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/ \ A Daring Ride. The following story, told by a cattle- raiser of Oregon, would seem unwor thy of belief where it not that ranchmen are so often notoriously reckless of life and fond of courting danger for the reputation to be gained. A year or so since there was a “rodeo” out on Lost River, Lake county. Ranchmen had gathered for a circuit of seventy miles to claim and brand their young cattle, and when a cordon of men bad surrounded a large band, among which was a Spanish bull, a dispute arose about a “mallet- head” or calf that had escaped the spring-branding; the discussion grew warm, none of the stock-owners being able to set up a valid claim or establish an undoubted title. At last, in a spirit of bravado, a ran cher proposed that whoever would ride the bull without saddle or halter should be the declared owner of the alf. There was a yell of approval, but not a general stampede of volunteers for taurus was in an ill-humor, and his foaming mouth and bloodshot eyes gave token that whoever rode him would have a ride as wild as M azeppa’s and one that would not end so well. At last a “vaquero” named Frick accepted the challenge, and the bull was immediately lassoed and held by a lariat around horn end foot. Dis mounting his horse the vaquero fastened his long rowelend spurs se curely, tied a handkerchief around his head, approached the infuriated ani mal, and grasping the tail in his hands, sprang lightly on, setting the spurs deeply in his flanks as he settled securely in his beat. The lariats were slackened ; the bull gave a roar of rage and terror and flung his head to the ground; but the rider had his back to the horns and a firm grip on the tail, and kept his seat. Another roar that shook the ground, a wild plunge, and the now maddened bull shot out across the sage plain with lightning speed, his plucky rider twistinir the tail that to him was a sheet-anchor until the bellowings were lost in the distance. For over a mile and a half the race continued amid the excited cheers of the vanquero's comrades. Occasion ally the bull gave a desperate plunge through a heavy clump of sage in the attempt to rid himself of his tormen tor, but the long rowels only clung more firmly to his flanks. Sometimes the animal and rider were hidden by undulations in the ground, and bets were even made that Frick would be thrown and gored ; but at last the bull exhausted from sheer fright, fell, and the plucky vaquero, stepping lightly off returned to claim the prize whi ch was unanimously awarded. Fashions in Bedsteads, The introduction of the brass bed stead into modern homes is, says the New York 'limes, the greatest revolu tion that has been attempted. A few years agr^hese bedsteads were entirely unknown in America, now one house alone exhibits twenty different styles, and there is little doubt that they will meet with increasing favor. They are so very handsome in appearance, are so light and easy to move from one side of the room to the other, aud, above all, they are so free from all im purities, as no dust collects upon them, that probably in time they will en tirely supersede those of wood. It has taken time to prove that they do not lead to increase of work in the need of constant polish, but a wa*h has re cently been invented which renders the metal impervious to the influence of moisture, and so does away with the principal objection to their univer sal adoption. It is necessary to speak of the mar vels of decoration and carving which are introduced into the modern bed stead by the fashionable decorator. Unlimited command of money can secure any amount of it, but it is not altogether to be deplored that very few persons after all are in this blhs ful position. Reds, like other matters, are often the better for being simple, and the housekeeper who sighs with envy for the ebouy bedstead inlaid with ivory or silver may be comforted with the reflection that a handsome brass bedstead, which fulfills the in tention of its construction, is more appropriate in homes where dollars are not counted by thousands than the magnificence of carving aud silver would be. The other day a gentleman entered a hotel in Glasgow, and finding that the person who appeared to act as waiter could not give him certain in formation which he wanted, put the question, “Do you belong to the as- tablishment ?”—■to which Jeames re plied, “No, sir ; I belong to the Free Kirk.” Current Wonders. Ovster-Raising in Michigan. Half way from the great Saginaw salt wells and Macinaw City we pas-ed through the upper part of Roscommon County. The country is too wild and unsettled to have a county seat, and the two stations in it are simply two great lumber camps. The population of thre country is made up of hard working lumbermen aud three or four rich sawmill owners. Six miles from the station, after riding through a pine wilderness, I came to Seth Powell’s house—perhaps the only nice hous within ten miles. “I came over,” I said to Mr. Powell, to see it it is true that you aie raising oysters here in Michigan.” “Tuen you’ve heard about it, have you? Well, I guess you’ve struck the truth this time. I have au oyster bed iu No Mouth Lake, aud they seem to be doing well. I’ll take one of the boys, if you say so, and we’ll drag out some oysters and show you.” No-Mouth Lake, I should say, was 100 rods long aud sixty rods wide. It is deep at one end—I suppose sixty fee*—while at the other it is shallow, with a gravel and sand bottom. One peculiarity about the lake is that it has no outlet. Two brooks run into it; but tbe water either soaks into the !