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Stanley, the African explorer, is claimed by his mother. A Mrs. Easta- way, of Liverpool, England, writes to Every Saturday, a Baltimore literary journal, that she is Stanley’s mother, andthat she can identify him by pecu- Jifir India-ink marks I) on his arms and a mole on his neck. e was born, she says, in New York. on October 26. 1843. His father was a sea captain, and died fifteen years later. There is an association in Germany founded for the pursuit of scientific investigation about Africa, which has been led b the recent discoveries of rich nstur resources in‘the interior of In 1820 the best trotting time was a mile in three minutes. In 1830 the time was reduced to2.40; in 1840, to 2.28; in 1850, to 2.26; in 1860, to 2.19}; in 1870, 217}; in 1876, the best record was made by Goldsmith Maid, who made a mile in 2.14. Practically, the limit of trot- ting speed may be said to have been reached, though it is by no means im- probable that phenomenal animals may decrease the time of Goldsmith Maid. There are 4,000,000 dead letters re. epived annually at the Dead Lrttcr Oillco. 300,000 without stamps; 50,000 artielly addressed; 6,000 no address; 1,500,000 of money orders and drafts of money value; 45.000 packages con- taining property; 840,000 in moneyâ€" nine-tenthe of which is returned, the balance remaining in the treasuryâ€"sub- ject to application for four years; 25,000 photographs; 260,000 European letters are returned. unopened; one-tenth of all letters received contain property; 10,000 applications for letters reported lost; the great proportion found and' delivered. An arteaian well 3,250 feet deep has been bored in Posth, Hungary. It is thedee st in the world, being nearly twice t e depth of that in Paris. It sends by a jet of nearly boiling water forty-two feet high. Victor Hugo has a habit of working upon four or five subjects at once, rarely knowing which he shall finish first. In the morning he begins with which ever subject first takes his fancy, and after devoting himself for a few hours to verse, turns to his novel after luncheon, and finishes the day by writing on some theme utterly unlike that which he took up in the morning, He has now in preparation six prose works and four An open winter is not followed by a cool summer, as many suppose; on the contrary, a cool summer usually follows 3 seVerely cold winter, and a very warm summer succeeds a mild winter, as we now see. A severe winter leaves the mountains heavil capped with ice and snow to cool the reezes during the sno- oeeding summer months, while an open winter leaves the mountain tops bare and the winds are therefore much less cooling. At Bombay a lady and gentleman who were taking a stroll sauntered into a church, and finding the marriage reg- ister on a table the gentleman for fun wrote in it the names of {our people (two couples well known in their circle of friends. 9 names may not now be erased, because any one tampering with the signatures in the registry is liable to seven years' penal servitude. The ofl'ender has absconded, the gentlemen are in pursuit and the ladies in dismay. The governor has been appealed to, but no decision has been arrived at as to what can be done. A farm sixty miles long and ten wide inono tract, mostly fenced, in that of Miller . Luz, cattle monopoliata of Oa‘ifornia. They have 80,000 head of stock, own 700,000 acres of choice land, and are rated as worth 815,000,000. Joseph Brower, an American, who grated to Chili some years ago, was recently murdered in cold blood, to- gether with his wife and children. by a gang of discontented laborers. In the truggle he, alone and unaided, killed thirteen of the villains, but was obliged to succumb at last. While Beecher was at the depot in Freeborn, Minn., awaiting a train, the other day, a gentleman presented him with pen, ink and paper, and asked him for his autograph. Taking the pen, he wrote the following: “Too many eggs in one basket: farmers should raise something besides wheat. " “Fe soreéns. 'The product so far ha}: been about 3,000 dozen legs quoted in St. Louis at twenty cents a dozen. Christian Brietenbnch came out of prison at the age of twenty, went to the residence of his aged grand-parents, neat Detroit, Mich., and ouolly told them that he intended to live with them. They kept him out of fear, for he was a. bully; but he was not satisfied with bare sup- port. He Killed them in the night with an ex, and ran away with their money. A blazing meteor which fell during a recent storm near Beaufort, S. 0., was picked up and-found to be an irregularly shaped rock, weighing about twenty- flve pounds, and having a thin coating as if of lava. More remarkable was the finding of a fallen mrolite on the Caliâ€" fornia desert, near San Bernardino, which weighed 250 pounds and contain- ed gold, silver and copper. Minnesota is engaging in frog-culture, which consists chiefly in protecting the eggs and young from their enemies by wire screens. The product so far has The ammonia of the commercial fer- tilizers manufactured in the suburbs of Au gusta. 