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HJcljcurg flaiudcale* 1. VAN SLYKE. ittl >raM PvUislMr. - McHENRY,, - ILLINOIS. THB Suez canal is one ot the most •Billable pie063 of property in the world. The net profits last year were over $5,- 000,000. This was an increase of over 28 per cent, over the profits of the pre- Tious year. Each ship that passes through the oanal pays a little over 20 eents a ton. THB Scotch mast be a very clean peo­ ple, and their sanitary system very per- Jedt. It is stated that only four cases of Bmall-pox have been reported during 4he past yea* in Scotland. There is no reason except the want of care why Jhe same immunity from a terrific disease should not prevail in this country. . A HUSBAND having in answer to his wife's repeated requests cut off his whis­ kers and gone home to surprise her, was met by her in the hall and overwhelmed with huga and kisses. After letting him go she took a long look at him and ex claimed: "Oh, horrors! Is it you? Is it yon?" • Proceedings for divorce liave begun. AN exchange says a son of ex^^resi- dent John Tyler, although a ploor, be­ sotted creature now, is one of the most oourfcly and polished men, in demeanor and conversation, to be found in Wash­ ington. One who has not seen him ac- eept ae-invitation to take a drink, and the air with which he will take it, has never seen' a true Virginia gentleman of the real old style. ( THB cashier of the Palmer House, Chicago, is a woman ; two others also liave responsible positions at handsome salaries; other women are employed by the jlrdprietor to collect his rents and look after his money. This vile attempt to place the sexes on an equality is ex­ cused by the proprietor on the miserable pretext that women do not visit saloons and play billiards, spending their money and jjrobably his. 4' A STBEET loafer insulted a^£hiladel- phia lady. She did not chwr her lip and amble along With painful regrets that she was not instructed on a more masculine plan. She reached out for a horsewhip and proceeded to impress npon the understanding of that loafer a further knowledge of the nerve radius of his anatomy, succeeding so effectually that he will hereafter be able to deliver lectures on clinics without having to consult medical authorities. THB average daily attendance of the New York city schools for the past year was 140,400--an increase of 5,000 over ike previous year. There «ce 299 schools --primary, grammar and corporate. Nearly 3,000 teachers were employed in the primary and grammar schools. The Superintendent of the Schools annonnces that there will be no changes in the present svstem of education during the next season, though he admits that the present system is not perfect. ALEXANDEB H. STEPHENS is a friend of struggling young men and women, and now hagno less than fourteen dependent upon him for their education. For some of these he pays merely tuition, and for others all expenses. To each goes a check eVery month, signed by the nerv­ ous hand in the rolling chair. Since he re-entered Congress he has kept at school about this numbeir of pupils, beside bestowing with a too liberal hand his means on various other objects. pension had been granted, she listened Attentively until he finished the clause, "so long as said Dinah John sh;*ll re­ main in her widowhood," when she broke into a hearty laugh and exclaimed, " Me j§ too old now." , . f J ; • Tng^iother of E. C. Ingersoll, the Washington lawyer and counsel for ex- Senator Christiancy in his divorce suit, says that his insanity was caused by his 'excessive use of quinine, of which he carried a supply about his person and helped himself to small but frequent doses. It resulted in an excessively elated and sanguine condition of the mind, which finally became irrational. Since his seclusion in an asylum and the loss of the drug, he shows such signs of improvement at* promise complete recov e,K? • . , I THB ' importation 6f potato JS from Great Britain and Ireland to the United States and Canada is increasing. For the first quarter of 1882 the receipts at York were 596,927 sacks, or 742,842 barrels.: An average of 70 cents a bush­ el was obtained in New York. Deduct­ ing duty and freight a profit of nearly $1,000,000 was the result Potatoes are about 810 per ton in Europe. This profit is flmynfaging shippers, and the Cana­ dians are expecting to see a decrease in the cost of native potatoes in conse­ quence f f thepe importations. SOMT. #piteful American who ran across Beet Harte in London writes about him •*s follows r *' One of the most, intense and unspeakable Englishmen I have seen since I struck London is Mr. Bret Harte. His hair is white, and his face red enough to enrage the tamest bull in £he -*workl; He wears a section of a wim ow pane in one eye, and talks with a la-de-da accent that would infinitely amuse the friends of the Harte we used to know. This on»> trains with My Lord This and the Earl That, and talks b'g things of magazines he is going to start." " OLD DINAH," an Ooondaga squaw, living on tie »>serration at a wonderful age And in great bodily infirmity, has just received a pension of $8 a month •nd arrears of $400. Those who ought to know as much about her as ever can be kftowa affirm that she is 108 yean old. Wni'fc the P naion Agent was read­ ing to her the official notification that a A MONUMENT is to De erected in New Orleans to the memory of Margaret Hughry, a recently deceased benefac­ tress of the orphan asylum of that city. She was the widow of an Irish sailor. She could neither read nor write, and, it is said, never wore a kid glove or a silk dress in her life, yet she made an im­ mense fortune in the baking business, which she herself expended to the amount of