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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.