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Edilsr and PuWilfcSr. VAN SLYKE, kcHENRY, ILLINOIS tOOK AHKAIK JTT FBANCIS A. BIIRM. South of bright eye ami amocth «Uti Mow, > happy and exultant, now. 2 , * Viewing the brilliant nky above, *hv bosom full of faith «n«l love-- ^ ve on, hope on. but stilt reflect, > . 1 e stanehest. ship is sometimes wrecked. CIOUCIM will obscure toe bright eat sky, « Jancies moat prized, iak» wing* and flfw** < • Weep not tbe past, for that is dead-- r: 2nd for the future have DO ureed-- "TT~""p* But look ahead' -i.'j pR*"ift' ; jfan of mature year#, full of car*-. With t hreads of Hilver in thy getting thyself o'er chancea Idfct Thy life-bark sadly tempest-tost-- Deem not that you have lived In vain, Ihe chances lost will com*; again. ^ vp! up! and -work t be not cast down--'•'"i -• Sjhe somber clouds that ou tbee frown v jlay, ere another day has fled. Disperse, «ui i sunshine baulah dread- So look ahead! Decrepit pilgrim, nearly home, Spar not. the change that soou mnst ooffi* •< Jill living walk toward the grave--... ; Let tbv thoughts dwoil on things above And rest, content, for "l«*i is Love." ®tien youth, strong man. or pilgrim gray, Remember, while ye toil to-day, <l]he,,iSkjrth at last must be thy lied. • , •trive not for dross--'tis best instead To look ahead." '--New York Weekly. • - /' • < CALISTEO'S CRIME. * ^ FOKKST (KISSKX. . m, .trx' I"? yv1 ^ t? ! r » " *f i The death of the last and dearest of • i;#krthly kin left me with little heart for the normal pursuits of life, together With a fortune ample for the gratifica­ tion of every whim which might, in the founds of nature, occur to one wbo had : lived the life of a student and recluse. The particular hour which witnessed the last legal formality conveying to me the unwelcome fortune, found me in the dingy court-house of a certain ottunty seat dear Chicago. That so dull a town should have been Able to exist within seventy miie9 of the great pushing metropolis, I was scarcely able to believe. You may be certain that I took the first train out of the little back town capital, although I would scarcely be able to reach my 2tptel, in the city, before midnight. : There was just enough suggestion of domestic comfort in the dimly-lighted car and relaxed attitudesIbf its inmates to warm me into a desire for contact with the emotional and human, the home-like and the cheerful side of life; and this feeling was intensified by the reflection that I no longer had a direct ^fr'aim to those qualities in any human raneast. I settled back in my seat, drew my traveling cap over my eyes and essayed to sleep. But to no avail! My thoughts ran on, and on, and on. From musing on my own strange fortune, I fell to •aguerizing upon the probable, and them upon the possible fortunes of those who lounged in the seats about me. What was I to do with this great for- tone', a mere fraction of which had heretofore sufficed to keep my temper­ ate wants supplied ? And why should a lonely and weary man--now unloved nd unloving--demand more of phys­ ical comforts than had the abstemious •tudent? What would that man or that woman do, if my legacy were his •or hers ? Perhaps each had some cry­ ing need. The thought, strangely ^enough, startled me; the words "crying need" rasg in my ears; and the engine screeched them'at every stop and cross­ ing. This queer, fanciful mood was wholly new to ma I did not under­ stand it; and I more than half feared that I was physically, if not indeed, mentally ill. "Crying need?" Who lis iu distress--sucu great dis- trees that they cry out, wild, and loud, *nd piteously ? ' It grew upon me: This awful thought of, somewhere in the universe, a great despairing im­ portunity. And will you hear that cry? Will you search it out, and deliver the despairing one, although it should go quivering up in the black- jBBes of midnight? At first I tried to dismiss such inward questionings as foolish and intangible. But no; not until I had made candid, affirmative ' answer, without mental reservations, did I find anything like relaxation from the nnexplainable tension into which I had been drawn. forest than in the bowels of that blaci 1 tenement, block, at that hour of the night So t sped on, as softly as pos­ sible, until I reached the first police station, where X called aside the Cap­ tain, a surprisingly intelligent officer, and gave him every detail of the affair --•which, indeed, was nothing more than a history of my own emotion on hearing the importunate accents of that awful word " H-e-l-p." After satisfying himself that I was not acting under the influence of any stim­ ulant or intoxicant, he quietly detailed subordinates to watch the premises un­ til they should be relieved in the morning. With the aid of a mild opiate, I rt«sed a restful night. Breakfast over, hastened to the police station, and there learned that it had been decided to raid the building. I urgfed the folly of this and easily persuaded Captain B to detail a subordinate, compe­ tent to watch the premises. Accord­ ingly, Patrick Mulhooly was dispatched to that portion of the city. I detailed myself to watch the said Mulhooly, and was satisfied of his excellent qualifica­ tions for a place on the police force when I saw his brass buttons disappear into a saloon, in the block next nearer the station than the one which he was sent to watbh. * I hurried to my room and began to lay plans. As a basis, I had only that one word: "Help!"