hundreds of thousands in building and endowing asylums for orphans re­ gardless of faith. She died a Catholic, though all her life she paid no attention to religious duties. THB pessimists who are constantly prophesying disaster because of the growth of our American cities, which, as they hive been in the habit of affirming, is at the expense of the rural and farm­ ing districts, will do well, says the Bos­ ton Traveller, to consult the figures in a census bulletin just issued, which gives the statistics of farms in the United State?. From this bulletin it appears that the number of farms has increased from 2,660,000 in 1870.to 4,- 000,000 in 1^80, an increasejof 41|per cent When ii is remembered that the increase of population was about 30 per cent, during the same period this agricultural development is one of the most striking facts revealed by the census. This in­ crease has been the largest in the South, and in "the Northwestern and Pacific States. For instance, the increase in Alabama is 102 per cent., in Arkansas 91, in Florida 129, in Georgia 98, in Louisiana 70, in Mississippi 50, in North Carolina 81, in Texas 185. These fig­ ures, so far as the South is concerned, are specially encouraging, indicating ask they do the social and industrial change that has taken plaoe in the South since the war, and show the extent to which its once great plantations have been cut up into small plantations and farms. Turning to the West we find that farms in Iowa have increased 50 per cent., in Minnesota 99, in Nebraska 415, in Ore­ gon 114, in California 51, and in Dakota Territory 900 per cent. This phenome - nal increase has of course been largely due to the rapid settlement of this por­ tion of the country, but in the older States where we find the larger cities it is also found that the increase of farms has kept pace with the increase of popu­ lation, so that the fears of those who prate about the abnormal growth of our large cities, and the dangers consequent thereon, are practically groundless. "The Dry Rot of Newspaper Cynicism." This expressive and bitter phrase is employed by a leading literary journal in England. The mocking banter, per- ftiflage and scoffiing irony which have in recent years crept into newspaper style, and which have given to American jour­ nalism a class long kn »\vn in France as the paragraphist, ure calculated nt first blush to imprests sol>er and earnest peo­ ple accustomed to a solemn and dignified discussion of men and ques ions as savoring of indecent, and reckless flip­ pancy. The condensation of a case in a single stroke of sarcasm or riotous frolic is a natural outgrowth of a rapid age in which a railroad train called the " light­ ning express" symbolizes the spirit of the people. To go right to the bull's eye, to hit a thing aptly between wind and water, to conie straight down to business in writing, as in affairs, suits the times. The man in the gallery watching the performance of Othello, who bawled out, "Oh, d--n it, give up the handkerchief, and go on with the play," reflected the impatience with which people nowadays regard all beat­ ing about the bush and all idle consump­ tion of time. The modern newspaper, in its crisp methods, responds to a pop­ ular want, and in its use of the weapons of satire and irony overthrows many a humbug and abomination that would stare prim and starched rebuke out of countenance. The badinage is doubtless at times carried to excess, and the fun often leans to ribaldry, but in the main it is not a hurT*>r which can justly be described as the dry rot of cynicism. Newspaper wit does not sneer. It is playful or rongh, as occasion demands, but it is too abounding in life and too steadily in contact with the fresh cur­ rent of events to be cynical. It punc­ tures shams, bli-sters hoary-headed of­ fenses and ridicules out of oourt pom­ pous pretenders, but uuder it all is a real recognition of what is worth and of good report. The dry rot of cynicism excludes all ideas of any good in any­ thing. The newspaper run on Buch a basis wou d perish for want of vitality. It could not take any interest in any­ thing, and would become hopelessly stupid. The gay spirit of the press is not tainted with janndice. It sends its airy shafts with a'true hand and fiue aim, but there is no poison upon the points. In very truth the boisterous mirth of the modern press over solemn humbugs aud pretentious frauds is the best antidote against the dry rot in every department oi society that has yet been supplied. It is not a cynical humor, but it far from being an idle or aimless one. It means btisiuess, and under its quibs, quirks and flashes there is always a design which the popular sagacity sees and gen­ erally approves. There are evils which pannot be reached save by ridicule, offenders who can only be photographed in this way, and reforms which would perish by the' roadside if this dainty Ariel did not give them cour»ige and hope. The fools and the wicked fellows may foim a coalition against the light infantry of wit, but they are too clumsy for sncli an encounter-; the fine arrows coming from all quarters will find some crevice in the armor in which stupidy or vice is entrenched and go straight to the vitals. On the whole, with all its imperfections and excesses, the swift and rejoicing spirit of mockery or of scorn which nowadays crucifies evil or drives humbug into exile is one of thp most potentential of a'l ministers for good, and is as far removed from dry rot as the streams which irrigate valleys or the electric forcej which purify the atmos­ phere.