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Wesley’s Tact. The following anecdote of the founder of Methodism has, we believe, never been published. It reaches us from a trustworthy source, and it illus trates in a remarkable manner the mingled tact and piety of that eminent man. Although Wesley, like the Apostles, found that his preaching did not greatly affect the mighty or the noble, still he numbered some families of good position among his followers. It was at the house of one of these that the incident here recorded took place. Wesley had been preaching; and a daughter of a neighboring gentleman, a girl remarkable for her beauty, had been profoundly impressed by hi* ex- j hortations. After the sermon Wesley was invited to this gentleman’s house to luncheon, and with himself one of his preachers was entertained This preacher, like many of the class at that time, was a man of plain manners, and not conscious of the restraints of good society. Tne fair young Methodist sat beeids him at the table, and he noticed that she wore a number of rings. During a pause in the meal the preacher took hold of the young lady’s hand, an i raising it in the air, called Wesley’s attention to the spark ling jewels. “What do you think of this, sir,” be said, “for a Methodist’s Rare Thoughts. 8aturday Afternoon. Through flickering leaves the sunlight sift ing Falls warmly across the tidy floor. The distant voices of gleeful children Come falutly In at.the open door. The clock’s low rhythm d< fines the stillness; 1 he house Is resting from work well done The weary bouRewlfo, w'lh patient 11 gern, Knits ’mid the quiet so hardly won. She ponders the day’s completed labors, Finished betimes, ere tbe Sabbath rest; The dainties stored In the well-filled pantry, The mended garments, the welcomed gue^t. The toil-worn lingers move slow and slower. Her h<- id droops forward, her eyes full soou Close In a quiet and childlike slumber, And she dreams In the Saturday afternoon. She wanders with tireless feet of childhood Through meadows she knew so well of yore, And laughs as she fills her tiny apron With blossoms fragrant, iu boundless store. Forms long vanished step In at the doorway ; Sweet voices slug a forgotten tune; Angels ascend and descend before her, And she rests In the Saturday afternoon. The fading sun sinks under the hill-lops, 1 he shadows lengthen across the floor; The birds chirp softly their good-night carol, The children pause ht the dnrk'nlng door; The ti ed sleeper no more thsy waken, Pale In tne rays of the harvest moon ; She waits the dawn of an endl» ss Sabbath, Gone home in the Saturday afternoon. What is excellent, as God lives is permanent. Blessed are the home-sick, Tor they shall come at last to their Father’s house. hand?” Tne girl turned crimson. For Wes ley, with his known and expressed aversion to finery, the question was a peculiarly awkward one. But the aged evangelist showed a tact which Chesterfield might have envied. Hq looked up with a quiet, benevolent smile, and simply said, “The hand is very beautiful.” The blushing beauty had expected something far different from a reproof wrapped up with such felicity in a compliment. She had the good sense to say nothing; but when, a few hours later, she again appeared in Wesley’s presence, the beautiful hand was stripped of every ornament except those which nature had given. Statistical. The Suez Canal is one of the most valuable pieces of property in the world. The net profits last year were over 15,000,000. This was an increase of over 28 per cent, over the profits of the previous year. Each ship that passes through the canal pays a little over 20 cents a ton. It is stated that for every ten hogs heads of sugar extracted from the sugar cane,eleven hogsheads are lost because no adequate machinery has jet been devised for crushing the cane and ex tracting the rich j uice3 thereof. The assertion comes from the very highest authority on matters appertaining to the sugar oulture that our planters lose 200,000 hogsheads a year by this waste, an amount representing $20,- 000,000 per annum. The importation of potatoes from Great Britain and Ireland to the United States and Canada is increas ing. For the first quarter of 1882 the receipts at New York were 596,927 sacks, or 742,842 barrels. An average of 70 cents a bushel was obtained in New York. Deducting duty and freight a profit of nearly $1,000,000 was the rt suit. Potatoes are about $10 per ton in Europe. This profit is encour aging shippers, and the Canadians are expecting to see a decrease in the cost of native potatoes in consequence of these importations. St. Isaac’s, the great cathedral at St. Petersburg, which was finished in 1859 and cost $26,000,000, is slowly sinking Into the ground, and the authorities <lo not know how to stop it. The Rus sian capital is built upon a marsh, and the site of St. Isaac’s is on one of Its softest parts. Over $1,000,000 was originally spent in driving piles, but the building has never been firm, and now threatens to topple over at one cor ner, a recent examination showed that on one side the columns had separated from the architrave, leaving a space of three inches between. The roof was at once lightened by removing large stones, but new fissures appeared as the work went on, the workmen left In fear and the engineers gave up the job as a bad one. Since then nothing has been done except to hold consulta tions