Learning Faming.
rtytrhta man to go to faming, who
or no experience, and who
cr pursuits. A question very sim
'I1 °Vn it now lies before us, and the in-
llQl* V^-*
A
il
ft
Alkki.
^pretty fair indication that the
kuirj vho makes it will achieve success
"Jfthe farm, if he goes on one. It is
°i treat herd of people who think that
-hod'v can make a farmer, who fur
the botches in agriculture, or a por
of them. It is unfortunate for any-
tl0°not
to be early trained in the busi
which he proposes to follow for
Ffrif the training is a proper one, but
1 at fact will not necessarily prevent
'cess. It will be remembered that
Er Greeley thought that no one but a
nr-c
thief should change his business
.ftor he was forty years old. But this
not correct. There are thousands of
Ln forty years old who should change
,Lir business. Horse stealing is quite
commendable business compared with
^vocations of some men, and a man
jlt to get out of any disreputable busi
„c« whatever his age may be. But Mr.
rm'lev meant that after that age hab
its wore so firmly fixed, and the man
s0
old, that, as a rule, he could not
,cnuire proficiency in a new calling. At
least it is fairly to be presumed that he
meant this, fiut it is not true. As a
matter of fact, men seldom begin to
achieve much before they are forty. At
that age they are still young and in the
pride of manhood. The judgment has
matured and they are men in all par
ticulars. All the disadvantages they
have in entering upon a new business is
tliat they have to spend valuable time in
mastering details which might have
been mastered early. That is a misfor
tune, but not such a serious one as
should be considered a bar to their en
tering upon a new business. One of the
inost'cniinent
surgeons that New York
ever had was a carpenter, working at
the bench until he was past forty years
of a^e. One of America's most success
ful actors never set foot upon the stage
until he was over forty, and we might
make a very large list of men who be
gan a successful life at first at just
about this period.
In the matter of farming there are
some positivte advantages in beginning
at a comparatively late time of life,
strange as that remark may at first
lecra to be. Under such circumstances
fuccess must depend upon the adoption
of some among the numerous methods,
end there is no blind prejudice to pre
vent the adoption of the best. We do
not know that farmers are any more
loath to adopt innovations than any
other classes are, but it is a fact that the
progress of agriculture is retarded on
account of our love for old theories and
worn-out methods. The child is entirely
too apt to get into the footsteps
of the father and remain in them.
plants and cultivates just as his father
did. He adopts all that is good and all
that is bad in his father's practices, and
his answer to every appeal to adopt bet
ter methods, is, my father did not do
that way and he always got along well
enough. The man whose father was not in
the calling which he adopts, of course,
lias no obsolete ideas and methods to
entaU upon the child, and consequently
the latter will not be handicapped by
them.
Men do not find much difficulty in
getting on in a line of business, if they
are willing to learn. It is the man who
knows it all that makes a failure. We
find such men who were born and bred
in farm life.' You cannot teach them
anything. They do not want farm pa
pers, for there is nothing for them to
learn. They despise farmers' conven
tions, for if anything is said in them that
does not agree with their notions and
practices, it is nonsense, and it is useless
to sit and listen to what does not con
form to their notions and practices.
You. will also find such men among
those who adopt fanning in later life.
Thinking that all there is to do, is to
plow and sow, they spurn advice, and
as a result do not even plow and sow
properly. Failure, complete or com
parative, is the result with both classes.
But the farmer who studies and learns
makes progress, and the man who can
didly confesses that he knows nothing,
but is willing to begin at the foot of the
ladder, and work up, has at best a fair
opportunity to make a successful
farmer, even though he be forty years
old when he begins.— Western Rural.
"Carriage" and Character.
Your coach is a deceptive index of
your true condition in life, but by your
"carriage" you are known and read of
all men. It is more than a figure of
speech when the Bible associates charac
ter with one's "walk and conversation,"
and again, when it says, "having done
all, stand." The drill masters first
command is, "Stand well!" The
apostle's last injunction is the same.
