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CASTLES. I lAb tottering walls, the crumbling arch, The oolumns, the works of art. Are mingled with briars and weeds and grime-- A fitting counterpart, fn telling the tales of the long ago. Of the castles where lord and liogo li'he legions defied, but that fell before Old Time's relentless siege. But the cornerstones were deeply laid, ■below the rage of the storm, And mnrk the spot that will tell the talo To the ages yet unborn. But nothing remains of the loves and hopes Of the princely dwellers there, Ho pillars are left, no fragments are found, Of their castles in the air. Yet the castles of Love, and the temples of Hope, And Ambition's gorgeous goal. Have aisles as broad and domes as high As the concept of the Soul. Delusions may come and illusions may go, The mirage may bring despair, Yet oheer to the soul, and joy to the heart, Are castles in the air. l_. They take us away from the plod and the grind, Away from life's woarisome road, And promise that somehow, in days to come. We shall bear us a lighter load. Hope's anchor is fastened within the veil Of the faith abiding there; We smile at care and banish grief From our castles In the air. I ■r-.—rne* Our castles may vanish, but never decay, Like the castles we have seen, ’* With moss-covered ruin—the jeer of the winds, And the sport of the ivy green. But grander and higher we build anew 80 high that we seem to be where The songs of the angels till the dome Of our castles in tho pi r. —Wi 11 Oumbaok, in Indianapolis Journal. teiei^aaßK^ssisieiaeisie(eie^e;eie(e| REFORMATION OF SHEPHERD. | By R. CLYDE FORD. $ meieiQieieiei^eieieieieieieieiaeieieie^i HEDGE No. 4 was V stationed one Pi summer on the 1] ran g e between 17 Bay Mills and Y Point mix Pius, f The quarter-boat f° r the hands, “Sibeery,” the night men called it from the time it had been so christened by Joe Shep herd in a fit of melancholy and despair, was anchored in a little sandy cove on the Canadian side of the river near the Point. The gouge in the shore line here was due whilly to the removal of sand by a “sand sucker,” a contrivance fitted up by the Canadians to get sand for their new locks at the Soo. How ever much the night men said they disliked the constant wheezing and puffings of the sucker, and the un couth machine itself, which they claimed had set fire to their last year’s quarter-boat and compelled them to crawl out of a sound sleep in the mid dle of the forenoon, leaving watches and clothes behind, still, in reality, they did not object very much to the sucker after all. It was their only re laxation, their only excitement in the lonesome hours of their quarter-boat life. “Mighty hot Sibeery, ain’t it, boys?” Joe would remark, when about 10 o’clock the men came down from their hot rooms to sit in disconsolate groups in the shade of the house on broken anchor chains and dredge machinery. “Mightjest aboutas well be a Canuck and run a sand-sucker,” he would grumble on, peering through clouds of smoke from his corn-cob pipe out into the clear water, where, forty or fifty feet away, the long pipe of the sucker was feeling about on the bot tom and pulling a steady stream of sand and water up into the big scow which served as a sort of stomach for it. A.nd then some late comer would appear with suspenders dragging, and after contemplating the progress of the pumping, would call out to the imper turbable saud-sueker men, “That’s right, fellers, dig away; youneedsand, you fellers do!” And, in spite of Joe’s expostulating snort that the night crew needed sand, too, this continued to be the regular daily joke which the for saken party on Sibeery hurled at her majesty’s subjects on the sucker. it was a strange sort of regimen which prevailed on the dredge. When there were places to be filled anybody who offered himself was accepted. No questions were asked. It was, how ever, expected that no one would get drunk while on duty. What one did when off duty was of no consequence. Tne great channel between Duluth and buffalo was strictly international, and anybody could help dig it, be he Jew or Gentile, white or black. Per sonal history counted for nothing, for pedigree and past life were never made subjects of study on the river. The river is one place in this democratic land, at any rate, where, as the poet says, “There ain’t no ancient history to bother yon nor me.” The make-up of the night crew was remarkable, and it had some striking characters in it. But the most re . markable man of all who sat down to midnight dinner on No. 4 was Joe Shepherd. He was tall and slim, al most lathy indeed, and not very old. He stooped slightly with the languor ous stoop of a scholar, but was not one. His face, turned a dusky brown by the wind and weather of the chan nel, was marked by a nose, large and (dump, and burned a still fiercer red than the rest of his face. Joe’s nose was a flaming promontory in a parched Sahara. Surmount his face by a soft wool hat, and