McHenry Public Library District Digital Archives

McHenry Plaindealer (McHenry, IL), 8 Sep 1897, p. 6

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rone now ;claimed 5=== end of farm work. If a farmer will be up In fashion and up with the time he lives fri, farming Is as good business now as it was fifty years ago. A farm­ er -might as well be out of the world as to be fifty years behind the times.-- New England Farmer. . I Stack Mnklnjr. As a rule there are few good stack makers in the United States, as t the abundant building material makes it- easy to put up barns capable of holding all the grain and hay. But wherever grain growing increases largely, the grain in the straw, being only left in that condition for a few weeks, does not absolutely need barn room. A AvellJ built stack answers every purpose, and, except labor used in making it, costs nothing. Hie only necessary rule is to always keep the middle of the stack full and to tramp It down well. If the sides are not trampled at all it will be better. The stack will settle with the' grain in the best possible shape. AGRICULTURAL NEWS THINGS PERTAINING TO THE FARM AND HOME. • THE VOICE OF THE CHARMER..• a strong personal dislike to its tenant. I even avoid shooting over the place as much as possible, because I can't bear the sight of the fellow. Just fancy, my dear., afraid even to walk over my own property--say own property, forsooth. Nasty, cantankerous wretch!" wound up the, squire in his wrath. '*1 wish - i .r really is too bad!" he repeated, crirn- j somebody would knock him on the aoatloc with indignation, and giving an , head. I do. indeed-! magrv stamp of his foot, in so doing j "Fie, for shame, sir!" exclaimed his treading on the foot of Jumbo, his niece, laughing,, .putting her pretty wife's pet pug. and causing that much- hand over his mouth as she spoke, tampered animal to give utterance to j "And his name is Wilder?" she con- a loud yell, and" retreat further under; tinned, "and I knew such a dear old the table to the shelter of his mistress' i man of that name'years ago--he was ' one of poov papa's tenants, indeed. "I wonder now," she mused, "could it be the same man? He left to go to petticoats. "My dear." said Mrs. Mainwaring. pausing in the act of pouring out the •quire's coffee, "what is the matter sow? Nothing wrong With Sunbeam's fittle foal, 1 trust." **No. thanks, my dear, not so bad as that," answered her husband, "but quite bad enough, in all conscience. Tfs that dreadful fellow Wilder, at the Lea farm, again. I wish to goodness lie had never come near the place, with all my heart." Mrs. Mainwar- the sight of him. now, dear?" her husband, j stuck up barbed wire al l over j lis farm, to be sure, and refuses to re-; move it on any pretense whatever, so ! Higgins writes me word. "Horrid tag- "I What uDone?' Australia, so I understood--for I was only a litle girl at the time. And we w e r e s u c h f r i e n d s , t o o \ "Uncle," exclaimed the girl, a flush of excitement coming oyer her face, "if you don't mind I will ride over this morning and see far Bay self. "If. it is. theii9&me man--and I have a very great idea it is. do you know--I will undertake that every bit of that horrid wire fencing is taken down be­ tween this and to-morrow morning. Say. I Will even have a bet with you ou the subject. Come, sir, what odds will you give me?" "I won't bet. I utterly decline to bet, you little gambler," returned her laugh­ ing uncle, "for I hate losing money, "Here we have the hounds coming ( j ^vill tell you what I will do, my bere on Thursday, and they find in I Gladys, if you only succeed in your un- Nightlngale wood, as they are perfect- • dertaking. I will give you the very best ly certain to do, for I know for a fact there are two or three foxes there, they are equally certain to run right across his land, and a pretty kettle of fish will be the result. "Half the hounds maimed, and men and horses tumbling about in every di­ rection." "Oh! I can't bear the thoughts of if!" "I. shall simply have to ask Hartopp not to draw there, and a pretty fool I shall look. I really don't know what ta do about it." "Why not go and see the man your­ self, and try and bring him to reason?" Suggested Iris wife. "Surely, my dear, he would listen to you." "Listen to me?" ejaculated the squire. "Not he. Besides, I know per­ fectly well what would be the result. He would meet my arguments with some of Ms republican sentiments, and T should lose my temper aud make a fool of myself." "Well." sighed his wife, "it's a very great pity, I'm sure. I only wish I knew what was best to be done. But never mind now, dear," she added, soothingly, "get on with your breakfast, and then afterward you can speak to Higgins again on the subject, and per­ haps you will be able to devise some plan between you for bringing this horrid man Wilder to reason." "And, pray, who may this horrid msn Wilder^ue?" inquired a young and very pretty girl, who at this juncture entered the