03., has complete! driven out the chills and {ever and at or mul- u'ia that used to infect the locality. TIMELY TOPICS. Patents at Auction. At a recent sale of patents in New York the following prices were obtained: An improvement in game tables for 83-375; patent attachment to coasting, $325; a clothes line patent, 875; im- provement in scroll samng, 850; blowing toy patent, 875; a bag holder, the object of which is to enable the beg to be read- ily fixed on a support which shall hold the month of the bag open, and firmly sustain the weight of its contents as it is filled, 81,100; improvement in com- bination locks, $2,000; a process for hardening iron while being forged,$375. a can opening patent, $1,050; one on curtain tassels, $1,000; a machine {or making spikes, 8600; cloth cutting ma. chine, $500; shntterworkers’ patent, 8500; {Oh ng wardrobe and bedstead patent, 83, 00; sea-sounding and alarm a poi-ems. 8350; an improvement for t 1e meeting rail of sashes, 8350; a com- bination of a cane and rifle.or a shotgun, 8426; a tree sawing machine, $450; a patent on oscillating chairs, 81.000; an apparatus {or drying fruit and smoking meat, 81,020; a patent for mechanism for sechlosing and self-opening hatch doors, 81,900, and a gas regulator, .800. A letter dated Klawoek Cannery, Prince 'of Wales Island, Alaska, gives the following details of a terrible tragedy: An Indian was sitting alone in his wig- wam when a young married woman entered from a neighboring lodge, and thinking the brave was asleep at an nn-i seasonable hour, she gave him a smart push, which threw him over against something or other which cut his face, causing a flow of blood. The brave muttered a curse, and the woman quick- ly retreated, thinking but little of the accident,jfor an accident it was, so far as the trifling injury went. Nothing fur- ther transpired that evening, the dam- aged warrior remaining indoors nursing his anger. The following morning, when the woman and her husband were quiet- ly eating their breakfast of dried salmon and anticipating no harm, the wounded man walked into their hut, raised his rifle and sent a bullet crashing through the skull of the man. He then rushed upon the woman, whipped a huge knife from his belt, ripped her open and, leaving husband and wife dead upon the floor, quietly walked back to his own cabin and closed and barred the door. The murder created a violent commotion in the Indian village as well as in the cannery. An Indian council was held and a death sentence passed upon the murderer. Luckily for the cause of jus- tice in such cases, there are no courts of appeal in this region to retard the prompt and merited execution of a red- handed murderer, but in this case there was the barrier of a strongly-barred door, with a desperate and well-armed man on its inner side. Urgent ap- peals were made to the criminal to open the door and come out and be shot; all of which he respectfully declined. Fear- ing that he would escape in the night a close watch and guard were kept upon the hut, the whole settlement being on the qui 'vz‘ve all night, expecting the shooting to come ofl every moment. At ten the next morning the criminal an- nounced that he was ready. He un- barred his door and stalked out, gorge- ously robed in a flaming red blanket, his head resplendent with pitch and feathers and his rifle upon his shoulder. Giving a few directions to his executioners, he stepped forward a few paces, whirled througha war-dance, fired his rifle into the air, and fell dead pierced by twenty bullets. The remains of the murderer and his victims were cremated, and In- dian life resumed its usual monotonous routine. The houses of London, says a corre- spondent, are mostly built of yellow brick; but those of a more pretentious character are of a yellowish sandstone, which soon becomes blackened with the smoke that enshrouds the city. Iron buildings are not known hereâ€"at least, we have not met with any in our wan- derings over the city, they being an en- tirely American institution. A stranger in London is astonished at the appearâ€" ance of most of its public buildings and churches. They are built mostly of white marble; but the smoke has black- ened