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Educational. ' The official semi-annual statement concerning the German universities furnishes some interesting facts. It shows that the entire teaching staff in the twen‘y-one universities within the limit' of the Empire numbers 1815 persons. In all the universities there are four faculties, of divinity, law, medicine and philosophy, including literature. There ii also a faculty of social and political sciences at Wurz- berg and Munich, of economical sci ence at Munich and Tubingen, of natural science also at Tubingen, and a faculty of malkematical and physi cal sciences at Strasburg. It is also to be noted, that there is a faculty of Protestant divinity at seventeen uni versities and of Catholic divinity at seven. The total number of divinity students is 192, of whom 141 belong to the Protestant faculties and 51 t n the Catholic. In the strength of the seve ral faculties Beilin stands pre-emi nent, except in law. where Munich has the largest body of professors. The Nashville Banner takes a cheer ful view of the educational work be ing done In Tennessee. It says that the Vanderbilt University is last as suming hs proper place at the head of Southern educational institutions, and that it is destined to be a tremendous power iu the S uth and Southwest, and to ex end its area of influence throughout Kentucky, Missouri, Kan sas, Southern Illinois and Indiana. Respecting the educational system throughout the State, it says that the men who are engaged in it are doing the work well, and that it is becoming “a compact, solid system from the bottom to the top.” Before the war Tennessee w T as the foremost of the Southern States in educational mat ters, and it is an encouraging sign of the times to see her devoting litr at tention to this vital interest with re newed vigor. Worlds Illumined by two Suns. Agricultural. Astronomy ha3 shown that many of the double stars which stud the heav ens are really systems of worlds lit up with two suns emitting differently colored rays of light, and revolving around their common centre of grav ity. Referring to the planets which must be connected with such a svatem, Mr. W. Doberck remarks in Nature: When we reflect upon the complicated nature of the orbits which the planets and*comets descrbe round our sun, we get some idea of how remarkable must be the nature nl those curves that planets describe around double suns. Perhaps the same comets that disappear to our gaze, leaving the sphere of attraction of the sun, are attracted, and lor a time become mem bers of thoee wonderful systems. Our mathematics do not suffi :e for solving the problems that are suggested, but it is not unlikely that unless situated very close to one or other of the suns— so close that the other appears not much larger than a star, though com parable in brightness to the nearest sun—the planets are whirled out in the cold space by the gravitational influence of the other sun, os very likely many a minor planet was ejec ted from the solar system under the influence of Jupiter. What must be the nature of those worlds illuminated by two different suns, one yellow and another purple ? Now rises the one, and all is clothed iu yellow ; now the other, and illu mined from complementary sources, every objeot appears in its natural color. Then sets the yellow sun, and what must be the diversity of the ef fects as it approaches the horizon! And behold nature puts on a purple man tle. Then also the sun sets, and in the darkness of night, though there is seldom night where there are two suns, the starry heavens are seen much the same there as here, except perhaps for moons reflecting light from the differently colored suns. Not only the play of color must there be more varied than here, but pheno mena of which we have not the faintest idea, must be produced also through the action of heat, electricity and magnetism. Indeed, upon sub jects like these science gives no infor mation, and we may therefore give our fancy free reins. A fashion writer of the female sex says: "In dress we are nothing but monkeys.” The writer may be an ex ception, but who ever saw a monkey attired in a corset, a twenty dollar hat seventeen button gloves, a lot of false hair and several hundred dollars worth of dry goods? • It’s often easier for an actor to bring down the house than raise the wind India has nearly 2,000,000 acres of land sown to wheat. Hop-growers are happy over the prospects of a heavy hop crop. The prospects for good crops iu Frat ce, Germany and Holland are fa vorable. Clover will be a short crop in Michi gan this season, owing to winter kill ing and drought. Apple trees in Bucks county, Pa.,are said to be dying from the effects of last year’s drought. In Georgia insects of all kinds are abundant, and all kinds of crops are receiving their attentions. Cattle valued at $13,500,000 are calm ly grazing in what was six years ago absolutely an Indian country. A total of 35,160,866 fleeces were shorn in the United States in 1880, with an average weight of 4.42 pounds. The army worms, which are abund ant in Lyons county, Ky., are being destroyed by myriads of small red ants. A fruit-grower in California says that should the Chinese go the fruit interest in that State would suffer seriously. California takes the lead for heavy heads of wheat. S mre stalks have