--uttered in the black­ ness of midnight, from a certain tene­ ment in the heart of the "Black Hole" of Chicago. It took me but a moment to decide that 1 must first gain a knowledge of who inhabited tbe tenement. An in­ quiry gained me, from my host, the information that tbe tene­ ment was owned by a certain wealthy Italian, who had", at the time of the great fire, been a common Btreet fruit vender, but who had become one of the largest wholesale dealers in fruits on South Water street. I lost no time in presenting myself at the distinguished Da­ go's office and informed him that I contemplated purchasing tenement property. He was extremely cordial, and seemed desirous of selling the particular bioc^ wherein centers our tale. He would, he said, instruct his attorney to call at my hotel for me, that afternoon, show me the property and rent roll, and negotiate a sale. His attorney called, and proved thor­ oughly familiar with the property and the rent roll, inasmuch as he had the rents to collect each month. He ex­ plained that the rents were not hard to collect; that most of the tenants were Italians, and that Italians always had money to pay cheap rent with, and never demanded improvements. He was especially profuse in his praises of a cer­ tain Calisteo, who occupied one entire "end" of the basement floor,--Calisteo's virtues being that he always called at the attorney's office, promptly on the first day of each month, and paid his rent; moreover, be had never asked for the expenditure of a cent in improve­ ments, and maintained strict peace with his fellows. In the eyes of this collect­ or of rents, Mr. Calisteo evidently came but little short of being included in the catalogue of Worshipful Saints. . An examination of the building revealed the probable reason why the owner de­ sired to selL It was not that it did not pay, cash in hand, a large interest upon the investment; but that Mr. Calisteo's indifference to repairs had been made to apply to the whole block, which had deteriorated into a veritable rat-hole, which could scarcely hold its rotten timbers together for another twelve- months, at best. It was not, however, j the miserable trap, but its dark skinny I inhabitants, (who resemble those evil- eyed vermin more closely, if possible, that the building resembled the tradi- | tional rat-hole), which claimed my closest scrutiny. I felt particularly : anxious to see the virtuous Calisteo. He j opened his door just far enough to pro- , trude his greasy black head and volun- I teered the information that his rent was ! paid aud that be was in need of no re­ pairs or internal improvements. He spoke in Italian, doubtless presuming me unacquainted with "that tongue. In response the attorney inquired after the new baby, at which Calisteo grinned in a simple way and replied that the baby was all right. Turning to me, the attorney explained that Calisteo and wife had just been blessed with a late reinforcement to their already nu­ merous line of dusky heirs. I suggested that we would better not • r- • V. ! 1 other. Speaking in Italian I {aid: "Auw, Mr. Ualis»«so, you drop that knife to the floor or I will drop you; and you two traitors, if you stir or peep I'll drop you." The knife was dropped, and Calisteo further obeyed me by kicking it across the floor where I could place my foot upon it. The two' cowardly dogs were completely under my cQu-. trol, securely bound their friend Calin teo, hand and foot, as directed, not neglecting to effectually gag him. Then, under cover of my revolver#, they took their crow-bars arid raised the big stone. The odor of chloroform tilled the room. All was still. I looted down into the mouldy cistern, aud there, in a state of semi-consciousness was a beautiful girl. The dogs lifted her out. One of them took her in his arms and carried her into the street, followed by the other, who dragged the ignominious Calisteo. i The police patrol wagon was qnjckly summoned, and hurried Calisteo to the remote station, and the girl to a hos­ pital. The remainder of mystory is short. When consoiousness returned to the young woman it was seen that her rea­ son had been temporarily deranged by the fearful strain which had been laid upon it I procured the best medical skill in the country, and, when she was sufficiently restored, provided her with the pleasures of travel and the superior T -mihi • ii Wl,a' did it mean ? M wum uetrcr nut I could not tell-yet I was quite certain awaken the latest, who, from the silence tha. aad a meaning, which time would i which vu nmaiimui •/-» i>a make clear. The train suffered various ^v; delays and by the time we had reached the city, it was well into those morning h6urs just beyond midnight, which are darker and stiller tban the central hour »itself. My forbidding moed had been which reigned, was presumed to be sleeping,--thereby avoiding drawing down upon ourselves the anger of the Signora. On returning , to my hotel the purchase of the property was quickly consummated. Tbe next morning I softened and dispersed, somewhat, by j repaired to a distant part of the city, derived a sense of w £ ; * I aUo pe°?5ed b* Itali»n»' and. employed i8 wi® °fiCll?r from ^uttoninS I a carpenter and a mason, taking them gn5V a7 thr°.at a?d ! wifch ™ tenement I told them , . n 3 . ° Je i that I wanted them to make a thorough S £ L l £ w a l i t t I e e x a m i n a t i o n o f t h e b u i l d i n g , * Of my journey lay through an ill-1 - 8 Klv mi favored and ill-favored strength of low ! tenements. Like many another con-1 Bervative nigh t- pi! c rim, journeying through an unlighted portion of a great v«ty, I took tl:e middle of the street P®d plodded forward with a quick and «ven pace. I knew every step of the way.