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• l"< ^c§rnrgfl*tu«ram irAK ttrkt. C4Hor mt PuMlshw. m% - " - ~ ILLINOm • .# St CLAIR OR MAUD? K«*r, which of these shall be my W«»t Tin hard to choose between them-- that I 1 «ninetiruo« tea lv wish hail aever Sees tf r> r ^ •/ft ' <4rr ilfc t met them first ayear , «£ + '•" Upon the famed Rialto; * .. .£.. fVnf voices charaad iue--Clair t to And Maud's a rich contralto. *fce eyes of Clair are heavenly bias,* And Maud's are brown and tender; fbi ope a petit* with dimpled graM. i 'S ©»' other tafi aawi RJcailcr. Ah t here's a plan--I'm sure 'twill fa*t him who w.ll deride It, J*ll ured the one whom first I r.ieet, And thus Jet Fate decide fi. With thoughts lik* these, the Prtaoe of Dudes 'Met Clair, petite and clever; Be whispere 1, "Thou shnlt be my brat (Dts answered brusquely, "Never." 1 eu vaultv* a trifle piqued. ' -*i He left the lady'* presence. And drowned his thoughts a* youag men wul in shooting wild-wood pheasants. Bat meeting Maud wilhi't a week. He saul. "Dear girl. Jet 's marry,'* *"Why. that can't he." the miid replied ' it rui_er.gaged to Harry." 9 Press. wtigNttroit Free ; Hpv?'- A BURGLAR •-J.. •' B. J. CHAJliRE^ t ""J" : As a member of the "special sj^ff" to whom is entrusted the dutf of dealing with telesrraph business at race meetings and other events of ir­ regular and itinerary occurence, 1 have visited most towns of any im­ portance in England, and have been a spectator of. and in some cases a participator in, some curious inci­ dents. one of which I propose to re­ flate here Many of the most successful meet- • kind of semi-public, semi-prlvita $»llce officer with a staff of men. who #ere largely employed by race committees in the task of prefer Vint; order In the en­ closures, and excluding bad and doubtful characters. They traveled about to meetings like ourselves, and in this way a sort of intimacy sprang tip. > 'Oh, they'd just be as bad as the locals," I said. "They'd want to boss the whole affair, and very likely spoil it. I'll tell you what; I'll ask three young fellows I know to come and have a game at cards at our diggings to-night I'll tell them to call for us at the office half an hour or so before we close At closing-time we can make some excuse, and send them off with our own three men, whilst you, Harper, and I remain.* He still hesitated. I could see he was again more than half inclined to let the police deal with the matter. Of course his responsibility-was heavy; and should anything go wrong, he would certainly be severely censured. I bad,however, the utmost confidence in my plan, and would or could see no possibility of failure; so that, eventually, I succeeded in gaining his consent. This done, I was only anxious for the racing to conclude, that we might get down to the town and prepare our surprise party. At 5 o'clock the final race was run; and an *iour later we were hard at it in the town, wir­ ing full account of the day's doings. Only the three of us already men­ tioned knew of the projected attempt and our counter-plan: and we, con­ vinced that we would be overlooked, assumed to the best of our abilities an ordinary manner and bearing. Harper produced as usual his cash- box and sheets, counted and balanced his account, telling the money, which amounted to about eighty pounds,out on the counter before him. Finally, he replaced it in the box, which he COLD 8NIVEMU tags, from a racing man's point ot view, are those held at places other-1 handed to .the boss, who placed it in the safe, closing, but not locking, the door. wise of very little size or importance. As an example, it will be sufficient to mention Epsom. It was a town in the Midlands ordinarily containing about ts.OOO inhabitants, that I, with five colleagues, including ^a supervi «or, was ordered in the autumn 187--. Meanwhile, I had. quietly and un­ observed, procured a bax very similar to Harpers's, and after partly filling it with some odd pieces of metal, 1 of i fastened one end of a long wire to its j brass handle. I prepared another , t "" Theevent was a two-dav ra<# meet-! similar piece of wire. Ostensibly for ing. The first davwas fine, with oc-1 working purposes, I had gathered all casional showers- the racing was j the batteries at our command under- good: and as a large company was! neath the counter, and when the present, we had enough to do not j work was over, I quietly knelt down only at the grand stand, but also ; and joined them altogether in series, later in the evening at the town' T * -1 office, whence we despatched a large i quantity of press-work by means of j a "Wheatstone,': which had been sent i for the purpose. It was 11 o'clock be- j fore we finished, and we then had a | good half-hour's walk to our lodgings. At the same time I fastened one end of my spare wire to the negative pole of this monster battery; and then, standing up and leaning over the counter, succeeded, unnoticed, in attaching the other end of the wire to a narrow brass rail which ran g^uUeman, stop it! Doh't H?1p) Help!" He writhed a gled, fell on his