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I. VAN SLYKE, HcHENRY, *ii' • • ILLINOIS. INDIANA lias famished the country "with two Vice Presidents--Colfax and Hendricks. Both died very suddenly. Mr. Colfax, it will be remembered, -dropped dead at a raliroad station, ""while waiting for a train. The cause of death in each ease must hare been much the same. CLAUB 8PBGCKI.ES, the sugar refiner, "Of California, is the virtual King of the Sandwich Islands, because, he oontrols its sugar lands and cultivation; he is -also the owner of a fleet of steam and sailing ships, and will now carry the anail between San Francisco, 4ad Auckland, New Zealand. PBOF. EATON, of Yale College, ftta arecent lecture to the students told them it was not certain Eve tempted Adam with an apple in the Garden of Eden. He thinks probably it was a -quince, "because the apple of the pres­ ent day was propagated from the crab- apple, and it is not at all likely Adam irould be taken in by such a pnckery little bait." „ PHILADELPHIA'S electric lights for *treet illumination displace gas lamps in the ratio of five electric lights to ^eleven gas lights. Electric lighting costs about twice as much as gas light­ ing, but the illumination is very much better, and, in the opinion of the Ledger of that city, as a police agent the electric light effects a saving in the protection of property that cannot be •commuted. ^ ' Duchess de Plalssancd, of France, is of American decent on her mother's side. She was Lizzie Moore, •daughter of the President of the Coun­ cil of the Confederation, who in 1781 married Barbe Marbois, the French Minister of the period. Marbois sold Louisiana to us, and pooketed $10,000,- €00 on the transtaction. Tho family -still own a large amouut of real estate dH -Philadelphia THAT small but observant lecturer and writer, Mr. Bob Burdette, has gauged the quality of one style of Gen­ eral with extreme accuracy. He says: ""Well, no," replied tho General, "I was not .personally present at the bat­ tle, although' it was fought mainly by "troops of my division; in fact, I seldom had time to attend in person any of my battles. I was kept constantly en­ gaged writing my memoirs of the war." AN itinerant minister riamed Wilcox is reaping a harvest out of the Penn­ sylvania marriage-license law. He lias •established regular marriage stations at various points along the borders of New York state, at which lie appears •on certain days each week. At State Line, on Monday, lie married seven -eouples, the young folks having gath­ ered inyfor several mile* around. To Tuwrfj a trip is mtfch cheaper to "York <Statf' than to tile county seat, where they rould have to go for a license. JA< COOKE drives a great deal along the wagon-roads out beyond the Quajper City. One would hardly think the bid man, with white hair and whMers, whether seen upon the coun­ try load, behind his slowly moving hor?4 or walking leisurely along Wall «treef, was the famous Jay Cooke, who came) from near Sandusky, Ohio, to Washington about the opening of the rebellion, to startle the country with his financial exploits. He is the oqe ^example of a business man who failed when he was old, and grew rich again in less than ten years. IOKE of the most curious and puz- sliag artioles in the extensive museum -of New England antiquities at Deer- field, Mssachusetts, is an oblong flaBk, with a round hole in the top just large enough to admit tho small end of a goblet. Many theories have been ad­ vanced as to the purpose of this article, but it has been proven that its office was to keep the minister's glass of toddy warm while he was preaching on a Sunday morning. The flask--filled with warm water, placed on the pulpit beside him, and the glass set into the hole on top--war- kept warm through the long two-hours' discourse. FOUR finds of scarce books have lately been made in the most unex­ pected quarters--namely ;^at their pub­ lishers, the works being Miss Strick­ land's "Lives of the. Queens of Scot­ land," eight volumes; Count Monta- lembert's "Monks of the West," seven volumes; Prof. Cosmo Innes' "Sketches of Early Scotch History," and Walter Savage Landor's "Works," eight vol­ umes. All these have been many years out pf print, and desciiv.-sd in booksellers catalogues as "scarce," none of whom have the slightest suspicion that large numbers of copies were laid away forgotten in the publishers' ware­ houses. Their advent upon the mar- let was a very unpleasant surprise to many, who, having purchased at the old prices, have now to compete with the reduced ones at which they are being offered. IT has been generally imagined that there was only one picture in existence which was painted by General Grant, and that one was in possession of the Borio family. Another production has been brought to light belonging to W. E. Botheray, of Camden, New Jer­ sey, who has been offered, and who bas refused to take, $5,000 for it The picture is an ordinary-looking water- oolor landscape. Close inspection ahows in the left-hand corner the name *XJ. H. Grant." The initials stand for Ulysses Hiram Grant, baptismal name. Mr. Botheray got the picture from his mother, a resident of New York State, Who, in her girlhood, was a native of Galena. She received it from the dead General herself. He painted it in while he W a cadet at West Point, and presented it to her as a memento of having escorted Mrs. Botheray on a trip East when he went to West Point. George W. Childs has been shown the picture* and having beentold its history, asserted there was no donbt that General Grant painted it. THE great Scotch land-monopolist, the Duke of Argyll, is perhaps