them to‘ such an extent that were it not that their bases and sometimes a portion of their cornices are white, they might be supposed to be of black mar- ble The columns in front of St. Paul's Cathedral are densely black; and so is most of the vast structure. If a pot of black paint was poured over the mag- nificent statues of Queen Elizabeth and her four maids of honor, which stand in front of the cathedral, it would scarcely be noticed, so black have they become. The National Gallery, on Trafalgar square, is decidedly black, and the grand old church of St. Martin-in-the- Fields, on Trafalgar square, is, if pos- sible, blacker. The walls under the portico and most of the columns in front would never be supposed to be of pure white marble. As there is scafl'olding being erected around it, the purpose is possibly to clean it of the accumulated smoke of ages. They probably think with the gamin, who, when asked why he did not wash his face, replied, It ‘V'anua ‘Iun “also '4» câ€"JII An‘u- “Ab “ What's the use? It will'ohli'rmgéi dirty again.” the “dark continent” to go outside of itu own proper field, and call the attention of the German commercial and manu- facturing classes to the importance of eetablinhing trade connections with that undeveloped territory. So important- does the imperial government consider this suggestion that it has made a pre- liminary appropriation of 825,000 in aid of enterprises of the kind advised, with intimations that all necessary further aid will be forthcoming. A geographic- commereiul association for establishing trade with inner Africa has also been formed in Switzerland. A Tragedy Among Alaska Indians. London Houses. The other! day a visitor surprised Richard Gm White saying to his baby: “Oh-ny, no- y, e musey tick hick he ittie footey )otsies out fum undy zis banky wank, oz 9 catch coly woly an’ have 20 snn as.” Just then he caught sight of the isitor, and said to the in- fant: “No, 10, you must not expose your pedal extremities by extending them beyond 10 protecting cover of the blanket, or y u will lay your system open to attack of ceterrhal affections.” And the echo inhed child shrieked as though some ne had winged it with a defective caret pin.â€"BurlingtonHawk- It is not desirable to do this work much before midsummer, and no union takes place until the new layer of wood is deposited, in the case of shoots of pre- vious season’s growth. A little obser- vation will show that last season’s twigs do not increase in diameter until after or about midsummer, even though sev- eral feet of new growth have been added to their length. The new growth or an- nual layer, is then all deposited in a short time, when growth for the season ceases. Whether this new wood is deposited from the bark or thrown out from the wood below, has been a point in con- troversy, but observation seems to have established the latter as the correct theory. The bark may be removed from the trunk of an apple or pear tree at any time during the longest days of the year without apparent injury to the tree. I have seen near trees that were apparently on the decline and had rough, scaly bark, started into new growth and health by simply removing all the bark carefully (without scraping the wood) from the trunk the latter part of June. The new bark is left undis- turbed, adhering to the trunk, and it thickens up in a short time and takes' the place of that removed. Some trees continue this growth much later in the season than others, and a knowledge of their peculiarities is of great importance to every one who attempts to propagate themâ€"Cor. Country Gentleman. Preparing Block [or Exhlbltlon. 1. Begin to feed animals for show as young as it will eat. A calf should be pushed Irom four weeks old with plenty of milk and such solid food as it will cat: That is the time to beginâ€"never 8. I never found it advisable to feed oftener than three times a dayâ€"have tried suckling calves three times, and feeding the grown cattle five or oven six times, but they will do no better than three times; and I have had good suc- cess sometimes in feeding twice, but thgt requires experience. _ - 2. Feed anything that they will eat, the best that is ordinarily given to such stock, and in such quantities as they want, being careful always that they glean up_theiz_' troughs. A A qujt. In general, I will say that an adept will soon learn the thousand details that make up the whole, if he has his eyes and ears about him and wants to learn. When he goes off to the fairs let} him notice articularly bow everybody else does t eir work, especially those who take of the prizes. An occasional ques- tion, without being tooinqu'sitivc, will bring out one piece 0: information, and adapting it to his own use, he may see something better. This is an art that must be studio '., practiced and picked up. An indn ul‘iOllS man with a taste for such thingt will learn more to do all, ora great p tof the work, himself, than in any 0t er way.