kndes, and_jgt aa enormous effort, tore the rail fnfm its place; but the battery wire still held on. For a time his cries and struggles redoubled: but at last he lay ex­ hausted on the floor. I then t urned off the current, and we turned on the gas. There lay our man, his face gray and distorted, as though he had a fit. He was quite young. After he had somewhat recovered, he begged hard to be let go, gasping out: "You're done it hard enough on me. " After some hesitation, the boss de­ cided to let him go, I fancy he was not quite at his ease as to how his action would be regarded by the de­ partment. Another reason was that the second man had got clean away. He had been waiting outside; but on hearing the disturbance and his pal's cries, had fled and left him. The man was grateful for his re­ lease, and walked slowly and heavily away. He was evidently severely shaken, and 1 should scarcely think would ever try to rob a telegraph of­ fice again.--Saturday Evening Post. The second day was awful. Rain I along the top edge of the counter. 1 sSv- fell in torrents the whole afternoon. Of course the program was carried out: but, beyond official results and "received" messages, we had very little to dc. It is the only day I can remember during which our boss did not stir out of the office. He gener- erally contrived to have some business to transact outside about the time fixed for each race. This day, however, the persistent downpour was too much for him. Af­ ter the third race, he sent me to one of the reporters on some business I i off. found my man in the weighing room, j off: a small temporary wooden shed at the back of lattersall's ring. When I entered, the jockeys were being weighed in, and there was ap­ parently some difficulty or dispute, as the process was an unusually pro­ tracted one. I waited, leaning against the back wall of did so, became must explain, that in order to reach i the safe from the pantry door, as we called it, it was necessary to pass al- 1 most the entire length of this i counter, and of course to repass it in I returning. I The hour for closing arrived: My ; three friends had been waiting some | time. Everything being ready, the | boss sent our colleagues home, saying j we would follow shortly. The three ; guests went with them. It was still raining, and they hurried The gas was immediately turned and I at once opened the safe and removed the cash-box, which Harper put in a place of safety, and substituted the one 1 had prepared with the length of wire. There was plenty of slack wire, which we brought, round the back of the safe. over the other end of the counter, the shed, and as I j fastening the free end to the positive conscious of voices i pole of the uattery. whispering outside. I caught the words, "A bloke with a Dig red nose and one ear," and my attention was arrested at once, for this was the description of our coun- ter-clerk. I listened attentively and with increasing astonishment. -- The voices were those of two men: and the gist of their conversation was, that a plot jad been formed to rob our office of the cash-box oti the previous day had failed, owing to the lact that Harper, our counter-cleric, ihad taken the box into town early in the afternoon, instead of, as was the practice, at the conclusion of the raciag. He had, however, been clo-ely ; like a nail drawn across watched, and Was seen to place the! box in the local postmaster's safe | at the town office. The safe was in the room in which we worked in the evening, and was an old-fashioned, •Igiost obsolete contrivance. * Ail our moveuie .ts must have been very diligently followed, as the men knew not only the exact position of the safe with respe -t to the doors and windows, but also at what hour we closed the office, and the whereabouts of our lodgings. They had also as­ certained that no one remained dur­ ing the night in or near the room where the safe was. Tlie upshot of the conversation, which occupied less time than it has taken me to relate it, was. that the town office was to be entered that All was now ready. We hid behind the counter and waited. Harper, who was very bitter against the thieves, on account of their unflattering de­ scription of himself, took uphis place close to the Wheatstone transmitter, | geant came. I said to him: liie Story or the Kilt. The Feile-breacan, or belted plaid, which was the plaid and kilt in one piece, is the recognized upper gar­ ment of the ordinary ancient High­ lander, but it may be news to some that the Fielebeag (philabeg) or little plaid--the kilt, in short, as it is known at present--owes its existence to the ingenuity of aiv English regi­ mental tailor, and it is not over two hundred years old. Soon after the year 1715, attracted by the profusion of fuel in Glengarry, an English company established an iron foundry in the midst of the ex­ tensive birch woods near the Bridge of Garry, and a small canal was cut from Loch Oich to Loch Lochy to facilitate the conveyance of the metal to the sea. The manager of the works was an Englishman named Rawlinson, and as