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S&Jl »via»i>i> o i lticp. n Z.BBOT PARK KM. Oar «*Miii| day, dear John's ted At test, at l*Ht had come; Whffn we M two should e«(is<) . • J Aad love and live u one. S How eagerly we talked about „ The places where we'd go. "l All maiden foar was lulled to rant* • Wo loved each other so. The word* were a aid that made ua oatf* npft-f- We wept oat last good-bys. I,*".' IC O'er summer seas we sailed and I p " > To lands with bluer skies. ' Where Arno's waters swiftly slip gjtf; ;*:• 'Neath I'onte Vecchio's stone*; Kt; ' * Where Santa Croce'8 marbla saints l%* ?V„ Watch o er her honored bones. # Where gleam the gems of art divine . .. • On cfcureh and palace walls; ; , s U ' h e r e o n t h e 6 a r t h e S i s t i n e c h a n t ' ' '".take seraph music falls. W' • Across fair Naples' azure bay, , vJ Where Capri's smiling chore %T,* Woo. those who love to feast j|5j > "Never to wander more-- j; ^Through all that land of art and SOflf, , . •- ; Where lore holds pwav supreme, , i':/ >" ;We roamed and quaffed life's richest draughty j j . |And lived as in a dream. - y;||Was this indeed our wedding teip f ' A MjNo. Only what we talked. » '!We went from mother's house to JohQ% I"lAnd John aad I both walked. «: •"Oswfry. $ J- ===== A SECRET REVEALED.' BT TAVli M. MOORB. lifK "• One morning Arthur Heywood received •strange letter. It was from his maiden aunt, Miss Maud Hoy wood. "Come at once," it said. "I am going to dit, and I want to leave you my property. It seems right to see yon first." Arthnr had never met his Aunt Maud, who lived by herself in a handsome country residence. She had inherited it from her mother, while the boys--her brothers--were obliged to make their own fortunes. Arthur's father had been the eldest, and all he had ever said of his sister Maud was that something she had done in early youth had made them all angry, and that they never saw each other, and, for his part he never desired to do so. And now, when Arthur Heywood was quite alone in the world, this aunt had written to him. He exacted to find a witch-like old woman lying in her bed. Instead, when a strange, elderly servant- woman had opened the door, he was ushered into a room where a beautiful wo­ man, who, in the light of the shaded lamps, scarcely looked old at all, satin a velvet chair, and held oat her hand to him. . •Yon are a Heywood," she said. "You nsemble your father, but are not so stern. Frank was stern to cruelty. And your mother is gone, too. Well, she must have had a hard life of it, nnless he was kinder to her than to his sister. There, don't speak. I shall say nothing bot what I feel. This estate ought to go to a Hey­ wood. You shall have it. I think yon wilt have to wait a few months. My heart is affected. I shall die very suddenly.; At present I am not very ill, but it will bef as I say. Don't express regret. You Care nothing for me, and the estate is valuable, and, above all, I hate hypocrisy. I have made my will in your favor. Stay nntil the last." With these words she closed Arthur's month. Then she rang the bell and or­ dered supper, and afterward dismissed her 30-year-old nephew to his room, at 9 o'clock, as though he had been a school- * : was a large room at the end of a long passage, very handsomely famished, but at the same time very gloomy. Arthur felt curiously uncomfortable as he paced the long floor, and, despite the early hoar, resolved to go to bed at once. A night-lump stood upon the mantelpiece; ke lit it before he retired. The excuse he made to himself was that his aunt might be taken ill in the night; but he was conscious of a renewal of his old childish terror of the supernatural. "It is all this talk of dying, and of will and legacies," he said. "I shall sleep it ' s that into that ̂ auet, in whieh luight bo hidden all sorts of wonderful treasures. And so one day, by means of a ladder some fruit pickers had left near the house, he gained the sloping roof, and reached the dormer window. Perched on the eiil he peeped in; but at the moment the ladder slipped. He remained on the window-ledge, scream­ ing for help; nnd the gardeners hearing him, ran to his assistance. However, though the child had crept up the sloping roof, the men could not reach him; and knowing nothing of the taboo which tor- bade the opening of the garret door, one of them baile the child remain where he was until he came, and rushed up the stair­ case, followed by all the household. The door was soon broken in, the window opened, the child rescued. And then Mrs. Heywood, who, until now, had for­ gotten iill but her boy's danger, took breath and looked about her. The garret was a bare place, hung with old garments, and smelling hideously. In one dark corner lay what looked like a bed. Upon it. what? To approach, to gaze, and to rush wildly from the room was the work of a moment. It was a skeleton dressed in a gray gown, nnd with a cap upou its head, still covered with the long black hair, that lay there. Arthur Heywood was absent from home at the time. When he returned he found the long sealed garret door opened, heard his wife's story amidst her sobs of terror, and proceeded to the spot. There he stood, transfixed with horror and astonishment. The skeleton upon the bed wore the gray dress, the white cap, and had the straight black hair of the woman who had appeared to him in the vision, demanding the execu­ tion of his aunt, Maud Heywood. Whatever this meant, the discovery had been a public one, and so must the ex­ planation be. Arthur sent for the proper authorities, nnd also for the lawyer in whose possession was a codicil of the will which had given Arthur possession of the estate. This codicil bad been enveloped and scaled bjr Miss Maud, who alone knew the contents. It contained these words:-- "This paper will only be opened if the garret is