the most unhappy politician in Great Brit­ ain now. His eldest son and heir, the Marquis of Lome, was first hissed.next rotten-egged, and then placed at the bottom of the poll in a London bor­ ough. His other son, Lord Colin Campbell, was refused a renomination by the Liberals of Argyllshire, whom he misrepresented in the last Parlia­ ment The Duke, however, intrigued to get the nomination for one of his agents, who has just been beaten by MacFarlane, the Crofter's candidate. The defeat is all the more bitter be­ cause MacFarlane is a follower of Mr. Parnell and represented an Irish con­ stituency in the last Parliament as a Homo-Ruler. Thus has the MacCal- lum More been punished for his recre­ ancy to the party which so much hon­ ored him in the past During the present electoral campaign in Scotland he and Principal Tulloch organized the Church-Defence Society, which de­ prived the Liberals of at least six votes from Scotland, The Badicals have had their revenge. THE London City Press publishes some interesting facts and figures of London. In the metropolis there are 101 hospitals, in which 1,250.000 of people are relieved, and which dis­ pense out-door relief to 4,000,000 annu' ally. Twenty-five per 1,000 of tho pop. ulation are paupers, and are relieved at a cost of £2,500,000. It also seems that there are many more lunatic wo­ men than men. Cabs have increased during the last ten years from 10,000 to over 19,000; 14,478 children were lost in Lon<|pn last year. Greater London contains an area of 44S,334 acres. The population for this year is given as 5,190,166, of whom 60,252 are foreigners; 49,554, Scotch; 80,778, Irish; 3,214, blind, and 1,972, deaf and dumb. In 1884 there were 11,705 licensed pub­ lic and beer houses, and 15,519 males and 9,618 females were charged with drunkenness. In the same year there were 265 persons killed, and 3,592 maimed by street accident*, and 354 filicides. There were 20,667 articles lost in pnblic conveyances, of which 11,248 were restored. There are 407 newspapers published in London. WILLIAM H. VANDERBILT died pos­ sessed of wealth which seems almost fabulous. His fortune was at one time placed as high as $200,000,000, and it is believed that he was the rich­ est man in the world. In January, 1883, he told a friend that he, was worth $194,000,000; he added, "I am the rich­ est man in the world. In England the Duke of Westminster is said to be worth $200,000,000, but it is mostly in land and houses. It does not pay bim 2 per cent." Before the war there were very few men in the United States worth over $",00,000. Most Qf Stewart's property was acquired during and af­ ter the war. Mcst of the men now worth $10,006,000 and upward wer9 considered poor twenty-fivo years ago. Mr. Vanderbilt could have bought any of the Bothschilds and still be the richest man in the world. And unlike the rich men of England--the Dukes of Bedford, Westminster, Argyll, and Buccleuch, who inherited their great estates--Yanderbilt's property was ac­ cumulated in two generations. It is a singular list of nathes that follow that of Vanderbilt in this catalogue. Each is taken at his reputed valuation: Jay Gould, 00,000,000; Mackay, $50,000,- 000 ; Crocker, $50,000,000; John Bocka- frller, of the Standard Oil Company, $40,000,000; C. P. Huntington, $20,- 000,000; D. O. Mills, $20,0(f0,000; Sena­ tor Fair, $30,000,000; ex-Governor Stanford, $40,000^000; Bussell Sage, $15,000,000; J. B. Keene, $15,000,000; E. D. Morgan, $10,000,000; Samuel Slom, $10,000,000; Commodore Garri­ son, $10,000,000; Cyrus W. Field, $10,- 000,000; Hugh J. Jewett, $5,000,000; Sidney Dillon, $5,000,000; David Dows, $5,000,000; J. DeNavarro, $5,000,000; John W. Garrett, $5,000,000; W. W. Astor, $5,000,000. Romance and Common Sense. Bacon's merit lies in the fact that* he called tho attention of scholars and thinkers to the value of earth and ma­ terial sciences; and urged them to gather up terrestrial data, and instead of seeking definitions of "mind," 4 soul," "angel," "fate," "man," ' horse," and "eternity," these thinking leaders should gather up all the information possible about the soils, grains, winds, rains, instruments, machines, arts, and appliances of society, and then, draw conclusions that would compel a gen­ eral advance. • Open any one of the great books of the older world and there is an amaz­ ing omission of the domestic arts and sciences and a wonderful attention to things moral, imaginary, fanciful, ro­ mantic, and fantastic. Angels, imps, nymphs, large and small deities, dwarfs, giants, ghosts are born out of the fertile human fancy as sparks rise from a shaken tire, but in these thous­ ands of years no thinking mind touches a plow, or reaping knife, or any imple­ ment to make it do more good with less labor. The ground is plowed with a crooked stick, the harvest is cut with a case knife; and while women and children are reaping, and thrashing the one-third crop, the 10,000 birds eat up a fourth part of the ripe grain, and another fourth part is taken by the tax- farmers who scour the country like jackals at night on a battlefield. Hence the great famines and diseases came and swept away millions. The so-called thinking men were too busy in the regions of abstraction and fancy to admit of their bestowing any attention upon the study of harvest fields, production, implements, disease, and health.--Prof. David Swing, in the Current. SENATOR EDMUNDS' wealth is esti­ mated at half a million, all made in the last seven years. MODEBN needles first came Into use in 2544. 