God's special blessing is on the upright.
Such are likely to be downright. Posi
tive characters and weak ones are thus
distinguished. The reveler rests, the
miser stoops and the voluptuary yawns,
but the true man shows his inward dis
position by his outward bearing. He
stands not as the pugilist or fencer, with
one side advanced, as in a hostile atti
tude to give or take a blow, but aequo
peclore, uniting self-possession and dig
nity with gentleness and grace. Ones
mind is more than his manners. The
latter are acquired and are often so
artificial that we call them mannerisms,
and regard them offensive. But one's
mind or air is inclusive of far more than
those arts and artifices learned in the
schools. The whole outward appear
ance, including the dress, goes to make
np this atmosphere which one carries
Wherever he goes. His habits make his
"haVit ».._u
d:
say
Which he rarely lays aside.
The wiry, nervous man moves with
rapid gait the phlegmatic man with
heavy step, and so on with various tem
peraments. Then there are other prin
ciples that form a test, illustrated, for
instance, in the stealthy, creeping
movements of the thief, the halting step
of the inquisitive, or the aimless walk of
the day dreamer. "I know that that
nian has been a soldier," said one.
"How?" "I know it by his walk." He
carried the trunk and shoulders steady
and firm while the motion of walking
brought into action the lower limbs.
The turning of the toes is not a favor
aoie sign. Some associate it with men
tal weakness. A shuffling gait is an
other telling sign of character. But to
go into details would require a volume.
A school to teach youth to walk has
been established in Philadelphia. A no
ble, graceful carriage is a more useful
accomplishment than dancing. If shoe
makers will only help the teachers of
such a school by making sensible shoes,
there might be hope of seeing here the
graceful step one notices among the
Humblest Spanish peasants. But art
will never impart the polish which true
culture gives. It is the soul within that
illumes the face, that gives the persua
sive charm to the voice and perfection
gesture and to step. Here ethics and
thetics unite. It is "by his person
ality, as Goethe says, that man acts on
man. If one wishes to charm or com
mand by either of these functions it will
through the culture of the moral sen
sibilities, largely. By such a trainin,
a person will come to wield by his wa
and talk, his eye and his unconscious
gestures, a power over his fellows alike
masterful and beneficent.— Prof. Tftor
wig, in Phrenological Journal,
Variety of Food.
Man must adapt himself to his busi
ness and circumstances. Nature pro
vides him with many things on which
his sheep will feed. Some of these are
adapted to immediate use, others to
preservation for use when nature has
shut down, so to speak. If this proves
any one thing more than another, it
proves that both animals and men need
with the change of season a change of
diet. In the case of man the changes
are almost innumerable, and he can
select his dietary from a thousand dif
ferent things. But in the case of his
domesticated animals it is very different.
They are not in a position to do any
such thing. If he turns them into his
pasture (be it large or small for the
number enclosed in it), the pasture is
all they have.
If his pasture is adapted to the pro
duction of wool it will not produce mut
ton if for the latter, it will not produce
the former. Hence the necessity of pro
viding a variety of food, for sheep have
to make not only wool and mutton, but
the bone and muscle necessary to their
growth and development.
One reason why native sheep are small
and poorly developed is accounted for
.n this way. They can only secure that
kind of food which will sustain life, and
all they can get is assimilated for that
purpose, and to that only. There are
other contingent reasons of course, but
the staff of fife is the foundation of nat
ural development in the natural state.
What then is the sheepmaster called
upon to do—having of course deter
mined upon his line of herding—but to
provide his stock with such food as are
adapted to the end he has in view.
As was said in an address recently de
livered by Henry Lane before the Ver
mont Board of Agriculture: Different
kinds of food will produce different re
sults. One kind will grow bone, mus
cle, frame another kind will fatten
without much growth of body." The
wool-grower wants wool and body too,
and to secure for his flocks frequent
change of diet.
