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THE DESOLATE REGIONS. Life in the Waste Places of the World. How Human Beings and Animals Live Under Adverse Circumstances. The Russian explorer Prejevalsky 1 aid after his recent journey in north ern Thibet that an enormous amount of animal life was supported by the scanty herbage growing on these bleak half sterile plains that form the highest plateau in the world, some 1'3,000 feet; above the sea. He said the wild yaks there must number millions, and that a full grown yak weighs from 1,600 to 1,800 pounds. Nature’s chemistry evolves these great masses of flesh from the poor herbage of a region so lefty that its lakes are frozen over un til nearly June, though they are 600 miles nearer the equator than we are. Explorers tell us that not only does animql llfe abound, but that man can live in some of the most desolate parts of theglobe. It is a mistake to sup pose that the Sahara desert is merely a useless sandy waste. Much of it lacks not so much cultivable land as industrious hands to make the vast expanse of withered oases blossom again. The Mussulman sect known as the Senousians has for years been dig ging wells, irrigating -the land, and turning many hundreds of barren acres gardens. Twenty-four years ago it planted its headquarters in the desert near the western border of Egypt, built reservoirs, began planta tions, erected convents, and now a JarabCb, where the soil has boon re stored to fertility by their labor. There are large areas in the Sahara, that need only rain or irrigation to cover them with*rerdure. Through these regions pass the caravan routes, along which the 50,000 camels engaged in the Saharan commerce bear their burdens. Mr. Anderson, civil engineer, who last year completed sixteen years of explorations in South Africa betweAf the Orange and Zambesi that tlie rain that falls for a few weeks every year in the great region known as the Kalahari desert covers the blackened verdureless plain with splendid vegetation, (lame is abun dant there, especially lions, leopards and ostriches, and he has counted in this desert twenty-two lions in a troop, and has seen 200 ostriches in one flock.-4d?east and birds find sus tenance in this region where only a few Bushmen hunters live. Far northeast of them on the semi-arid steppes of Kordofan and Darfur mil lions of sheep and camels exist on the scanty pasturage of that desert region. The earliest Artie explorers found in the little .Spitzbergen archipelago— where, it is believed no human being had over lived—herds of reindeer up turning the snow with their hoofs and noses to get at the lichens on which they fed. Many reindeer live as far north as Littleton Island, and several scores of them were killed by the Hayes and Polaris expeditions. Musk oxen, or their traces, have been found along the shore of the great frozen sea as far north as explorers have attained. Lockwood, far north of the supposed limits of animals life, found traces of this wonderful quadruped, which grows fat on the tender shoots of the Arctic willow, and ploughs up the snow for moss and lichens. Os all parts of the earth the Antar tic regions alone, are comparatively desitute of life. Few species of living things in the vegetable or animal kingdom can endure the rigor of the South Polar regions. No terrestrial quadruped inhabits the land within the Antartic Circle, and whales and •seals are the only mammals that enter its area. Summer in the Artic re gions, with its abundant life on land and in the air and sea, presents an animated and cheerful scene com pared with the utter desolation that, reigns perpetually in Antartic waters. —fieto York Sun. The Size of Our Lakes. The latest measurement of our fresh water seas are as follows: The greatest length of Lake Super ior is 335 miles; its greatest breadth is 160 miles; mean depth, 688 feet; elevation, 627 feet; area, 82,000 square miles. The greatest length of Lake Michi gan is 300 miles; its greatest breadth, 108 miles; mean depth 690 feet; ele vation, 506 feet; area 23,000 square miles. . The greatest length of Lake Huron is 200 miles; its greatest breadth, 169 miles; meandepth, 6XI Let; elevation, 274 feet; area, 20,090 square miles The greatest length of Lake Erie is 250 miles; greatest breadth. 