8EMOI13CEKCBS OF PUBLIC MEN. BY BEN: PEKLEY POORT.. Gov.Alexandor it. Shepherd, better Hjy husband felt the greatest desire to visit Washington. He did come here, and some one took him on the floor of the Senate, and he wrote to me: 'My known M "Boss" Shepherd, was the • dear, I have had the honor to ^oon the great-nephew of Frank Shepherd, one I fl°or of the Senate, and I feel that one of the mates of the privateer bon ; ^ shall stand there and speak, and Homme Kichard, when commanded by 1 .T.ou> my dear, will be in the gallery Paul Jone*. His fathrr was a lumber ; listening to me.' I wrote to him; 'O, dealer at Washington, whe'-o his mother Carl, how can you think it possib.a for kept a boarding-house, and he, alter ; Jou lo speak one .lay in the feenate, serving as a clerk, saw that w.th the j ^hen now you speak not one word of introduction of the Potomac water, j English? But now," she added, "it soon to be made, there would be a de- i ̂ ias °°me true, and you can imagine mand for good plumbing. Going to kow happy I am when I sit in the gal? New York, he learned the trade, and I lell?.8 listening to him." was thus able to make considerable money while a young man. Interest-1 ing himsolf in public mutters, he was made president of a board of public works, and at once began to transform lines of mud-holes into well paved streets bordered with shade trees. He found that during the previous seventy years the United States Government, although it owned every street and avenue in Washington, and every alter­ nate building lot besides, had neglected its duty and obligation most shame­ fully. The property which it owned had been deeded to it with the condi­ tion that Congress should improve it. Yet, up to the year 1871, it had spent on its half of the whole area of the city only $2,500,000, while the citizens had spent $15,000,000 for public im­ provements. The citizens had taxes to pay. The Government paid no taxes whatever. The board ondeavored to carry out the law which provided that in making improvements the property which abutted on the avenue or reserva­ tion improved should pay its due pro­ portion of the cost. In 1871 a new District Government was organized, and Mr. Shepherd, at the head of a Board of Commissioners, formed a plan for the general improve­ ment of the metropolis at a cost of $6,- 000,000. Work was commenced, but Judge Wyle at once issued an injunc­ tion against its prosecution, and a pro­ vision in the organic act required that in the case of such enjoinment the whole question should be submitted to the people of the District. This was done. The people sustained the com­ missioners by a vote of 16,(100 out of a total vote of 18,000, and the work was therefore commenced in Angust. 1871. In the November following the Court in Banque reversed Judge Wylie's de­ cision and the work went on There was, of course, much opposi­ tion, as some of the regradiug involved alterations that to many property-own­ ers seemed outrageous. To sink a street from five to twenty feot below its former level was to leave rows of dwellings away up on a hill. And in some places it became necessary to raise the street levels up to the first and even the second-story window- jambs of house < alongside. To ap­ pease the'angry householders left higit and dry, the banks before their dwell­ ings were graded und sodded, and along one row of "house', owned by M ess is. Edmunds, Bayard end others, a new carriage-way was ma le. House < below the grade were rai-ed by screws to the new street line, and new sewers were laid in accordance with a new. plan ot drainage. There was, however, much discontent on the pirt of taxpay­ ers, and in February, 1>72, a committee of investigation was ordered by Con­ gress. The investigation -lasted four months. The committer vindicated the Board, reporting that is had be HI guilty of no evil practices, etc., and the report was sustained by the House in open session. Tho Board cummeticed operations anew, and worked through tho whole year, 1872, with a great deal of vigor, having generally 5,00!) men employed. In Marcht,_lj^,"/Cofrgress showed its appreciation of "what had been done by voting about $3,500,000, and during the rest, of 1873 the im­ provements were pushed hard. In February, 1874, another Congressional committee of investigation was or­ dered, and it„ sat for five months. About 4,000 pages of testimonv weie taken. The result was the abolition ot the District govern mention the ground that it had exceeded its authority m making the improvements, and the en­ actment of a law placing the govern­ ment of the Distriot in the hauds of three commissioners. Gen. Grant, who was personally cog­ nizant of Mr. Shepherd's labors, nom­ inated him as one of the commission­ er.", but a clamor has been raised against him, and the Senate rejected him. Favorites of Congressmen had undoubtedly profited by contracts, but notwithstanding the reckless charges made against Mr. Shepherd, no one accusing him had been able to put his finger on a single specific fraud. For three years all tho papers relating Jo the work in every part of the District passed through his hands. He ihns frequently examined more than a thous­ and papers a day, and so kept himself familiar with ev^ry detail. In that way he was able to prevent fraud or theft, and to choke 'scandals which were not kept alive by sheer falsehood. When Mr. Sumner was passing away, Mrs. Schurz came to liis house and sent upstairs for me. Leaving the bed­ side of the dying statesman, I went down into his parlor, and had to tell her there was no hope. "How sad! how sad!" she exclaimed, the tears glistening in her eyes, "to think that he is dying, with no woman to smooth his pillow." To those who knew the