To accomplish his object the breeder
has to know what purpose he has in
breeding, and then the food adapted to
that purpose. To do this requires more
than to know that a sheep is a sheep,
and that grass is grass can be learned
by experience by a long and slow pro
cess by study, care, observation and
experience much quicker and better
and when all these are combined and
employed many a man will find himself
at times nonplussed to know why his
sheep do not develop as he expected
and desired.
One element of success is found in va
riety of food, in the quantities called
for another is in situation and coup
ling and yet. another care and shelter.
—Colman Rural World.
Medleal Action of Vegetables.
Asparagus is a strong diuretic, and
forms part of the cure for rheumatic
patients at such health resorts as Aix
les Bains. Sorrel is cooling, and forms
the staple of that soupe aux herbes
which a French lady will order for her
self after a lohg and tiring journey.
Carrots, as containing a quantity of
sugar, are avoided by some people,
while .others complain of them as indi
gestible. With regard to the lattor ac
cusation, it may be remarked, in pass
ing, that it is the yellow core of the car
rot that is difficult of digestion—the
outer, a red layer, is tender enough. In
Savoy the peasants have recourse to an
infusion o» carrots as a specific for jaun
dice. The large sweet onion is very
rich in those alkaline elements which
counteract the poison of rheumatic gout.
If slowly stewed in weak broth and
eaten with a little Nepaul pepper, it will
be found to be an admirable article of
diet for patients of studious and seden
tary habits. The stalks of cauliflower
have the same sort of value, only too
often the stalk of a cauliflower is so ill
boiled and unpalatable that few persons
would thank you for proposing to them
to make part of their meal consist of so
uninviting an article. Turnips, in the
same way, are often thought to be in
digestible, and better suited to cows and
sheep than for delicate people but here
the fault lies with the cook quite as
much as with the root. The cook boils
the turnip badly, and then pours some
butter over it, and the eater of Such a
dish is sure to be the worse for it. Try
a better way. What shall be said about
our lettuces? The plant has a slight
narcotic action, of which a French old
woman, like a French doctor, well
knows the value, and when properly
cooked it is really very easy of diges
tion.—Medical Record.
—The Lexington (Ky.) Gazette quotes
Colonel William Gunn, of that city, as
sayinc that when seventeen years ot age
he hail a severe attack of typhoid fever,
which lasted seven weeks, and that
when he recovered he found that he had
actually grown three and a half inches
in height in that time, and the same
paper moreover says that Colonel Gunn
is a truthful man.
—Look often at your horses' feet and
lcs. Disease or wounds in those parts,
if°at all neglected, soon become dan
gerous.
Social Life Under Qaeen Anne.
Everybody seems agreed th'at the lit
erary and social history of Queen Anne's
reign is one of the few things which still
remain to be written yet nobody under
takes the task. From a social point of
view there is, in fact, no period of his
tory which is at once so well known and
yet so little known. From Addison and
Steele we have learned the follies, foi
bles and fashions of that generation
from Swift we have learned a great deal
of the daily household life of the time
and have gathered that in what we
should call the best society there was
found a coarseness of speech and man
ners which appears incredible until we
remember that the picture is certainly a
gross exaggeration. What a frightful
picture might be drawn of our genera
tion, and without the least exaggera
tion, of the things which go on dauy in
our streets, the millions of men who
never open their mouths without an
oath, ana never utter a single noun sub
stantive without prefixing one and the
same ugly and meaningless adjective
the shameless viee which hides not its
head even at high noon the Embank
ment, where men are nightly set upon,
robbed and thrown into the river—just
as used to happen in the Fleet ditch the
gambling clubs, the suburban races the
roughs and thieves of this place and that
place the courts in Marylebone, Soho,
Whitechapel, into which no decent per
son may venture by day or night the
musice halls and their sdhseless, stupid
and mischievous songs the drink
ing and the wife-kicking and the starva-
tion. Were all things" written down a
picture might be produced, true in
everything out the proportion, which
would make the London of Victoria
compare not only with the London of
Anne, but with the Rome of Nero.