room and sat herself down at the breakfast table, after kissing hoth Mr. Mainwaring and his wife lov­ ingly and wishing them "good-morn- tag." The squire locked affectionately into the fair questioner's face ere he an­ swered her. "Don't ask me, Gladys," said ho laughingly; "don't ask if you love me. •He has already spoiled my breakfast for me. and 1 feel perfectly certain tloat were I to tell you all about him he would spoil yours, and that would be a great pity, eh, my pretty niece?" "It would, indeed," retorted the girl, "for I have such an appetite as never was. Jokiug apart, though, I am real­ ly curious. Uncle William," she con- tinned, "so 1 will compromise with you --eat my breakfast first and you shall 4eII me afterward. Don't you think that a very fair arrangement, sir?" The squire agreed at once to the terms, as, indeed, lie would have to anything proposed by his favorite niece."" The only child of his one sister, late­ ly dead, Gladys Onslow had taken up her permanent abode at Charlton Tow­ ers only three weeks ago, during which short period she had managed to con­ vert every individual member of the establishment into being her devoted slave, including her uncle and aunt, Who, childless as they were, quite look­ ed upon her as their daughter. As for the squire, he was perfectly helpless without her, and Miss Gladys was his constant companion wherever he Went. He declared she was a better judge •f stock than his bailiff himself, and as for her knowledge of horseflesh, who was there about the place who could compete with her? And how she rode too! Many and many a time, when ac­ companying his niece in her rides, did her uncle regret that his salad days were over, and that he was no longer able to pilot her over this place and that, instead of looking on from the hroad back of his favorite cob while she larked about at her own free will, for she was,uncommonly fond of riding over a country, was Miss Gladys. As her groom said, "The fence was never made yet that could stop his young lady when the hounds were run­ ning."" True to his promise, after breakfast «he squire unbosomed himself to his niece with regard to his refractory ten­ ant at'the Lea farm--"the only farm, by the way, my dear," he added,"where 1 have not Introduced you, for the very good reason why, because I have such "Arrived the ogre's castle, having carefully kept to the sides of the foot­ path all the way, partly from diplo­ macy, partly because I did not want either Brilliant or myself to be annoy­ ed by barbed wire, I inquired of the maid servant who came to the door if Mr. Wilder was at home. He was round in the straw yard, she said, and she would go and fetch him. If I would wait a moment. "I waited accordingly, and presently the ogre appeared. 'How do you do, Mr. Wilder?' I said. 'Your servant, miss,' answered he, his grim features relax­ ing a little, I fancied, as he looked me over. 'You don't recollect me, I see,* said I, 'but you and I are very old friends for 4* that, Mr. Wilder.' 'Old friends! Why, who be 'ee, then, in the name o' fortln'?' he replied, looking at me so hard, oh! so hard, uncle. 'Have you quite forgotten little Gladys Ons­ low, who you used to be so kind to when you lived at Hazeldean farm down in Warwickshire?' 'Forgotten7 No!' he almost roared, 'and never shall, that's more! And you're her? Coom1; off your horse this instant, my pretty, and into the house and have a talk wl' me over old times.' Oh, uctclft the poot old man, do you know, was so pleased. When I got off my horse and when he held out his hand and 1 not only took it, bxit gave him a kir-s into the bargain; lie actually shed tears, no did indeed. Well, I went in and had a glass of milk, and we had such a talk of old times as never was. And when we had finished I told him what I had come about. He listened attentively, and then he said, 'And so you want the stuff--the darned stuff, he called it, uncle--doAvn, do ee, my dear?' I replied that it certainly would please me very much, and you and everybody else as well. 'Don't say another word,' he exclaimed, 'every bit or it shall be off my farm before night­ fall. 11 only wish you had got some­ thing harder to ask me.' "There, uncle," wound up Gladys, "that's how it was done, as the con­ jurers say. Now, tell me what you think of my talents as a diplomatist, and, above all, your opinion of my dear old friend, John Wilder." "My dear," replied the squire, kissing his niece, "I think you ought to be a prime minister at least, and as for your friend John Wilder; my opinion of him is altogether altered. We'll both of us ride over and see him again this very afternoon, and I'll thank him myself." "And now," said her uncle, rubbing his hands, "which is it to be, Gladys, a new hunter or a diamond bracelet?"