Illinois News Index

McHenry Plaindealer (McHenry, IL), 12 May 1886, p. 6

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BSYOWD mm VKXISa ,'r ^ ; St MBS, NXSNIR A. MONHOBI. H? Bsyeai 0»*o itroHim MI 1 J)ayOw} tbes ) liop<* and f<tan-- | Beyottt tbfito wour v year* I Th«ro wail* for tlien j A bomi\ no wondrous fallow;*• ' | Sooweot, co pniv, the air ,til >'* Breathes anthems every whMa '•% 'k,i,m In harmony. Js '> Angelic croaturss move, !>"vC" V Through ev.sry balmy grove Whose cointant thmne is tor*--- , •g-", r In rapt uro sung; , •- And on their barps ar> wrought f V , ; . T C h o f i e R t r a l n s -- d i v i n e l y t a u g h t ; JP% ' ' And every rhythm caught wi-r v On roses hung. V 5HU every pulse was Ailed I", With their avMt breath, dtstilled l-X.;, ^ For tender chords tha'. thrilled /v.. ' 'Neath touches low. fEA# ' Where limpid streams pursue r 15 „ Knchanted bowers through; I?*' * And myriad drops of dew ,t" ^ ' - « Resplendent glow. ^ § Where tranquil skies repolp '•" S>. 1 ' O'er every stream that floWS^ ^ Whose crystal beauty thnJWi A light sublime, f •*, , • No tongue can e'er posses^ *®begift to half confess matchless loveliness By jV ! Of that fair clime. . - .V ' &.., "• ^ O spirit, why sbouMst tho* vv Jilj" ' Bemoan and murmur uow r~ -" - j I»'t not enouch to know 4 "•'£ Beyond these tears, KS.1, ' i' When earthly sconos have' >I'<K With all the glo >m they cast. •Jlfc r There, thou shalt rest at last ' r Through endless years f £wii Magazine. idgS , ' •. r ---r A WRONG v ? Rupert King lay dying. He loved life, S»d he was a very rich man; but that could ' not CRY# him. His wife, a tall, black-eyed, haughty- looking woman, knelt beside him, his hand in hers, her face drenched in tears; tor, cold as she seemed to most, she loved her husband dearly. On the opposite side of the bed leaned Paul Dering, the dying i^ftan's stepson. Eighteen years before, Mr. King had married Paul's mother, a widow with this «|ue child, then 5 years old. He loved the , boy as his own son. He had brought him gp as his heir, and had long ago made a trill leaving him all he possessed, with the Exception of a handsome allowance to his Wife. "There is something I ought to have told you, Hester," the dying man said to his . • wife. "Don't think hardly of me when you Anow it, after I am dead. I don't know but .1 ought to have altered my will, but this Sickness came so suddenly, there has not fcemjfcne." -v*- * His tain d waodera, "muttered Mrs. King. ^S^S^STSiXStSS&. -hat they ' He h.;l o„lv private desk when I am dead." Sj^ meal and cream and fruit for his That was all he said. sj»4 -an anxious mother to known her. entered the roosa where Mrs Kin? sat alone. Throwing tip her veil, she fell at Mrs. King's knees, and hurst into tears. "Mrs. King," she>1 ied, "I have but jnst heard of vour angelic goo Iness.v* That un happy woman who was your huwbaud's first wife, and whose innocence from, a horrible accusation yon have been at such pains to prove, was my mother. I am here 10 thank you for the noblest, most g;-ner- ou4 deed one woman over did for another. I am lieiv to tell von how all my life I shall worship yon for righting her. I am here to tell vo'u that I release you from the promise I was so presumptuous as to re­ quire of you. and to bind myself never to see vour son ngain." Virtt. King was pale with surprise and be­ wilderment. "I don't know what yon mean." she said. "Is not your name Edith Bond?" "My name is Lucy Edith King. I have been calle.i generally by my aunt's name, because she adopted me after my poor, un­ happy mother's death." "You?" exclaimed Sirs. King, *Swi are Lucy King?" "Yes." ; • To the girl's amazement, Mrs. lung sud­ denly canght her in her arms and kissed her. Then she rang for a servant, and gave some message in a low voice. Three minutes after, Paul Dering came hurrying into the room. "Jane said you wanted me instantly, mother. What is the matter?" he asked, stariug at her excited face, and not notic­ ing at the moment that anyone else was in the room. "This," said his mother, leading Lncv towards him. "Edith Bond aud Lucy King ate one. I leave yon to mutual explana­ tions," she added, gaily, as she was quitting the room. -'But be quick about it, or the dinner will be spoiled." Half an hour after, they all sat down to dinner together; and as, judging from ap­ pearances.. three happier people could not be found, it is fair to suppose that the mutual explanations proved mutually satis­ factory. Ills the Flesh is Heir To. "I took no more than I wanted, therefore I did not take too much," is a very common and a very mistaken con­ clusion. Appetite is not by any means the measure of need. Habit, in this as in other things, becomes the master and dominates in spite of sound reason and common sense. Few human beings, comparatively, have ever known the sensation of hunger; fewer still, per­ haps, know how to control the desire for food that passes for hunger. We begin with childhood by giving our little ones all thev want, and, ordi- <. The widow found the following letter in the desk. She read it the day after funeral. It ran thus: "Mr DEAREST WIFE: *1 *W!hve neve fold you that before 1 lever knew you I wu marricvi to another woidjtn. She de­ ceived and betrayed me, or I was let to believe So, and I left her. She died not] long after, leaving a child--a little girl -wliem I never looked after, because of th> bitterliess I still felt toward tne mother, and because I did not believe she was ray child. But recently I have beard something which makes me think that Jsoesibly that unhappy woman was innocent, after all. It is the merest doubt, but 1 cannot Feat easy till I have solved it. I havo not felt well for a few days, or I should have satisfied tnyself; and I did not want to tell you till I had dono that. But to-night there is a weight upon ' tne. I cannot sleep until I have written this for Vour