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LADIES’ COLUMN.
The iVlaidens and the Tmaffe.
On the water side of Vera Cruz stands
a stone image, whose bruised counte
nance tells a queer tale of feminine cre
dulity. From time immemorial it has
been believed that if a marriageable
woman shall hit this image squarely it'
the face with a stone she will immedi
ately obtain a husband and an advanta
geous settlement in life. The inventor
of the fable was evidently acquainted
with the fact that women are not ex*
pert in throwing stones. Were it not
for this lamentable disability the poor
image would have been totally demol
ished years ago. As it is, the battered
face has lost all semblance of features,
and heaps of small stones, lying all
about, attest the industry of the Mexican
maidens, as well as their good sense in
-—desiring matrimonial settlement. The
tumble down church, behind which it
stands, has a remarkable number of fe
male attendants, especially at vesper ser
vices. The homeward path lies directly
past the image, and many a pebble is
slyly tossed under the friendly shadow of
the gloaming by women, young and old
—Fannie B. Ward.
Tile Baty Speaks.
Well, I came out of the cataract alive,
and that’s more than I expected. I was
then rubbed till I thought my skin was
on fire. And then the strangest thing
happened. I had already been led to
expect many curious ahd startling things,
but this was so ridiculous that I abso
lutely laughed. Ido not think that that
stupid nurse of mine detected my laugh,
but I felt it bubbling within me all the
time, certainly. Things were brought
to mein a pretty basket; they took one
article and fastened it around my body,
then another which passed over ray head,
forcing my arms through two holes, then
another, and finally one so long that 1
lost my other end. They then put each
foot of mine in a little bag, after which
they bade me to stand up like a man and
go see my mother.
So 1 had a mother; I was glad to have
something, they had taken so much from
me already. My mother was a long
thing spread out on something white.
How dilTercnt her touch! I took to her
at once. Since I was to be touched and
handled—although I could not see the
necessity for such proceeding—it was
delightful to be touched and handled so
tenderly. I had undergone so much
harshness already that I now could
readily distinguish hard from soft. 1
believe my love for my mother began
then. How 1 cuddled around her! In
a moment I lost myself, lorgot all my
misfortunes, and dwelt among the angels,
the former companions of ray life.
Fasltiun Xolev.
Slippers must match evening dresses.
Pure white grenadines, called ribbon
grenadines, show narrow, open stripes
beside satin or repped stripes, like nar
row ribbon 0 .
Elegant shoes for wearing with out
door costumes are of fine kid, cither
black or matching the dress, and no
ornament is put on.
A new make of Norfolk jacket, an
old-established favorite, tits the figure
and *has but one plait on either side ol
the front; this is admirably suited to
young girls.
For evening and dinner toilets and
concerts young ladies wear a small tuft
of flowers in the hair and another on the
shoulder, or at the point where the ends
jf the fichu meet.
Short sleeves, with high French waists
and perfectly straight skirls, are features
of new cream and ecru embroidered
dresses, the sashes of wide watered rib
• bon, pale ecru in color.
Youthful dresses ale made of cream
white grenadine with a satin surface, on
which arc brocaded flowers in open lace
like meshes, with threads oi color, red,
blue or yellow, seen in the flower.
High full bodices of lace over a low
i O’s i >e of colored silk or satin, and or
namented with a parure or fichu o
beaded tude and lace, arc adapted for
mail evening receptions and concerts.
Very simple gr< nadincs of small ar
mure pattern-, or sewing silk grena
dines, have the skirt in fine lengthwise
plaits after having been tucked across,
and this plaiting may be edged with
lace.
Flights of birds are among the latest
eccentricities for trimming dresses in
tended forceremoiiiou- occasions. Eight
birds of carefully graduated sizes are ar
ranged up the back, thq smallest birds
being at the bottom. I
Stories About
A cat of Sear-port, Me., made friends
with a pet rat. but killed all tik wild rats
it could find.
A cat of South Brooks, Me., watches
a cradle, and when the child cries ca
resses it until it falls asleep.
A gentleman at Newport, R. 1., let a
mouse out of a trap for his cat, but a big
lootier standing near jumped on it first
took it in his bill by the neck, and shook
it until it was dead.
A cat of Hyde Park, Mass., took charge
of a brood of six chickens. She licked
their feathers until they grew the wrong
way. The chicks followed her as they
would have followed a hen.