-- Chicago Chronicle. Several Good Remedies Given to Pre­ vent Smut in Wheat--How to Con­ quer an Angry Bull--Ammonia Cure for Lumpy Jaw. To Prevent Smut in Whent. - The very best grain thai, can be had should be seeded. If the farm grain is not up to the standard, do not use it. Grain grown on strong limestone land has more vitality and will produce more to the acre. To prevent smut, the grain should be pickled before drilling. The best preventive of smut is sul­ phate of copper or blue vitriol. Tak^ one pound of the sulphate and dissolve it in eight gallons of water. After the vitriol is dissolved spread the grain to be treated upon the barn floor and sprinkle It Well; then turn it with a long-handled shovel so that every grain is coated. . The grain may then be dust­ ed with dry air-slacked lime, and then drilled at once. Weak chamber lye is also equally effective; it should be fer­ mented first. While it may not be ad­ visable to take the trouble to coat every bushel of grain drilled, yet it will pay, and pay handsomely. The grain grown especially for. seed should al­ ways be so treated. By so doing a bet­ ter quality of grain can be had, and that will have more vitality. The seed growers always coat their grain before drilling.--The American. Curing an Ujjly Bull. Frequently a bull, in a fit of temper, kills or cripples his keeper. This is more particularly true of dairy breeds. Now, I do not believe the bull is as much to blame as his owner. He lias been kept in close confinement most of his life, with very little exercise or sun­ light, and no pleasant company. His blood is in bad order as a consequence, and he is difficult to control. The beef bull is more phlegmatic and less liable to get unruly. I think that if the treach­ erous ̂ bull had been allowed the range of a small paddock and the company of a couple of sedate old cows, and, perhaps, made do an hour's work each day, running a feed chopper or a churn, so as to wear out muscular tissue and maintain health and his procreative power in full vigor, his blood would have been kept pure and his temper sweet.--Agriculturist. 1 The Live Forever Pest. ^ The following plan has proved effect­ ive in getting rid of live .forever in at least one case: Fence off a small por­ tion at a time and turn in hogs, which are very fond of the w eed and will de­ vour It greedily, rpoting up the ground to get the little tubers. By permitting the hog^ to till this soil thoroughly they will eradicate live forever,, root and branch, in a more thorough and inexpensive manner than can be done in any otlipr way. At least this is what a Connecticut farmer writes to the New England Homestead. Another farmer wrote as follows; "Turn hogs on the land in early spring, arid they Will clean up the roots completely, or salt if placed upon each plant will kill." He Plows Deep. Mr. T. M., Brown, who resides in El­ bert County, Georgia, on the line of the Southern Railway, is a successful farm­ er. Mr. Brown bought his farm about five years ago, and he aims to get big returns by deep plowing and the use of commercial fertilizers and farm-yard manure. Beginning on poor and worn- out land four years ago, that scarcely paid the cost of tillage, he has brought it up to that high state of fertility that enabled him to get last year forty-one bales of cotton on fifty acres and 5,000 bushels of corn on twenty-five acres, together with oats, peas and other pro­ vision crops in abundance.--Southern States. • HOW COOLEY WORKED. hunter or the® prettiest bracelet that can be bought for money. I believe it's a real 'good thing' for you. too, you minx, you," he added,, pulling her ear, "for now I come to think.of it I be­ lieve I did hear that this objectionable tenant of mine had been in Australia before he came down here to sit upon my sliouders like the old man of the sea." v'VV* "Don't say another word, dear un­ cle," cried Miss Gladys. "I haven't my betting book about me, so I seal the bargain with this kiss (suiting the ac­ tion to the worth, and now-I'm off to put?, my habit on and-order my horse." "Good-by. dear,* we .shall meet again --not on tlie1 RiaTtd.* but at luncheon," and bestowing another kiss on the en­ raptured old gentleman the lively girl rushed from^the room. II. The stable ckvk was just striking half-past 1. simultaneously with the rumbling of the .gong announcing the fact that luncheon was ready, as Gla­ dys Onslow with her attendant groom came cantering through the park. The squire, who had been waiting for her for the last half hour, seized a hat and rushed hastily out into the stable yard, where he knew she would dis­ mount, to await* her coming with min­ gled feelings of delight at her return, and curiously to know how she had- succeeded on her mission of diplomacy with his refractory tenant. "Here I am. uncle, safe and sound, you see, and I've had. oh! such a lark! Brilliant's legs are full of thorns, I fear, poor dear," exclaimed happy Gladys, her face flushed with pleasure and excitement, and looking prettier than ever. Off her horse she jumped in her ac­ customed impetuous fashion, and, hav­ ing administered her usual hug, she took her uncle's arm and ordered him to take her