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Altskan Widows.
I' wa^ diffi mk to ascei i ain the exact
law of.sue :ession among t he Thlinkits,
but the chiefsbip seenn- o follow the
direct line, though, as in all other
savage nation-*, this is s arcely a rule,
for the lineal lie'r may he set aside in
favor of a more acceptable man. In
the inheritance of personal property
the collateral is preferred to the lineal
relationship. The wives, or more
properly the widows, being personal
property, pass to the collateral next of
kin of their husband’s totem, for the
marriage of t vo people of the same
totem is considered a kind of incest.
The w i .low, in any event, takes with
her such possessions as have always
been peculiarly her own. She also
takes her own infant children ; natur
ally, then, she would take to her new
husband, the children’s inheritance,
"Which may account for the habit of
regarding the male collaterally next
of kin hs proper heir. If there be no
male survivor competent, to receive the
widow, or if he purchases freedom
with goods, she then passes into the
open matrimonial market, with her
pecuniary attractions. Sometimes the
heir rtbels and refuses to accept his
former sister in-law, cousin, aunt, or
whatever she may be. Then her
totemic or family relatives wage war
on the insuiter and such of his totem
as he can rally around him, the obj -ct
being either to enforce her righi or ex
tort a proper recompense. Among
theAsonques, further to the north and
west, I saw a young fellow of about
eighteen years of age who had just
fallen tnir to his uncle’s widow. As I
looked upon her mummy-like propor
tions I thought that here was reasona- •
ble cause for war. Sometimes a hus
band already liberally provided for
will come into a misfortune in the
shape of one or more widows. The
only e9t;;.pe is by purchasing freedom.
In fact, there seems to be no hurt to a
Thliukit’s honor that money or goods
will not heal. The scorning of a
widow, the betrayal of a maiden, and
murder, all demand blood or pecuniary
eomijensation. If in a feuc^all negoti
ations fail, and Ktnukh (symbolized
in the wolf), the God of war, be un-
propitio is, and sen 1 private war, then
the principal antagonists, with their
totemtc adherents, don their helmets
and coats of paint, and stand facing
each <> her in two lines, each line
holdi ng to a rope with the left hiud,
and wielding heavy knives with the
right. They advance, and hack and
hew, with more yells than bloodshed,
until one sule or the other cries the
Thliukit for Peocavi. In this duel,
any warrior violates the code who lets
go the rope with the left hand, unless
he be wounded or torn from it; when
he has 1 -t go. he is then out of the
fight aud must retire.
Valuable Suggestions.
What la To Be Dene 1
1. Child two years old has an attack
of croup at night. Doctor at a distance.
What to be done?
The child should be immediately un
dressed. and put in a warm bath.
Then give an emetic, composed of one
part ot antimony wine to two of ipe
cac. Trie dose is a teaspoonful, If
the i p imony is not at hand, give
warm water, mustard and water, or
any other simple emetic; dry the
child, and wrap it carefully in a warm
blank*'!
2. Hi-ed girl sprains her ankle vio
lently.
First bathe in cold water, then put
the white of an egg in a saucer,
stir with a piece of alum, the size of a
waluut, until it is a thick jelly ; place
m of it on a piece ot lint or tow
ugh to cover the spraiu,
it as often as it feels warm or
jliuib is to be kept in a hori-
/osition by placing it on a
swarm, and the man who
n gets severely stung in the
rust off anything, mix with warm
water, and give in large draughts fre
quently. Never give large draughts
of fl lid until those given before have
been vomited, because the stomach
will not contract properly if tilled, and
the object is to get rid of the poison as
quickly as possible.
6. Young lady sits in a draught
and comes home with a bad sorr
throat.
Wrap flannel around the throat,
keep out of draughts aud sudden
changes of atmosphere, and every
hall hour take a pinch of chloride of
potash, place it on the tongue, and al
low it to dissolve in the mouth.
7. Nurse suffers from a whitlow on
her finger.
Place the whitlow in water as hot
as can be borne, then poultice with
linseed meal, taking care to mix a
little grease with the poultice, to pre
vent it from growing hard. Bathe
and poultice every evening.
8. C iild falls backwards against a
tub of boiling water, and is much
scalded.
Carefully undress the child, lay it
on a bed, on its breast, as the back is
scalded, be sure all draughts are ex
cluded, then dust over the parts scald
ed bi-carbonate of soda,lay muslin over
it, then make a tent, by placing two
boxes with a board over them in the
bed, to prevent the covering from
pressing on the scald; cover up
warmly.
9. Mower cuts driver’s leg as he is
thrown from seat.