A Lewiston cat made friends with a
pig, became his constant companion, and
slept with him at night. When the pig
was slaughtered she watched by his
corpse, and refused to eat any of hie
flesh.
A Maine cat accidentally stepped on
the keys of a piano board one day, and
was surprised at the sound. Since then
she goes to the piano regularly and paws
the keys, waiting with ears erect and
eyes sparkling for the sounds.
Dressed beef now comes to the Atlan
tic seaboard in the best condition from
Omaha, 2,000 miles away.
£ljc (Sfrfljette.
VOL. XII. SUMMERVILLE, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY EVENING, SEPTEMBER 23,1885. NO. 36.
High Days and Holidays.
O long nnd lagging hours of time,
How heavily the hope you mock,
How slow you creep across the clock,
■When the child waits for you to chitno
The year returning in its prime—
Yet all so glad! yet all so gla
O hurrying hours, when ago is nigh,
So breathlessly you sweep along,
So fast your flashing circles thrun
By failing sense and dazzled eye.
Wo scarcely see them as they fir —
And all so sad! and ail so sad!
—Harriet Spofford, tn Harner's.
FROM THE COUNTRY.
“It's Seventy-eight Pickett Place,”
said Miss Diver. “And here is my
check, driver!"
Miss Dorothy Diver gave these or
ders with an assumption of being well
up in the ways of the metropolis; in
fact, she tried to speak as if she were
in the daily habit of engaging hacks.
But her feigned manner did not im
pose upon Charlie Kingston at all.
“A little girl from the country,” he
said to himself. “Never been here in
her life before. She’ll lose that com
plexion before she has been here many
months.”
Charlie Kingston, be it understood,
was not a professional jehu. He him
self was not so very long from the
rural districts. It had become neces
sary for him to come to New York to
take care of an old uncle who was an
invalid; it had also become necessary
that he should earn his living.
A neighboring livery-stable was to be
sold out at a bargain, and Charlie had
a healthy man’s liking for horses. So
he bought paying part of the money
down and giving a mortgage for the
rest; and he was here this misty Feb
ruary evening because one of his
; drivers had sprained a wrist in lifting
I a heavy trunk, and business was brisk.
Dorothy looked at him as he held
open the hack-door for her, nnd secret
ly wondered if this was the typical
New York hack-driver of whom she
had read and heard so many evil
things.
His eye was bright and clear, his
cheek wore a healthy glow, and no
prince of the blood could have been
more quietly courteous than was he.
While she was still considering
these things, the hack stopped.
“Seventy-eight Pickett Place, miss,”
said the driver, jumping down from
the box.
“Oh, have we reached it so soon?”
cried Dorothy, starting out of a rev
erie. “Oil, dear, I forgot to ask how
much the fare would be!"
“One dollar, miss,” said Kingston,
smiling in spite of himself at her
evident panic.
Dorothy drew a sigh of relief. This
surely was not the overcharge she
had dreaded.
“If you would please carry the trunk
up stairs,” said she, timidly, half-fear
ing lest the New York hack-driver
should cast the baggage, with impre
cations, on the pavement, and decline
further to serve her.
But Charlie Kingston did nothing of
the sort. He only said, “Certainly,
miss,” and went up stairs at once,
with the trunk well-balanced on his
i shoulder.
“The fourth flat—this is quite
right,” said Dorothy. “I’m so much
obliged to you, driver!”
And she timidly tendered the dollar
bill, with a little silver dime.
Kingston gave back the latter coin.
“One dollar is my fare,” said he,
j calmly.
“But for your trouble with the
trunk,” she faltered.
He smiled a little.
“It is my business to take trouble,”
said he. “Good-evening, miss I”
And before Dorothy could remon
strate he was gone.
“I never saw such a nice hack-driver
in my life,” thought she, as she tapped
at the door.
She listened. There was no voice,
but there were footsteps inside.
“I wonder.” she mused, “if Norman
will open the door himself?”
For Dorothy, be it known, had
• planned a surprise for her brother
Norman, who had come to New York,
about a year since, to follow his trade
i of printer.
Dorothy had longed to come, too,
but, alas, she was not a man, but a
woman!
But of late her stepmother had made
he family home so obnoxious to her
Chat she had suddenly conceived the
determination of coming to New York
x> live with Norman, thus severing
the Gordian knot of affairs.
