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* GETTIN' SHET OF ^ MARY MASON. I T was in a little house on a little street of a little Nebraska town-- the Town of Bubble. The little woman was crouched up on the carpet sofa in a limp heap. She looked ill, but .sanguine--exhausted, but relieved. The remains of the inid- • day meal were on the table. There were traces of ashes about the stove. The baby's gown was begrimed. In spite of these facts the mistress of the modest home smiled sweetly. "Well," exclaimed her visitor, one ; comprehensive glance embracing the unwonted neglect of the"place. "I heard *' " you were not feeling well,- but I did yeast that costs' 5 Cents,' she'd say. •when half a cake will make a bakin' for me and Samyel. I'll take.a bit of your'n.' The next time^ slid come 'twoud be flavorin'. 'No use of me get- tin' a whole bottle of vaniller,' she'd say. 'when I only make a cake once a week. A teaspoon 'ill do me.' Then there was tea. Samyel drank only cof­ fee, an' ' 'twould be extravagance for me,' she says, 'to buy half a pound of tea,, for myself. 'I'll take a pinch of you.rs.' So she took a pinch--most ev­ ery day. Pinches make pounds- enough of 'em. 'Pickles,' she often ob-t served, 'I'm'-'most especially fond of. not know you required assistance with J but Samyel says they rust out the linen' .y'Our housework. I supposed, of.course, your friend Mrs. Mason was with you." The little woman looked up with a sparkle in her eye. , - "O, I'm well enough. I was sick enough up to last Tuesday. I've been gettin' better ever since. I'll have the table red off an' things straightened be­ fore Tom gets home. If I feel like it now I can let things be. There ain't no one to notice. Mrs. Mason, she don't come over. Truth is, we've got shet of Mary Mason. We just," in emphatic repetition, "had to get shet of Mary Mason." The visitor was sympathetic. The lit­ tle woman was confidential. "Me an' Tom," she explained, "have lived on farms all our lives. So when we rented the farm and moved into town, I thought the change was fine. 'My!' I says to Tom, 'ain't it nice to live in a large place. I never before suspicioned how comfortable it was to live reel near to folks, an' have them folks neighborly. Out'n the half sec­ tion we might be two weeks 'ithout see- in' a body to speak to. An' here we've got 300 people in this town, an' two trains a day--not to mention the freights--an' houses all round us. It's awful nice,' I says to Tom, 'but what's nicest is Mrs. Mason. Why, she comes in that often I ain't got a bit of time to be lonesome for the stock. There's only herself an* her husband, so her work don't count. She can't read or write only Bohemy, an' she ain't got no use for that language since she mar­ ried out'n her folks. Take it altogeth­ er,- she's willin' to neighbor lots, an' that,' I says to Tom, 'will be mighty perkin' for me!'" • "Yes," assented her visitor, with a rising Inflection on the monosyllable. "Tom, he didn't say much. He's kind of slow-like. He jest said, 'What suits you, Eliza, suits me!' Well, Mrs. Ma­ son she come. She kept comin'. Some­ times, if she got Samyel off early, she come in before our breakfast. She al­ ius come in before I got the dishes done up. An' she stayed. She stayed all mornin'--even wash morn in's. Some­ times she talked. Right along she kept nibblin*. Sometimes 'twas a bit of cheese, or a couple of crackers, or a hunk of spice gingerbread, or the top off a jar of jell. 'I can't hear you when I'm a-rubbin',' I'd say. That never mattered a bit to her. She'd wait till I got through rubbin' an' was a-bilin'. But whether she talked or whether she didn't she alius come, sure as the day­ light did, she alius kept a-nibblin', an' she alius stayed." of a body's stomach. So I've made up my mind I'll eat mine over here, an' then he won't know if the ljnin' o' my stomach is rusted out or not.' I wish," feebly concluded Mrs. Robinson, "that you'd look at that row of empty jars on'top of the kitchen press!" A depressing and significant silence followed. . "Me.an' Tom," said the protesting voice, "wanted to talk it over, but 'twas only between 12 at night an' 0 in the mornin' we got a chance. 'Tom,' I says to him one night after she'd been in an' borryed our last half-dozen of eggs, savin' she'd return 'em when they got cheaper, 'Tom. we got to get shet of Mary Mason!' Tom says, 'I don't know how we're goin'„to do it unless we moye back on the ^farm.' " "But you couldn't well do that!" "Not real easy. So I begun to give her hints. I give her all kind of hints. I said as how I'd never been used to sassiety. an' that much of it made my head ache. I said as how Tom just loved solitood--that there wasn't any­ thing he liked better than spending his evenings alone with me an' the chil­ dren. I said late hours was fearful wearin' on our constitootions, an' that after this we was going to bed not later'n 9 o'clock. I said I couldn't re­ turn her visits because Tom hadn't no use for women that was alius gaddin' --an' besides it wouldn't be no use for me to go over seein' she was never home. Them, an' lots other gentle hints I gave her. She only says, 'O, stuffin'! I ain't one to make a fuss because a body can't keep up with the rules of ettirquette! I don't mind if you never come over. I won't get mad. I ain't that proud sort Guess I'll take a bit of that roly-poly over for Samyel's din­ ner--it'll save me makin' sass.' It was that way right along. When she got through eatin' she was sure to want sometliin' to take home for Samyel. 