eyes, incase I should, as I fear, be going to be ilL " if my first wife was an innocent woman, then I have bitterly and cruelly wronged my own - jcbild, and 1 leave to you the task of finding and lighting her. I desire you, my dear wife, in the name of our mutual love, to endeavor, by jmeans of ths memoranda which accompany this, to ascertain the truth. If shs was as in­ nocent woman, the child I have so long disowned ought to have my property instead of your son. •\fy • "If'you find that I wronged my first wife, I >' .wan* you to seek out my child, and Paul must MM .either marry her or give her the money I have •f iit , left in mv will to him. I should like them to # marry. I shall not alter my will; it would be tS:1; ' makiittLATdtvthine too public. I trust all to sranmiurn * SCIENCE. is makiiraBTdtything 1 F«wrrScmor.» The letter fell from Hester King's hand. An angry light gleamed in her black eyes. "Paul's honor* shall not be tried," she said, bitterly, "//qflfchall never know. It shall be my secret." She secretly set on foot inquiries, which resulted in satisfying her, reluctant as r.he was, that herkusbaudhad cruelly wronged an innocent woman. V Almost at the same time that this convic­ tion was forc«d upon her, ler son, to her horror and dismay, annoo^ed that he was thinking of marrying. Porul had poured the whole wealth of his affection upon a girl 1A0 was only a poor music teacher. He had met her at the hou$e of a friend, to whose little girls she WSf giving lessons. Mrs. King knew hqman nature too well openly to oppose her son. She, therefore, 00 objection, but asked him to weigh thC mstter wall, and not be in too great haste. Then having obtained the girl's address, she went, without her son's knowledge, to see her. Mtdpite of her prejudice, she was im- by tEdith Bond's refined and onl- appesnmce, as well as by her beauty, , *nd dignity. a very different line of cos _ her from that wbich~ *He proposed. She appealed to her generosity. Shs told her frankly that her son loved linr. stiil it was evident, b>- the hot blush, f the dkhppitig of the sweet eyes, that he did nOtlo^eto Vain. Then she told her that if n Psilmarried her, it would be at the sacri- : fict fll his wttfcde fortune, though he did apt lONgttit. - - ^ anally, she asked her to go away where e physician who had T>£CTV faaatekwuin)- moned to relieve the colic under winch their precious 7-year-old son was writh­ ing. "But how much oat meal and fruit?" The dear woman did not know. She had not noticed that he swallowed the tirst plateful, and was ready for the second before any one else had begun. She was too well accustomed to his ea­ gerness to get through his meal and be off to his play, to mind that the third plateful disappeared with a few spas­ modic gulps; nor did she notice that three peaches were thrust into his pocket, to supplement the three swal­ lowed without mastication at the table. One botintiful plat?ful of oat meal and two ripe peaches, what could be better ? Three plates of oat meal and six peaches, what could be worse? Yet, had he died of the colic his mother would, doubtless, have wondered at the afflictive ways of Providence Beginning in this manner at the nnrserv and home tables the growing boys and girls are not likely to become abstemious in diet at school. There they too often try to make tip for de­ fective quality t>y consuming an un usual quantity of food, and, fortunately, the vigorous sports of youth and the demands of the growing body some­ times save them from direct results, No immediate penalty being exacted, they lose all sense of wrong-doing, for, strange as it may seem, there is a con­ science in this . matter that is often heard above the clamor of appetite. We would not overload the basket that carries our eggs home until the bottom falls out and the contents drop to the ground; we would not put corn enough into the mill to stop its grind ing; yet we constantly interrupt and clog the processes by which the body is nourished, by burdening it with far more food than it can care for, without damage to itself. It really seems to require more hero­ ism to forego one-half or one-third the tksual quantity of food than to bear an ortlinary illness. "I cannot have straw beiges for tea," says a faithful wife "for lay husband is fond of them and they aSj not good for him." We ea^ too much--nine-tenths of us do it, oW and over, every day. Whether tw shall evfer come to the place, propntsied recently, where the nutritive elements extracted from all foods shall be Vcarried about in vest pockets, in homeopathic pellets, and all dining be reduced to a pinch of them, taken as we run, Ve cannot say; but one thing is certaiiV, that we shall have her* d was vioUntly agitated. Mre. King," she said, "do voh (hjnk it gf\ is la* not to give him a chance to efaose ||||:,v :; bstweett his fortune and me?" " "He would choose you," Mrs. Kingan. M' »W«Mdt despairingly. [P; t ••.feThen.* spoke Edith, "if your eon loves *1" ' *<ttM»nrach as that, are you not afraid you m-'i ^ will destroy his happiness?" - "He will suffer in being separated from i you, - «f ^eoune," Mrs. Ming answered, il;;' 7 ooldly; "bat he will get over it. He will '•jJ' '• . live £0 thsHfc me for interfering to prevent u his throwing away a fortune, and making H'. . himself s pauper." • The sweet face tbiBhed proudly; the blue eyes drooped again. , Tbere was a few moments' silence, and titsa-EcUtfc Bond ai%id, gently, UI think you yt'. reqoiie ioo atneh of him, Mrs. King; but jfe, yon are his mother. I will promise you mf:: ' this: I will go away where your son can- F> not see me, for a year, if you promise me . thai if, at the end of that time, he still "w„ loves me, yon will tell him everything, and ' >^f leave him free to seek me, if he chooses to •* do so." ,14. ' Mrs. King consented to this very reluct- ... antly, bst Mne went home much relieved. She thought, "In a year he is sure to forget her." Never was a mother more mistaken. Edith Bond kept her word. She went feC away before Paul Dering could see her Ik,/' *" again, and left no clue to where she had vanished. 