As regards crime and punishments,
the sessions for trying criminals were
held eight times a year, and there were
sometimes twenty taken out to be
hanged at a time. Five or six were put
in a cart together. "The executioner
stops the cart under one of the cross
beams of the gibbet and fastens to that
ill-favored beam one end of the rope,
while the the other is round the wretch's
neck. This done, he gives the horse a
lash with his whip away goes the cart,
and there swings my gentleman kicking
in the air." This was elementary. The
writer goes on to say that it was left for
the friends of the criminal to put him
out of pain by pulling his legs and beat
ing his breast. Capt. Kidd, the pirate,
went to his death drunk Tom Cox, a
highwayman, kicked chaplain and ex
ecutioner both out of the cart one Anne
Greene, condemned for murdering her
child, which was afterward found to
have been still-born, was hanged with
the assistance of her friends in the hu
mane manner above described and on
being taken to the anatomist's, actually
recovered. Those who refused to plead
were still pressed to death. Highway
robbers and pirates were hanged in
chains. There were a good many high
waymen about the roads, and near Lon
don the footpads were troublesome. Gyp
sies might be hanged as felons after the
age of fourteen. The pillory was, so to
speak, in the height of its popularity,
and the ducking-stool was still consid
ered necessary for the maintenance of
sound discipline.—London Spectator.
Proofs of Authorship.
The most obvious and common meth
od of proving the authorship of manu
script is by the handwriting. Incidental
evidence of more or less weight fre
quently comes in the way of some pecu
liarity of the paper or ink that is used,
but, after all, the main dependence or
dinarily rests upon the similarity in the
formation of letters and the numerous
details that go to make up a style of
handwriting. The most common in
stances that arise are those of forged
notes, indorsements, checks or other
commercial writings used by the forger
to obtain money on the strength of a
better man's credit, and cases are not
rare in which the work is so cleverly
done as not only to deceive bank tellers
and cashiers, whose daily occupation
makes them experts in handwriting, but
even the person whose signature has
tKigii forged. More than this, sometimes
it happens that a man cannot tell his
own writing from that of another per
son, even when there is no attempt at
imitation, as happened the other day in
the probate court of this county when,
in the matter of proving the will of Al
varina E. Jones, Mr. L. M. Gates, of
Kalamazoo County, whose name ap
peared on the document as a witness,
testified that the signature seemed to be
his own, and he could not deny it,
though it was followed by the words
"Edmonston, Otsego County, New
York," which he could never have
written, because he had not only never
lived there, but had never heard of such
a place in his life. At the request of
Judge Durfee the witness wrote the
same line—"L. M. Gates, Edmonston,
Otsego Co., N. Y.,"—as it stood on
the will, and the handwriting
appeared to be identical. The puzzle
was partially explained by another wit
ness who stated that there were two men
named L. M. Gates, one of whom, re
siding in New York, had witnessed the
will of the wife, and the other residing
in Michigan, had witnessed the will of
Mr. Jones, the husband. The singular
fact remained, however, that there were
two persons, strangers to each other,
who wrote so nearly alike that one of
them at least ccu^d not tell his own pen
manship from t?!at of his namesake.
But while handwriting can be imi
tated in such a way as to deceive the
sharpest judges, there are certain intel
lectual traits and indicia of education
which lie beyond the forger's reach.
Everybody knows how a lack of early
training will stick like a burr in a man's
speech as long as he lives, and how
slight expressions, peculiarities of pro
nunciation or singular uses of words
will, in spite of one's self, reveal to an
acute observer just where and how the
speaker was bought up. Habits of
composition in familiar correspondence
are just as ineradicable as habits of
speech. If, for instance, a man leaves
off the pronoun "I" at the beginning of
his sentences in one letter, he will do it
in a thousand that he will write in the
course of a year, and if, on the other
hand, he inserts the pronoun
throughout one letter he will
be pretty sure to use it con
stantly. If on one occasion he writes, "I
desire to acknowledge," "I hope that,"
"I think it is," "I feel more than,",
using the prononn in every instance
where it can be use, he will not—in
deed, it may be said that he cannot,
without special effort—write another
letter in which the pronoun is uniformly
omitted, using
such phrases, for instance,
as "Am here," "Have much trouble,"
"Want to see you," "Will try to make,"
"Will write to this," and "Am always
thinking." Least of all would a gentle
man accustomed to use scholarly lan
guage in even his most ordinary busir
ness notes, fall into such a boorish ex
pression in writing to a lady, as "Want
to see you awful bad," and he would be
unlikely to make the grammatical blun
der of saying "I wiu never forget,"
when he meant simply "I shall never
forget."