'You jest put an extry tablespoon of coffee in the pot' she'd say, 'an' I'll run over with Samyel's cup. That'll save me makin' some.' Well, when I told Tom that them mild sayin's of mine 'ud no more mix into her mind than you could make sulphur blend with wa­ ter, Tom Says, 'Tell her we're goin' to move back on the farm. Maybe then she'll begin to neighbor with the folks that has just got married across the alley.'" " That very day--'twas a quarter to 12, a week ago yesterday--she come a-walkin' into the kitch^i (she never knocked), a big; plate in lifer hand. Like usual she had a whola-.'blg welcome The narrator treated herself to a tea- for herself- !* knWV"8he says, 'you . . ... I was aimin' to have-a biled dinner to-spoonful of medicine out of a bottle on the window-sill before she proceeded. "Our girls get home from school at 12," went on the prostrated chatelaine, "an" I alius have lunch for 'em then. Sometimes it's reel good. Sometimes It's only scraps. Anyhow, it's the best me an' Tom can afford. Don't you think she Stayed for every one of them lunches? My, yes. She don't have to get dinner for Samyel till 1, an' she 'lowed that she most generally got peck­ ish about noon. So she'd set down with the children reg'lar, an' then go across home to get dinner. Lots of times they'd be just a snag of pork, or a gumption of fried potatoes, or as much jam leayin' as you'd sneeze at. 'There ain't nothin' here, Mrs. Mason, to ask you to have a bite of,' I says to her often. 'O laws,' she answers, 'what's good enough for you is good enough for me!' An' she sets down." Her visitor sighed softly. t "Then she would stay all afternoon. She was alius here when Tom come home to supper. Her husband took his supper at the hotel, so she used to jine us. Samyel never got back from the day, an' I thought I'd jest run over and get enough for Sam*$ an' me out'r the pot while it was hot.' So up she marches to the stove, and takes the lid off'n the kettle, an';;isfeegins a-spearin' out the salt'pork, the turnips, an' the cabbage. 'Sake's alive!' she says, prod- din', round. 'there ain't no carrots. Why ain't yet got some carrots? Me an' Samyel we're reel fond .of carrots.' 'Maybe,' says I, kind of sarcastic like, 'we'l^ave lots of 'em soon. That is, if we move back on the farm, like we're talkin' of doin'." "Tom thought that'd be a knockdown blow. So did I. But 'tvvasn't. We didn't know Mary Mason. She smiled all over. Gracious me!' she says, 'if that ain't luck! I told Samyel this mornin t was clean beat out housekeepin' an' would like a chance to recooperate. Here it is! I'll go out to the farm with you an' stay for three months!" Then I knew that my last hint had fall'n flatter'n the breakfast puffs you make from a newspaper prize recipe. I had felt my family peace a-goin", I Tom an' mels llvin' happy an* peaceful again.3 We go tO bed at half past §. The children gets all their share at meal times. I reel up when I feel will- ia\ Tom says It's too good to last. He says she'll come back one of these days. Do you think she will?" "O, surely not!" "I hope not," returned the little wom­ an, smiling brightly. But the next in­ stant she cast toward the door a fur­ tive glance that was dark with dread. "We've got shet of Mary Mason I know, but--will we stay shet?"--Chicago Trib­ une, ' A FREAK AMONG FLOWERS. Venus' Fly Trap and Its Almost Unman Action. Now and again, in exploring Ameri­ can woods and swamps, botanists have come across floral curiosities that al­ most bridge over the great gulf that divides the animal and vegetable king-: doms, says the Designer. One of these, to be met with nowhere in the world save in North Carolina, is scientifical­ ly classified as dionoea muscipula, but is colloquially known as "Venus' fly trap."ii , .. .' • _ . In appearance the extraordinary plant is prettily but unassumingly ttie leafless flower stem, running from six to eight inches in height and sur­ mounted by a cluster of five petalled blossoms, rising erect like a rosette­ like bed of leaves. It is in the edge of the leaves that the death-dealing ap­ paratus is set--for this modest little plant, which Is so delicate that it dies of the slightest injury to foot or stem, sustains its life by feeding upon the hqwary insects that chance to alight upon its leaves, enticing them to their destruction by exuding from the edges of its fatal traps a viscous fluid, some­ what resembling honey. The traps consist of two soft, vel­ vety leaves, fringed with delicate bris­ tles and hinged together on one side. The unsuspecting fly, lured by the honey, alights on these bristles in an­ ticipation of a feast, but at the first touch of its feet the hinges close, the two leaves come together, the