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Food for the Soul. To deny one’s selt is commonly un derstood to mean that, one refuses one’s self something; but what Jesus says is, let a man e’isown himself, re nounce himself, die as regards his old self, and so love. And never was the joy which in self renouncement under lies the pain so brought out as when Jesus boldly called the suppression of our first impulses and current thoughts life, real life, eternal life. Always One Vacant Chair. There Is no flock, however watched and tended, But one dead lamb la there; There la no tlreaide howaoe’er defended, But has one vacant chnlr. The air is full of farewells to the dyiug, And mournings for the dead ; The heart of R ichel, f >r her chi Idren crying, Will not be comforted. Let us be patient, these severe afflictions Not from the ground arise, Butoftentl i.es celestial benedictions Assume this dark disguise. We see but dimly through the mists and va pors, Amid these earthly damps; What seem to us but sad lunereal tapers, May be heaven’s distant lamps. There Is no death! What seems so is transi tion; This life of mortal brea'h Is but a suburb of the life Elyslan Whose portal we call death. "Where Christ brings His cross, He brings His presence ; and where He is, none are desolate, and there 's no room for despair. As knows His own, so He knows how to comfort them using sometimes the very grief itself, and straining it to a sweetness of peace unattainable by those ignorant • of sorrow. steamboat and was suffering with that", disease, when Captain Harris informed him that he was cured by some sort of a freezing process, and advised him to try it. Wnen the boat reached Louis ville, he called ou two or three dentists and three of the most distinguished surgeons of the city, and they told him they knew of no such remedj for ueuralgia, and advised him not to have aaything of the kind done. On hearing this story we looked over our old volumes of medical journals and found not a single allusion to local amesthesia as a remedy for neuralgia. Now we must confess that all this sounds very much like the story of the superannuated clergyman who acci dentally, while in the West Indies, discovered a cure for consumption, etc., only we don’t want any one to send a stamp for particulars. Any physician can purcuase a hand- ball atomizsr for $1 50, and try it for them selves. They may use either rhigolene or ether, and it will only be necessary to let the spray play upon the part until the skin turns white. We promised to offer no theory for its action, but we will venture this opin ion : That the intense cold, by its re revulsive efiect, causes a complete change in the nutrition of the nerve; what this change is we will not at present venture to assert, only hoping that others who have better opportuni ties will give the matter a trial and fully test its merits. South Sea Island Crabs. Sanitary. A CUBE FOB NEURALGIA. A Teanesaes Physician's Experience with Ether Spray. In the spring of 1869 wo had the most severe attack of facial neuralgia which it has been our lot to witness in more than eighteen years of practice; for two weeks we had to confine our selves to a darkened chamber, and the lightest foot-fall on the floor caused us the most excruciating agony. All the remedies, local, general, regular and irregular, were tried without any abate ment of the trouble. One side of our face was terribly swollen, so much so that it was impossible to extract a decayed molor, to which we charged all our suffering, and it seemed as if we were destined to sbuffls off this mortal coil by exhaustion from pain and want of sleep. We finally con cluded to incise the swollen jaw, thinking there was an abze^s about the root of the decayed tooth, and as the parts were so extremely sensitive, and, moreover, having a vague dread of chloroform, we thought we would try local anaesthesia by evaporating ether on the surface until the part was frozen. Our attendant complied with our instruction, and the spray was turned on. The first sensation was one of ^pitting pain, gradually subsid ing until when congelation took place we felt perfectly easy, and ordered the cutting operation deferred. Then for fifteen hours we slept the sleep of the righteous, and when we awoke found the rubor, et tumor, colore, cum do- lore entirely vanished, and we arose and went about our business, and t« this good day, although we carry a perfect cabinet of curious teeth in our mouth, have never had a neuralgic twinge or touch of that “hell o’ a disease,” a toothache. Well, to be honest about it, we did nofat the time give the freezing process any credit for the cure, we thought the attack had about spent its force and was going to act well anyway, and we paid but little attention to the matter for a year or more, when a relative, Captain Harris, was visiting us, and took a spell of neuralgia, of which we had for over a year been periodically afflicted with, rarely passing a month without an attack. To give him present ease, we did not think of any permanent benefit, we tried the spray all along the track of the affected nerve until it turned the skin white. The relief was immediate, and, he has since in formed me, permanent. Since then we have Used it in fifteen or twenty cases with uniform success, never having to make more than two applications, and it came to be a stock remedy, and we thought that in