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Some Fashionable Beauties.
The “professional beauty” is no
new future of the London season ;
and though photography has no doubt
done lunch to give publicity to the
charms of the loveliest women in the
ranks of fashion, yet in the days of
our great-grandfathers and great
grandmothers the reigning belles ex
cited just as much vulgar curiosity
and gossip as they do now. Take, for
example, the Gunnings, Maria and
Elizabeth, who appeared at the Court
of Geoige II., one at the age of eighteen
and the other of nineteen, and both
without a shilling to their dowry.
“They are declared,” writes Walpole,
“to be the handsomest women alive ;
they can’t walk in the Park or go to
Vauxball but such crowds follow them
that they are generally driven away.”
One day they went to see the Hamp
ton Court; as they were going Into
the Beauty Boom another party ar
rived; the housekeeper, in a state of
great excitement, said to the new
comers, “This way, ledies, here are
famous beauties!” The Misses Gun
ning thereupon flew into a passion,
and asked her what she meant; they
went to see the palace, and not to be
shown as a sight themselves.
The youngest of two sisters became
the wife of James, Duke of Hamilton ;
he fell in love with her at a masquer
ade, and a lortnight later met her at
an assembly in Lord Chesterfield’s
gorgeous new house in Mayfair. His
Grace was so enamored of the lovely
Elizabeth that he left the faro-table,
where he had staked a thousand guin
eas, and “let the game Slide; whilst
he paid devoted court to his enchant
ress. Two nights later, at half an
hour past midnight, they were
married by Dr. Keith with the ring ot
a bedcurtain in Mayfair Chapel, one
of the most hasty and eccentric mar
riages on record. In less than three
weeks Maria Gunning followed her
sister’s example, and was wedded to
Lord Coventry, though not with such
indecent haste aB in the other case.
The two beauties were even greater
objects of popular curiosity after mar
riage than before. When the Duchess
of Hamilton was presented, the ciowd
at the drawing-room was so great that
even “noble persons” clambered upon
chairs and tables to look at her;
whilst mobs gathered round the doors
of the two “goddesses” to see them get
into their sedan-chairs; and such
crowds flocked to see the Duchess
when she went to her castle that 700
persons sat up all night in a Yorkshire
town in order to see her start in her
post-chaise the next morning!
Lady Coventry was equally run
after; at Worcester a shoemaker made
two guineas and a half by showing, at
a penny a head, the shoe which he
was making for the Countess. She
had, however, little but her beauty to
recommend her: it was she who made
the singularly maladroit remark to
his Majesty tnat the one sight she
longed to see was a coronation. Her
husband, who was a sensible man in
many respects, though somewhat of a
bear in manners, objected strongly to
her ladyship’s excessive use of red and
white powders and paints ; and once
at a large dinner-party, suspecting
that she had been “making herself
up,” he chased his wife round the
table till he caught her, when, before
all the company, he scrubbed her fuce
with a napkin. When Lady Coventry
visited Paris she expected that her
beauty would meet with the applause
which followed her and her sister
through England ; but she was put to
.nght by another English lady, still
more lovely in the eyes of the Paris
ians. A certain Mrs. Pitt took a box
at the opera opposite the Countess,
and was so much handsomer than her
ladyship that the parterre cried out
that this was the real English angel;
whereupon Lady Coventry quitted
Paris in a huff. Not long afterward
she died of consumption, accelerated,
it is said, by the red and white paint
with which she plastered those luck
less oharms of hers.
Relics of Napoleon.
A French collector of bric-a-brac
recently in the Bouen curiosity shop
stumbled upon two autographs of the
first Napoleon. They are enolosed in
an oval medallion of black wood and
read as follows: “Belie—-Private letter
from Napoleon to Prince Eugene.
Brought from St. Helena by Dr.
O’Meara in the sole of his shoe. Should
he see my good Louise, I beg that she
will permit him to kiss her hand. The
26th July, 1818. Napoleon.” And on
the other side. “1 'hope that ^Lascases
will see that this obligation is repaid
In some way or anuthei^fi^i January,
1818. Napoleon.”
Domestic Tastes of German
Birds.