bristles interlock, and the hapless insect is im­ prisoned in a cell from which escape is impossible. Under the stimulus of the victim's struggles the tiny glands with which the inner walls of the trap are furnish­ ed pour forth a secretion which Dar­ win analyzed as a vegetable gastric juice, resembling that which insures digestion in animal life. Under the in­ fluence of this curious fluid, the fly is actually digested alive, and its juices being extracted the trap doors are re­ opened and the skeleton is flung out. • The scientists declare that the plant unquestionably lives upon the juices of its victims, but one or two expert florists take exception to this state­ ment. It is worthy of note that, al­ though the habit of the plant is car­ nivorous, experiments have proved that it lives longer and thrives better when so inclosed that no insects can reach it--a superabundance of its fa­ vorite diet apparently rendering it even more delicate than it is by na­ ture. The set of muscles controlling its leaves are said to resemble those of the human eyelids.--New York Her­ ald. AGRICULTURAL NEWS THINGS PERTAINING TO FARM AND HOME. THE Snjrsestions for Those Intending to Start an. Orchard--Small Farmers Should Devote Their Time to Special­ ties--Straw as a Protection. M store before 11, so she'd stay at oUr bad suffered my own health a-goin'-- house to pass the time. Tom, he'd go for the mail, an' come back, an' there she was. 'Read the noos!' she'd say. Tom, who is natchilly pelite, 'ud read it He'd read, an' read, an' read! 'Land's sakes!' Mary Mason 'ud put an' I seen my dinner a-goin', too. So, I riz in my wrath " 'No,' I says, 'yo.u ain't comin'--for you ain't goin' to be asked.' She bust 91*.t a-laffin'. 'Mercy me!' she says, 'What a one In, 'go on! T could jest set here all night you are for 1 never see the beat an' listen.' An' she did--pretty near!" There was a mournful silence. "On the farm," continued Mrs. Rob­ inson, "me an' Tom alius went to bed at 8. How was we to go to bed even at 10, with Mary Mason a-sittin' there? of you. Mis' Itob'son. I ain't so awful pertickler that I wait for folks to ask me.' "Then my temper rises. It come up like milk a-bilin'. You don't know it' near the top till it runs over. 'I ain 'Land 0' the livin'!' she'd say, seein' me jokin',' I says. 'If we move back on If " a-patchin', 'I'm glad I ain't got enny children to keep a-slavin' fer--they do take such a slew of work!' But when I got through the mendin', an' Tom had read every word in the paper, even the advertisements--there she was! Tom he'd yawn an' yawn. I'd tell as how I was dead beat, not liavin' got much the farm 'twill be to get shet of you!.' " 'What's that?" she says, an' stands there a-gawpin'. "'It'll be to get shet of you!' I re pea ted reel deliberate. 'This is the last hint I'll give ye, Mary Mason!' " "Did she take it?" the visitor queried. A faint smile of triumph illumined % ' Starting; an Orchard. The ground for an orchard should be well and deeply cultivated, and free from weeds, well dnalned, if the soil requires it, and moist soils are better for draining excepts sandy or light gravelly soils with a light subsoil. Such land may hot require draining, but in every case it should be well worked and pulverized and enriched. The work of preparation must be done during the summer so as to be ready for fall or spring planting. Planting in the spring is preferred, which will enable the trees to take firm hold of the earth and to resist the frost of next winter; but planting may be done successfully in the autumn by protecting the trees so as to prevent the frost from heaving or misplacing them. ' A - K Select young, healthy and vigorous trees, and from a reliable nurseryman, and if possible from a soil similar to that in which you intend to plant your orchard. The different kinds of ap­ ples will depend upon your own choice and the suitability of soil and climatel I advise that the selection be made from the old, tried and reliable kinds. The distance apart should not be less than thirty feet, so as to allow the trees room to spread their branches and to form a low and spreading head. Close planting has a tendency to force trees to run up, and preventing the fruit from obtaining its proper color from the sun, and making it more difficult to gather the fruit At the distance of thirty feet apart it will require twenty-nine trees to the acre. Before planting the tree, remove all bruised and broken roots by cutting clean with a sharp knife. Lay out your ground in straight lines, so that your trees will be in line each way and at equal distances, thirty feet apart.