--and knew the ill-report of it, too; hut notwithstanding that, and also the fact that the darkness was so nearly Q total that I could scarcelv distinguish the outlines of the frame tenements on "either hand, I was not so depressed nor ,~;:do painfully excited as when in the lighted train. So cheerful had my ; fiioughts become that I did not notice ||hat I was passing the largest of the tenement blocks, where crime and Squalor huddled closest together. But now I remember it distinctly. My feet had fallen into step with the lines of a quint old love aong which was humming itself in my head, for the first time in ,,jialf ^ajcore °f years. It ran something r ' "• "For I will marry my own love, "Jly own lov^ My own love! * "K'*r 1 will marry rfty own love; Qfc" ' Tor true of hearts is ---" t p My foot was descending on the time ^ * pi the final word "she" when the dark- ' J »ess and silence was pierced with aery, S".. k '% woman's cry--that went quavering • • \'<ip through the darkness like a light- { * Jlin8 flash. It seemed to me that I could .V * w* tee that cry. But the sileuoe and the ?•" darkness which closed in about 'that f* < piteous shriek seemed more terrible, if A*. " possible, tliaii its most penetrating ac- , i> Cents. When my senses were suffi- 'riL ' «iently returned to permit me to realize r t Where I was standing, the first thought -which came to me was my sacred obli-' t" ation, pledged to the self-within-my-«lf, to trace that cry from its last and ;• faintest vibration, to the agonized, and ;.perhaps now cold heart, which gave it l)irth. Second thought brought the realization that it would be less desper­ ate and idle to seek for the solution of (this horrid mystery in the wilds of a jangle, or the depths of an African treatment abroad. How great had been the terrors which had caused the temporary over­ throw of reason may be understood from the facts brought out in the con­ fession of the brutal Calisteo. He made a clean breast of it, in order to mitigate his punishment. In early life, in Italy, he had been associated with a band of brigands. Opportune discretion had en­ abled him to escape pursuit of officers, and land in this country. But old instincts and memories of large rewards were upon him. He found that the young girl, who visited the tenement in woi^cs of charity and mercy, was the only child of a wealthy capitalist. He lured her into his apartments, and there captured her, with the intention of securing a reward for her deliverance. But her loss completely prostrated the father, who died after a brief illness of brain fever. He determined to release her, on hpr solemn oath never to reveal him, undei the pains of being hunted and mur­ dered by alleged accomplices. He chose the very hour of my passing to inform her of his decision. But as he raised the great stone, she gave the piercing scream for help which had reached my ears. The stone was dropped over her again and a sponge, saturated with chloroform, forced into her living grave. The remainder of my story vou know; for I hardly need to tell you that the beautiful, gentle young woman who surrounded my life with more than a lover's devotion is she whose voice I heard; yes, hea*°d across all the milds of desolate prairie and above the ramble of the train that eventful night. The Judge and the Confidence Opera­ tor. »- Chief Justice Beasley, of New Jersey: wbo prides himself on the novel charac-: ter of his dress and appearance, while on a visit to this city the other day was,: during the later honrs of the afternoon, standing on the steps of an uptown ho-1 tel, when "be was accosted by a perfect stranger, whom he at once sized up as a confidence operator. * ' "It has be9U a long time since we met," said the newcomer, in an aSable manner. "Yes," said the Chief Justice,imus­ ingly, "quite a long time." , 1 "Are you enjoying yourself as uaual?" asked the man, evidently feeling for an opportunity to run in his little game. "Yes, as usual," answered the Chief Justice with a sunny smile. "Still in the same old business, eh#? "Yes, still in the same old business." "What business is it? It's been so long since I've seen yon that I declare I've quite forgotten." The Chief Jus­ tice's eyes sparkled merrily as he re­ plied, with an assumption of ipnocence which would have done credit to a tirat- class actor: " "Sending rogues to jail." The confidence man stared at him and then suddenly shot down the street while the Chief J ustice looked after him with all the innocence affd benevolence of a Jersey farmer totally ignorant of city wiles and delusions.--New York, Star. - - , • - 4 Wonderful Process. In a little five-room log hut Ja the mountains of.. West Virginia near Philippi, lives a man who has a process for embalming the dead that outrivals the ancient Egyptians'. He is H. W. Haunick. His hut is filled with em­ balmed bodies of htiman beings and animals without-number. In the veins and arteries of the human bodies the blue and black blood stands out as clear and natural as when these people lived and walked and knew the passions and emotions of beings. The finger and toe nails show the pink flesh of life, and on the cheek of one who died of con­ sumption the scarlet mark of that dis­ ease remained clear and distinct. For two years exposed to the air without decay or odor, these bodies have lain in this man's house, just above his bed­ room. His process is a discovery of his own. but it is so simple, he says, that a boy of 15 after a single lesson can do the work as effectually as the inventor him­ self. He can stop decay at any point and cures ulcers of long stanking by an external application of this discovery. By the same process he keeps fresh, without ice, salt, or brine, all his mept, butter and eggs, and does the same tor his neighbors. Mr. Haunick has made little or no effort to profit by his pro­ cess, which learned men pronounce the