his residence was a convenient stroll between General Wade's garrisons at Maryborough and Inverness, he was frequently visited by officers and men passing between the two posts. One of these was a soldier and regimental tailor named Parkinson, to whom, having recently come to the country, the novelty of the dress was an object of curiosity. While he sat by th& fire, observing a Highlander who entered remaining in his wet belted plaid, he inquired why he did not put off his "cloak." His disapprobation on hearing it was the only upper garment under the cota-gorrid was increased on being told that it was plaited under the belt every time that it was put on; and. prompted by his tra^e, he sug­ gested the improvement of sewing the folds in the required disposition, and separating them from the rest of the plaid, by which the mantle part might be laid aside any time. The expedient being repeated to Ratlin- son, who himself wore the Highland dress, he detainee the tailor to exe­ cute his design; and two days after the manager appeared in the little kilt. The new garment immediately at­ tracted the notice of Ian Mac Alas- dair Mhic Raonuiel of Glengarry who caused a second to be made for him­ self. ' Mlltl Authority. The police regulations in England are very different from those com­ mon in this country. The policeman there is not nearly so autociatic as he is here, and would never think of using a club or striking a man except in self defence. J. Gilraan Speed gives this story of their mild sway in Frank Leslie's Weekly: Upon one occasion a man came in(p my office and created a distui*>ance. I ordered him out. He declined to go, so 1 sent for a policeman. A ser- here, Will night as soon after we had gone as would be considered safe. Entrance was to be effected from the backyard, through the window of a small loom a clock-work machine driven by heavy weights, and capable of attaining a very high speed. An hour passed. It struck twelve. The rain was still beating against the windows. I was stiff and cold and weary, and was beginuing to wish we we had called in the police, when I heard something a trifle louder than the rain at the pantry window. There was a quick scratching sound a slate, and immediately after we heard the win­ dow-latch slipped back and the sash raised quietly. The men were cer­ tainly expert at their work. Had we not been alert and expect­ ing them, we should not have heard their operations. In a few moments the pantry door opened with a gentle creak, and the marauder was in the room. We held our breath. Confident in nis knowledge, the man had no light save what came from the windows. He approached the safe, and could not altogether j _ _ , ToJ»to* Answered. express an exclamation of surprise ! ^eo Tolstoi, the Russian novelist, and delight at finding it open. He j who has ideas of his own as to the was destined for more surprise and r'Kbt of the community to punish its less delight shortly. ! offending members, saw the other day Peeping carefully over the counter, • a policeman take an individual into i I could just discern him in the dim | custody. He at once walked up to This man does not belong and refuses to leave my office, you please take him out?" I expected the sergeant to tell the man he must go, an;l then if he did not move on, 1 expected to see the officer remove him by force; Hot at all. The sergeant said, "You ha»l better leave here, sir;" and his tone was as respectful and civil as though he was asking a favor. The man manifested no intention of leaving,and the police officer began an inquiry as to his reasons for want­ ing to stay. This so exasperated me that 1 put the man out myself, greatly to the astonishment and ap­ prehension of the officer. He explained to me that I had no right to interfere in the matter I had brought to his attention; and that doubtless the intruder would get out a warantapainst me and have me arrested for assault. light, with the box in his hand, turn? ing to retrace his steps. As I had anticipated, and indeed reckoned on, he stretched out his empty left hand adjoining the larger one in which we i to guide himself along the counter, and--seized the brass rail. As he did so, the full force of the battery "Blazes!" he shouted, or rather yelled out. He tried to let go the rail, but in ',;*orkr'd. , Further details I failed to overhear, as the dispute at the weighing-chair, i struck him: * which had been gradually growing' , •warmer, now waxed loudsaBd furious, j i-J Taking advantage of |fhe noise, I vain. Then he attempted to drop ,;i|linijed out and hurried to the office, j the cash-box. but that stuck to him , .