--William Gray, in Farmers' Re­ view. Specialties for Small Farmers. The farmer on a few acres cannot compete in growing the staple grain crops which, harvested as they are now by machinery, can only be grown profitably on large fields. The small farmer must devote his time, skill and land to special crops that require the greatest amount of labor to make suc­ cessful. If he doesthis thoroughly his limitation as regards land will prove an advantage, not an injury. It is only by thoroughly mastering some one bus­ iness and then sticking to it that men make money. This is as true of the farmer as of men engaged in other vo­ cations. In the Canuries. A tourist in the Canary Islands says: "I know nothing more cheerful to the vagabond than the readiness of friendship among the common people of the Canary Islands. Go where you will abroad you may shake the hand of the beggar, loafer, peasant and cot- tiger. All have the same free and iiearty welcome for you. They seem to delight in outlandish acquaintance, and if you happen to be a woman you instantly appeal to their better selves. Here, as elsewhere, I have kindly mem­ ories of people whose names 1 never knew and who did not know mine. I remember driving by diligence with a brave and heroic-looking young gen­ tleman, beautifully clad. He wore long boots, radiant linen, velvet breech­ es, a short, smart jacket and a wide- brimmed hat. "Men of breeding might go as far as his native village to acquire his per- foct manners. Wondering who this picturesque and operatic young man might be, I afterward questioned the diligence driver (a rascal I had reason to suspect of stealing my bag, with all my things, and the Wonderful bargains 111 Orotava lace and embroidery I had driven), and learned that he was a vil­ lage butcher. So with all the trades people here. I wanted to match some stuff sold me by a woman of Orotava down at Santa Cruz, and was informed I could apply to Don Pablo, or Don Pedro, and then to Don Nicholas of the Puerto. Surnames are suppressed-- every one is still as well born as they were on the peninsula in the days of Lope de Vega--and the German ambas­ sador, asking for a servant's creden­ tials, was presented with proof of his descent from a Gothic king."--Good Words. sleep the night before with the baby the face reposing on the patchwork pil- that was croupy. She never pretended | low. to hear. By'm by, Tom, he'd go into our bedroom that's off the settin'-room, an' he'd haul off his shoes, an' sling 'em on th£ floor real hard. That didn't stir her. It was awful provokin'.' "It must have been!" her visitor ac­ quiesced. "Then they was the borryin'. Not that Mary Mason called it borryin*. She said she hadn't a bit of use for folks that borryed. She said when she want­ ed anything from a person she neigh?! bored with that she just went in an' took it reel friendly like. That's how our groceries kept a-meltin'. "Tain't' worth while me buyin* a package of "O, yes, she took it--along with the biled dinner. She said, though, that her faith in human natur' was shook. She said she'd never again try to neigh­ bor with a woman who didn't appre­ ciate the friendliness of persons more accustomed to sassiety. She 'lowed she never had much use nohow for folks who couldn't tell fiudoosickle from sauerkraut" "So your ordeal is at an end?" ("We believe-so," the little woman said hopefully; "It's a week since we had the biled dinner--most of wliioh we didn't have. She ain't come over since. I'm gettin' my health back. A Curious Wooden Watch. The most curious timekeeper, per­ haps. that has ever been made in this country was the work of one Victor Doriot, who lived at Bristol, Tonn„ about twenty years ago. This oddity was nothing more or less than a wood­ en watch. The case was made of briar root and the inside works, except three of the main wheels and the springs (which were of metal) were made from a piece of an old boxwood rule. The face, which was polished unili it look­ ed like a slab of finest ivory, was made from the shoulder blade of an old cow that had been killed by the cars. "Do- riot's queer watch," as it was called, was an open-faced affair, with a glass crystal, and was pronounced a fine piece of work by all the watchmakers in East Tennessee. A Lucky "Spec." Several days ago the schooner Rob­ ert I. Carter struck on Alden's Rock, and to all appearances was a total loss. Nautical experts agreed that she would leave her bones there, and her owners stripped her and sold the hulk to Charles Bartlett, of this citj*, who bought it for $70 on ".spec." Last-night's wind and tide floated the schooner off, and, to the amazement of the salts, she came drifting up the harbor. Bartlett had her towed in. Siie is worth $45,000, and has besides a cargo of 1,200 tons of coal, most of which is salable.--Port­ land (Me.) special Boston Herald. Straw to Protect from Cold. Wherever straw is plentiful it is very easy to save stock from suffering by extreme cold. Layers of straw sep­ arated by something sufficient merely to keep them apart and inclose an air space will keep out cold as effectively as will a wall With a few poles from the woods and plenty of straw many a poor farmer has kept one or two cows as comfortably stabled as if he had a basement barn. But the straw stable will probably need some repairing even before the winter is over, and more or less hay or other feed will be wasted while it is being carried to the animals kept in it. The Suuar Beat. ' The best type of sugar beet is a root weighing one and a half to two pounds, and looks more like a fat parsnip than the big beets or mangel-wurzels that some people seem