“He will be glad to have me keep
house for him,” she thought; “and l—
ih, I would go to the very top of Pike's
Peak to get away from that woman!”
So here she was, upon that winter
light, rosy, smiling and eager, when
the door was opened at Number
j Seventy-eight Pickett Place.
“Oh, Normy—dear Normy!”
And she flung herself, sobbing, upon
the broad shoulders that eclipsed the
one cheery gaslight.
“I—l beg your pardon,” faltered a
deep voice, “but it isn’t Normy! Mr.
Diver hasn’t come In yet lam Royal
Brooks—his chum, you know! You
are his sister, I suppose—you look ex
actly like him. Pray sit down by the
Are and warm yourself; it’s very cold.”
And Dorothy, blushing to the very
roots of her hair, obeyed.
“Will he be in soon?” she stammered.
“Very soon now. May I give you a
cup of tea? I flatter myself I’m rather
• a dabster in the brewing of tea. We
take turns in keeping house, we fel
lows—Normy Diver, Bill Blake and
me, and this is my week. We club
together and rent this flat We
couldn’t stand the boarding-house
business any longer, you know. Miss
Diver.”
And thus chatting, to relieve her
embarrassment, he bustled around, and
presently brought her a cup of very
nice tea on a dusty Japanese tray, with
two or three fossil biscuits and a slice
or two of cold beef.
Before she had finished it, Norman
himself came in, fresh and breezy.
“Who have you here?” he cried.
“Hello! it's Dotty! Why, you precious
little pussy, how on earth came you
here ?”
And then Dorothy told her tale,
interrupted a few minutes later by the
appearance of the third young printer,
Willoughby Blake by name, who was
equally amazed and equally disposed
to be hospitable to the pretty stranger.
“And so,” said Dorothy, holding
I tight on to Norman's hand, “I’ve
come to live with you,”
“You are the dearest little lass in all
j the world,” said Norman, with a puz
zled look; “but, you see, it won’t work.
There’s the other fellows, you know.
It’s share and share alike in our house
keeping affairs, and we haven’t any
extra room.”
“I could sleep on the sofa, with a
I rug over me, and give Miss Diver my
I den!” suggested Brooks, eagerly.
“Your den is all very well for a
I rough chap like you,” said Bill Blake,
in a superior way, "but it wouldn’t do
for a young lady. I’d offer mine, but
it is only lighted by a shaft, with Fil
kins’ baby crying all night, directly
. below. I’m used to it, but I don’t
think any one else could stand it.”
“She could stay with Kitty Cliff?”
suggested Brooks, sud lenly.
“The very idea!” shouted Bill, smit
ing his knee.
And Norman whispered to her that
Kitty Cliff was the fiancee of Brooks—
a bright girl, who lived a few doors
down the street.
“You'll be sure to like her. Dotty,”
said he. “And I can see as much of
you as if you were here.”
Dorothy’s lip trembled.
"But I wanted to surprise you,”
said she. “I wanted to be your little
housekeeper, Normy.”
“You have surprised me, Dot,” said
he. “And next spring, when the lease
runs out, I’ll give Blake and Brooks
notice to quit, and you shall come to
live with ine.”
He walked around with her, a little
later, to Miss Cliff.
Miss Cliff received them with a
smiling welcome.
“Oh, I’ll take the very best care of
her,” said she. “I’m so glad to have
you for a room-mate. Miss Diver. And
perhaps I can get you a place in the
i store where I try on.”
“Try on!” repeated Dorothy, in
some bewilderment.
“Jerseys and mantles, yon know,"
explained Kitty Cliff. “For the cus
tomers to judge the effect. I know
they want another girl at the ready
made linen counter, and I think that
my recommendation would be worth
something.”
It was a quiet, home-like house, kept
by a respectable widow, and Dorothy
grew quite cheerful sitting by Kitty
Cliff’s fire, in spite of the disappoint
ment she ha I that night sustained.
The rattling of milkmen’s carts over
the stones awoke her betimes in the
morning, and she went with Kitty
down to the breakfast-table, where on
ly the earliest boarders had as yet
made their appearance. And the first
she knew, she was conrtesying to the
very hack-driver of last night, while
j Kitty was saying:
' “Miss Diver, this is Mr. Kingston.
Mr. Kingston, let mo present you to
my friend. Miss Diver, from Schoharie
county.”
“Why,” cried Dotty, “it’s the hack
man!”