< Taking the boss on the side, I told i too. He began to hop about and Jlim all. He was for informing, the stamp and groan and swear and pray ice at once, and having the place I continually and all at once. We guarded and the thieves scared off; i could hear the cash-box thump and but after a lot of persuasion, I talked j rattle against the floor or the counter jfeiui over, couvincinir him how much ,#*»ore to iiis credit it would redound -<f he .himself captured the robbers »• Th«f Ttokto i w SplM inm Yw'n Aloii* In the Rooms When the house is alone by Itself, Inexperienced persons may believe 'that it behaves exactly as it does when there are people in it; but that Is a delusion, as you will discover, if you are erer left alone in it at mid­ night, sitting up for the rest of the family; at this hour its true disposi­ tion will reveal itself. > To catch it at its best* pretend to retire, put out the gas or the lamp, and go up stairs. Afterwards, come down softly* light no more than one lamp, go into the empty parlor, and seat yourself at a table, with some­ thing to read. No sooner that you have done so than you will hear a little chift chip, chip, along the top of the room--a Small sound, but persistent. It is evidently the wall-paper coming off; and you decide, after some tribulation, that if it does come off, you can't help it, and go on with your hook. As you sit with your book in your hand, you begin to be quite sure that someone is coming down-stairs. Squeak squeak -- squeak! What folly! There is nobody up there to come down; but there--no, it is on the kitcben stairs. Somebody Is com­ ing up Squeak--snap! Well, if it is a rob­ ber, you might as well face him. You get tae poker, and stand with your back against the wall Nobody comes up. Finally, you decide that you are a goose, put the poker dpwn* get a magazine, and try to readi There, that's the door. You heard the lock turn? They are coming home. You run to the door, unlock and unbolt it, and peep out. Nobody there! But, as you linger; the door lock gives a click that makes you jump By daylieht neither lock nor stairs make any of these noises unless they are touched or trodden on. You go back to the parlor in a hurry, with a feeling that the next thing you know something may catch you by the back hair; and you try to remember where you left off. Now, it is the table that snaps and cracks, as if all the spiritualistic knocks were hidden in its mahogany. You do not lean on it heavily, with­ out this result; but it fldgets you, and you take an easy chair and put the book on your Jcnee. Your eyes wander up and down the page, and you grow dreamy; when, apparently, the book-case fires off a pistol. At least a loud fierce crack comes from the heart of that piece of furni­ ture--so loud, so tierce, that y6u jump to your feet, trembling. You cannot stand the parlor any more. You go up-stairs. 'No ̂ odner do you get there, than it seems to you that somebody is walk­ ing on the roof. If the house is a de­ tached one, and the thing is impossi­ ble, that makes it all the more mys­ terious. Nothing ever moaned In the chim­ ney before, but something moans now. There is a ghostly step in the bath­ room. You find out afterwards that it is the tap dripping, but you do not dare to look at that time. And it is evident that there is something up the chimney--you would not like to ask what. If you have gas, it bobs up and down in a phantom d^nce. If you hbve a lamp, it goes out in a blue ex­ plosion. If you have a candle, a shroud plainly enwraps the wick and falls towards you.r The blinds shake, as if' a hand clutched them; ana, finally, a doleful cat begins to moan in the cellar. You do net keep a Cat, and this fin­ ishes you. You pretend to read no longer; and, sicting with a towel over your heao and face, and hearing something be­ low go "shew, shew, shew,"like a little saw, .you believe in the old ghost'stories. Ten minutes afterwards the bell rings; the belated one comes home: the lights are lit; perhaps something must be got out to eat People talk and tell where they have been, and ask you if you are lonesome. And not a stair creaks. No step is heard on the roof; no click at the front door. Neither book-case nor table cracks. The house has on its company manners--only you have found out how it behaves when it is alone. a thtek ttllky fliM, like the dandelion iwlK In taste and . ance. When tnfccted under t m sBin it kills saftrtl birds in slx mirmties dogs and guinea pigs In one-bait to one and a half hours. Dr. Guthrie kept a smaU toad In a cage with some lizards and one of them having bit­ ten the toad became convulsed and died in less than two minutes.--Lon­ don Lancet. &...... r 'vij as the current jerked his arm spas­ modically to and fro. At this point Harper quietly turned on the transmitter and pushed the lever over to top-speed. Any one the constable and said: ' Can you read?" "Certainly, sir." "Have you read the Scriptures?" "Yes, sir." I i ft "Then you forget that they com- I mand us to love our neighbors as our- I selves." The minion of the law, quite taken ! aback, stared at the Count, then, i after a moment's reflection, made , answer: I "And, pray can you read?" | "Yes." -- I "Have vou read the police regula tions?" "No." r "Then read them."