story of Mr. Sumner's unfortunate mar­ riage, her womanly remark was deeply significant. It was not long before Mrs. Schurz followed him across the dark river. Hew Porcelain Ware is Made. To earthenware the blue clay gives toughness and solidity, flint gives whiteness, kaolin whiteness and por­ ousness, and Cornish stone acts as a sort of flux, binding all together. These materials, being weighed and measured, are placed, together with a large quantity of water, in huge vats fitted with an agitator called a "bluneer," by means of which they are thoroughly stirred up and mixed to­ gether. As my courteous guide raises the lid of one of these "blunging" ma­ chines, I descry, as it were, the interior of a vast churn, filled with a strong, white sea, as if the cliffs had got mixed with the tide in the manner depicted by some painters of seascapes. This l>eautifully white fluid runs off, when its parts are judged to be sufficiently mixed, into troughs, and is strained through sieves of lawn, varying in fine­ ness from twenty-two to thirty-two threads to the inch. It is being tested by weight, a certain measure Wing re­ quired to weigh a certain number ot ounces. The slip now reposes for a while in quaint receptacles shaped like the Noah s ark giv^-u to children. To get rid of the superfluous dampness of the compound "slip," it forced- by means ot pumps into bags ot strong cloth. It is tlieu pressed and some­ times cut up and pressed again, being then' ready for the thrower. When the sort ot' sausage machine just describe I ha* done its work, and the slip has been pressed, the material is of tho consistancy of still dough. In this condition it comes into the hands of the potter, but not directly. Before it readies him it is weighed out into lumps and handed to him by the girl who acts as his assistant. When the lump of clay is finally handed to the potter he deals with it in a wonder­ ful manner. Placed on the horizontal wheel revolving before him, the elav is mad» to perform the most extraordi­ nary evoiution. It spreads out, leav­ ing a hollow center, and grows like a mush-room under his skillful hand. It becomes anything he likes. It may be a bowl, a cup, or assume any other shape. As the clay revolves rapidly the workman has only to change the position of his hand to produce any shape he may wish. in the so-called "green house" a large quantity of ware, is drying pre- para ory to being "tirod." This pro­ cess is the crucial test of pottery. All the preceding operations have been con­ ducted with a distinct view to this one. Alt the combinations of clay, flint, .stone, or bone have been made with foretuought of the kiln in which the ware will be partially vitrified. Earth­ enware and porcelain are only, as is well known, less perfect forms of giass, or rather, of glass in another stage of development. Wnen the earthenware slip cups and saucers, mugs and jugs, are sufficiently dried, they are ready lor the "biscuit" kilns, as tiiey are oddly called, lor the ware is not twice baked in them, nor is jt good to eat Some kinds of ware are submitted to the in­ tense heat of the kiln three times, all twice--once in biscuit, once in glaze. When painting is iniroduced over tho glaze, as in the ole Sevres pate tendre and the various kinds of tine porcelain, there is a third tiring. Before being placed in the kilns all the articles thrown, turned, or molded are ar­ ranged in the "saggers," receptacles of coarse clay, very thick and strong, like deep pie iLsiioj. Into these the vari­ ous art cles are packed with consider­ able skill, little triangles being placed between each to prevent their touching each oti.er, and the saggers are next packed together in the kilu or oven, each saggar being lined at the bottom with a layer or rock sand. Piled one on the other, the saggers make & fairly compact column, and when the oven, some niueteen feet in altitude, is filled. , , „ , f „ i the fare is applied. It will be under-'Ihe amount of work performed un- , A, . „ ,• » * , „ . _ ,, j. - .. stoo l that the lire by no means touches der Gov. Shepherd s direction was „„„„ , . . __ _ ta •_ i j j i, ,• either the ware or the saggars in which enormous. It included tlie grading for and laying of twenty-five miles of stone pavement, thirty miles of con­ crete pavement, fifty miles of wood pavement and 200 miles of brick side­ walks. The originally defective sew­ erage was made oomplete and thor­ ough, ana many thousands *of shade trees were planted. Spots and squares formerly, occupied by tumbledown and useless tenements, or for half a cen­ tury surrendered to filth and garbage, were turned into pretty park*!. Waste and marshy lands in the city and sub­ urbs were reclaimed. Ttie street lamps, which used to make darkness more pro­ found, were multiplied until they really light the citizen on his way. This wonderfnl transformation was the work of Gov. Shepherd, but in ac­ complishing it he lost his own proper­ ty, and was forced to exile himself tq, Mexico, where he is engaged in mining operations with his accustomed energy, but is coming to Washington to attend his daughter's wedding. The people of Washingten owe it to themselves to erect two statues, to stand in two of the small parks at the intersection of the avenues. One should represent Maj. L'Enfant, the French engineer who planned the metropolis, and the other Gov. Shepherd, who executed those plans, and made Washington worthv of its name and a fitting me­ tropolis for the United States of Amer­ ica. Carl Schurz, when in the Senate, was blessed with a devoted wife, two lively daughters and a baby boy. After one of the Senator's great