imagine him dressed in fairly good clothes, and you have Joe Shepherd, the person. But it would take long acquaintance to know Joe Shepherd, the man, the real personal ity, which was at once the life and soul—what little there was—of the night crew Joe was the boss at night, the “run ner” in the vernacular of the dredge. He presided over the machinery in the engine room and regulated the great crane and dipper. In the ghostly electric light he presented a strange appearance, as seen from a tug or passing barge, his tall, gaunt figure bending over the lever, which he Sushed forward or backward at a mo on horn the cranesman till the crane groaned or creaked. Occasionally his band would reach up to the whistle Signal, and a hoarse, bellowing blast Would warn some passing steamer where it was to go. Sometimes, too, he would sing at his work, for he had a good voice. His favorite song was a kind of river lyric: •lAn’ the waters sweep on As we dig away At the bottom of the river bod; An' the boats creep on As we list away— That's how we earn T bread. “Battle an’ creak o’ the erane, An’ up with ’e anchor post; On with the work again, ’Tls a dreary life at most, ’Tls a dreary life at most. An’ the days sweep on As we work away Wherever falls the lead; An’ our lives creep on Till our hearts gi’ way— That’s how we earn ’r bread. “Battle an’ creak o’ the crane, An’ up with ’e anchor post; On with tho work again, ’Tis a weary life at most, ’Tis a weary life at most.” If the night crew had stopped to think they could have seen that Joe was their superior in everything but morals. Morally dredge men are pretty much alike. He swore like the rest, he talked illiterately like the rest, but now and then there would flash into his conversation an expression beautifully turned, some illusion foreign to his surroundings, indicating a life and history not quite covered up by the ooze of the river. But whatever he might have been, it was evident that he had shaped himself so long to his environment that the adaptation had become real life with him. Joe’s besetting sin was drink. In this he did not differ any from the rest, hut one noticed it more in him because the gentleman was not quite rubbed out of him. Whenever the tug went to the Soo in the day time, Joe went along if he could get passage from Si berry, and he always came back with gourd-like nose colored a more pro nounced red. Joe had a wife, too, who lived in a little house in the Soo, but she did not see much of him. He went to town over Sunday, but he spent most of Saturday night with the bons vivants of Water street, and he did not rest Sundays. Of course he ought not to have been able to find liquor on a Sunday, but whoever knows the river and the river world, will see nothing remarkable in this. The men said Joe’s wife took his dissipation very much to heart for she was young and an utter stranger in the town. And of course a wife who looks forward through a long week of lone someness to seeing her husband Sat urday night, is wretched and cries from disappointment if he does not come home till Sunday afternoon, and drunk at that. Women are so peculiar about such things. The Fourth of July came that year in the middle of the week, and at four o’clock in the morning of the eventful day Joe blew a long blast of the whistle, and tho dredge stopped work. As soon as the men could wash up the tug took them down to Sibeery, where a few hoarse shrieks brought out the “exiles” who could sleep nights “as white orter,” said Joe. Everybody put on his best clothes and took all the money he had. The term “best clothes” among dredge men does’not mean much; a $lO suit at most, a white shirt with a few tobacco stains on the bosom, a collar laundered once or twice in the course of the summer, and a necktie of glaring colors—such it is to be well dressed on the river. By six o’clock the tug was puffing away toward the Soo with almost the whole population of No. 4 aboard of her. There is no need to particularize specially as to the adventures of the day. Everybody celebrated with a will; celebrated as only river men whose minds are filled with the sig nificance of the day can celebrate. The night fireman of the dredge was drunk by ten o’clock. Bill Sykes, the day crauesman, was in the lock-up by noon. Reddy, fireman of the tug, took part iq three fights in the course of the day and was worsted in all of them. But Joe Shepherd was unusu ally methodical and moderate in his jollification. He drank copiously at his own and other people’s expense; but he combined exercise and pleasure so carefully that he was “still on the range” at noon. But his nose showed certain telltale signs. Joe’s nose was like the water gauge of a boiler. One could tell about how he was filling up by it. At four o’clock the day runner went to the tug and blew a few short whistles, the rallying whistle for the men. And soon they came—those that were coming at all—but with steps very measured and slow. Now and then some of them would