80 miles mean depth, 84 feet; elevation, 555 feet; area, 6,000 square miles. The greatest length of Lake On tario is 180 miles: its greatest breadth, 65 miles; depth, 500 feet; eleva tion, 261 feet; area, 6,000 square miles. The length of all five is 1,268 miles covering an area of upward of 135,000 square miles. Where the eight ways meet in the heart of the city of London the tide of traffic flows at its strongest. Ac cording to the lastest estimate nearly 55,000 vehicles of all kinds pass daily little square about which cluster house, the Royal cx bank or Easlaad. Summeru ilk VOL. XII. THE FAMINE. AU along- the maadow-land Tho rain beat and boat, And up aloft, the orchard croft, And in among the wheat; And where the corn was standing green, And where the oats were white, Day after day. day after da”, And through the dreary night, The driving flood catjie down and down. Until in sore despair The people cried, “Hod stay the tide, And let His winds blow fair.” was gathering on the whoa, And mildew on the corn, The oats hung down iu rotting brown, Tho rye-tields beilFfoglorn. But day by day clouds Poured forth their floods, until The evil spell of hunger fell, And famine had its will. Then rose a cry that went to heaven And opened all its doors. And hurrying forth from South, from North, And up from distant shores, 'S l h<fagentß of the Lord came swift To succor and to save— With corn and wheat, th ■ ships sailed fleet Across the ocean wave. Then ceased the wailing cry of woe; The dread note of despair, And hand clasped hand from strand to strand, And curses change.! to prayer. Then knit the tie of brotherhood. And love sprang into birth, Where scorn and spleen had come between These nations of the earth. —A’ora Perry, in Youth’s Companion. j THE LOUIS D OR. When Lucien de Hem had seen his jasj, banknote raked in by the croupier, and risen from the roulette fable where he had just lost the shattered remains of his fortune, collected for this last clTort to retrieve his previous losses, he felt a strange dizziness stealing over him and thought he was going to fall. Master ing himself, however, he sought with unsteady step and dazed brain, one of the leather benches of the gambling hall and threw himself upon it. For a few moments he stared blankly about this clandestine gambling house, in which he had wasted the best years of his youth. He realized that he wns ruined, lost. It occurred to him that he hid at home, in one of thedrawersof his bureau, the ordnance pistols which his father, General Hem, then simple captain, had to distinguished himself in the attack upon Zaatcha; then, overcome with fa tigue, he fell into a deep sleep. When he awoke his month was dry and parched. lie glanced at the clock. The hands marked on the dial a quarter' io twelve. He was seized with an irre sistible desire to breathe the night air. Rising, he stretched himself and looked Mit into the darkness. The snow crys tals sparkled like diamonds when the light fell upon them. A muffled figure passed with n quick step and disappeared In the shadows. An ironic play of his memory brought before him the picture ♦f his early life, lie saw himself, quite a little child, stealing down to hang his stocking in the chimney corner. At that moment old Drovski, the clas sical Pole, one of the fixtures of the place, clad iu a threadbare cloak orna- j rneuted with braid and wreaths of olive, approached Lucien and mumbled through his stained, gray beard : “I'lease lend me a five-franc piece, sir. For two days I I have not budged from the cercle, and for two days the seventeen lias not come out Laugh at me if you will, but I will eat my head if, on the stroke of mid night, that number docs not appear.” Lucien de Hern shrugged his shoul ders. He had not even enough in his pocket to satisfy this trifling demand, that the habitues of the place called the “Pole's dollar.” He passed out into the vestibule, put on his hat and pelisse, and descended the stairs with feverish haste. During the four hours that Lu cien had been in the gambling hall the snow had fallen abundantly and the street was white. The ru>ned player shivered under his furs, and quickened his pace, but before he had proceeded many steps he stopped suddenly before a piteous sight. On a rude bench, placed, as was formerly the custom, near the monumental doorway of a mansion, a little girl of six or seven, scantily clad in a tattered black dress, was seated in the snow. She had fallen asleep there in spite of the cruel cold, and all unconscious of the failing flakes that were softly kissing her white lips and closed eyes, weaving with a magic hand a pure white robe around her little | form. Her attitude betrayed fatigue end grief, and the poor little head and delicate shoulder were pressed into an angle of the wall against the co d stones. One of her wooden shoes had fallen from her hanging foot, and was lying ruefully before her. With a mechanical gesture Lucien's hand sought his pocket, but he remem bered that a moment before he had not been able to find even a one franc piece in some forgotten corner, with which to tip the attendant at the gaming house. Move l, however, by an instinctive sense of pity, he approached the little girl with the purpose of carrying her to some place of shelter for the night, when, in the fallen shoe, his eye fell upon some thing b iighr. He leaned over. It was a louis d or. Some charitable person—a woman, no doubt—iu passing had. seen i tho shoe lying before the sleeping child. j SUMMERVILLE, GEORGIA. WEDNESDAY EVENING, JULY 1,1885. and had put there, with a discreet hand, a royal alms, that the poor little aban doned one might still preserve, in spite of her misfortune, some confidence and hope in the bounty of Providence. A louis! It represented several