It is this literary habit or style of
composition which men of dissimilar
training find it impossible to adopt from
each other. The mere construction of
letters and words is a sort of handicraft
which one man may by practice learn
to do very nearly like another, but the
formation of sentences and the arrange
ments of ideas come from qualities of
the head which it is hard for any man
to assume when they do not belong to
him. There is a difference between the
manual labor of writing a letter on a
piece of paper with a pen and the men
tal labor of composing it, no matter
how simple it may be. It is this higher
quality which rests in the composition
itself that sometimes contradicts the
theory of authorship which is suggested
by similarity of handwriting.—Detroit
Post and Tribune.
A Scarf Pin for a Dade.
A prominent member of the band of
gilded youths of which the city is so
justly proud is in a high state of excite
ment, and with difficulty held back by
his friends from making a personal as
sault upon his jeweler, who he con
ceives, has been "putting up a job" on
him. The facts, as gained during his
lucid intervals, are these: He is much
addicted to attending the dramatic
performances which occur in this
city, his specialty being in steadily
observing the female chorus in comic
opera, and the sylphs of the corps de
ballet in their ingenious gyrations. It
struck him that it would be a good no
tion to wear a scarf pin suggestive oi
his love for the lyric stage, and he ac
cordingly interviewed his jeweler upon
this momentous subject. The artificer
in precious metals was prompt to meet
the demands of the occasion, and in due
time presented his customer with a neat
design, consisting of a bar of music
delicately fashioned in gold, with the
treble clef in black enamel, and two
notes in diamonds reposing between the
third and fourth lines from the bottom.
The customer, whose only knowledge oi
music was, as it suggested, the accom-
Eighly
anying incident of female singers,
approved this work of art, pur
chased it, stuck it in his scarf, and went
down to the matinee. After the per
formance he displayed his new posses
sion to the ladies, who admired it much.
At last he showed it to the prettiest and
brightest one of all, who immediately
exclaimed: "How very neat and ap
propriate!" "Do you think so?" in
quired the delighted youth. "Certainly
I do, and those beautiful diamond
notes they fit you so well. Do, do—
that makes dodo, you see. How ingen
ious and how very true!"—and she
tripped away.—Boston Journal.
Questions .and Answers
porter.
About a Re-
"Who is that angry looking Man?"
"That, my Son, is a Reporter."
"Do Reporters always look Mad?"
"Not always."
"What Ails that one?"
"He has been to a Church Supper."
"Wasn't he Invited?"
"Oh, yes. Five of the prettiest Girls
in the parish Urged him to go."
"I should Think he would have liked
That."
"He did. And each of these girls
Wanted him to give 'my Table' a special
Mention."
"Did he get any Supper?"
"Of course he Dia. He bought A
five-cent Sandwich .for a Quarter and
ate it after the rest got through."
"Where is he Going now?
"He is going to the Office to write
that the parish Church Supper last Night
was a most agreeable success. The
lovely Faces of the fair Maidens in at
tendance on the Tables were Only
rivaled by the Charming liberality with
which they Dispensed the finest of
Viands."
Are Reporters ever Sarcastic?"