â€"Exchange. To be successful it requires that both trees be in vigorous growth, and the stock on which it is proposed to form a a new head will have to be planted care- fully, within reach of the limb, by which it may be worked at the proper season, and then it can be cut loose and re- moved the following fall, after growth has ceased. This may be practised on trees already growing near together, or when a new top is to be put on a small tree by grafting. If a few fail to take, and other limbs are desired, the sprouts can be worked from the growing grafts by bending them together, and thus a symmetrical head can be at once formed instead of waiting for another year. This is work for the amateur or gardener, and, as has been remarked, requires attention at several times and cannot be well done where the work is out of reach from the ground. or where limbs far apart will be severely shaken by the wind, and liable to break 011’ where tied. Innrching is nothing more than the simple bringing of two growing twigs of the same size together, shaving each one half thrcugh on one side, and then fitting the out parts together with the barks of both to join, and then securing them in position by ligatures until the parts are firmly united. The limb is then detached from the parent tree, and forms the top of the other,.the rest of its bmnches having been removed. The principal care required is in removing this tying material in time and not al- lowing it to out too deeply into the growing limb. Twigs of the name see. eon'e growth, while growing rapidly, can be made to form a perfect union in a few weeks, and the ligature may have to be loosened in one week. laurehlna. This method of increasing plants or trees that are difllcult of propagation we seldom see mentioned in the books or papers, and it is to be presumed that it is because of the difficulties in the way of using it, that so little attention is given it, and yet for some kinds of trees this method is the most available way to secure additional trees, especially with such as have a ver hard or dry bark, end cannot easily be udded or grafted. The beech and oak are of this class, but the pear and apple can be worked very easily by this process, where it is desirable to increase a choice variety, and a gain of one season’s growth can be secured (when it is too late to graft) over the simple buddingprooess. FARM, GARDEN AND HOUSEHOLD. Edison’s Ink for the Blind. , Mr. Edison has shown his latest in- vention to a New York Herald reporter who recently visited his laboratory. “ Have you seen the blind writing ink ? Hold on;I’ll get some,” said the pro- fessor, as he reached to a high shelf and took from among a score of vials one labelled “Poison." Into this he poured water, and in a moment he was writing with the fluid on a sheet of paper. The marks were gm 'sh white. In about a minute after be ad finished, the writing, strange to say, be an to swell and harden until it became e evated nite percepti- bly above the paper. “ ow run your finger over it and feel if you can trace the letters,” said the inventor. The re- porter did so, snd. sure enough, the let- ters could be distinguished by the touch. “ The blind,” continued Mr. Edison, “ are very sensitive to touch. By writ- ing with this preparation they can com- municate with each other, and a great field of happiness and mental improve- ment is opened to them. I am not yet, however, quite satisfied with the pre a- ration. 1 wish to make the eloyst on One of these dark-eyed attendants brought for our inspection a box full of pretty rings. And while he was telling Mistress Jack about his country and enlisting her sympathies for his king, who, he said, was very ill, he managed to persuade her that the rings were the prettiest and the cheapest in the Exposi- tion. These apparently sleepy Orientals are in reality quick-witted tradesmen, and keep up a very lively trafiie with their small wares. They never cease to praise the beauty and taste of the Amor- icen women, and the generosity of the men. Next to the Americans. they any the English bn most; the French and Germans “loo a. long while but don’t buy anything.” Morocco at the Paris Exposition. The court of Morocco has an inde- scribable air of romance about it, writes an American correspondent in Paris. It is hung with mats and scret‘s of gay, warm colors, and displays an endless variety of attractive knickknacks, deli- cately embroidered silk kerchiefs, cigar and cigarette cases and holders, bril- liantly illuminated bracelets and neck- laces made of an aromatic composition, fantastically embroidered slippers, deli- cate pastilles, and an astonishing variety of gilt and tinsel ornaments. Everything seems to send forth the most delicious odor. The air is heavy with eastern perfumes and spices. Olive wood, son- venirs in the shape of canes, paper cut- ters, paper weights and sleeve buttons, are spread temptiugly before you.