opened also. In that case my secrect will be known to those who are of my own age, for there was much excitement when Jane Jarville disappeared. She Was well known in the neighborhood, and but for letters which I wrote myself and ex­ hibited to curious folks, the truth might have been suspected at the time. "Jane came to live with me as house­ keeper when I was but 20, thirty years ago. I was betrothed to a man I adored. My brother Rupert hated him. He placed Jane Jarvelle in my house as a spy. She intercepted letters and worked in such a way that my engage­ ment was broken off and my life embit­ tered. My lover left me with scorn, be­ lieving a false tale, and married another. One day I discovered Jane Jarve^'s treachery. I went in search of her. I found her in the garret. There we had a scene, and there I murdered her. I stabbed her to the heart. She lived only lone enough to shriek: 'I will haunt the houso until you are hang for this!" "She has done it. I have seen her. Bui I shall not be hung. The secret is all my own. I locked the garret, dismissed my servants in a body, and gathered new ones about me. I told people that Jane had been dismissed for dishonesty. I did not lie. "My brother Eupert cross-questioned me and made great search for Jane Jar­ velle; the others were never very good to me. Ours was an unkindly race; but Frank, though stern, was a just man. To his only son I have left all. Let him pity me. "Driven by desperation to an awful crime, haunted by the ghost of my victim, never at rest, never at peace, pursued forever by dread of a horrible death on the gallows, and assured of future punishment, what has my life been? Again I say--pity me, and pray for me." And, in fact, he fell asleep very shortly. And without being disturbed by so much as a dream until midnight, at which hoar, the proper one, as we all know, for the ghost- seer, he was awakened with, a start, to see at the foot of his bed a little dark woman with fierce, bright eyes, vfho wore a carious •ert of white cap on her head, and a dress of some gray stuff, over which was tied a white apron. She seemed to be a nurse, •OT a servant of some sort, and it was Arthur's impression that his aunt was ill. , "Have you come to call me?" he ashed. The woman came a little nearer. "Yes," replied a voice, which male his Wood run cold; "that woman is dying!" "My aunt?" ejaculated Arthur. "Your aunt," replied the figure. "If some one doesn't set to work at once she'll die without being hung. I want her kpg!" 1 'This is a lunatic," thought Arthurs He started to his feet, draping himself in • blanket, ready to do what seemed best voder the circumstances, but the woman was gone. He went to the door. It was fastened as be had left it on retiring. The windows were bolted down. There was no possi­ bility of any one entering the room. Searching it thoroughly, he made sure that ae one was hidden there, resolved that he bed had 3 bad dream, and composed him, •elf to sleep again,wondering why imagina­ tion Bhould play such freaks upon him. However, this dream, if dream it were, was repeated three times. Each time the Strange, dark woman repeated her desire to see Maud Heywood hung, and declared that if it were not done it would soon be too late. HM aunt was not a woman to whom to npeat snoh a dream, even had she been in strong health. There was no one else to speak to. But the thing seemed so euri Arthur made a record of it in a diary he was in tbe habit of keepi lowing it by some reflections upon - At last, however,"he was awake by a ghost, but by a rap on his do aunt was dying--a servant had c hfcai. When he reached her room Unsensible. She never spoke to hi He couid not mourn nor loss, for uS almost a stranger to him, but hd^n. every mark of respect possible K memory. The funeral was largelj 'tended, rather from curiosity thpv'any other feeling, for Miss Heywood had en­ tertained no one, and visited no one in the neighborhood; and in due course of time the will was read. It left everything to Arthur Heywood. only son of her deceased brother, Frank Heywood, and with but one {proviso. The garret should remain as it was, fastened bv bolt and lock and bar- never to be opened on anv pretext what­ ever. "I do not choose to say why," wrote the testator. "Unless my nephew will agree to * cannot inherit. I shall leave a & *51 codicil to be read, in case he refuse*, di- y.'" ff -• • Tecting the disposition to be made of mv .property." 3 V , , But Arthur hail no hesitation in agreeing ? "l J° this wbim of dead aunt, who, doul.t- A had coined to the garret some > treasures of her youth which she did not „ Wi-h to destroy. And he took possession "i, r- 'he estate, and soon married and brought ^ home a wife. s */' Years brought them a familv, and still |»e Karret re&ained closed. A garret is a Yi 4 great io s to a housekeeper; but whenever s=£ * firs. Heywood made this remark, her hus­ band would renly that "the estate would be * greater one." -.v$ "Who will ever know?" she would uree. • #Who cares?" * t "A c dicil which I have never seen re- t liains," Arthur would reply. "Who knows . ; . hat might happen?" " And so his Fatima did no more *h«n peep through the keyhole of this Blue- tlenrd's chamber. . The mystery was greater, however, to 4he children; and when the eldest boy was ten years old it had occurred to him that nothing could be so delightful as to peep Gambling1 in New York. The passion for gambling afflicts every grade of New York's populltion In the hotels the scullions below stairs, the porters who shoulder monstrour trunks and shine your boots, the wait ers in the dining hall, the newsboys at the stationery counter, the genial clerks in the office, the "artists" in the bar, and the hospitable proprietor himself bet indiscriminately and constantly on everything, from a steeple-chase to a race between snails. While betting