and rtject unpractical plans for saving the building. Experiments have shown that firing with a nine-inch twelve-ton gun at rmor plating three and four inches ick, representing a deck of a vessel lined between ten degrees «md flf- degrees, in no instance caused atlon, although full oharges Give what you have ; to some one it may be more than you dare to think. About Silvering. Some Plain Directions for Working With and Without a Battery. For silvering without a battery the object to be silvered, after b ing freed from adherent dust, dirt, etc., is im mersed for two or three minutes in a saturated solution of gall.c acid in dis tilled water. It is then dipped in a solution of 20 grains of crystalized ni trate of silver iu 1000 grains of distilled water. This operation is to be repeat ed two or three times, moving the ob ject alternately from one bath to tbe other until io has acquired a silvery appearance. It is now rinsed in dis tilled water and laid on clean bibulous paper to dry. In the meantime have prepared two solutions as follows: Reducing Solution.—Grape sugar or honey, 5 parts; quicklime (C*0), 2 parts; tartaric acid, 2 parts; distilled water, 650 parts. Mix, dissolve and filter. S lvering Solution.—Dissolve 20parts of crystalized silver nitrate in 650 parts of distilled water. Add strongest wa ter of ammonia, drop by drop, contin uously stirring the solution with a glass rod until the brown precipitate is nearly but not quite redissolved. Filter and put in a glass stoppered bottle. If more of the reducing solution be made up than is needed for immediate use it should be kept in a closely-stop pered vial, filled^ to the top, so as to prevent atmospheric action. Equal parts of these solutions are mixed together in a gutta-percha or japanned dish, and, after thorough stirring, filtered. The object to be sil vered is immersed in the mixture, care being taken that the fluid shall come in contact with every part. The deposition of silver commences in from twelve to fifteen minutes, and contin ues for two or three hours, until the fluid is exhausted or the object suffici ently plated. The rapidity of deposi tion depends on the temperature, in tensity of light, etc. After the object is plated it should be washed in a solu tion of carbonate of lime, rinsed in dis tilled water, and dried. All sorts of organic matter may thus be treated and hermetically inclosed in pure metal. I have thus coated leather, bone, wool, hair, horn, silk, flowers, leaves, insects and anatomical preparations. Glass, porcelain and earthenware may be coated without first using the preparatory bath. If the latter (earthenware) be porous it will be necessary to first coat it with water-glass or varnish, otherwise there is great waste of material. I have before me a sprig of arbor- vitre, on whioh a dragon fly is affixed, silvered by this method more than six years ago. The coating is without a visible break, though it has been some what roughly handled. Frooeuei With a Battery. The success with these processes de pends upon making the surfaces of the objects to be plated good conductors of electricity. The principles and modus operandi are nearly the same in all of them. The object to be plated is im- mersed in a solution of some easily re ducible metullio salt, and kept there until its surface absorbs more or less of it. It is then so treated chemically that the absorbed salts are reduced to a metallic state, and so intimately at tached to and connected with the sur face of the material to be plated that they will not peal off or separate under any ordinary circumstances. The subsequent treatment is the ordinary electrotypic or galvanoplastic one of plating with any desired metal. Ou account of their easy reduclbility the salts of silver are those easily chosen for the pieparatory manipulation. Cazeneuve’a Method. Dissolve 49 parts of crystalized silver nitrate in 1000 parts of wood spirit. Macerate the object in this solution until sufficient absorption has taken place. Thelenytnof time needed for this will vary according to the mate rial, the horny shields of beetles, for instance, requiring much longer time than the softer parts, or than a piece of leather. Removing the object from this bath, it is partially dried by drain ing off any surplus fluid attaching to it, and immersed iu the strongest water of ammonia, by which the easily reducible, double nitrate of silver and ammonia is formed. The object is now dried and suspended iu mercurial vapor. In a few moments the surface is completely metallized, and can be electroplated in the ordinary manner. This method gives excellent results, especially for hard, compact, organic substances. Ore’s Method. This process is that which has re cently been much used iu France for plating anatomical preparations, and when properly manipulated gives ex quisite results. Tne preparatory bath, like the foregoing, is Bilver nitrate dissolved in alcohol or wood spirit, six grammes of the salt to one liter of the fluid. In this the object is immersed for ten minutes, when it is taken out and carefully drained. It is then transferred to a close box, in which sulphuretted hydrogen is liberated, and left for fifteen to twenty minutes When it is removed the surface will be covered with a dark deposit of sil ver sulphide. The object should be exposed for a few minutes to the air be fore transferring to the galvanopiastic cell where the operation is