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/ v bows. See that the cook~ has a supply of I W- OAPI'UREU BY CONVIOTS. Desperate Encounter at Sea,-A Brlxln the lands at Escaped Prisoners. The brigin whichI sbi ped to make a voyage from Jamaica to ernambuco and return, calling at Georgetown en route, was called The Little Queen. She wasa trim, new craft, just out from England, and was commanded by one of the oldest marihersI ever saw in active service. His name was Rothsay, and he was halo and hearty at 72 years of age. It may be re- corded as a curious thin that he was the only Englishman aboard 0 an English craft. Both mates, cook, and all foremast hands were Americans, and three of the men were Cape Coddcrs. The explanation was that we had been wrecked in a sugar vessel in the Caribbean Sea and picked up and carried to Jamaica by a British steamship. There were nine of us all told as the brig left the island. Georgetown as you will see by the map, is on the north coast of Brazil, in the State or province of Guiana. A strip of territory 800 miles long by 500 bread is divided up among the British, Dutch, and French, and the two latter have established penal colonies there. We reached Georgetown in due time, and dischargeda part of our cargo, and just as we were ready to sail we were notified that ten convicts from the French penal settlement of Cayenne had got away to sea in the yawl of a French mer- chintman. Little attention was paid to this notice, as such escapes were by no means rare, and when we began our run down the coast THE INCIDENT passed out of our minds. One day at noon, when we were to the south of Cayenne and about forty miles off the coast, a man aloft discovered a ship’s best about two miles away and heading dowu across our course. As she was standing in from seaward our first impression was that she carried a ship- wrecked crew. I had just come on watch when the boat was reported. As soon as I levelled the glass at her I detected the clothing of French convicts, and counted on even ten nien. The craft was under soil, but the breeze was light and the sea smooth. She was on our port quarter, and if we held on she Would intercept us. . As soon as the Ca tain was notified of the discovery he orders the brig kept off four or five points, and then called the crew aft and notified them that if the convicts got aboard they would not hesitate at mur- der. Half a dozen muskets would have given us a powerful advanta e, but there was not even a single-barrelle pistol in the brig. If it came to a fight we could only arm ourselves with capstan bars and belay- ing pins. We had hopes, however, of get- ting ofi‘ without coming to close quarters. While the wind was light, we had all sail on the brig, and there was no question that we could outsail the yawl. As soon as we shifted our helm the yaw] raised a SIGNAL OF DISTRESS and the conviCts shouted in chorus. We paid no attention, of course, and she swung into our wake abouts quarter of a mile astern. They must have realized that we had established their identity, for a half dozen of them sprang up and shook their fists at us and roared like wild beasts. I ot a plain view of the visages of three or hr of the lot under the glass, and more villainous countenances I never saw. We were rapidly leaving them behind and con- gratulating ourselves on the fact, when the breeze began to puff and die, and in the course of a quarter of an hour it fell flat. When this occurred we heard a faint cheer from the convicts, and they shortly doused their sail and ut over two pairs of ours. “ It seems t int we have got to fight for it after all,” observed the Captain after a look through the glass. “ Mr. Lenox, you will arm the crew and hold them up to their work. The boat can onlv board us at the hot water ready. Give every man to under- stand that he must fight for his life.” A quarter of an hour later the yawl lay off our port quarter within speakingdistance. Every man of the ten looked the villain. Only desperate men could have attacked and overpowered the guard and escaped as they did. There was neither a young nor an old face among them, but all were middle-aged men. Some were in full convict uniform, while others had thrown away their jacxets. Their leader was a short, stout man, so dark complexioned that he seemed to be a Span- iard, and as the boat drew hear he stood up in the stern sheets, and called out : “ Hello, Captain l Why you run away from shipwrecked sailormen '2 Our ship go down off here (to the east) yesterday