ail probability it was so with most physi cians, for we remember that when Richardson first introduced it (like all new things in medicine, it was vaunted for everything), and would probably have still thought so if a gentleman hadn’t called on us some time ago to know if we hadn’t a new treatment for neuralgia, and stated a couple of years ago he was on a On many of the South Sea Islands there also exists a species of crab or lobster of most uncanny aspect, but de- 1 clous eating, and being both scarce and difficult to procure is proportion ally estteined by the whites as well as by the natives. I refer to the Burgua latro, or robbsr crab, as he is called by the naturalists. He lives in a burrow of his own making, at the foot of a tree or among rocks, and daintily lines his dwelling with an immense quantity of line cocoanut fibre, which he prepares himself from the husk. So well is this latter habit of his known that any native in want of fibre for canoe calk ing, or what not, at once repairs to a crab burrow to procure it, and rarely fails in his object so long as he is able to get to the bottom of the burrow— which is not always the case, however, as the animal ‘ is generally astute euough to choose ground well intersec ted with large roots and rocks. It is a very singular animal to look at, and more resembles the hermit crab out of his shell than any other species, hav ing, like the hermit, an exceedingly tender and vulnerable abdomen, gath ered up like a bag underneath him, and of which he is uncommonly care ful. He is armed with a formidable pair of pincers, of immense size and strength, by the aid of which he can carry off a cocoanut, husk it, and then break up the shell with the greatest ease. To any one who has noticed the great weight andsiza, and the extreme toughness and compactness of the cocoanut husk, it must be a matter of amazement that a creature so appa rently insignificant as this crab should be thus able to tear open these husks with ease, and still more to crack the nut afterward. He manages the latter operation by commencing at the soft hole—the one out of which the young tree finally issues, and out of which we are accustomed to drink the juice—into this he manages to insert the point of his pincers, and working on this, is euabled to break the n t to pieces. In flavor they are as would be expected from the nature of their food, very much richer and more delicate than our lobster, which has to content him self with more homely fare; and those 1 was able to procure were either split open aud fried in their own fat, or else baked in a native oven, which latter expedient generally answered best, once heard of a native who, haviDg found a very large burrow, incautiously put in bis hand topullouttbeoccupant, when the wary crab caught him by the wrist in his terrible pincers, and in spite of his frantic efforts to get free held him there for a whole day, until at last his friends, attracted by his ci ies, came to his rescue and effected his liberation by digging down on to the crab, and attacking his Ubdomen with a pointed stick, when he at once let go his hold of his captive, who never afterward fully recovered the use of his hand. A Vile Conspiracy. Jehiel Jasper strolled into the gro cery store aud post office of one of our back country villages Saturday, and after standing around with his back at the fire until he was permeated with caloric, said : “Well, I guess I’ll read the news and get along towards home. Squire Perkinses paper come yet?” and he stepped behind the post-office boxes, as was his custom, to take it out aud read it. “Can’t let you see it, Jehiel,” said the postmaster; government has issued orders that any postmaster who allows a non subscriber to read subscribers’ papers will lose his position.” “No! You don’t tell me? Well, if that ain’t a good idea? It’s a put up job ; a gol darned conspiracy between these ere newspapers and the gov’ment to keep the multitude in ignorance, so 'hat they can domineer it over the community. And they talk about this ’ere bein’ a free country. It’s drifting right into despotism jest as fast as it c*n. How in thunder’s a man to know what’s goin’ on if he don’ read ; an’ now the gov’inent’s settin’ down on all ideas of eddication, an’ takiu’ away that privilege.” “Oh, not so bad as that, Jehiel,” said (he postmaster. “Thegovernment doesn’t eay anything against your subscribing for the paper yourself, you know.” “Sub cri bin’for it! What d’ye take me for? D'ye suppose that I’m goin’ to subsoil be or a paper I’ve read four teen yeaie ight here by the stove without costin me a cent? No, sir; Iaiu’ta-goin tr help ’em to oppress me by keepin me in ignorance. No, siree.” And having go a supply of cheap plug tobacco “put cn the slate,” he jogged home—a boroughly oppressed citizen, will satisfactorily and economically compete with nature in supplying a commodity that has now become a necessity. The science of aeronautics, 1o which the veteran Wise gave bis life, aud others nearly as well known have devoted so much time and skill, have not yet been developed from flo tation to guidance, still less to propul sion. A spark of fire has terrors greater far than the avalanche or the glacier. For these and hundreds of other evils, inventive genius must, Drovide the remedy, and as new and artificial wants arise and develop into necessi ties, upon the inventor, ever in the vanguard, devolves