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invite and* <r? <c=^ rshook his hand from uiy shoulder.. angrily. Suddenly he looked at the barometer%gain. "Only 38,QOQ!" he ex­ claimed in a despairing tojoe. 5'I .prom­ ised" 50,000." "He turned away with a wild gesture. He " gripped one of the ropes and swung himself on the seat of the car. By a supreme effort I man- j aged to rouse thyself. ( PVBIiiHHHHill|!IR||H "Stop!" I shouted. He looked around Portant.' industry in Michigan. .v FRUIT PACKAGES, Something of an Industry of Orent Importance to Michigan. With a fruit crop aggregating millions- offbushels annually of berries, currants, peaches, plums," apples, pears and grapes, the manufacture of baskets, manufacturers are beginning to imitate for plums and pears. They are made of Greatly Disappointed. Famous men are not always famous- ROF. KINGSLEY. the aeronaut, had been my chirm at cpisege. fifteen years* had passed, since then. He had made; rapid strides in his chostn field of science; I- hsjd en= tered the army ami become an officer of the Royal Engineers. Circumstances Md nowobronght me into his neighbor­ hood and. I decided tiV visit him. I found-him in"ii state of enthusiasm over a new invention of his oWn. to enable human beings to breathe the rarefied air of high altitudes. I was made acquainted with the details and learned that arrangements were about completed for a balloon ascent, by which a practical test of tlie invention was to be made. He was confident that It would eclipse all previous air voy­ ages in practical results. Despite my ignorance of tho. practical details of the -invention. I was invited to become the professor's companion on this voyage through space, and for the novelty of the thing--I had never been in a bal­ loon--accepted the iuvitatiou and con­ sented to act as amateur assistant. One morning a few weeks later I found myself at the side of Prof. Kings- ley standing iii the midst of an admir­ ing crowd, who were eagerly waiting for the ascension of the great airship, which, fastened to the ground by a net­ work of rqpes, plunged and strained like some living animal. Five minutes later we had embarked in the car, and in another minute there was a sudden shout. Without for a moment under­ standing the reason. I found that the people and the place had somehow slip­ ped avs-ay from us and disappeared. It was the most singular sensation I had ever felt, and as 1 looked over the edge of the car I was astonished to observe that in one minute, or less as it appear­ ed to me, the trees and surging crowd of upturned faces had grown so amaz­ ingly small and distant. The motion was-almost imperceptible; indeed, it took some time to grow accustomed to the idea that we were moving at all. Yet there could be no doubt about the fact that we were moving, and moving at. a surprising rate of progress, too. Up; up--and as we rose we were traveling to the eastward. Towns, vil­ lages, country--tho broad silver stripe of the widoning"Thames, dotted here and there with -quivering specks which we knew to Ue sails, aud flecked with littlecoiling wreaths of darkness which must have represented steamers; and then the great silver shield of the chan­ nel, glittering in the blaze of the sun. passed under our eyes in one vast moving diorama, the details of which' grew fair ter and fainter yet as we as­ cended. Then Kingsley began to talk. He was always a brilliant talker, but now he seemed to to talk more brilliantly than ever. I felt a sense of exhilaration my­ self that was new; to uie--a sort of wild sense of freedom--a lightness of body and mind thatiiad the effect of strong wine on the nerves. But in spite of this I was surprised at its effect on my companion. He talked like a man in­ spired. in a strain of exaggerated elo­ quence--a rhapsody of science made poetry which struck me as the finest thing of the kind I had ever heard. Yet 1 found myself glancing at him from time to-, time a little uneasily. It seemed to me, excited as I was, a little extravagant, and for the moment I wasn't quite sure how far the excited nervous condition might be consistent with the safe traveling of our balloon. I was wrong, however, for I soon ob­ served that the professor kept a wary eye upon the movements of the bal­ loon, and was noting each change in the condition of his delicate instru­ ments that were fixed to the sides of the car beside him. On, on, and upward still, and now when I ventured to look below I could see the great panorama of laud and sea like the tracings on a globe and yet it was growing colder, and I felt some little oppression in breathing. 