to think are grown for purposes. There are numerous va­ rieties of sugar beets, but Klein Wan- zlebener is as much grown in this coun­ try as any. The raising of beet seed is going to be quite an industry in this country. Small and cheap factories are not profitable. In the present state of sug­ ar manufacturing only a large factory capable of working up at least 250 tons of beets per day of twenty-four hours can operate successfully. It is possible for a large central factory to have nu­ merous rasping stations, but this is merely to save transportation of the raw beets to the central factory. There is loud call for some means of making crude syrup or raw sugar from the beet in small factories, this requiring only a moderate investment, the raw product to be shipped to the expensive refinery to be refined. American in­ ventive genius is now engaged on the problem. How far one can afford to ship beets to a factory depends wholly upon the rate of freight. If .$4 per ton is paid for beets delivered at the factory, the nearer the grower lives to the factory the better, as he can haul the beets to the factory himself and get the full price. If after the haul by wagon one has to pay 30 to 75 cents per ton for railroad freight it eats up the profits very fast--Orange Judd Farmer. of the meat with lard and; then seal tightly over its surface. Meat can be thus kept sweet and good for months. ' Picking- and Ripening Pears. It is the opinion of most nurserymen >that pears should be picked while green and ripened Ihdoors. The sunny side of the tree should be picked first and the rest later on. The greener the pear the higher the. temperature should be to rjlpen it. The atmosphere should be jnolst to keep the pears from shriveling. The tasteless .fiear is the result of too early picking, and should have received more sun and less artificial heat. Such a pear is flavorless, and unfit to eat. As pears absorb odors readily, much •Care should be taken that the boxes and papers in which they are packed are kept fresh and Clean. Pears not being so elastic as apples, require straw, paper or some such material to keep them from being injured by the sides of the box or barrel. Early pears and those nearly ripe should be packed in shal­ low, weji-ventilated boxes. French gar­ deners generally pack this fruit In lay­ ers with the spaces filled up with pow­ dered charcoal. The largest and green­ est fruit is in the bottom, and all so snugly packed that no movement Is possible, and that one pear does" not press against another.--Canadian Hor­ ticulturist. i Cisterns Under Barns. Every barn will shed from Its roof enough water for all the stock that can be kept on the feed it contains or the cattle it will shelter. .If this water is duly conducted into a cistern in the barn basement and filtered before us­ ing, it is much the best water the stock can have for drink. In the basement the water will never be down to freez­ ing temperature, which is an import­ ant matter; as every degree of cold has to be warmed to animal heat by the carbonaceous food that the animal has digested. If it is a milch cow that has Its water thus warmed, it detracts just so much from'the butter fats "which the milk will contain. That Is about as ex­ pensive warmth, even at low prices for butter, as the farmer ever pays for. Keep Old Corn in the Crib. No good farmer likes to be entirely out of corn, and if he is a good calcula­ tor he Will not be. The mistake most likely to upset his calculations is more likely to be made keeping fattening hogs and other animals after the time that they are fully fattened. Most of the grain thus fed is practically wast­ ed. It produces not one-half the pork that it would if given during the sum­ mer season in small quantities as an addition to what the pigs find in the pasture and orchard. It is this advan tage of keeping old com in the crip that led to an experienced farmer to say that the ability to do this was the best possible certificate that the farmer who could do It was successful and pros­ perous. Odds and Ends. - A mustard plaster mixed with the white of an egg will nof leave a blister. Dissolve a little gait in the alcohol that is to be used for sponging clothing, particularly where there are greasy spots. It is said that powdered charcoal, if laid thickly on a burn, affords imme­ diate relief from pain; it will heal a superficial burn in about an hour. In ventilating a room, open the win­ dows at the top and bottom. The fresh air rushes in one way, while the foul air makes its exit the other; thus you let in a friend and expel an enemy. A pie<§r of carbonate of ammonia the size of a small pea put into the water in which vegetables are cooked pre­ serves the color. The ammonia evap­ orates in the boiling. It is generally used by French chefs. A simple disinfectant to use in a sick­ room Is made by putting some ground coffee in a saucer and in the center a small piece of camphor gum. Light the gum with a match. As the gum burus allow the coffee to burn with it. The perfume is refreshing and health­ ful, as well as Inexpensive. An egg that has been boiled soft and become