--Boston Jour* nai.' ^ " ' ' ' : ' To Thill. ' ' Fashionable methods do ltfot 'al­ ways commend themselves to the com­ mon sense of every-day people, who %• . Adrenttur* with • fkawr A Michigan correspondent of Youth's Companion says that she was botanizing one afternoon on the Tah- quamenaw River, in Northern Mich­ igan, when she saw a doe and her fawn in a thicket The wind being in the woman's favor, she had come within a few feet of the deer before her presence was discovered. The moment the doe saw her, however, she uttered a quick note of alarm and was off like a flash, followed by the fawn. The woman haa no thought of overtaking them, but followed on, eager with excitement, for the sake of seeing the graceful creatures run. 1 had not gone far, she says, before 1 heard a pitiful cry from the fawn, and hurrying torward, discovered the little creature floundering In a bog. It was soon tired out with its •' fran­ tic struggles, and stood helpless, un­ able to extricate itself, bleating piti­ fully. Its mother had disappeared. I bad on a pair of rubber boots, and determined to rescue to the poor creature, take it home and make a pet of it. I picked my way cautiously, step­ ping from tussock to tussock, and was soon up with the trembling creature, which I took in my arms. I reached dry ground again without difficulty, despite the frightened struggles of my prize. I tried to still its bleating, and talked to it soothingly, earessing it, for I had often heard how easily a fawn is tamed, and 1 thought it would soon get over its fear I was walking leisurely along, stroking the captive, when I heard a rush and a loud bleat in the bushes at the right Thinking it was the doe returning for her young one, I paid slight attention, for I knew the timidity of a deer, and had no fear of its attacking me. The next moment a large buck dashed from the woods and struck me violently on the side and shoulder, and I fell to the ground. The ani­ mal stood over me, snorting furiously, while I lay perfectly quiet. He bunted me twice with his horns, and then, the fawn having escaped, he dashed after it into the woods. As for me, 1 lay almost stunned; m'y arm was broken, and 1 was So bruised as hardly to be able to move. For a half-hour or more I lay there, then I recovered sufficiently to rise, qnd painfully made mv way home. The buck had probably been sum­ moned to the attack by the cries of the fawn. Its release and my motion­ less position had saved me from further assault. ' men J»ed-hati(lecl and unaided by the police. I expounded to him a plan, the *naiti idea yf which had struck me at i who hat heard an instrument of this , -- fthe first moment, to which he listened j description set in motion at its max- i are apt to think more of comfort than <|itteni/Weiy, and occasionally smiled ] imum speed knows what a sensation i ot more aesthetic considerations. At an "at home" of a country gentle­ man's wife, says an exchange, the footman was called upon to do duty as butler. He was much taken aback by the extreme thinness of the slices of bread and butter with which he had to serve the guests. Finally, as he was passing the plate to an old dow ager for the third time, he re­ marked, in a very audible whisper: "If you slap three or four slices to- '^ppprovingly. When 1 ended, he said: * ."'It would tWi very well but for. one i ^fhing-A It involves three of us re- " puainfng concealed in the office?" I assented. f. ••You sav they watched us leave Jast night." he went on, "six of us. . 4^^hat will they think if only three ; . ' Jleave ro-night?" , , V 1% 1 was nonplussed. •'* "1 rather like the idea," resumed • '" -A'tbi' V)o»s: ' but 2 think weshouldhave h«yu>. Suppose we get. a couple oi 1 feckiiikfcfl's ihen?'f; coming disaster is given by the rapidly increasing revolutions of a score of ^ wheels, which gather speed and torce j and noise until it seems as if the whole machine will burst up by ex- j cess of velocity. Imagine the effect this had on the nerves of the man already in the grip of some mysterious, unfightable agony. Of course he jumped t>6 the conclusion that the noise indicated some fresh increase of his torments. He began to scream for mercy. -i , Surprised Him. The following story is going the rounas of the express service; When the express companies w£i% weeding out the brotherhood men the agent at a small station on the Louis­ ville division of the Pennsylvania lines was marked to go, and an agent was sent to transfer the office. When he was told that he had been dis­ charged the brotherhood man smiled. "Why, you cannot discharge me," he said. "And why not?" asked the aston­ ished route agent "Because you don't dare to." "Don't dare to?" "That is what I said." "And why not?" "Well, that's my business." "Why the company certainly has a right to select its employes, hasn't it?" "That depends a great deal." "Well, I can only say *to you that you are discharged and will get no pay from this date." j The next morning when he went to the depot to take bis xun, there was; another messenger in his place and he I was not permitted to enter the car. j Flushed with anger, he boarded a j train and came to Indianapolis, after on announcing that if he was not rein- purposes, stated there would be one of Uie big­ gest strikes ever heard of. On his arrival here he