Put a tight bandage around the
limb, above the cu^, 3 ip a c >rk under
it, in the direction of a line drawn
from the inner part of the kuee to a
little outside of the groin. Draw the
edges of the cut together with sticking
plaster.
10. Child has a bad earache. <
Dip a plug of cotton wool in olive oil,
warm it, and place in the ear. W rap
up the head and keep out of draughts.
11. Youth goes to skate; falls
through the ice ; brought home insen
sible.
S rip the body, and rub it dry ; then
rub it with a warm blanket and place
it in a warm bed, in, a warm room.
Cleanse away froth and mucus from
the nose and mouth. Apply watm bot
tles, bticks, &c., to the arm-pits, be
tween the thighs, aud to the soles of
the feet. R ib the surface of the body
with the band encased in a warm dry
worsted seek. To restore breathing,
clo8etne nostrils and breathe steadily
into the mouth; inflate the lungs till
the breast be raised a little, then set
the nostrils free, and prtss gently on
the chest until signs of life appear.
Then give a waim drink, and put to
bed Do not give up hope for at least
three hours after the accident.
12. Child gets sand in hii eye.
Place your forefinger on the cheek
bone having the child before you.
Then draw up your Anger, and you
will probably be able to remove it;
but it you cannot get at the sand this
way, repeat the operation while you
have a knitting needle laid against
the eyelids, this will turn the lid in
side out, aud then the sand may he
removed with a silk handkerchief
Bathe in cold water, and exc.ude the
light for a day.
A Curious Disease.
It has been observed that the manu
facture of bichromate of potash has a
singular effect upon the nose, mani
festing itself in a curious manner. A
little hole is formed on the septum or
partition of theuose dividing the nos
trils, and increases gra luully until the
partition entirely disappears, with the
exception of its lower part, so that to
a superficial observer there is nothing
the matter with the nose, except a
little outward depression. As soon as
the partition is destroyed the process
appears to stop there, neither the
lungs, air-tubes nor throat being in
the least degree affected. S ime work
men at the chrome factory iu Russia,
where the disease lias been chiefly
watched, have been employed for ten
years and remained unaffected, while
with others the hole in the nose begins
to be formed after one month’s work.
But that the disease is something more
than an individual peculiarity is evi
dent Iron the fact that an inspection
of all the hands proved that more than
60 per cent, of the men had diseased
noses. The early symptoms are a
slight tickling of the part affected,
followed by bleeding, but with no un
comfortable feelings, aud, In fact, the
destructive process Is painless.
The Dispensary.
Worry.—The Nineteenth Century
says: Tne cause, or condition, which
most commonly exposes the reserve
of mental eneriry to loss and inj try is
worry. The tone and strength of
mind are seriously impaired oy its
wearing influence, and, if it continue
long enough, they will be destroyed.
The whole machinery is thrown mt
of gear, and exercise, which would
otherwise be plea.->urable aud innoc
uous, becomes painful and even des
tructive. The victim of worry is ever
on the verge of a catastrophe ; if he es
capes, the marvel is not at his strength
of intellect somuch as his good fortune.
Worry is disorder, however induced,
and diso^ red work is abhorred by the
laws of nature, which leave it wholly
without rerntdy. The energy em
ployed in industry carried on under
this condition is exhausted. The
reserve comes into play early in the
task, and the faculty of recuperation
is speedily arrested. Sometimes loss
of appetite announces the cessation of
nutrition; otherwise the sense of
hunger, present in the system, is for a
time preternaturally acute, and marks
the fact that the demand is occasioned
by loss of power to appropriate, in itead
of any diminution of supply. The
effort to work becomes daily more la
borious, the task of fixing the attention
grows increasingly difficult, thoughts
wander, the memory fails, the reason
ing power is enfeebled; prejudice —
the shade of defunct emotion or some
past persuasion—takes the place of
iudgmeut; physical nerve or brain
disturbance may supervene, and the
crash will then come suddenly, unex
pected by onlookers, perhaps, unper
ceived by the sufferer himself. This
is the history of “worry,” or disorder
produced by mental disquietude and
distraction, occasionally by physical
disease.
Treatment of Delirium Tre
mens.—Dr. G. W. Balfour, in a cli
nical lecture on delirium tremens,
printed in the Lancet, calls attention
to an opinion very widespread, not
only among the public but e /e i among
the profession, that delirium tremens
does notarise from drinking, but from
cea ing to driuk. This idea he pro
nounces fallacious in the extreme.