he moved to tears from patriotic fervor aud stop to embrace one another and thank heaven they were citizens of our great repub lic—all of this within a step of the canal. Last of all came Joe, somewhat per turbed in manner, but still enduring. He was singing with all his might the refrain of his favorite song, with some variations: “Rattle ’n’ creak o’ the crane, An’ up with ’e anchor post; On with the work again, ’Tis a blamed hard life at most— ’Tis a blamed hard life at most.” He had just started on this for the third or fourth time when a little wo man turned the corner and came up by the side of him. The song died on his lips. “ ’Tis a blamed hard life," was the end of it. “Joe,” said the woman, “yog haven’t been home this week now and—” “Mrs. Shepherd,” inter rupted Joe oratorically, “this is the day we celebrate. The nation’s wel fare is—” Here he stumbled and did not finish his sentence. “But Joe, you didn’t come home last Sunday, either, and I git so lone some all alone,” and the woman began to cry. By this time the two were up 1 near the tug. “Ob, come, now, Mrs. Shepherd, Julia dear, guess you’d better go back, you’ll be hinderin’ proper navigation on the canal here.” “I don’t care, I won’t go back, not now aryway. If you’re goin’ off I’m goin’ to see you a minut,” and she fastened resolutely to Joe’s arm with one hand, and wiped her eyes with the other. Joe was embarrassed and conscience-smitten. And it was an ordeal to appear like this before the men, some of whom did not even know he was married. While the pro visions were being put aboard and the last stragglers collected, Joe sat near by on a stick of timber, with his wife holding to his arm. When all was really the captain .yelled “all aboard,” and blew the whistle. Joe rose to go. “Give me a kiss, Joe, please,” said his wife, and he hesitatingly and awk wardly kissed her. Then he stepped on the tug and the woman was atom by the canal. Joe was sobering up fast, but he talked with nobody and during the run back to the dredge stood by him self on the bow and let the cool breeze clear the oohwebs from his brain. That night the dredge started up again with Joe running. For several hours he searoely spoke, but toward midnight he turned to the inspector, who stood near. “Mr. Hunter, a man who gets drunk is a fool, ain’t he?” he asked, half in question, half in meditation. “Yes,” answered the in spector tersely. “Then I’ll quit it,” said Joe, and he kept his word. A Mercurial Monarch. To those who are aocustomed to look upon Oriental potentates and dig nitaries as the impersonifioation of re pose and decorous gravity; most of them being so impassive that it is per fectly impossible to interpret their feelings, the King of Siam is a perfect revelation, says a correspondent. He is literally bubbling over with enthus iasm, excitement, curiosity and de light and impresses everybody that has met him since his arrival in Eu rope as being the jolliest little fellow imaginable. He is always smiling when he is not laughing outright, never bows without a smile of such broadness that it is almost a full fledged grin, and dashes off his hat with such a grand and vehement ges ture that he almost knocks over the people nearest him. He can do noth ing calmly, and managed, by his an tics, to keep the somber and unhappy looking King Humbert in altogether abnormally good spirits throughout his entire stay at Borne, He made a per fect show of himself at the capitol. He ran from statue to statue, looking at them all round, in front, at the back and even underneath. When he saw the capitol Venus his enthusiasm knew no bounds, and he actually jumped, shouted and slapped his thighs with admiration. In fact, he is so lively that the stately biased officials of the various courts of Europe, where he is visiting, are in a great state of pertur bation. He has already been nick named “King Quicksilver,” owing to the rapidity with which he does every thing, even his speaking of the Eng lish language. Desperate Hide of a Wheelman. Only desperate necessity could urge a wheelman to take such chances as were faced one day recently by Joseph E. Everett of Brick Church, N. J. Mr. Everett is’ a lawyer, and having a most important engagement in a neigh boring town, determined to take the morning train to the place in question. He miscalculated the time, and did not discover his error until warned by the train whistle. He is elderly, but is an expert wheelman, and, jumping into the saddle, he dashed off to the depot. Just as the train started per sons on the platform saw him riding with head down and feet moving like piston rods down Harrison street to the railroad. At the crossing the cy clist turned on to the gravel track be tween the rails and scorched down the road after the fast-receding train. As the last ear passed Evergreen place, moving at a speed which would have caused an experienced train jumper to hesitate, the cyclist rode abreast of the rear platform. Still pedaling with one foot and grasping the bar with one hand, the scorcher reached over and clutched the railing on the plat form. With a quick movement he swung himself clear of the saddle, drawing his wheel after him by twin ing his other foot around the frame, aud .lauded safely on the steps of the car The feat was witnessed by at least twenty persons, and nil agreed that it had beat the record for any trick riding any of them had ever seen.