the duty of ex ploring the land of the possible and providing for the regions of the actual. It might be said that as science af ter science falls into the ranks of knowledge, and art after art is added to the forces of man, the field of true invention would narrow, and that of improvement, combination aud ap plication correspondingly widen. And this distinction may not perhaps be improper to draw or inappropriate to apply. Certain it is that as obser vation and experience lay down the facts, aud reason d iduces therefrom the.theories, and evolves from those again the laws which govern things tangible aud forces intanerible, the plane of the inventor will rise higher. It is to him that races unborn, na tions unformed and countries unex plored look for their betterment and the achievement of their substantial welfare. Through him the antago nism between man and man—the foul distinctions of caste and class—will be swept away, and better men of better lives, and higher pleasures and comforts, achieve the destiny written for them in the days when the rocky ribs of the earth were formed. The Illustrated Railway World, re ferring to the production of steel rails in the Uuited States, sa\s that in 1874 we produced 88 260 tons of steel rails and Imported 5(),7ol tons. In 1880 we produced 907,91.0 tons and imported 275,090 tons. Since the first steel rails were produced here in 1878 we have used 4,0 >0,090 tons of them, at a cost of $184,000,000. Tastes and Smtlls in Water. Plenty of Room for Inventors. Our wants have become artificial. With successive generations, what once was luxuries develop into cus tomary grants and eventually become necessities. Our condition is amelio rated, and hence our appreciation sharpened, while certain faculties have become dulled, and invention must supply their places or their deficien cies. When invention has produced an effect, it is for invention to ex tend and perfect It. Thus in every walk in life, it is for cunning brain and deft fingers to effect combinations or perfect the old, fearless of thwart or limit. In proof that with improvements criticism becomes more keen and de mand more imperative, we have only to took about us for promising fields to engage the inventor. While the harvest of golden grain no longer falls before the classic sickle, and the haymaker has ceased to be a picture! q te inspiration for the poet, the root crops still demand la borious delving and grubbing, aud the ripened fruits still call for human pickers to pluck them one by one. For the inventor who would devise a mode of removing half the blossoms from a peach tree without iujuring the buds whic a form the next year’s bearing stems there awaits a magnifi cent prize. Ramie and other fibers still defy the textile art, and the gor geous aniline dyes fade with a Bum mer’s sun. Household fires, once synonyms of health and cheerluiness, are now the gloomy aud noxious evidences of our heedlessness of things sanitary. Ttio-e domestic conveniences which should minister to our comfort and well-being poison us insidiously but not tbe less surely. Our vaunted gaslights blacken our paint, kill our window plants and destroy cur shade trees. Our sewers and drains are confounded in name and function, and both of them are poisonous. Our chimneys breathe forth smote, which is uuconsumed fuel, and hence wasteful. Our steam- boilers with partly consumed fuel, supply our engines with wet steam, and the engines (whose cylinders have to be supplied with oil through faulty design and workmanship) waste part of the remainder. Our horses, shod with no reg*rd for humanity or for tractive effect, draw wagons or cars which rattle our teeth out, on roads or rails which rattle the vehicles to pieces. The explosives, which long ago were constrained to throw hurtful missiles for miles, have only in one instance—blasting— been employed in peaceful work, it we may except the gunpowder pile-driver, the precursor, perhaps, of a long line of explosive motors yet to come. There is yet no ice-machine which Dr. William R pley Nichols, in a paper ou “The Tastes and Odors of .Surface Waters,” calls attention to the desirability of competent persons trained to scientific observation under taking systematic daily examinations of the water in reservoirs for long periods of time—say for five years—to watch the changes that take place in its condition and the causes of them. He also notices that the meani by which water may be made unpleasant are numerous and complicated, and are not always animal in their origin The worst smell that he ever obtained was from allowing the seed parts of a species of Potamogeton to decay in water. Professor Brewer has obtained a fishy odor from the decay in Water of the leaf-stalks of a pickerel-weed. Sometimes tire odors and tastes from various plants differing from each other seem to blend into a more or less marshy or pond flavor. The water of ponds and lakes that are surrounded by woods acquires more of a bitter or astringent taste, that may be referred to the dead leaves. When a recently felled tree is exposed to the action of water, or when bushes or grass and weeds are killed by being flooded, the sap and more soluble matters are leached out and putrefy or undergo other forms of decomposition. If the matter is alternately flooded and left bate, decay takes place fust. As the level is lowered those aquatic plants which grow in shallow water