is the commonest and most open form of gambling here, it must not be forgotten that every known device is employed to tempt the thousands who are tainted with the disease--for gambling has really become the most troublesome malady that afflicts the body social in the country's commercial capital. JA well-known journalist of the city said to me, while chatting in the private office at Wallack's Theater: "In New York gambling has practically killed most other forms of home amusements. Poker is the rage in private circles. Why, it is hardly credible, and yet I person­ ally know it to be true that for months past poker has absorbed up-town so­ ciety to the exclusion of all ordinary pleasures. It has come to the point that as soon as the cloth is removed after dinner, out come the cards and chips, and the long sessions begin. Big money is won and lost in aristocratic homes, where women, especially, play witli a reckless desperation surpassing belief. But then what are you going to do about it ? Everybody gambles here in one form or other, and the mad­ ness is spreading northward with every new moon. It is a mildew that is last rotting away the foundation of society. There is only one remedy for it; let the women set their faces against it in private homes--make it unfashionable J i l t o > 2' e y K,ves notice tha t l>,-/il£ •J i ' l a p p e a r b e f o r e t h e c o u n y cour t of I I 9 ̂ the co'«rt house in Woo Jfew h' £e De,'c"»ber term on tbe thiki<y Monday in Pecember next, at which time a Persons havug claims against said tstat' •tre notified and requested to attend for tl purpose oi having the same adjusted An t persons mdebted to said estate are requested ^ signed* ,m UU3 *Mlyment K» ">e umleridom Dated, 4th day of October, A D. 1886. » * • " i £; • - -* : ic THE STARS AND STRIPES. Military Men at Hotels. We have a good many military -men among our transient guests who regis­ ter with military titles biefore their names, such as "CoL John Smith," and other guests frequently ridicule the practice when they see the names so signed. A general idea seems to pro- vail that any man who puts "Col." be­ fore his name is either vain or foolish, and most people at once conclude that one who writes his name that way is an "Arkansas colonel" who never saw a battle in his life, and never even be­ longed to a regiment. Officers fre­ quently write "U.r 8. A." after their names, but nobody finds fault with that. It is a great convenience, for there are several army men who come regularly and look over the register for brother officers, and when they find them they at once take it upon them­ selves to show them all possible atten­ tion. But "U. S. A." might properly be written after the name of a private, and that seems to be insufficient also. The best to sign would probably be the official style: "John Smith, CoL U. S. A."--Hotel Clerk in Globe-DemocraL A COUNTRY PLUMBER takes half a column of his local newspaper to ad­ vertise "Cast lion Sinks." Whoever said it didn't? Potato of Interest R«twdlng the American Slay. In respone to a communication of in­ quiry we give the following, compiled from the most arthoritative and relia­ ble souroes: In the beginning of the Revolution a variety of flags were dis­ played in the revolted colonies. After the battle of Lexington the Connecticut troops displayed on their standards the arms of the colony with the motto: Qui tranaiulit sustinet; and later, by the act of the Provincial Congress, the regiments were distinguished by the va­ rious colors of their flags. It is uncer­ tain what flag, if any, was used by the Americans at the battle of Bunker Hill. The first armed vessels commissioned by Washington sailed under the flag adopted by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts as the one to be borne on the flag of the cruisers of that colony-- "a white flag -with a green pine tree." The first republican flag unfurled in the Southern States--blue, with a white crescent in the upper corner next to the staff--was designed by Col. William Moultrie, of Charleston, S. C., at the request of the Committee of Safety,and was hoisted on the fortifications of that city in September, 1775. The official organ of the "grand Union" flag is involved in obscurity. At the time of its adoption at Cam­ bridge the colonies still acknowledged the legal rights of the mother country, and therefore retained the blended crosses of St. George and St. Andrews, changing only the field of the old en­ sign for the thirteen stripes emblem­ atic of their union. The color of the stripes may have been suggested by the red flag of the army, and the white flag of the navy, previously in use. Congress resolved, on June 14, 1777,"that the flagof the thirteen United States be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new constellation." This is the first recorded legislative ac­ tion for the adoption of a national flag. The thirteen stars were arranged in a circle, although no form was prescribed officially. The flag thus adopted re­ mained unchanged until 1794, when, on motion of Senator Bradley, of New York, it was resolved that from and after May 1, 1795, , "the flag., of the United States be fifteen stripes, alter­ nate red and white, that the union be fifteen stars, white in a blue field." This was the flag used in the war of 1812-14. This act made no provisions for future alterations, and none were made until 1818, although several new States had meanwhile been admitted into the Union. In 1816, on the admission of Indiana, a committee was appointed "to inquire into the expediency of altering the A bill was reported on January 2, 1818, but was not acted on, which embodied the suggestions of Capt. Sam­ uel C. Reid, a distinguished naval offi­ cer, who recommended the reduction of the stripes to the original thirteen, and the adoption of stars eqnal to the number