--Low*uUle Commercial. A YOUNG negro in Richmond said he hoped God would strike him dead if he was lying. As he fell dead, there is little doubt that he had been telling % whopper, _ ! POLITICAL ASSESSMENTS. structing any Supervisor of (Registration . ! ©r his assistant in the discharge of his *** Will* duty"--a clause intended for the • * ian* j special benefit of Deputy Marshals and . THB United States Supervisors ; convert the WAvuiKeToK, July 6, 1883. ) I county boards of canvassers into judicial 8ib: I h&v6 reoeived your letter of the 24th bodies for the determination of cases of nit. and that of jour lawyers of the same date. 1 protest or contest that may arise j pro- A few words will make only reply which I ^ide for the transfer of the names of think they reqaire. Yon oontinae to assert ra°k Tote™ ft3 maJ so request from the that the ciroulir signed by me "virtually threat- '< °' present polling places to the 7 * , ' | r e g i s t r y o f n e w p o l l i n g p l a c e s t h a t m a r ? . ^ , th* °f&can. and employes , be established, with the apparent pur- to whom it is addressed, should they not " BUT- [ ppse of splitting up districts uid in ef- render a pait of their wages." There is no ' feet making a new registration necessary excuse for iraoh a misrepresentation. The < in order to confuse ignorant voters at phraseology of the circular shows an -*-- -- - - - -- - lute absenoe of all lamniure of thre The . „ , , s the last moment and disfranchise them* absence of all language of threat I t ! _ , , . . . . _ m » also affirmatively shows that ihe request 1 ^ prohibit to6 counting of any ballot M _ for A voluntary contribution. Your j upon which the name of any office ap-- misrepresentation is therefore without j pears, or the name of any person in con- justifioation in the language of the circular. It j nection with any office other than the u equally without justitnaUon in the purpose i v~ - of it That is proved by the fact thai,although ] , , Vi . . Pabular box in like circulars have been issued biennially for at j sucn ballot 18 placed is provided. lea»t sisteea years by Republican Congressional ; The object of the multiplicity of ballot- committees aud many persons have refused | boxes, giving one to each local office to ^ tbem, there never been a single I be filled, is professedly to increase the removal from office or employment for that i * ' , , - ,, , lIMJ cause. It is not in your power, therefore, to I ^ of mistakes on the part of those put your finger on a single fact, either of state- i 'Who cannot readily read the labels that ment or result, which justifies your represent­ ation. Beside, you have had the explicit de­ nial of Senators and Representatives, members of that committee, of any purpose of threat or coercion. Notwithstanding these proofs you persist in speaking of it as a "virtual threat" To say that this is deeply discreditable to you is to use mild language The other &ccosation is that the circular is an invitation to the commission of what is are upon them. The redistricting gerrymander will not only divide counties with reference to overcoming the colored majorities, but townships and parishes as well, run­ ning the Congressional districts along creeks and highways in a manner to puz­ zle a land surveyor. The First or Charleston district, for instance, is laid made a crime by section 6 of the act of the 15th of August. 1876. As a matter of law this is ab- | out as follows: «•'J*- HnHp-. and St. have not already. The law does not apply to j Michael s, Mount Pleasant, Moultrieville, members of Congress in any Of its terms, but i St. James* Goosecreek (between the Ash- i s o o n f i u c d i n a l l i t s p a r t s t o e x e c u t i v e o f f i c e r s j " - - - - - and employes. This its language sho«rs and all ; the circumstances surrounding it prove. Tour j construction involves the absurdity that mem- | bers of Congress are executive officers, and j the further absurdity that it M a crime for a man holding an office freely to contribute tit his funds to a political oommiltee. Of course, acoording to your notion, a simple citizen may contribute of his funds as a right, but a citizen becoming an official, to help the organization whose principles he may approve aud whose policy he may deem essential to the prosperity of the people, cannwt do so. In other words, under cover of protecting the official, you de­ grade him. You ask me to unite with you in starting aa experimental prosecution sgainst an officer or employe for having complied with my request for aid to the Republican canvass. I will not do this for several reasons. It would be an act of dishonor in me to so turn upon any Repub­ lican official who thus contributed. Beside, it is needless as a manner of testing section A. In my judgment, neither the Attorney General of the United States nor the District Attorneys require instruction either from you or myself as to the meaning of the laws or their duties in prosecution for violation of them, and I there­ fore leave the subject with them, you having declined to make a case against me as being the party equally responsible with auy contributor. As for myself, Mr. Curtis, it is only due to candor to say that as long as the records Of Congress show throughout all the Gulf States the systematic use of tissue ballots for purpo­ ses of fraud, the systematic throwing out of ballots cast, and the insertion of ballots not east, the systematic defeat of the exercise of the right of suffrage, aud every conceivable violation of law for the purpose "of thwarting the exprest-ion of the popular will, and so long as it be proven impossible to have a fsir elec­ tion and an honest count in any portion of this country, I propose to help maintain a Republican organization which shall be Strong enough to prevent these outrages, or, when their commission cannot be prevented, to punish the criminals, and