In to luncheon at once. "Well, and how did you get on, my child?" inquired the squire. "Not a word, sir. until I get Into the dining-room, and then-you shall hear it all." was the fair tyrant'sreply. "Why, by Jove! 1 do verily believe you've got over that old curmudgeon, you artful little minx, you!" exclaimed her uncle in great glee, hurrying her into the house as quickly as possible, all agog to hear her news. Through some back passages they went, and then, opening a green baize door, found themselves in the entrance hall. , •' "Come, now," said the squire, as they entered the dining-room, where Mrs. Mainwaring was waiting for them; "I won't wait a moment longer; so tell your aunt and me all about the result of your ride this1, instant, miss, or I'll retract my promise of the diamond bracelet I made this morning." "Listen, then, ladies and gentlemen --or, rather. I should say aunt and un cle," said the fair Gladys, standing in the center of the hearthrug and raising her whip to insure silence. "What should you say if, paying a visit to the Lea farm to-morrow morn ing, you were to find that every vestige of barbed wire had disappeared from its fences? Would you allow that the persuasive powers of your devoted niece were somewhat of a higher order than usual?" "By Jove, indeed I should!" burst forth her uncle. . "But you don't mean to say it's a fact, Gladys, that you have actually got that old bear to do as you say, do you?" ' ^ "Indeed I do, uncle; and he's not a bear at all, allow me to say--onjy rath­ er rough, that's all, poor man. OJd John Wilder is as good a fellow as ever breathed, if you only humor him a lit­ tle--as you must in ifuturfc, "iifi'cle, if only for my sake." * "Well, wonders TJIU never cease, that's very certain," said .h^r uncle; "and how on earth you matiaige it," he continued, "I can't for the life of me imagine." ti,. Former Chief Justice of Michigan Tells of His Famous Colleague* Judge John W. McGrath, who retired from the Chief Justiceship of the •Michigan Supreme Court at the close of 1895,.was seen by a correspondent and asked as to his belief in the cause Cure for Lumpy Jaw. Aatotheammoniacurefor lumpy jaw, we have only the assurance of a Mr. Wm. Metcalf, Grey County, Ontario, who writes the Farmers' Advocate as follows: I have used it for years, and cured every case, no matter how bad. Just rub a little on lump, or lumps, as sometimes there are several. They will disappear gradually in a short time. of the physical and mental breakdown . _ „ of ex-Justice Thomas M. Cooley, who SomGSpies, if very bad, I foment with is now in a private retreat at Flint I Pretty warm water- but no,t hot enou«b He was also asked if, In his opinion, jurists were particularly prone to col­ lapse of that description. Judge McGrath is a big man. Hia figure of more than six feet is as erect as in his young manhood, but snowy white hair and beard tell the work of Father Time. He is strong and vigor­ ous himself, and while laughingly de­ claring that his work had left him without a scar, said: "Poor Cooley; he is a victim of hla own tremendous energy, without the physical strength to bear up under it. As a matter of fact, I doubt if any man could have stood it. While his work on the bench had something to do with his final breakdown, for it always was and always will be most arduous work, his labors off the bench were alone more than most men care to un­ dertake. "His works on constitutional law, on torts, his many magazine articles and the preparation of 'Cooley's Black- stone' were all completed while he waa engaged on work that would have com­ pletely filled most men's time. "I believe he worked eighteen hours a day. I know that while on the bench he not only was the first one to arise in his own home so as to work before breakfast, but that his work table waa placed in his sitting-room so that he could continue the grind evenings, and at the same time partially enjoy the company of his family and friends. He would turn sometimes to join in their conversation, only to bury him­ self a moment later in his writing. While I believe the life span of jurists is probably as long as is that of any other profession similarly de­ prived of exercise and fresh air, I do think that for many years there has not been an occupant of the Michigan bench who has retired without the work having left its mark. This is ow­ ing largely to the fact that they have strained every nerve to keep their docket clear! to scald. The ammonia has then more chance to penetrate, but I seldom do anything but rub a little on with my fingers out of a ten-cent bottle I keep in the stable for the purpose. Killing Weeds with Mulch. Small patches of Canada thistle and quack grass can be often best destroy­ ed by using a mulch of almost any­ thing that will be so compact that the new shoots that come to the surface cannot work their way through it. Care should be taken to suppress quickly all shoots of the obnoxious growth that will appear outside