greatest discovery of the age, far ahead in every room, from basement to garret, for the purpose of estimating the cost of strengthening the entire foundations and structure. As Calisteo's apart­ ments were those at which we would naturally begin our examination, we knocked at the door, and my workmen exylaiued to Calisteo that I could not talk their language and wished the'm to thoroughly examine every portion of the building and foundations, with a view to making the block more sa'e and comfortable. His only reply was a greasy smile. Going to an old cupboard in the room, he took down a portion of a strong- smelling, cheese, and began to carve it with a knife, which to me looked far better adapted to purposes of assassi­ nation than to the pacific occupation in which it was employed. Iu common­ place tones, and of course in his own ^ tongue, which he believe^ me to be en- • of what the Egyptians knew. Indeed, en­ tirely ignorant of, Calisteo said: "Now you fellows hold your own tongues and mind what I tell you, or by the Holy Mother, I'll put this knife into both of you. Don't you touch that big stcne there over tbe cistern, and if you hear any sound which that American devil notices, you just say it's the baby. If you do that I'll double your wages; and if you don't, you'll never draw a cent of J?!-8- nioney. j)Q yOU understand ?" Without pausing in their work, thev replied: "Yes, that's all right." These words revealed the situation. The per- son, whose cry I had heard was, dead or_ alive, under the ponderous stone which covered an old unused cistern. I understood my peril clearly. I was in the den of a desparate criminal, sur­ rounded by his confederates. But of course I had not entered the place without being well armed. Luckily I had placed my revolvers in the side pocket of my overcoat, instead of in my hip pockets, thereby enabling me to get hold of them without exciting suspicion and drawing attack. In an instant I covered Calisteo. with one weapon and the laborers with Haunick seems to regard it rather as curious experiment than otherwise* The Longfellow Faniilf. - The most interesting spot in Cam­ bridge is the old Longfellow house, where Miss Longfellow, the eldest daughter, and the Rev. Samuel Long­ fellow, the brother of the poet, now live, says the Boston Gazette. The bouse looks exactly as it did iu the old days when the great poet received his friends with sweet and gentle courtesy. His spirit seems to haunt the rooms and halls, and will be ever piesent to those who had the privilege ot'his friendship. The two younger daughters, Mrs. Richard H. Dana and Mrs. Joseph G. Thorpe, Jr., have built houses adjoin­ ing the old estate, so that the Long­ fellow sisters live side by side, iu the or­ der of primogeniture. Across Brattle street is a little park named in honor of the dead poet. It was an appropriate idea that the vacant land over which Longfellow's eyes so of ten j wandered as he looked from his windows-should remain freeto the inhabitants* «| {jstn.- the i bridge as a memorial of him. in Wis? wrfcHiaifEss, ' A^«lan£tio'ly t faellitiit'nt WM ot tbn K#rapt and,|Lee have Jiad their firs* struggle in the wilderness, a«i. the farmer SQeks,^ new rqad to Richmond. :4JMfrt.^»sq^hiclset4, ill l$f^ly fields, r*)|$ng n^rrowjhighwfy*, ,ia the .somber forest#, jUK),0Q0 men have fought back- ; yftfcU apd, forwards, from tu^n :,to sun, and now the night has conic to sljift the Bcepe. There are SOU men lying dead on this battle ground. TJ^ere are thou­ sand h more lyiqg .wounded--rparchmg with thirst, crying o$|. in tl»£ir; jag<>ny. Lee still blocks 4 lie-road, but no jioouer has the sun gone down; thac Grant begins a movement by the left flank to pass him. If you can not cross a swamp you must pass, around {<itT), My division is one left between the two armies to hide this movement. When morning comes we shall be far in the rear. The ground where we rest is brokeu. There is a forest ai.d thicket--a narrow high­ way--a creek--two or three small farms with their buildings filled with wounded men. Fifty rods in front of a log house is our picket line. It skirts the cleared land and runs away into the darker woods on a straight line. The neutral ground between us and the enemy is a strip not over forty rods wide. ^ At 10 o'clock on this night, when the confusion and turmoil have grown quiet, but while lanterns flash here and there through the woods, as men search for the wounded, I am left on "post No. 7" for tbe coming two hours. My place is under a pine tree which stands in the cleared ground, and all along the front is the forest--so dark that a white horse might stand within 100 feet of me and escape observation. It is a starlight night, but clouds are drifting across the sky and the wind comes in that gusty way which warns-you that a storm is brewing at a distance. For an hour there is no alarm. Grant is moving by the flank. Lee is moving to checkmate him. Grant has left a line to mask his movement. Lee has left a line to mask his. It has been a long, terrible day. Darkness brings a respite grateful to all. We have virtu­ ally said to each other over the neutral ground: "Let us alone and ,we won't disturb yoa." -j-? • At 11 o'clock a noise in the dark woods in front sends my blood leaping. It was the noise of footsteps breaking dry twigs. There are wounded horses wondering about, but this was not the footstep of a horse. Wounded men may be seeking our lines, but I listen in vain to catch a groad or a low call of distress. "Step! Ste»! Step!" The sound is on my left front. Some one is moving to get the shelter of the darker spot directly opposite. He is moving carefully, but' I can follow every foot of progress. "Step! Step! (Halt!)'Step! Step!" (Silently!) : Is it a ghoul seeking out the dead and wounded to rob them ? Is it a picket from the other line seeking to locate our posts and report how far away we are? Is it some human devil seeking to dabble his hands in bloood after the horrors of the day? Men who had brothers or friends killed in battle by daylight sometimes swore fearful ven­ geance, atid went out upon the bloody field at night to secure it. ' "Rustle! Step! (Halt!) Step! Step!" (Coming closer!) > ' If I raise an alarm htofe it will go up and down the line and agbnse a thou­ sand men in a moment* If I let this unknown approach me I may be assas­ sinated. ' He can not see me in this gloom, but he is slowly approaching in .a direct line. • "Halt! Who goes there?" 