“It’s the young lady for Seventy
eight Pickett Place!” said Mr. King
ston. “But lam not a hackman!”
“Neither do I live at Seventy-eight
, Pickett Place!” said Dorothy, laughing.
And then ensued a mutual explana
tion, in the course of which Charlie
and Dorothy became excellent friends.
Our little heroine succeeded in ob-.
taining the vacant situation at the
stpre where Kitty Cliff “tried on,” and,
contrary to Mr. Kingston’s*predlction,j
1 her roses bloomed as brightly as ever
> at the expiration of three montijs.
For Dotty was happy, and there is no |
tonic like happiness.
“Well, puss,” said Norman to her, as
the winter wore itself away, “I gave
the fellows notice to clear out to-day.
I shall be all ready for you to come and
keep house for me on the first of May.”
Dorothy blushed vividly.
"Oh, Norman!" cried she, "I’m so
sorry, but—■”
“But what ?” said Norman. “You’re
not going back to the country?”
“No, not exactly,” said Dorothy.
“But I’m going to keep house for some
one else. I’m engaged to Charlie
Kingston.”
“Hello!” said Norman Diver. “Then
the fellows may as well stay where
they are ?”
“If you don’t mind,” whispered
Dorothy.
j “Well, you’ll have a good husband,”
I said Norman. “And now that his
uncle Is dead, he’ll have a nice little
property of his own. After all, puss,
it was a clever idea of yours to come
to the city.”
“But I never dreamed how things
were going to turn out!” said Dorothy.
—Ruth Ransom.
Dyeing Silk.
Dyeing is always a hand process, as
the color of a dyer’s hand suggests,
: aud hero machinery does not attempt
jto interfere. Long troughs fill the
i sloppy and steamy room, in which the
I great skeins of silk yarn are dipped
i from cross-sticks, by party-colored hu-
I man beings, who move them occasion
i ally to and fro to make sure all parts
| have a fair chance. The muddy hue
■ suggests a little of the brilliancy of
I color that is to be the glory of the
i completed fabric, and we will not en
j ter into any trade secrets of their com
! position. But there is good dyeing
i and bad dyeing, honest dyeing and
false dyeing, aud a silk maker who has
intent to deceive can make his yarn
take 300 per cent, of extra weight by
i the use of metallic substances in the
I dye pot. T.his accounts for some of
' the cheapness as well as the bad wear
of certain foreign fabrics which look
as well at first sight as goods at a
much higher price. Some of the for
eign black silks are so highly “loaded”
with nitrate of iron as to give color to
the belief in “spontaneous combus
tion” in silk which caused the North
German Steamship Company in 1879
to refuse the weightier foreign silks.
The carbon of the silk and the nitrate
make a compound closely parallel to
gun cotton, which is simply cotton
fibre soaked with nitric acid. Ameri
can manufacturers challenge consum
ers to test the purity of their fabrics,
which may be done by ravelling the
silks into threads. If heavily loaded
they will break easily, feel rough to
the touch because of the particles of
dye, taste inky to the tongue, and
burn srnoulderingly into a yellow,
greasy ash instead of crisply into
almost nothing. These are tests lady
buyers of a silk dress should not for
get. The range of tint in colored silks
is remarkable, and the variety of shade
required from year to year by fashion
makes a curious pictorial history of the
times. One dealer at the Centennial
showed a rainbow in silk threads.-
Harper's Magazine.
A Zereba.
The zereba is a native light barri
cade constructed in the form of a
square, and, by the Arabs, made of
mimosa brush, piled with the prickly
branches outward, and built high
enough to make the offer to overleap
them impracticable. The sharp, jag
-1 ged branches present a forbidding as
pect to the Arabs and blacks, who
have no taste for flinging their naked
bodies against them. The great tac
tics of the Arabs is to attack by “rush
ing,” in the hope to overwhelm, by the
very impetus of the assault, the wait
i ing enemy. Asa means of checking
I ibis “rush” the zereba has been found
very effective, and the English adopt
ed the native example as a very excel
lent provision against a decisive
charge from the enemy in open fight
ing. But any sort of superficial forti
cation flung up to meet a temporary
requirement is now referred to in the
despatches as a zereba. It corresponds,
in fact, to the fence-rail breastworks
and the light earthworks thrown up
by troops in the civil wnr. The prin
ciple of construction is a very old one,
and is a very good one in primitive
warfare where the serious fighting is
in hand-to-hand encounters.
