Newspaper Page Text
RAINBOW LAND.
From the valley of morn, where teardrop*
hung.
The glittering liow of promise sprung.
Bo near it was plain to the dullest sight,
Bo distant no hand could reach it quite;
And over the hills and far away
It stretched where the heights untrodden
iy;
But Fancy, truer of eye than truth.
Could see Rainbow Land from the plains of
youth.
There was gold uncounted in that fair land.
There were shining laurels and honors
grand,
There was love undying and friendship true,
Over the mountains bright and blue.
But rough and hard was the upward climb
On the treacherous slope of the hills of time,
The laurels we saw from the plain below
We missed ere we reached the line of snow,
And the gold for which we greedily wrought,
If we found at all, it was dearly bought.
Few are the eyes that are blest to find,
The road to the land where all are blind,
tV here the happiest one is he who lives
Alone for the happiness he give*,
And the ouly poor is the wretch whose alms
Go begging in vain for needy palms.
God set its bounds His realm above—
For Rainbow Land is the land of love.
—James J. Roche, in Boston Pilot.
THE BLUE BUTTERFLY.
BY HELEN FORREST GRAVES.
“Backward, turn backward, oh, Time,
in thy flight!” gayly sang Marcus Offley.
“The wiseacres say that this is an im
possibility; but I have this day proved
them all wrong. The last ten years of
my life are nothing but a dream, and I
am a racketing schoolboy again, with my
bag of books slung over my shoulder and
a fish-line hid away in my pocket.
There's the very closet Aunt Zillah used to
lock me up in when she caught me steal
ing blackberry jam—the same window,
with the same mended pane of glass in"
the left hand corner, under which I list
ened, nights, when the bachelor school
teacher used to come aud see her, and
reproduce him at the breakfast table
next morning, to Gran’ther Biggins's
great delight! New Y'ork is the figment
of a night’s sleep. I haven’t grown a
day older—and—"
“It's a shame*” cried Rebecca, gnash
ing her small white teeth together.
“You've had every chance, and I’ve just
stood still. You’ve worked your way
up in that great newspaper office, and
I’ve done housework and been to weekly
singing school! AVby is jt that a man
has so much better opportunities than a
woman, I’d like to kuow? Listen,
Marcus. Aunt Zillah isn’t even willing
to let me take lessons of the new pro
fessor, who is coming to establish a con
servatory at Dingford. She says it costs
so much. Aud I’ve got a voice—l know
I’ve got a voice—aud, if only I had a
chaDce to cultivate it, I might earn a
hundred dollars a year singing in the
choir, as well as Eraily Elmer.”
'•Not a bad idea,” said Marcus,
thoughtfully regarding her.
How she had shot up in his absence,
like one of the tall, red lilies in the gar
den, or the flowcr-deluces under the
window—this solemn-eyed, olive-skinned
young cousin of his! Rather pretty,too;
though in that outlandish, calico dress,
no one could tell what there was of her.
“Sing sometimes for me, Beck. Let’s
hear what you cau do. ”
Rebecca Higgins leaned back against
the nide wooden column of the portico,
a trail of creamy honeysuckle flowers nl
most touching her braids of ink-black
hiir as she stood, and burst out into one
of the triumphaut hymns which, in their
church music, had most struck her
fancy—
“ Awake, my soul, stretch every nerve!”
And sang it through to the lust word of
the last verse.
“Well,” said she, as the perfumed
summer silence succeeded her lay—and
she spoke as if the vocal organ belonged
to some one else, “what do you think of
it?”
“As clear as a flute,” said Marcus,
“and as sweet as a thrush! I heard Miss
Floretta Foliati sing a solo Ht St. Firry -
dicc’s last Easter Sunday—when I went
there to report for the Daily Omnium—
that wasn't so much better than that, al
though, of course, there was no end of
trills and flourishes and that sort of vocal
gymnastics about it.”
Rebecca's eyes glistened.
“Do you really think so, Mark? Then
if ”
At that moment Aunt Zillah's voice
was heard calling loudly:
“Marcus! Marcus! come in to your
dinner! Rebecca, why aren't you here
to dish up the stewed chicken and green
peas?”
“Hello!” said Mr. Offley, as he passed
through the stuffy little parlor, “how’s
the entomological collection? Oh, you
have a beauty here 1 I say, Aunt Zillah,
can I have that blue fellow for my
friend, Professor Rapparee? He’s fairly
cracked on bultcrflies!” .
“Certainly you can!” said Aunt Zil
lah, with emphasis. “That blue butter
fly is worth ttn dollars, the parson says.”
“Ten dollars would just pay the price
of ten lessons at Mr. Meriam’s new con
servatory,” murmured Rebecca.