after- noon.” “ I know you 2” shouted Capt. Rothsay in reply. “ You are escaped convicts from Cayenne. If you attempt to board us you will find us well prepared l” They could not know how well or how poorly armed we were, and we were nine to their ten. “ Yes, Captain, you speak truly," said the leader after a brief consultation, with his men. “ We are convicts from Cayenne, but we are innocent men. We do not wish to board you. We have neither food nor drink, and we ask you in the name of hu- manity to supply us. ” The Captain consulted with me in regard to it. They must come alongside in order to receive an plies, and when the had once hooked on who could say what t ey might attempt? Besides, we had little or noth- ing to spare. They had been afloat five or six days, and none of their faces exhibited evidence of suffering. “ I have nothing :05 re, and I warn you to keep oil 1" shouted t eCaptain in answer to the re: nest. We h seen no arms among them, and had supposed them to be without weapons of any sort. To our great surprise five muskets, taken from the guard when they escaped, were suddenly lifted into view, while four oars dropped into the water, and the yswl made for our bows. There was a fierce yell from every convict, and those with muskots opened fire. Capt. Rothsay was killed, and the second mate wounded even before they had booked on. \VX SC.\LI)KD THEM with boiling water, and fought them with whatever we could lay hold of, but within five minutes the brig was captured. “Io had a foremost hand illed in the fight on deck, and none of us escaped injury. As an offset, we killed two of the convicts while they were trying to board. They had bay- oncts to their washers, and it was either surrender or be killed. It is but justice to the fellows to say that they were not par- ticularly bloodthirsty, and that u soon a: they were in possession of the brig their at-l BEN Tfiomsufl. titude became almost friendly. As chief officer I was asked about our cargo and ties Liuation, and on the other hand the leader informed me that they were sorry to inter- rupt our voyage, but intended to use the brig to make good their escape. The first thing was to get rid of the dead bodies. They allowed us to sew them in canvas before they went overboard, and then our wounded man was made comfortâ€" able. I fully expected that the lot of us would be turned adrift in their boat, but they had other plans. There was not a sailor among them, and they were com 1- led to keep us to navigate the brig. ter the burial the leader said to us : “ \Ve mean you no harm. We are des- perate men, and mean to make our escape. After we have been landed in some safe place you may sail away with your brig. If you try to deceive us we will show you no as I have not; dared to. my half as much mercy. about bad menus I should have liked to do. I was further informal that I must Mt 39 l Thompson killed eighteen men in different Captain and navigate the brig. and I was parts of Texas, and was for this made Mur- allowed to choose a mate from among my shal of Austin, on the principle that ii he men. After that a council washeld among I must km somebody, it was better to give the eight 33 ‘30 Whavt place BhOUId be Steered him authority to kill other desperadoes than for. I brought them the charts from the reputable citizens. As Marshal it was his cabin, and afteralong debate it was decided pleasure to pull up his buggy across the 10 run for the Amazon River- The brig I railroad track just as the daily express train The Noted Texas Desperado. The most notable En lishman who ever came to Texas was Ben Thompson, But he arrived there at so early an age and became so thoroughly Western in his mode of life that Texans claim him as their own. I imagine, however, he always retained some of the traditions of his birthplace, as there is a story of his standing with his hat off to talk to an Engliin nobleman when Thomp‘ son at the time was the most feared and best-known man in all Texas. The stories of his recklessness and ignorance of fear and utter disregard of the value of others‘ lives as well as his own are innumerable. A few of them are interesting and worth keeping, us they show the typical bad man of the high- est degree in his different homers, and also bf“! only a week’s supply 0f water and Pro“ was about to start, and covering the en- V1310n3 I0? 80 many men: 01‘ theY Wfimld gineer With his revolver, bid him hold the perhaps have decmled 0n the American train until he was ready to move on. He COMI- Ath O’CIOCk! 