Angels on Castors.
A Western paper speaks of girls at
the rink as “angels on castors.” Quite
poetical. Still it rather takes the
poetry out of the thing when it is re
membered that before the average girl
becomes an angel on castors she has a
course of training to pursue that
brings her many a mishap. In the
* words of the poet:
She’s frowned upon by pastors,
She meets with sad disasters,
| Needs arnica and plasters
Before the art she maators
Os gilding on the castors.
J —Booion Courier,
TOPICS OF THE DAI.
A chemist in New York asserts that!
in every one hundred pounds of green
tea used in this country the consumer
drinks more than a half-pound of
Prussian blue and gypsum.
The largest diamond in the world is
soon to be cut at Amsterdam, where a
special workshop is being constructed.
This gem is South African, and weighs
475 carats, thus being 195 carats
heavier than the “Grand Mogul” be
longing to the Shah of Persia, and
hitherto the biggest diamond known.
The London Lancet warns people
against the danger of licking adhesive
stamps and envelopes, adding that it
is a most perilous practice, producing
local irritation and sore tongues,
whilst occasionally other diseases are
propagated by the habit.
“Why Not Eat Insects?” is the title
of a recent English book. The writer
thinks that such a diet would have
certain advantages for poor people,
and he insists that an “appetizing rel
ish” is to be found in “boiled caterpil
lars, fried grasshoppers and grilled
cock-chasers.” His argument rests
mainly on the descriptions of half
starved travellers concerning their
personal enjoyment of cooked insects,
and the fact that certain savages thrive
on such diet.
Boulder, Col.,has an ingenious musi
cian, according to a western newspa
per, which says: “Noil McClay, who
grinds music out of violins in the
Board of Trade saloon, has made a
small violin which is quite a novelty
in its way. He caught a small turtle
at the lake and used the shell for the
body of the violin. The holes where
the feet protuded were covered over
with a banjo head and glue. The
back of the turtle is turned up and
the holes for the sound cut into it.
The head of the violin is ornamented
with the turtle’s head and two of the
feet.
The Journal of Inebriety thinks
that the cumluative action of alcohol
on the brain centres exists to a great
er extent than is generally supposed.
Many men who drink regularly
through the day and seem no worse
for it, become intoxicated late at night,
although they have used no spirits
during the evening. “It appears,”
says the editor, “that alcohol, like
bromide, may remain in the system
to some extent without producing any
marked action, and then suddenly,
from some unknown cause, burst into
great activity, producing profound in
toxication.” The reasons for this do
not seem to be definitely understood,
though they are thought to be of a
combined physiological and psycho
logical nature, and partly due to cli
matic conditions.
The co-operative community in
France,of which so much has been writ
ten, is steadily gaining ground. The
average wages of workmen per week
are 30 shillings and sixpence (say
$7.35), which is said to be far higher
than those earned by foundry hands
in England. The association was
formed twenty-five years ago, and is
composed of 1,400 persons. The capi
tal employed has a preferential inter
est of 5 per cent. Further profits
are divided among the workmen. Last
year the capital share was $66,000,and
the laborers’ share was $377,400.
The threats from time to time of in
vasions of the United Statea by chol
era, yellow fever, and other malig
nant diseases, repeatedly call the at
tention to the genera! use of disinfect
ants,which are often used to great ad
vantage in communities that have to
fear an irruption of these epidemics.
But it is a great mistake to rely on
them to the exclusion of individual
measures having a far greater impor
tance. Humboldt s.ii 1 that persons
whose bodies are strengthened by
wholesome habits in respect of food,
clothing, clenliness, exercise, and fresh
air, are enable I to resist the cause
which brings about in other
men. But to ordinary people it is so
much easier to rely upon the germi
cide poisons of a Board of Health than
to adopt sensible habits, that half the
good work that is done by the author
ities is neutralized by the neglect of
all sanitary precautions.
A correspondent who has visited He
rat, “the key of India," avers that its
evil odors assail the nostrils at a dis
tance of five miles from tho walls if
I one be not traveling with the wind.
The city is in the form of a huge
square, with fortified sides about a
| mile in length either way, and with a
I huge stone citadel in the centre. Sur
! rounded by hills,Herat lias no drainage,
reeks witli mud, garbage and stagnant
water, yet its mortality is not exces
sive, Probably the supply of pure
water and the prevalence ol cool north
winds account for the ability of the
I people to resist their filthy surround
ings. Some seven centuries ago, before
it was laid waste by Genghis Khan,
Herat was the largest city in the world.