"No, my Son,
American.
never Water bury
—Some fifty years ago Mr. Joseph
Everest went to Wyoming from Hume
and bought a farm three miles north of
Warsaw. One morning he related a
dream that he had the night before, and
which he had dreamed for three nights
in succession, in which he had seen a
vast treasure on his farm in the earth
below. He was so moved by the vision
that, having selected a spot, removed
the earth to the rock, and with impro
vised tools he began drilling' with a
spring pole. After going down some
eighty or ninety feet and finding noth
ing lie gave up the job, but still per
sisted in his belief of a hidden treasure
below up to the time of his death many
years after. His nephew, Mr. H. P.
Everest, of the Vacuum Oil Company of
Rochester, some years since, remember
ing his uncle's dream, which was a
household word in the family, sunk a
well for oil in that locality, "but found
salt instead, thereby fully realizing the
dream of his uncle Joseph of a hidden
treasure.—N. Y. Times.
—The Philadelphia (Pa.) Progress re
lates this story: "Say, mister, wouldn't
you like to buy this yere dorg?" asked
a rough-looking darkey of a gentleman
who chanced to be walking through a
far-down Philadelphia street which is
generally regarded as "suspicious."
"Well, I don't know," and the gentle
man stopped and looked at the dog—a
fair-looking setter. "I do want a dog
to take with me when I go shooting, but
I don't think yours will ao. I want one
good on the scent." "See yere, mis
ter," and the darkey drew him aside
confidentially, "if ye know of a dog in
town as 'Id suit ye, tell me whare ye
seed 'im, and I dunno but I couldn't git
'imfurye."
Handwork and Hcadwork.
It is universally admitted that the
world has never witnessed more pro
gress in the way of improved machinery
tnan is now being used. It is the pride
of great manufacturing establishments
that the machinery which they use is so
improved and perfected that it is within
the possibilities for them to make any
duct desired by their use. While it
proa
is cli
claimed that the work turned out by
these improved machines is very su
perior and oheaper to the consumer,
none can fail to observe the very great
consideration held for handwork. There
is a principle underlying this which has
perhaps escaped the attention of the
sasual observer. Handwork is always
recommended for the sake of the work
—that is, for its value and for the sake
of the workers—that is, for the fair and
steady remuneration which it yields
him. Beyond these very visible advan
tages we seldom look nevertheless,
there is a good effect in the discipline
and training of the hand upon mental
power and moral character. It is a
truth awaiting full recognition that the
actual learning how to use the hands
dexterously and accurately is a positive
gain to the mental faculties. The
trained eye and the trained hand are the
best preparation for the trained thought
They give the first idea of system, order,
accuracy and the effective carrying out
of a plan. To make a simple box, for
instance, with a few simple tools, in the
neatest and best manner, brings certain
important faculties into play. Not only
the eye and the hand, but imagination
and judgment, will and energy are all
developed in the operation. 'Difficulties
are appreciated and overcome, accurate
conceptions are formed and realized,
and the success which courage affords is
stored up for future efforts. The best
results are obtained where the instruc
tion of the hand and the mind are si
multaneously given then they act and
react upon each other for mutual good.
Let it be understood that we do not
say that mere manual labor of any kind
will of itself effect these results. The
world is full of inferior, defective, un
profitable work, and the authors of
this work are usuall
in character an
handwork paves the way
brain work. Much of the slipshod, un
certain calculations made by clerks and
others, which require continual check
ing and correcting and involve loss of
time, temper and money, is due to the
equally slipshod habits of using their
eyes and brains into which they have
drifted. Every employment, even those
demanding literary, scientific and artis
tic abilities, is thronged with inefficient
laborers who have never learned to do
any one thing thoroughly and well,
Had they been taught accuracy, neat
ness, excellence and dispatch, it is more
than probable that the lesson thus
engendered would have rescued them
from the sad fate of being profitless
bunglers in other departments of life
It is only by labor that thought can
be made healthy, and only by thought
that labor can be made happy, and the
two cannot be separated with impunity.
It has been the fashion to separate hand
work from headwork as if the two
were incompatible. One was for labor
ers and mechanics, the other for liter
ary and professional people, but we are
gradually learning that their harmoni
ous union is the only means for the per
fection of either.