It has long become a recognized fact
that the small birds, once supposed to
be the brigands of the field and the
orchard, are really their very best
guardians and protectors. The most
destructive campaign against the crops
of the agriculturist is not carried on by
the hundred and odd birds whom he
chances to see, but Dy tne millions of
grubs whom he does not see, but who
never escape the detection of the little
winged police. This fact has become
a matter of such general acceptance in
the fruit dislrictsofSouthern Germany
that the cultivator now does his ut
most to attract and encourage the very
birds which his father and grand-
father sought to frighten and destroy.
In many orchards, artificial nests are
now erected, which stand like “houses
to let,” rent free until the end of the
season, in the hope that they may be
adopted and inhabited by some winged
couple in search of a home where they
can educate their young, and find
plenty of good food for themselves
and their nestlings. The practice has
become so extensive that the Hildes-
heim Society for the Protection of
Animals, which has been a pioneer in
the protest against the cruel and mis
chievous slaughter of these voluntary
helpers of the cultivator, has issued a
very interesting publication upon the
architecture and location of artificial
nests. The farmer is first of all re
minded that different birds require
different sorts of houses. The presence
of starlings is found to be of inestima
ble use in the orchards. The chief de
mand of this little householder is to
Lave a door opened toward the east or
southeast. The starling seems to be a
sun-worshipper; in any case he de
lights to thrusts his head out of the
flug-loch-his door of flight—and sing
his morning hymn to the rising sun.
If the awkward human architect has
built a nest with a flug-loch opening
toward the west, he will either find
that the house remains “unlet,” or
that the tenant will hastily vacate it
upon the first heavy rain as the rain
drives into the interior with the west
winds, and drenches the inmates. A
starling, also, is easily satisfied; he
will not object to inhabit one among a
terrace of nests. He goes long dis
tances in search of his food, and rarely
comes into conflict with rival hunters.
Consequently, whole rows of artificial
ne‘ts for starlings may be built, with
a probability of their being inhabited.
The proper site for a terrace of starling’s
nests is at about twenty to thirty feet
from the ground, on a house wall or a
large tree.
With nearly all other species of
small birds, on the contrary, a de
tached villa is greatly in demand. As
a rale, they object to neighbors. This
is particularly the case with those who
seek their food close to their own
home. They look upon every neigh
bor as a potential poacher. If the
architect is drawing up a plan for a
tom-tit’s house—the tom-tit being a
very desirable tenant for the lord of
the orchard—he must pay special atten
tion to the size of the flug-loch, or front
door. Unless the door is made exceed
ingly small, that winged burglar, the
sparrow, the most unprincipled of all
the small birds, iB sure to force h1s
way into the tom-tit’s house. A neat
for a tom-tit should never be built in
an open situation, nor on trees which
are late in their leafage, such as the
acacia. The Hildesheim Society
recommends the fig-tree as the locality
most likely to attract the t- hy little
bird. The nests should not be placed
higher than fifteen feet from the
ground. The red-starts, fly-catchers
and water-wagtails demand very
open houses, and scarcely anything
like a door. They prefer light and
open places, and nests intended to at
tract them should be built upon the
house walls. The Hildesheln^Sooiety
reminds all builders that the principal
enemy against whom they have to be
on the watch is tbe cat; hence it is ab-
vised to cease the construction of nests
upon palings, which is now so widely
adopted. ^
A Cow Sold for $2500.
Bertha Morgan, of Wawa Farn, Bought
by a Canadian.
Wawa Farm, at Junction Station,
fifteen miles west of Philadelphia on
the West Chester and Philadelphia
railroad, recently received special dis
tinction from one of the best judges of
fine-bred oattle in all Canada. Mr.
Edward Worth, the proprietor of
Wawa, is a Philadelphian and an ad
mirer of Jersey cattle. He has col
lected quite a choice herd, headed by
a grandly-bred bull, son of liegina 2d,
one of tbe beet oows ever bred upon
the Isle of Jersey. Another one of
the animals was Bertha Morgan,
whose get promises to be in consider
able demand. The latter cow Mr.