the mulched area. So soon as the roots find they cannot grow through they will increase their growth <xn every side so as to avoid the mulch. If only a few or barely one or two spouts reach the surface they will keep life in the underground roots, and the work must all be done over again next year. Wa&te of Sweet Corn Stalks. Usually on each stalk there are two or more ears, one fully ready for use as green corn, the other small and imma­ ture. To save this last the stalk is left uncut. But in most cases the second, and always the third ear is too small to be profitably marketed. Whenever there is only one ear on a stalk it should at once be cut and fed to the cow or horse. It is worth more then than it ever will be again. We are not sure that this is not true, even when there are one or more nubbins left on the stalk, if fed to milch cows. Ordi­ nary fodder corn is very poor feed. It needs to be supplemented, as this sweet corn fodder does, with a greater amount of nutrition, which is worth as much in increased milk yield as it is in a few nubbins of corn. Sweet corn fod­ der is more wasted than any other. It is wasted in trying to save nubbins of corn worth more for feeding than they are for anything else.--Cultivator. A Good Stable Floor. We may not be able to lay a cement floor, we may not be able to buy lum­ ber, but, in most cases, we have some clay on the farm, and, if so, there is no excuse for not having a very fair stable floor. Dig out the top soil, and fill in at least six inches of clay which has been worked thoroughly with wat­ er, and about one-sixth coal ashes, or fine gravel, and straw chopped to about half an inch in length, so as to form a tough, adhesive mass. The preliminary mixing can be done with a hoe, but the working proper should be done by tramping thoroughly, either by man or horse. Drive in little pegs to show the slope desired, and then ram it firmly with a large wooden rammer. Smooth "This example was set by that great I It off, using a straight edge from peg to four, Cooley, Christiancy, Campbell and Graves. Christiancy and Campbell are dead, and Cooley's mind has failed, but Graves "is a hale and hearty old gentleman living in Detroit. In Ohio and many other States the business of the State bench is behind two, three or more years, while here every case is peg, and allow time to dry properly be fore using. Such a floor will stand a good deal of wear, and can be kept rea­ sonably clean.--Grange Homes. Farming a Good Business*. Fifty-flve years ago I was busily en­ gaged on a farm; it seemed to me a heard when ready, no matter how great hard life, and as soon as I was 21 years the strain, and opinions are also rush- * sought an easier one,itn«|I cannot ed out on the same schedule. "As to Judge Cooley, I never knew a man of such intense mental activity, and his breakdown came solely as the result of overwork. He was always a man of spotless reputation and most correct habits, and no other cause can possibly be assigned. His work on the Interstate Commerce Commission, his last sustained effort, was, in my opin­ ion, simply the last wrench. Not in It. 5 Mrs. Callipers--"Are you going to in­ vite Mrs. Fowler to your party. She seems to be such a pleasant little per­ son." Mrs. Justup--"Goodness, no! She's pleasant enough and all that, but I un­ derstand that her husband only gets a hundred dollars a month!"--Cleveland Leader. say that I found it. After wbrking at different kinds of business for fourteen years (seven and one-half years being spent in Illinois and Missouri) I came back to my native place broken In health and fully persuaded that farm lng was not the hardest business one could choose. After my second expert ence of thirty-five years I still have the same opinion. Farming as a reliable- way of getting a living has not changed materially in fifty-flve years, but the way to run a farm has changed. The trouble about farming is that you cannot induce the middle-aged man to make the changes that the times require, and the young man who lives on the home farm must and will, do as his father used to do The one, easy thing to learn now is the eight or ten-liour system for a day. The science of farming has changed as much as that of manufacturing. The hand spinning wheel has been set aside, and so, to a large extent, must A Definition.- "What is money?" asked the philo­ sophical boarder,1 musingly. "Money," replied the cynical boarder; J.the hand hoe and the band scythe, the "is what your rich relatives don't 1 hand rake and the one-horse plow. The leave you."