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-t THE HERALD BT KEEIDLEB & GCNDER60N, WESSINGTON SPRINGS. S.D. MONEY talks, and it talks cents, too. IN the modem comic opera the Jokes are not funny, but the music is. VIIAT has become, of the oM-fash loned boy who called his sister ""Sis?" FEAJI of wfaat people will ssy has 8 more religious effect on the world than feaurotf what theLord will think. NEW-Y-OUXEHS are planning "a boarding-house, trust." It will till a long-felt want of a lot of fellows who never conk] get "a trust" in thatline. FRAN* LESMK WIM»K will iproba bly be ttoe way she will sign her name now. 11. would make the (sriginai Frank Leslie wild if be w?« .alive to bee it. THERE are JTOO.OOO mo»re women than men in England. Perhaps it was to this fact that Matthew Arnold referred when be spoke of iiie "sav ing remnant." THE man who st-epped on a banana peel wili not give immediate credence to the. statement that an acre of bananas will support more people than thirty acres of wheat. YALE seniors arc going lo wear caps and gowns hereafter. Slaving adopted the flowing garb of femin inity, they only need the girls now to make the. situation complete. "Two COUNTEK-THKITANTS,"accord ing to Life, are "a mustard plaster and a woman shopping." Yes? Well, what's the matter with the third and worst of all—a saucy salesgirl? ALTHOUGH the devil be the father of lies, he seems, like other great in ventors, to have lost much of his rep utation by tho continual improve ments that have been made upon him. ACCIDENT risks for women ran be profitably taken out at a much lower rate than upon men. Statistics show that there are eight sudden deaths among men for every one among wo men. THE spectacle of the underwriters discussing "The Model Policy" and saying never a word about 4-11 44 is what makes the Afro-American throw down his newspaper with a 6n iff. 1 MU. FHANK LESLIE is said to be 39 years old. Mrs. Leslie herself is crowding 50 very hard. She acknowl edges forty summers, but her mem ory is faulty and she has forgotten quite a portion of }K.J' existence. EL 1:1 .. '4 TIIEY are felling such terrible sto ries about famine in Europe that pretl soon the tender-hearted Amer icans will be giving away their grain by the ship-load instead of selling it for $2 a bushel, as they intended. EVERY word spoken in the Boston Common Council goes down in the record, so it is not considered quite proper for ladies to enter the hall un til after the clerk has llnished reading the minutes of the preceding meeting. ACCORDING to a contemporary "nothing is sold in Baltimore on Sun day except ice, bread and milk." Surely it is not so bad as that, for they can not have the inhumanity to refuse to sell a railroad ticket to 6ome other town. THE men who are opposed to women wearing dresses that only reach to their shoe-tops should form a crusade against the men who spit tobacco juice in public places. The public halls, street cars, and most of the Churches will have little pools on the floor that ruin a woman's dress skirt. DON'T get angry at trifles. Look at vexations now as you will view them thirty days from date. The angry man who gets the wrong key And pushes and rattles the door till tie breaks the lock, loses more time (than If he had quietly gone for the Hght key, and pays for a new lock ibesides. A MAN who has been farming in Dakota for four years has suddenly come into possession of an English estate and the title of Earl. There is many an ancient and noble English estate for the management of which four years' experience in wrestling •with an arid Dakota farm would be the finest sort of schooling. MUCH to the alarm of his admirers Tennyson has written a comedy. "When a man has become famous by doing what he can do well, he rarely escapes from the delusion that he could have done a great deal better by doing something else. Only some such delusion could ever have set Tennyson to writing comedy. BOSTON Nihilists arc to send an smbassy to Russia. The Czar should Hot be worried about this, for we vi olate no confidence in saying that it' is to introduce the great Boston diet of beans to the down-trodden peas antry. Boston culture and Russian, culture long ago came together on the bean question, and now the Ni hilists have taken it up. THE shooting of girls by rejected suitors is getting to be outrageously common, and then' should be prompt and vigorous measures taken in every case which is brought to justice. In cases where the murder is followed by suicide, it would shock the public to resort to the old-time method of burial at the cross-roads, but it might be effective as a preventive. A NEW ORLEANS clergyman says that