Probably the Russian soldiers who can
luxuriate on a banquet of vodka and
tallow candles would feel comfortable
enough in Herat.
In a recent lecture Mr. F. A. Gower
asked the question, Could armies, forts
and arsenals be seriously assailed from
that quarter in which attack was not
now expected—the air above? His
belief, from four years of study and
observation, was in the afflrmative.and
as a means to that end he proposed
simply to transfer to the upper levels
the general plan of torpedo
upon a larger scale and with its effec
tive range indefinitely extended. The
term “air torpedoes," did not quite de
scribe his system, and he had used
rather the term “air battery” to de
scribe the force he proposed should be
used in aerial warfare. He suggested
that] by the means of aerostats explo
sions of 100 pound shells of gun cot
ton might be arranged ovei the enemy’s
position. Summarizing his proposals,
the lecturer said: “In brief, I propose
to you a warfare by gun cotton and
hydrogen, to make the loss of an army
a result of its meeting an opposing
wind, to destroy the security of forti
fied positions, and finally to show,upon
the simplest principles of self-preser
vation, that nations must keep peace
aud great armies be disbanded."
Land of I lie Khedive.
The natives are very industrious,
and on either side of the river bank
for a mile back have cultivated every
inch of the soil and planted their crops
down to the very edge of the water,
so as to have the benefit of the annual
inundations. The sight is indeed a
beautiful one. .Sloping backward as
far as the rocky heights are beautiful
fields of grain, dotted here and there
with the rude huts of the owners of
the land. There is no regular harvest
season, so far as 1 know, but crops are
cut at all times of the year. The
principal crop is Egyptian corn, which
is made to answer almost every pur
pose. These people cling to the primi
time harvest tools used by the first in
habitants of the country. Instead of
reapers and mowers the diminutive
sickle is used, and the manner in
which they use it created much merri
ment among the voyageurs. I wit
nessed a couple of women grinding
wheat with the same old hand mill
mentioned in the scriptures. They
1 squatted tailor fashion on the ground
on either side of the mill stones, and
dropping the wheat in the cavity in
the center of the wheel, turned it
1 slowly, accompanying the proceeding
with a peculiar motion of the body and
at the same time humming a weird
tune. The sight was an unusual one
to me who had spent most of my life in
the Michigan woods, but I had no de
sire to remain there any length of
time. Tho natives are very similar to
our negroes, except that they have the
prominent cheek bones of the Indian
and not the flat features of the descend
ants of Ham. I have in my time seen
slovenly people, but the natives of
Egypt are, in my opinion, the dirtiest
people in the world, Digger Indians
not excepted. To look at them is as
’ good as a dose of medicine. Their
only article of wearing apparel consists
of a garment shaped like a Mother
Hubbard dress. Males and females
dress alike, and the only way to distin.
guish them is that the women are al
ways engaged in the hardest kind of
work, while their liege lords do the
bossing.
These people are very different from
the Arabs of the Soudan, who are as
1 treacherous as a snake. The Arabs
are magnificent specimens of the hu
man race.— Detroit Free Press.
A Young Man’s Fortune.
Every young man has a fortune in
the fact of his youth, says a college
president. The energy of youth is un
blunted by defeat or worn by hope de
ferred. With age one becomes more
conservative, and looks at as impossi
, ble what a younger person would en
deavor to accomplish, in many cases
with success. The effort, even if there
i be a failure, is a grand success. Self
. confidence, or self-conceit, if you wish
■ to call It so, is a great thing. A young
man’s fortune is not to be found In in
herited wealth or social position. Gra
cious manners of business habits are
good things to cultivate, but are not
all. Will power is the young man’s
: fortune. It is the essence of the man.
. A young man with only a little wiL
) power is a foregone failure. It should
i be cultivated. Genius Is a gift ol
i God, and should not cause pride, but.
- an honest pursuit of duties is an e.xhi
, bition of will power, and is something
t to be proud of. 'Well directed, educa-
- ted will power is what a young man
s needs.
Chaff and Grain.
"Each story of n soul is great; but who
Shall write it, for who knows what makes the _
great noss ?
Or. who can sift it and bring out the grain,
Winnowed nnd clean from the concealing
chuff?