to that«nd I propose to ask all good citizens, officeholders or other­ wise, to supply the Congressional Committee with the means of smiting this crime against our common liberty. To the extent that you, in the role you are now playing, may succeed in crippling the operations of this committee, you will become a most efficient ally of the Southern bulldozers, and a most powerful promoter of their invidious and destructive methods. And there I leave you. Very respectfully yours. JAY A. HUBBEU* Chairman lepuhlican Congressional Committee To Mr, Oeorge William Ourtit, Mew York City. POLITICAL ASSASSINATION. the KiUlnrof MaJ. I.. W. K. Blair M Canden, S. C. fWai thine ton Tel<»gram to Chloago Inter Occan.] Letters frot_ Camden, S. G., contra­ dict the statements telegraphed from Charleston of the killing of Maj. L. W. R. Blair in several very important par­ ticulars, and tend to show that Blair was really the victim of a political assassina­ tion. The press accounts represented Blair as the aggressor, and asserted that he was advanci ig upon Haile with his hand upon his p istol, in a threatening manner ; that he was warned not to ad­ vance, and was finally shot by Haile in self-defense. An intelligent and trust­ worthy gentleman of Oamden says, in a letter to a friend: "A meeting of the Independent Democratic party had been called to meet that day at noon, and that Blair was to speak. He was on his way to the postoffice, with the intention to complete arrangements for the meeting afterward, when he was accosted by Haile aud turned to answer. The altercation was in regard to a meet­ ing of a Democratic club which both parties had attended on the previous Saturday, and at whi -h Haile had been badly defeated. Blair "succeeded in car­ rying it by a large majority for the In­ dependents. Hot words passed in the dispute. After it was over Haile went and armed himself and again started to quarrel with Blair, and finally shot him twice. Both shots were in the back of the victim^ one above and the other be­ low the shoulder blade. It is evident, therefore, that Bla r was not advanci'^ in a threatening manner bit was either retreating or had turned away, suppos­ ing the difficulty was over. No arms awere shown by Blair during any part of the trouble," Another letter asserts that the faot that Blair was the United Spates Super­ visor of Registration, nod had honestlv and fearlessly performed his duty, was the real reason of the hatred which re­ sulted in his death. He had not yet completed his work, and it is doubtful if any or.e oaa be brave enough to complete it. The murder has protiaced a pro­ found sensation, and, while it will for a time terrorize tlio timid among tlie In­ dependents, the ultimate effect will be to increase the revolt against Bourbon rule. Blair was a gallant and devoted Confederate 3oldier, entering the army as private and serving until the close c* the vi ar, the la«t part as an officer. Ht was the son of Oen. James Blair, who represented hi9 district in Congress front. 1822 to 1834. He had organized the in­ dependent movement in his oounty, so that he was fast breaking up the Demo cratic organization. The South Carolina Legislature. The work of the extra session of the South Carolina Legislature is being chiefly done in Democratic caucus, to the end that the delates may not reach the public. No busiuess is likely to be taken up except the amendments to the Registration law and the redistricting of the State, and the bills prepared in caucus will be rnshed through the Leg­ islature without delay, and an adjourn­ ment will probably take plaoe before the end of the week. The registration amendments will cor­ rect certain clerical errors in the law by subst'tntinar the word " registration" for "election,:" provide for the punishment, by fine of $100 to SI ..000 and imprison­ ment of from six months to two Tears, of any person "interfering with or ob- ley river and the South Carolina railway and below Colleton) and the town of Summerville ; part, of Colleton county, embracing the townships of Bell's, Burn's, Cam, Dorchester, George, Qin- liam, Hey ward, Kalaer, Sheridan and Verdier, part of Orangeburg county be­ tween the South Edisto and Four Hole Swamp, being the Fork of Edisto and Middle Orange; and the county of Lex­ ington. The part of the counties of Charleston and Berkeley not included in the First district goes into the Seventh. If the Legislature, the press and the entire legal machinery of the State, aided by all the devices that experience and ingenuity can suggest, within the law, and by the most determined and systematic intimidation and ballot box stuffing outside the law, cannot carry the election in favor of the Democrats, then indeed it will be time for the Bour­ bons either to surrender and allow elec­ tions to proceed justly and fairly, or to seek a fresh inspiration and contrive some new and hitherto unheard of scheme wherewith to convert an actual minority into an overwhelming :ind per­ petual majority.