1 Deep silence. •- If lie was a straggler- frotn our lines or a wouiided man he- Would make answer. "Step! Ste^!* (And HOW I hear him sink down to the ea'dil. •" Who goes there y Silence. "Who goes there?" -*1 • Silence. I am waiting with musket raised and finger on the trigger. I nave given fair warning. Friends could ask no more, and an enemy must realize his danger. As I wait a something makes a blot on thef darkness. It is only a few feet away, and I fire point-blank, ^here is one long shrill scream of fegony, and I •'bear a body fall to the earth, and then 'there is deep silence for a moment "What is it?" asks the Corporal of the guard as he hurries np from the reserve stationed scarcely 100 feet in the rear. "There--I've shot some one!" The alarm runs up and down the lines to die qbway after five minutes, and then we advance to the object. The Corporal is there first. He reaches out to touch, it draws back in alarm, and gasps: "Greatheavens, but you have shot a woman!" It was true* Some poor soul, crazed by the terrible sounds of battle--driven from her humble home--hiding in some thicket until darkness came. Then, dumb as the trees around' her, but guided by instinct, she sought to make her way back to the house--no doubt the very hut filled with our wounded and suffering men. And she was dead at my own feet--dead of my own ballet -- Detroit Free Press. An Old Hoax. Occasionally a correspondent seeks information concerning the one million postage stamp hoax. It is firmly be­ lieved that if a million stamps are col­ lected and forwarded to a given ad­ dress some benefit will accrue to the sender. A sublimated form of this swindle has originated in the fertile brain of a postage stamp collector at Stettin, Gertnany. He desired to get "Vast collections to sort out and sell •gain, and hit upon a plan to set the Whole world to work for him free of charge. He preyed on tbe sympathies of people by announcing that an orphan would be cared for in a private asylum for every million stamps sent to him. This worked well; and the next dodge was the startibg of a.myth­ ical mission in China, the Holy Sisters of which agreed, for every million stamps sent, to save from the jaws of the crocodiles of the Yellow River at least one Chinese baby, and then edu­ cate and Christianize it. The stamps were to be sent, not to Jerusalem or China, but to. Munich or Stettin, The last claim on the sympathy of the world that has been >ma<jU by this German is, that for one million stamps a home for . a»> old lady or an old .gentleman will be provided in one of three homes-- one,in London, anotf^r in,New York and.',ttie third in Cincinnati* For fiye hundred: thousand stampsja ,bed will be endowed in a hospital, j*nd for one .kmnired'thousand1* Vf»found for an orphan for one year. Tlwre ^re agencies _ In various cities to forward stamps to Stettin. It is estimated that the swindler has collected over one hundred million stamps in the United States alone. Newahey "Benny" Strikes Lack* While the clerks in the up-town office of the Sun were busy one evening last week fhking in the copy of advertise­ ments for the next day's paper, a silver quarter was rattled upon the glass top of the window where papers are sold, and a shrill piping voice that seemed to come Up through the floor said: '"Gimme twelve -cents', worth of extras." ' , A clerk looked toward the window, and saw a tiny hand tapping impatiently on the glass, and, leaning far over, the clerk saw the body of a wee newsboy against the counter. Just then Undertaker Dieckman, who had handed in a death notice, seized the change that the clerk rattled out upon the.glass plate at the window and bolted put of the door. Another clerk went to the window and counted out copies of the extras for the wee newsboy. He saw no money on the counter and asked the little fel­ low for the pay for the extras. The lad began to cry. He said that he had flung a silver quarter on the counter and wanted his change. A hasty investigation was made and led to the discovery that the under­ taker, in his hurry, had carried, off the newsboy's quarter with his own change. The lad was "Benny" Buehler, one of the brightest newsboys who sell extras. "Benny," said the clerk, Hthat gen­ tleman took your quarter by mistake. You go and tell him that and see what he will do." Benny trotted around to the under­ taker's home on Twenty-first street, and a pleasant-mannered woman met him at the door, and took out her pocketbook and got a quarter for him as soon as she heard his slpry. A customer of the Sun was in the up-town office when Benny got back with a face wreathed with smiles to pay for his papers. _ "Here's another quarter for you, my little man," the customer said,' diving down into his pocket for a silver piece aud patting the boy on the head. The next day Undertaker Dieokman came into the office in a hurry and threw a quarter down on the couufcer. "I walked off with more money yes­ terday than I wa3 entitled to," he said cheerily; "here it is. I heard when I got home that it belonged to a newsboy. This makes fifty cents he will have re­ ceived, but it's all right." The newsboys in the neighborhood got to talking of Benny's luck that afternoon, and the story reached some­ body in the Grand Hotel, near the up­ town office. This man called Benny into the hotel and had a talk with him. Benny came to the Sun office the next night and told him about the interview. This is how he told it: " 'Is you the little snoozer as had a fellow take your quarter by mistake?' says the man. 