—Washington Star. History of Ivory. The earliest recorded history—we might say prehistoric, the hieroglyphi cal—that has come down to us has been in carvings on ivory and bone. Long before metallurgy was known among the prehistoric races, carvings on reindeer horn and mammoth tusk, evidence the antiquity of art. Frag ments of horn and ivory, engraved with excellent pictures of animals, have been found in caves and beds of of rivers and lakes. There are speci mens in the British Museum, also in the Louvre, of the Egyptian skill in ivory carving, attributed to the age of Moses. In the latter collection are chairs or seats of the sixteenth cen tury B. C. inlaid with ivory, and other pieces of the eleventh century B. C. We have already referred to the Nine veh ivories. Carving of the “precious substance” was extensively carried on at Constantinople during the middle ages. Combs, caskets, horns, boxes, etc., of carved ivory and bone, often set in precious stones, of the old Roman and Anglo-Saxon periods, are frequently found in tombs. Crucifixes and images of the Virgin and saints made in that age are often graceful and beautiful. The Chinese and Japanese are rival artists now in their peculiar minutiae and detail.—Appletons’ .Pop ular Science Monthly. Wooing and Wedding in Alaska. Wooing and wedding in Alaska among the natives are interesting and peculiar rites. When a young man is of a suitable age to marry, his mother, his aunt or his sister looks up a wife for him. He seldom marries a woman younger than himself; she is much old er, and sometimes is double his age, and even more. She is selected from a family whose position equals his, or is even higher. When a suitable wo man is found the young man is asked how many blankets and animal skins he is willing to pay for her. When that important question is settled, a feast is arranged in the home of the bride and the friends of both families are invited. When the company is as sembled the woman’s people extol the greatness of their family. The young man’s marriage gifts are spread out where they will make a fine show, and then his family sound their praises. The ceremony lasts from one to two days, and finally the young man takes his wife to his own abode. Iflltialna;. What has become of the old-fash ioned boy whose face was a mass of freckles? The boys of to-day don’t use lotions, but the boy whose faoe was so covered with freckles that they ran in to each other and hung over the edges, is missing. He was the smartest boy en earth.—Atchison Globe. OUft BUDGET OF HIfMOR. LAUCHTER-PROVOKING STORIES FOR LOVERS OF FUN. In Erroiw>A..umod a Disguise—’They Had Been In Battle The Vernacular— Dae.elng Him Down—Paradoxical — An Advantage—A Burning question. Etc. He could not soo the coming blight. Knew not how soon he’d be bereft; But said, “You love me; am I right?” Low answered she, “No, sir; you’re left!” —Judge. He Wouldn't Do a Thing to It. Josh—“ They say all kinds of dis eases come from microbes nowadays.” Hiram—“l wish I had a hold of the microbe that started off my rheu matiz.” Assumed -a Disguise. Reporter—“ You didn’t catch the thief?” Sheriff—“No; he changed his name ten miles back and threw me off the track.”—Judge. The Vernacular. “Don’t you think he puts on too much side?” “Yea, aud a good deal of front; but I don’t think it has any backing.”— Indianapolis Journal. The Supply Exhausted. The Old Fisherman —“Don't seem to be any flsh around here.” The Cynic “Shouldn’t suppose there were; everybody in this region has caught so many.” The Orthodox Tiling. Papa—-“And did you think for one moment that that clerk of mine was in a position to propose to you?” Daughter—“ Why, certainly, Papa! He was on his knees.” They Had Been in Battle. First Old Soldier —“There’s some thing familiar about that woman’s face.” Second Old Soldier—“ That’s so. I guess it’s the powder.”—Puck. Their First Breakfast. Mr. Youngwed—“Darling, this egg seems to he pretty well cooked.” Mrs. Youngwed (delighted) “I thought so. Why, dearest, I boiled it for over half an hour.”