--Detroit POM. ILLINOIS ITEMS. p A F HTBD oil well has been developed at Litchfield, yielding fifteen barrels per day. THE Elliott mills at Lincoln, the largest in Logan county, have been sold to St. Louis parties. THE tobacco warehouse of Hinkle A Moore, at Cairo, valued at $25,000, was swept away by fire. THE census of the city of Springfield, as taken up by the assessors, foots up nearly twenty-three thousand. MRS. ELT/EN MCGRATH, an insane woman confined in the jail in Chicago, hanged herself with her stockings. THE date of holding the Southern Illi­ nois Methodist Conference, at Mt. Ver­ non, has been changoiMiMi Aug. 30 to Sept, 20. ^ THREE women living near Clinton, Da Witt county, have been arrested, charged by the directors with breaking up the district school. H. B. CCLLOM, brother of the Gov­ ernor, who has been dangerously ill for some time in Joliet. has so far recovered as to be able to walk about a little. NINE THOUSAND dollars was taken from the safe of F. M. MoGee. at New Burn- side, Johnson county. The receptacle was blown open, but there is no clew to the robbers. EDWARD O'HARE, residing at Elsah, 111., is in jail at Alton for shooting his wife and John CatroU, whom he sus­ pected of criminal intimacy. Neither was fatally injured. A TOUNO man named. Henry Freely, while binding wheat in the harvest field of Joseph Evans, near Lincoln, was run over by a reaper and horribly mangled and cut, dying in a few hours. IN the United States District Court at Chicago, Judges Harlan and Blodgett decided that the bridge ordinances of that city are not in violation of the con­ stitution or any act of Congress Gov. CULLOM began his oflice-holding career by an election as City Attorney of Spangfield, April 4,1855, by a majority of four votes over a popular opponent. The vote was : Cullom, 412 ; White, 408. A STATEMENT, compiled from the Cor­ oner's books, shows that from Jon. 1, 1882, to July 1, 1882, there were in Chi­ cago 224 deaths resulting from various accidents, with 43 suicides in the same period. THE late Congressman Hawk leaves his family moderately well provided for. The assets include a fine homestead in Mount Carroll, a large farm a few miles out aud life insurance amounting to $7,000. IT has been decided by the Executive and Locating Committee of the Illinois Department "f the Grand Army of the Republic to hold the reunion of the sol­ diers of the Northwest at Quiney, III., this year. IT has been found that most of the cattle killed in Quincy ar» totally unfit for food, and the Board of Health is making efforts to secure the inspection of the meat each day. It is customary with some of the butchers to go to the stock yards and buv the cattle which are too weak to stand the shipment to Chicago or to the East. Sometimes these cattle are so poor that they can hardly walk to the slaughter-pen, where they are killed immediately and sold to customers. AN atrocious murder was pt rpetrated in Chicago a few night3 ago, the venera­ ble Dr. Joel Prescott, of Desplain^s street, being the victim. As he was in the basement of his bathing-house, closing up for the night, unknown assailant*, who had gained entry by a rear window, crushed in his skull with some blunt instrument, and then robbed the dying man. Death resulted in a short time. The tragedy created quite a sensation in Chicago. THE JO Daviess county soldiers' mon­ ument has been completed, and is a magnificent piece of work. The thaft is forty feet high, and is placed on one of the most commanding bluffs that en­ viron the city of Galena. Engraved upou the sides are the names of over 400 sol­ diers of the county who died during the war aud since, also magniticently-carved profiles of Gen. Grant and the late Sec­ retary of War, John A. Rawlins. The monument is said to be one of the most beautiful in the Northwest. THE Assessor of Capital township (otherwise and more widely known as the city of Springfield) finds therein $24,000 worth of piano fortes, $2,574 worth of billiard, rigeon-hole. baga­ telle and other similar tables, $2,- 722 worth of gold and silver plate and plated ware, $4,147 worth of diamonds and jewelry, $12,829 worth of sewing or knitting-machines, $29,782 worth of horses, etc., and believes the total fair cash value of all personal property as­ sessed is $1,380,110, to which should be added whatever is the value of 482 dogs. THE State Department of Agriculture, at Springfield, has reports from every county in tl\e State up to July 1 ou the state of the wheat crop. The summary now ready for circulation says: "The winter-wheat crop of the State has sel dom, if ever, promised a more abundant yield, and the quality is excellent. The crop lias been harvested in the southern and most of the central counties of the State, and new wheat is being marketed as fast as it can be thrashed. Continued rain has interfered with harvesting in Central Illinois, making it impossible in many instances to use reapers, binders or headers, on account of the soft condition of the soil. As a result, farmers have resorted to cradles, and more "wheat has been gathered this season by this meth­ od than in the entire preceding ten years. There is danger of the grade of the crop being damaged by sprouting before it can be successfully stacked. The average condition in the northern division of the State is 47 per cent, bet­ ter than on July 1, 1881; in the central division, 62 per cent, better; and in the southern division 63 per cent, better. The. general condition in the Stato is 6 per cent above an average." High Heels and Deformed Feet* A prominent Detroit surgeon remarked, after performing a painful operation on an interesting little girl whose feet had been ruined by wearing wrongly-con­ structed shoes, "This is the beginning of a large harvest of such cases," and what else can be expected? Mothers walk the streets with heels ou their boots from two to three and a half inches high, and not more than an inch in di­ ameter, and their daughters follow the same bad and barbarous practice. In many cases severe sprains of the ankles are suffered. But these are not the worst points of the high-heel torture. The toes are forced against the fore part of the boot, and soon begin to assume un­ natural positions. In many cases they are actually dislocated. In others the great toe passes under the foot, and the tendons harden in that position, and lameness is the result, for which there is no cure but the knife. When the injnry does not take