-and or evaporates. Its depth never changes. The whole country of Ros common is situated on a divide. From the east side the waters run west into Lake M cliigan ; lrom the south side they run southerly, toward Saginaw Bay, aad from the north side they run toward Grand Traverse, The county is on the summit. Mr. Powell and the men rowed out about twenty feet from the shore, at the mouth of one of the brooks, in water about five feet deep, and dragged up some oysters. They were as good-lrokiug oysters as I had ever seen iu Oyster Bay or along the Shrewsbury river. They were fat and healthful. Noticing the water was salt, I was filled with wonder. “How came the water salt? I asked. “It is just as it is at the mouth of Shrewsbury river.” “Well, oysters won’t live in fresh water, will they? asked Mr. Powells smiling. “They say the ocean gets its salt from the codfish ; but this lake did not take its salt from the oysters.” “Where did it come from? I asked. “Well, I’ll tell you the history of my oyster-raising in the center of Michigan. I used to live at South Oyster Bay, on Long Island. We always used to plant the oysters at the mouths of the fresh water streams, where they ran into the bay. An oyster wants h If fresh and half salt water. Now, I found I had a lake with no outlet. That is, if there is au outlet, it is through the sandy bottom. Now, salt won’t run through sand. I knew this because we had a well at South Oyster Bay in the sand twelve feet from the salt water, but it was always fresh. So, I said, if I put salt into this lake it will stay there. I can make it just like Oyster Bay and keep it so. My cars, taking lumber to Saginaw, had to come back empty. Salt costs nothing but the pumping in Saginaw; s^I shipped back fifty car loads of salt and put it into No-Mouth Lake. Then I sent to Smith Robison, at South Oyster Bay, and had him ship me ten barrels of small oysters, little fellows no larger than marbles, and some of them the size of peas. I put them in the lake, at the mouth of the two fresh water brooks, They have grown right along. Now I’m putting iu some other salt-water fish like clams and blueflsh, and they’ll grow, too. If I keep my lake just as salty as Oyster Bay, I know that auy fish living in Oyster Bay will live here.” On arriving at the house, Mr. Powell gave us an oyster breakfast—raw oysters as good as Blue Points, broiled oysters on skewers, and fiied oysters— all from his lake iu the center of Michigan. Public School Teachers. Our attention has been called, by a gentleman who seeks all ways of do ing good and doing it wisely, to the work and ways of the lady teachers in the public schools. His insistence is that they aie worked over hours, or as we would state ft, they are com pelled to give more time to reports und statistics than they do to the teaching of their classes. There is certainly some excess of red tape in the several lessons, and there is overwork in the not easy task of stating the average orop of development In each juvenile mind. School reports are like those from the Agricultural Department, where there is one guess at acreage and another guess au to what the har vest will be, The most conscientious of teachers blunders in every report she makes to her principal, and he in his turn blunders again in the report to the Superintendent. Still this supervision of the work, this holding of every teacher to a full report of duty done, is a matter of necessary discipline: but when it be comes so involved and intricate, so loaded with checks and balances that there is really never any near approach to absolute truth, it becomes a work of upererogati on, giving the teacher the more work and the pupil the less at tention. The teacher who has stayed long after school to balance her ac counts, who finds as all of us do find who study, that there is a lack in our own comprehension of the next day's lesson, or worse than that, knowing the lesson and not knowing how to twike it easy for the new comprehen- ' A), there is a mental toil which oc cupies hours after the school-house doors are locked and breaks the houest morning nap. We see these “school- marms” on the streetcars every morn ing, sometimes meditative, and some times cramming from a text-book. We nevei accuse them of having too much leisure, and would be glad if their working hours could be redu ;ed. The school hours taken alone, are not too long, but the school day ouly ap plies to the children and not lo the faithful teachers. It is aft to be for gotten that the aptitude to teach is a very separate thing from the aptitude to learn, and that many teachers toil in the late evening and iu the morn ing watch for ways and methods of telling what they know and what, if they cannot plainly tell, makes the day a failure. Out of all