1 said this to the professor. Pie smiled, and, stooping, threw out two of our sandbags that served for ballast. ;3ly eye followed them) and I wondered where they would fall, I even asked my companion if it wasn't dangerous --he didn't answer me. but I stooped and threw another over. We were now rising rapidly. "Twenty thousand feet." he exclaim­ ed,, rubbing his hands together. "Ha! What are the Alps? Mere molehills dignified with the name of mountain." This was all very well, but now I began to find that breathing was mo­ mentarily becoming more and mare a labor, and that the cold was increasing every minute. I asked Kingsley if it was not time to try his new apparatus. "Not j*et!" he exclaimed. "Not yet! I must see how high we can go without it first" I looked anxiously at him. but I said no more. He went on talking by fits and starts^ and I was relieved to see that the rarity of the air was affecting at me. "Will you do it?" he said. "Somebody must, you know." Tie was in" the very act of overbalancing himself when the terrible emergency seemed to restore some of my vigor. I seized him and dragged him back. He struggled wild­ ly. and in his madness he,was stronger than I. There was nothing else to bo done--I raised my hand and struck with all my force. Kingsley fell sense­ less to the bottom of the car. * I staggered. I looked feebly around. I felt; as if I were falling asleep. Some­ thing touched my hand and I grasped it--it was the string'that opened tho valve of the balloon. As I grasped it I- grew unconscious. As I clung to it I sank on the senseless body of tho professor. I know nothing of what happened af­ terward. The next .sounds T heard were the sounds of human voices; the next thing my eyes opened upon was the interior of a small cottage rqpm. There was a poor French print of a Madonna on the wall opposite me--the voices tha,t I heard spoke in the.rough patois of JTrench. I had been rescued by a miracle. . ., ' It was mouths. before Kingsley re- .covered,' and to this day I never see him without his introducing the sub­ ject of the balloon ascent we are to make together, when we' will certainly reach 50,000 feet. Poor fellow! That as­ cension unbalanced his brilliant mind for life.--Utiea Globe. I SEIZED. HIM AND DRAGGED HIM BACK. iou J>1 u O 1 <jru OUT. "v.. • showing something like the same gen tly rounded surface. ^And all tii« time Kingsley talked on. Sometimes, iudeed, he would, pause for an instant to im­ part some practical information, and almost at once go back to his declama­ tion arid his theories. '"Five thousand feet," he announced. .' "All!now we have risen above the puny mountain tops of our. little island." After a time he announced 10,000 feet, and then 15,000. I looked below, and it seemed to me that the slender thread of twisting silver, darkened o» both " sides by puny excrescences that might be buiiiings, must represent Paris and the Seine. There was~1iany wind, him, too. He must have suffered as I did, and yet he sat still looking from one of his instruments to another. I wrapped a heavy sealskin cloak around me and 'waited as well as I could. I began to feel half stupid, and it was with a start that I heard him say in a thick voice, "25,000 feet. Ah! That will do!" Then he put one of his new- respirators into my hand, and as I look­ ed at him half stupidly he added: "Now j these will take us up to 50.000." The professor'*, invention worked like | magic, jln two minutes I could breathe freely again. As the thought passed through my mind with a certain satis­ faction the professor stooped and threw out another sandbag. The sun was i still bright, but suddenly there was a J faint crackling sound like the breaking of glass. I looked at my;feet and saw- that the floor was covered with small j transparent icicles. I put my hand to j my mouth and found that my mustache j was bristling with ice. "Thirty thou­ sand feet!" Kingsley announced in a voice that sounded muffled and distant. Thirty thousand! And yet the man talked of fifty. Ah. well, I could see that we had only one more sandbag. Even Kingsley by his enthusiasm couldn't overcome the laws of nature. He stooped and threw out our last bag as the thought passed through my mind. Again we rose rapidly. Like the professor himself, my eyes were fixed on the barometer. It was cold--deadly cold. After a pause lie exclaimed: "Thirty-five thousand. Ha! We have broken the record now." I looked at Kingsley. His face was blue and pinched, but his eyes shone with a light that was new and alarm­ ing in its wild brilliancy. "Haven't we gone high enough?" I managed to articulate, though with difficulty. "Enough?" he' returned in a strong voice; "enough? Are you crazy? Fifty thousand, or we don't go back, I tell you--50, man!" The man's face had changed; .his eyes glittered and sparkled with a strange shifting light--good God! He was going mad! After all. I thought, the last sandbag is gone; mad or sane he can't rise higher without lightening the balloon more. I glanced at the barometer--it was stationary. The pro­ fessor's eyes were fixed on it, too- then he looked round him--then he glared at me! "We don't rise," he muttered to him­ self; "bht we i must. We must!" He rose and made a step toward me. He laid his hand on my shoulder. He pointed to the barometer.1 "We don't rise," he repeated with a strange sig­ nificance. I nodded. "Somebody must go!" lie said. "GoodGod, man!" I exclaimed. "What do you mean?" , » He gripped me on the, shoulder--he brought his face to the level of mine-- he glared fiercely into my eyes. "She won't rise," iie muttered. "You must go out!" I looked at him.. .The man was clear­ ly mad--it was in his eyes and in his , voice. "No," I answered angrily, "no! Go yourself!" 