this form, it assumes other aspects quite as grave and perhaps more distressing. There are thousands of yonng girls tripping along the streets to-day who in a few years will be cripples if their par­ ents do not interfere and remove they cause. We shall have a race of women almost as helpless, so far as the feet are ooncerned, as those of China. We condemn the practice of confining the feet of children in wooden shoes, and yet that practice is no more injurious to the feet than forcing them into a small shoe with an Alpine heel. This is a matter of grave and serious import, and hence we press it upon the mothers and fathers of the land. If they would not feed the surgical hospitals and have groups of maimed daughters in their homes they must oommenoe a crusade npon the high heels. No father should have high-heeled boots in his house any more than he woild have a vicious dog in his parlor. WJieu prominent surgeons from the operating roo^s raise their voices against high-heeled boot:: it is time for old and young people to pauso and listen. At this period they can choose between high heels and the op­ erating knife. In a short time it may be the latter or permanent lameness. Not long since we asked a prominent chiropodist what made his business. "Imperfectly-constructed shoes," he an­ swered without the least hesitancy.--G. Irwin Royce, M. D., in Detroit Presentiments. There is a strange story about the last victim (unfortunately no longer the last) to the Irish agitation, Mr. Herbert. A year ago he got up one morning early, and told his family tVat he had been greatly troubled by terrible dreams. He thought he was shot down on the road between the house and Castleisland, and had a presentiment on the subject, which has now been verified. It is not unnatural for people living in Ireland at Eresent to dream of murder, and it may e thought little surprising that such presentiments should occasionally be fulfilled. However, " Mr. Herbert's story reminds me of a similar circum­ stance in my own experience when, though the scene is also laid in Ireland, as it was betore Mr. Gladstone's first Ministry, the country was perfectly peaceable. I was visiting some friends in a beautiful part of County Wicklow, and had crossed Ashford bridge in one of my excursions ; that night I suffered greatly from a dream, in which I im- i agiucd that some groat, unexplained calamity had suddenly befallen me at this bridge, and awoke with a feeling so strong on me that it was a great relief to find it all unreal. But I was un­ pleasantly reminded of my terror some months later, when, after going home to j England, I happened to be called by ; business to Wicklow once more. Mv ' lior&e, a borrowed one, ran away with j me and threw me at Ashford bridge, j breaking my knee against the wall. As 1 I lay in agony on the ground, the oon- j sciousness rushed back on my mind that I had gone through the very same sensations once before at that very pi ace, ' in my well-remembered dream. I do I not attach any importance to dreams or j presentiments generally, but this was a I curious coincidence. Mr. Herbert seems 1 to have been punished for doing his ! duty as a juryman, a thing naturally in­ tolerable to the Kerry brigands. Some years ago I was in Italy, and when I visited Ravenna and Sicily those places were disturbed by secret societies, and jurymen and magistrates were usually murdered, when, they could not be bribed or intimidated."--Spectator. A Joke on the Attorney General. A joke is told on Attorney General Brewster. It is as respects his absent- mindedness. While slowly perambulat­ ing the avenue he came across a deaf- and-dumb applicant for aid from the charitable. "How long have you been deaf and dumb, my afflicted friend ?" inquired the buff colored, amiable Attorney General, as he arranged the ruffles of his foh-de-wah shirt. «• Five years next fall," sadly responded the impoverished deaf mute, " and a family of six." "Poor man, poor man, I sympathize most tenderly with you in your terrible affliction; here's a quarter for you." said the Attorney General, handing him the price of two drinks, and with a sigh of in tenseness he plodded along his absent-minded way. WAR-TIME FASHIONS. Hew tlM Women of the Stalk CM* Alonf Dnrlaf tlM War «C tht Slm- MIIm, Several liistories and numberless sketches have been written describing the military straits to which our men were brought during the late war, but I do not know of any chronic er, says a correspondent of the Philadelpliia Time#, who has depicted the straits to which the women and girls of the South­ ern Confederacy were reduced for clothes during the blockade. The men of the Confederacy, those in the army at least, fared much better in respect to clothes than the women did, the Government providing them with uniforms imported from abroad, through the blockade. Occasionally, too, a woman would get a prize in the shape of a trunk or box of new clothes smuggled through the blockade, in which case her toilette would be the envy and admira­ tion of all her feminine friends. Per­ sons who had friends or relatives in Baltimore, Philadelphia or other North­ ern cities would sometimes be favored with a box oi "store clothes." Ire- member suoh a box being sent from Philadelphia to acquaintances of mine in Richmond, who became in conse­ quence " the glass of fashion and the mold of form." A plaid ribbon in this box was lent by turns to various friends, who looked on it as a rare and dainty ; ornament, something almost equal to the libbou of the order of the Garter. The writer wore it to an elegant enter­ tainment in Richmond the lsst winter of the war. Merchants, as well as individuals, would occasionally receive goods through the blockade, but