1 -:^. Paul Dering's amasement and grief at J '. her inexplicable disappearance were so « deep and viotent lhat his mother was , almost firiffhtesed at what she had done. / Meanwhile she was causing secret but f diligent scaroh to be made for Lucy King, v •, . the cruelly wronged child of her dead g'. husband. But she could learn nothing of ' - her. She had been taken in charge by an aunt at her mother's death, and the two had gone away together, no one knew * _ w h i t h e r . King one day showed her son his Sfl/ step«fathtor'» letter. She pointed out to IJ ' Out he should marry Lucy if she £ , ooqldbe found, and thus keep the wealth ' froin gdtng'tb a stranger. 1 jL"; But Paul declared he would marry none but Edith. That very evening. Edith, so closely WeOsd and dssfced that no OBS woold ha*s to learn what food i and how much much to let alone. ^ally feeds the body, take and how Detained on tn Road. "When I lived in Kansas," said a De- troiter, who was telling scpries in an in- sarance office a few days ago, "I insured my house with an agent against fire. Along came another agent whp insured against lightning, and I took that in. In a few days a bhap called on me who in­ sured against cyclones, and I struck a bargain with him. The next caller in­ sured against water spouts md explo­ sions, and I thought -1 might as well encourage him." • - - "A house couldn't be much safer than that," remarked one of the listeners. "And yet I lost it inside of six months." K 'How could it be?" ' 'Well, there came i fKuhet in ^ river, and house, barn, fences, haystaclcfe and all went sailing down stream. The agent who insured against freshets got there just one day too late." THE ways of eels are indeed mysteri­ ous, for nobody has eve» yet succeeded in discovering where, when, or how they manage to spawn; nobody has ever yet seen an eel's egg, or caught a female eel in the spawning condition, or even observed a really adult male or female specimen of perfect development. AH the eels ever found in fresh water are immature and undeveloped creatures.-- Grant Allen. < Prompt Appreciation. Illustrated lecture in general chem­ istry. Professor--I will now treat Smith--(who has been dozing under the influence of recent potations, half aroused by the familiar sound)--Good fr you, ol' boy.--Michigan Argonaut. OKB watch set right will do to try many; and on the other hand, one that goes wrong may be the means of mis­ leading a whole neighborhood And the same may be said of the example wo individually set to those ntoMid w> \ rtmt Woaderftil Teats That Reunite d tm Um Comrenlon of a Ks* York Man. "I am naturally inclined to be skepti­ cal, and it was only after I had gone through crucial tests that I was con­ verted. I sat alone an hour each night in the darkness of my room for eighteen months, and experienced wonderful things, but still 1 was not convinced. My right arm would grow cold at times, and move involuntarily, until I became frightened and thought I was about to be paralyzed. I was at that time a broker near Wall street, in New lork, and doing a large business. I was sit­ ting at my desk in the office one day, writing. Suddenly that peculiar sense of numbness came over my arm, and my hand moved the pen across the paper, and I had no power of resist­ ance. I wrote in large, bold betters: 'You are being robbed; count your cash.' I had not dreamed of such a thing, arid was completely dumbfounded. Aj^iend of mine came in at that moment, »ttd I got him to count the cash over for me. I made a note of the amount and care­ fully locked the drawer. We then went to lunch, and were gone several hours. Upon returning we counted the cash agslin, and found it $11.50 short. I was unable to discover w-lio the thief was. The spirits will not tell us that so long as we have the system of punishing in­ stead of trying to reform criminals.' "I think that was a sufficient test, to convince anv man. Afterward I went into the lumber business in connection with a house in LiverpooJL We bought quantities of lumber in Canada, and shipped it over in cargoes. The system of regulating the business there is this: The lumber is graded into three classes, one, two, and three. The first is free from knots, the second,, has a certain number, and the third more. The gov­ ernment employs men to brand this lumber and grade it as it comes from the saw, and each class is stamped one, two, or three. You can see what amount of damage these branders could do, were they bribed by the .mill owners. "One winter I received a number of complaints from the firm in Liverpool as to the quality of the material. One night I was in my office at Quebec writing, and again the old feeling came over my arm, and my hand traveled across the paper. The pen traced the words: 'Go to Montreal. You are wanted at once.' I had but fifteen minutes in which to go a mile and catch the boat, but I got there., On arriving in Montreal i went straight to the dock, we> had a cargo about to start. I went on tfe<& there had been fraud in the branding of the Ihm- ber, and demanding that the work be done over again. Under the law, when sueh a demand is properly made, the court must order the work done imme­ diately bv three government men. In the meanwhile, I was incurring an enormous risk. There had to be paid to the ship-owners $400 for every day the ship was held beyond the sailing time, and $80 a day in addition for every barge. In case the relanding of the cargo did not alter the amount 10 per cent., then this expense fell on me The three examiners were appointed, and it took them eight days to get to work. They then discovered that all the second grade had been stamped as No. 1, and the third grade