if the lottery company is not beaten at the polls next spring it "will be wiped out in revolution." If there were less of that form of public sentiment in New Orleans which looks to revolution as the only proper means for righting a wrong, there would be fewer wrongs so firmly root ed that the ordinary methods of law cannot cope with. I'YNCII law is a poor substitute for the cool and deliberate justice admin istered by the courts. The name of Omaha has been made to suffer by the intemperate folly of the mob that overawed the officers of the law and dragged a prisoner from the jail to his death the other night. Two wrongs never yet made a right, and the original crime, though heinous, was little worse than that committed by its avengers. MICHIGAN raises twice as many peaches as Delaware without telling half as many lies about the failure of the crop. Illinois produces much more whisky than Kentucky and does not have to bear the stale jokes of the humorist concerning the dispro portion between corn juice and water within the commonwealth. West ward indeed does the course of em pire take its way, and a little north ward as well. IT is the fashion to jeer at the hunt ers in this country who merrily follow the anise-seed bag over hill and dale, but certainly this is more commend able and less contemptible than tho sort of thing they do in England, if one may judge by the account given of a recent hunt in Leicester. A party of hunters came upon a stag and caught it alive. Then it occurred to them that it was the lawful prey of other huntsmen who had been chasing it before they took a hand. They therefore put the unfortunate animal in a barijwith its legs hobbled and its eyes bandaged. Presently the second party—or the first in stalling —came up, and in this state the stag was let out and killed. The anise seed bag is better than so unsports manlike a piece of butchery as this. AT a conference of the European representatives of the transatlantic steamship lines in Bremen it was re solved that the examination of emi grants with a view to determining whether they should be permitted to enter the United States ought not to be made by the consular agents of this Government, but by agents controlled by the compan ies. Presumably the next step will be to attempt to force this view of the matter upon the Government, but it is an attempt which should have no success. Faulty as is the present consular inspection of emi grants, it is perfection in comparison with the results likely to follow tho surrender of this duty to the steam ship companies. It is the business of those corporations to carry as many emigrants as they possibly can secure, and no regard for the interests of the United States is likely to impel them to rigidly weed out the pauper, the diseased, or the criminal from the vast hordes of people who seek trans portation to that new world which they think an El Dorado. THE Supreme Court has decided that the New York, New Haven and Hartford Railroad Company shall pay a fine for refusing to obey the law of New York which forbids the heating of passenger cars with the deadly stove. The corporation will go to the United States Supreme Court to test the constitutionality of this question. It is a foreign corporation, and claims nottobeliabletothcstatutc because it does not operate fifty miles of railroad within the State of New York. No court has yet agreed with the com pany on this point, but its adherence to the car stove is remarkable, not only for its blindness but for its ob stinacy. The car stove has caused the company a good deal of trouble. It burned up a train in the tunnel last spring and it roasted several people to death. The consequence was the indictment of President Clark and the directors, and, it is reported, much mental anguish on the part of the principal offender. In the mean time the company has announced that it has adopted a system of steam heating and it is known that its new cars are fitted up for such a system. Yet it is so wedded to the stove that it continues to fight in behalf of its memory, notwithstanding that the fatal thing has dragged its officers into a criminal court. ip MOTHERLESS CHICKS. SURPRISES AT A LONG ISLAND POULTRY FARM. Where the Thermometer Rules Thousands of Bird* Within Call, bnt Few in Sight—In the Brooding llonse. Hundreds of little balls of fluffy down, sedate old hens, arrogant roosters, vel vety, lily white ducks. They are all within reach of the mildest halloo and ^•et not a dozen of them iu sight at onco. That is the first impression one gets of a large, well ordered poultry farm. It is a curious impression, too. Tho underpinning of your ideas seems utter ly