completed. A human brain prepared by this pro cess over a year ago is still a beautiful object, and bids fair to remain so for an indefinite period. In using this method for the preser vation of brains and such material the object should be kept in alcohol for at least one month to give it the requisite hardness and consistency. Pledgets of cotton should be introduced into the fissures so that the circumvolutions are separated and the preserving fluid may penetrate every part. The pledgets must be removed before plating. Professor Christiani’s method seems to be a slight modification of Ore’s (substituting phosphuretted hydrogen for the sulphuretted in the reduction of the silver nitrate). To Keep Silver-Plated Artiolee Bright. Articles of silver and silver-plated ware rapidly tarnish when kept in rooms where gas is used for illuminat ing purposes, and everywhere in cities like Bt. Louis, Pittsburg, Cincinnati, eto., where the air is constantly filled with sulphurous vapors. M> cabinet of silver-plated specimens, instruments and water piteheis uped to give no end of trouble this way. This is all avoid ed now by dipping the arti ;les occa sionally in a solution of hyposulphite of soda. Large articles, like pitchers and salvers, should be wiped off with a rag dipped in the suluiion, and dried with a soft towel. A rub 'vith a bit of chamois leather makes them as bril liant as new. Believe This Tale if You Can Swallow a Whale. A gentleman from Hartwell sent on to the Great Western Gun Works and purchased a small parlor rifle, with 1000 cartridges of the smallest size, the bullet being about the size of a duck shot. He went over to Benson’s mill pond frog bunting, and found a very large frog of the masculine gender sit ting on a stump just above the water. He shot twenty-seven times at him, when his frogship lost his balance and ^dropped into the shallow water. Upon caking the frog out it was found he had swallowed twenty-six of the bul lets, catching them in his mouth, sup posing them to be flies. When he went to move the weight of the lead carried him overboard, and when taken out was not dead but awful sul len. Western gun works frogs very slowly in this section. You needn’t believe this tale if you can’t swaltow a whale. It is said that the barb-wire trade of the United States amounts to $10,000,- 000 per annum. Agricultural. Bose and Currant Worms. A lady offers, in the Rural New Yorker, a remedy for currant and rose worms : Take one pound of quassia ; put it into twelve to fifteen gallons of water over night, and next day sprin kle the infested plants with the solu tion. It s safest, however, to pin one’s faith to white hellebore, which is a sure and certain destruction. Setting Strawberry Plants. A correspondent of the Germantown Telegraph says that the main failure in raising strawberries is in setting poor plants. Old plants are good for nothing ; new plants from an old bed are not worth setting. We should set plants that are grown from those that have never fruited. Wnen a plant produces a crop of fruit that fruit ex hausts the energies of the plant to a certain extent, and its young plants will not have the constitution and vigor of those from plants that give all their energies to the young plants. Patting up Sweet Corn. Mrs. D. C. Joscelyn, Minneapolis. Kansas, recommends in The Fruit Rtcorder the following way to put up sweet corn for winter use as giving very much better results than canning or drying: “Take the corn when just in the milk ; scald it just enough to set the milk ; cut it off and pack it in a stone jar with a layer of com and a layer of salt; one pint of salt to a gal lon of corn in layers alternately ; fill the jirand weight it down, and cover to keep out dirt, flies, etc., and when one wants to use it, freshen it and season to taste. I like butter and cream.” Fall Seeding with Graia. A New England farmer writes: “Many old fields are of late years being rescued by turning over after haying, harrowing down and having some fertilizer, either barn-yard, compost or chemical, applied to their surface and worked in, and a liberal seeding of grass seed.” Another New England farmer writes: “Many fields are re seeded by merely harrowing the stub ble immediately after the hay has been taken off, doing the work very thoroughly with a sharp-toothed har row and then sowing the seed for grass, harrowing lightly over the seed to cover it and following with a roller to make all smooth. A top dressing of manure will be a wonderful help.” Value of Tile. N. Y. Tribune : There is a savings bank for the surplus dollars of farmers that will give a better interest than 8 per cent. It is investment in drain tile. Tne Western people are finding it out, and the yield of wheat in the Ohio Valley is increasing in conse quence. Agriculturists who have tried it say that they can plant their corn earlier; it is not so liable to rot in the hill; drouth does much less injury; the crop is so far advanced before chinch bugs and other Insects appear that it resists their destructive ravages. The yield Is twenty, forty, sometimes sixty per cent, greater. Secretary W. J. Chamberlain, of the Ohio Board, says he has seen land improved by drainage to such an extent that the fitst subsequent crop was so much greater than the average that the sur plus more than paid the whole cost of tile and putting it down. To Care a Kicking Cow. A correspondent of the Rural New Yorker