1‘1,“ as they had 1‘ each' would then call some trembling acquaintance ed at demsmn, the Wind bruezed “P: the from the crowd on the platform and talk YMVI Wm! taken “board and I 3.85 the course with him leisurely, until he thought he had for We big HWY, 8.130“ 500 ""188 away- successfully awed the engineer and estab- From the very hrs“, I had ho ad that-“’9 lished his authority. Then he would pick m'ghb retake the brig bill? I e COMIC-t8 up his reins and drive on, saying to the on- would only trust us so far. The watches “ You needn’t think, sir, any cor. were so divided by order of Moran that our men were divided, and two of the convicts were kept under arms to act as sentries. Moran and the second mute bad quarters aft with me, while all others berthed for- ward. All of us were UNDER CONSTANT SURVEILLANCE, though decently treated, and no two of us were ever left alone together. If I had plan- ned to run the brig into the port of Par- nahyla, down the coast, or headed up for Cayenne, they would. have been too sharp for me. While none of them could take the wheel, they kept constant watch on the compass. They knew the course was south by west, and if the brig broke off a point they were quick to detect it. The winds were light and variable, and it was the sixth day after our capture be~ fore we drew in with the coast. Moran’s . _ . orders were to avoid Para by entering the and catcmng the man by 1115 031‘" lage'belt, north mouth, aMd when we were fairly in he threw him out into the street, and so put gineer, the river he told me their plans. I was to an end to his reputation as “ (135138175136 Chm" poration can hurry me.” The position of the unfortunate man to whom he talked must have been most tryingâ€"with a loco~ motive on one side and a revolver on the other. One day a cowboy, who was a well-known bully and a would-be des erado, shot sever- al bullet-holes through t to high hat of an Eastern traveller, who was standing at the bar of an Austin hotel. Thompson heard of this, and, purchasing a high hat, entered the bar-room. “ I hear,” he said, facing the cowboy, “ that you are shooting plug hats here to- day ; perhaps you would like to take a shot at mine.” He then raised his revolver and shot away the cowboy’s ear. “ I meant,” he said, “ to hit your car; did I do it i” The bully showed proof that he had. “Well then, “said the Marshal,“‘get out of here;” take them in the brig up as far as the mouth act" forever- , of the Xingu River, and they would then Thompson was naturally unpopular ‘Vlth pull up the stream in the yawl and make for “ certam C1353 "1 the communltY- TWO the diamond district. We were not above barikeepef‘s who had .5 1’31"“)Dal grudg° thirty miles into the river when we were “gala” 13””: With 110 do?“ 8250011811“ 188" obliged to come to anchor for the want of a 50”» my 1“ ambUSh for In!“ bahmd the two breeze. I knew nothing whatever of the bill‘s 0f the 53100“: Whmh Stretdwd along navigation of the stream, and had no chart elthel‘ wall- Thofnp§°n entered the room of it, but Moraninsisted that We should not fr“? 17h? Street: “1 Ignorance of any PlPt take a pilot. About the time we Mic-bored, agamst 11"“ untll the “V0 m?“ halted him the demeanor of the convicts seemed to thh shot-guns. They had him so surely at change for the worse, They were very their pleasure that he made no effort to IOI‘dIy in giving orders, and 8\vaggered reach his revolver, but lOPkIDg from around in a fashion entirely new to them. 0’}9 t0 the 9th" and smllmg gmmlyz But It appeared also as if three or four of them 1215 ljePutMJO“ W35 50 great. and .thell‘ I88? were anxious to a quarrel our of hlm 50 actual. men missed hrm, men. That evening the second mate found although .110“ tWentY feet “WE-Y» End With opportunity to say to me : shotguns in their hands. Then Thompson “ Depend u on it, Mr. Lenox, they never took out his pistol deliberately and killed meant to stun to the bargain. I shouldn’t them- _ . be surprised if they were planning to out A few 5’9}er fl 0 he bfcame _lnvolved In our throats and scuttle the brig.” SM! AntOmO F"- 1 “Jack ' Harrfsi the keep- I strangely suspected them of some evil in- er of .u. gamblingmouse and variety theatre. tention, but nothing came of it that night. Hair“? lay 111 wall? f0? Thompson Dehl‘nd the Next morning we had wind and tide in our “"11ng d°°rs 0f I113 “I903 ; but 'lhomp- favour, and at; noon when we anchored. son, as he crossed the, Military Plaza, was again, we had made twentyfive miles, warned of Harris’s hiding-place, . and shot Another