of States, formed into one large star, and a new star to be added on the Fourth of July next succeeding the admission of each new State. On April 4, 1818, a bill em­ bodying these suggestions, with the ex­ ception of that designating the manner of arranging the stars, was approved by the President, and on the 13th of the same month the flag thus estab­ lished was hoisted over the of ^Representatives at Washington, al­ though its legal existence did not be­ gin nntil tbe following Fourth of July. In 1859, when Congress passed a vote of thanks to Capt. Reid, the de­ signer of the flag, it was suggested that the mode of arrangement of the stars should be prescribed by law, but the matter was overlooked. The stars in the unions of flags used in the War De­ partment of the Government are gen­ erally arranged in one large star; in the navy flags they are invariably set in parallel lines. The blue union of stars, when used separately, is called the union jack. The United States revenue flag, adopted in 1799, consists of sixteen , perpendicular stripes, alternately red and white, the union white, with the national arms in dark blue. The union used separately constitutes the revenue jack. The American yacht flag is like the national flag, with the exception of the union, which is a white foul anchor in a circle of thirteen stars, in a blue fieldo---Pir- ginia (Nev.) Enterprise. and wield with unpracticed hand an in­ strument which is able to overthrow dynasties, change religion and decree |be weal or woe of nations.--Mark Twain. Skipper Tom's Snappers, , Cftpt. Tom Kelly, now dead, TOUT one of the pioneers in the Rio trade and a man full of Irish wit, says the Balti­ more Herald. The last boat he com­ manded was the brig Lapwing. The captains of other vessels used to call her Tom Kelley's wooden shoe. Capt. Kelly got into a little difficulty with the custom-house officials in Rio at one time. He was hauled up for trig) accused as a Frenchman for violating the customs rules of Brazil. "A French­ man, did ye soy?" said Capt. Kellev. "Be jabers, did ye iver see a French­ man with as big a foot as that?" and he held up his big feet. The court of in­ quiry laughed and let Capt. Tom go. Capt. Tom was annoyed, as the other old pioneers were, by the Rio custom­ house officers, who in the old days per­ sisted in even searching a man's pocket when lie landed there. While the Captain was loading in Baltimore for Rio one day a colored man with two snapping turtles about a third grown boarded his brig and of­ fered the turtles for sale. "Phat ye want for 'em!" asked the captain. "Quarter-dollar apiece." "How long will they live?" "Live till dey die, boss, 'en sometimes longer. Doan want ter feed 'em, nuther." "I'll take 'em." says the captain. He put the snappers in a box and placed them in jthe cabin. He nursed them carefully and watched them closely until he got back to Rio. When he got there he put on his over­ coat, although it was warm, and put a snapper in each pocket. He landed at the Palais steps and started up to the custom house. An officer got on each side of him, bowing and saying "Bono capitono, bono Americano," and each one thrust a hand in Capt. Kelley's overcoat pocket. The snappers grabbed a finger of each of the hands and the air was blue with Brazilian oaths, but the turtles wouldn't let go. The officials begged the cap­ tain to stop and release, them, but he pretended not to know what was the matter, and, telling them that he was in a hurry, dragged them along to the custom house. When he got there the men's hands were taken from his pockets with a snapper clinging to each, and the turtles' heads had to be cut off be­ fore they would release their hold. The chief of the custom house was angry, and was about to reprimand Capt. Kelly when he told him that he had brought the turtles as a present to him, and he had no idea that his subordinates would attempt to rob him on the way. Capt. Kelley's pockets were never searched after that. 1/ ti THOUGH men's persons ought not to be hated, yet without all peradventure their practices justly m*j.--South* - Plenty of Room at the Top, Literature, like the ministry, medi­ cine. the law, and all other occupations, is cramped and hindered for want of men to do the work, not want of work to do. When people tell you the re­ verse they speak that which is not true. If you desire to test this you need only to hunt up a first-class editor, reporter, business manager, foreman of a shop, mechanic or artist in any branch of in­ dustry and try to hire him. You will find that he is already hired. He is sober, industrious, capable and reliable and is always in demand. He cannot get a day's holiday except by courtesv of his employer, or of his city, or of the great general public. But if you need idlers, shirkers, half-instructed, unam­ bitious, and comfort-seeking editors, re­ porters, lawyers, doctors, and mechanics apply anywhere. There are millions of them to be had at the dropping of a handkerchief. The young literary aspirant is a very curious creature. He knows that if he wished to become a tinner the master smith would require him to prove the possession of a good character and would require him to promise to stay in the shop three years--possibly four --and would make him sweep out and bring water and build fires all the first year, and let him learn to black stoves in the intervals. If he wanted to be­ come a mechanic of any other kind, he would have to undergo this same tedious, ill-paid apprenticeship. If he wanted to become a lawyer or a doctor, he would have fifty times worse, for he would get nothing at all during his long apprenticeship, and in addition would have to pay a large sum for tuition and have the privilege of board­ ing and clothing himself. The literary aspirant knows all this, and yet he has the hardihood to present himself