“Mr. Meriatn's conservatory, iudeed!”
snapped Aunt Zillah. “I wonder if
you’d be so anxious to go tagging to a
conservatory where they taught weaving
rag-carpets and darning stockings? Go
and look after the dinner at once, while
I show your Cousin Marcus my collection
of moths and butterflies. But the blue
wiuged one is the gem of the lot. You
are rfght there. There ain't a dozen
speeimens like it in the country, the par
son tells me. There's a collector in Bos
ton would be willing to pay most any
sum for it. I’m credibly informed. But,”
and she chuckled gleefully, “poor as I
atn, there's some things money can t buy
from me.”
“Well, if it was mine, I should sell it
quicker than lightning!” observed Mr.
Offley standing in front of the glass case,
with his hands in his pockets. “I can t
understand the spell that has bewitched
Kapparee and all those other bug mani
acs. A live butterfly, now, flying about
in the sunshine—one could appreciate
that. But a dead mummy, stuck up be
hind a glass box, with a pin thrust
through it—faugh!”
Aunt Zillah laughed again.
“Come to dinner, said she. “You're
a regular Philistine, Mark, and always
was!”
“But I say. Aunt Zillah,” broke out
the young man, after the apple-pie and
cream syllabubs had been duly discussed,
“why don'hyou let Beck have a chahce
at cultivating that sweet little pipe of
hers?”
“Rebecca can sing well enough now.”
“But a little culture—”
“Pshaw!” said Aunt Zillah.
“Those city choir-singers—”
“We ain’t the pronounced the
old lady. “And I can’t afford to throw
good money down Rebecca's throat, and
I need all her time and strength to help
me with the housework; so let there be
an eud of the matter.”
The sliadow of the old traditions lin
gered above Marcus Offley yet, grown man
though he w, and fighting his way in
the world.
When Aunt Zillah said, “Let there be
an end cf the matter!” in that autocratic
manner, he felt exactly as he had when
she boxed his ten-year-old ears and sent
him to school.
“It'squite true what Beck says,” ob
served he, pulling the tortoise-colored
cat's tail. “A man does have a better
chance in this world than a woman.”
“Beck says some very foolish things,”
remurke 1 Aunt Zillah. “And they're
most of ’em put in her head at the par
sonage. I've most a mind to forbid her
going there so much. But come, Mark
—get your hat. I want yon to go out
and sec the new Alderney calf. It's ns
pretty as a picture!”
The temporary ripple produced in the
dead calm of Dingford life by the brief
visit of Mr. Offley, the New York jour
nalist, had subsided, and Mr. Villars, the
village clergyman, was sitting ib his
study, cutting the leaves of anew theo
logical review, when the door opened
and in flew n dark-haired, olive-com
plexioned maid, closely followed by his
own youngest daughter, Belinda.
“Please, Mr. Villars,” panted Rebecca
Biggins, “what is to become of me?”
Mr. Villars laid down his review and
looked hard at her.
“My dear,"said he, “you seem to have
been walking rapidly. Sit down and
rest.”
“Walking!” she echoed. “I've run
every step of the way! I’ve run away
from Aunt Zillah. She says I’m a thief—
that I've stolen her blue butterfly and
sold it; else, she says, how cau I have
got the money to take that first lesson at
the conservatory? And she won’t believe
that I earned every cent of it by picking
wild strawberries for the hotel people to
preserve; and she I’m a thief,and
and—”
“This is very remarkable,” said the
parson. “My child, don’t cry. Y'ou are
quite welcome to lemniu here until you
can settle this strange misunderstanding
in some way.”
“I told her so, papa,” said Selinda.
“But the blue butterfly ?” resumed the
parson. “Do I understand—”
“It’s gone,” exclaimed Rebecca—
“gone out of the case entirely. Seme one
has stolen it!”
“This is most remarkable,” said Mr.
Villars, getting up a id beginning to pace
the room.
“It must be a burglar,” said Se
linda.
“Burglars are not, as a rule, interested
in entomological collections,” said the
pursou.
“Besides,” added Rebecca, “nothing
else is missing. It certainly is unac
couutable. And oh, to be called a thief.
I couldn't euduro it; I had to run away
with both hands over my c'rs!”
“Your good aunt, my dear forgets that
you are eighteen,” said Mr. Villars.
“Aud she is a rather imperious woman
aud masterful in her way.”
“But no self-respecting girl can en
dure an insult like t%at,” said Selinda,
the champion.
“No,” faltered Rebecca, “I couldn’t.
And so I didn’t know where else to go,
and I came here.”
“You darling!” said Selinda; “you
came to exactly the right* place. And
Randolph will be so glad when he hears
of it!”
“Don't Selinda,” said Rebecca, col
oring very red.
At the old Biggins farmhouse, Aunt
Zillah had reached down her old dusty
glass ink-bottle anl the cedar stick pen
handle, to which a steel pen was care
fully tied with a piece of sewing silk,and
was laboriously concocting a letter to
Marcus Offley, in New York, relating the
sad story of Rebecca’s guilt.