4 ~ Severe Salute. A short time, ago, writes a correspond­ ent in Brazil, a most ridiculous affair happened at Rio de Janeiro. An ice ship from Boston entered the bay, com­ manded by a Captain Green, in the South American' trade. Fort Santa Cruz, not recognizing his home flag. hailed him and ordered him to "heave to." But the worth?:...skipper didn't speak Portuguese, and the simple state­ ment of the name of his vessel, which he hurled at the fort, was not at all satisfactory; so xi blank shot was fired as a mild suggestion for him to stop. But he called for his revolver, and, pointing it skyward, fired six success- si ve shots. Then a solid shot from the fort skipped across his bow, and then another, better aimed, passed through his foresail. The fort and two shore batteries opened fire upon j ]ias[cej. forru him. and several of his light span's were cut away. But he held on his course rejoicing, loading and firing his revolv­ er. Finally he reached quarantine, and came to anchor just as his flying jib- boom went by the board. He was then so near the other shipping that they dared fire on him no longer, and the police boat, the" custom house and the health boat all boarded him, together with the captain of the port, w-lio, with more vigor than politeness, wanted to know, "Why the deuce didn't you heave to?" "Heave to!" ejaculated the astounded skipper. "Was that what you wanted? Good heaven, I thought you was salutin' the American flag!" "Diable!" shouted the officers in chorus, and they set j.he case down as additional evidence of the lunacy which they re­ garded as a necessary ingredient in the American character. Ap Original " Ad." Bicycle repairers are so numerous that startling advertisements are nec­ essary to secure business. A handbill of this purport has been widely circu­ lated wkhin the last few days on the South Side: "Bicycle surgery. "Acute and chronic ̂ ases treated with assurance of Success. "Languid tires restored to health and vigor. "Tires blown up without pain. Wind f rr-e. "We understand the anatomy, physi­ ology and hygiene of wheels and give homeopathic or allopathic treatment as individual cases require. Sure cure guaranteed. "Testimonials: " 'My wheel had three ribs fractured and you cured it in one treatment.' " 'My tires were suffering with a case of acute aneurism which had been pro­ nounced fatal by other bicycle doctors, but you cured the disorder and I did not lose a day of iny tour.' " 'I was troubled with varicose tires, involving frequent ruptures and incon­ tinence of wind. You cured me.' "Thousands of testimonials like the above sent on application."--Chicago Record. Charles Dickens' Fault. A book might be written and doubt­ less much has been printed on the origin of certain slang phrases which drop from the lips of almost everybody as the cant expression becomes popular, says the Boston Globe. "A fine day, I don't tlfink," says my friend who is quick to catch on and appropriate any­ thing new in a line which distinguishes the vernacular of the day. Of course, somebody originated this semi-sarcas­ tic and wholly ridiculous hyperbole of speech, and that person was no other than Charles .Dickens. In "Martin Cliuzzlewit," simple,, trustful Tom Pinch ruminates: "I'm a nice man, I don't think, as John used to say," etc., which only goes to show that there is nothing so very new in certain of the popular slang phrases of the time af­ ter all. Snake Hypnotizes a Cat. Lewis Coolman, a prominent butcher of Somerset, Ohio, upou returning from a trip in the suburbs, saw a cat some distance from a dwelling looking in* ten tly at some object. He became so interested in the feline's strange ac­ tions that he hitched his horse, and then discovered that the cat seemed rooted to the spot by a large black snake, which wras coiled, and with its j boxes and crates of alkklnds is an 1ns- £here are large fruit-package factories at St. Joseph, Traverse City, Grand Rapids, Holland, Belding, Spring Lake and other points along thejwestern pavrt of the State where most of the fruit grows and where the" raw material out of which the packages are manufactured is abundant. In midsummer when peaches and apples are coming ip and when