this comes the cr nclusion that teachers should not be compelled to keep an accurate bank account of the intellect and pro gress of their pupils, and the checking oft of right and wrong auswers never adds to teaching efficiency. Book keeping is not teaching, and there ought to be some leisure left for study and refreshment of the teacher’s miud. But it is not well to be too sentimen tal about this. 80 far as vacations are concerned, the teachers iu the public schools have ample rest. The long vacation of the summer covens from eight to nine weeks. The Christ mas holidays give another week. The secular holidays, if they fall on a Tuursday last over till the next Mon day. Every Saturday is a holiday. To no other profession—salaried pro fession—is the same liberty of vacation conceded. It happens to no business man, working on a salary, that he can lock up his desk and be out of his office one third of the year, but as an offset to that the business man has more momentary liberty of action and many of them decline the offer of long vacations. But as a rule, they do not suffer the atmosphere of a school-room which has its only parallel in the stench of a police court. It has a verv depressing effect upon the nervou system. The children are not nice iu their habits, as perhaps may be deli cately illustrated by the story of a reverend Doctor of Divinity who was accused of burning incense in bis |chool-room. Ho pleaded guilty, but placed hts defense on the ground that some smells were better than other smells. His smoking apple tree bark had no ecclesiastical significance. Our conclusion is that the kind of work public school teachers are com pelled to do, and the circumstances under which they render it, should make us consider the drag of their toil aud lessen the yards of red tape in which they are now wound up. Tneirs is a life of hard work, but not iiarder than that of the household which is faithfully attended. But it is a re sponsible work, and one above the rules of ordinary servitude. In Miniature. In Elizabethan times one Mark Soaliot constructed a lock of eleveu pieces of iron, steel and brass, and a chain of forty-three golden links was attached to the same ; and this being put round a flea’s neck, lock and chain and fiea weighed only a grain aud a half of gold. Surely such a miracle of skill was worth preserving for posterity. Oswald Nothiugerus once turned 1,000 dishes of ivory which all went into a peppercorn, it, indeed we may believe contemporary writers. They were shown to Pope Paul V., who counted aud verified them himself, by the aid of a maguify- Ing-glass. Father Forrarius, a Jesuit, woftd not be outdone, and he made twenty-five wooden caunon, which went into the same compass; and Simin Marolus—whoever he was— had one of these miuiature wonders in his possession, aud was very proud of it. Matters of Interest. There arrived in the East India docks of London recently, a sailing vessel laden with the first consign ment of frozen meat which lias been sent to England from New Zealand. The ship had been 98 days on the voyage, and during all that time the chambers containing the meat had been kept at 20° below the freezing point. The meat consisted of 5000 sheep, and is said to have arrived in fine condition. In Loudon is made public an epi gram which Emerson wrote in the album of a well known firm of pho tographers to whom he Bat for a photagraph during his last English visit. When asked to write some thing he readily assented, and, with out hesitation, penned these words : “ The man who has a thousand friends Has a one friend to spare, But he who has one enemy Will meet him everywhere." As some of the old f irms of mission ary work are found to be susceptibleof radical improvement,a ne w missionary agency for the central provin :es of In dia has been suggested. It is recom mended that a missionary community, including both men and women, should buy a village and develop na tive industries. Native custom 1 should be respected, and the appear ance of a European colony should be avoided. The missionaries should identify themselves with the people and exercise a moral influence. The “Self-savers’ church” was the name of a somewhat heterodox associ ation in Chicago, which concluded that it could do better under almost auy other name. There was not much that was churchly iu its theology or its social make-up. So it has now changed its name and blossoms out as the “Industrial Reform Club.” It hoi is the doctriues of liberty, equality and fraternity in its own way, and throws its doors wide open for men aud women of every nation and of the broadest diversity of religious belief. From a crevice in the stone front of the State Library building in Albany (N. Y.), a vigorous young elm, now five feet iu height, has pushed its way into the world. A large elm, doubtless its mother, stands almost opposite the entrance to the library, aud the off spring is as green and hardy as the pa rent. Nature is evidently determined that such an ambitious sprout shall not perish, but in what manner she supplies it with sustenance it is impos sible to say. The buildiug is soon to be demolished, and then perhaps the mystery will be solved. Among some