out of gear. Whore is the traditional oluck-oluck and the feathered bustle of tho barnyard you know so well? Then you suddenly remomber. Modern science has steppod in with her incubators and her mixed food and deposed Mother Nature on her own ground. Tho "settin' heu" is good, but the iwt air box is more reliable. "The chickens and the ducks ore all there "behind the scenes" in a long row of frame buildings. Tho poultry farm of to-day is ran on scientific principles. The machinery docs not wear itself, it is far too w-II oiled. But you may feel its motion. ".Sandaero," the country seat of Rob ers Colgate, on the outskirts of the vil lage of Quogue, L. I., within sight and sound of the blue Atlantio, is at onco one of the most famous and representative of modern poultry farms. It is famous bo cause of its size and its varieties of fancy fowl, representative^because every inno- play within its boundaries. Onco upon a time these was a farm Jersey sands that far exceeded it. But now that Jersey chicken settlement has handed over its glories and "Saudaore" reigns—unique at least. "Sanducro Farm" as it is to-day is the outgrowth of years. Mr. Colgate has long been a fancier of note. But until recently he has always exhibited in the name of his manager and kept aloof from tho turmoil of county and state fairs. It was the organization of the New York Poultry and Pigeon Associa tion that brought him before tho publio as a man of fowl. Ho was not one of tho association's originators, but summoned to the very first conclave he made his mark among those who were and was eleoted the first president. This post he has filled ever since. I visited "Sandaero Farm" on a hot morning. Tho sunlight lay warm and glisteuiug on tho brown roofs of the long row of chicken houses and tho waters of Quogue Bay—a magnificent duck pond, truly—shimmering in the glaro. "Sand acre" is most appropriately named, and, to paraphraso a bit, it might well be called "a fowl's paradise." And the Scriptural injunction has been obeyed. The soil is sandy everywhere, but it is not upon the sand that these houses have been built. Gay lor, the manager, awaitod mo at the iuoubatot house door. And iv strange ly interesting person I found this Gaylor. He was a man of science, a inachinest, an electrician, an inventor and a fancier Ml into one. Tho inoubator in use (there wore two others in tho little house) was of his own make, piece by piece, and ho could tiukor any part of it should need be. August is betwixt and between seasons for the mechanical hatching of chickens and ducks. The incubator's greatest activity is in tho early months of the year. Then brood follows hrood without the loss of a day. Seven hundred and fifty eggs are put in tho- hatcher at one tiuM, though its actual capacity is double that. •'Has experience proved tho inoubator a greater success than tho old-fashioned barnyard lienV" I asked. "Yes, and no," answored the manager, with a reflective whisker twirl. "Tho incubator chickens aro no stronger and no better than those hatched in tho natural way. But it is difficult to f'hen et sotting hens, enough of them I mean. again, the proportion of loss is very much sinillor iu the hatcher. Look at this machinery and you will see why. And again it was impressed upon me how modern science is able to give points to nature. The oggs rest in rows on wire-bottomed trays, eighty-five to ninety eggs to a tray. These trays' slide in and out of the hat cher like desk drawers. Along tho top run ten iron pipes, five for tho flow of water, five for its return. Several inches lower extends a thermostat of peculiar design. It is a bar of hard rubber, one-sixteenth of an inch thick and one inch wide. It is held taut, by a powerful spring and a bar controllod by it plays between the points of an electric circuit, completing it by touching overy point, breaking it by standing midway. The thermostat is regulated to 102-102 1-2 degroes, tho lamp is lit, tho hot water circulates through the pipes. The temperature rises above 102 1-2, the circuit is completed and a clock work is put into motion, which shoves a loose sleeve or snuffer over the lamp wick and opens the ventilators. When the temperature has fallen ono degree the thermostatic bar files to tho other point. The clockwork moves again, the sleeve is lifted off the lamp wick, the light blazes up again and the ventilators are closed. Seemingly the mechanism is perfect, but there is yot another safeguard. A second thermostat is iu the machine. This is regulated between 95 and 105, the danger points of incubation. When the temperature touches either of theso tho circuit is completed, and three electric bells ring—ono in Sandaero mansion, another in tho manager's house, the third in the brooding house. It is a danger signal by night as well as by day, seldom if over sounded, but a hatch of 750 eggs is too precious to take risks with, and some sudden mischance might befall. Each egg is carefully scrutinized as it goes into the trays and many times there after. The examination is an interior one, though made wholly from the outside. Hens^ eggs are studied by lamp light, the concentration of rays being needed. Ducks' eggs, however, are more trans parent and can be looked over at any time. The period of inoubation is eigh teen to twenty-two days for hent, twenty si* twenty-eight for ducks'. 