for reception into the literary guild and ask to share its high honors and emolu­ ments without a single twelve months' apprenticeship to show in excuse lor his presumption. He would smile pleasantly if he were asked even to make so simple a thing as a ten-cent tin dipper without previous instruction in the art; but, all green and ignorant, wordy, pompously assert­ ive, ungrammaticai, and with a vague, distorted knowledge of men and the world, acquired in a back country vil­ lage, he will serenely take up so dan­ gerous a weapon as a pen and attack the most formidable subject that finance, commerce, war, or politics furnish him withal. It would be laughable if it were not no bad and so pitiable. The poor fellow would not The Other Strawberry. An officer who was patrolling Mullett street saw a crowd of people at a cor­ ner, and he hastened his steps to dis­ cover a man sitting on the ground with his back to a tree, while a score of wo­ men and boys surrounded him. When the officer made inquiries as to what had happened, a short, stout woman with her sleeves rolled up confronted him and replied: "He's my husband. He's a good-for- nothing lazy-bones of a man, and we're had a row.w "What about?" "Well, I've had to support him by washing for the last year, and he's been humble enough up to a week ago. Then he took fifty cents of my monoy and went to a fortune-teller. She told him that I would die very soon, and that he would marry a strawberry blonde with $50,000 in cash." "Seventy-five thousand dollars, my dear," sighed the man on the grass. "You shut up! He came home step­ ping high and feeling smart, aud half an hour ago he had the cheek to tell me that I stood in his road. In fact, he wanted to know when I was going to die!" "I merely inquired," groaned the hus­ band. "And I merely left my suds and jumped into him," she continued. "It was a pretty even thing in the house, but when I got out where I could swing my right I gijve him a couple below the belt and tied him up. Strawberry blonde -- $75,000 -- second marriage-- humph! I'm his strawberry! When I get through with him I'll make that fortune-teller see strawberries for the rest of her born days!" "Well, be gentle," cautioned the offi­ cer, as he passed on. "Oh! I won't hurt nobody nor noth­ ing," she replied; and as the officer passed on she lifted the man to his feet and banged him iip the steps and into the house in a double-entry style of book-keeping that rattled the shingles. --Detroit Free Press. An Unsuccessful Failure. The habit of failing with full pockets got something in the nature of a back­ set not long since in a small Texas town. He sold out the stock for cash, put the money in his pocket, and settled down to have a nice quiet time of it. His principal creditor, a Houston mer­ chant, having arrived in the town, called on the bankrupt. He was a well-dressed gentleman, but there was a gritty sort of a look about him. "You say there are no assets?" he remarked. "Nairy durned asset." "I think there should be some assets, and that I should be a , preferred creditor." "There are no assets and all my creditors are deferred creditors. The only asset that I've got for my creditors is a Waterbury watch, and it will take six months to wind it up. You can have it if you want it." "I want no humbug about this. Where is the money you got from the Sale of the groceries?" " "It's right here in my pocket," said the bankrupt. "Well, you are a cool one." "I've got the money right here, and I'm going to keep it," replied the bank­ rupt, tapping his pocket. • "Got it in j'our pocket?" "Yes, in greenbacks." The creditor placed his hand in his own pocket, and looking steadily at the bankrupt, said: "I've got my pistol in my pocket--don't you move--and it never fails. If you don't give me the contents of your pocket I'll give you the contents of mine." And before tbe astonished bankrupt could reply he was looking down the muzzle of a pistol that seemed to be as big as a flour barrel. The Houston man got his money. The unfortunate bankrupt says tliat his failure was the most com­ plete failure on record, and he feels as sore as a .man who has pounded his finger with a tack hammer.--Texas Siftings. . The Settiag-Up Drill. After having seen the surgeon, and a few men had been excused for sore toes, lame backs, and strained wrists, the squad was brought oat ou the open field. "By the numbers, setting up!" The twenty men are arranged six feet apart. They are standing like so many objects of wood, and when they move it is the movement of parts of a machine. All eyes are staring in an expressionless way. The captain sur­ veys his squad with big, round eyes, while he languidly scratches the sand in front of him with a stick. "First exercise!" At the syllable "ex" there is A rustling of coats, the twenty pieces of wood guided by unseen strings, mechanically bring their twenty wooden arms to a line with their chins, when all motion ceases with the suddeness of a snap! Thus they stand, both arms out­ stretched in an attitude of supplication. Twenty pairs of eyes gaze in an ex­ pressionless way out into space. Captain's big, round eyes stare, and his stick scratches in the sand. "Grimes, hold up that head!" "Bailey, higher with those hands!" "Smalley, your chin, do you hear, your chin!" "Parker, stand steady, there!" Poor Parker is unfortunate enough to be standing on a mole's hill. It is slowly sinking beneath his weight, and though Parker is being slowly buried, he dare not move. He tries in vain to obey and "stand ̂ steadythe hill disr appears and the man topples over, his hands extended. "Parker, didn't you hear what I told you ? You're a disgrace to the service, sir, and you'll go to the guard-house before breakfast!" Big round eyes flash and stare all the harder, and stick scratches more nerv­ ously in. the sand. "Now, then, squad, two!" The word "two!" at onee reinspires the twenty pieces of wood; the hidden strings change in a twinkling the atti­ tude of supplication; each man is now in a new position, scratching the crown of his hat from both Bides of his head at once. Expressionless eyes gaze into space once more; Mr. Captain's» stare and Mr. Captain's stick are restless Again. "Three!" Again the hidden strings on the pieces of wood; arms are extended up­ ward high in the air, as for a big yawn; down they come to their sides with a loud noise; all with suddenness and snap! "Men, you are all asleep this morn­ ing, do wake up now! Let's have this exercise all over again!" "One!"