as No. 2 In this way $20,000 was saved to the firm in the single cargo, and all the ex­ penses had to be paid by the bondsmen of the government employe who had been bribed by the mill-owners. Had I failed, I would have been laughed at and called a fool, but I was willing to iticur the risk on the strength of the spirit writing. "Another mistake which is made is in confounding the faculty of being able to see and know things by means of a touch of the hands. This discovery was first made by Prof. Buchanan, formerly of Kentucky. He was principal of a college in Ohio, and an Episcopal Bishop went to consult him as a physician. The Bishop said he was wonderfully con­ structed, and could tell by feeling a piece of metal, without seeing it, whether it was iron, brass, copper, or something else. Prof. Buchanan placed the Bishop's hand behind him and ap­ plied a number of tests, all of which were answered immediately. The Pro­ fessor thought there was something in it, and began making tests with the boys in the college. Out of 150 there were about 100 who were nore or less gifted that way. He extenled his re­ searches further, and began experi­ menting with drugs. TherVwere about twenty of the boys he could influence by placing a drug in the palm of their hands, and could even cause some to vomit by putting ipecac in their lunch without their knowing what it was. He continued the work, and one day went to the Bishop mentioned above, aud, placing a sealed letter in his hand, said: 'I want to know if you can divine the contents of that letter by the sensation its touch causes.' The Bishop laughed, and said: 'I feel a sensation as of a great soldier, who was very ,angry.' 'You are right,' replied Professor Bu­ chanan. 'That letter was one written by George Washington the night he learned of Benedict Arnold's treason.' "And thus it was that the science was discovered. It has since been devel­ oped wonderfully, but should not be confounded with spiritualism." -- Charles Dawbum, in Louisville Times. tion only to thosa who say: *Wo witfft to marry; we have neither time uor money; look up our papers, and pay for them." The office of this society i;; in the Latin quarter, and its managers devote themselves to researches, and the levelling of all difficulties. All nationalities, all religions, are welcome. The papers are found, the expenses paid, and when all is in order, the can­ didates for matrimony receive their documents, a piece of gold, the wed­ ding ring, blessed, a little advice, and a wish for prosperity. The society is positive that it lias been the cause of 76,000 marriages among the poor of Paris.--Paris letter in Chicago Times. Marriage In France. Marriage in France must be made less difficult and less costly. The com­ plex formalities of wedlock are safe­ guards for poor and rich alike, but they are really a barrier for poor people. It seems simple to furnish the required papers, but it is an impossibility for those who have but a vague idea of their families and antecedents. Some do not even know who their parents were, or have lost all trace of them. order to marry they must produce the written consent of their parents or prover^their death. Then oomes the question of monoy. Of course the mayor is hQt paid, and the priest will marry gratis »11 tho^e who wish no elaborate cerehabny, but , before the ceremony come tie expenses. The candidates for- matrimony must pay the copy of tlie birth certificate, or a paper of recognition, vouched for by seven witnesses.) They must pay for nt of the parents or death. If orphans, legal advice. The in case of a dispen­ sation asked, for ihe marriage of rela­ tives must also bi paid. Legal publi­ cations of marriage also have their tariff. The total is always too great a for the poot to spend, and conse- ently they do without marriage, us sad fact has impressed a prominent ench lawyer tosuch an extent that has founded a charitable society * lied-St. Francois Regis, whose mis- ton is to facilitate the marriages of the or. The society is composed almost tirely of magistrates and pays . Fnlton's Firnt Steamboat# Th® following letter descriptive of the first voyage of the Clermont from Al­ bany was written by Robert Fulton and sent to Chancellor Robert R. Living ston, grandfather of Clermont Living­ ston, in whose keeping the letter now is: NEW YORK, Saturday, the 28th of August, 1807.--DEAR SIR: On Satur­ day I wrote you that I arrived here on Friday at 4 o'clock, which made my voyage from Albany exactly thirty hours. We had a little wind on Friday morning, but no waves which produced any effect. I have been making every exertion to get off on Monday morning, but there has been much work to do-- boarding all the sides, decking over the boiler and works, finishing each cabin with twelve berths to make them com­ fortable, and strengthening many parts of the iron work. So much to do and the rain, which delays the calkers, will, I fear, not let me off till Wednesday morning. Then, however, the boat will be as complete as she can be made --all strong and in good order and the men well organized, and, I hope, noth­ ing to do but to run her for six weeks or two months. The first week, that is if she starts on Wednesday, she will make one trip to Albany and back. Every succeeding week she will run three trips--that is, two to Albany and one to New York, or two to New York and one 4o Albany, always having Sun­ day and four nights for rest to the crew. By carrying for the usual price there can be no doubt but the steamboat will have the preference because of the cer­ tainty and agreeable movements. I have seen the captain of the fine sloop from Hudson. He says the average of his passages has been forty-eight hours. For the steamboat it would have been thirty certain. The persons who came down with me were so much pleased that they..said were she established to run periodically they ®**ver would go in anything else. I will harsher registered and everything done which I «mn recollect. Every­ thing looks well and I have lio doubt will be very productive. Yours truly, ROBERT FULTON. You may look for me Thursday morn­ ing about 7 o'clock. I think it would be well to write to your brother Edward to get information on the velocity of the Mississippi, the size and form of the boats used, the number of hands and quantity of tons in each boat, the number of miles they make against the current in twelve hours, and the quantity of tons which go up the river in a year. On this point beg of him to be accurate.