Worth highly prized. Tempting offers
have frequently- been made for her,
but they were as often refused. Mr.
V. E. Fuller, the President of the Cat
tle Club of Canada, however, saw in
Bertha Morgan qualities rarely pos
sessed by nny Jersey. Negotiations
were at once made for her purchase,
and finally the cow was sold to him
for $2501). The family antecedents of
Bertha Morgan are rather remarkable.
Her dam has a record of 18 pounds of
butter in seven days; her sister,
Molly Brown, 16 pounds; her daugh
ter, Lydia Darrach, 16 pounds, while
Bertha in a full test made 19 pounds 6
ounces butter in seven days and gave
44 pounds of milk a day. The whole
family are alike in soft, thin skins,
silky hair, deep carcass and well-
formed udders, and are undoubtedly
deep, rich milkers.
. Bertha Morgan is about 9 years old,
of solid color. Her sire was Lopez, a
bull imported by Lopez Barnes, of
Connecticut, and her dam was Patter
son’s Beauty, owned by Mr. John Pat
terson, of this city, and proprietor of
the Glen Cavin farm, in Wallace
township, Chester county. The dam
is an unusually fine cow. # Benuty was
sired by imp. Bijou (65, R. J. H. B.),
dam imp. Ariene. Tne latter was im
ported by Colonel Patterson, of Balti
more, about fifteen years ago, and
with Beauty, who was imported in
dam, was sold to Mr. John Patterson
for $1000.
The Christian Heroism of De
L.o„.g and his Men.
loo often happens that discipline
a a lahes among shipwrecked men,
and that the selfish desire for life leads
to inhumanity, if not to actual crime.
There is no such stain in the story of
the crew of the Jeannette. Lieutenant
De Long seems to have maintained
his authority unquestioned to the last,
and his men evidently shared his
generous spirit. For days they
dragged a sick comrade with them
lashed to a sled, and never seemed to
have thought of abandoning him in
order to increase their own chances of
reaching a settlement. The officers
and men never manifested the slight
est hesitation between duty and self
ishness. They clung together and
helped one another loyally while liv
ing, and so long as the survivors had
strength their dead comrades were
given Christian burial. There was
apparently no difference in the bear
ing and devotion of De long the Amer
ican, Erick the Dane, or Ah Sam the
Chinaman. Every man of the little
band was a hero, knowing how to do
his duty and doing it with unflinch
ing faithfulness.
in their distress the shipwrecked
men turned lor help to God. In De
Long’s diary there is constant men
tion of religious services. When the
faithful Alexy was dying the surgeon
baptized him, and when all hope had
gone we are told that “ all united in
saying the Lord’s Prayer and Creed.”
The humble, cheerfnl trust in God
and submission to His will, of which
De Long’s diary gives constant evi#
dence, shows us that it was a band of
Christian heroes that perished in the
Siberian snow.
Bitterly as we may at first sight re
gret that so mauy noble lives have
been lost, the men of the Jeannette’s
crew did not die in vain. Their fate
suggests that beautiful passage in the
Prayer Book where we thank God for
those who have departed this life in
His fear. De Long and his men have
made us prouder of our humanity.
They have shown us to what sublime
heights ot heroism educated officers
and ignorant seamen can alike attain.
They have given an example of calm
and cheerful performance of duty
which is without price. They have
shown us once more that faith in God
can survive all suffering. Let us
thank God for the life and death of
these heroic men. It is impossible
that their heroism can fail to bear its
priceless and perennial fruit.
A novel plan for setting celery and
cabbage plants, which has several de
sirable points to recommend it, is to
place them between the rows of your
potatoes or sweet corn after the last
hoeing. The growing corn or potatoes
will afford a partial shade, which is
very desirable at the time of setting
the young plants and until they get
fully established, and yet ripen, and
can be removed in time for the«i to
oooupy the ground as a second crop.