days of rest and wealth for the beggar girl, and Lucien was on the point of rousing her to tell her this, when he heard near his ear, like an hallucination—the voice of the Pole —murmuring again the words: j For two days I have not budged from the cercle, and for two days the seventeen has not come out. I will eat my head if, on the stroke of midnight, that number does not appear.” Then this young man of twenty-three who had never before failed in point of honor, conceived a frightful thought. Glancing around he made sure that he was quite alone in the deserted street and, stooping, with trembling hand, he stole the louis d’or from the fallen shoe. Then running swiftly, he returned to the gambling house; he reached the top of the stairs in four bounds, with a blow of his fist he opened the cushioned door of the cursed hall and entered at the pre cise moment when the clock sounded the first stroke of midnight, threw tho stolen louis on the green cloth, and exclaimed: “Full on the 17!” The 17 won. With a turn of his hand Lucien pushed thirty-six louis on the red. The red won. He let the seventy, i two louis remain on the same color. The red appeared again. He still continued to double the stakes, twice, thrice—always with the same 1 good luck. 11c bad regained, in a few ' turns of fortune’s wheel, the few misera ble 1,000-franc notes, his last resource, that he had lost, at the beginning of the evening. Now, piling up 200 or 300 louis at a time, aud relying on his fantas tic run of luck, he was in a fairway to regain the fortune that in such a few years he had squandered. Ho still played. He still won. The blood boils iu his veins; be becomes intoxicated with good fortune; he throws, hapzard whole handfuls of golden louis upon the table with a gesture of certainty and dis dain. But in spite of the wild feverish ex citement of play, a red hot iron was piercing his heart, lie could not divert his thoughts from the little beggar girl asleep under the snow—the child whom he had robbed. “Shemust be in the same place! ('er tainly she must be there! In a moment; yes; when the clock strikes one; I swear it, I will leave this place. I will carry her to my own house; I will her luing up. give her a dowry, lovelier as my own daughter, cherish her always, always!” * * * » ♦ ♦ * But. the clock struck one- -the quar ter—the half—three-quarter. Lucien was still seated at the cursed table. At last one minute before two, the dealer rote quickly and announced in a loud voice- “The bank is broken, gentle men; enough for to night.” With a bound Lucien was on his feet. Thrusting rudely aside the players who gathered about him, and who were re garding him with a look of envious tid . miration, he went out quickly, rushed down the stair and ran to the stone i bench. At a distance, by the light of the gas, he perceived the little girl. “God be praised,” he cried, “she is still there!” He approached and seized her hand. Oh, how cold it was! Poor child! He took her in his arms to bear her away. The child’s head fell back, but | she did not waken. How one docs sleep at this age! He pressed her to his heart, to bring back the w armth to her little body, but filled with a strange uneasiness, he was i on the point of kissing her eyes in order to draw her from that, heavy slumber, when he perceived with horror that her eyelids were half open, exposing the eyeballs, dimmed and fixed in a glassy stare. A terrible suspicion flashed through his mind; he put his mouth close to the mouth of the child; not a breath escaped. While, with the gold pieces that he had stolen from this home less child Lucien had won a small for tune, she bad frozen to death. The most frightful anguish choked his ut- ■ terance, and with the effort he made to cry out he awoke from his dream on the leather bench of the ccrcle, where he had fallen asleep a little before midnight and where the servant, being the last to go, toward five in the morning, had, out of kindness of heart for the ruined spendthrift, allowed him to rest un disturbed. A frosty December morn ing had whitened the window panes, and ' a fairy hand had traced many a chatteau d’Eepagne to crumble with the rising sun. Lucien went out and pawned nis watch, took a bath, breakfasted, went to the bureau for recruits and signed an engagement us a volunteer in the First regiment of chasseurs d’Afrique. To day Lucien de Hem is a lieutenant. He has only his soldier's pay but he gets along, being regular in his habits and never touching a card. It would seem, too, as if he found some means of economizing; for the other day, at Algier, one of his comrades who happened to be some steps behind him in one of the steep streets of Kosba saw him give alms to a little Spanish child asleep under a doorway, and had the bad taste to ex amine his gift. He -was astonished at j the generosity’, for the poor Lieutenant Lucien de Hem had put a louis d or in j the hand of tho little girl.