--Puck. "I will tell you," Said MisS Gladys. J ed to jelly»" We believe that we would like jelly better if newspaper accounts of acci­ dents didn't use the expression, "Crush- old four-pound lump of butter must be well made into eight half-pound prints milk must be put into glass cans; all kinds of fruit must look just so and the cows must be groomed to look as tidy as a gentleman's horse, and so on to the Farm Notes. While at pasture the young sheep should have access to salt. A flock will visit the salting place twice a day reg­ ularly. Salt is a good tonic and pre­ vents indigestion, which produces de­ structive diarrhoea, all the worse when the weather is warm. Prof. H. E. Van Deman says that a crop of clover or cow peas plowed un­ der every two or three years in the orchard will stimulate growth suffi­ ciently, and as it would take twenty loads of stable manure per acre to do the same, the former is the cheaper. Smut does not pass from stalk to stalk in the cornfield, and there is no danger of contamination in this way. The infection takes place when the corn is young, the germinating spores entering the tenderes"- part--the root, node and lowest joint--and after the disease is once in the plant no applica­ tion will do the least good. In regard to detasseling corn--that is, to break down the tassels or remove them, a practice which has been advo­ cated as enabling the farmer to secure larger yields--experiments show that there is nothing gained by so doing, while the labor required is an item of expense that is bestowed when the farmer can be growing green fodder or some other crop for cattle food. The maggots which annoy sheep so severely are hatched from eggs depos­ ited in the nostrils by a fly, and the sheep use every effort possible to pre­ vent the fly from so doing. One remedy is to put tar on the nostrils. This may be done by placing wood tar where the sheep can get at it and throwing a handful of salt on the tar, the sheep getting the tar on the nostrils while eating the salt. Salt is an important aid to digestion, and especially so to all ruminant ani male. If cows are not salted frequently they will eat more than Is good for them when they do get access to salt. In large quantities salt is laxative, it being an irritant to the bowels, which are therefore purged to get rid of it Failure to salt regularly will make the cream more difficult to turn into butter, thus repaying the farmer for his care­ lessness by giving him a longer and harder job at churning. It has frequently been asserted that the brilliant colors of many flowers serve to attract bees and butterflies to them. Experiments recently reported to the Belgian Academy of Science seem to show that the perfume rather than the color of the flower is the real attraction. Bright-colored, blossoms were covered with leaves' and papers pinned closely over them, yet the in sects not only visited the hidden AOAV ers, but endeavored to force their way under the paper in order to reach the blossoms, which they could not see. Unproductive land is a tax on the farmer and reduces the receipts de rived from the whole farm because la bor must be bestowed upon it at the expense of some other portion. Every piece of land should be made to pro duce something, not by taking off a crop without adding an equivalent therefor to the land, but by first bring­ ing the laud up with manure or fertil izers and then making it pay for that which was expended upon it. The farm should not have a fertile field surround ed by poov land, but the whole should be made to produce to the highest capa­ city. THE WOMANLY QUEEN. Victoria .Has Personal Qualities Which Inspire Love. When the world has united In honor­ ing the womanly queen whose reign is Without a parallel in English history, it Is worth while to set down in order some of the personal qualities which have not been specially noted, but which have endeared her to her sub­ jects, and rendered Ker -the most use­ ful sovereign of the century. Our cor­ espondent in England thus describes them: One of the marked traits of the qween is tact. "Gracious," is the word which is most frequently used in. England when her name is mentioned. It is kindness of heart that enables her to set visitors at ease when they are pre­ sented to her, and to convince the mul­ titudes, who witnessed her triumphal progress through the streets of London, that her nature has not been hardened, but softened and sweetened by sixty years of exalted power. ^ Her manners are simple and sincere. She is thoughtful of the feelings of others, and says the right thing in the right way. She shows by her demean­ or on public occasions that she honors her subjects and desires to promote their comfort and happiness. Another quality is a business-like tal­ ent for.reigning. She has work to do, and she performs it in an orderly, meth­ odical w&y.' Her life at court is con­ ducted by the clock. Everybody in at­ tendance upon her is required to be punctual to the minute, and every day's arrangements are carefully ordered1 so that she will, have time for every detail of public business and courtly ceremo­ nial. She never allows herself to be hurried in examining and signing pub­ lic papers. • She is thorough and precise in every­ thing which she does. A portion of each day is taken up with the business of state. What remains is divided so that she has time for an afternoon drive, social life