been shown, six feet high, with heads six inches long. Two hundred thousand head of sheep were driven from New Mexico recently to Texas, and 50,000 wethers to Nebraska. The silk trade of Switzerland gives employment to 70,000 hands. The yearly products of this industry amount to 131,000,000 francs. There are over 150,000 orange trees in Florida, and the number is rapidly increasing annually. The product this year is put at 50,000,000 oranges, The large bean-raising districts of New York are jsffl cted by a worm called the bean weevil, which is doing great damage to the newly-planted crops. The oleomargarine factories of New York have a producing capacity of 116,000,000 pounds annually, while the production of dairy butter in the State is only 111,000,000 pounds. Keep the Stables Clear of Flies. One of the greatest hindrances to thrift during hot weather is the annoy auce caused by flies. This is true both in field and stable. In the former we cannot, in any considerable degree, control them, but in the latter we can. Tue better class of stables should be provided with screens. By this mode, fumigation being practised to drive the flies out, the stock may be quite well protected. The placing of small ves sels of chloride of lime about the ceil ing will sometimes answer the purpose of keeping them out of the building. If a decoction of lycopodium (some times called wolf’s claw), which is the largest of the European mosses, be placed ia a bladder, the neck being supplied wiih a quill nozzle, by means of which tue liquid cau be sprinkled where the fl ee accumulate, early in the morning, the effect upon the flies will soon be seen, as it quite promptly destroys them. This article is also used to destroy vermiu. Training Hornr If it is desirable to straighten a horn you may frequently scrape with a piece of glass, or a knife, the hollow side, which will cause it to grow faster on that side; but iu that case it must not be scraped deeply, for then it be comes weaker on that side, and will be turned toward the weaker side. Some scrape the side toward which they wish to turn the horn quite thin, and then scrape the opposite side just enough to make it grow faster, and that will turn it toward the tflinly scraped side. If you wish to turn a horn up, scrape on the under side just enough to make it grow faster on that side. A very barbarous way to turn a horn is sometimes practised, by sear ing with a hot iron on the side toward which the horn is to be turned. This prevents the growth of the horn on that side and the growth upon tne other side turns the horn. Tne horns may be polished by rubbing them with flue sandpaper, aud then with pumice-stone, and oiling them. But this artificial manipulation of horns is seldom necessary. The horns of well- fed cattle will generally grow In comely shape if let alone. The hair is sometimes oiled to give it a glossy ap pearance, but the best gloss is put upon the hair by rich and appropriate feed ing. Nature, under proper conditions, does this work best. Shallow Cultivation for Fruit*. Fruit growers must be reminded that their hoes, cultivators and ploughs may do more damage to plants than good if not used with discretion. The small fruits—berries, currauts, grapes, also dwarf pears, quinces, etc., root near the surface. Here are found the best roots, those that provide the most nourishment. Nature designed these to be mulched by the dead leaves, and in our fields mulching would be the best treatment if it were possible. As it is, the best we can do is to give fre quent but shallow cultivation. I have seen intelligent men ploughing deep furrows alongside of their raspberries, currants and grapes, well satisfied that they were doing thorough work that would secure au ibundant harvest. Let such meu dig up one plant before thus ploughing and one after and see what butchery they have committed. There are no tap-roots stietching far down into the subsoil, but simply a few laterals branching out, say, from two to four inches below the surface, and more than half of these have been sacrificed by the ploughshare. When we set green hands hoeirg strawber ries aud newly set raspberries we know what they will do if not watch ed—they will destroy half their roots and loosen the hold for life that the struggling pets have secured by chop ping close about them. Interesting Statistics. Scarcity of Healthy Women. Dr. Adalina 8. Whitney has re cently delivered a lecture before the youug lady students at Vassar Col lege, which contained much whole some advice and many valuable sug gestions for her sex. She assigned many very good reasons for the want of healthy women, and avowed at the beginning that the lack of strong healthy women among American peo pie is strikingly noticeable. She al leged that much of constitutional weakness is inherited, but declared it is in the power of the majortiy of young girls to make themselves, phys ically, what they will. Give to the muscles as scientflj aud thorough training as mathematics give to tie brain, and there will be a correspond ing increase iu physical capacity. Life in the open air is of first im portance. Vigorous and absorbing games, too, should be encouraged among girls. Mental and physical culture should be as inseparaoie as mind and body. The principal causes which destroy health are neglect of proper physical exercise and