-- there is the supplication; "Two!"-- over bends the squad, like a jack-knife shutting up; down, down; legs stiff and men patting the sand at their feet; 'I'hree!"--knife opens; arms strike browsers with a snap! There stand the pieces ofwood again, and again expressionless eyes stare as before. The scratching of the stick. "Continue the motion, second exer­ cise !" Up with the hands; sweep down; pat the sand and give the slap at the sides; once! twice!--faces red and expressionless eyes staring and ghastly; collars rising up to ears and caps fall­ ing off; never mund!--keep unseen strings moving'til-- ' "Squad, halt!" The twenty pieces) ^• Wood beCtime motionless. Stick digs in the sand. "Never mind that hat there!" "l>on't move that hand!" "Stand steady, therot" "What do you moan on the left!" And thus the drill goes on; the twenty pieces of wood are moved by the unseen strings as the stick, and big, round eyes will; bowing, scraping, bending backwards; twisting arms from sockets, eyes out of heads; stamp­ ing the earth, facing right, left, and about; exercise after exercise, over and over again, till, finally, the stick scratches more energetically than ever in the sand, and the big, round eyes stare somewhat sterner. "Men, you'll all have to do bet­ ter than this; some of you act like raw recruits instead of men long in the service. Expect it real hot to-morrow. Resume your positions now; "Sergeant, dismiss this squad!" And so ended the drill.--Detroit Free Tress. The Origin of Our Continent. It is believed by some scientific men that North America began its formation with islands of matter rising out of the ocean, which grew until they touched each other. Many of these islands were volcanoes that threw up matter that had. formed below the surface of the water, and were larger below the water than above it. The Hawaiian Islands have had many volcanoes, and were much formed by them. The whole arena above the sea is no more than that of the State of Massachusetts, but their combined bases must be equal to the whole of New England and New York. Thus the original islands of this continent could easily have been made to enlarge and join each other, and the granite rock so abundant was once erupted from volcanoes, like flowing lava. Among the first volcanic islands must have been Greenland, Canada, east of Winnipeg, thp Atlantic district, the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevadas; but as the islands rose and enlarged great depressions would naturally commence to go on, arid in this way the depressions of Hudson's Bay, the Mississippi Valley, and the Salt Lake and Nevada basins were formed. These depressions will fill with massive sediments, which would eventually become rocks, and the de­ pressions would have a saucer or platter shape. • • Don't Blind the Babies. Has it ever occurred to those who purchase coaches for their babies, and who make it a a point to select the brightest colors they can find for the screen that is interposed between the eyes of tlje child and the sun, that they are liable to do irreparable injury to the vision of the little one ? An iufant gen­ erally lies on its back, its eyes, of course, upturned toward the bright covering above it, its gaze being the more intense the brighter the covering and the more direct the rays of the sun upon it. Nothing but injury can re­ sult from such thoughtless exposure. An experienced nurse says there can­ not be a doubt as to the injurious effects of those bright so-called shields upon the tender eyes Of children. Pa­ rents who are wise will select the darker and denser shades, even though they may not be as handsome or showy in their eyes as some of those which are more fashionable.--Boston Cultivator. IN marrying, men should seek happy, cheerful women. The sweetpst' and the loveliest wives are those who possess intrude upon the tin-shop without an j the magic secret of being happy tinder apprenticeslup, but is willing to seize l any and every circumstance. ' A Kfcit Among the Lions. Dark as the night was, all were busy around the little encampment, if I ex­ cept the dogs, who seemed to be pos­ sessed of such timidity that neither words nor blows could drive them out from the shelter they had taken be­ tween the wheels. . For some minute^ all had become quiet, and I commenced to hope that it had been a false alaj.in, when a roar so loud and close as to awake the echoes of the surrounding koppies broke the monotonous stillness of the night. Such a roar I have never heard previously or since; let him that likes say what he may, it made the earth tremble. To the reader it may appear impossible that any animal can produce a volume of sound that almost rivals the thunder in its density; but let me assure him, if he lias heard a mature lion, in the full vigor of his life; give utterance to his wrath, he will ajgree with me that there are a sub­ limity and grandeur in the voice, which, if they do not equal the depth and power of thunder, very nearly ap­ proaches to it. If quiet had comparatively reigned before, now all was excitement. To and fro the bullocks rushed, trying to .break their rheims, the horses reared and pulled upon their halters as if de­ termined to strangle themselves, or upset, the wagon, while every native who was not armed seized a fire-brand and shouted and called to my animals to endeavor to still their fears. • So in­ tense was the darkness' that nothing could be seen, yet William fired a couple of shots in the direction from which he imagined the sound proceeded. The blaze and report of his heavy ele- Ehant gun, one would imagine, would ave driven off anything in the form of a quadruped; but not so; the lion roared again at even shorter distance than at first, causing the bullocks to become frantic with fear, and therefore to use their utmost power and strength to break loose. I thought I could trust the rheims, but alas! I was in error, for one more violent struggle than had previously been made took place, and they gave way, and the whole team went down to leeward as if they were stampeding be­ fore a forest fire. As the method (for it certainly is a preconcerted and ar­ ranged plan) adopted by lions when about to attack a span of cattle may not be known generally, I will briefly at­ tempt to describe it. Lions, as a rule, hunt in family parties. A very old male, not unfrequentlv incapacited from taking an active part in pursuing game, is generally to be found at the head of this coterie, and on him de­ volves no unimportant part of the pro­ gram adopted by them when a trader's or traveler's cattle are resolved upon as the victims of their ferocity and power. --Popular Science MontiUty. "Martha." , Not all the domestics in Portland, Oregon, are Chinamen. Mrs. Scott, of that city, rejoices in the assistance of an excellent Scotch girl by the name of Martha--an ancient and pious female. Martha is a zealous theologian and an ardent exhorter. Her religion, more­ over, is of the practical kind that shines all the brighter under the rub of every­ day temptations. She is honest, truth­ ful, industrious, and obliging, but that she is not always coherent the following anecdotes show: A few days ago as Mrs. Scott was screwing the cover on the last of a long row of patent, self-sealing, indestructi­ ble fruit jars, she remarked, with a sigh of relief: "Well, that's the last of the strawberries, I'm thankful to say." "Then it will be raspberries or some­ thing else," replied Martha. "Still what a beautiful world we live in, and yet we are born to die and shapen in iniquity." f The next day Mrs. Scott said: "WeUj Martha, we'll have a chocolate pudding for dinner--the recipe I just got, voil know." " ? "Lord, ma'am," said Martha, "how many new things there are, and yet how soon we pass away into a never, never- ending eternity where our fate is Bealed for ever-'never, ever-'never!" But it is not always that Martha carries off the honors of controversy. On one occasion she was fairly floorecf by Aunt Phoobe, a good old colored woman of the Methodist persuasion. Aunt Phoebe had been giving an ex«. planation of the Methodist doctrine of falling from grace, to which Martha had listened with supercilious im*- patience, and which she at last inters rupted by saying: "If I believed, like you, that I could fall from grace forty times a year and get up again and noth­ ing said about it, I'd lie an' steal an' do everything I wanted to." "Lor' bless yer heart, honey," said Aunt Phoebe, in her soft, unctions tones, "ob course you would an' dat'sde reason why de good Lord made you a Presby­ terian."--Detroit Free Press. No BEPROOF or denunciation is so potent as the silent influence of a good example. ; TAKE a rest; a field thst'haa gives a bountiful crop. 1 •• Buddhism. Buddhism gives no explanation of the beginning of all things; its starting point is that the world and men exist, and that everything is subject to change. Everything moves toward either de­ struction or renovation. Nirvana-- "perfection or salvation"--is the state toward which the righteous tend; for the theist there is the absorption of the individual in God; for the atheist ab­ sorption in nothing. A human life is not a separate entity; it is a portion, so to speak, of the universal life. The life that sinneth it shall die, says Buddhism; it shall sink through lower and lower forms until it reaches anni­ hilation. The righteous life, rising ever upward, attains at length to Nir­ vana, and is reabsorbed in the Divine Essence. There is ever-increasing joy in ever-increasing wisdom, and after one life is ended there shall be another, even ascending the scale of holiness, stretching up to beatific and illimitable heights. This was transmigration not of souls--for Gautama held that there is no sacli thing as soul--but of life; each individual, according to the good or bad use he makes of his present life, becomes after death another individual of higher or lower character. And yet it is almost an error to say that Buddha taught absorption into God as the stage of existence beyond Nirvana; for it does not appear that Buddhism ac­ knowledges a God. Perfection can go no further; it is the vanishing point .of the human landscape.--The Quiver, A tiood Book-Keeper. Smith--Say, didn't you tell me that young Jones was a good book-keeper? Fogg--Why, yes, I believe I did. 'Smith--Well, he aint;he can't tell an inventory from a flexible roller. Fogg--All I know is, that I loaned him about half of my library and he has never retnrned them, so I supposed he was a good book-keeper. -r-Detro it Free Press. ' ' - "WHERE do you find the funny-bone?" asked a professor of anatomy. "In the humor-wrist," answered a student. at JNOHK 'JUHB WATJBK meloncholia is » alow death!*?! and a somewhat serious one; but al|! :V things considered, it is less objection* .. C able than green appleplexy. K' J IT is mid that the green turtle can live for six weeks without food. Thi^ " is nothing to talk about, however. Tha ~ mock tur t le never has to be fed .--- Lowell Citizen. .