was astonished to learn that all the brotherhood men had been discharged and there was ! no one to take up his fight for him. He returned home much wiser, and j at last accounts was still in search of a job. He Had No Sympathy for the Slclc Boy. William was unquestionably ill tnat hot afternoon when he came into the broker's office in Broad street, where he is employed as a messenger. His face was the color of ashes and wore an expression of "goneness" that ex­ cited the pity of everyone in the place. The junior partner, with words of sympathy, told him to go home at once. Just as William was starting, the senior member of the firm came in. "Hello, what's the matter?" he asked, seeing the boy's pale face. "I'm sick," mumbled William. "What ails you?" The broker was suspicious instead of sympathetic. "My stomach," answered the boy. "What's the trouble?" "It hurts," said the boy. "What have vou been eating?" sternly asked the employer as. he looked into the boy's eyes. __~-- "Oh, nothing much." "Any hokey-pokey lee cream?" "A little." "How much?" "Four glasses maybe, or five*" "Anything else?" "Yes, some pie-" "How much?" "Four pieces." "What else?" .... ~ "Some waffles." * "How many--a d<w»n?" "No, sir. Only three." "What else?" "Some cakes." - "Is that all?" "Well, some apples, and a piece or watermelon and--" * "And what?" ; "At piece of pineapple, I thinfe." "What have you been drinking?" "Some soda water and lemonade." "That's all you can think of?" "Yes, sir." "Well, you go home, and if you ever get-sick again I'll discharge you." The men in the office looked in won­ der at the little boy with an enor­ mous capacity, and wondered how it was that he wasn't dead instead of being only sick.--New York Tribune. ! "Oh-h-h! Help me. Murder! get^, vmfy safe: Shakespeare Vindicated by Science. A correspondent maintains the. scientific correctness of Shakespeare's assertion that the toad "sweats venom, He says that this venom is of a tolerably powerfu* nature and that instead of being secreted by the salivary glands, as in snakes, it is act­ ually secreted by the skin, so the word "sweated" is most accurately descrip­ tive. This secretion, Dr. Guthrie statci, also occurs In the toad through Wanton Killing of Buffalo. John Kirker is a handsome steam­ boat captain who has been master of a great many vessels in Southern waters. I sat with him in his com­ fortable quarters in the steamer State of Kansas last June, as we pushed up stream toward Fort Leavenworth. "This is my first trip up this river since 1857," he said, "when I came up here as a cabin boy. I have tfeen engaged for the season on this boat because I have been jn command of her all through the South. When I came up here the last time every man hoard had firearms for hunting Several times each trip we were forced to stop, in order to per­ mit herds of buffalo to swim across the river. Buffalo are fine swimmers, and the sight was something im­ pressive. Hundreds of grand, shaggy fellows were shot in the water. Some­ times they were killed, but often they floated down stream wounded or scrambled ashore to die in the under­ growth. It was a fearful slaughter. Everybody has heard or the wanton shooting that was indulged in from car windows, but I believe the public generally has not been told of the many hundreds of animals that were killed while swimming theftve^in the old days of steamboating." Aftkii about 3 o'clock every day, a man begins to think maybe it is to­ morrow when he will do the that will make him famous. ^ It Is 01 that the friendship l%Ra*eoger Conductors John A. toy, of the Pennsylvania So and "Willie Billle" Smith, of the Lake Erie and Western, is of the Da­ mon and Pythias order, says an ex­ change. Yet on one occasion they did almost come to blows and did not speak to each other for nearly a week. Though working for different com­ panies their trains ran over the same track between Indianapolis and Xokomo. One dark and stormy night Smith : :puiied out" of this city, and had not gone far until it was discov­ ered that the engine was not steam­ ing, and could hardly pqll t!he train. A hill was reached, and there the en­ gine stalled. Smith was in despair. But his heart jumped with joy when the rays of the headlight on the en­ gine of Malloy's train was seen down the road. The flagman stopped it, and the trouble was explained. "Will you push me over the hiH John?" I asked Smith insinuatingiy( "Certainly, Willie," was John's re­ ply, and his train slowly pulled ahead. Jt seems that Malloy had a new brakeman that night, and he didn't do a thing but follow out Smith's suggestion, to couple the trains to­ gether. The couplings were ^ut of order and they fastened like a vise. When the Lake Erie and Western train was over the hill the Pennsyl­ vania train could not be loosened from it Both trains raced up and down the track, took sidings together for freight trains and "aawed" about for one hour and forty-five minutes before they were separated. What was said by Mr. Malloy on that oc­ casion and how he announced his willingness and ability