'Well, you was in hard luck, boy. Here's a dollar fer you,' and he takes me by the collar and says, 'Now get out of here and don't let me ketch you having that happen agin.'"-- New York Sun. ' The Modern ttrakeman. The modern passenger brakem&u is not an evolution, but a new creation. He is an object of admiration, while his predecessor of a quarter of a cen­ tury since was an object of wonder and awe. The latter was, usually, a collar- less, uncouth individual more or less given to plug tobacco and profanity. The badge of his authority was a red handkerchief tied loosely around his throat. Primarily, his occupation was, upon a given signal, to fling himself in fantastic gyrations around the iron break-wheel, and his contortious upon the front platform in the discharge of his duty were at once the wonder and admiration of the station loungers of that period. He was usually distin­ guished by a tight-fitting cap, with n peaked visor. His hands were big and coarse and calloused. There were in­ variably grimy circles around his eyes. When he called out the name of a sta­ tion to the occupants of the front cat the people in the rear end of the train could .hear his voice, but the nearesf passenger could not tell what he said. When he assisted a lady to alight, he helped her down from the high steps as though she were so much baled hay. His regard for baskets containing eggd or crockery amounted to absolute con­ tempt. His business was to help run the tr$in. The passenger brakeman of the pres­ ent is a symphony in blue broadcloth and brass buttons. He is at once orna­ mental and useful. The old iron brake- wheel still looms up on the front plat­ form, but he rarely finds it necessary to touch it. He is the object of envy and of admiration to the small boy at the Queen Anne station-houses. It is his duty and pleasure, to, cultivate a grace­ ful carriage, and the sharp swing of an Eastlake coach around a curve, which causes Farmer Wayback and the woman with a green veil on her bonnet to clutch the seat in terror, only pro­ vokes a sweet, sad smile of sympa­ thetic commiseration. He is a little less than a modern Beau Brummel in his attention to the ladies and school­ girls temporarily entrusted to his care, while maintaining an air of condescend­ ing dignity toward the men. When he displays opposite characteristics, it is an evidence that his training has been defective br he has mistaken his occu­ pation. Long live the passenger brakeman of to-day, the courteous, affable, accom- madating young gentleman, who is worthy the newest style in the way-of a railroad uniform that the directors and their tailor can devise.--Philadelphia Press. Carious Marriage Custom. The marriAge customs in some parts of Brittany are very curious. In Cor- nouaille, for instance, the village tailor is the important personage to whom the candidate for matrimony applies for a list of eligible girls. Having se­ lected one, the tailor at once proceeds to the maiden's father, carrying a wand of broom--which gives him the title of Bazvalan, the name of the plant. Whilst the family chiefs are making their arrangements, the lovers retire to the other end of the house and dis­ course their own "sweet music." It is necessary that the engaged pair them­ selves should put an end to ^e term of the negotiation. Thev approach, hold­ ing each other by the hand, to the table where their respective parents or rela­ tives are seated, when bread, wine and brandy are brought in. The young man and maiden eat with the same knife and drink out of the same cup; and the day for union is then agreed upon. . SOUTHEKN California frait growers are importing orange trees from Cuba in large numbers. BUI Arp on Music and Dancing. Some folks don't care much about music--some don't care anything about dancing, but some folks like both, be­ cause it is their nature and they can't help it. It is just as natural for children to love to dance to the harmony of sweet sounds as it is for them to "love to play marbles or jump the rope, or any other innocent sport. The church allows its members to pat the foot to music, but condemns dancing, because it leads to dissipation and bad company, but we shouldn't let it lead the y^uug folks that way. The church condemns minstrel shows and minstrel songs, bat has lately stolen from them some of their sweetest tunes, and set them to sacred verse, and is all the better for it. Who does not appreciate the "Lillie of the Valley" that is now sung to the "Cabin in the Lane." Puritanism, and petrance, and long faces, and assumed distress are passing awav. The Method­ ist discipline that forbade jewelry, and ornaments,and fine dressing has become obsolete, for it was against nature-- what our Creator has given us to enjoy let us enjoy in reason and in season uid be ail the more thankful for His goodness. j I believe in; music.