1 was a farm on tho New Tlie science of the poultry farm is not only not ended, but it is just begun when the chick comes out of his slioll. In the barnyard tho fledgling is thrown upon the cold, hard world at ouco,and he must scratch for himself even before ho cuts his eye teeth, as it wero. With the in cubator-raiscd chick it is very different. A silver spoon is truly in his mouth From the hatching room he is carried di rectly to the brooding house. The brooding house is divided into eight "pens," each about 4x10, and with tiny "runs" in the sunlight under glass. Iu tho front are rows of steam pipes which koep the room at an even temper' ature of a little over seventy, and the chicks huddle up close to them nt night fall in default of a mother's warm wings Tho floor is well sanded and tho "run" outside is made of sandy soil itself. Hero the fledglings learn to scratch in an amateur sort of way. Not for a liveli hood—they are too well provided with food for that—but from a natural in stinct. Tho food for the first three day* is pinhead oatmeal. Then there follows week's diet of old-fashioned johnny cake baked hard for two hours in a slow oven, ground fine nnd fed dry. It is composed of corn meal, wheat bran and ground beef scrap. After this their rations are those of the older fowl, a mixture of oorn meal, wheat bran, bono meal scrap and ground charcoal. Iu the winter chopped cabbage is added to make up for their loss of other green foods. The chick hospital hangs on tho wall near by. It is a big cage divided into four wards, or rather compartments, where the fledglings can receive especial euro and warmth. Medicine is seldom The weighing machine necessary. ration and improvement is brought into *eet "oorinig 18 t-°°' '8 a ca igc, resting immediately on the scale. Tho chick's promotion to the secondary brooding house depends mainly upon the weather. It is ordinarily a matter of three or four weeks. The seoondary brooding house has twenty rooms, each 5x8, and open air "runs" of fifty-two feet, separated from each other and tho outside world by sorcens of wire netting higher than a man's head. Fifty chicks aro placed in each room instead of one hundred, which is the rule in the other houses. Hero the young fowl first feels the responsibilities of life. He is de prived of artificial heat and now has a broad field to run and scratch in. But the poultry village is yet incom plete. There is a feed and cook shop, a bantom house, a building for "surplus" birds, half a dozen small breeding houses, with large yards attached, and tho duck buildings down on the edge of Quoguo Bay, with a duck pond that is a veritable Southern Sea close at hand. The ducks, however, aro omnipresent. They have a large yard all to themselves in the midst of the poultry's domains, and in the heat of tho day it is a pretty picture, a flock of fifty or more of a glossy, glistening white, huddled in the shade of an upright bough arbor of pale brown, with the sparse green grass of tho gundy soil as a frame. Tfi'ey are quite unconscious of their end, of course. And yot tho chopping block stands in that very yard. They have been driven up from the water's edge especially for decapitation. The season of the markets has now come upon^ them and from fifty to a hundred are killed each week. But thiB is but a drop in the bucket for a duck yard pro ducing two or three thousand a year.— [New York Telegram. Pond Lilies. Those who aro lucky enough to live near a lily pond where the surface of the water is spotted with those most beauti ful of summer wild flowers, will hardly fool the need of cultivating the common white lily in their gardens, though there is nothing that gives a garden a pleas anter look than a pool ot lilies and other water plants. The pond lily is easily grown, either from seed or from divisions of tho root, and will thrive in any open sunny spot where you can provido a tank or even a half-hogshead tub in which to grow it. Place a few inches of rich loam and manure in tho bottom, and plant your lily root upon it, and fill with water. winter no other care will bo needed than to see that your tub or pool does not treeze solid a covering of boards may bo needed if the water is not deep enough to prevent- the roots from freezing. 