to knock both Mr. Smith and the unfortunate brake- man "into the clear in one round" has been withheld. v 5 • ^ 1 * Southern Women. f Mr. Thomas Nelson Pstgi^ b Iff" book, "The Old South," has much to say in praise of the wives and mothers of the old regime. The master of, the plantation, he says, might shift much of his responsibility upon a compe­ tent overseer,but the mistress had no such means of relief, "She was mis­ tress, manager, doctor, counsellor, seamstress, teacher, housekeeper, slave all at once." Such a woman was told by her husband that one of the gates was broken. . "Well, my^dear." she answered, "if 1 could sew it with my needle and thread, I would mend it for you." In another place Mr. Page says that some years ago he was shown a worn and faded letter, written on old Con­ federate paper with pale Confeder­ ate ink. It had been taken from the breast-pocket ol a dead private soldier of a Georgia regiment after one of the battles "around Richmond. It was from his sweetheart. They must have been plain and illiterate people, for it was badly written and badly spelled. In it she told him that she loved him; that she had always loved him since they had gone to school together in the little school- house in the woods; tha«i she was sorry she had always treated him so badly, and that now, if he would get a furlough and come home, she would marry him. Then, as if fearful that this temp­ tation might prove too strong to be resisted, she scrawled a little post­ script across the blue Confederate sheet: "Don't come without a furlough, for if you don't come honorable, I won't luarry you." ; s „ .-•••" ; : """ "<yi v i Wrcok Raining. , , tinder the old regime a went to the bottom remained there until she was entombed in the shift­ ing mud or sand, or else had under­ gone a process of gradual dissolution, hastened by the ebj? and flow of tides and currents. Wreck raising was then a science practically undreamed of. Some crude operations were car­ ried on, it is true, at several sunken wrecks, but the object aimed at was the recovery of treasure, and not the raising to the surface of the vessel containing it The development of mechanical science and steam power has placed in the hands of modern wreck raisers machinery that has enabled them to lift many a fine ship from her oozy bed and restore her to her proper place among the floating argosies of commerce. Most of the vessels that are raised, after suffering submerg­ ence beneath the waves, are the vic­ tims of collisions; and these, as might naturally be expected, are most fre­ quent in the crowded waters of our own harbors and their approaches. The chief economic purpose served by wreck raising is the keeping clear of impediments the fairways leading to the large seaports. Sensational wreck-raising attracts the attention of the whole civilized world, espec­ ially when the catastrophe which re­ sulted in the sinking of the vessel was attended by an awful life loss or other sensational features.--Cham- tier's Journal. A Difficult Task, 'j For many years it has been an aphorism worn threadbare, if there are threads in aphorisms, that "base ball is very uncertain." The truth of that saw is emphasized by the result of every compan ionship It was aptly illustrated in the last series. One of the newspapers in Cincinnati last spring offered $250 to the reader who should first place the names of the twelve League clubs in the order in which they would finish and send the list to the office. Naturally such a large prize brou/ht out thousands of efforts. It took the work of a good- sized force of clerks several days to examine the guesses which were sent in, and of the entire lot there was not one correct prediction It seem that the gigantic failures of the New York and Chicago clubs upset the talent badly. One of the thousands who tried got seven of the twelve right, hut missed on the eighth, and his effort was the nearest to success of any made. However, the task with twelvo clubs is not so easy as It may Iks imagined at a rough estimate. There are more possible combination# in the arrangement of twelve clubs than you have hairs on your head, and when we say "you," we are not ad­ dressing any of the occupants of the Unit row nearest the ballet A mak is always just about as good as he has to be. . > Xatavert "We lofts interest ia nearly all the animate" said the keeper to a Haw Xdrlt(;,mbune Wm\ had them awhll& ^&pt in ' tibfe monkeys. The oWest keeper i*i the show frill stop now and thenri# laugh at their antioa. They're always in­ venting new tricks to. gftay on one another. Their intelligence is won­ derful and they show traces of con- scicncc uoTfT rind then. That big ape by himself over there came to Mr. Barnum with a story which I have no doubt is true. He was trained when we got him to do certain tricks by a wandering peddler who ownfed him in the east, This ape. Is an expert thief and one day he was going through his antics in a bazar where a fruit mer­ chant had a bag of dates open on the ground* The ape wanted some of those dates. He was too sly to