Two crops on one piece of ground
with $10 worth of labor and manure
will afford more profit than one crop
on whloh $5 is expended.
How Arthur Sullivan Bought a
Car ^t.
He bought a carpet in Alexandria,
and the purchase took him three
months. One morning, so runs Dr.
Sullivan’s narrative, he was passing
by one of the bazaars where tapestries
and such things are sold, when a par
ticularly handsome and rich fabric
caught his eye. He went in, and, after
pretending to look over a lot of things
which in reality he did not want, he
said to the man who solemnly presided
over the place. “And what is the price
of that carnet?”
“That,” responded the dealer, “is
not lor sale. I purchased that particu
lar carpet at a great cost, to feast my
own eyes upon. It is magnificent—
superb. I could not part with that.
No, by Allah!” or words to that effect.
“Will the English gentleman have a
cup of coffee ?” The English gentleman
would. He would also have a cigarette.
After tnat, he went away. In a day
or two he came around again, and
once more made the pretence of look
ing through Macdallah’s stock. He
had obviously failed to fool the sly
Egyptian before as to the article he
really wanted, so he took more time
to it upon this occasion. As he expec
ted, the sedate owner of the bazaar
finally approached him. “I have con
cluded, after several sleepless nights,”
said the merchant, “to part with that
carpet. It grieves me very much to do
so, for I have become very fond of it.
I had hoped that it would be the light
of my eyes in my old age. But the
Prophet has counselled unselfishness
among his people, and I will sell to
the English gentleman:”
“How much ?” y ,
“One hundred pounds.”
“Nonsense. I’ll give you £5.”
The Egyptian’s dignity was ob
viously wounded. An expression of
absolute pain crossed his face. But he
forgave Dr. Sullivan, and they had
another cup of coffee and cigarette to
gether. Then Dr. Sullivan went away,
as before. In a week or so he dropped
around again. After going through
the regular business of looking ove r
the stock, he was again approached by
Macdallah.
“I have concluded, after much
thought,” said that worthy, “that I
asked you too much for the carpet the
other day. When Macdallah feels he
is in the wrong, be is quick to ac
knowledge it. The English gentleman
can have the beautitul carpet for £90.”
“Now you acknowledge your error,”
replied Mr. Sullivan, “I will confess
that I was wrong in offering you only
£5 for your carpet the other day. I
did that in joke, of course. I didn’t
mean it. Bless you, no. And siuce
you are prepared to make confession, I
will do the same. Instead of £5, I
will give you £6.”
More coffee and another cigarette.
The next time Dr. Sullivan went
around, the merchant took off £5 more,
and the purchaser added £1. 80 it
went on, with haggliug and coffee,
until Dr. Sullivan had finally agreed
to give £12, at which price he took
away the carpet. It would have cost
about $250 in London. He says that
the kind of business mentioned is
considered the strictly proper thing in
Egypt and Turkey. But Americans,
he adds, are spoiling the trade in this
direction. While he was in Alexan
dria a gentleman named Morgan, from
New York, came along and visited the
bazaar of Mccdallah. Three carpets
struck his fancy and he priced them.
“Three hundred pounds,” said Mac
dallah. “Well,” replied Mr. Morgan,
“that seems a fair price, and I’ll take
them. Here’s your money.” The
next time Dr. Sullivan saw the mer
chant he was almost tearing his hair
with rage against the “dog of a Chris
tian.” He explained the matter in an
injured tone to the sympathizing
Englishman, adding that Mr. Mor
gan’s method was not “business.”
The‘‘Easy Chair’s” First Book.
On reaching his legal majority he
decided to go abroad, regarding travel
as one of the best means of culture,
and within six months he sailed for
Europe. He passed a year in Italy
most profitably, and then visited Ger
many, entering the University of
Berlin, and witnessing while there
the revolutionary scenes of 1848. The
two years following he wandered over
Southern Europe and through Egypt
and Syria, taking many and careful
notes of all places visited and all peo
ple seen.