Who can the dross dissever from the gold?
Who estimate the little or the groat
Even in one human word ? Or who shako out
The folded feelings of a human heart?
Or who unwind the one hour’s ravelled
thoughts
Os one poor mind even in its idlest day ?”
“The balances of man are all untrue;
His weights and eyes deceitful. He may
write
The story of a pebble or a rock,
Tho annals ol a bottle or a worm;
But the great story of his own vast being,
The hills and valleys ol his life, he cannot;
A life made up of but a few short years,
And yet containing in its troubled round
Tempests and tides and changes, failures, con
quests
In daily flux and reflux without end.
Horatius Bonar.
HUMOROUS.
A caucus—a crow.
A commentator—the ordinary
boiled one.
Wooden heads should wear chip
hats in summer.
The bang is said to be coming in
fashion again. On doors closed by
servant girls it is worn very loud.
“What is an epistle?” asked a Sun
day-school teacher of her class. “The
wife of an apostle,” replied the young
hopeful.
’Jis sweet to court
When there’re only two,
But uphill work
If there’re more of you.
That ladies easily learn to play the
violin is n6t surprising when their
experience in handling beaux is taken
into consideration.
A wise exchange says "only one
woman in a thousand can whistle.”
This probably results from the fact
that so long as a woman can talk she
doesn’t care to whistle.
Miss Amanda has just had a quiet
tete-at-tete with Lieutenant Eligible,
and was asked by her guardian how
she liked his conversation. “Oh, im
mensely. There’s a ring in his voice.”
“My son,’ said a fond father to his
little son, whom he had been punish
ing by the use of the rod for the first
time : “my son, I hope this has taught
you a lesson.” “Yes, pa,” the little
fellow sobingly replied : “it’s taught
mo that it is better to give than to re
ceive.”
Conjurer (pointing to a large cabi
net) —Now, ladies and gentlemen, al
low me to exhibit my concluding trick.
I would ask any lady in the company
to step on the stage and stand in this
cupboard. I will then close the door.
When I open it again the lady will
have vanished without leaving a trace
behind. Gentlemen (in the front seat
aside to his wife) —“I say, old woman,
do me a favor and step up!”
Queer Corean Customs.
The primitive sackcloth is still the
mourning raiment of the Coreans.
During a visit paid by the squadron
under the command of Admiral Willes
to ports on the east coast of Corea, the
officials were wearing “grayish hem
pen garments,” which, in that country,
denote mourning, and the admiral was
informed that the whole nation had
gone into mourning for a year for the
Queen, who had died in consequence
of the shock to her feelings caused by
the proceedings of the rioters at Seoul.
In the matter of dress generally the
Coreans are favorably spoken of, near
ly every one being decently dressed;
and a real well-dressed Corean, in his
broad hat and whitest robes, is said to
have an eminently respectable and
well-to-do appearance. Their towns
however, offer a distinct contrast,
sanitary science being little under
stood, and architecture not having got
beyond a rudimentary stage; but in
one respect they seem to be ahead of
the West. The smoke from the fires
is made to pass in Hues underneath
the rest of the house, and although the
chimney is projected in an incongru
ous way into the streets, the whole
building is comfortably warmed by a.
limited expenditure of fuel.
Hound Kobins.
The “round robin” is a novelty in
this country, but in former days it
w.s frequently used in the British
navy, where petitions and complaints
from the sailors were written in this
manner in order to protect any of the
signers from being considered a ring
leader. The names are placed in a
circle inclosing the request, which in
the above instance is highly reasonable
and should succeed. The most noted
round robin in existance is that presen
ted by the literati of London to Dr.
Johnson in reference to his epitaph on
Goldsmith, one important objection be
ing that the latter was written in Lat
in. The paper was drawn up by Ed
mund Burke, and begins thus: “We
the circumscribers,” etc. The “cir
cumscribers” include Gibbon, Burke.
"Warton, Colman, Sheridan, Sir Joshua
Reynolds and other distinguished men,
and yet they failed. The reply of the
Cerebus of literature was that he
“would never disgrace the walls of
Westminster abbey with an English
inscription.” Johnson afterward learn
ed the name of the author of this fa
mous round robin, on which his only
comment was: “I did not think that
man Burke was such a fool.” It is
hardly necessary to add that the Lat
ln epitaph still remains.— Troy Times.