ancient fans recently sold in London were mauy that possessed a historical interest. One was Marie Antoinette’s marriage fan ; others were designed iu commemora tion of her betrothal to the Dauphin ; and there was also the bridal fan of Marie Leekynska, the wife of Louis XV. Many of the English tans weie made Id China for English marriages; others belong to the period of Charles II. Some are Flemish, Italian, French, and Venetian make. For the sale was prepared a handsome illustra ted catalogue that sold for a guinea. Some fifty full-page autotype plates were contained in it. In all there were 452 fans. Thomas A. S my the, whose age is thirty-six, aud who passed in a cer tain quarter of London for a surgeon, has been tried for manslaughter aud found guilty. He had no right to call himself a regular medical man, but on tbe door of his house he had a plate bearing his name and tbe word “sur geon.” It appears that an old gentle man named Campbell, a clergyman of the Church of England, suffered from a cancer of the tongue aud consulted Smytlie under the belief that he was an authorized practitioner. Smytlie operated upon the cancer, the patient died, alPtl surviving friends drought the suit ou the grounds of “gross neg ligence and inattention to dangerous symptoms.” A Variety ot Clips. A Lmg Island mau, accompanied his little son, paid a Brooklyn news paper a visit, on which oecad n one of the editor’s remarked that he had frequently seen the visitor’s name iu the “E igle.” Tne little boy spoke up and said: “You bet; Pa’s name is in tiie paper every time land is sold for taxes. Value of experience: A Celtic friend was recently badly cut about the head in an accident and bleeding freely ; hut lie remonstrated against having his wounds dressed, when the surgeon told him he would bleed to death if they wero not attended to. His reply was characteristic, “Doothur,” said he, “I never bled to death i life.” A young medical student at Buw- doin College once asked Prof. Cleve land, of that institution, if there were not some more recent works of anat omy than those iu the college library. “Young man,” said the professor, measuring the entire youthful scholar at a glauce, “there have been very few new bones added to the human body during the last ten years.” A Vermont paper relates that a farmer living near St. Jolmsbury hired a Frenchman to work for him. The first morning the Frenchman was called at 4 o’clok for breakfast. After earing a hearty meal, he arose from the table and remarked : “This best place I ever get in ; two suppers in one night. Hurrah for bed again,” and retired, not appearing agrin until 6 o’clock. A gentleman was relating to a friend how a party of young fellows got full at a wedding. He said one of them went up stairs just a braiding. The friend said, “Well what in the world is braiding ? That is a new one on me.” The man who was telling the story siid: “You don’t know what braid is, eh? He was braiding three str <nde—two strauds of legs and one strand of banisters.” A suggestive color: A gentleman who had been giving a description of a friend’s wife, but omitted all men tion of her hair, was asked tbe color of it. His delit acy of feeling overcame him to such an extent that it was sev eral moments before he ventured to give any answer, and then said, in a very reluctant way : “It was that— indescribable shade which suggests the thought that it would explode gunpowder.” A fresh country vegetable: There was displayed hear the soda-water fountain in an up town diug store the sign, “Bovine vaccine.” A young man, accompanied by a young woman, who might have been iiis country cousin or sweetheart, entered and, in response to the inquiring look of the boy *who tended the fountain, said: “You may give me bovine.” The young woman’s eye3 had been resting on the unusual sign near the fouutain, and when her companion turned to her and asked how she would have LePs, she scid timidly “I guesa I’ll try a little vaccine.” Worth Knowing. A cubit is two feet. A pace is three feet. A fathom is six feet. A palm is three inches. A league is three miles. There are 2,750 languages. A great cubit is eleven feet. Two persons die every second. Bran twenty pounds per bushel. Sound moves 743 miles per hour. A square mile contains 640 acres. A barrel of ice weighs 300 pounds. A barrel of pork weighs 200 pounds. A barrel of flour weighs 196 pounds. An acre contains 4,840 square yards. Oats, forty-two pounds per bushel. Barley, thirty-eight pounds per bushel. A hand (horse-measure) is four in ches. A span is ten and seven-eighths in ches. A rifle ball moves 1,000 miles per hour. Buckwheat, fifty-two pounds per bushel. Electricity moves 228,000 mile3 per hour. The first lucifer match was made in 1829. A firkin of butter weighs fifty-six pounds. Coarse salt, eighty five pounds per bushel. A tub of butter weighs eighty-four pounds. The average human life is three years. Her Negative. “Did you get that girl Brown? You remember t you were bound to have not exactly,” said Brow her for it, and she gave tive.” A man in passing a yard saw the sexton di and inquired : “Who’ ton—“Oid ’Squire B —“Wliat complaint?, out looking everybody sat The not the when mau win