at court, the direction of the royal household, and adequate rest. She knows nothing of the secret worries of royalty. ! Another trait is sterling common sense. Throughout her reign she has adapted herself to the conditions of constitutional rule, under which the continuance of monarchy has been pos­ sible in a revolutionary age. She has respected the will of the peo­ ple in every election; she has taken no interest in party politics; she has fol­ lowed the advice of the ministers of the day; and she has shown sound judg­ ment in making the crown the instru­ ment of popular government. One prime minister after another has found her to be a capable, experienced ruler, well informed in home and foreign af­ fairs, and with clear ideas of her own relations to the state. Her greatest virtue as a sovereign has been her womanliness. As wife, moth­ er, widow and first lady of the realm, she has never unsexed herself, but has remained an example of womanly graces of character. Short in stature and without beauty of feature or grace of carriage to im­ press either a well-ordered court or the throngs of sightseers crowding the streets through which she passes on Jubilee days, she commands respect by her purity of life, her devotion to her husband's memory and her children's welfare, and her genuine womanly qualities. Elizabeth, with her inflexible wiM and hard, masculine order of mind, was a kingly queen in an iron age of conquest. Victoria has been a womanly queen in home-loving empire, reigning in a golden era of progress. by „ America's Dead Sea. Down in southern Washington, on tiie great Columbian plr.teau, at an altitude of 2,000 feet above the level of the Pa­ cific, is the Dead Sea of America. The local geographers call it Medical Lake, because there is a belief that its waters are highly charged with curative prop­ erties. It is about one mile long and three-fourths of a mile wide, with an average depth of sixty feet. It has no inlet or outlet, and its level appears to remain the same. There must be salt springs in the bottom that feed it about as fast as the waters are exhausted by evaporation, which is rapid in that country, where the air is so dry and rare. The wat&re are very heavy and very salt, its density and composition being almost exactly as those of the Dead Sea, in Palestine. No vegetable life exists within a mile or more of its shores, which are a dry, hard clay. The only animal li'fe is a little turtle or ter­ rapin they call the boat bug, and the walking flsli. which is a curious erea ture about eight inches long, with four fins that look like legs and are used for the same purpose. This walking fish is never seen elsewhere, it is said.--Chi­ cago Record. The title of Mrs. Cragle's new novel is "The School for Saints." The American Monthly Review of Re­ views is the new title of the periodical edited by Albert Shaw. In course of time it will doubtless come to be known more briefly as the American Monthly. John lvendriek Bangs is now vice- president of the Yonkers Board of Ed­ ucation and to the duties of this office he devotes a large part of the time left from his writing and from golf, in which he is an enthusiast. The most northern paper in the world Is printed at Godthaab, in Greenland, and is called Laesestof. It is a mission^ ary sheet, made for the Eskimos, and lias been the means of teaching many of them to read the Danish language. The third and last volume of the new London edition of Burns' works has now been completed by W. E. Henley and his collaborator, Mr. Henderson. Included in it will be an essay on the genius of the poet by Mr. Herifey. :V new element has been introduced into the problem of the origin of our cats by the discovery in Brazil of a tortoiseshell wildcat, of which the late Prof. Cope had the only known muse­ um specimen. This animal will be de­ scribed from Prof. Cope's specimen in Appleton's Popular Science Monthly, William H. Ballou. Four O'Clock has a new fund of light, short Stories, after the graceful model those of its editor, Charles Fletcher Scott. The art work, from the poster the cover to the last pasted-in tail piece, is remarkably good. Gibson never made a more graceful and effec­ tive picture than the one by McCutch- eon entitled "And Then Broke Down." The magazine shows many signs of prosperity, and if its founders do not make the foolish mistake of changing its character in imitation of something else, they have every chance of holding permanently the wide patronage due to the novelty of their enterprise. Jim the Penman. A few months ago a Chicago mans who has written a play called upon a New York manager at a Chicago hotel and sent up his card. The theatrical man received him very graciotisly, and the Chicagoan said he had a play which he would like to have the Goth- a m i t e c o n s i d e r . , , y i . ? . "Sit right down and read it to me now," said the manager. This was done, and at the conclusion of the hearing the New Yorker said that he could not see