grapes are nearly ready for the market "all the factories run full time and with full forces, and the packages are turned out' by the carload. Black ash veneer is the favdrite ma-, terial for making baskets and boxes for fruit. It is a clean wood, tough, and does not leave a taste or odor to spoil the delicate flavor of the fruit packed in it. Elm molds quickly and ba'sswood has an offensive odor: Maple is the cleanest and sweetest wood there is, but it is expensive and brfttle and packages made of it-break and splinter easily. In manufacturing veneers the basis for all the modern fruit packages, a simple, though interesting process is followed. The log is. sawed into bolte> of a proper length, usually aboht three feet, and these are boiled thoroughly in huge vats kept hot by steam pipes. The bolts are brought steaming from the vats to the veneer cutter, which resembles a heavy lathe. As the bolt revolves in the lathe a wide knife, op-- erated automatically, slices off the thin veneer in a continuous roll. The veneer is cut a sixteenth of an inch thick for the average fruit package, but for fine work it is often thinner. Veneers can bo cut to the thinness of a sheet of paper, and from that up to a quarter of an inch in thickness. From the cutter the veneers, still hot and inoist, are shifted to the saws, where they are cut into strips of the desired length and width; For bushel baskets the veneers are cut into strips about two inches wide by three feet long. For other packages different shapes are used. In making bushel baskets the strips of veneer are placed crosswise in a stationary hoop, with spaces set for each strip. Then a machine which op­ erates on the same general principle as an office punch for .sealing a file of papers with an eyelet, descends and the strips of veneer are riveted with an iron "eye." The disk of veneer strips is then pass­ ed to another machine which gives it the This machine is in two parts, the lower, of steel and the exact shape of the iilfeide of a basket. On the top of this form is a place into which the iron eye fits. The upper part de­ scends and the still pliable veneer is quickly bent into the basket shape and held fast until the operative can clinch the matter with wire nails. The opera­ tive takes a hoop and slips It down into place for the top of the basket and nails it fast. Then he takes a long strip ot veneer and beginning at one end nails it to the bent veneer for the center hoop and in doing so performs a veritable war dance, in which hands, feet and mouth all take a part. The operatives carry the nails in their mouths, and often so full are those convenient recep­ tacles that talking is out of the ques­ tion. Like lightning the nails drop from mouth to nimble fingers and with one blow of the hammer each is driven into place, and as it comes in contact with the metal form It bends close to the inner side.of the basket. When the hoops are in place the bas­ ket passes to a boy, who puts on the bottom hoop to give it a firm founda­ tion when it stands on the ground. The handles are bent to the desired form by machinery and dried, and a pile is placed by the last machine. The baskets are taken one at a time and the bandies placed in position and then the machine sews them on with heavy wire. Drying the basket is the final operation, and it is quickly done. It takes but a. few minutes for skillful operatives and quick-working machines to convert the raw timber into a finish­ ed basket--it is done while you wait. The peach and other baskets and also the berry boxes are made on substan­ tially the same lines as the bushel bas­ kets, with varying shapes of veneer and modified machines. In making peck baskets of woven veneers the latter are quickly braided into the desired form instead of being crossed, as in the bushel baskets, and then they pass to the machine to be pressed into shape and to have the hoops nailed on and the handles attached. In making berry boxes the veneers are cut to the desired dimensions, two pieces are crossed and placed upon a machine which marks the folds with a knife which cuts part Way iutT) the wood and then folds them; the side piece, already marked, is quickly wrap­ ped around the form-and tacked on. The hollow bottom to the berry box was the invention of a man named Hal- leck. and it is related that he did not realize a cent from an idea which has been of immense value to fruit growers as well as the package manufacturers. The patent which he took out on his idea has long since expired, and all the manufacturers now use it free. The hollow bottom is not, as some suppose, to diminish the quantity a box will hold, but it is to save the contents of the lower box from being crushed. In mak­ ing grape boxes a. thick bottom is pro­ vided arid the sides of veneer are tack­ ed on. and often a cover of gauze Is sdwed on with wire