speeches, a lady said to his wife, "I am sure you feel proud of your husband ?" "You can imagine that I do," replied Mrs. Sciiurz, with a slight accent, her expressive eyes lightiug up. "My husband tells me that I am his severest critic, but his last speech was tome very satisfactory. He was in the mood to speak--his voice, everything, was in accord. And eighteen years ago we came to America, and he did r-pt speak a word of En­ glish. We were in Philadelphia, but sag it is enclosed. Tlicy are simply in an oven about to be raised to a tremend­ ous heat. The liring is done by means of /lues so arranged as to diffuse ip- tense heat throughout the whole inte­ rior of the ovens. The tiring is a tick­ lish operotion, requiring the supervis­ ion of a skilled workman capable of existiug without sleep for some thirty- six or forty hours. At first the heat is applied gently, for fear of cracking the ware, and the fireman has an anxious time of it. Little openings in the brickwork enable him to judge of the progress of his work. The heat of a biscuit oven during the last twenty- four hours is intense, between 20,000 and :-J0,O00 degrees F. As the ware has taken from forty to fifty hours in firing, so does it require an"equal time to become cool.--English Magazine. A Tornado Year. In 1884 172 tornadoes were recorded by the signal-service bureau. They were more frequent in July than at any other time, but January was the only month of the vear that was entirely tree from them. Every section of the United States was visited except New England and the region west of the summit of the Bocky mountains. In sixty-two in­ stances, the width of the tornado path varied from seventy-five to 5,28i) feet, the average being 1,037 feet; and in '67 cases the length varied from two to 130 miles, the average being thirty-six miles. ' The storms moved forward at an average rate of forty-two miles an hour, the rotations of the inevitable lunnel-shaped cloud being accom­ plished, of couse, at a greater velocity. The direction of the cyclone's course is usually northeast. Its time is more frequently from 4 to 5:30 o'clock in the afternoon, rarely as early as 3, although not uncommonly as late as 7 ;30 or 8 in the evening, and sometimes even later. --Boston Cultivator. PRIDE is increased by ignorance; thoso assume tho most who know the le4a?|,-rAicy. T1IE ALA.SKAXS. Their Antiquity--Qncrr IdeBH Abovt ftteal- --The llrst Children in t he World, In liis report to Congress of the Point Barrow polar expedition, Lieut. Bay devotes one chapter to the natives of Alaska. - Of origin and descent, he says, wo conlil get. no trace, there being no rec- o-d ot evt-uta kept among them. Their language ubjunds in legends, but none of these gave any data by which we could judge how long these desolato shores have been inhabited. That the ancestors of the people have wade it their home for ages is shown by the ruins of ancient villages and winter huts along the seashore and in the in­ terior. On the point where the station was established were mounds making the sites of three huts, dating back to the time when they had no iron, and men "talked like dogs." AtPerigniak a group of mounds mark the site of an ancient village. It stands in the midst of a marsh, a sinking of the land caus­ ing it to be flooded and consequently abandoned, as it is their custom to se­ lect the high and dry points of land along seashores for their permanent villages. The fact of our finding a pair of wooden goggles twenty-six feet be­ low the surface of the earth points con­ clusively to the great lapse of time since these shores were first peopled by the rare of man. They are a robust, healthy people, fairer than the North American Indian, with brown eyes and straight black hair. Then men are beardless until they attain the age of from 20 to 25 years, and even then it is very light and scattering, and is always clipped close in the winter; at that season they also cut of their eyebrows and tonsure their crown like a priest, with bangs over their forehead. Their hands and feet are extremely small and symmet­ rical. They are graceful in their move­ ments when unencumbered by heavy clothing. They are kind and gentle in disposition and hospitable to strangers; though they may rob a stranger of every means of obtaining a subsistence one moment, they will divide with him their last piece of meat the next. They have no form of government and live in a condition of anarchy. Though given to petty pilfering tliey rarely, if ever, break into a cache or enter a tent of hut for that purpose. During the first winter we had stovos, of which they were in great need, in a Sibley tent, and they all knew they were there; %nd although the tent was tied, * ith no regular guard over it, nothing was ever disturbed, though if anything was carelessly left oat it would be stolen at once. They never make the slighest resistence to our reclaiming property when discovered, and would laugh about it as though it were a good joke. A more obedient or a better lot of chil­ dren cannot be found in all Christen­ dom. I never saw one of any age do a vicious or mean act, and while they were always around the station during the fall and winter, they did no mis* chief, but, on the contrary, would busv tliemselves in shoveling the snow out of the tunnels and running on errandB and doing any work they could for a little food each day. The children would wait around the door for members of the party to come out to take their daily exercise, and would accompanv each member, and every few moments they would say "nanmitanity" (now let me see); they would Bean the traveler's face for