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FINE FK3URES. : An English Statistician Gives Ua Rea­ son to Be Proud. The English statistician, Michael G. Mulhr^l, publishes in-the June number of {lie North American Review an arti­ cle on "The Flower and Wealth of the United States," Mr. MuilEall's conclu­ sion is that: If we take a survey of mankind in ancient and modern times as regards the physical, mechanical and intellect^ ual force of nations we iiud nothin^ro compare with the United States in niis present year of 1895, and that the Uni­ ted States possesses by Tar the greatest productive power in the world. Mr. Mulhall shows that the absolute effective force of the American people is now more than three times what it was in 1SG0, and that the United States possesses almost - a£ much energy as Great Britain, Germany and France collectively and that the ratio falling to each American is more than what two Englishmen or Germans have at their disposal. He points out'by a care­ ful comparison between the conditions in these different countries, that an .or­ dinary farm hand in the United States raises as much grain as three in En­ gland, four in France, five in Germany, or six in Austria. One man in. America p can produce as much flour as will feed 250, whereas in Europe one man feeds only thirty persons. -Mr. Mulhall calls special attention to ^ the fact that the Intellectual power op ' the great, republic is in harmony with , the industrial and mechanical, 87 per cent, of the total population over l'J j years of age being able to read and write. [ "It may be fearlessly asserted," says he, "that in the history of the human race no nation ever possessed 41,000,000 t instructed citizens." The postoffice returns are appealed to [ by Mr. Mulhall in support of this part . of his statement, these showing that, . in the number of letters per inhabitant , yearly, the United States is much • ahead of all other nations. According to the figures of Mr. Mul- • hall the average annual increment of f the United States from 1821 to 1S90 was S901,000,000, and he adds that "the new t wealth added during a single generation • --that is, in the period of thirty years be- , tween 1860 and 1890--was no less than ; $49,000'000,000, which is one billion - more than the total wealth of Great - Britain." * - - -•=*>- Classifying the whole wealth of the l union under the two heads, urban and s *ural, Mr, Mulhall finds that rural or 1 agricultural wealth has only quadrupled 1 in forty years, while urban wealth has 3 multiplied sixteen fold. Before 18(50 i the accumulation of wealth for cach 3 rural worker was greater than that . corresponding to persons of the urban 3 classes; but the farming interests suf- • fered severely by reason of the civil t war, and since then the accumulation i of Wealth among urban workers has t been greatly more than that among rural workers, a fact which Mr. Mulhall J thinks explains the influx of population •> into towns and cities.--New York Sun. road In 1831,, The engine was named John Bull. It was lmDorted from En­ gland; its .weight was four tons. The engineer was John Hainpson, an En­ glishman. Among the fifteen passen­ gers who rode ill the two coaches were .Tanies Alexander, president Commer­ cial Bank; Charles E. Dudley, of the Dudley observatory; Jacob Hays, high constable of New York; ex-Gov. Jo­ seph C. Yates and Thurlow Weed. ... RAT IN THE 'CHURCH.' London Congregation Broken Up bj the Appearance of a Rodent. The Wesleyaus of London have great distinction in that city ^ust now be­ cause one of their chapels was Invaded a few Sundayrrago by a large gray- whiskered rat, who, according to the New York World, provoked a disturb­ ance and brought about a scene that, so far as known, is absolutely unprece­ dented In religious annals. It was di­ rectly in the midst of the service that the rodent appeared, and for a time passed unnoticed, confining himself to surreptitious wanderings Iri the pews. At last he ventured out into the aisle, and then he was seen of all men and women. Encouraged by the excitement lie was creating, he gambolled fearlesly about, leaping from seat tosfeat and wildly waving his tail. The co^rega- tion was at once in a ferment*, and the Bervice came to an abrupt stop. Armed with long sticks, the vergers and ushers tried to chase him out, but he dodged them, keeping well beyond their reach. Finally, as a last resort, an officer of the church who was full of expedient slipped away and borrowed a small but energetic terriei'. What the vergers had been unable to do the ter- , rier did. " - It Was a long and exciting chase, rind during its progress the rat showed evi­ dence of much military strategy. Even­ tually he was brought to bay directly under the communion table, and in a few, seconds more the dog had shaken the life out of him. '.Then ^ie ladies who had been standing bii pew seats smoothed down their frocks and set­ tled themselves, the chapel resumed its normal condition of quietude and the services were continued. THE EXACTING CIRCUS MAN, They Wjll Spend the Summer in the Country as Usual. Young Mr. and Mi's. Witlierby had a consultation the other evening concern­ ing summer plans and their financial aspect. .. <- '• "I don't really see. my love," re­ marked young Mr. Witlierby, "how it will be possible for us to go up to the Hillside House as we planned for June and July. You see nurse and baby are important and expensive additions to the family since last summer." "Couldn't we take, a dear little house somewhere in the country?" inquired Mrs. Witlierby, vaguely. "You may remember that we did that last summer, and that it took me nearly six months to get out of debt after­ ward," said her husband, coldly. "I'm sure it wasn't niy fault," began Mrs. Witlierby. "You know .very well A Dream. O, it was but a dream.I had ' ' While the musician played-- And here the sky and here the glad Oid ocean kissed the glade. And here, the laughing ripples ran And here theroses grew® , That threw a kiss to every man That voyaged with the crew ( Our silken sails in lazy folds Drooped in the breathless breeiie. As o'er a field of marigolds Our eyes swam o'er the seas. While here the eddies lisped and purl®4 Around the island's rim, And up from out the under wold We-saw "the mermen swim. - V j°>. ANNIE M'LEAN, known to his I ^ Intimates of the curling club of By town; Nova Scotia, as "Dan­ nie, the Skip," is a Scotchman by birth, a mason by"trade, ana by choice a de­ votee of the game called "curling," wh ich is played on ice. The fountain of glad­ ness for him freezes up with the thaw­ ing out of the pond, and thaws with their freezing. The game is in itself an excellent one, Cut it too often leads the players into Scotch "convivality," an possibly Dannie, who is 'skip" or captain of a "rink" or side, became confirmed in drinking' habits by sedulously attend­ ing all the feasts of the By town club. Be that as it may, he no longer drinks Intoxicants, and I think many people will be Interested in an account of the occurrence that made him an abstainer. And it was dawn and middle day And midnight--for, the moon On silver rounds across the bay Had climbed the skies of June-- And here the glowing, glorious king Of day ruled o'er the realm, With stars of midnight glittering About his diadem. The sea gull reeled on languid wing In circles round the mast; We heard the songs the sirens sing As we went sailing past. And up and down the golden sands A thousand fairy throngs Flung at us from their flashing hand% The echoes of their songs. --James Whitcomb Riley. j i Nightingale. When thrushes rest the weary head, And linnets lie in gold and green, When blackbirds on a downy bed. Are silvered with a moony sheen, What voice awakes the emerald house? What love incarnate flies on wings? What passion shakes the trembling boughs? It is the Bird of Love that sings. It is the Bird of Love that sings, Stabbing our silence like a sword, And love himself that flies on wings, God and enchanter and no bird. Our moon of honey, our marriage moon. Rides in the heaven for our delight. The silver world grows golden soon. Honey and gold spilled in the night. The Bird of Love, the Bird of Pain, He sings our marriage moon away; Filling the night with golden rain, Between the darkness and the day. A Recent Subterranean Explosion De­ scribed by a Correspondent. The St. Louis Globe-Democrat corre­ spondent has just returned from the Sitze farm, near Fordland, Webster County, where the late subterranean disturbance occurred. The cavity seen in the farmer's meadow Is indeed a singular product of some giant force, and the story told by the owner of the i land is no less wonderful. The break in the earth's surface is on the western slope of a little hill in the meadow and about 250 yards from Mr. Sitze's house. The depression at its greatest depth is twenty feet, and the area sunk is by ac­ tual measurement 100 yards in circum­ ference. The center of disturbance appears to have been near the western edge of the hole, where the earth is most torn. At this point there is a chimney-like opening in the pit about six feet in diameter. Around the sink are several of them one foot wide and deep enough to receive the full length of a fence rail. Within the area sunk was an old cavity nearly filled, which had been formed in a similar way be­ fore the war. Out of this ante-bellum crater it is said that a black substance was obtained which made excellent shoe polish. Mr. Sitze tells the follow­ ing story of the explosion, which has ruined a part of his meadow: "It was between 12 and 1 o'clock when the shock occurred. I had eaten dinner and walked out into the lot near the house, when I heard a heavy under­ ground explosion like a powerful blast. I looked at once toward the meadow and saw a cloud of yellowish smoke shoot toward the sky to the height of 100 or more feet. I could not see the ground near where the hole was for a little while on account of the shower of dust that fell. Rocks rained down on the meadow some distance around the opening. I went at once to the spot and saw what had happened. At that time the cracks around the opening were not so wide and deep as they are to-day. Some of the rocks fell as far as eighty yards from the hole. Persons have been coming here daily since the meadow fell in." i The Sitze farm is in West Benton township, about eighteen miles south Af Marshfield. It is just north of the water-shed, between the Osage and "'White rivers. Two miles west of Sitze's farm is the wonderful