before it leaves the factory. The package covers are turn­ ed out very rapidly. For bushel bas­ kets the strips of vender are placed in a form and the hoop around the outer edge is nailed on. The covers for the other baskets are prepared in the same way, with necessary modifications, of course, for the different shapes. The fruit packages as turned out by the thousand in Michigan factories are very cheap--cheap enough to give away with the fruit contained In them. The whitewood and have tin edges at the looking, and in fact "the same may be top instead of hoops of veneer. They said of men who are not only famous,- make a much handsomer appearance but great."7 Great generals, great poets, and ire slightly nibfe expensive, but great statesmen, and even great preach* the d ••md for them is increasing and ers have sometimes been weak in bodily the manufacturers are disposed to sup- j presence. And still it is natural for us ply anything that nqay be asked for. In (earlier days each package'ibahu- facturer had his own standard of sizes, but of late years the tendency has been j Detroit Free Press tells a story. She more and more in the direction of uni­ form standards, so that a bushel basket will mean the.same thing whether turn­ ed out in Grand Rapids or Traverse City^T The sizes are bushels and frac­ tions of bushels down to a half-peck, for peaches, apples and other fruits of thatnature; then for grapes, three, five, ten and hfteen pounds and some even larger. -In boxes the quart is the stan­ dard and a few pints are made. , The crates into which the berry boxes are packed are made of, thin elm or bass- wood and often pine is used. They are quickly "tacked together, and are not designed for hard or long usag;e. In shipping baskets and similar pack­ ages for fruit they are "birdnested" to occupy as little space as possible and the covers are sent on separately, pack­ ed close together and crated. So light are the baskew and they take up so lit­ tle room that thousands of them are re­ quired to make an ordinary carload, yet the demand for them is so great during the fruit season that carload shipments are common. The chief center of the fruit trade in Michigan, where the larg­ est quantity is handled, is Grand Rap­ ids. and regular depots for packages are maintained there. Allegan, Saugatuck, St. Joseph, Benton Harbor, Grand Ha­ ven, Mriskegon, Hart and Traverse City are also important fruit centers. For shipment the veneer that goes to form the berry boxes is cut into the proper lengths and crossed where the wood is to be bent. Then thousands of boxes in this shape, which is techni­ cally styled "knock-down," are packed into rough crates. "Birdnesting" con­ sists of placing one basket into another until the pile reaches the height of the shipping crate. " ' These Michigan fruit baskets and boxes go far into the West, and every fruit grower has a little Work bench under the trees, w^iere he "sets up" his "knock-down" berry boxes. He has a form" made of a 4x4 hardwood block and he bends the creased veneer Into the proper shape. Then lie drives in the little nails and the job is done. His peach baskets are of the peck size and come in the "knock-down." It requires greater skill to form the basket, but practice makes perfect and customers seldom look further than the fruit. Berry crates the fruit grower makes himself and saves the freight. Lath and thin, cheap lumber from the local deal­ er are the material used. Burmese Girls. In every household the daughter has her appointed work. In all but the richer merchants' houses the daugh­ ter's duty is to bring the water from the well evening and morning. It is the gosslpping place of the village, this well, and as the sun sets there come running down all the girls of the vil­ lage.* As they fill their jars they lean over the curb and talk, and it Is here that are told the latest news, the latest flirtation, the latest marriage, the lit­ tle scandal of the place. Very few men come. Water-carrying is not their duty, and there is a proper time and place for flirtation. So the girls have the well almost to themselves. Almost every girl will weave. In every house there will be a loom, where the girls weave their dresses and those of their parents. And very many girls of their parents. And very many girls will have stalls in the bazar. Other duties are the husking of the rice and the making of che­ roots. Of . course, in the richer households there will be servants to-do all this; but even in them the daughter will frequently weave, either for her­ self or fpr her parents. Almost I very girl will do something, if it be only to pass the time.