15eside the common white lily there is a pink variety found in tho ponds near Hyannis, Mass., which is very beautiful, and there are soveral largor and more showy foreign varieties, some red, some blue, and the magnificent Victoria lily of the Amazon, which is occasionally ex hibited at our horticultural shows. This last is a tropical plant, but many of the other varieties aro hardy enough to be easily grown here none of them, how ever, are so beautiful to our eye as the common white lily of our ponds, with its outor petals faintly shaded with pink.— [Massachusetts Ploughman. Fasted Fifty Days. Alexander Jacques, who undertook to fast for fifty days at the ltoyal Aquar ium, London, England, completed his task. Although during the last week his condition causod much uneasiness to Drs. Robin and Whitmarsh who watched him throughout, Mr. Jacques succeeded in abstaining from food. The bulletin issued gave his temperature as 100 and during the last night he was only able to sleep for two hours. This was owing to renewed attacks of gout and to excite ment. He still maintained a cheerful condition and spent the early part of the morning in attending to his correspond ence and talking with those about him. The bulletin issued at noon the last day stated that during the past twenty-four hours Mr. Jacques had lost two pounds, leaving his weight at 114 pounds four ounces, his total Dr. Hcnrik G. Peterson, a Itorwegian, practicing in America, tested tho strength of the fasting man's grip on the dynamo meter before he partook of food, with the result that it was said to be equal to seventy-four pounds. As the time ap proached for the completion of the fast the reception-room in which Jacques has remained during tho whole of the time became crowded with spectators Jacques, who had boon smoking cigar ettee during the latter part of the after noon, appeared to be rather excited. The cheering of the audience at 4 o'clock an nounced that the fast was ever. Mr. Davis, who has been the fasting man's lecturer throughout the whole o: tho time, said that M. Jacques had ac complished the most stupendous fast ever known, and it hue proved the great value of his herbal powder, tho seoret of which he alone possessed. His contention was that armies campaigning through a hos tile oountry, or if men suffered shipwreck or met with an accident where food wae not procurable, the powder weuld proba bly be the means of sustaining life antil help or succor came. Jaeques had been watched night and day by doctors and by members of the press, and he hoped that ho had now proved to the public without doubt that he was in possession of a secret which must prove boneficlal in all cases of emergency. Jacques then roee and carried Kennedy, tne mesmerist, twice across the room, and immediately afterward partook of his first meal,which consisted of chicken broth, fish and grapes.—[Chicago Herald. SCALING HERRINGS. The Work is Performed in a Some, what Peculiar Manner. A peculiar feature of the smoked her ring industry in this country iB the method by which the fish ure scaled. Enormous quantities of them are captured in weirs and gill-nets and the catch thrown into boats.^ When a load has been secured the fisherman "troads them out" by walking briskly back and forth through the mass of squirming objects ot the bot tom of tho boat. Tho motion of the fish upon each other- and also tho contact with the feet and legs of the "treader" quickly removes tho scales. In the course of half an hour a skillful opera tor will thus scale'four or five hogsheads of the fish. Another method consists in using a pioco of board about a foot long and four or five inches in width, which is securely fastened to along handle. This is thrust into the center of the mass and moved briskly about until by continued stirring the scales are moved in an incredibly short time. Tho work must be done while tho fish are fresh, as otherwise the scales become set and can only be taken off with great difficulty. Cnro is exercised in both processes, as if not systematically done, many of the catch will be only partially Bealed, and if stirred about or "trod out" for too long a time the flesh will be soft or bruised, in which caso tho catch will bo less sal able, and if the 6kin is broken, abso lutely worthless. After scaling they are washed and salted in tubs, barrels orhogsheads then strung on sticks, from twenty-five