recreation during youth; woman’s incomplete, one-sided meth ods of education ; a want of steady employment, and petty forms of in discretion in rr gard to hygiene onfhe part of young women themselves. Dr. Whitney contends that a radical change will come when popular sen tlment requires that girls shall grow up strong and well dtveloped. Tigut clothing, she urges, should be dis carded, that the exercise of the organs of motion may not be impeded. There should be in every school a system ef physical education, under the direc tion of a qualified teacher. Daily muscular exercise will bring mental work, and there might be a physical as well as a mental standard which a girl must reach before entering col lege. It would be difficult, we think, to find any sensible person disposed to dispute the Doctor’s assertions. They are palpably manifest every day, and the number of healthy women seem to be growing less with each recurring week. Cau the decay be remedied? The Doctor says they can. Venice and Amsterdam are the cities of bridges. The first has 450, the last 800. London has 15, Vieuna 10, and Berlin will Boon have 50. Altogether the most beautiful and striking bridge in Europe is that over the Moldau at Prague. The resident population of Great Britain in the middle of 1882 is esti mated by the Registrar General at 35,280,299 persons; that of England and Wales at 26,406,820 ; of Scotland at 3.785,400, and of Ireland at 5,088,079. it is not generally known that Fortress Monroe is the hugest single fortification in ihe world. It has already cost over $3,000,000. The water battery is considered to be one of the finest pieces of military con struction over built. In consequence of the • defective water supply there has been an in crease of 25 per cent, in the price of nre insurance risks in the city of Gal veston. The average under the old rates was 1J per cent. The new sched ule of fire rates will make it If per cent. There is about $20,000 000 regu larly covered by insurance in Galves ton. S) says the News. There has lately been exhibited in the Botanical Garden of Berlin the biggest flower in the world—the great flower of Sumatra, known in ecience as the Jtpfflesia Amoldi, and peculiar to Java and Sumatra. It measures nearly ten feet in circumference, and more than three feet in diameter. Sir Stamford Raffles and Dr. Joseph Arnold were exploring in company when they discovered this champion plant. • Washington Territoiy is now set ting up its claims to distinction as a State. Two years ago the census of that Territory showed a population of 75,116. The people now claim a pop ulation of quite 150,000. O wing to the remoteness of the Territory from the East this increase is quite remarkable, aud the completion of the Northern Pacific Railroad v ill result in the rapid filling up of that country. Merino sheep will yield from ten to twenty pounds of wool per heal, and the Cotwold even more, while scrub sheep will only give from three to six pounds. The fine sheep eat no more than scrub and produce more flesh, to say nothing of the superior quality of both wool and flesh. Therefore keep only good sheep. itect’s office, 90; First Comptroller’s office, 68 ; Second Comptroller, 63; Comptroller of Currency, 89 ; office of Commissioner of Customs, 33 ; First. Auditor’s, 56 ; Second Auditor’s, 151,; Third Auditor’s, 137 ; Fourth Auditor’s, 46; Fifth Auditor’s, 28 ; Sixth Auditor’s, 278; United States Treasurer’s office, 281; Registrar, 192; office of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue, 222; United States Coast Survey, 100. In the State Department there are but 86 clerks. In the War De partment taere are 1,6 )0 clerks, as fol lows: Secretary’s office, 89; Adju tant General’s office, 448; Inspector General’s office 6; Quartermaster- General’s department, 170; Paymas ter-General's department, 65 ; Engi neer department, 215 ; Ordnance de partment, 18; Signal offlre, 128; Bu reau of Military Justice, 8; Colonel Casey’s Bureau for Building the State, War and Navy departments, 140 ; office of the publication of < ffi ;iul records of the rebellion, 43. The Interior De partment clerks number 1,666, as fol lows : Secretary’s office, 128; Patent office, 448; Laud offi ie, 261; Pension offi 5e, 67 >; Indian office, 66 ; Geologi cal Surveys, 50 ; Education bureau, 34; Railroad bureau, 9. TheCeusus office, which is really a branch of the Inte rior Department, numbered last year, 680, and these should be added to the number in the Interior Department, making 2,346. In the Post Office De partment (proper) the employees num ber 488. Iu the Department of Justice 59 ; iu the D apartment of Agriculture, lo3; Government Priutiug Office, 1,843. So that really the number em ployed in the Government depart ments on duty iu Washington is about 10,000. This exclusive of the Capitol, city Post Office aud District Govern ment offices. The remuneration of the employees in the departments varies somewhat, but generally the salaries range from $900 to $2,000 for clerical work, the latter being given to those who occupy responsible or particularly important positions, and the first generally to copyists a great many of whom are ladies. In the Departments. Look to Your Books, Importance of Beading. No matter how obscure the position in life of an individual, if he can read, he may at will put himself iu the best society