--Blackwood's Magazine. He Was Rich. The man in the upper berth leaned over its edge, and, jamming his frown firmly down on his brow, cried in a harsh, coarse voice that was audible above the rattle and rumble of the car wheels: "Hi, you, down there! Are you rich?" "Heli?" ejaculated the man in the lower berth; almost swallowing his Adam's apple. "Whazzer mazzer?" "I say, are you rich?" "What's that, sir? Rich? What do you mean by waking me up in the mid die of the night to ask me such a ques­ tion as that?" "I want to know, that's why." "Well, then, confound you, I am rich. Now, I hope your infernal curiosity i3 satisfied and you will let me go to sleep." "Very rich?" "Millionaire, darn you. Now shut up and----" "Well, then, why in sizzling, blazing torment, don't you hire a whole sleep­ ing car to do your shoring in?"--New York World. o to form an bxalted idea of personages about whom we have read, as did a Maryland farmer's wife of whom the andiier husband had.gone to Washing­ ton to'see the sights. ' They had taken fleeting observations of the State, War and Navy building, of the White House, the Treasury build­ ing. the Patent Office, the postoffice.and then, after a hurried run about the Smithsonian and the Museum, they had gone on to the Capitol. Here they had no sooner reached the rotunda than a guide offered his services. "What can you show us?" Inquired the farmer. " "Everything that is to be seen," re­ plied the guide. , . "Is it wuth payin' fdr ?" "Well, I should say it wras. This Is the finest building in the world." "But We can see for ourselves, I reckon, can!t we?" v ^ "Oh, yes, but you won't know half What you see. There,.for instance, goes a United States Senator," saiid the guide, pointing out a well-known- states­ man- of neither imposing appearance nor conspicuous neatness of attire, hur­ rying along toward the House side. The old lady was interested at once. She had read of Senators iii' the papers, and held them in great awe. It took her some time to make up her mind that what she saw was really, a Senator; then she turned to her husband.' "Huh!" she said, in a tone of sincere disappointment. "Is that a Senator? Well, I thought I was goin' to see some- tldn' that was wuth lookin' at when I saw a Senator. Come on, Hiram," she added, taking him by the ami. "If he can't show us anythin' better'n that, 'taint wurth payin' for," and she dragged her husband away. Height of Beehives. In;many apiaries the hives stand near the ground upon a piece of joist three or four inches wide, or upon bricks, brie under each corner. In others the hives stand a foot high, and again hives may be seen two or three feet high, perched on posts. As far as the bees are concerned, it does not mat­ ter whether hives be high or low, al­ though. judging by the habits of the bees, the higher the hive is the better they wouldJj^e it. But the bee-keeper is the one to be accommodated by the position of the hive. He will place it at the height where it-will be most con­ venient for him. It is extraordinary that the hives in the majority of apiaries are not placed to give the bee-keeper the best advan­ tage, owing perhaps to the idea held by some bee-keepers that it is good-- essential--to have the bees near the ground. An Ohio farmer correspondent says that the best arangement for bees is a platform upon posts sunk in the ground at frequent intervals." If the platform have a roof, it makes it all- the better for the bees and the bee-lcceper during the warm weather. The roof should be portable and" not be put on before June, because bees want, all the sun tney can get up to that time. Feeding Horses Automatically. The Maine man who rigged up a com­ mon alarm clock so that it would open a sluice and let some grain fall into the horse's feed box at a certain hour in the morning is doubtless an original inventor ir^one sense of the term, but the plan is in operation in New York and other cities on a still larger scale. One clock, specially designed, is made to operate from twenty to forty clocks in a single stable, and perhaps a dozen stables are now so equipped. These are mostly owned by milk companies. It is often desirable to have horses fed •at a very early hour, and this plan makes it possible to give them grain or any other dry stuff, which can be stored for hours and then dropped through a hopper long before the man who must clean and harness them is out of bed. The boxes' that contain the food over night have trap doors in the bottom and are provided with suitable spouts discharging into the manger. From each trap door a wire runs to the clock, which is arranged to liberate at the designated hour a heavy weight that moves a lever to which all these wires are fastened.--New York Tribune. bushel baskets are quoted aikDO cents to head erect, looking intently at the cat. which had been charmed or hypnotized. a (lozen< the and 1)askets Mr. Coolman secured a club and struck the snake, and as he did so the cat fell as if it had been struck. The next sec­ ond it was on its feet, running in great fright toward the dwelling. Curry--Carbon seems to be very friendly with everybody all of a sudden. .Helooked at me with a half question- Vokes--Yes; he is going to get married ing expression. ( ; SOOn, and he wants to ba>"e as many "You can't take the observations," j friends as lie can to invite and-get pr€s- he said. J ents from.