look at them, but in his tumblings worked over toward them. Pretty soon he got into a position where the bag was between him and the merchant, who was squatting cross-legged on a mat upon the ground. With a ieap the ape cleared the bag and came down between it and tie merchant, close to the latter's face. Then he began to mow and mouth and scream at the man, showing his formidable teeth, staring him out of countenance, and making as if to attack him. The merchant was so astonished that he did not notice the aps helping him­ self to dates with his hind hands; apes are not four-footed; you know, they are quadrumana, four-handed. Having taken all he could hold, the ape quickly turned his back on the merchant, stuffed the dates into his mouth, and was off in a jiffy. The crowd saw the theft and enjoyed it, and when they told the merchant he was so struck with the brute's clever- ness that he showed no resentment The ape, however, had got only a yard or so away in the crowd when a boy, nut of pure mischief, struck him with a whip from behind. The ape turned about like a flash, dashed be­ tween the vefcy legs of the boy who had struck him, passed two or three others without looking at them, and flew at the unoffending merchant, biting him two or three times be­ fore he could be restrained. The old thief had conscience enough to know that he had done wrong, and as soon as he felt the blow he took it for granted that the man he had robbed was beginning to give him the drub­ bing he knew he deserved. Some of our monkeys are very fond of being petted and admired and others are not," continued the keeper. "That little one over there is as vain as any woman, and a curious thing in con­ nection with her is that her vanity makes her a poor mother. Ihe last litter she had we took away from her; a former one she killed by neglect, after she had hurtr two or three of them badly by holding them out, to visitors to be stroked and petted alsot and. in so doing, pressed them too hard against the bars of her cage. She thought her babies more lovely than all the rest, probably, and she wanted them to get some of the ad­ miration and attention which she en­ joyed herself." ' * w SUenced. X . , . ' f ' - k ' An American ' musical critic and "newspaper man." Mr. Louis C El son. was in a railway train in Sweden. The scenery was mostly flat and un­ interesting, the train moved "at the rate of a stage-coach," and he was gladder, therefore, when an intelli­ gent stranger entered bis compart­ ment and opened conversation in Ger- f| man. The news of the rescue of a | party of Arctic explorers had lately J made a sensation in the north, and the chat soon drifted to that subject Mr. Elson says: To my surprise the gentleman spoke as one having authority in such mat- "You Americans," said'he, "have more bravery than any other qf the ; explorers, yet your expeditions do not • always bring out the best results. There is often more daring than caim scientific research in them. -But,you have given some information about . ;the northern botany, and I hope the Greely expedition will give more." With that omniscience which be- . longs to a journalist I told him that the northern botany must bevery in­ significant indeed. He smbed and--contradicted me. ^ He gave me dozens of teu-syllabled names of plants that grew in the arc­ tic circle, until I began to think that the North Pole must be a sort of May pole gaily festooned with flowers. ,? Then I suggested that we exchange cards, to facilitate matters. He was Professor Berggren, botanists of the . two great Nordenskjoi.I expeditions. ^ I gave him no further Mnts abou| arctic flora or fauna. On The Way. The day when a boy puts on his | first pair of diminutive trousers is In- J deed a time of importance. | Two children, one in a boy's sailor suit the other in a little checked woollen frcck, were accosted by a nln- J terested passer-by one day, as they f| played together on the sidewalk. | "Good morning, children," said the lady, addressing them with a smile, as she stopped a moment to watch •/ their game of "hopscotch;" "are you * -»J brother and sister, playing so nicely | together, or," as she saw a somewhat distressed and aggrieved expression on the face of the child in the frock, "are you both boys?" J "We aren't relations," replied the A other chiid, ,%and I'm a boy now, and j Tommy's going to be one next week, ;| when he gets his new suit!" ^ Door-Openers. An electric door-opener, door-otoser and lock, by means of which a cus­ tomer can l>e locked in without being aware of the fact, has been invented for the use of shopkeepers. An case pf a suspicious haste to leave on the fpftrt! of the customer, _ he can be >rought up standing, by d door 'that is locked instaneously, Whether par- tlaliyorwholly closed. ;' j r f ' 1 • " • ' i j i t i A Snail's Eye. A little black spot on the en3' ol M the snail's horns are the animal's^;: eyes. He can see with them very lit- ^ tie, but thev serve to distinguish for ^ him light from darkness, and enable him to observe oftjecU,^ of an inch or two. r . ?iS2