twenty-five would take us to the 111m through the dOPP- He W38 tried for the Xingu. Right away after dinner the yawl murder, and acqmtted on the ground of was lowered, and Moran began to outfit, her, self-defence,and on his return to Austin was His manner to me was very brusque and met at the station by 8. brass band and all quarrelsome, and I avoided him as much as the fire companies. Perhaps .lnspll'ed _by possible. \Vhatever they thought could be this. he'l‘fifiumed t0 Sim Antonio: 311d gom‘g made useful was placed in the boat, and they to Harris a theatre, then in the hands of his were rummaging about the whole afternoon. Partner. J09 F035“: called from the gallery At about six o’clock Moran ordered all the for F 03'081' to come up and Speak to him. old crew of the brig into the cabin. Every Thompson had With him 9- flespemdo named man of us at once realized that; King Fisher, and against him every man of THE CLIMAX WAS AT HAND, his class in San Antonio, for Harris had been and, acting in concert, we made a sudden very Popular‘ 1115‘s)?" Segifllssf'sshutmt’ 1': and furious attack. We got possession of E? young m? '26 $321.3 “‘8 two of the muskets and were making a ompson to ewe t 6 place’ as e 1 11°" - want trouble. §S°3h2g223f“:.l23“g§‘ been » « to a . . ' I W8: t to shake bands which was on her way up the river sheared Bald Th?mp3°n: " n . alongside of us and had grappled on before “I‘m, m) 01d friend J°.e Foam“ Tell h'm I some of “a saw her. Her presence at an Won t leave till I see him, and I won t make end to the fi ht of course. We be two 8' r9w'” . men wounde , :vhile we had killed one Sims returned With Foster, and Thomp- convict and wounded a second. Ourcaptors were neatly trapped, but they no sooner realized it than they claimed to be the real crew of the vessel, and denounc- ed us as convicts. They were so earnest and emphatic in their declarations that the commander of the gunboat was almost con- vinced. I destroyed their case, however, when I asked them for the Captain’s name, our port of hail, the names or the different ropes and sails &c. They were ironed and taken aboard the gunboat. tobe conveyed . . , . to Cayenne, while the brig was towed down by this time packed With men who learned of Thompson's presence in the theatre, but son held out his hand. Eliciggrgf 1;: 53:11 ‘33:}! IF}; 1:5: Iggy; Fisher and Thompson stood quite alone be- “ Joe," he said, “ I have come all the way from Austin to shake hands with you. Let’s make up, and call it off.” “ I can’t shake hands with you Ben,” Foster said. “ You killed my partner, and you know well enough I am not the sort to for at it. Now go, won’t you? and don’t ma e trouble.” Thompson said he would leave in a min- ute, but they must drink together first. There was a bar in the gallery, which was an“, Mom“ be said to me : side the bar. The Mprshal of Austin look- it Do you flunk we would have been such ed up and saw Foster a glass untouched be- fools as to let you sail away with the brig ? ‘0‘? him'fmd “id: . . ,, I meant to lock all of you in the cabin, and I ' Are“ t you dunkmg w‘th mel Joe? ‘7) Foster shook his head. then cut away her masts and scuttle her . u we“, then," cried Thompson. ,, the man who won‘t drink with me, nor shake hands with me, fights me.” He reached back for his pistol, and some oneâ€"-a jury of twelve intelligent citizens do- cided it was not young Bill Simsâ€"shot him three times in the forehead. The say you could have covered the three bullet holes with a half-dollar. But so rest was the desperate courage of this rufhun that even as he fell be fired holding his revolver at his hip, and killing Foster, and then, as he lay on his back jerking in agony, he emp- tied his revolver into the floor, rippin great gushes in the boards about him. An so he died, as he would have elected to die, with his boots on, and with the report of his pistol the last sound to ring in his ears. King Fisher was killed at the same moment, and the Express spoke of it the next morn- ing as “ A Good higbt’s Work."