--Hudson (New York) Re­ publican!,. Bismarck at Heme. The chancellor's wife, a tall, aristo­ cratic-looking woman with decided but pleasing features, and in elegant though simple toilet, received each guest as he arrived with gracious affability. Stand­ ing closa beside the open portieres, past which the eye glanced into the iamily living room, she was a true type of the position she holds both in home and public life. A noble wife and mother, she has faithfully stood1 by her hus­ band's side from the velry commence­ ment of his political career. A Chicago paper declares that Bismarck's wife is her husband's private secretary. How far this statement is true We do not pre­ tend to say, but an old friend of the family has repeatedly told iis that dur­ ing the saddest time that Germany has witnessed for the last fifty years, ' when Bismarck, disheartened and dispirited, retired to the small property of Schon- hausen, there towgetate as a small Prussian landowner, while brooding moodily over all bis grand political schemes, his wife never for a moment lost heart, but was ftble to inspire her husband with ever-fresli courage and hope. A number of bid friends and ac­ quaintances quickly surrounded the no­ ble hostess, while the remainder of the guests streamed on to­ ward the billiard-room to the right, the windows of which look out on the street. In front of one of the sofas lies a handsome bearskin, the animal was slain by Bismarck's own hand; and on a bracket stands the magnificent vase, with the King's portrait and a view of his castle, which King William pre­ sented to the prince after the wars of 18G6. The crowd and the heat increased every moment. The prince, we were told, was in the big saloon. Hurrying thither, we saw our noble host standing just inside the door, in animated con­ verse with some earlier arrivals, yet, notwithstanding, quite ready to greet every new comer, sometimes even stretching out both hands to right and left with hearty welcome. How well and bright he looked! That was al­ ways the first thing that struck one on seeing this man. His face, from his long country sojourn at arzin, has re­ gained its healthy coloring, the eyes are no longer so deeply shadowed by the overhanging brows or the Xuxrowed forehead of last year, his hair is of that light Saxon hue wliith defies both time and impertinent curiosity, and the fig­ ure is as firm and upright as the young­ est man there present. On this even­ ing he also wore his favorite and most comfortable dress--:that is, uniform, but not in strict accordance with regu­ lation.--Chambers' Journal. ** legalizing the cor for a certificate they must pay f«J judgment render* A Swimming-Lesson in Venice. If the day is warm we shall see pl^jity of Venetian boys swimming in the canals, wearing nothing but a pair of light trousers, aud they care so little for our approach that we are afraid our gondolas will ran over some of them. The urchins are v<-ry quick and active, however, and we might as well try to touch a fish as one o! them. Ionoe saw a Venetian girl abou^ 16 years old, who was sitting upon the steps of a house teaching her young brother to swim. The little fellow was very small, and she had tied a cord laround his waist, one end of which she keld in her hand. She would let the child get into the water and paddle awajy as well as he could. When he seemed tired, or when he hhd gone far enough, she pulled him in. She looked very much as if she were fishing, with a small boy for bait. --Frank JL Stockton, in St. Nicholas. MODERATION is the silken storing run­ ning through the pearl chain of all the S»v Tut 8i|»rtin. - -* The qualification^ of a good reported must be above those of the average of young men. A really first-class reporter, who holds a leading position on one of the great morning dailies, should be an encyclopaedia of certain kinds of knowl­ edge. He must be more or less ac­ quainted with politics and finance, art and literature, science and religion. He must be largely endowed with the shrewdness and insight which make the successful detective, but- above all he must be gifted with what newspaper men call "news-sense" which enables him to know what will and what will not be interesting, and must be endowed with untiring energy, or "leg talent," as the reporters call it, which an editor prizes in his reporters most of all. Another qualification is the faculty of rapid writing. A good literary style and the art of finished composition have their own value, but the reporter who is unable to do rapid work cannot be relied upon, since the most import­ ant occurrences have to be written up in a great hurry at the last moment. Not unfrequently, indeed, an emissary from the composing-room stands at his side to take the pages of his manu­ script from him as fast as he concludes the last Avord on the leaf. Reporters conie to think nothing of writing their articles on railroad trains, in street-cars and row-boats, in tele­ graph offices, stores, saloons and res­ taurants, in all conceivable places and under every circumstance and degree of inconvenience and discomfort. Finally, the reporter must be brave enough to go at any hour of the day or night into the vilest dens of the most dangerous slums; honest enough to tell the exact truth as he discovers