â€" Stmnge looking musical instruments, war trumpets, balafuns (a. very primitive sort of piano), spears, guns and queer looking dirks and battle-axes appear. Then the toll, handsome Moors, with “ liquid eyes” and languishing manners, looking like the stage Othellos, in their picturesque red torbouches and flowing many-colored robes; standing in the tent and around the courts, add greatly to the romantic scene. When 9136 had bounced the boy into his cart and backed him out, Bij ah swept up her tmcks and tenderly whis- pared: “How easy it is to make people happy! If some one had encouraged me when I was two years old, I might now be presi- dent of Mexico, and have feet as big again as these.”-â€"-Detmit Free Press. “ His bump of inventive genius is monstrous, inmlam â€"- mrioetly mon- strous. I think he will invent a new sort of hair-brush before he is ten years oldâ€"one with a corkscrew in one end and a jack-knife in tho other. I speak for the first one turned out, madam." “ And you shall have it." “Right here, behind the left ear, is the bump of oratory, madam. See how it stands out! Before he is twelve years of age he will be able to deliver as good a speech as you ever heardâ€"mud get his pay for it. Here, between the eyes, is what is culled humility. Just see how humble he is even now! Why, if he had forty opinions on finance he wouldn’t advance a single one of them if it was to disturb anyone's feelings. Here, under his eyes, is what is called cheek. Behold the broad expanse! There isn’t a man in Chicago who can hold a candle to him when he’s fifteen years old. Take him away. He's built right up from the ground, has 9. hide stuffed full of bones and muscle, and all you need do is to keep on feeding him milk, giving him plenty of room to roll over in, and don’t be too particular about his swallowing a few hairpins, shingle nails and thimbles.” “Mr. Joy, you have made us happy,” said the woman, tears coming into her eyes. “The first. time we can get some oysters cheap, we will make a supper 8.119 invite you over." Bijuh onrolully plum-d his paw on the young elm \‘H homl, slid it around for a while, mul ronmrkod : “ Madam, his bump of anxiety in very great. He will be u grout hand to git u and war things when u utn-ot our git» oil; the truck." “ Will he? ()h I I'm no glad, Mr. Tn“ I" “Four, sir! why he’s onl two; and we want on to feel of his umbs and decide if 16'" make a smart man. I say he has the head of a preacher, and my husband says he'll muko a lawyer, and my sister says he’ll iuvont some great things. Put. yuur hand on his head. Mr. T11" " “ Mr. Joy, we have agreed to leave it to you 1" “ Well, madam, it’s my opinion that she's a boy, and he’s not over four years “Ll ” old. It was a mother with a two-year~old boy this time. She dragged him into the room in a rickety old cart, bounced him out as if he had been a package of hardware, placed him ‘on the Center tablewith a force of twentv‘eight pounds to the square foot, and (9111104 out : BUM: as a Phreuoloulst. rugged range stands out like a terrible battlement, where the beacon waves on tho crag that looks down over three conn- trieaâ€"through the deep valleys of Natal 'I on one side the bushy hills of Pondoland in front, and still over the upland slopes of Griqunland on the other sideâ€"here in a steep ravine Smith and his followers hid through the day. Toward night the sound of guns was heard inthe krantzes and some of his men fell at the hands of his Gaffre pursuers. A Oafl're shot at Pommer, but missing was shot in re- turn and fell down a rock out of sight as i wounded. Watching his chance this Cam-e again shot where he saw a bush stirred, and the next morning the body of Smith Pommer was brought out ‘5 with a bullet through the hip. Smith Pommer met his death by the hand of one of a race against whom his enmity had been nurtured from infancy. A Wisconsin dentist recently received the following from a gallant. writing for advice: “My mout is three inches across, flvo-eiéhths through the Jam Sum lmmoky on the edga, Shaped like a boss-shoe, toe forward. If you want me to be more particular. I oh.