frost-bites, and were ever ready with a handful of snow to be ap­ plied, should they detect the slightest sign of freeziug. The games were very like what we see played among children of our own race, and in imita­ tion of the pursuits of the elders, we often saw them with play-houses cut into the hard snow, with snow images set up and the little fur-dad mites of humanity bustling around, playing keeping house and making calls, with the thermometer at 40 degrees below zero. There is no marriage ceremony among them, but children are of;en be­ trothed by their parents at an early age, and this promise is faithfuliv kept, and they enter upon their marriage re­ lation at the age of 12 to 15 years. Where there has been no childhood en­ gagement. the mother makes selection of the wife for her sou, and the girl se­ lected is invited to the house, where she takes the place of a servant for a short time, domg the housework and cooking, generally returning to her father's iglee to sleep. They often have family disagreements, the hus­ band resorting to blows when the wife is sulky and disobedient, sometimes with the result of her running away. We knew of one instance, where, owing to a slight mistake the husband ha«l made in his estimate of his wife's char­ acter, lie obtained results not antici­ pated. While out on a deer hunt he attempted to chastise her. She retal­ iated and gave him a severe thrashing and then lied to a village seventy-five miles away years in Arkansas for the price of a conventionally respectable interment in New York. Yet few take Buch a fact as this into the slightest consideration in consenting to a demise. We are, indeed, acquainted with one conscien­ tious old Irish woman, with a compli­ cation of diseases, who faithfully at­ tends the dispensary, because she is "on her relationi,'" and she knows and admits thut- the / cannot uiford to bury her. tench a spirit deserves an historical record and wide emulation. The fact is, we are much in need of a society for the cubivation, not of plain living, but of plain dying. In these hard times it is often little less than criminal that a man subject his estate to the prolific expenditure of a funeral. We have heard of a gentleman who, at the solic­ itation of his wife, gave up tobacco and thereby, in the next fifteen years, saved over $500, which all went at last for his burial expenses. Here was certainly a disproportion between effort and its re­ sult ihat is most painful to well-balanced minds, and very disheartening to the anti-tobacco propaganda.--New York Medical Record. Beautifying. "How do you go about beautifying a woman?" asked the reporter. "Well, we bring out the eyes by care­ ful pencilings, shadings and underlin- ingS. The Washington women and the actresses understand this kind of thing, the former quite as well as the latter. The beauteous dowagers seen in Wash­ ington drawing-rooms assist nature considerably, I assure you. Beautify­ ing is the bloom of youth with them. Have you ever seen Nast draw a pic­ ture. He draws a line here and an­ other there, and when presently it is finished you have tho expression. Tha£ is just the way we do. If the features are too broa l we modify them with lines; if they are too receding we bring them out in the same way. It's a very simple matter. We keep ideal heads and faces hanging on the wall and ap­ proximate to them as closely as we can. Beautifying is an art now. It is stud­ ied in Paris and New York by many women who will make it the profession of their lives." "How do they beautify the lips?" "We turn them out and paint them with a salve inside and the saliva which lubritates them in conversation moist­ ens them just enough to make them a perfect ruby in color." "Do you brighten the eyes ?" "No, indeed. We don't claim to do anything of the kind. Such proceed­ ings ruin the sight and are foolhardy in the extreme." "Can you change the shape of the nose ?" "We can modify the shape by lines and beautify the nostrils by tinting them. We modify large ears by skill- fully-drawn lines and by a peculiar ar­ rangement of the hair. A hollow cheek is tinted low and dark in order to fill it in?" "Do you make dimples?" "We paint them, making them very white outside. To make them really the muscles must Le cut and that we never do." fcllow do you whiten the hands?" "By the use of doeskin, medicated gloves. Medicated masks are also used to sleep in. They are manufactured of silk rubber; a lotion is first applied to the face; then the mask is put on and induces perspiration and the effect is whitening and healing. Brown pow­ der is used for making brunettes. There is a bleach used for the skin. Moles are removed by a preparation with a glass pencil in three houre. Superfluous hair is not removed by electricity, because the effects are not pleasant, but by a preparation which is put on the face. When it is rubbed off the hair comes with it." "I presume you have had a lot of experience with theatrical people?" "Yes. They are more easily suited than anybody else, because they under­ stand the subject. They take preat delight in sitting dowc to be beautified; it saves them lots of trouble and we perfume them so delicately, you know, and make them feel so comfortable. I wouldn't miiuL^oing through it occa­ sionally myself." "J)o you beautify gentlemen?" "Well, I should think so. They are as vain as women any day in the week. The Washington beautifiers claim that one third of their busihess comes from men. They are not fumy or hard to work for, but they take delight in being handsome."