it; not too easily carried away by his feeling; and candid enough to bear constantly in mind the fact that there afe two sides to every story. The reporter is well paid for his work, and a young man of ability can probably earn at tlie' beginning a larger salary in journalism than he might re­ ceive at a clerkship. But his salary will not increase as he 'grows older, un­ less the young man makes a determined struggle on every round of the ladder, constantly determined to reach the top. Neither luck nor favoritism can avail him. He must be contented to base his claims for preference on merit alone. The reporter is in a splendid school to learn human nature. He is thrown into contact with every conceivable class of society, from the highest to the lowest. He meets his fellow beings under every peculiarity of circumstance, and in a Very short time he begins to think he can wonder at nothing. And yet he iB continually startled by circum­ stances totally at variance with all , his previous ideas of man's capability* fox love or hate. There is something of fascination in the reporter's life which makes up in part for the drudgery he is obliged to undergo. It is adventurous and nevei. monotonous. When he leaves his home in the morning he rarely knows whether he will be back again at night, or not for a week, or in what part of the city or country, and under what circumstances, he is to spend the next twenty-four hours. Then there is risk of being "beaten" by a reporter of one of the dozen other papers, which is an incentive and a stimulant, and serves to make all work interesting. Particularly . is this the case in out-of-town work, where he has to rely on the telegraph to get his news to his paper. The. reporter and .the country tele­ graph operator are instinctive foes, and it requires every species of threat and bribe to induce the latter to stay late at night to send a long press dispatch. I havo myself been obliged to go into a village ball-room at midnight, and tear an unwilling telegraph operator from his partner to get an important dis­ patch through to my paper on time.-- Youth's Companion. Malinda Accounts for It. A lady in Mississippi, while on a visit last spring to New Orleans, purchased "a setting" ol Pekin duck eggs, and shortly after her return to her country home, placed them under a hen. *A week later, seeing the hen feeding in the yard, she went to the nest to see il the eggs were all right and was some­ what surprised to find the eggs much whiter and smaller than she had sup­ posed they were. Two weeks later the old hen came ofl the nest followed by ten little chicks. This nonplussed the lady and she was not at all sparing in her bitter com­ ments on the "dishonest poultryman a1 New Orleans," who had "practiced such a fraud" on her. A week later her 000k told her of 8 singular circumstance that had just happened "down ter der quarters," how "Aunt Malin4a" had "set a lot of hen's eggs and they had hatched out ducks." The lady started forthwith to the quar­ ters, when, Sure enough, she found "Aunt Malinda" and the brood of web- feet. The old darky had a marvelous story to tell, and professed to be greatly astonished when her mistress related her venture with her duck eggs. "How do you account for it, Aunt Malinda?" asked the lady. "Well, Miss Mary, der ways of Provi­ dence is numerous and past findin'out. Yer know, clule, der Bible teaches us dat nuffin's onpossible wid God."--De­ troit Free Press. Trials of an Amateur. Amateur Photographer--"Confound the luck! This picture of my land­ lady's dining-room with the breakfast table all Bet would be perfect if it weren't for that blur on the big platter. It looks as though something there had moved." Sympathetic Friend--"Those are sausages there on the table, aren't they?" Amateur Photographer--"Yes, whjr ?" Sympathetic Friend--"Oh, nothing, only I heard a boy whittle outside just as you exposed the dry-plate. Maybe somebody's poor little Fido was trying to wag its tail."--Somerville Journal. I>osl Explosions. The investigation of the Prussian firedamp commission hare shown that many mine explosions attributed to firedamp, or outbursts oi gas, are really due to fine ooal dust, all kinds of dust appearing to be capable of exploding violently when ignited. The experiments relative to this inflammabil­ ity of coal dust were devised as nearly as possible in accordance with the con-1 ditions prevailing in practice, and more than two hundred tests were made, ex­ plosions occurring in every case when an electric spark was produced in adust cloud. THB Malays, who frequently find an­ cient stone axes in the soil, eall thera "thnnderstones," believing that they proceed from thundezbelU. A Gentle Wife. Above all qualities in the world for a wife is a spirit of gentleness. Gentle­ ness. A gentle-spirited wife. I heard this incident once, and it impressed me very much: Five gamblers sat gam­ bling, and the clock struck 12, and 1, and 2, and directly one of the gamblers spoke up, and said: "Gentlemen, you can play on if you want to, but my precious wife is at home right now watching and waiting for me to come. I have got the best wife in the world." "Well," said the others, "every man thinks that." Well," said he, "my wife knows I am out gambling, and who I am with, I expect, but she's so good that if I was to take you four men to the house right now, and ring the door­ bell, and slie came to the door, and I was to tell her to go and cook supper for all you gamblers, she'd do it in a spirit of gentleness and with a smile on her face." "We don't believe it," they all exclaimed. "Well, you all come and see." And he took the gamblers to his hojise, rang the door-bell, and his wife let them in immediately, and her husband introduced her to all the gamblers, and said: "Wife, we've been gambling until late, and we want you to go and prepare supper for us." And wife said: "Husband, the