cold cannot be cooked again and made lTard; but a soft-boiled egg that has not had the shell broken may be reheated by cooking three minutes in boiling water, and it will taste as well as if freshly boiled. When pies are to be kept over until the second day . after baking, it Is a wise plan to brush the under crust with a beaten egg, then to put the tiu or dish on the ice half an hour. After that put in the filling of the pie and bake quickly. This will keep the crust from getting soaked. It will be of interest to housewives to know that celebrated foreign phys­ icians are recommending the marrow bone for a strengthening diet and ton­ ic. The marrow bone Is served Upon a piece of hot dry toast. When it is to be eaten the marrow is taken out and spread upon the toast. It is also served upon small portions of fillet of beef, and in this manner is considered a desirable course for luncheon parties. The jammed finger should be plunged into water as hot as can possibly be borne. The application of hot water, causes the nail to expand and soften, and the blood pouring out beneath it has more room to flow; thus the pain is lessened. The finger should then be wrapped in a bread and water poultice. A jammed finger should never be neg­ lected, as it may lead to mortification of bone. The old-fashioned copper, or lc piece, was a little more than an inch. Canned IVTeata for Summer. It is not always easy iiv country places to buy fresh meat during hot weather. The result is that many farm­ ers only have fresh meat during the winter season while it can be kept froz­ en. Yet canning meats for summer use is just as practicable as canning fruits for winter use. It is done by putting the meat in wide-necked bottles, pack­ ing it closely and then putting the bot­ tles in warm water which is slowly brought to the boiling point. The bot­ tles should be set on blocks of wood to prevent breakage. After boiling long enough to expel all air, cover the top j Farm Notes. The farmer who expects4 to make sheep pay from the outside of the ani­ mal only will fail--There is more mon­ ey from the whole sheep than from its wool. To propagate from puny plants.is as fatal to success as to breed animals from scrub stock. A plant never re­ fuses to bear fruit without a cause, and that cause is often barrenness, that no system of cultivation will remove. It may be a little discouraging now for the stock breeder to have to sell his surplus at low prices, but the breed­ er who goes right along improving his flocks and herds will turn up all right in, the end. When the tide turns the lucky, plucky breeder will reap his re­ ward. Strips of zinc ten inches or a foot long, two inches wide at one end and tapering to one-half an inch at the other, are the best labels for fruit trees. The narrow end is merely wound round a branch, and. never cut into. Use an ordinary lead pencil to write with; it never seems to wash off. If the zinc is too smooth or shiny, a little exposure to weather will tend to roughen it, so that it can be written on more plainly. It is said that in the fowl kingdom insects, grasshoppers, bugs and worms take the place of meat, so that when by yarding our poultry we cut them off from their natural larder we should supply them from ours. Fresh meat is preferable for this purpose®to bacon, and lean meat rather than fat. They will accept the refuse from the slaugh ter house--the liver, heart, etc.--with greater thankfulness than we do the choicest cuts. The ordinary blacksnake, or racer, is from 5 to 7 feet in length. A hand Is 4 inches. ^QPUKTPY OF CHECKS, Hardships of l<ng\ishmen with the American Baggage System. < The American Constitution has been called a system of checks. So is Amer­ ican life, says the London Mail. When you want to travel you glvie your bag­ gage to the porter of your hotel and he gives you a check in return. At the station you reclaim it with the check, and pass it in at a counter and receive another check. As you ap­ proach your destination another func­ tionary comes along- the train, takes your check and gives you another in its place. He fishes out your baggage and conveys it to ydur hotel--for a con­ sideration. You liave left your third and last check at the office of the hotel when you enter It, and thence it is de-r livered up on receipt of the baggage. At first you bless this arrangement as the salvation of the traveler. Af­ ter a few weeks of it the tyranny of the check becomes so falling that you begin to long for the fine old English method of dumping down your goods in front of the porter and leaving them to find the way themselves. You would even hail it as a personal triumph If some of your baggage would get lost. But it never does. Sometimes it ar­ rives late, but it always arrives. Yet it seldom arrives in the shape in which it started, If that Is, any con­ solation. They \vho have to do with baggage see to that. You very soon discover why .Americans carry their goods in iron-clad trunks, and why It is madness for anybody to do anything else. I started out, like an idiot, with a new leather portmanteau. They ripped the stout brass lock off in the