rules the roost
at home.
“Do you know that your confound
ed dog barks all night™ *“Yes, 1 sup
pose he does. But don’t worry about
him. He sleeps all right in tlyp day
time.”’
“If you had half the nerve this
tooth has,” said the dentist to the
quivering wretch in the chair, “‘vou
could have this all over in about five
seconds.”
“Why do you hate soap s 0?” asked
the inquisitive lady. *‘l don't,” sgj
Mr. Dismal Dawson. “I simply fl
nore it. We don’t move in the same
set; that's all.”
“Would you please help me?” said
the poor beggar to the pedestrian.
“I have a wife and five children at
home, and an instalment to pay on my
bicycle tomorrow, ™
Sportsman (to Snobson, who hasn’t
brought down a bird all day)—Do you
know Lord Peckham? Snobson —Oh,
dear, yes; I've often shot at his house,
Sportsman—Ever hit it?
“I'm not enthusiastic alout send
ing missionaries abroad.” ““Well, I
think we ought to send some to Scot
land to induce those unfortunate peo
ple to get rid of their dialect.
Poet—Let me tell you, sir, that
poem cost me a week’'s hard labor,
Editor (who has read it)-—lls that all?
If I'd have had the passing of the
sentence you'd have got a month,
At the Menagerie—First Street
Arab—l heard tell that cawmels often
has to go a week in the desert with
out a drink. Second Street Arab—
No wonder they get their backs up.
“What is Bexton hustling around
so in the interest of a curfew ordi
nance for?” ““His boy saw him com
ing out of a variety theatre the other
night and went home and told about
™
Willie—Say, paw; was old Cuaptain
Blossom ever a pirate? Pater—No,
Willie; he was a sportsman. Willie—
Well, I heard him say he got away
with fourteen schooners and never got
shot.
First Deaf Mute (speaking by fin
ger signs, sympathetically)—How did
you sprain your wrist? Second Deaf
Mute (spealling by ditto with one
hand)—l was reading Scotch dialect
aloud.
Adorer (after a rebuke by the old
lady)—l didn’t kiss you! 1 only pre
tended I was going to. Why did you
call to your mother? Sweet Girl (re
pentantly)—l—l didn’t know she was
in the house.
Little Willie—Maw, I think I know
why there are so many cat-tails grow
ing down beside that pond near the
mill. Mamma—Why, my dear? Little
Willie—" Cause so many kittens have
been drowned there.
Aliss Eden—Why did they build the
walls of this reservoir so high? Mr.
Musee (manager of the wax-works
show)—Probably te keep people from
poking their canes and nmbrellas into
the water to see if it is real.
‘““Yes, Mildred is going to be a very
economical wife.” ““How do yon
know!” ““Why, she consented to be
married along in the middle of the
day, just to make it unnecessary for
her husband to get a new dress =uit.”
“Mamma,” asked Sammy Snaggs,
““what is meant by ‘the spur of the
moment?’ ”’ ““The spur of the mo
ment is affixed to the heel of time,”
replied Mrs. Snaggs, sagely, “‘and
prompts to immediate performance.
Now go to the grocery after that
bread I told you to fetch half an hour
wo."
Bogus Bread.
H. S. Grimes of Ohio, presumably
a miller, said to a Washington Post
reporter the other day, that ‘it would
surprise a goodly number of people,
no doubt, to hear that they ate very
little strictly pure wheat bread. Of
late years it has got to be a common
thing with millers to mix in with the
flour they put wup a counsiderable per
cent. of white cornmeal. I do not
know just what proportion of meal
goes in, but Ido know that a great
deal of our corn crop is utilized this
way both for export and dowmestie
trade. It doesn’t hurt the flour a par
ticle, and no person’s taste is keen
enough to note any difference when it
comes to eating the compound. There
is nothing disreputable in blending
the products, and the practice is com
mon with the best millers. It makes
their profit a little higher, of course,
as corn is much cheaper. than wheat,
but it is also just as nutritious, and so
the public isn’t a sufferer. This plan
of mixing the cereals has long been in
vogue in Europe.”
A Hangman’s Prospects.
The office of public hangman has al
ways been a respectable vocation.
Jack Ketch, Caleroft and Marlow were
men of reputation, and succeeded in
keeping out of debt. But Cheddy,the
Indian hangman of Natal, South
Africa, had failed to pay a debtof four
pounds, and waé asked by the Maritz
burg magistrate why a warrant of im
prisonment should not be enforced.
Cheddy, in reply, urged that as mat
ters now stood in South Africa he
would soon have a number of “‘jobs,”’
and if his honor would only have a
little patience he would be able to pay
the debt. The warrant was sus
pended. .
Willing to Pay Liberally.
““The fine will be $3 and costs,” an
nounced the police magistrate.
“I am willing to make it 810 and
costs, Squire,” said the scorcher, ‘if
you’'ll have it entered in the printed
record that T was going twenty miles
in hour, and my machine wasa Grezsed
Lightning geared to 84.”-—Chicago
Cribune. ' .
—Joaquin Miller.