> i MRS. B--Do yon have any periodicals your house, Mrs. C? Mrs. C.--kV Gracious, no! C. knows enough to get , *] out of town when he wants lus periodi-' , £ cals.--Lowell Citizen. * THE text in Scripture that Bays; * '{'l "The poor ye have always with you,*. ^ - means that some people are not wealthy • enough to go away for the summer.--•'- * ^ New Orleans Picayune. TIDBITS tells the story of a conductor on a slow railroad who told one pas-V sepger that he had been on the roadt' 'V nine years. "Then," said the passenger, | "this must be your second trip." * "WHAT a bad complexion Mim| : Sloaper has." "Well, she ought to • have. She's all the time doctoring it. Actually, she puts sulpher on her face.* . "Sulphur! What's sulphur good for?* "Matches." --Life. £•? ^ "WILL you please give me a dime?* said a tramp. "I'm blind." "You cani • * , see out of one eye as wel l as I can, re- ' plied the gentleman importuned. "Yon are only half blind," "Then give mo- l'1 half a dime," said the tramp. ' CLARA (Bobby's big sister)--I heard • - mther calling you a little while ago* Bobby. Bobby--Did he say Robert ox1' J Bobby ? Clara--He said Robert. Bobby -? (with a serious look in his eye)--Thei* v s I guess I had better see what he wants. ' A LITTLE girl, visiting a neighbor with .' her mother, was gazing curiously afe the hostess's new bonnet, when tha owner queried: "Do you like it, Laura ?'f The innocent replied: "Why, mother said it was a perfect Aright; but it don't scare me!"--Exchange. A CERTAIN wayfarer upon senatorial sdil suddenly fell into a pit. Th® gentleman who owned the domain rushed to the rescue, when the follow* ing colloquy took place: Uncle Sam-- Evarts, are you dead? Evarta--No, not dead, but speechless.--Puck. "AH! the degeneration of literatewer these days!" remarked a Boston girl. "Yup. Thaqpo. Folks nowadays write poetry the same way they manufacture schooners and vessels down in Maine.'* "What do you mean by that?" "They build them by the mile, cut 'em off ii lengths to suit."--Lynn Union. Miss PASSAT--Mr. Smythe, do try some of those peaches. With my own hand I planted the tree that bore them. Mr. Smythe (just from abroad)--Is it that large tree on the lawn? Ah, me! How many happy childhood hours I passed reclining in its shade. (Great uproar. Miss Passay faints.)-- Rambler. "WHAT are you reading, my dear?" asked a motherly old lady of her daughter, who was swinging in a ham­ mock in the side yard one Sunday after­ noon. " 'St. Elmo', mother." "That's J right, my dear; read all you want to about the saints, but I never want you to open a novel on Sunday.--New York Times. "I am saving up all my money to get married," observed Miss Cutacaper. vivaciously. "Are you really, though ?" "Yes, and I have got enough to buy a ring and pay the minister already." "Perhaps you can get the minister to many you for fifty cents." suggested one of the company. "O, I mean to get married well, even if I have to pay sixty-two and a half cents!"--Lynn Union. ' THE UMPIRE AHEAD. There's a symmetry of motion . To my sympathetic notion * In the pitcher as bo curves the ball; There's an idyl, great in diction. Quite exciting as a Action, s ; • I n the batter when ho fliea the ^ And tlio pose of grace and beanv f " Of the catcher doingciuty, Is an epic quite exceeding all. », /> ' But for poetry of motion. To my unpretentious notion. There's nothins like tbe umpire's SIH. --jChicago Rambler. : ORTHOGRAPHICAL AND ORTHEOPIOAt. rJ here was a young man in Bordeau* Proposed to a girl who said neaux. Now all day she sighs, With tears in her eyas, ;< Repentant for serving him seMX. •; j A girl in a moment of pique Gave her love a slap on the ohiqin; Not a word did he say, But he left her that day, And didn't no back for a wiqua, A girl who had plenty of beaux, ' A flirt, as we well may auppeaox. Met a lover one night, Who kissed her on sight, And kissed her right square on the --Boston Courier. How He Was Killed. A number of years ago a Dakota settler who had recently come frojg Missouri went in a hastily formed com-' pany to help repel a Sioux outbreak. After a few weeks a neighbor who had also gone returned and informed the man's wife that her husband was dead. "Was he killed during a fight with the Indians?" asked the woman. "There was a little skirmish going on, that was all." "Yes?" "We had retreated to one side of a ravine and the Indians were on the other. He ventured down into the open space and was killed." "Do you mean to tell me that John crawled out of good cover right down where the Indians could see hVm ?» "Yes, ma'nie." -- . "I can't believe it, sir. He knew more about Indian fighting than that* I don't believe he would risk his own life that way even if he knew, he could kill an Indian." "Oh, he didn't creep otit to kill In­ dians. " "What was it, then?" MWhy, when we retreated somebody dropped a bottle of whisky in tha bottom of the ravine, and he went back to get it before the Indians did." "How large was the bottle ?" "It was a quart bottle of good, old whisky, and he got most of it drank before the Indians succeeded in hitting him." "Well, I believe you now--John was- an excellent judge of whisky, would make almost any sacrifice to get it."--Estelline Bell. He Had an Eje to Business. One more anecdote of a funeral char­ acter. "Cim any of you tell me why Gottfried Muller is not at school?" said teacher to her scholars a few weeks ago. Up went a little hand like a jump­ ing jack. "Well?" was the interroga­ tive response. "Please, ma'am," an­ swered a little boy, with a rapidity that almost took away his breath, "his father's dead and Uncle Pete's got the job." It is not perhaps neoessary to say that the relative referred to was a rising young undertaker. That boy ought to be successful as a He hits any eye to business. -- Boston Budget, ' SPEAK little, speak troth ; spend pay cash. I* ^ ̂