“ has The part he teen in the outbreak which brought his reckless life to a close has been told in the colonial papers since the Kekstad disturbance. His excuse for being among the rebelsâ€"which may or may not have had a foundationâ€"was that his name had been falsely mixed up with the discontent, and he was on his way to bring in Adam Muis to prove him- self innocent. It is said. however, that he entrapped numbers into rebellion by telling them to come to a certain meet- ing armed, and when they got there made them believe their set had already committed them to rebellion. It is also said that he led on other men of influence who he knew, would draw many after them, by writing fictitious letters to Capt. Blyth and reading out imaginary replies._ fljhe fight in which he and Adam Kok’s sonv were routed from the old lnuger near Kokstad ended in the death of the latter, and Smith himself, with a few attached followera, fled at ilnsk to the mountains toward Pando- and It was a. weird place that Smith Pom. mer and his band had chosen to die in. High up in the thunder beaten 411m of the Ingeli, where the last blu in that In'Adam Kok's time he again married, this time into one of the most respect- able and well to do of the settled Griqua familiesâ€"the Ulbrechts. It is a oken of as a remarkable wedding. aving gone through the ceremony at Koketad, he took his bride to his home at Bies river, from which he had sent out invi- tations to every one in the region, of all colors and occupations. The bride, a good-looking young woman, with but little dark blood in her veinsâ€"was mounted on a rude throne in the open air, and before her every guest, white. and black, passed separately, bowed 'fifi homage, and laid a gift at her feet. This, to them, unique ceremony was gone through with by hundreds of pie from far and wide, and the wedding was kept up for two days. The shrewd and original bridegroom acquired, it is said, a considerable amount of propert in the shape of wedding gifts. Smit now returned more steadily to his trans- port riding, but still manifested his prestige among the people and became a sort of commandant in Capt. Kok’a army. His ingenuity in laying a snare in order to obtain influence or gain a paint was well known, and many of the Griquas at lae_t_Ahad learned to hold aloof from him. The Oafi‘ree in time .believed that he bore a charmed life, for while a notori- ously miserable shot, and seldom usinga weapon himself in a fight, he could show legs and arms scarred with wounds. With a lofty idea of efi‘ect, he always let those wounds show themselves, and cultivated the impression that with all these sears no bullet had ever entered his skin, which was not true. After some ears of a wandering, vagabond, warring ite, Smith Pommer married the pretty Griqua girl, Wilhelmina Buruman, and made a compromise of “ settling down " by turning a transport rider. While on one of these trading journeys, the Ama- baoae swooped down upon his place at Bies river, surrounded those who could oll‘er resistance, and in the fight Smith Pommer’e young wife was shot dead. Smith’s career then took a prefitory turn again, and for some time he was an intriguing freebooter. may wonder who Smith Pommer is or rather was. He was a remarkable man. Although a naturalized Griqua, he was a pure Hottentot in blood :urd inherited the craft of his race. His father, who was one of the Kat River people, was an industrious man, who did his best-to im- prove his condition and educate his son. But the boy, when only fourteen, joined the Kat River rebellion, and after its defeat escaped into anutoland. and afterward found himself in Nomansland, where he and many of his rebel compun~ ions established themselves, surrounded by hostile neighbors. Smith Pommer grew into a fighter and then into a leader. His diminutive figure, his droll behavior, his native wit and his inventive faculties made him a distinctive character, and a great superior to the ignorant people around him. He became recognized as a speech maker and diplomat. His dash, above all, dazzled the Griquas and Cat- fres both. and those who distrusted him for his tricks admired him for his bold- ness. White people who I eoame ao~ quainted with him called it impudence and blaster; but he was genuinely feared by the Oafi‘res, and regarded by others with something like superstition. The Career and Lou Fight of mum- Pen- nor. the Famous (irluuu CMGI'. The London World says: We copied recently from a South African paper a» little paragraph relating to the killing of Smith Pomnger. m 89196 9! our readers A. REMARKABLE ll0TI‘ENTOT.