- Joseph Henry Lumpkin, our great chief justioe, said there-was music in all things except in the braying of an ass or the tongue of a scold. I believe in the refining influ­ ences of music over the young, and if an occasional dance at home or in the parlor of a friend will make the young folks happy, let them be happy, I read Dr. Calhoun's beautiful lecture that he delivered before the Atlanta Modical college, a lecture on the human throat as a musical instrument, and I was charmed with its science, its instruction and its literary beauty. I read part of it to those boys who were practicing for the serenade--about the wonders of the. human larynx, that in ordinary singers Could produce 120 dif­ ferent sounds, aud fine singers like Jenny Lind could produce a thousand, and Madame Mora, whose voice com­ passed three octaves, could produce 2,100 different notes; and about Fari- nelli, who cured Philip V., king of Spain, of a dreadful malady by singing • him, and after he was fully restored - was afraid of a relapse and hired Farinelii to sing to him every night at a salary of fifty thousand francs, and he sang to him as David harped for Saul. Music fills up so many gaps in the family. The young people can't work and read and study ail the time. They must have recreation, aud it is better to have it at home than hunt for it else­ where. If the old folks mope and grunt and complain around the house it is no wonder that the children try to get away. And they will get away if they have to marry to do it. I have known girls to marry very trifling lovers because they were tired of home.-- Atlatita Constitution. Felt Like Committing Suicide, but net on HimselC When Archbishop Ryan was building a church in St. Louis some years ago there was an Irish laboror employed on the edifice wh; had suffered most out­ rageous treatment from his cruel land­ lord in Ireland, having been thrown out on the highway with his starving family and subjected to such misery as rarely falls to the lot of mortals. Talking one day on the subject of self-destruction with a Protestant gen­ tleman while they were observing the progress of the building the Archbishop, Father Ryan, said: "I will show yon an illustration of my argument that suicide is practically unknown in Ire­ land," and calling the man to him he remarked: "Tom, you have suffered terribly, I know, at the hands of a heartless landlord--" "Pioase God, no man ever more so, your riverence." "Now, Tom. did you ever feel any in­ clination, in the depth of your misery, with no earthly hope before you, to commit suicide?" "Yis; your riverence," said Tom, after scratching his nose thoughtfully, "I did feel like committing suicide--but not on myself."--Washington Post. Astonishing the Natives. Bruce was one of the earliest travel­ lers who made African exploration popular. About a hundred years ago he pushed his way into Abyssinia, 'hen almost unknown to Europeans. -e he soon won favor with the king. o favor Bruoe had gained ^t c irt naturally excited a certain amount of jealousy, and raised up enemies against him. Foremost among these was Gnebra Mascai, a nephew of Ras Michael, a bold and determined soldier, but a very ill conditioned fellow, much given to boasting, and valuing himself especially ou his skill with the lire- look. ^ An altercation into which Bruce was betrayed with Guebra at a banquet nearly led to bloodshed: and on this occasion Bruce seems to have displayed more courage than discretion; but"he afterward completely re-established his position by performing the feat of piercing tree shields with a tallow candie fired from a gun-- an exhibition that filled the king and the whole court with unbounded astonishment and ad­ miration. • The Meanest Government on Earth. It is often said that the laborers of China and India are the worst paid on earth, but I thiuk the medal for mean­ ness ought to l»e awarded to the Span­ ish Government, writes George H. Benton. Its Almadeft quicksilver mines yield an enormous revenue, but the men are paid iucredibly poor wages, al­ though to accept work in the mines is about equivalent to committing suicide. The pay is twenty cents a day, and w- ng to the deadly nature of the work, the strongest men can only work two days a week. Yet the men live, marry, have families, aud the sons do as their fathers have done before them. After five or six years' work a miner gets dis­ abled altogether, and his benevolent government employer shows its appre­ ciation of his services by granting him a permit to beg. The result of this particular system of wearing out men and then "pensioning" them with a license to be a nuisance to their fellows, is that in Almuden there are about two thousand inhabitants with a percentage of paupers of about one in four. Theory and Practice. Madam Tweedledee (principal of great dramatic school)--I was so sorry I could not be present at your debut last night. Did you follow my advice, and hold your powers in check during the earlier acts, s i as to preserve 'your­ self for the grand climax in the fourth act ? New Society Actress--Y-e-s. Madame T.--Fin so glad. And didn't the audience go perfectly wild over that grand climacteric scene in the fourth act? New Actress (sadly)--They went be­ fore the fourth act--ail of them.