fire is out in the stove, and the cook has gone home, but if you'll all be seated and patient I will get it as soon as I can," and with a smile on her face she prepared the sup­ per, called them in, and slie waited on the table with a smile on her face; and, when they had finished the meal, one of the old gamblers said: "Your hus­ band told us before we came what you would do, but we didn't believe him, and now I want to ask you this ques­ tion : How can you be such a wife to such a husband?" And she said: "Gentlemen, I have prayed for that man for twenty-five years that God would save his soul, but I have lost all hope that he will be saved. He is go­ ing to a world of torment, and I'm go­ ing to make his life in this world as pleasant to him as I can." The gam­ bler looked up and over at her husband, and said: "Sir, how can you be such a man with such a wife as that ?" And the husband jumped up and said: "Gentlemen, hear me. My wife has won me to her Savior to-night, and I have settled the question. I give my­ self to her God and her Christ to­ night," and the incident goes on to re­ late that her husband afterward com­ menced preaching, and that he was the preacher that won these other four gamblers to Christ.--Rev. Sam Jones. At Breakfast, Fortress Monroe. To an angel, or even to that approach to an angel in this world, a person who has satisfied his appetite, the spectacle of a crowd of people feeding together in a lunge room must be a little humibating. the laot ia that no animal appears at its best in this neoegi sary occupation. But a hotel break­ fast-room is not without interest. The very way in which people enter the room is a revelation of character. Mr. King, who was put in good humor by falling on his feet, as it were, in such agreeable company, amused himself by studying the guests as they entered. There was the portly, florid man, who "swelled" in, patronizing the entire room, followed by a meek little wife and three timid children. There was a broad, dowager woman, preceded by a meek, shrinking little man, whose whole appearance was an apology. There was a modest young couple who looked exceedingly self-conscious and happy, and another couple, not quite so young, who were not conscious of anybody, the gentleman giving a curt order to the waiter, and falling at ojice to reading a newspaper, while his wife took a listless attitude, which seemed to have become second nature. There were two very tall, very graceful, very high-bred girls' in semi-mourning, accompanied by a nice 'lad in tight clothes, a model of propriety and slender physical resources, who per­ fectly reflected the gracious elevation of his sisters. There was a preponder­ ance of women, as is apt to be the case in such resorts. A fact explicable not on the theory that women are more delicate than men, but that American men are too busy to take this sort of relaxation, and that the care of an es­ tablishment, with the demands of so­ ciety and the worry of servants, so draw upon the nervous energy of women that they are glad to escape occasionally to the irresponsibility of hotel life. Mr. King noticed that many of the women had the unmistakable air of familiarity with this sort of life, l»oth in the (fining- room and at the office, and were not nearly so timid as some of the men. And this was very observable in the c*se of the girls who were chaperoning thbir mothers, shrinking women who seem«d a little confused by the bustle, and a little awed by the machinery of the great caravansary.--Charles Dud­ ley W%rne*^ in Harper's Magazine. ' 4 Wrong. Two men tallttag in the street. "That man," said one, pointing to a passer-by, "did me a great wrong once." "Why, I thought that V« was a man of integrity. How did nOv-ronc you?" _ "Well, he and I were candidates' for alderman, and ho withdrew in my favor." - "I should think that he attempted to befriend you." ( "But he did not. He used his influ­ ence and elected me." "Was that a wrong?" "Well, yes. I had not been in the council very long until he tried to bribe me." "You don't say so. That was a wrong." "Yes, bat making me a propoeition was not the worst wrong." "It wasn't?" "No." "What was then?" "Why, he backed out."--Arkansaw Traveler. Hints About Flowers. One of the best methods to start rose cuttings is to stick the cuttings about an inch deep into moist clean river sand with good, well-prepsTed soil be­ low to receive the roots as soon as thev strike. Red spiders are easiest destroyed by laying the plants caret'idly on their sides in the open air, and using a hand syringe on them as powerfully as they will bear. If a little sulphur is used i& the water it is still more effective. The tuberose will bear but little cold, The temperature should not fall below 50 degrees, or there will be trouble by rotting at tjhe center. It is a native of th'e Malay Archipelago. If you wish your house plants to flourish, put a few drops of spirits of ammonia to each pint of water used in watering them.--St. Louis Magazine. THE realization of God's presence is the one sovereign remedy against tempta­ tion.--Fcnelon. 11' $ A f^Enrstx<VAinA xttilroad eating ** house keeper has five children born ^ with teeth. He probably raises them on his sandwiches.--Maverick. A L ATIN proverb says: Membra *e- %K formidant mollem quoque sancia tike- • turn,the wounded limb shrinks from 1-- the slightest tonch. This undoubtedly , refers to vaccination.--Rochester Union. IT is not the man who talks loudest ^ who is most to be depended , upon in . case of energy. A silver dollar makes " a great deal more noise than a live v -- dollar bill when it is dropped into a r '5 contribution box.--Boston Courier. Sir Digby (going round to the mews finds his new coachman's children play- :" . ing about, and introduces himself)--- "Well, my little man, and do you know who I am?" Boy--"Yes, you're the man as rides in father's carriage."