— From the ! French of Francois Copper, ‘ —■— A Useful “Prayer-Wheel.” Tho most extraordinary method of making religion easy to the devotee is ! the use of prayer-wheels, which the Pundit utilized in an ingenious manner on his survey. Colonel Montgomerie I thus describes the wheel and the way it was used in the casein question: “It was necessary,” ho writes, “that the 1 Pundit should be able to take his com- I pass bearings unobserved, and also that, I when counting his paces, he should not be interrupted by having to answer ques- i tions. The Pundit found the best way | of effecting these objects was to march j separately, with his servant cither behind t or in front of tho rest of the camp. It I was, of course, not always possible to | effect this, nor could strangers be alto- j gethcr avoided. Whenever people did come to the Pundit, the sight of his ! prayer-wheel was generally sufficient to i prevent, them addressing him. When he ! saw any one approaching, ho at once i began to whirl his prayer-wheel round, and as all good Buddhists while doing that are supposed to be absorbed in re ligious contemplation, he was very sel ! dom interrupted. The prayer-wheel consists of a hollow, cylindrical I copper bag, which revolves round a : spindle, one end of which forms the j handle. The cylinder is turned by means j of a piece of copper attached to a string, j A slight twist of the hand makes the i cylinder revolve, and each revolution : represents one repetition of the prayer, which is written on a scroll kept under the cylinder. ('The prayer is sometimes ■ engraved on the exterior of the wheel.) The prayer-wheels are of all sizes, from i that of a large barrel downward; but those carried in the hand are generally four or six inches in height by about three inches in diameter, with a handle 1 projecting about, four inches below the bottom of the cylinder. The one used by the Pundit wnsan ordinary hand one, but instead of carrying a paper scroll with the usual Buddhist prayer, ‘dm mani pndme hoim,’ the cylinder had in side it long slips es paper, for the pur pose of recording the bearings and num ber of pages. The top of the cylinder was made large enough to allow the paper to be taken out when required. The rosary, which ought to have 108 bends, was made of 100 beads, every tenth bend being much larger than the others. The small heads were made of red composition to imitate coral, the largo : ones of the dark corrugated seeds of the ridras. The rosary was carried in tho left sleeve. At every hundreth pace a bead was dropped, and each large bead dropped consequently represented 1,000 paces. With his paper-wheel and rosary the Pundit always manages, one way or another, to take his bearings and to : count his paces.” — People of the World. Ths Picket s Inslrustions. 1 n the early part of the war I was on picket duty on the Maryland side of the Potomac, near the bridge nt Harper’s Ferry. At that time a kind of an armis tice existed. The trains on the Balti more and Ohio were allowed to pass, provided they halted at the bridge and allowed a guard to go through them. My instructions were, when the train rounded the curve, to wave my gun three times at the engineer, and if he did not ! slacken speed to shoot at him and throw an obstacle across the track. The orders struck rae ns being so absurd that once upon bzing relieved by a raw youth, I explained to him that he was to wave his gun three times at the engineer, and, if the train did not slow up, he was to shoot the engineer and throw himself i across the track. He replied with cm pharis that he would do no “such thing.” I Upon being repremanded by the corporal the proper instructions were given. About the third day after the assign- I m int of this duty, Stonewall arrived and took command of the troops at Harper’s Ferry. At midnight, while on post, j some men on horseback from the Vir ginia side appeared, who proved to be Jackson and some members of his staff, going the grand rounds. The general halted end asked me a great many ques tions. After inquiring how I would challenge cavalry, going into the minu test particulars, he asked what my in structions were. Upon being told, to my surprise, he did not laugh : but j j asked me, in the gravest way, if I had | settled upon the obstruction to be thrown - ' across the track.- Thinking he was still I joking, I replied that it was my inten tion to sling upon it a railroad bar, lying I near (which it took four men to carry). I He asked me then on which side of the track it would be my aim to throw the ' train. As the mountain was on one side ! and the canal and river on the other, I quickly answered: “Into the river, of course.” He seemed to be highly satis fied, and went away leaving the impres sion that the new commander was a crank.