first week--not for plunder apparent­ ly, but simply because it is the tradi­ tion of the service. They punched it and kicked and danced oq it. In softer hours, when literary inspirations came, they wrote on it. My portmanteau to­ day Is an epitome of the political sen­ timent of the United States from New York to San Francisco. As a histori­ cal document it is beyond price, and I am contemplating the gift of it to the library of Congress at Washington. As a portmanteau it has both feet in the grave. • • • • • .. « The system ot checks is not confined to travelers' luggage. The conductor of the train passes carelessly to and fro asking for your tickets, and giving you a cheek in return, or asking for your check and returning your ticket If you hand your stick to a boy in a hotel while you write your name in the register he dashes off to stow it away in some secret place and returns triumphant with a check. But the apotheosis of the check is at Niagara. When you go down to the Cave of the Winds you strip off all your clothes and leave them, as well as your valuables, in a tin box with the attendant. Then you go down to battle with the cataract attired only in a suit of pajamas, a suit of oilskins and a check lashed around your neck, and rising and falling with the beat­ ing of your heart. No wonder the American speaks of death as handing in his checks. It is only by death that he can rid himself of them. ;;.TSri:V" The Greatest Violinist. Paganini was the most remarkable genius with the violin that the world ever knew. His technique was some­ thing wonderful, but mere technique would never have accomplished the results he obtained, nor would it have thrown the musical world into spasms of admiration as he did. The accounts of his playing seem almost incredible. With the first note the audience was spellbound, and remained so to the last. From the violin he drew tones which were unsuspected to exist and invented and played passages believed to be im­ possible. MOore said: "Paganini can play divinely, and does so for a miu- ute 01* two; then comes his tricks and surprises, his bow in convhlsions, his enliarmonics like the mewing^of an ex­ piring cat." The main technical fea­ tures of Paganini's playing were his unfailing intonations, his wonderful rapidity, and a command never equaled of harmonics and double harmonics. He was wonderfully tricky, however, and often accomplished effects not un­ derstood even by experts, by tuning his violin in a different manner from that usually employed. A certain trick passage, running up two octaves while holding B flat, seems to be impossible to the ordinary violinist, but, it is said, by tuning a semi-tone higher the pass­ age presents no unusual difficulty. He never allowed anyone to hear him tune his violin, and when professional people attempted to solve the problem of his playing by requesting him to play in private, he invariably contrived in same way or other to disappoint their ex­ pectations. The secret of his execution died with him, and he has never been equaled as a violinist.^ New York's Composite Personality. Mrs. Schuyler Van Rensselaer con­ tributes to the Century a paper enti­ tled "Places in New York," in which she gives a picture of interesting phases of life in the New World me­ tropolis. Mrs. Van Rensselaer says: More than 7G per cent, of those who people New York to-day wpre born of foreign mothers; more than 40 per cent, were born on foreign soil them­ selves; and many of these aliens, brought from many different lands, continue here to live in clusters with their own kin after their own kind. Yet while each, of these clusters, and each of their wandering offshoots, modifies the Now World metropolis, all of them together do not destroy its cohesion, they simply intensify its cu­ rious composite soi?t of personality. They make It multifariously diverse, but they leave it an entity. They touch every portion of it with pungent exotic flavors, but as flavoring an American whole. They, play their sev­ eral parts in a civic life that is eosmo- rainlc beyond the belief of those who have not studied it well, but they do not turn New York into a cosmopoli­ tan town; for this means a town which, overwhelmed by its strangers, has lost, or has never possessed, a Character of its own. ' ,/ Great ft'eiglit, The Editor--There, I feel better! I've finished a three-column editorial! The Humorist--Well, you certainly have gOt a great weight off your mind. --Yonkers Statesman. Popularity Is easy: say nice things to people, and get out of their way when they need assistance. has some "Lea Meres," by Alphonse Daudet, Is announced for immediate publication in Parle. Lord.Roberts' fascinating book on In­ dia has already run Into several edi­ tions in England. Dr. Henry Sweet, an authority ofc Anglo-Saxon, Is preparing a "Students' Dictionary of Anglo-Saxon." - Sir Martin Conway has completed the larger part of his forthcoming book on the recent expedition to Spitsbergen. Irving Browne, for many years editor of the Albany Law Journal, is about to bring out a volume of his lyrics and bal­ lads under the title, "The House of