-—Judge. Paradoxical. Sudds—“The circus poster is a par adoxical work of art.” Spatts—“Well?” Sudds —“It is decided in its views, and yet you’ll find it on the fence. ” Judge. A Privileged Pair. Ilojack—“Silence is golden, I be lieve!” Tomdik—“So they say.” Hojack—“Then the nuptials of a deaf mute couple might be called a go .den wedding. ’’—Detroit Free Press. Dressing Him Down. “I believe you’d staud before a mirror all day,” said Mr. Closely snappishly, “doing nothing but change your dresses.” “Perhaps I would,” replied Mrs. Closely, dreamily, “if I had the dresses. ” —Judge. He Interprets the Contract. Customer “You remember you sold me this coat yesterday? You said you would return the money if it wasn’t satisfactory.” Clothing Merchant—“But, my dear sir, it vos quvite satisfactory; I nefer had petter money as dot in all my life.” —Puck. An Advantage. “I envy her complexion,” said Maud. “But she freckles and tans so easi ly!” replied Mamie. “That’s just it. She can go to the seashore for a few days, and at the end of the season look exactly as if she had been away all summer.”— Washington Star. A Burning Question. “And what is to be the subject of lecture to-morrow night, Professor?” “Well, my dear young lady, I can hardly hope it will have much interest for you. I Shall lecture on ‘sun-spots. ’ ” “Oh, but that’s of the greatest in terest to me. I shall certainly come. You’ve no idea how I suffer from freckles. ” —Punch. Economy and Morals.' Wife—“ John, don’t you think you better give up trying to shave your self and go back to the barber?” Husbaud—“Why, of course not. See how much I save every month.” Wife—“ Yes, I know that, but then Willie is always around when you shave, and he is learning so many bad words.” —Ohio State Journal. A Biased Honeymoon. The Groom (as he recovers sensibil ity)— “W-hei’e am I?” The Bride—“ Hush, darling! you met with an accident as we got in the hack.” The Groom—“ Horse kick me?” The Bride—“ N-n-o, darling! Pa threw an old boot after you, and in his exeitement forgot his wooden leg was in it.” —Judge. The Coroner and the Expert. A bridge had collapsed. The train upon it had gone down into the chasm. The Coroner’s jury was endeavoring to fix the responsibility. A famous ex pert was on the witness stand. “Sir,” said the Coroner, with con siderable deference, “to what do you attribute the collapse of the struc ture?” The great expert deliberated. “Wait,” he said.—Cleveland Plain Dealer. His Plan. “How is it, Colonel,” asked the hopeful young bunco-steerer, address ing the hoary-headed master of the craft, “that you have always been so successful in picking out juicy suck ers, aud never have to waste your time on unprofitable subjects?” “I simply wait till I hear a man say that he is a pretty good judge of human nature,” replied the veteran; “and then I know he is just what Tam looking for.” —Puck. The State Railroad Commission of North Carolina has increased the tax valuation of the railroads in the State by $3,000,600. The valuation of nearly everything else remains the same or has been lowered. The telegraph rate was ordered reduced from twenty-five cents for ten words to fifteen cents. ELEPHANTS FIGHT A DUEL. Bulls Make a Mighty Interesting Spectacle For the Hunters. Hearing sounds that indicated seri ous trouble in a herd of wild elephnnts on the Upper Congo River, a native hunter named Keema and a sportsman named Rolmrd fled precipitately to a sturdy tree near by. What happened after that is told in Outing: “They had scarcely reached their perches when a second division of the herd came rushing down the path which the men had just left, shrieking and trumpeting in auger and fear. The tree shook as the tornado of brutes swept by. On the left the shrieking was varied with cracking and lashing as of ropes against a mast. Keema climbed higher in his tree, and through a break in the forest discov ered the cause of the trouble. In an open space two bull elephants were fighting. One of them was a leader of the herd, the other an old warrior bull tramp who had lost a tusk. “ ‘lt is the rogue Ilunga,’ whispered Keema, ‘and he will kill the other beauty —no use to try to stop him.’ “The hunters watched fora chance to fire as the brutes drew back a little and sprang together with lowered heads and big ears outspread, the skulls coming together with stunning force. On recovering they caine to gether again, rising on their hind legs and striking down with their tusks as with a sword, shrieking with rage, and using their trunks like whip lashes. The men came from the tree and drew near to the fight through the bushes. “ ‘Shoot the leader,’ said Keema; ‘it is no use to try for tho other.’ “Then it dawned on Robard that the savage deemed the wanderer an evil spirit not to be tried for, since it pos sessed magic power. The man came into sight of the leader of the herd behind Hunga, as the native called him, and the beast drew back, startled at the sight of a deadlier enemy than the wandering bull. The shrinking of the leader gave the tramp a chance, and, like a fencer, he gave a sharp thrust with his tusk. The leader staggered, but a shot behind Ilunga’s ear killed the other elephant. The leader leaned forward as if to rush to attack Robard, who had fired, but Keema was just behind the elephant, and with a keeD, heavy knife ham strung the beast with a single blow, disabling it. A bullet above tho eye finished the creature.” Caught the Entire Swann. A queen bee Thursday led her swarm of 7000 odd subjects right