We are often told that so long as the
patient is kept drinking, so long will
he keep from an attack of delirium,
while the very reverse is the case. So
long as he keeps driuking he usually
keeps from a bad attack, because a
serious attack, as a rule, is associated
with a loathing of drink ; but he al
ways keeps coming nearer to it, and
the sooner his drinking bout can be
arrested the le^s risk he runs of having
an attack at all. So long as the patient
is permitted to obtain drink, just so
long will his case prove intractable to
treatment; while when the treatment
is continued, minus the drink, the
cure is rapidly obtaiued. Hs con
cludes that the administration of al
cohol in any form during the course of
delirium tremens is necessary only in
very rare cases, where exhaustion is
great, and even iu these cases it delays
the cure. Uuder the treatment recom
mended by him ( which, for the benefit
of professional readers, we may state
is chloral), so rapid in i:s action, he
believes it possible that alcohol may
never be required iu such cases, and
that ordinary tonics may supply its
place.
Practical Methods of Cutting
and Boring Glass.
There frequently appear in the pa
pers what purport to be simple and
effective methods for cuttiug glass,
such as applying a hot iron, or ignit
ing a string saturated with some burn
ing fluid, placed upon the line of de
sired separation, etc., none of which
methods are certain or satisfactory in
their results.
The following directions, however,
if carefully observed, will require but
little practice for any one to become
most skilful in working glass with
simple and inexpensive tools.
It would not be a hard matter to
trace out on a flat piece ot glass a line
of separation that would be extremely
difficult, aud even impossible, to cut
with a diamond, but the method about
to be described will muke it an easy
thing to do.
The necessary tools are, for glass up
to about one-eighth of an inch thick,
a three cornered file and a piece of
quarter-inch round iron with a suita
ble handle on one end, the other *nd
squared off', which is to be heated in a
lamp flume or by any other conveni
ent means.
After marking out on the glass the
line of separation desired, tile a notch
at the beginning, which we will sup-
posqf o ne on one edge of the gia-s. !
Then heat the iron to a tempera'ure
according to the thickness of the glass
to be cut; if very thick it will need to
approach redness, but for thin glass a
much lower degree of heat will do.
Now apply the end of the heated iron
to the gla e s at the filed notch when in
a short time the glass will separate
wiili a slight snap at that point, when
the iron must be slowly moved in the
direction of the line marked out. The
glass will be observed to split in the t
direction the iron is moved, care being
taken to hold the iron so as to make a
very small angle with the surface of
the glass, aud kept about an eighth of
an inch In advance of the fracture. If
the separation at any time ceases it is
probably because the glass has become
too much heated or from want of suf
ficient heat in the iron. Allow the
glass to cool before applying the iron
again after being reheated.
By carefully following these direc
tions and taking pains to acquire the
proper angle for holding the iron to
the glass, as well as the proper temper
ature for the iron, any shape may be
cut with an accuracy depending upon
the steadiness with which the end of
the iron is drawn over the glass.
Perhaps the most generally useful
application of this principle will be
found in cuttiug bottles or large glass
tubing, either transversely or any
irregular shape. Suppose we wish to
cut off the neck of a large bottle so as
to use the neck of it for a battery cell
or other purpose. At any point on the
line of separation file a notch for the
starting point. Apply the heated iron
ut one end of the notch (which is to
he filed in the direction of separation)
for about four seconds, then carry it
around and apply to the other end for
the same length of time, then back
again to the first position, when, if
the iron is at the proper temperature,
aud held at the proper angle, iu a short
time there will appear a splitting of
the glass, which fracture should be
carried along a very short distance by
moving the iron just in advance of it.
Now carry the iron to the other end of
the fracture and start it in that direc
for about half an inch, then back to
the end, when the separation may be
completed, giving a clear, sharp line
of division with great exactness.
It is necessary to take the precaution
to start both ends of the fracture in
ord»-T to acquire control of it. If con
tinued on one side a’one the splitting
might start in the other direction,
darting off from the desiied course.
If we wish to cut an irregular shaped
section from a bottle or large glass
tube, file a notch in any straight por
tion of the desired section iu the direc
tion of the straight part. Apply the
iron as before, so as to get the fracture
under control, when it may be con
ducted wherever desired by drawing
the iron accordingly.
A round, square, or even triangular
hole may thus be made in a bottle or
other glass vessel. For very thick glass
a larger piece of glass and higher tem
perature will be necessary, as well as a
deeper notch filed for the starting
*poiut.
A crack, by accident or spontane
ously, frequently starts in large plate
glass, nnd from the centre of the glass
wheels of electrical machines, which,
if not stopped, would in time be very
apt to extend clear across the plate or
wheel.
This may be prevented by causing the
fracture to change its course aud return
in the directio t from w lich it started,
by applying the heated iron and guid
ing it in the desired direction. Such
fractures may also be prevented from
farther extension by boring a small
hole at their extremity. The ability
to bore holes in glass of any size and
with certainty, is readily acquired and
is certainly often desirable.