-- Ila rper'a Weekly. LANDLADY--"Did you like the turkey we had yesterday, Mr. Smith?" Mr. Smith--"Did I like him? Yes, indeed; why, I loved him! I used to think when I was a little child that perhaps, after all, I should live the longest, and the thought made me sad."--Boston Post. "A willow farm in Macon, Ga., pro­ duces about a ton of switches to the acre." Education ought to thrive vigor^ fe onsly in that vicinity; but no doubt the " mischievous boy would rather go to& school somewhere else--where there ™ are no switches to the acher.--Norris- toicn Herald. WE have always said that if man javer planted his brogans on the solid rock of perfect content, science would be the sapper and miner to build the corduroy over the intervening bog. The stringers are already down and here oomes the first load of timber: "A lost umbrella was recovered in Philadelphia the other day by the aid of the telephone."--Chi­ cago Ledger. OLD man Jobkins is a choleric old fel­ low with a mind very much set against "fol-de-rols" and "nick-nacks," as he calls fruits, pastry and ice cream, but he is very fond of milk punches. At a re­ ception he was asked by the hostess what kind of ice cream he would have: "Boiled, please, with a little whisky in it,"he replied, very soberly.--Califor­ nia Maverick. . THE stories about the Maiden boy's compositions have drawn out a lot more of the sort from correspondents. One of them tells how a class of small girls had been given "oral instruction" on the subject of the camel. One point made was the absorption, during long absti­ nence, of the fat of the hump. A bright little thing with a vivid mind's eye wrote afterward: "When a camel'is extremely hungry he can stretch back his head and eat his hump."--Boston Record. AN 'old SeobSumn, when taking his - bairns to be baptized, usually cmke of them as laddies or lassies, as the case bi might be. At last his wife said he must : , not say it was a laddie or lassie, but an infant. So the next time that Sandy had occasion to go to the clergyman, the latter said: " Weel, Sandy, is it a laddie? "It's nae a laddie," was the answer. "Then it's a lassie." "It's nae a lassie," said Sandy. "Weel, mon, what is it, then?" said the astonished preacher. "I dinna remember vera weel," said the parent; "but I think the wife said it was an ellifant." THE following very good story is told as having actually occurred in a Sunday school on the Kast BMe in~ thls"village. The teacher was testing her small pupils as to flieir understanding of what constituted a good Christian, when one of them, whom we will call Avery, with his face aglow with knowledge strug­ gling for expression, ejaculated: "Say, teacher, I know who is a good Chris­ tian." "Well," replied the teacher, "who is it?" "Caley M he replied, with emphasis. "Well, tell us why you think he is a good Christian," said the teacher. "Cos' whenever he has any­ thing he don't wantjhe gives it to Saratoga Journal. SHE KNEW THB OAMH. "What is the similarity. Miss KtUel," naked th9 beau, "Between a caiuo of ball and me?" Yawned Ethel: -1 don't know* "Why, it's a match, of course," grinned IMU \Vith idiotic bliss, ""In which a iniss is caught, you see. Because I court a miss." "How snmrt," said Ethel, whoannonneed She bad a riddle, too; "The ball you play with must be bounoed; Why lika the ball are you?" He eyed the clock. "Because," sighed "Because I'm always 'round?" "O, alwayst I suppose," said she, "For runs you are renown'd." "Indeed, I am, and home runs, too-- "Why, all tha boys allow--" *0, I'm so glad," she smiled, "for you Can make a home run now." --H. O. Dodge, in Detroit Free Preut. Prose Development. » Beginning for the most part with translations from Latin or French, with prose versions of verse writings, and with theological treatises aiming more at edification and at edification of the vulgar, than at style, it was not till after the invention of printing that it at­ tempted perfection of form. But in its early strivings it was much hindered-- first by tho persistent attempt to make an uninfected dp the duty of an in- language, ana -wMwmdly, by the cunotfs jjjood of conceits wlnei» *»x;om- panied, or helped, or were caused by the Spanish »n(i Italian influences of the sixteenth and ea*ly seventeenth cen­ turies. To this peri04, of individualism an end was put by Dry«^n, whose ex­ ample in codifying and roi>rniing was followed for nearly a century.. During this period the syntactical parvtxj En­ glish grammar was settled very kenrly as it has hitherto remained; the limita­ tion of a sentence to a single moder­ ately simple proposition, or, at moat, to two or three propositions closely con­ nected in thought, was effected; the ar­ rangement of the single clause wns pre- / scribed as nearly as possiblo in the n«i-f ural order of vocal speech, invasions be-\ ing reserved as an exception and a li­ cense for the production of some special effect; the use of the parenthesis^ was (perhaps unduly) discouraged, wd a general principle was establisheuf that the cadence, as well as the sense of a sentence, should rise gradually toward the middle, should, if necessary, con­ tinue there on a level for a brief period, and should then descend in a gradation corresponding to its ascent. These prin­ ciples were observed during the whole of the eighteenth century, and with lit­ tle variation during the first quarter of the nineteenth. During the last fifty years, however, there has been a de­ cided return to individualism. In - this return much has undoubtedly been lost, the gain being in the work of a few writers of great power and marked individuality--such writers as Carlyle and Ruskin, whose style has inspired many attempts at imitation--attempts which, in the very nature of the case, must be furtile.--George Sants Cury. THE tallest stalks often have the mo«t •hallow roots.'

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