-- Denver Tribune. Jo>li Killings' Dog. A good story is t old of the humorist being thrown, on one occasion, among a batch of students in a country town near New Haven. He was tramping along with a rusty yellow dog, and en­ tered the bar-room of a hotel for some refreshments. A group of the Yale lads chanced to be thereon a frolic.aud At the time we landed at 1 immediately interviewed Billings,whom I'glaamie, this same woman carrie I on her back a box of lead weighing 380 pounds a distance of over 200 yards. When a man of matured years loses his wife either by death or from in­ compatibility of temper ho selects one for himself and sometimes uses force. A native from a villago to the west­ ward, whose wife had left him, came up to Ugiaamie to obtain another. One day we were attracted by loud outcries from a woman who had been waitiag around the station for food. We found our friend from Sidaru vigorously cuf­ fing her ears, and it was some time be­ fore we could make him desist. He ex> plained that he wanted her for a wife and was persuading her. Their dead are carriod out and laid on the tuudra without any ceremony other than the near relatives followiug the body to its last resting place. It is usually trapped in deer skins; if a man, his sled and hunting-gear are broken ?ind laid over the body; if a woman, "her sewing kit and some few household utensils are placed at her head; but everything so left is broken. With but few exceptions I never knew them to pay any at ention to their dead after they were carried out, and all showed great reluctance about speaking of them. The bodies are usu­ ally eaten by the dogs, especially in the winter, and it is no uncommon sight to see them gnawing the bones on the roofs of the huts. While theyall claim that it is bad to use anything that be­ longed to the dead, I noticed that no matter how good an outfit a man had when living, his was the most worth­ less sled and gun that could be found after his death. What It Costs to Die. The cost of cremation by the new company in this city, it is qtud, will only be $25. The fact that a person dying in New York can have suitable mortuary rites performed for the com; paratively small sum of $25 is most in­ teresting, and will, we feel sure, do much to rob death of its terror. Dying in New York is a luxury, and one about! Thick most peoole show a strange ] amount of thoughtlessness and incon- sidbration. A citizen cafe live three j they evidently mistook dor a farmer. Thev inquired . with alleged interest after the health of his wife and chil­ dren, and Josh, with counterfeited sim­ plicity, gave them a graphic account of his family and farm. "Of course you belong to the church?" asked one of the boys. "Yes, the Lord be praised, and my father and grandfather before me." "Now, I supposo you wouldn't tell a lie," said one of the students. "Not for the world." "What will you take for that dog ?" pointing to Josh's cur, which was crouching beneath his chair. "I won't take $20 for that dog." "Twenty dollars! Why, he's not worth 20 cents." "I assure you I would not take $20 for him." "Come, my friend," said the student, who, with his companions, was bent on having some fun with the old man. "Now, you say you won't tell a lie for the world. Let me see if you will not do it for $20. I'll give you $20 for your dog." "I'll not take it." "You will not? Here! let me see if this will not tempt you to a lie," added the student, producing a small bag of half dollars, which he built up into small piles on the table. Josh was sit­ ting by the table, with his hat in his hand,apparently unconcerned. "There," added the student, there are twenty dollars, ail in silver; I will give you that for the animal." Josh quietly raised his hat to the edge of the table, ! and, as quick as thought, scraped all the money into it except one half dol­ lar, and then exclaimed: "I won't take your $20! Nineteen Agid a half is as much as that dog is worth; he is your property!" A tremendous shout from his fellow- i students clearly showed the would-be ] wag that he was completely sold and that he i.eed not look for sympathy ! from that quarter, so he goodnaturedly | acknowledged himself beaten.--Phila­ delphia Times. -- TIIE popuIstiow^TFI^United State* is divided into 2b,-jl»,820 males an^ 24.636,96'i females : • ®§f "m .1 Si *3^ v.. Origninal DlscoTery of Gehl* la fornia. It was in Alvarado's time, and abotft March, 1842, that gold was first die* covered in Alta, California. It is tnru# that among the various reports of Drake's voyage, there is one which, is speaking of his landing at New Albion, in 1578, pays that "there is no part o( the earth to be" here taken up, wherei* there is not a reasonable quantity d( gold or silver." But it seems proba­ ble that this statement was an inter­ polation. Whether so or not, it is very certain that Drake saw neither gold nor silver on the coast There is no pretense that he did in a very minuta and circumstantial narrative,'entitled^ Sy i "World Encompassed," by his chapjf > > Iain, Francis Fletcher, who woulafe .1 * hardly have omitted a Shatter of so much importance, if known; nor is there any reference to gold or silver ia ; \ any of the narratives of the sailors ap»„ pended to and published with th# "World Encompassed." For thes(| reasons, and on account also of thiif j ^ very general, indefinite, and interjeq* tional character of the statement itself^ it must be rejected as a fabrication. It & is further true, that there were re» £, ports that Captain Jedediah S. Smithy f the first American who arrived in Calif fornia overland, found gold in th» *• r' Sierra Nevada mountains about tho V year 1826; but his discovery, if it wera true, took place on the eastern side