die, and if the water rises after a short interval it becomes impregnated with the products of their decay. If a considera ble interval e lapses land-plants grow upon the exposed surface, and, being drowned by the rising waters, tend to its contamination in the same manner The substances which form the most offensive part of the soluble vegetable matter are albuminous in character and the chemical efleot on the water is to increase the amount of what is called “albuminoid ammonia.” No doubt ^ead fishes and animalcules and their excrement add to the nitrogenous organic matter in surface waters but their piesence is not neoessary to account for bad odors. As a rule, in waters not contaminated with sewage tbe animal matter forms only a trifling proportion of the entire organic m atter but the recent investigation of Pro fessor Reinsert shows than in some in stances the animal matter, as from sponges, may be appreciable and of practical importance. It Is Said. That the leaves of parsley eaten with a little vinegar after partaking of on ions, will prevent the offensive breath that the latter impart; That carbonic acid, diluted with ten parts of water aud thrown into the cracks and crevices where ants or cock roaches abound, will drive them away; That flannel has become yellow from being badly washed may be nicely whitened by soaking it two or three hours In a lather made of one-quarter of a pound of curd soap, two tablespoon* fuls of powdered borax, and two table- poonfuls of carbonic of ammonia, dis solved In five or six gallons of water; '1 hat the yellow stain made by sew ing machine oil, can be removed if, before washing in soap suds, the spots be carefully rubbed with a bit of cloth wet with ammonia; That a little water mixed in with butter will prevent its burning when used for frying; That a teaspoonful of salt to a quart of the soil in plant boxes will kill the white worms; That flour dusted on cabbages when the dew is on, will kill off cabbage worms. Probably by closing the pores of the worms; That tar may be instantaneously re- moved from the hand or fingers by rubbing with the outside of a fresh lemon or orange peel. Raking Oysters by Steam. The Method of Dredging in Use in New Haven. Mr. Rowe, of Ease Haven, C inn., the owner of extensive oyster beds, re cently took a number of gentlemen connected with the newspaper press to witness the manner of steam dredging for oysters. Mr. Rowe took the party down to the government breakwater, at the junction of the harbor with Long Island Bound. Here, within the breakwater, and a mile or two outside were three steam dredges raking up oysters from the too thickly settled beds, and placing them upon other more sparsely populated beds in the vicinity. At this time they were fish ing in forty feet of water, but Mr. Rowe said he had oyster beds further out in the Bound that were 70 feet un der water, and he could fish them up about as easily as he could in 40 feet— the difference being in the length of haul. The dredge, attached to a chain about an inch in diameter, which la worked by steam, is cast off from the side of the steamer. The chain rests on a roller, and there are rollers at the sides of the opening. This dredge is slowly drawn over the oyster beds, and at each haul two or three or more bushels of oysters are taken. It re quires from five to ten minutes to make a haul. The little steam propel lers of foity tons are capable of carry ing 800 bushels from one bed to the other. The sixty-ton steamer on which the party were is capable of car ry ing 1,300 bushels. Borne of the small oysters taken at this time were opened and they were of good flavor. A schooner is employed by Mr. Rowe to carry oyster shells and place them upon the oyster beds that were raked over last season. It is found that a bed of shells is much better than branches of trees for breeding purposes. A thin layer of live oysters is spread over the shells, to which the spawn adheres, and in about two years good size oysters are fished out. In this way the oyster beds are made and cul tivated, and the process has made oyster shells worth eight cents a bushel, whereas they were formerly worthless. Steam dredging has brought about this result. Mr. Rowe says the oyster beds can be well sus tained by steam dredging and by the reproduction on oyster shells. Other wise he would not use steam dredges on his own beds. He finds that he cannot only sustain but increase his supply, by using modern improve ments—equalizing his beds aud culti vating new ones—all of wnioh he can do readily aud with profit by the use of smaller steam vessels. Regarding explosions in flour mills Thomas J. Richards, of the British Board of Trade, says that th« elements of danger exist in all corn mills, the difference beiug in degree merely, and not in kind. Although disasters of the explosive sort are rare, they are ever liable to occur in all oorn mills and cause accidents more or less dis astrous. An Ornamental Grass. One of the finest of ornamental grasses, when means for saving it over the winter may be had, (covering suf ficient to keep the ground from freez ing) will be found in the Pampas (Jrass (Gynerium Argenteum) a native of Bouth America, as its name sug gests. South of 88 degrees it will stand over wdnter. Unfortunately in NorthMffst it kills, though by maki a frame over the roots and cover thickly with evergreen boughs litter, It may generally be pr