— Southern Bivouac. The first daily newspaper was edited by a woman, Elizabeth Mallet, in Lon don, March, 1703. It was called the Dally Cuurant. In her salutatory Mrs. Mallet declared she had established her paper to spare the public at least half the impertinences tie ordinary papers j contain. A FORGER’S HEAVY HAUL 1 I VorrlnsVanilcrhllCnXanw for 573,C00 —ln Gid Crime Retailed* j Stored up in the yellow and time-worn Archives of the criminal courts of record of this city is tho material for many a j ! romantic or thrilling story. A case may be briefly told involving the names of ; three prominent New Yorkers, all of whom nre now dead. In the summer of 1807 Commodore Vanderbilt, although able to count his 1 wealth by millions and the real owner of I the New York Central railroad, was of- I licially known in connection with it only | as a member of its board of directors. I Henry Keep was at that time president I of tho road, and the general offices were ■ situated at Albany. At the same time [ Moses Taylor was president of the Na- I tional City Bank of New York, which was one of the well-known repositories of the “Old Commodore’s” ready cash. The express business of the Central rail i road was done by the American Express I company, and it was the custom of the ; railroad company to turn over to the | express company for collection all large checks on bunks in this city. It was quite in the regular course of business, therefore, that a man dressed 1 in the uniform of the express company, j and with a large tin box such as col- i lectors were in the habit of carrying in | those days under his arm, entered the \ City Bank one morning early in July of j that year, walked briskly to the paying teller’s window, and presented a chock fcr the railroad company. With all the composure and apparent haste of a legiti mate messenger he designated the num ber of bills of each denomination from fives to hundreds desired, and said that having other collections to make in the j neighborhood ho would go elsewhere and return in a short, time for the money. | Then ho walked out as briskly as he j had entered. The check was as fol lows . Nrw York, (> July, 1807. National City Bank of New York pay to the order of Henry Keep, I’resident New York Central It. It., seventy-live thousand dollars. C. VANDERBILT. The paying-teller was a young man named Worth, who afterward became a I well known caricature artist. He turned : the check over and read the following indorsement on the back : Albany, July 8, 1867. American Express will deliver and collect at Albany. HENRY KEEP. President,N. Y. R. R. Nothing about the check justified the slightest suspicion of its genuineness, . aud the paying teller promptly counted i out the money and arranged it in piles according to the bills of different de j nominations. Presently the messenger , j returned, opened his box, and holding i I it under the window asked Paying Teller Worth to throw the money’ into it. This having been done he shut up his box I and hurried out. A few days later the I bank officers were astounded to learn ■ ■ that the check was a clever forgery. | The case wns placed in the hands of two detectives of the central office, one i of whom was William George Elder. They began by seeking a description of I the pretended messenger from Paying Teller Worth. Worth, it appeared, hud noted the man carefully’, and as he even then enjoyed the reputation of being clever with his pencil the detectives asked him if he could draw a sketch of the man. He answered without hesita tion that he could, and at once made a pencil and-ink portrait in which the detectives instantly recognized the fea tures of a well known confidence man and forger named John Henry Livingston; I also known under the aliases of Lewis, Matthews and De Peyster. Livingston’s usual haunts were searched, but he could not be found, and for a time the detec j tives were unable to discover any trace of him. At length, however, some of his associates, who said he had acted un fairly by them, inasmuch as while they I had assisted him in the preparations for j perpetrating the crime he had run off j with the entire proceeds as soon as he ' had secured them, told the detectives he i had gone to Chicago. Thither the de- I tectives followed, but they searched that , I city for many days without finding him, ; or even any evidences of his having been there. It looked as if they would have to abandon the pursuit as hopeless, when one of those lucky accidents which change the destinies of nations as well as of individuals served them a happy turn, i For the want of something better to do j they were driving out one afternoon on ! the outskirts of the city, when they met a farmer on a brand new w agon filled i j with brand new household furniture and ' . utensils going out of town. To the or j dinary eye there would not have been anything out of the way visible in that fact, but to the detectives' eye there was evidence of suddenly acquired wealth, and they thought ! it worth their while to ascertain who had been favored by fortune in . that particular instance. Acting on the impulse they turned their horse's head and followed the far mer. He drew up at a neat farm- j house about ten miles from the city, and proceeded to unload his goods. The de tectives drove by a little distance, then returned, and themselves stopped at the next farmhouse to