--Truth. at .$15 to $20 a thousand and the berry boxes at about $s> a thousand. The packages, except ^ushel baskets, are | rarely used more than once, and from [ the fruit store or grocery they go to the home of the rethil buyer and thence to the furnace or cook stove. They are so cheap that it is hardly worth while to try to save them. I The Californians make finer grades of j fruit packages, which the Michigan Bogus Alaskan Curios. Ex-State Senator E. C. Voorheis, of Sutter Creek, has returned to San Francisco with his family from a visit to Alaska on the City of Pueblo. "There is one thing from which the ordinary tourist cannot be weaned," said he. "He will buy curios wherever he goes. That is the way in Alaska. We hear a good deal about the fine carving done by the native Alaskan. Now, the fact Is, the Alaskan knows mighty little about carving. The , crack carver of Sitka came down to San Francisco, I w-as told, to learn the art of carving, and now he turns out barrels of Ingeni­ ous contrivance supposed by his cus­ tomers to be indigenous to the soil of Alaska only. On a boat which went to Juneau a short time before we arrived there were . actually 6,000 pounds of Alaskan curios manufactured by Amer­ icans at Brockton, Mass." Has Savetl More Than Thirty Lives. Few people have heard of Robert D. Russell, the "IIcll Gate life saver," and yet this brave and modest man lias sav­ ed more than thirty persons from drowning and, lis he is still in the prime of his manhood, may save as many more, Mr. Russell.was born in 1856, and though an American, lie is of the Irish-American type. lie is tall and handsome, dark and bright-eyed. He is an athlete possessed of great strength, but he rather shuns a row, and, from the habit he has acquired of runnin away from a quarrel with a small man, would be called a coward by those who did not know him. This, however, would be quite a mistake as, when fore ed to, he has been known to success­ fully handle two men of his own call her. The Light Wheel. Those who preach in favor of the aluminum wheel, which is tp come, have forgotten to give it one of the greatest virtues it will have, w hen it gets here, says the Wheel. Being so muchllghter than others, all the scorch­ ers will of course ride it, so when they run over any one the injury will be very much less than that caused by the heavier wheel of'steel. This alone is enough to cause an intense longing for the speedy arrival of the weightless aluminum wheel. A Imeky Accident, As an example of how a remunerative specialty pa hardware forced itself on a recepjj^e and appreclati ve Yankee,^ the following incident will be of inters!: Among manufacturers small castings are often put in revolving cylinders with pickers or stars made of cast iron, having usually six points, the extremes of which are about ah ineh apart. They are also familiar to toy dealers and children as "jackstone." The pickers,.together with sinall castings,- are put into the tumbling barrels, so that any particles of sand adhering may be removed and a better finish given the castings. A large and well-known New -Eng­ land concern, which, In addition to,the other • lines, manufactures screw- wrenches largely, formerly used a pe­ culiarly shaped malleable iron ferule., with irregular openings at the four sides and circular openings at the two ends, weighing about an ounce. Some of these ferules chanced to bo a part of the contents in one of the tumbling barrels. When the barrel was opened the at­ tendant noticed what to him seemed al­ most incredible, that the picker, with all its pfcongg, was inside the ferule, the; opening of which, was comparatively siriall. The observant mechanic logic­ ally concluded that as it had gotten in it could be gotten out again. The phenomenon was brought to tho attention of parties who decided to ap­ ply the idea in a puzzle, and the result ha3 been that the original manufac­ turers are now making the two parts •under contract, in ton lots, while the first order is said, to haVe netted a profit to the promoters of $1,700. This is: known on the streets as the Trilby puz- sle.