â€"-â€"Harper's Weekly. “‘0‘”â€" Just Like Elim- A young man gave his. sweetheart a pug dog asa birthday present. It was of the purest blood, but its] nose was particularly short. The grateful recipient was profuse with her acknowledgements. “ Oh, thank you, James,” she said; " thank you. You are so kind. It’s just like you. ' Along the Time- ] wonder if some heaven-sent thought Thrxlled you today. Perhaps it brought A new. sweet light; then send it on To help some other groping one Along the line. Through weary starlcss nights of pain We have passed ; but not in vain ; Some bitter leason leaves its tweet, 'Twill hclp‘anothcr to repeat Along the line. The echoing cadence of a h run. A picture s bounty. gran though dim, The fragrance of a winter flowerâ€"- Let them renew their mag.c power Along the line. How many lips have never trillod The song With which your-soul is filled : Then boldly. gladly tell it out And nuke it one-triumphant shout Along the line. A smile an answering mile will bring ; A bundclaspâ€"‘tisa little thing: A word of cheer, of love of praise; Yet only there some soul may raise Along the line. Pass it alongâ€"tho watchwordâ€"brothcr: Hand cleaning hand. touch one another ; Send up the the trustful prayer; Bend out your love {or all to share Along the line. ~[Helen F. Bowden. AFTER A BATTLE. fine Horrors of a Straggle Realism! Alter the Armies nave Abandoned the Field. The beginning of a battle, unless brought on by accident, as it were, reminds one of mourners standing about an open grave in a cemetery waiting for the clods of earth tofall upon the coffin. The cool, deliberate we in which troops are moved and batteries p ac- ed in position tries your nerve. Men s cal: to each other in subdued voices, an the commands of the officers are low and stem. A regiment is but a cog in one of the wheels; a division in one of the dozen wheels of the great machine. You may now and then catch sight of the enemy as he also moves to the right or left or advances, or you may not see anything of him for an hour after the battle opens. ‘ Your brigade is in battle line, and has been waiting for an hour. There is a line of skirmishers down along the bush-fringed creek, but you know it only because you saw them go down across the field. A DIS‘I‘A NT CHEER comes floating over the wheat fields. Some commander has been addressing his troops. Five minutes later there is a popl pop! pop! along the skirmish line. The enemy is mov- ing forward in battle line. The skirmishers are the goats stinging the elephant. They kill and wound, but of what result is the death or disabling of fifty men out of a di~ vision? Now the field pieces open one after an- other. They are to the right on the hills, but you feel the earth trembling where you stand, and the crackle of musketry is ab- sorbed in the roar of the rifled guns. You are pale-faced; your chin quivers; your legs are strangely weak. You shout with relief as the enemy appears on the slope and you get- the command to fire. The comiugofnight muyend n. battlewhich has raged along a front of ten miles from early morn. The enemy may have been beaten‘and drawn off. “'0 may have been driven. If the going down of the sun and the coming of night has left victory unde- cided, there is a gradual dying away of the roar of the larger guns. The spiteful six and nine pounders kee to their work for half an hour longer. hen you’hear only the boom of a single gun, and the fire of muskets, which has been a continuous rear for long hours, slackens off and dies out until there is only a sullen sputter, as from the wick of a. candle touched with water. The night will not be entirely quiet. Here and there the pickets will fire into the darkness at intervals, and guns auditroops will be moved to new position. But it is only after the battleâ€"after both armies have abandoned the fieldâ€"that you realize the horror of a struggle where 200,- 000 men have been engaged. From right to left flank is a distance of, say nine miles. Both flanks were held by cavalry. The line ran through meadows, over flower fields, across woodlands and THROUGH THE ORCIIARDS surrounding farmhouses. Everywhere along this front are dead and wounded men, dead and wounded horses, dismounted guns, sabers, an ords, muskets, and uccoutrements. Here in this hazel thicket a dozen mortally wounded men crawled away to die. Under the wild plum tree shading the waters of the brook are ascore of wounded men, some of whom left trails of blood as they drew themselves along inch by inch to reach the water for which they thirsted as never be- fore. There are dead men union the ripen- ing wheat, on the sterile hillsi es, in the clover over which the honey bees are hover- ing, among the red and white hollyhocks of the farmer’s garden. The field is left to the hospital corps and the brigade detailed for burial duty. Field hospitals are erected here and there, and the wounded are gathered in. Blood drips from their wounds as they are carried along --blood on the grass, on the rocks, and leaves and bushesâ€"blood