having a kicking cow on which moral suasion had been vainly tried, cured her of the bad habit by judicious use of the miid weapon which Solomon held in much esteem : “I tied the cow up by the head (not legs), piocured a good switch (not club), and proceeded to milk, and for every kick I returned one good smart blow with the switch on the offending leg. A few kicks and blows sufficed for that time. At the next milking only three or four blows were required, and at the third milking one kick and one blow were sufficient, and ever after the cow was as gentle as need be. Three .important points are to be observed in the above treatment: First, uniform kindness and gentleness; second, never stiike a cow for kicking when loose in the yard, or she will learn to run from you; third, only one blow for each kick.” Staoking Clover. Rural World A correspondent in Kentucky wi ites : “In stacking clover the bottom of the stack should be oovered with old hay or straw, about a foot deep, to keep the clover from gathering dampness from the ground. The top should be of old hay also, as clover does not turn rain, and the stack will be very much damaged if not well protected on the top. A stack should be egg shaped, whether bottom is of large or small size. The bulge in the stack should be about six ft et from the bottom and tapered regularly to tbe top, and be about sixteeu feet high. If thus made, the lower part and bulk of the stack is protected by the bulge or wide part. After finishing rake down well; a stack, if properly put up, will keep good for two or three years. But it is best to have a barn to secure all crops. A cone-shaped stack ia ex posed from pit to dome to destruction, and often is nearly or quite ruined if long left to the elements;” The Children’* Garden. New York r lribune ••—Probabl y most readers with boys aud girls of thirteen or fourteen or less have allowed them each a little plot of ground to be farmed or gardened after their own choice. They should be encouraged with advice, but with no insisting upon their taking it. They will make mis takes, as older people do, in untried paths, hut they gain even tn f,hese if they see how to do better i . xt time and have cheer enough to t,y again. The first needful lesson is that of wait ing for the results of labor. Patience must be practiced by all who would raise plants to sell their produce, or would keep bees or poultry. Often hard work must be done a full year before its return comes in, and unless that is faithfully, fully and rightfully performed there will be little or noth ing to show for it. Burning th« Cobs. Cor. Country Gentleman: It is our custom to rake the cobs into neat win- rows about a foot high, and after the wind has swept through them an hour or so set fire to them. When charred, we rake them down and sprinkle water on the mass, stir them again, and sprinkle again to be sure they do not go on burning and go to ashes. If now a seasoning of salt be thrown over the pile there will be a Jot of feed for the pigs and hops that they will enjoy hugely. France on the Congo, The French Geographical Society is going to fete in a few days M. Sav er gnan de Brazza, who has rendered France the immense service of making Congo virtually a’ French river. Everybody has known the importance of the Congo since Stanley made his famous voyage. It is more than a river in breadth; it is a vast flowing lake, traversing the whole African Continent, and but for one accident would be the finest waterway in nature. Just before it reaches the sea it breaks into dangerous cataraots, which render all direct approach from the coast impossible. The Belgian Association, which fitted out Stanley’s expedition, was formed especially to find a way of turning this di^oulty. The river begins to be navigable only at Stanley Pool. How to reach Stan ley Pool? Stanley could think of no better way than to cut a road from the seaside by the cataract to the poo], and $1,600,000 was subscribed for the pur pose. Stanley set valiantly to work and cut his road, transported his steamer and at length came in sight of the pool, only to find some fifty vessels flying the French flag in quiet posses sion. The truth is, M. Savergnan de Brazza has found a shorter way to the pool. To tt& north of the mouth of the Congo lies the French possession of Gaboon, and in this direction M. Savergnan de Brazza began looking after affluents of the great river which might lead him all the way to the pool by water. He went up the river Ogo- vue, and found that this was separated only by eighty kilometres from an other entirely unknown river, the Alima, which flows right into the pool. The S'an ley roadway from the coast was 240 kilometres long; the roadway between Ogovue and the Alima was but 80. M. Savergnan de Brazza kept his own counsel, came back to France, obtained a vote in aid from Parliament, went out again, and made suoh good use of his time that long before Stanley arrived he had seized the pool In the name of France, ooncluded treaties with the natives and bought large possessions on the banks of the river. By this enterprise France taps the Congo route and se cures the outlet and inlet of what may one day become one of the richest trades in the world. It is part of a plan which she has been steadily fol lowing in war, in travel or in diplo macy for nearly half a century. Africa | is clearly her promised land of oolonl- ' zation and of empire.