Tha best tool for this purpose is a
round file, the size of which depeuds
upon the siz 1 of hole to be bored. It
should be somewhat smaller than the
hole to be bored and have a blunt end.
It should be well supplied at the dril
ling point with a solution of gum cam
phor In turpentine, which may be
prepared by putting as much gum
camphor In a given quantity of tur
pentine as it will dissolve.
By taking the file near the end be
tween the thumb and forefinger, and
giving it a twisting motion, using con
siderable pressure at the point where
the hole is to be bored, it will soon
penetrate the glass and cut a clean
hole, without danger of flaking around
the edge. Care should be taken to
prevent too much pressure just before
the hole is through, otherwise it will
flake off on the other side. I is safer
to start on both sides before the final
penetration.
Exceptional Weather.
A season of unusual character is
sure to call forth, even from persons of
much experience, the observation
that they remember nothing like it
before. In truth, the power of accu
rately recalling past weather is exces
sively rare; and, In the absence of
precise records, the memories of even
the oldest inhabitants must be re
ceived with douot. The weather
Nvhich is fine we accept as a matter of
course, and forget it is as soon as it is
over ; while that which is the reverse
of fine scarcely produces a more per
manent impression. It is said by
those who have studied such subjects
that no eff ort of memory can recall a
vivid impression of past pain, and
there is probably much truth in the
statement. The power of appealing
eonectly to experience, which super
ficial people regard as an elementary
gift of nature, is, in fact, a product of
the highest intellectual cultivation,
and is simply impossible to the illiter
ate or the untaught. There may be no
iatention to dejeive, but there is an
incapacity to observe or record with
accuracy. Astronomers tell us that
the regions of the earth which now
enjoy a temperate climate will at some
remote future pass once more through
a glacial epoch ; but it is a favorite as
sertion with the aged that the climate
of these islands is manifestly dimin
ishing in severity. There are no such
winters now, we hear, as those of the
“good old times,” when scarcely a
D ecember passed in which the squire’*
horses were not requisitioned in order
to assist in dragging the mail coach
out of the snowdrifts, or the able-
bodied meu of the parish to cut a pas
sage for it with their picks aud spades.
Two years ago the suow iu Oxford
street might have rivalled, even
if It did not surpass, the best achieve
ments of S disbury Plain io the days
of our grandfathers; and the tyc.th
probably is that the seasons move
very much in cycles, the cause of
which we may hope that meteorology
wills otns day unravel.— London
Times.
Honesty the Best Policy.
The spirit of Pope’s lines :
“And more true |oy Marcellim exile t feels
Than Ciewr with a senate at his heels,”
was illustrated by the joyfulaess with
which a country gentleman received
the news of his some loss of a clerk
ship :
The gentleman had placed the son
with a merchant, and for a season all
went on well. But, at length, the
youug man sold a dress to a lady, aud
as he was folding it up, he observed a
flaw in the silk, aud remarked,
“Madame, I deem it my duty to tell
you there is a fracture in the silk.”
This spoiled the bargain.
The merchant overheard the remark.
Had he reflected a moment, ^ might
have reasoned thu9 with himself:
“Now I am safe, while my affairs are
committed to the hands of an honest
clerk.” But he was not pleased, and
so he wrote to the father to come and
take the boy home; for, said he, l> he
will never make a merchant.’ ”
The father, who had brought up his
son with the strictest care, was not a
little surprised and grieved, and hast
ening to the city, Baid, “And why
will he not make a merchant?”
“Because he has no tact. O-ily a
day or two Unce, he voluntarily told a
lady who was buying silk, that the
goods were damaged, aud so I lost the
bargain. Purchasers must look out
for themselves. If they cannot dis
cover flaws, it will be foolishness in
me to tell them of their existence.”
“And is this all the fault?”
“Yes; he is very well in other
respects.”
“Then I love my sou better than
ever, and I thank you for telling me of
the matter ; I would not have him in
your store another day for the world.”
Daniel Web3ter to His Son.
Daniel Webster wrote to his son
Fletcher, who was about to be gradua
ated at Harvard, in 1833 : “I have sel
dom felt so much concern about any
thing of the kind as I do upon your
success upou that occasion. I pray
you spare no pains. l»o your best and
you will do well enough. I earnestly
remind you of the necessity of acting
with great caution in regard to all
festivities. You remember what I
said to you ou that head, and I pray
you to forget no part of it.”
The inconsistent lives of professing
Christians do more to retard the victo
ries of the cross than all the works of
unbelievers. •