Devil's Den, which for years has attracted so much attention. This is a coffin-shaped chasm, over 100 feet deep and about eighty feet wide, at the bottom of which a lake (jf ^unknown depth re­ pose. The wateVof the lake is of an Inky color, and a rock thrown into it sends forth a deep, sepulchral sound. Closer and closer, hold me close, For is it Love or Death he sings? And is it Love or Death that goes Through the sweet uight with rustling wings? --New York Tribune. Answering Questions of the Curious. A gentleman who had been playing pool in Harvey J. Fueller's rooms, on Penn street, Pittsburg, Pa., the other night, by mistake walked through a big plate glass window, smashing It. A great crowd soon gathered, and the proprietor saw that he was about to be awfully bored by questions. To satis­ fy hundreds of inquirers, Mr. Fueller quickly wrote and posted the following answers: NOTICE. I will tell you all about it. It was an accident. The man could not help it. He was perfectly sober. He was not hurt. No; I will not prosecute him. I don't know how much it will cost me. It happened at 11:45 p. m., May 25. I don't know his name. The glass is insured. I will insure it again. A large crowd gathered with much excitement. Many people thought it was a fight I always try to avoid fights. I never had one in my place. ? Don't know how soon I can have an­ other glass put in. Ask the insurance man. I borded up the vacancy at once. He broke it going out. The glass was % of an inch thick, 5 feet wide and 9 feet high. Yours truly. Any more.--Philadelphia Record. Song. Come, fill the golden loving-cup With the amber winking wine, And send.it gayly on its round, The hour--the hour's divine. Awake the harps to music sweet And scatter roses deep, A health to Beauty and her train Away, away with sleep. Abroad do sing the nightingales, The moon is coming up, And twice a thousand stars have bloom* A HUMAN SNAKE. A West Virginia Boy with the Char­ acteristics of the Reptile. Little Jim Twyman, a colored boy, living with his foster parents ten miles from Shepardstown, W. Ya., is a won­ der. He is popularly known as the "snake boy." Mentally he is as bright as any child of his age and he is popu­ lar with his playmates, but his physi­ cal peculiarities are probably unparal­ leled. His entire skin, except bis face and hands, is covered with the scales and markings of a snake.' These ex­ ceptions are kept so by the constant use of Castile soap, but on the balance of his body the scales grow abun­ dantly. The child slieds the skin every year. It causes hlni no pain or illness. From the limbs it can be pulled in perfect shape, but off the body it comes in pieces. Always his feet and hands are cold and clammy. He is an inordinate eater, sometimes spending an hour at a meal, eating voraciously all the time if permitted to do so. After these gorgings he sometimes sleeps two days. There is a strange suggestion of a snake in his face, and he can manipu­ late his tongue, accompanied by hide­ ous hisses, as viciously as a serpent. Send round the loving-cup. 'Tis summer time, the jeweled date Of youth 'and joy and love, When cheeks do glow and eyes do Shine And lips a cherry prove. Another round! and let the song Be merry that you sing. The hours are swift--let them be bright And happiness be king; And let your hearts with rhythm beat And let your souls be free, For life is hope and hope is bliss And bliss is melody. --Chicago Record. Interviewed a Man with Tremens. A journalistic feat of no little novelty has just been accomplished at Vienna, where a reporter succeeded in having an interview with a man suffering from delirium tremens. The result of the ex­ periment throws even Zola's descrip­ tion of Coupeau in the shade. The pa­ tient, a broken-down actor, declared that he was Baron Rothschild, and that his constant craving for dainty dishes made it necessary that he should take weekly trips across the ocean to New York, a city built on beer bottles, unfor­ tunately all empty. Drinks were not to be had in New York, and therefore he was obliged to take as much as he could carry before starting In his bal­ loon, and from which he shot flies, Benedictine rabbits, and other game, which were brought to the car by fly­ ing retrievers. The man is now an in­ mate of the Metropolitan Hospital at Vienna. Did Not Reach His Own Standardi The late Professor Bishoff, of the University of St. Petersburg, left a sad memorial of his greatness. He had opposed the admission of female students into the university on ground that a woman's brain, Being much smaller than a man's, It was\not fair to put her on an equal footing with her superior. When Bishoff's brain was examined it was found" to weigh less than the average woman's. The Letter. The letter my lady wrote me-- I wish you could see the lines! There's a flavor of orange blossoms And a tangle of jessamine vines! O, the letter my lady wrote me! I sit in my room and see The sails of the ships, and her red, eweoH lips In the letter she wrote to' me! AVoinen in the World. According to the most reliable esti­ mates the world to-day contains 280,- 000,000 gfown Women. Among civi­ lized nations the United States have actually the largest share, their femi­ nine population being 30,554,370. Rus­ sia