these were scarcely opened before their eager customers would Beize on them and buy them up. Prices rose almost as high as during the Revolutionary war of 1776. The last winter of the war, the thinnest, Aim - siest silk rose above $100 a yard. Dresses that winter were made with a basque and a full, plain skirt, or a flounced one, semi-long. Ball dresses of siik or other heavy material were made after the mem­ orial fashion of a Grecian waist, with a full, plain skirt, in a train behind, and I do not think any of the changes or capri- oes of fashion have improved upon the beauty and simple elegance of this cos­ tume. Muslin dresses were flounced or Suffed, and, by dint of being carefully arned an1 laundried, were made to do good service. Such transformations and makeshifts were the order of the day during the war. Numerous articles " contrived by turns a double debt to p*y," like the pieces of furniture described by Gold­ smith, "By night a beel, a chest of draw­ ers by day." A gentleman of my ac­ quaintance had himself a " swell " suifl| made out of gray blanket shawls, and a lady in our neighborhood had an old piano cover dyed fit was colored bright purple by means of maple bark) and cut up into a suit for her little boy, who ap­ peared quite in royal style, in his purple garments, " buttony in front and baggy in the reverse aspect." A very prevalent fashion in Confeder­ ate days was what were called Garibaldi bodies. These were gathered full on the shoulders beneath a band, and were generally made of white muslin and worn with colored silk skirts. Some­ times, however, they were made of bright-colored flannel or silk, with a row of gilt buttons up the front and on the shoulder straps. The Italian hero, Garibaldi, I may remark in this connec­ tion, was highly esteemed in the Con­ federacy. Unfortunately the fashions of those days called for voluminous gar­ ments and bonnets. Gores were not worn then, nor had it come into fashion to combine two materials in a costume, else we might have combined the frag­ ments of two dresses into one and thus been somewhat relieved of our straits and perplexities. The bonnets and hacs were large ; at one time the former were immense, prompting one to exclaim: "No more on this head." Velvet bon­ nets were mostly worn in winter, but in summer straw hats and drawn nuusiin hats (the latter very, pretty and pict­ uresque) were worn. Toward the latter part of the war hats made of plaited shucks were very much worn in couutry neighborhoods, a trimming for the hat being also made of shucks. The gen­ tlemen and iitxie boys of the family had to resort to home-made or countrr huts for common wear, and these hats, shaped by the awkward, inexperienced lingers of amateurs, displayed many curious curves and grotesque indentations that imparted a rakish air to even the staidest old gentleman or the most innocent little boy. Feather flowers were much in vogue then--not the fine, delicate, brilliant ones made of Brazilian feathers, but coarse ones made of the feathers of our barnyard fowls, while eider and swans* down were simulated by, a trimming made of goose feathers. Trimmings were, of course, as scarce with us as ma­ terial to be trimmed, and toward the close of the war persons appeared quite dressy if they could muster a trimming of dress braid; a quilling of this at the bottom of an alpaca or worsted skirt, and three rows of it above, were con­ sidered a stylish trimming. Shoes were a great difficulty with us. Many a belle had to incase her dainty feet in clumsy, home-made shoes, and if the war had gone on much longer we might have had occasion to resort to the French sabot or woodeu shoe. A country cobbler in my neighborhood supplied the young ladies around him toward the close of the war with gaiters mide of an old blue cloth coat, cut up and stitched with yellow silk. The manufacture of gaiters was carried on quite extensively, I believe, by " the penitents," as some witty gen­ tlemen called the penitentiary oonvicts, in Richmond. A Negro's Prayer. A teacher^ in one of the oolored schools at the South was about to go away for a season, and an old negro poured out for her the following fervent petitions, which we copy from a private letter. "I give you the words," said the writer, " but they convey no idea of tbe pathos and earnestness of the prayer:" "Go afore her as a leadin' light, an' behind her as a protectin' angel. Rough-shod her feet wid de preparation ob de gosptl o' peace. Nail her to de gospel pole. Gib her de eye ob de eagle dat she spy out sin 'far off. Wax her hand to de gospel plow. Tie her tongue to de line ob truf. Keep her feet in de narrer way and her soul in de channel ob faith. Bow her heart low beneaf her knees, an' her knees 'way down in some lone ome valley where prayer an' buppiieatioLS is much wanted to be made. Hedge an' ditch 'bout her, good Lord, an' keep her in de straight an' narrer way dat leads to heaven."