to thirty-five being placed on each, accord ing to their size. Tho next step consists in re-washing, to remove all the blood and dirt that has accumulated, and the strings aro then laid on frames in the open-air to drain and also to harden and dry the gill-covers. This being accom plished they aro taken to the smoke house, properly arranged, the fires started and the smoking begins. Several kinds of wood aro used for this purpose in different countries, white birch being preferred in France, while in England, Scotland and Holland oak chips and sawdust are considered the best. In this country pino logs that have been soaked in salt water are selected, as the salt renders the wood less inflamma ble and it also gives off a greater volume of smoke. Some of the curors, when the smoking process is nearly completed, build a fire with oak logs for the purpose of giving a higher or brighter color to the fish. As a matter of fact, however, the woods make little or no difference, the chief idea being to get a kind that will burn In 8lowly Toss being twenty-eight pounds four ounces. His pulse registered sixty-four, his respiration 24 and his tem perature 98.8. During the previous day he drank thirty-four ounces of fluid. At the commencement of the fast the aquarian authorities issued over 2,000 invitations available at any time, day or night, during the fifty days to the medi cal men of Condon. The last afternoon a large number of English and foreign physicians visited Jacques, one of whom, and c!e]n at the same time yield a Buffi- amount of smoke to cure the fish, and ut the same time burn so slowly that there is no possibility of scorching them. —[Detroit Free Press. A Sweet-Smelling Disinfectant. A very pretty form of disinfectant is being introduced to sick rooms in Au* stralia, in the form of the green branches of eucalyptus. Tho reputation of the eacalyptus as an absorbent of malaria, and as an antidote in fever-cases is well established, and for some time its effect as a disinfectant in sick chambers has been carefully watched. Dr. Curgenven states, after twelve months' trial, tljat in cases of scarlet fever, if the branches be placed under the bed, the bedding undergoes thorough disinfection, the volatile vapor pene trating and saturating the matresses and every other article in the room. The vapor is also said to have a beneficial effect upon phthisical patients, acting not only as an antiseptic, but as a seda tive, and to some extent, as a hypnotic. —[Philadelphia Press. A Young Cossack's Ride. When the Czarewitch on his recent journey visited the Krasnogorskiy settle ment of Cossacks in Siberia, a boy Cos suck, 13 years old, begged to accompany him as body guard to the border of the settlement, a distance of 143 versts (seven versts are five miles). Tho privilege was granted him, and the boy, trim and nioe on his little horse, rode the whole distance by the right wheel of the Czare witch's carriage at an average speed of twenty versts an hour without the least sign of weariness. He had a small satin ensign with the imperial escutcheon on one side and the inscription, God Save Our August Ataman," on the other. The ensign had been wrought by a Cossack woman, the aunt of the lad. The boy received a gold watch and chain for his bravery, and his aunt received a diamond ring.—[New York Sun. President Barillas lias asked Congress restore capital punishment in Guatemala. Queer SubsHtntes Used for Leav*. Olden Times. In some countrios, leaves of still used for books. In n*?** leaves of the talipot, a tree rJ^°n' that island, are used for a simi^"0" pose. The talipot tree betaSL ,, 01 P1N palm family. It grows to ab^t a dred feet high, is straight, and real branehes. When very old blossoms, and dies after rit»«m fruit. The tree never bLm?C "f Tho leaves used for books are cut Wfl?" natives before they sprAmi th« natives before thov spread open,.and of a pale brownish-yellow, a ooW retain for years. The characters impressed upon the leaf, and aTernuIS over with charcoal to make them .iZ* more plainly. The leaves are tUn strung together between covers of bo^A or some less common material. »-ye! Tl lei m*ke tbem7ho» Early writers made uso of Hn«n cotton fabrics, .f skins, and eve" scales of fish*, for writing. por a period papyTos was used, the books beinf made in rolls, being about one and almlf feet wide and sometimes fifty foot lon' IWrus was a flag, or bulrush, crowfn. eight or ten foot high, found in Xf marshes of Egypt from its inner pith the form of paper called papyrus wai made. A most extraordinary panvrn# wiw discovered at Memphis, supno8P/l to be more than 8,000 years old. measured 100 feet in length. It is