into the heart of Rochester, N. Y., and a tele graph pole was selected as the final resting place of the swarm. Their presence attracted a large throng, but it made many of the pedestrians some what nervous to have a swarm of bees hovering about them, and, though tho bees do not appear to have stung any one, they were inclined to be altogether too familiar for comfort. Walter B. Bargv is a man who has passed his life in the caro of bees, and, as Ihe ill luck of the swarm would have it, he happened to be passing along while they were cutting up their antics. He determined to attempt their capture. Ho took an ordinary soap box and climbed to tho top of the pole. He was surrounded by the insects, and they could have stung him to deatli had they chosen to do so. But they seemed to recognize hitn as a friend, and none of them interfered with him. He set the soap box on top of the telegraph polo and awaited developments. In about half an hour about half the bees were swarming in side the box. He climbed up again, slipped a news paper under the box, and took it down. But he was not content with the cap ture of only half of the tribe. He took the box across the canal and set it on the pile of logs just under the canal foot bridge. On the top of the box he set a keg, and this proved so much more attractive that the bees be gan to leave the box and crawl in thousands into the keg. Tho bees which still lingered about the pole on the other side of the canal crossed over, and by night Mr. Bargy took to his home 7000 bees. They are worth sls or S2O, so he had done a pretty good day’s work.—Chicago Chronicle. A Strange and Odd Plant. One of the strangest and oddest ol plants known to botanists is one dis covered in the tropical parts of South west Africa by Dr. Wolwitsch and sent home to Europe 1 in 1863. A writer says; “It is not easy to convey an idea of such a plant; however, if one will take an old saddle, cut the flap into ribbons, set it on a sand dune with the ribbons of leather spread out around it, and stick some thing, crimson-coned at intervals around the seat to represent the fructi fications, some idea of this queer an omaly may be had, both as to its ap pearance and the places it inhabits.” The summit of the plant never reaches far above the surface, and it bear two huge leathery leaves which sprawl on the sand on either hand. Actually four leaves are produced—the two cotyledons which fall away while the plant is still young and an additional pair placed at right angles to the coty ledons and persisting through the life of the plant. In time they grow to an extraordinary size, attaining six feet in length and two to three feet in breadth; they are green, and are torn by the wind into numerous segments, which spread out over the earth. The plant attains more than a century in age, and is one of the most peculiar among vegetable monstrosities. Its appearance might easily give rise to some of the strange legends that at tach to some little known tropical plants.—Detroit Free Press. Hitting Force of Cjcllst3. A cyclist of 150 pounds weight and moving at the rate of ten feet per sec ond (about seven miles an hour) has a momentum of 1500 pounds, without counting the weight of his wheel. A collision between two 150-pound riders, wheeling at the moderate pace of seven miles an hour, would result in a smash-up with a force of 3000’ pounds! —Philadelphia Inquirer. The Fall of Koine. The extravagance of the Roman ladies of high rank was one of the prime causes of the fall of that mighty empire. Folia Poppea, who cut a wide swath in Nero’s time, was the happy possessor of a gown said to have cost nearly $1,000,000. A NEW AND NOVEL GUN. UNCLE SAM IS BUILDINC A WONDER. FUL PIECE OF ORDNANCE. Said to Be tbo Strongest War Implement Ever Made—Will Be Used For Coast Defenses Altogether Will Weigh Thirty Tons—Terrific Striking Capacity. Uncle Sam, says a New York letter in the Detroit Free Press, is building anew 10-inch wire gun of a brand new pattern to astonish the world. When Uncle Sam wants to do a thing he generally does it, and consequently all the governments on the surface of the globe watch his movements with no small degree of interest. Never be fore in the history of the manufacture of war implements has the world wit nessed a fiercer struggle for superiority between gun and armor plate in every country of the globe than at tho present time. Governments and private concerns alike take part in this race at breakneck speed. At this time of the race, however, no one can safely predict which of the two, gun or armor, will be the victor. As far as the navy is concerned the odds are slightly in favor of the guns, for it seems as if the thickness of armor for men-of-war has been nearly reaohed. Congress, taking this fact into consideration, made an appro priation last year for the construction of a 10-inch wire gun according to a new system invented by John Hamil ton Brown, an American. This gun is now being built at the plant of the