the Heart" Charles Day Lanier, son Of the poet Sidney Lanier, formerly assistant edit­ or of the Cosmopolitan Magazine, is now business and editorial manager of the Review of Reviews. Du Maurier's "Martian1 passages concerning the hero's loss of an eye which are doubly pathetic to tiie reader who remembers that the au­ thor was in like evil case, and that these passages are Instinct with a sor­ row once cruelly real. Now th£t Marion Crawford's novel­ ette, "A Rose of Yesterday," has finish-, ed its serial course, we may expect to see it soon in book form. The story is one of the strongest and most satisfac­ tory pieces of work Mr. Crawford has done since "Saracinesca." Eden Phillips is opening hp a vein which is new to him in his forthcoming novel, "Lying Prophets." It is a tile of Cornish life, which is said to bear certain resemblances -to "Tess," and It departs entirely from the light method which has formerly characterized his stories. It has occupied liim two years. Commenting on a Dickens bookplate Miss Gilder says: "I have so many favorites among the authors that I should have to get a composite photo­ graph made to do justice to my tastes. I think I have as many literary pas­ sions as Mr. Howells, and I have some that he has not, and without which he is the poorer." A popular edition of "The People's Bible History," for which Mr. Gladstone wrote the general introduction, and whose contributors include Dean Far- rar, Prof. Sayce, Dr. Munroe Gibson, Prof. Agar Beet, Dr. Lorimer and oth­ ers, is about to bve brought out in Lon­ don. The work was published in Chi­ cago over a year ago. An important art publication entitled "The Masterpieces of the Museo del Prado at Madrid" is announced for is­ sue in ten parts during the year by the Berlin Photographic Company. It will consist of upwards of one hundred photogravure reproductions of original paintings by' Raphael, Velasquez, Ti­ tian, Rubens, and other old masters in the before-mentioned museum, with de­ scriptive text. Prof. Max Muller's book, "Contribu­ tions to the Science of Mythology," will now be ready very soon. It is Intended to fill the gap between his "Science of Language" and the "Science of Reli­ gion." The literary work of his life, which he had planned long ago, is thus carried through and finished. More than thirty years back he published his inquiry into the facts of language con­ sidered as documents for the historical development of the human mind. There has been.much curiosity as to the identity of the young Scotchman who calls himself Benjamin Swift and who is the author of "Nancy Noon.:' The critic is authority for the statement that his name is William R. Patterson. This latter accession to the kailyard school says that short stories don't in­ terest him, and that he will never wriie anything but novels. His next one is already on the way. It is called "The Tormentor." The most luxurious volume of the sea­ son in France will be a work, dedicated by special permission to Queen Victoria, dealing with Raphael's designs for tap­ estries. The illustrations which are to number over 130, reproduce the princi­ pal drawings preserved at the Vatican. Hampton Court, Windsor Castle, the Pitti Palace, Oxford University,| and other public galleries and private collec­ tions. The volume, of folio size, is printed in red and black on tinted pa­ per. The text, in French, consists of a historical and critical notice by Eugene Muntz of the French Institute. An English visitor in Ohristiania, who has been seeing a good deal of the mis­ anthrope Ibsen, says that the author of "John-Gabriel Borkman" was soured by earlyderision of his work, andj that his domestic life has not been a happy one. He says that, as Norwegian for­ tunes go, Ibsen is a rich man, being worth perhaps 300,000 kroners; but this money has come too late to compensate him for the real privations of his youth and middle age. One does not wonder at the sombemess of Ibsen's dramas after this English visitor goes On to state that Ibsen's chief recreation is In reading Kant and taking alternate sips from glasses of beer and aqua vitae. The mixed drinks would account for almost anything. Honesty Rebuked. After a cable car conductor had pass­ ed me several times without asking for my fare I touched his arm and gave him a nickel. A few moments later as I left the car I found him on the rear platform alone. "Don't ever do that again," he said. "If a conductor misses you don't hunt him up. He doesn't want you to do it. If I miss a passenger the chances are about even that 110 one will notice it except the fellow himself. But when he rushes up to pay a fare I have mtesed everybody notices the fact that I have been negligent, and if there is a 'spotter' aboard I lose my job. ' The next time save your nickel; it may help me save, my position."--Chicago Times- Herald. All the Better. He^We seem to have got here rath­ er too soon, the house is quite enipty. She--All the better; every one will lie able to get a good view of me as they come In.--Pick-Me-Up. When you find it hard toTkeep warm,* It is a sign of old age. We have nOt been warm for three days.