--Neva York Weekly. FOR five years the county jail at 0al- ? houn, 111., has not had a ptisonef. * *'" A LOCOMOTIVE engine has been per­ fected in England, and was recently tried on one of the roads, which cap make, average tju% ninety miles aa A BARBER shop on a grand and lltst- urious scale, the operators of which are to be women, is about to be opened in London. They are ail towea* mm and short sleeves. IN Buehos Ayres an opera box for sixty nights costs seven thousand dol­ lars. Coal for range or fire-place is from thirty-eight to forty dollars per ton. You may go to the circus for five 'dollars ana a half. Shoes are worth from ten to twelve dollars. SIXTY-NINE Thanksgiving .dinners have been eaten by Thomas Tuttle and wife, of Stratham, N. H., in the same room. They have been married nearly, seventy years, and are both in their ninety-second year. A PIECE of pink coral thirty feet tang aud nine inches in diameter at one end, with branches projecting about four feet on all sides, was recently obtained on the coast of Japan. . Its value in m . prepared state would be-worth about i $15,000. SOME one has figured that there are in Denver, Col., thirtv-one millionaires, whose aggregate wealth is $46,500,000, and thirty-five semi-millionaires, whose wealth aggregates $17,500,000, making in all $64,000,000 owned by sixty-six men. AMBEBGBIS, from which many per* fumes are made, and which is some­ times used to flavor wine, is merely the morbid secretion of the liver of a sick spermaceti whale. It is a fatty, waxy substance, disagreeable to sight or touch, but even in its crude state ex­ haling a pleasant odor.1 FROM its source, to its moath, the Amazon is 3,500 miles in length, but . the name Amazon is not continuous, and it is called by three different names in that space. From its Lake Itasca source to the gulf of the Missis­ sippi is 2,616 miles long, and from its Missouri tributary source to the* Golf, 4,194 miles in length. WHEN the Prime Minister of tie Chinese Emperor has a grudcre against one of the nobles, he advises his royal master to pay him a prolonged visit. This visit almost ruins him; for the emperor usually travels with a retinue of ten thousand persons. A week's visit is likely to drain the host's bank account, and diive him to the verge of lunacy. CARD-PLAYERS who have long thought that the time l^nt in shuffling was wasted, will be interested to learn that a shuffling machine has been invented by an Englishman named Booth. Two packs are used, and while the players are using one pack, the machine ef­ fectually shuffles the other pack. In twenty seconds the cards are so thor­ oughly shuffled that every card changed, „ its position. ; ; AN inexplioable phenomenon Is^lh ported to have been witnessed on ftib shore of Batoum, on the Black Sea, During a complete calm the sea is said to have suddenly receded from the shore, leaving it bare for a space, .of sixty feet. The water of the port rushed out to sea, tearing many of the shipB from their anchorage and causing •a great amount of damage. After & short time the sea resumed its tuiiil level. " - • The Death Penalty. M. Beauquesne, director of the Ro- quette prison, Paris, where criminals are confined before execution, had thiw to say on the death penalty: I am a partisan of the death penalty, but the application of that penalty such as it exists seems sufficient, and it is need­ less to aggravate it. Let me explain. Capital punishment by the gillotine is carried out pretty rapidly. From the moment when I g> into the cell of a condemned man - to announce to huu that his application for a writ of error has been rejected and to exhort him to have courage up to the time whecu the fatal instant arrives, it seldom takes lhore than ten minutes or a quarter of an hour. Now, I am thoroughly con­ vinced from reading the description of ^ the American system of death by elee- tricity that this lapse of time must be exceeded. The! preparations are neces­ sarily longer and more minute. The patient must be present at them, since the attendants must place him in the fatal chair, bind him, stretch his legs. That seems to me an aggravation not foreseen by law. And think of the hor­ rible scenes of resistance that must in­ evitably occur often. The culprit will struggle. He will not consent to be seated upon the chair of death, and he .will be all the stronger because his hands and feet are free until he is in po­ sition. Then the executioneer and his aids must grapple with him, and a death struggle ensue with the victim. Such scenes are terrible. And when the vic­ tim is at last brought by force into the chair other scenes no less atrocious must follow when the final prepara­ tions are being made. Then, again, if in his excitement the executioneer for­ gets some connection, he will turn on the current in vain, it will have no ef­ fect, and the whole programme must be recommenced. The authorities have no right, either in a legal point of view or in the point of view of humanity, to prolong in that manner the agony of • condemned man. I could understand that kind of death if the culprit was not made aware of the preparations before­ hand, and if they simply made him step upon a trap where the electric current would kill him. What I do not like in the New York system is the prepara­ tion at which the doomed man is obliged to assist. * In my opinion, executions by elec­ tricity will not last long in America. After one or two trials the will come back to hanging. The Best Time te Bathft; It is best to bathe jnst before going to bed, as any danger of catching cold is thus avoided, aud the complexion is improved by keeping warm for several hours after leaving the bath. A couple of pounds of bran put into a thin hag and then in the tub is excellent tar softening the skin. It should be left to soak in a small quantity of water for several hours before being used. The internal aids to a clear complexion are most of them well known, and the present season is time for purifying and cleausing of the blood. The old- fashioned remedy of sulphur and mo­ lasses is considered amon^ tbe best. Charcoal, powdered and taken with water, is said to be excellent, but it is most difficult to take. A strictly \ uge- table and fruit diet is foUewe^L by mamy for one or two week^. . ^ :Sa * -m • v i :X .. i 1 V* ' i 4 * J ' .* V