until you turn your eyes to the blue sky to forget its color. Men are carried past you who seem to be dead; others groan in agony; others still cry out and curse at the Samaritans of the battlefield. And of the dead? Right here where they lie in winrows, some across each other, a brigade tried to drive itself into our centre as a wedge, and was almost wiped out of ex- istence by grapeshot, canister, and bullet. Further to the left we find them only at in- tervals and not so near our lines. Over the hill and ,on each side of THE DUSTY HIGHWAY I we come upon them by scores again. Here we had a battery, and half a brigade charg- ed out, of the woods to take it ! Standing here you can see dead men dotting the ground to the very edge of the forest. The guns were turned upon them as soon as they appeared, and the fire was murderous. Here is where they were checked and shat- tered and driven back by the volleys of the infantry in support of the guns. If there were any wounded among the dead they have crawled away. And here, just in the edge of the orchard, the earth is almost hidden by the dead and wounded. Men have carried water from the cool, deep well to the woundedâ€"the dead await burial alone. Here was a hand- to-hand fight over two field ieces. Were they worth 200 lives? An as the guns limbered up and dashed off to a new posi- tion the iron-shod feet of the excited horses were planted on the faces of dead menâ€"on the breasts of men crying out with their woundsâ€"and the heavy wheels follow- ed aftcr to grind human flesh into earth. And now the lung and shallow trenches have been dug on the hillside overlooked by peach trees, and we gather up the dead on the section assigned to us and place them side by side. There is only a brief search after identityâ€"never a eulogy or a pm 'cr over one. Friends in these trenches, ass in those over there. So let them be cover- cd into sleep until the last trumpet calls. Known or unknown, what matters it to them 2 â€"â€"â€"â€"â€"-â€".â€"â€".â€"â€"â€". Mamma (reprimanding three-year-old son who is flagrantly disregardin table eti- quette}â€"“ If we were at snot er’s, table I should beso ashamed of you I would not know where to hide my head.” Youn Diogenes (not at all abashed)â€"" You coul put it under the table." An Englishman, in an article on Ameri- canisms, mentions the word “jag” as meaning umbrella. He is positive that that is the correct meaning, as he says he saw in a newspaper that ” Last Friday, when it was raining hard, Mr. Smith was seen coming down the street. carrying t. was its" THE FALL or is intuit. w Superstitions Regarding Then: in Times Past. One of the largest aerolites ever known is said to have fallen into the Gas ian See, at no great distance from the eninsula of Apsheron, a neck of land which runs into the Caspian and forms the eastern mt d the Caucasian chain. It is a 'ar re- gion, sulphur and other inflammable matte! ing mixed up with the soil. as the place of the sacred flame, and it was from this region the fire worshippers of Asia drew their superstition. . One is tempted to say that the great’aeroo lite in its descent revealed a natural pref- erence. It sought a sym thetic region, if it did make a mistake in udiug a watery bed. The stone is said to project about twelve feet above the surface of the sea, which at that place is of considerable do th. In fallin , we are told, it made a tremeu ous noise an illuminated land and sea for miles i-round, throwing out vast clouds of steam when it reached the water. It is natural that scientists should take an interest in the phenomenon; audit is reasonable to conclude that at no distant day we shall have as the result of their exammation full and satisfac- tory reports. owners or SUPERSTITION. In times gone by these meteoric stones were regarded with superstitious reveren At Emesa, in Syria, the sun was worshi p03 under the form of a black stone, said to bag fallen from heaven. The holy stoneâ€"tbs Kaubaâ€"at Mecca has a. similar histor . 