inquire who the farmer was. They were told that no body know. Tlie man was a stranger to NO. 24. tho neighborhood, he had recently bought the place, and, with his young wife, had just conic to live upon it. They remained in the neighborhood ever night, and soon satisfied themselves that the prospective farmer was no other than the fugitive forger Livingston. They are | rested him at once and recovered $60,000 ' of the stolen money, which they found secreted between mattresses and in other places about the house. The remaining $15,000 had been spent chiefly in acquir ing the property. Livingston was brought back to New York and arraigned on an indictment for forgery in the third degree before Recorder Hackett, in the court of general sessions, on September It), 1869. | When placed at the bar he said, “I am guilty. I want to save every day I can." He was sentenced to ten years in the State prison. He served out his terra and immediately dropped out of sight after his discharge. Recently an old man has been engaged in swindling operations iu the West, and it is thought by the police that it is possible he is Liv ingston.—Aeto York Timex. A Mud City. The name of this notable place is not j euphonious, but it is in the heart of As ’ rica, and in that far-off region Abeaku j tah may have a softness of tone not rec ognizable by us. Round about this dis- Hant city is a picturesque fringing of j minor settlements, the population of the city proper and its suburbs coming up to two hundred thousand souls. Abeakutah “stands on a granite foun dation nearly six hundred feet above sea-level, a mud wall six hundred feet in i height surrounds it, it is thatched with i palm leaves," and must present a very pretty appearance. Tho twenty miles circumference of this wall incloses much farming land. The interior arrangements of Mud City are said to bo more repul sive than otherwise. The streets are narrow and far from clean, and great irregularity prevails. The homes of the people nre of dried mud, and, like the wall, they are thatched; ten or even sometimes twenty rooms are devoted to family comfort; These surround an inner court where sheep and goats are kept. But they are a busv people in Mud City. “Trades arc carried ou in primitive fash ion, and there arc‘unions' of smiths carpen ters, weavers, dyers and potters; over the last two on the list women rule. Lively markets are hell I and active traffic is carried on, mainly by women. Barter is tn food, cooked and uncooked, iu vege tables and in oils, in shea or tree-butter, raw cotton and grass, and many very j creditable manufactures are successfully kept up among them—cutlery anil ex cellent leather." Cowry shells is the ac ; cepted currency, though there may bo j changes, as it is recorded that in 1867 j copper coins were under consideration, i A great deal of business must center in ■ Mud City, for caravans go from thence in different directions many hundreds of i miles. The government is simple. “There is a king, and his functions are entirely : elective." A general has charge of an army, and there is a sort of legislature, admitting representation from outside towns. Mud City can also speak loftily iin the matter of general intelligence, since they can boast of a newspaper , within their limits, and three religious societies are free to enjoy themselves unmolested. One church steeple is al luded to as having a bell and a mud steeple. Slavery has been abolished among them, and commerce with Eng land established, and everything points to prosperous conditions.— Bazar. The Paradise of Skaters. Holland is the paradise of skaters, its highways being canals that arc covered with ice nearly half the year. The ladies i there go shopping on skates, boys skate to and from school, older members of the family go to church on skates; the postman delivers his letters and the doc tor visits his patients ou them, and even j the solemn pastor moves ou skates when he visits his parishioners. Dairymaids skate ; to town with full pails of which not a j i drop is spilled, aud farmers’ daughters skate to villages with a full basket of eggs in each hand. During the Spanish invasion several victories were won by the native soldiers, who, on skates, sud denly moved on the forces of Alva, and as quietly retired to their own catnp. For a period of more than 400 years the soldiers have been trained toperform ev olutions ou skates. Antiquity of Arizoni. Many regard the Southwest as a new country and they lo.k for new things when visiting the far southwestern land. But in reality the territory’ teemed with an active population, versed in sciences, in the art of government, in the knowl i edge of manufacturing, centuries before , Milton and Shakespeare and Cervantes and Columbus were born. It is possible, indeed, and quite probable, that Arizona ! was a progressive and populous region when Noah built the ark, when the : ' battle of Thermopolyie was fought when Homer wrote his epics. In fact, it is an old country, with a history that may never be known, sacked and pil laged, neglected and forgotten during ; the years in which the East grow up.