--Chicago Tribune. "What a Boy Can Do." "What a Boy Can Do" was the title of a composition telling of various things that boys can do which was written by a lad belonging to Grammar School No. 87, at Amsterdam avenue and 77t.h street The lad, Frederick W. Peck, died soon after writing the essay, and It has a peculiar meanipg to his parents, teachers and schoolmates be­ cause he did so much, yet was only a boy. He was the only son and a great favorite at school among his ghurus. He was as fond as other boys are of sports, but lie was observing and stu­ dious and thought out many things for himself. He was very fond of reading, and collected quite a little library of his own, which when he found he was going to die, he asked should be given with his savings, $300, to the school to start a large library for the scholars. School No. 87 now boasts the finest library of any school in the city. Fred­ erick's father added $500 to the sum saved by his son, and others have in­ creased the amount at various times. The library is on the top floor of an annex to the school in 77th street with pleasant reading rooms adjoining, where boys can read and study refer­ ence books. Young Peck closed his essay with these words, which he cer­ tainly splendidly fulfilled himself: "A boy can be a blessing to his fellow pu­ pils, to his teachers, to his principal, and to his parents,., to his country and to God on high."--New York Times. A Queer Postal Dictionary. Recently a postal dictionary, about the size of Webster's Unabridged, has been published in the French language by the International Postal Union. It con­ tains the names of all the postoffices in the world, 203,200. Everything from Aa, an office in Norway, to Zywice, in Austria, is given; even our own little Uz, In Texas, Is there. In names of offices and places this book furnishes several amusing Incidents. For in­ stance, Tombstone is given as in "Ter- ritoire du Arezonie;" Las Vegas, "Ter- rltoire du Nouveau-Mexique;" West Virginia is "Vlrgine Occidentale;" South Dakota is "Dakota du Sud," and North" Dakota is "Dakota du Nord," and the District of Columbia is "Dis­ trict de Colombe, Etats-Unis d'Amer- lque." Here can be found the offices of Hell-for-Sarten, Yuba-Dam, plain, ev­ eryday Hell, in Norway; Kissme, in Montana; Who, in Texas; Hells Half Acre, in Dakota; Breckinridge, in sev­ eral places, but Trilby is not in it. Trilby is new, and on a starroute. In the next postal directory she will land with both feet.--New Orleans Picayune. Mr. McSwat--Great Scott, Lobelia! What are you waking me up in the Hopeless. middle of the night for? Mrs. McSwat Upon Fenelou telling Richelieu that --I want to know, dear, if the mosqui- he had seen, the portrait of lilt* emi- toes are biting you as badly as they nence at the palace, the cardinal sneer-1 are nie.--Chicago Tribune. ingly asked: /'Did you ask It for a sub- j Saved by a Mileage Ticket. Mileage tickets in Berlin go by the name of "kilometerheft," and the stamped stubs show exactly where and when the holder of the ticket was at any given time and place. This is what saved the drummer for a Carlsruhe firm the other day in a predicament. Just as lie was climbing into a train leaving for Mannheim he was arrested. An awful crime had. been committed a few hours before in/the Haardt forest, not far away, and the minute descrip­ tion of the perpetrator tallied exactly •vaith the appearance of the unfortunate drummer. Then tho ticket came to his rescue. That furnished an undeniable alibi for him, as it showed him to have been one hundred miles from the scene of thecrimeattbe time of its occurrence. The proof was furnished so promptly that the drummer did not even miss his train. 1 A Cautious Bishop. Bishop Potter, of New York, while staying at a Syracuse hotel was called upon by a reporter, who finally put the question: "Bishop, what do you think of the new woman?' "Why do you ask me that .question?" the bishop replied. "They have Bishop Doane stretched upon a gridiron. Do you expect me to RiWei,*!;&V funeral pyre? Every good work has'.received its Impress from woman. The 'new woman,' if she be true to herself, will be, as she lias al­ ways been, the sharer of man's joys and of his sorrows, and his helpmeet" scription for some poor friend of yours?" "No; the picture was too much like you." _ a A good minister asked a girl w'nat representative of the religious press she liked best, and she replied: Sunday Jfc'filit beau " It has been decided by a Brooklyn church that playing cards isn't wicked, and' two-thirds of tho congregation have quit using them. » If you pay a school teacher a cornpli- My i merit, she will not observe the grauiat- | leal errors He Was Accommodating. In the course of a crusade against the users of false weights and measures the Philadelphia police last week found a manufacturer who displayed a sign | over his shop door reading: "One-half ; peck measures, all shapes and sizes, made here." WTien interviewed as to the exact meaning of tlie sign, lie said it meant just what it said; people want­ ed measures of different sizes, and he madfc it his business to give his cus­ tomers what they wanted. He made tin quart measures on the same basis; too, he said. /" A pillow thief held dn to the" pillow# but gave the police the slip.