Having returned home he prepared
a volume, “Nile Notes of aHowadji”
—howadji meaaning traveller in Ara
bic—and published it when he was but
twenty-five years old.
The book was issued by the Harpers,
to one of whom the author showed his
manuscripts with eager confidence,
only to receive the chilling reply*
“We’ll look at this, although we’ve
already published sevtral books on the
same subject.”
This touched the sensibility of the
author, who colored as he said: “I do
not wish to force my work upon you.
I think I’ll take it elsewhere.”
“You would better leave it for our
reader. The fact that we’ve published
books on the same subject would not
prevent us from publishing another, if
it’s good. You must not be so sensi
tive, young man ; and- you won’t be,
I’m sure, when you’ve lived a little
longer. This is your first book, I
daresay. Isn’t it? Yes? I thought
so. First books, like first babies, are
always great events. We haven’t
learned, then, how many books and
babies, all equally wonderful at some
time to somebody, there have been in
the world before ours. I’ve no doubt
your book is fresh and interesting,,
and if it is we’ll get it out for you in
good shape.”
The words naturally smoothed the
ruffled plumage of the aspiring scribe,
and he went away in high spirits. He
must have smiled very often since at
his remark about not wishing to force
his work on the Harpers. He obvi
ously did not know the firm then.
That professional call was his intro
duction to the house with which he
was afterward to be so long and so in
timately associated.
Fashion Briefs.
Ficelle lace in wide fan-pleatings
with smaller fans above of ivory-
white pleated lace are worn as throat
bows.
Venetian lace three inches wide
forms a flat border for neckerchiefs of
light silk. The scalloped edges are
turned upward.
Large fichus of mull are embroider
ed in Irish point designs, having one
edge much wider wrought than the
other.
New full-dress gloves are undressed
kid, embroidered with chenille and
decorated with minute butterflies in
gold or silver thread.
Dotted and plain mull are very pop.
ular this season; so also the striped
mull in white. Tinted mulls are not
so fashionable as white. .
Daffodils, dandelions, yellow tulips
and buttercups are the fashionable'
flower of the hair. White lilies are
the choice for house decoration.
A few sateen dresses have appeared
with painted flowers and some .with
cretonne, and stamped velveteen
flowers cut out and applied skillfully
with silks.
Velvet grenadines, showing great
roBes or peonies of black velvet on
sheer armure grenadine, are made up
over geranium red satin, with flounces
of real Spanish lace.
Irish point embroidery in ecru or
whiter tints is much used for turned-
over collars, with a neck ribbon and
bow of colored moire. The cuffs to
match have smaller bows. %
Sateen and fine French cambrics
are more in demand than summer
goods of any other description. Ging
hams are reduced in price and very
attractive in colors and patterns.
A new grenadine gauze woolen
fabric reproduces all the popular de
signs in Spanish lace. It is used for
overdresses. It is only half the price
of the real Spanish piece lace.
A flat scarf of Venetian lace is
formed into a graceful fichu by being
placed straight across the back, gath-
ered at the throat by a moire bow,
and having the ends flat and hanging
in the front.
. ♦ # ♦ . 1 .1.
Ducks and Potatoes.
We find from the Newfleld (New
Jersey) Item, the following valuable
iuformation, that while it may not
bear upon the interests of this year’s
production, will be found good refer
ence for the future crops : “Mr. Leon
ard H. Down of our vicinity had a
patch of potatoes,that, to make a rough
guess, covered the fifth of an acre.
He turned four duoks into the field
and he had no occasion to use Paris
green, as the qulfck of the ducks
struck more terror to the bugs than
did the appearance of the honest hus
bandman with his sprinkler of Paris
green. Chickens may eat the larvae
but the duck takes them all in, little
and big. Hence we argue that ducks
and a good crop of potatoes are synon
ymous, and we are convinced, in this
instance at least, that there is some
good in “quacks” after all.”
Newly imported French woven un
derwear of all kinds, white or in pale
tinted colors, fit the form perfectly,
and are without seams or one unnec
essary fold or even.wrinkle.