— | Portland Transcript. CLiri’LNGS FOR THE CURIOUS. It is estimated that a ton of gold is buried each year with those who die in this country. A squirrel can run down a tree head first. The cat and the bear must get down tail first (if left to themselves.) The Chinese potato is a club shaped root about ten feet in length. It is eaten boiled, roasted, stewed or fried, and has a rice-like taste. . From time immemorial the willow has been regarded as a symbol of sad ness. Hence it was customary for those who were forsaken in love to wear willow garlands. The earliest machine used for mak ing screws of which we have any re cord was invented by David Wilkin son of Rhode Island, for which he ob tained a patent in 1794. Mme. Adrinette I’altt has just died tit. Saint I’ierre de la Martinique at the' age of 121 years. She had a distinct recollection of all the principal events of the French revolution. To get a firm hold on an axe or hammer handle rub it with lard or other soft grease. Never use linseed oil, as that will glaze the wood and make it hard and slippery. Nine golden weddings have been' celebrated in Castleton, Vt., in the last ten years, and all but one of the individuals are now living. Most of them are between 80 and 90 years of age, and quite vigorous for such old ’peoule. A flea, one-sixteenth of an inch in' length, can jump a distance of twenty inches. This is 320 times its length. The common gray rabbit jumps about 9 feet clear on the level ground. In proportion to length a horse, to jump as far as a rabbit, would have to clear 64 feet at a jump. There is no quad ruped that has such powerful muscles in his quarters as the rabbit, and none excel him in the muscles of his loin and back. Homer was acquainted with the use of tho lathe, while relief carving in wood, and inlaying of metal, ivory and amber, were early practised. The lat ter process can also be referred to I’hcenician influence, in consideration both of the material employed and of historical analogy. Even kings busied themselves with such handiwork, as the building of his nuptial couch by by Odysseus proves; and royal ladies, such as Penelope, Andomache and Helen, embroidered and wore elabo rate textures. Vineyards on the Rio Granilc. Albuquerque (New Mexico) is the centre of an important wine-growing district, being only surpassed in the valley by La Mesilla and El Paso. A number of firms are engaged in the business here, and since they have es tablished the practice of buying the grapes from the Mexican and pueblo Indians, and making the wine them selves in large quantities, the quality has much improved. It is related that at the pueblo at San Felipe there were once considerable vineyards, but as the Indians got drunk on the wine they made, their autiwratic governor, who is elected by themselves, adopted the summary and effective remedy of uprooting the vineyards. Now that the Indians can sell their grapes, they have been permitted to plant their vinesagain. Some of the best vine yards in the valley are those belonging to the industrious and frugal Indians at Isleta. There are commonly but two kinds of grape grown—the Mis sion. which is the same as that of Cal ifornia, and the Muscatel—both being of the European species, a quite differ ent fruit from the grape of native origin cultivated in “the States.” The vines are planted only a few feetapart, and are not trained on poles as in France and Germany, nor on trellises as in Italy, but have no support at all, being kept very low andstumpy,grow ing only about three feet high. This is principally to enable easy protection, as through the winter the vines are covered with earth heaped up from between the rows. Since the climate is not so severe as in French and Ger man wine-growitig regions, at first consideration it seems as if this pre caution should bo no more needed here than there, but a wine-grower told me that in his opinion it was not so much the temperature as it was the dry quality of the cold air which killed vines. At Mesilla I was told that some growers in that place covered up their vines, while others did not, and it seemed to make no difference. Mesilla, however, is protected from the sweep of the cold northerly winds by a range of mountains. The vineyards of the Rio Grande were sadly injured in the November of 1830, when an early “old snap found many growers with their vines uncovered. Thousands of vines were killed. 'The vines are of ; Spanish origin.— Harper's Mayazlne. _ Through (he Suez Canal. Steamers going through the Suez canal must stop whenever the pilot gives the word, and when the sun has gone down, no mattei where the vessel is, whether at a "station” or not, it must tie up at the. bank. There is no risk in this, xs no other steam, r will at tempt to go on after sundown. The pilots ate a lino set of men, of different nations, English, French, Greek, Itali an, etc. They dress in a simple uni form. something like naval officers U uadres*