enough in the play 'to warrant him in producing it. The Chicago man expressed his thanks for the courtesy of a hearing, and added that he was somewhat sur­ prised to find a New York manager so easily accessible. "Well," said the Gothamite, 'i make it a point always to dip into every play which comes along, sufficiently to learn its possibilities at least. I had an ex­ perience once which taught me a les- t son. I was in London one summer on business, and as I was about ready to j- return a theatrical broker handed me the manuscript of a play and asked me to place it for him if possible in Amer­ ica. He said I might have the Ameri­ can rights for $500 and he would give me 10 per cent commission for placing it. I threw the manuscript into a trunk, and when I reached New York handed it "to a well-known ma nager and asked him to look into it. He soon reported that the piece was 'absolutely worth­ less.' Of course I gave the matter no . further thought. I took the manuscript back across the water next summer and surrendered it. But a year or two later the author of that play produced It in London and" made a hit. The very New York man­ ager who had indorsed it as 'absolutely worthless' secured the American rights by cable, and for many years paid thou­ sands of dollars for the right to present 'Jim, the Penman' In this country--a play which was offered to me outright for $500 and which I never even read. Since then I've been reading plays."-- Chicago Times-Herald Won by a Trick. A sporting gentleman, who had the reputation of being a very bad shot, in­ vited some of his friends to dine with him. Before dinner he showed them a target painted on a barn door, with a bullet in the bull's-eye. This he claimed to harve shot at one thousand yards' dis­ tance. As nobody believed him. he of fered to bet the price of an oyster, sup­ per on it, On one of his guests accept­ ing the wager, lie produced two wit­ nesses whose veracity could not he questioned to prove his assertion. As they both said that he had done wii.it he claimed, he won his bet. At dinner the loser of the wager ask­ ed how his host had managed to fire such an excellent shot. The host an swered: "I shot the bullet at the door at a dis tance of one thousand yards, anil then I painted the target around it." Fight at a Perilous He'ght. A free fight ou top of Nelson's pillar in Sackville street furnished excite­ ment for a Dublin crowd one morning recently. The monument is 120 feet high and the platform on which tlie statue stands about ] eighteen feet square. A Carlow farmer, having made his way up to the platform, threw down his hat and stick, climbed up the flagstaff arid wlieu the- keeper aud a policeman interfered tried to throw them over the railing. They succeeded in holding him off until men from the street came to their help aud had hard time getting the crazy man down after they had bound hum_ People worry a great deal over, tyou bles that come under the head of things that are none of their business For Your Stomach's Sake. Persons who do not know any better, use saleratus, pearlash, baking pow­ ders, soap suds, alum, and heaven knows what else, to "raise" their bread and sweeten their sour dough. Here are a few facts about it from an ex­ change: - . s : "Wood is burned to ashes; the ashes are leached; lye Is the result. Lye is evaporated by boiling, black salts is the residuum. The salts are purified by fire and yield potash. The potash is then, by a certain process, changed to pearl- ash. Pearlash is put in sacks over a distillery mash tub, where fermenta­ tion evolves carbonic acid gas; the pearlash absorbs it, becomes solid, and is whiter, heavier and drier than the pearlash was, and it is now saleratus! How much salts of lye and carbonic acid ga.s a human stomach can bear and be healthy is a question for a saleratus eater. Potash will eat the hands. Some say saleratus will not harm the stom­ ach. Such a statement,rlooks like a lye. Saleratus and other alkalies will neu­ tralize acids, and if exactly the right proportions are used the residuum may lie inert and perhaps comparatively harmless. But often the right propor­ tions are not used and alkali is left to eat the coats of the stomach. But If the right proportions are used there Is still left in the system a quantity of hard, unyielding, insoluble matter, which is likely t« clog the machinery, stiffen the jpints and derange the whole system. Better keep the stuff outside, aiid eat good sweet 'unleavened bread.' " Careless. "Yes," said the editor of the picture paper, "he is a very good artist. I have only one fault to find with him." "What is that?" "His style is getting monotonous. He drew two portraits of the same woman, /and he made them both look alike."-- Washington Star. Why We Are Tired. The fatigue felt after exertion is now usually attributed to the presence, in the muscles and blood, of the chemical products that result'from action, t

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