comes next with an adult feminine population of 23,200,000. Then a long way after comes the German Empire with 10,930,000; Austria, witli9,G80,000;p Great Britain, with 8.76&000; Francer with 8,580,000; and Italy, with 6,S50,- 000. Spain comes next on the list with 4,130,000 of the fair sex, and she Is fol­ lowed by Belgium, with 1,340,000; Rou- mania, with 1,200,000; Sweden, with 1,170,000; Portugal, with 1,080,000; and Holland, with 1,070,000. The countries whose adult feminine population does not reach 1,000,000 are Switzerland, which has only 690,000; Norway, which has 465,000, and Greece and Denmark, which are tied at 490,000. In this estimate it will be noted that the entire female population of the United States is given and only the number of grown women inutile differ­ ent countries of Europe. As a matter of fact, in proportion to its population this country has fewer women than most of the others mentioned. The pro­ portion of women to men in the United: States is gretest in Ne\& England, whore the women are in excess. It is least in the far West, where the num­ ber of men exceeds that of the women. Wyoming li$s the smallest female popu­ lation, 21,362; New York the largest, 3,020,960; while it is said that one fac­ tory in New England employs 12,000. The Kind He Fancied. During the hot spell, when the mer­ cury was banging around the brink of 95 in the shade, a pleasant-faced tramp rapped on a kitchen door, and the lady of the house answered it. "Good-afternoon, ma'am," said the visitor, "I'd like .to shovel the snow off the sidewalk for half a pie." The lady looked at him, half afraid. "You must be crazy," she said as she . mopped her perspiring hrnw J "No'm," he answered politely, "not crazy; only hungry and willing to work for material to appease my hunger." "But there isn't any snow on the side­ walk," she said, still in doubt. "I know it, ma'am," he smiled in re­ ply, "and that's the kind I love to shov­ el. Shovelin' summer snow Is just the kind of labor I'm fitted for, and I can do It with an enthusiasm that would j surprise you. Do"! get the pie in ex­ change?" And he ̂ laughed In such a knavish, utterly gopd-for-nothing way that she handed over the pie" and gave him a glass of milk to lubricate it with. O, the letter my lady wrote me! Here is the word she missed, And here is the word that was never heard , On the line her lips have kissed! And the letter my lady wrote me, Close to my heart shall be Till the judgment day,, when I break away-- O. life of mv life! from thee! Atlanta Constitution. A Prayer. A morrow must come on When I shall wake to weepi But just for some short hours, God, give me sleep! I ask not hope's return; As I have sown I reap. Grief must awake with dawn- Yet, oh, to sleep! No dreams, dear GodL no dreams; Mere slumber? dfcll and deep, Such as Thou givest brutes-- Sleep, only sleep! •>» Anne Reeve Aldrieh. Military Drills. Considerable comment has been aroused by the emphatic stand against the introduction of military drills In schools taken by so eminent an authority as Dr. Sargent, physical director of Harvard. He asserts that such drill not only does not develop the body, if used without previous physical train­ ing, but, on the contrary, inclines those taking part to contracted chests and round shoulders: Natural Philosophy. A farmer Walked up and down a block on Griswold street a day or two ago whistling a whistle-that was apparent­ ly meant for a dog. When he had look­ ed up and down and around for ten min^ utes a newsboy came along and que­ ried: ; "Whistlta^fur your dorg?" "Yes, but I guess the critter has got too fur off. I knowed he'd git lost If I brung him in." "Your dorg hain't lost," continued the boy. "Can't nobody lose a dorg. It's you that's lost, and if you'll stand still a few mi nits he'll find you." * The farmer smiled at the boy's philos­ ophy, but decided to heed it, and it wasn't five minutes, before his dog turn­ ed In from Fort Street and earner up to ' him. . „ . "Didn't I tell ye?" said the bo^-as he moved on. "I.don't make any chaAge fur the plnter, but next time you git ldst jest take a lean agin a lamp-post ana. gin' yer dorg a fair show to find ye."-- Free Press. • Good-Bye. Good-bye, dear eyes; a little while You lit the darkness of my days; Now life is naught, and nothing stays; Good-bye. dear eyes, tender smile And loving ways. Good-bye, dear hands; and now I press For the last time your whiteness slimj And, if my eyes with tears are dim. You will not love the*n; dear, the lesa For tears in them. Good-bye, dear lips, where death has set His kiss, a colder one.than thine; But in your dwelling place divine, Shall you, dear love, oue«liour forget This kiss of mine? --Pall Mall Budget. Ought to Be Tried Here. By an Italian law, any circus which does not perform every act promised in the printed program, or which mis­ leads the public by means of picture, is liable to a fine of $500 fcr each of- Browning's Graceful Compliment. Mrs. Oscar Wilde, when Browning was calling on her at one of her Sun­ day afternoons, asked him to writ® something In her autograph album, j wherein many famous people had writ- j ten. "With pleasure," said Browning, and wrote: "From a poit to a poem." Love cannot die, but he sometime* ^wishes he co^ild.*