The time has come when it would be
well for us to put into the hands of our
boys and girls a permanent means of
independence. These benefits cannot
be over-estimated. It is no longer only
for the sake of making a good carpenter
or mason, or mechanic, that we should
teach a boy the use of tools nor only to
make a good seamstress to use the nee
dle or to make bread, but their whole
faculties may be sharpened and
strengthened that they may become
exact in thinking as well as in doing,
and be faithful to their best conceptions
from the smallest thing in life to the
greatest. When this is fully and effi
ciently impressed upon our minds and
upon our hearts an important lesson
will have been learned.—Columbus(Ga.)
Enquirer.
HTw a Woman Gets Out of a Room.
Did you ever notice how long it takes
a woman of the always going and never
gone order to get out of the roomP
Something thus: She has risen to de
part, a matter which really won't be
accomplished for the next half hour.
She talks: "And as I was saying—"
(steps towards the door) "she says to
me, says she" (steps back again), "I
never said anything of the kind" (steps
toward the door). "What I did say
was that" (steps Dack again and talks).
You think it's really all at an end and
that she's really going. (She takes
three very slow steps towards the door.)
"Why, no, I didn't. If she said that
she said what wasn't so. I never said
any such thing." (Comes back. Starts
in afresh. Apparently forgets she has
to go at all.) "Well, I know you
wouldn't believe any such thing of me.
I think she might—well, she should be
more careful." (Turns again to go.)
"Well, I told him it wasn't so."
(Swings slowly around.) "Well, I
must be going. No, indeed. You don't
say so. Do you? Well, I never. Now—
(goes at it again hammer and tongs)—
itrs always been the way with her in
everything. Why, do you know, I've
done more for her—helped her fix her
dress—well, I must be going." (Hand
on the door knob. Keeps it there.)
"Yes. Well, you may just say it's no
such a thing. I wasn't there and didn't
say it." (Opens the door.) "How
much did it cost? I gave three dollars
for mine. Well, I must be going. Yes,
I know." (Keeps the door open and
lets the draught in.) "Why if he had
been there I guess I should have known
it. She don't know half the time what
she is saying." (Closes the door all
but a chink and remains inside.) "It
isn't likely that I would have gone and
done such a thing." (Swings door to
and fro.) "Well, you can say this for
me, that I never said so." (She is still
at the door knob.)—N. Y. Graphic.
—Benjamin Mowrer, of Montour, Pa.,
helped to build the first locomotive ever
built in America and manufactured the
first miner's pick for mining anthracite
coal, and who saw Washington and La
fayette, and is the survivor of many a
bloody Indian fight, is still hale and
hearty and works at his forge daily.
The Klnf and the Poor.
The Hofburg, the chief palace of thd
Austrian Sovereigns, has been the scenei
of an ecclesiastical cermony or act of
devotion which is a curious r£lio of
mediaeval customs. In accordance with
the usage observed from time immemo
rial on Maundy-Thursday, the cermony
of "washing the feet of the poor" was
this morning performed as usual by
their Majesties at the imperial residence.'
In the middle ages the custom prevailed
at many other Catholic courts, but in
the present day to find a parallel would
be impossible, except at the Vatican
and the palace of the King of Spain.
The proceedings opened at nine o'clock,
when twelve old men, of whom the
oldest is in his ninety-third year and the
youngest eighty-seven, ana twelve old
women, the oldest ninety-six and the
youngest ninety, dressed as usual, in
the old German costume, presented to
them by the Emperor and Empress,!
entered the court chapel, in order toi
receive the sacrament, and were then
brought into the hall of ceremonies at
the Hofburg. On each side of the
hall was a table with twelve covers,
the one table for the old men and the
other for the old women. They are
all citizens of Vienna, and many among
them showed by their behavior that they
have taken part in the ceremony more
than once. With the appearance of the
clergymen at 11 a. m. the ceremony
began. The Emperor, who was followed
by all the archduchesses and court
ladies, served the old women at their
respective tables. The corps diploma^
tique was, as usual, in attendance, but
this year, for reasons generally known,
the British, French ana Turkish ambas
sadors did not appear. All the minis
ters were present, as well as court
dignitaries and privy counselors, thel
chamberlains, the grand masters, and
the highest representatives of the army.'