Reading Iron Company, by the in ventor, under the supervision of one or two inspectors from the Ordnance Department of the United States Army. Nearly every power of Europe has tried its hand at wire wound guns before and since that period. It now appears that only England and Rus sia made any headway, while France for the time being dropped the matter entirely, confining herself to keeping watch over the achievements of other governments. At present England is doing fairly well, but she will be left far behind if the new Brown ten-incli wire gun half way fulfills the expec tations of government and inventor. The gun will weigh thirty tons and and is expected to hurl a 600-pound shell with a muzzle velocity of 2988 feet per second. Such n velocity would give the projectile, if the shell weighs 600 pounds instead of the regulation weight of 680, a striking capacity of 38,410 foot-tons. In oth er words, the striking capacity per ton of weight of gun would be 1280 foot-tons at the muzzle—something unequalled in gun construction in any country. This new 10-inch gun is and only can be intended for const defense. Its great length, thirty-seven and one half feet, makes it at once unavaila ble for use in the navy. The great length may also cause fortification engineers trouble with regard to con struction of parapets when the gun is mounted on disappearing carriages in forts, as it must be. The core of this new gun will con sist of ninety longitudinal bars (seg ments) of approximately a little less than fire-eighths of an inch in thick ness; three and three-eighths of an inch in bight at the breach and then tapering down to the muzzle to one aud one-fifth of an inch in bight. The length of the segments will be in the neighborhood of thirty-seven feet. The steel in the segments of the new gun will have a tensile strength oi 120,000 pounds to the square inch. The elastic limit will be 70,000 pounds per square inch, aud the elongation from twenty to twenty-four per cent. There is no room for doubt that a bar of steel 100 feet long which can be stretched to a length of 124 feet be fore rupture takes place must contain a metal of excellent quality. After the segments have been as semble! and the breech and muzzle nut screwed on to them, thus forming the core of the gun, the winding of the wire round and round the core be gins. The wire used in the new gun has an area of 1.49 of an inch, each side measuring 1.7 of an inch. Asthe wire is to be wound round the core under a pressure of about 98,000 pouuds per square inch, and must re tain an equal margin of strength in order to permit the core of the gun to expand safely in the firing and con tract after the shot, it becomes at once apparent that the wire must have a very great elastic limit. The weight of the seventy-five miles of wire amounts to 30,948 pounds. At the breech the gun will have from thirty-three to thirty-four layers of wire uniformily wound. The winding, indeed, of each inch of these seventy-five miles of wire, with the uniform pressure of 98,000 pounds per square inch represents in itself a problem which it will be diffi cult to solve. It was clear from tho start that the winding could not be done from an ordinary machine. A special one had to be constructed, and is now finished. The total cost of the new gun is estimated at $30,000. An Old Bit of Furniture. There lias recently been deposited in the British Museum what is prob ably the most venerable piece of furni ture in existence. It is the throne of Queen Hatasu, who reigned in the Nile Valley some 1000 years before Christ, and twenty-nine years before Moses. This now dilapidate object seems to be of lignum vitse, the carv ing of the legs being inlaid with gold, and those of the back with silver. Hnrtl to Pronounce. Hottentot is hard to pronounce, ii the graphic description of Dr. Aurel Schulz does it no injustice: “I can safely liken the language to the click ing of a multitude of different rusty old gun lock simultaneously set in in motion. It is simply appalling to hear the fatty click gut tkoot, tick, lick, mktchnk gtkowktok gtu-gkti gkkij, accompanied by many gur glings.” Eight Hundred Thousand Seeds From One. One of the most wonderful exam ples of vegetable growth, and fecun dity is illustrated by the Asiatic pem perion. A single seed planted on the grounds of the Berlin Botanical Soci ety propagated a vine which grew to be as large as a man’s body in nine weeks. It grew to a total length of nearly nine hundred feet and ripened over eight hundred thousand seeds. HEARTS. Man’s heart’s an inn; Its guests are for a day. Night falls, bugle calls, Saddle and away. Man’s heart’s an inn; Its guests are for a night. Eve sup, stirrup-cup, Soon as morn is white. But woman’s heart’s a home; Its master sitteth by Fire-light and hearth bright, Forever and for aye. —Post Wheeler, in New York Press. PITH AND POINT. She—“And when did you first see the light of day?” He—“l beiieve it was at night.” Jack—“Oh, I suppose she has her faults!” Tom—“l thought you were in love with her?”