that the world has ever-seen. He may converse with the greatest heroes of the past; with all the writers iu prose and poetry. He may learn how to live, how to avoid the errors of his predecessors, and to secure bless ings, present aud future, to himself. He may reside in a desert far away from the habitations of man ; in soli tude, where no human eye looks upon him with affection or interest, where no human voice cheers him with its animating tones ; if he has looks to read, ha can never be alone. . He may choose his oompany, and the subjects of conversation, and thus become cofl- tented and happy, intelligent, wise and good. He thus elevates his rank in the world, and becomes independent, In the beet sense, of all debasing asso ciations and Influences. The Lif6 of the Natioral Clerks at Wash ington. The women clerks are hard worked, and receive the smallest rtmuneration but the wolf is kept from the door of many a family by their earnest en deavors. A great many of them once belonged to families of wealth, but reverses came, and they are glad to be able to work for. a living. In the Treasury Department there are over 500 women clerks, and in the Bureau of Engraving and Printing as many more. In the Treasury aud Interior Departments changes are most fre quent, and it is in these mostly that women are employed, and every now gind then there are rumors of pending changes which set their hearts flutter ing with dread until the danger is over. A position in the State Depart ment is considered a permanent thing. It is run on a plan similar to our Army and Navy. When some one dies promotion takes place and there is a chance for an appointment. In the War and Navy Departments also changes do not olten occur, and many a clerk whose hair is now white en tered the service whtn a young man. Employees perform their labors in a remarkably satisfactory ma ner. In fact, it is apparent that the Govern ment clerk, taken on the average, has greatly improved in many respects within the past dozen years. The Government aud its employees bear a relation to our city somewhat similar to that of a college and its students to the little New England village where it is located. There are enough office holders who are residents of Washing ton to make a good sized city of them selves. In the various departments the work goes on the same from one year’s end to another, and one would scarcely realize how great the number of employees iu the various depart ments is. In the Treasury Department there are over 8,500 employees, divided as follows : Divisions of the Secretary’s office, 676; bureau of the Mint, 12; Supervising Surgeon-General’s office, 17; office of Ipspeotor-General of Steamboats, 5 ; bureau of Statistics,37; Life Saving Service, 17; < ffl le ot Light house Board, 36; bureau ot Engraving and Printing, 1,008; Supervising Arch- The Incandescent Lewis Light. Some weeks ago The Tribune gave a description of the new lamp by Dr. Regnard, in which kerosene vapor was used to heat to incandescence a platinum wire cage. A modified form of this—known as the Lewis burner —in which common coal-gas is substi tuted for petroleum vapor, has been successfully tried m London. The ap paratus is au application of what is known to scieutifi! men as Herapath’s blow-pipe. Au air-pipe which ends in a tapered cone enters a (mall space or chamber of the gas supply near the burner, and a little below it is a short arm which supplies a supplementary air current. Through this tapered cone air is forced under a pressure of 6 in. or 7 in. of water. The mixture of gas and air thus produced is carried into the burner, which is a%age of platinum wire, about three times as long as it is wide. When the gas is first lighted it is a loaring, flickering flame, with no appreciable illumina ting power; but soon the platinum gusze becomes iiot, and in a few sec onds the burner presents the appear ance of a glowing pillar oi solid light possessing intense brilliancy. The combustion of the gas itself in this case yields no Illuminating power worth speaking of, the brilliancy of the new ligty being due to the high temperature of the platinum gauze, which becomes incandescent just as ihe carbon threads in the electric lamps glow with the heat engendered in them by the current. An ordinary Lewis burner of tlii-» kind gives a light of over fifty candles for every ten feet of gas per hour; but by increas ing the pressure and the consumption of gas a much higher economy can be attained—so much as 180 candles for twenty feet of gas, it is said. Possibly the feature of greatest im portance in connection with this new system is that illuminating gas is not requited, for heating gas answers as wel , if not better. In ordiuary gas, it is well known that only about four per cent, of the volume contains the real, illumiuating materials, but to ob tain that the coal has to he wastefully distilled. If heating gas, as It is called, will produce so'brilliant a light, 15,000 feet can he obtained from every ton of ordiuary coal instead of only 10,000 feet. The gas, it is said, is completely burned—there is no waste in smoke— and the surface of the gauze being so much larger than is possible with the electric lamps, there is greater quantity and less intensity; in other words, the light is better distributed and is more penetrating, while less trying to the eye.