The tables being removed, the Emperor
and Empress knelt down in front of
each of the old people, took off a shoe
and stocking from each, washed the
foot with towels moistened from a
fiter
olden ewer held by a chamberlain.'
the feet of the old people had
been wiped the archdukes and arch
duchessess replaced the shoe and
stocking, and their Majesties concluded
the ceremony by hanging round the
neck of each of the old people a purse
with thirty silver florins. The old folks
were then sent home in cabs, each with
a well-filled box of provisions and wine.
—London Standard.
4
Philosophy by a Doctor.
A short time ago, when traveling', the
celebrated Dr. Barthez was taken sick,
and according to the manner of all
physicians, he called in a fellow prac
titioner to attend him.
When the strange doctor put in an
appearance Dr. Barthez discovered, to
his stupefaction, that his colleague was
nolie other than an old servant of his.
"How is this! You a doctor! Since
when? and what can you do?"
"Sir, I picked up a little medicine-in
your service, and I have great success
here."
"Is that possible?"
"Yes, and more so than you could
have yourself." _!
Ana seeing the astonishment of his
old master, he continued: I
"How many inhabitants do you think
this town numbers?" 1
"I do not know 20,000 perhaps."
"Yes, about that many. And how
many do you think are really intelligent
and capable of appreciating your
merits?"
"I do not know."
"Let us say a thousand, and that iff
ample. Well, the thousand are yours,
ana the rest belong to me." ,|
Barthez became thoughtful for a mo|
ment, and then answered: "It is true*
and you are right. And this is the way
of the world, notwithstanding its con
stant improvements in spite of the re
criminations^of all honest and modest
doctors, the multitude will always be
long, be they great or small, humble or
exalted, politicians and doctors, ig
norant or wise, in health or sickness, to
charlatans, who are invariably gifted
with that imperturable assurance,
which, under the name of 'brass,' fasci
nates and conquers the public, who ac
cept their theories and cower before
their assumed superiority."—Detroit
Free Press.
To Flood Sahara.
Count de Lesseps has explored the
route for himself, and he declares that
the construction of a canal to flood the
great African desert with the waters of
the Mediterranean is feasible. There
has been doubt as to whether the surface
of Sahara is higher or lower than the
surface of the sea, but his triumphant
dispatch from Tunis indicates that he
has obtained information that to per
form his feat it will not be necessary to
make water run up-hill. It is proposed to
cut a channel through the narrow neck
of land which separates the salt marshes
south of Tunis from the Gulf of Gabes,
and thus pour an ocean into the vast
basin of sand whose farther rim is the
border of the Soudan—a land of the
riches of India and the population of
the United States. France has been
eager to bring the heart of Africa to the/
light of civilization and the wealth of
the same to the pockets of Frenchmen,
and Col. Flatters expended three years
of toil and §100,000 of treasure in the
attempt to fulfill his ambitious predica
tion: "I will cross Africa with a rail
way." Since his slaughter by Arabs
the scheme to penetrate the heart of the
"dark continent" with a railway has
dropped from public attention, and
Count de Lesseps, iho great uniter of
the earth's waters, has laid his stupen
dous project before his admiring coun
trymen, with sublime confidence in his
ability to secure $15,000,000 for the
work by merely asking. The count is
now earl j' 80 years of age, and in his
long and romantic career he has accom
plished prodigious achievements, but
if he restores to the burning sands of
Sahara the waves which in a remote age
rolled over them, the creation of an
ocean and the civilization of a continent
will be the climax of his career and tho
chief marvel of his fame.—N. Y. Mail
and Express.
—Lucy Hooper says that a great
many Americans who want to "set
Naples and die," do see Naples and die,
the Italian malarial fever carrying theq
off with astonishing promptness.