Jw-'T wr°"'" Pr08er™d in the British Museum. Papyras sheets were neatly joined, attactod to a stick an| rolled upon it (whence we have our worfl 'volume, from the Latin volvero roll.) The titles were written on'ta« attached to tho sticks, or inscribed the outside of the rolls. Tho rolls were kept in round wooden boxes resemblin the old-fashioned bandboxes, and oou easily be carried about. When the literary jealousy of the Egyptians causod them to stop the sun. ply of papyrus, tho king of Pergamos a city in Asia Minor, introduced the use Q! sheepskin in a form called from the plaoi of its invention, pergamoua, whence ort word "parchment" is bolieved to be d«. rived. Vellum, a finer article made from calfskin, was also used. Many of thg books done on vellum in the middle ages were transcribed by monks, and often it took years to complete a single oopy. Books consisting of two or three leaves of lead, thinly covered with wax, on which they wrote with an iron pen or stylus the leaves being joined by iron rings oi by ribbons, were also used by the an. cients. Books remained very scarce and ex. pensive until after the introduction ol paper made from linen, and the invention of printing. When tne first libraries were estab? lished in England, books wero so rarft and valuable that they were usually at tached to the shelves by iron chains to prevent their being stolen. A fashion of expensive bindings pre vailed for a long time, and great skill was exhibited in bindings ornamented b|i embroidery and various styles of needle work, as well as in bindings studded with precious stones. Queon Elizabeth used to carry about "with her, suspended bv golden chain, a book called ."The Goldejl Munual of Prayer," bound in soU4 On one side was a representation of "thi Judgment of Solomon on the other t« brazon serpent with the wounded Israel ites looking at it. In the Jowel Houei of the Tower of London is a book bound in gold and enamel, clasncd with a ruby on ono side is a cross ot diamonds witl other diamonds around it oil the other I flower-de-lucc iu diamonds, and the nrrai of England. Tho book is enriched with small rubies and emeralds.—{St. Nich olas. A Cargo of Serpents. For two years agents of Mr. William Cross, tho naturalist of Earle street, Liverpool, have boon cngagod in India in the collection of serpents, the resud being that a cargo of the reptiles ha] just arrived in Liverpool. After travf ersing the jungle districts the oollectorf succeeded in capturing or purchasing from the natives who joined in the hunt about 300 pythons, some o£ them four* teen feet in length being secured. About fifty died on tlio journey through thi country or failed to survive the passaga home, when, for the purpose of transit^ thoy were placed in long coffin-like cases, through whioh, of course, holes were bored for ventilation and feeding. The surviving reptiles, to the numbei of about 250, were unpackod at .Mr, Cross's premises, Earle street, but so ex cited were they on escaping from theit long confinement that they gave coneid» erable trouble. Some of the assistants] in endeavoring to recapture them, a4 they wound themselves with remarkablli alacrity round posts, stair bannisterff aqA the legs and bodies of those who hap pened to be in the way, sustained bites, which, happily, have not proved serious. Some of the larger ones also took tq swallowing the smaller fry. To place some of the large fellows in the cases re served for them required the united strength of three men. Mr. Cross himi self had several times to be delivery from tho coils of the creatures. Tn^ serpents have now commenced to laj eggs, of which there is already a small collection. So largo a number of snakes has notboen seen before in this country but the demand for them from zoological societies, snake charmers and others ap pears to be larger than would be readily imagined.—[St. James's Gazette. Work of the Friends. The .Society of Frionds in England and America, though numbering but 100,000, contribute to foreign missions upward of $90,000 annually. A beginning was not made until 1866, and since then represent atives have been sent to Syria, India, China, Madagascar, Mexico and the American Indians. Though efficient work is done in other fields, yet Mada gascar has been the scene of their great est successes. Entering the Island in 1868, thoy now have eighteen mission aries, forty native pastors, and 370 other native assistants 130 churches with 4,000 members and 40,000 adherents, and 132 schools with 14,600 scholars. Special emphasis is laid upon educational work, ana they are generous contributors to the funds oz the missions of other churches. •—[New York Witness.