-- Northwestern Christian Advocate. About Peanuts. For the ten years 1870-1880, the pea­ nut crop in this country was 8,100,000 bushels -4,200,000 from Tennessee, b,- 200,000 from Virginia, and 700,000 from North Caiol na. The crop Jast year was 2,220,000 bushels, and the average price was 7 cents per pound, twenty-two Poinds to the bushel. It ig thri rrAmrfti ** makes the money. "omtunes as low as3^5 the pr®J of8h^er fiD(k no ahatement hf •3.20-A F* ILS TO 54KCEILTS dealer. ^°fit to curbstone .r.. <™*0US FAClfeb Ami and Afric Toun&andteS aj"8, to V *5' u to tear and kill it. CERTAIN buffaloes Ceylon, white ones found. j# common in sometimes IN a life of 65 yean L . . eaten about thirty tons o? *air® liquids. ^ oUda and No SPOT of the same size oK. face of the earth contains as £* 8UP- vol­canoes as Java. THE spicy breezes of Oeylon a. ceptible to the sense long before tR^T" and is reached. THE sense of smell may be made . the time more acute by filling the mout with very cold water. THE ancient Scandinavian celebrated days of death with rejoicing and thoaeflt: ̂ births with mourning. DCRINO a heavy rainfall in Iowa the ground was found covered with tinj£; blood-red, living creatures. i - A NOTION prevailed in Egypt that a citron, eaten early in the morning, was an antidote against all kinds of poison. TWELVE perpendicular feet of watfv are annually evaporated from the surfa^t, of the Red sea between Nubia and Am-', bia. THB arm of a man, fore leg of a quad­ ruped, wing of a bird and fin of a fish aH present the same bones, varied audi modified. IN Sici$f and the neighborhood of- Naples are found large masses of puxa native sulphur, between limestone axp marly clay. THB whalebone of commerce is not from the skeleton of the fish but frottt' small bones in its mouth, which act ii'! strainers for its food. ' < WINE and oil jars were rendered im­ pervious to moisture, by the ancients, *a they are at present by the people of Spain and Italy, by rubbing with wax. Insects Going West. The tide of travel with insects, as with men, seem naturally to be from east to' west; With the noted exception of ths grape phylloxera and the Colorado pota­ to beetle (as Miss Murthly points out in a paper to the St. Louis Academy), En-1 rope has not received from America ally* considerable pest, while innumerable noxious species have crossed the Atlanta^, from Europe. There is a comparative scarcity, too, of Asiatic insect species go the western seaboard of America, not­ withstanding the frequent ocean traffia Spite of great arid plains and lofty mountains, nearly all the insects of East­ ern American States, inducing those from Europe, have found their way to the fields, orchards and vineyards of the Pacific States. One of the latest insect invaders from Europe is the cabbage at rape butterfly (pieris rapve, Sehrank). It appeared about twelve years ago in some northern seaports, and its range now extends from far north in Canada to far south of Georgia. It attacks ev­ ery cruciferous garden vegetable, but in the flower garden curiously rejects plants - of that family in favor of mignonette^ Miss Murthly has noted a large amount of premature emergence from the chrys­ alis, and consequent death; indicating imperfect adjustment of the inject to the climate of its new habitat, in Europe the insect is mai::ly kept in check numerous parasites. I or several years in America none such came to the aid ot the disheartened gardener, but some have now appeared, the most important being a small metallic green fly, whioh, though identical wjth tliemost distrust* ive European parasite, is proved to be indigenous on befh sides ot the Atlantic*. It lavs its eggs in or u^cn the skiu ot the mature caterpillar, and l'rom these come t-mall maggots, which live on the fatty tissues of their victim, but do not touch its vital organs Until fho chrysalis state is reached. --Xature. Why Smoke Settles to the 6rw!n|j Probably in most ca3es when chimney smoke is seen to descend and creep alone; the ground, it is because r* the air is light," as it is commonly expressed. But it is not always so. Not infrequently this phenomenon occurs, as observed in sharp, cold winter mornings, when ihe barometer shows that the pressure of the atmosphere is fully as high as the aver­ age for the locality. Then the smoke falls because the sudden condensation, of the vapor it contains carries down, vapor and the unconsumed carbon to­ gether. Sometimes, when the air is at mean or average pressure near the earthy there is a layer o( it at eighty to 10J feet above the ground that is so charged with moisture (which is elastic and less im­ pervious than the drier air below) that it resists the easy passage of smoke, and the latter is reflected back toward the earth, as an india-rubber ball striking a floor at an angle bounds off in an opposite direction. At other times an upper cur­ rent of air passes over the layer next the earth in a different direct i. Such cur­ rents act like the tidal :l .w from the ocean forcing its way tip the mouths of rivers, over the top of the natural fresh­ water discharge, which keeps on its way toward the sea lor some time after thle tide sets in. Divers say that when they rise out of this undertow to where they strike the opposite current of the flowing- tide this latter repels them toward the bottom again; so that they have to d^\ pend on the safety line to draw them to the surface. Undoubtedly opposite cur- rents to the upper air repel rifting* columns of smoke in a very similar ner.--Inter Ocean. The Hold of the Tradition. A case of interest, as showing the strength of tradition among the Jews, ie that one of the race on Loug Island, who has succeeded, after a long struggle, * law suit and the intervention of eoi** stables, in placing a stone over his wifelf grave with her portrait carved thereout It was held by the trustees of the cem#> tery that the widower's procedure was in violation of the ancient tradition, whiofc forbids one to make a graven image But the courts sustained the widowerli right, and gave him the means to euforo* it •arrelons Feat of a Westers Banter. West Antrim, known here as a little hatchet man, who could but _woiddn?| tell a lie, says he was present in Saenfc. mento Valley in 1860 when a hnnt«Mr killed 176 geese with two shots. He also killed a horse for which be would not have taken $1,000. The man ioiced over his success in killing gees^ nut felt so badly over the loss of his liorse that one side of his Isagiiing whde the other wss Ofying. Wmnemucca Stiver State.