of ^ the Sierra, and iiot within what is now . i . known as California. But in 1841, Andres Castillero, the same person * 1 who afterwards discovered the New i'; " Almaden quicksilver mine in Santa ; Clara Count/, while traveling from Lea *js Angeles to Monterey, found near tha 5 ** Santa Clara river a number of water* , < worn pebbles, which he gathered up- and carried with him to Sania Bar* ., bara. He there exhibited them, saitf - they were a peculiar species of * iroti : ^ | pyrites, and declared that, according to- -" * • Mexican miners, wherever they wera \c found, there was a likelihood of gol4- being also found. A ranchero, named? Francisco Lopez, who was living on Pirn Creek, a branch of the Santa -:VF Clara river, but happened at the time to be at Santa Barbara, heard Castil- •-)- lero's statement and examined hia , specimens. Some months afterwards, having returned home, he went out oa 7 ' a search for strayed cattle. At noon, | when he dismounted from his horse for , the purpose of resting, he observed a, ^ few wild onions growing near whera ^ , t he lay. He pulled them up, and in do- ing so noticed the same kind of pel> bles as those to which Castillero had >. called his attention. Bemembering $ •' * J what Castillero had said about theuV^r. a he took up a handful of earth, and«: t. upon carefully examining it, discovered % gold. " . f '; The news of the discovery, the exaoi location of which was a place called ' San Francisquito, 'about thirty-five miles northeast of Los Angeles, sooa : spread; and in a few weeks a great ' I many persons were engaged in washr I ing and winnowing the sands and earth . ' in search of gold. The auriferoua. "r fields were found to extend lrom a^'( point on the Santa Clara river, about " fifteen or twenty miles above its mouth, over all the country drained by its up- Vf ^ per waters, and thence easterly to * Mount San Bernardino. On May 14* * ^ 1842, Alvarado wrote to the prefect of the district, reproving him for not hav- . ^ * ing given otlicial notico of the di|cov- j ery, and directing him to gather and forward an account of all circumstance# , of interest relating to the gwld for ""V" transmission to the supreme govern- ment. From that time to this dajk tjm. there has been more or less working of "these mines; but no places of very 'V great richness have been found, anw J ? j|J none to compare with those afterwards * * > > discovered on the tributaries of that ' ? 1 ** ;• Sacramento and San Joaquin.--Ovet* land Monthly: Harriet Martineau. ^ "•$ Harriet Martineau was born at Nofi wich, England, June 12, 1802. She was well educated, and, at a very early age, began to exercise her talent for composition. In 1823 she beghn pub­ lishing poems and mural i-ketihea chiefly for the young. By l«s28 she had printed ten of th^claiaftll volumes, f and she now prepaid a series of tracl*^* on questions relating to the working classes, in whose welfare she took much interest. In 1831 she publiseed'"Tra? , ,: tions of Palestine," which was a series of sketches of the Holy Land during the 7 period of Christ's ministry. In tha -Sf same year the British Unitarian So- :! city having offered three prizes for ;- tracts on different subjectl, Miss Mar­ tineau competed for, and won them alL ^ She then began the publication of her-' series of "Stories on Political Econ- omy," by which she gained much more fame and money than all her previous works. In 1834-0 Mies Martineau vis- ited America, and on her return re- *' corded her impressions in two volumes. During the next two years she wrote r " two novels and several tales for ciiil- ..j dren, but her health, never robust, now became so affected that she was obliged to give up literary occupation for twfif^ years. In 1843 she published a series ^ of sketches called "Life in a Sick- : room." From that time for nearly. twenty years she pursued her literary .|y work almost contiguously, though muc|;-:|; of the time she was in very feeblp health. In 1846 she made a tour ; through the Orient, concerning whicHi she subsequently wrote a book. Prob­ ably tho most important work oi thia indefatigable woman was a "History of ^ England During the Thirty Yeanf Peace," a work which ranks as an au­ thority concerning the period of F.ng- lfe'h history to which it relates. Mis* r Martineau wrote in all over fifty vol* nines, besides a great number of pamr j phlets and an innumerable list of news- paper and magazine articles. She waf several times offered a pension frota ' the government, but, though she had never, because of her benevolent disc • position, saved mufhf/oni her earnings , through literary labor, she al«avs re­ fused on conscientious grounds to ac*» v cept it. Miss Martineau died June 27, 1876.--Inter Ocean. The Reason He HML I A man who had been convicted of stealing horses and whose penalty waa M assessed at twenty years' imprisou-^J ment, was asked the usual "question by ; a San Antonio Judge. ~ 3 "Prisoner, do you know of any reason why sentence should not be pronouncedi > on you-Actserding to law?" • "Why, Judgi£--qf course I da -1| gjig would break me np^ in business.*-- Minneapolis Mercury. A BENEFIT society in London, lately v. ? established, has some good features. Its basis is the payment into a eonnuon ' fund oi $25 a year by the firm, and: from two to six shares are allotted to » • ' each workman, according to the aver-. . age amount of his weekly earnings, ^ . 't On each of these share he pays 5 cent*." ^ a week. Sickness brings SI per shai-ejf ^ after three months 50 cents a share ia;' £ ' ̂ paid. Incase of a death each work- " j man la tavd 50 onttir V*/ , v „ <1 ' 1?- ii *14.