83.... has the great stone of the pyramid 0 Che- lula, in Mexico. Latterly, however, science has stripped these objects of much of theiS‘ mystery. It is now generally admitted that the stones are of planetary origin, not 06 lunar origin, as was at one time conjectured, and that their luminosity is the result of the friction occasioned by their rapid motion through the resisting atmosphere. It has been calculated that setting aside the resis- tance of air, an initial velocity of about 8,000 feet in a second, about five or six times ’ that of a. cannon ball, would bring the stones to the earth at a velocity of 35,000 feet a-second ; but Olbers, one of the great est authorities on the general subject, holds that to account for the actual measured velocity of meteoric stones the ori inal velocity of projection must be at least our teen times greater than the above. It is now a well-recognized fact that then are certain seasons in which these meteorio stones are more liable to make their appear ance than in others. They are, in feet, per- iodic ; and the favorite months are April July, August, November, and December. Lovember has the grandest record, and the most brilliant displays of which we have reliable accounts have been witnessed in November, 1799, 1833, and 1866â€"at in- tervals, it must be observed, of thirty-four years. According to prediction the next grand display will be in 1900. Thesestute- merits and figures, it is well to bear in mind, apply rather to what we are in the habit of calling meteoric showers than to the single solid mass such as that which has found its resting place in the waters of the Caspian. The stones, large and small, are for the most part of uniform composition, consist- ing principally of silica, magnesia, and iron, with small quantities of nickel, sulphur, and chromium. Among the large stones of I which we have record, in addition to those already mentioned as persumably of the same origin, is the great stone which fell at ZEgospotamic, on the Hellespont, in 467 B. 0., and which was still shown in the days of Pliny, toward the close of the first Chris- tian century. It is described as being about the size of a wagon. A ponderous stone fell in Alsace, near'tlie villu e of Ensisheim, in 1492, weighing ‘260 pnun s. It is still to be seen in the village church. An immense mass of this kind is to be seen in the Im- perial Museum at St. Petersburg, but the largest known aerolite hitherto is one which fell in Brazil. Its estimated weight is 14,- 000 pounds. If report speaks truth, the presumption now is that the Brazilian stone will have to take second place. ...__.__._â€".â€"â€"â€"â€"- Progress in Science. In many out-of-the-way places it has been found necessary to manufacture nitro- glycerine on the spot in order to avoid the very high rates charged by trans ortation companies. Such has been the a 'anco in methods, of making this explosive that, with ordinary precaution, through washing, and or. reful watching of the various changes of color, it can be made without fear of serious accident. Dr. Dareste has demonstrated that mon- sters and monstrosities during animal de- velopment are not the result of pathological changes in the embr o, as hitherto supposed, but modifications 0 the processes of organic evolution, such as bring about the differ- ences between individuals and races in mankind. . Sir Benjamin Baker has recently shown that a crack or nick on the surface or edge of a bar of steel does not always indicate its liability to fail by the radual spreading of the nick and a robnb e breaking under a very much sma ler load than a sound bar. An improved traction engine has lately appeared in Missouri. It is run with a rela- tively small amount of fuel, carries a heavy load, and is provided with means for chang ing its speed without altering the stroke of the engine. Some prominent German engineers main- tain that the application of test loads to bridges has never yet led to the detection or defects which could not have been found by calculation and inspection. Blaudyte is the name iven to the new material made of Trini< ad asphalt and waste rubber. It resists the heat of high pressure steam and lasts well in the presence of oil and grease. According to Dr. Hansen the rod in flown era is asin le pi cnt soluble in water and decolorize by a cohol, but capable of being restored by the addition of acids. The new science of experimental sychol- ogy aims at measuring the menta capacia tiesof menas the anthropometrist measures their physical capacities. Cyrus Thomas claims to have discovered the key which will unlock the mystery of the Maya codices and, probably, of the Central American inscriptions. Prof. Rogers says that every pound of coal contains a dynamic force equal to the amount of work a man will do in a day. Sheâ€"“Women cannot besatirical, any more than they can be humorous.” He- “If that's so, how is it that when a man proposes, after courtin’ a girl for seven years, she, says: ‘Oh, ieorgc, this is so lsuddeni" It is knowxfi 1‘3 :l .: fl 1:: a} ,5! r . P, i .