—Puck. “I can’t see] why you object to young Softly: I’m sure he is constant.” “Worse than that. He’s perpetual.” —Truth. “Berger seems to be spending his vacation in town?” “Yes, he spent, all his money on outing clothes.” —De- troit News. Count —“My love for you is as deep —as deep as—” Constance —“Papa’s poeketbook, dear count.”—Philadel phia North American. Jack Dashing—“ The entries are: Slowcoach,los pounds—” Mis3 Askins (her first experience)—“Goodness! Is that all that horse weighs?”—Puck. Jones—“l wish old Riehman would give me a tip ou Stock's. ” Smith — “If he did you’d be wishing you could tell whether it was straight or not.” — Puck. Drummer: “By whom was the play presented in the Town Hall last night?” Sqnarn Corners Merchant —“It wasn’t presented—it was perpetrated.”— Puck. First Dog—“ This hot weather makes me nervous.” Second Dog—“Me, too. Heat seems to drive some people crazy, and they develop a mania for shooting dogs.”-—Puck. Mrs. Distrait —“Dear me, this chicken salad seems very stringy!" Miss Frankly—“ Goodness gracious, I don’t wonder! You’re eating it through your veil.” —Truth. “What does that man Slickly do for a living?” “For board and lodging he does the hotels and for clothes he does his tailors. Outside of that he does the best he can.’’—Detroit Free Press. “I think it’s absurd to say kissing is dangerous,” gushed Mrs. Lillyton. “What possible disease could be spread by the simple act?” “Marriage, madam,” grunted Grumpy.—Philadel phia North American. “To save me, I can’t tell which Jones girl I want to marry.” “What is the trouble?” “One makes such delicious strawberry shortcake, but the other one looks so lovely on her wheel.”—Detroit Free Press. Wallace—“So your partner fell in the river and rose no more? Do you think the shock of getting wet was too much for him?” Perry Patettic— “Naw. Guess the disgrace of it broke his heart.”—Cincinnati Enquirer. Mrs. Eastlake—“You visited Venioe while yon were in Europe, I hear, Mi’s. Trotter?” Mrs. Trotter —“Yes, indeed, and we were rowed about by one of the chandeliers for which that city is noted.”—Harper’s Bazar. Ethel—“ Well, Jimmy didn’t blow his brains out, after all, because yon refused him. He proposed to Miss Goligktly yesterday.” Maud—“ Did he? Then he must have got rid of them in some other way!”—London Punch. “Am I to take this medicine inter nally or apply it externally?” asked the lady customer of the drug clerk who was filling her prescription. “Whichever pleases you, madam; tha stuff is perfectly harmless.” —Detroit Free Press. “I have come to have a serious in terview with you,” announced tha would-be son-in-law. The old gentle man fell right in with this idea, and made things so serious that the young man was glad to escape without his hat.—Detroit Free Press. A Suspension Bridge of Fence Wire. A curious suspension bridge of fence wire was recently constructed across the Waukarusa River, in Douglass County, Kansas. This stream, like so many other Kansas rivers, swells to a torrent at every large rainfall, so that it was impossible for the children liv ing across the. stream to go to the sclroolkouse. The county engineer was asked to provide a remedy. He bought qualities of fence wire, boards and timber. He used good sized oak logs as piers. Strips of boards three feet long were fastened together with wire and over these strips was run a plank walk two feet wide. Each end of the superstructure was then anchored to the piers; the sides, consisting of a network of wire, were then put up. The bridge is two hundred feet long and is sixty feet above the water. It is certainly a daring feat of homemade bridge construction. —Scientific Amer ican. Can’t Chloroform Hornets. William Harrold, a cigar dealer, has just won a good hot fight. For months liis country residence at Mill Valley has been infested with hornets. Whence they came was a mystery, but every once in a while one would dart out, stab someone and disappear as mysteriously as it came. After months of suffering Harrold discovered that the hornets had taken up their abode between the walls on the shady side of bis house. He made a small aperture and burned sulphur, but the disturb ance was only temporary, and resulted iu more annoyance to the owner of the house than to its vicious little tenants. Then Harrold tried chloroform, but the hornets only slumbered for a while and woke with renewed energy. Finally he was compelled to tear out the whole side of liis house, remove the pests and their mud houses, and board it up again.—San Francisco Post, Whence the Kxpression? “To drink like a fish.” But alcohol invariably causes him to float wrong side up. One per cent, of most deli cate amylic will kill a sporting gold fish in one hour 'and thirty minutes. Twenty per cent, will act like prussic acid. It has been calculated by a deep thinker that a pint of tanglefoot will do a shark, and* a quart of forty rod a whale.—Boston Journal, j