Now and then, as she wrote, a tear
dropjied down on the page—for in hqr
heart the sharp-tongued, domineering
old lady hid been very fond of her
niece.
“I don’t want to be unjust to anybody,”
w rote Aunt Zillah, “but since I eau no longer
place auy confidence iu the child, I would
like to have your advice as to where I can
provide for her; and whether, at some
asylum or fold in that great city where you
arc, you can get me a good, smart, stirring
girl to—”
Here the silk-tied pen fell down, scat
tering a cascade of little drops of ink.
Some one bad come knocking violcntlv
at the door.
“A passel for you, inarm, come by ex
press,” said Abraham Scraggs, the vil
lage scapegrace, who did all sorts of er
rands when he didn't forget them.
“Paid!”
“La, me!” said Aunt Zillah. “What
can it possibly be?”
But she did not open it until she she
had interposed the solid bulwark of the
cherry wood door between herself and
the very evident curiosity of Abraham.
“A wooden box,” said she to herself.
“And a paper box inside of that. And
—why, bless and save us, if it ain’t—my
—blue—butterfly!”
She stood staring down at the insect
specimen so intently that she did not lit
first perceive the little note that had
fallen from the outer wrappings of the
box at her feet.
Wheu at lust it caught her orderly
eye, an oblong blotch on the carpet, she
made an instinctive dive at it.
“What next?” said she. “Be I be
witched? What is Marcus Offley writ
in’ to me about?”
The message was very brief.
“Mv Dear Aunt” It said, “pardon m
for the little trick I have played you; but I
was so anxious to have Rapparee see this
specimen, and I knew it wouldn’t be hurt in
the least. He says it’s the finest this side of
the Rockies, and you are a lucky woman to
own it; and any time you want to sell it,
he’ll give you twenty-five dollars for it. I
hope you haven’t missed it, and been an
noyed. Jjove to Beck. Ever your affection
ate nephew, M. O.”
“Well, I never,” said Aunt Zillah, di
vided between rage and exultation. “If
I could just get hold of that boy’s cars!
‘Hopes I haven’t been annoyed!’ Aud
poor, dear Becky! I must go after her
at once, and beg her pardon! Bless
me, it makes my blood run chill to think
what a lot o’ names I called her, and sho
as innocent the whole time as that white
Brahma chicken in the grass! Where’s
my bonnet?”
Rebecca returned to the farmhouse.
There was no resisting Aunt Zillah’s
frank penitence and genuine regret for
all that had passed.
“Marcus is a scamp!” said Aunt Zillal).
•It's all his fault. But he’s right about
one thing. Your voice ought to be cul
tivated." And I won’t say another word
of objection about the conservatory, Re
becca.”
“Thank you, Aunt Zillah,” said Beck.
“Because really, you knew, a thorough
knowledge of music—church music, I
mean—is almost indispensable to a
minister’s wife, some day!” hiding her
face behind the veil of honeysuckle
blooms as she murmured the words.
“Oh!” said Aunt Zillah. “Randolph
Villars, eh?”
“Please don’t tell anybody, Aunt Zil
lah,” said Beck, “It’s a great secret at
present. We are both so very young,
you see. But, oh,” . with a long breath
of surprise, “what have you done with
the blue butterfly?”
“I’ve sent it back to New York,” said
Aunt Zillah. “I’m going to sell it to
Marcus's pfofessor for twenty-five dollars.
And I shall take the money toward a
new purlor organ for you, on the instal
ment principle.”
“Oh, Aunt Zillah ! The blue butter
fly that you thought so much of!” cried
conscience-stricken Rebecca, clasping her
hands.
“I did set a deal of store by it,” said
Aunt Zillah, slowly. “But I tun’t sartiu,
Rebecca, that I don't'set more store by
you, for all I’m cross and crabbed some
times.”
With tenrs in her eyes, Rebecca went
up to her aunt and kissed her.
The blue butterfly certainly couldn’t
have done that!— Saturday Night.
Ice 80,000 Years Old.
The altitude of the Stevens mine on
Mount McClellan, Cal., is 2500 feet. At
the depth of from sixty to 200 feet the
crevice matter, consisting of silica,
calcite and ore, together with the sur
rounding wall rock, is a solid frozen
mass. McClellan is one of the highest
eastern spurs of the snowy range. It
has the form of a horseshoe, with a bold
escarpment of feldsparic rock nearly
2000 feet high, which in some places is
nearly perpendicular.
In decending into the mine nothing
unusual occurs until a depth of eighty or
ninety feet is reached, when the frozen
territory begins and continues for over
2000 feet. There are no indications of a
thaw summer or winter.
The whole of the 2000 feet of frozen
walls is surrounded by massive rocks.
The miners, being unable to excavate
the frozen material with pick and drill
in the usual way, found that the only
way to mine in this peculiar lode was to
kindle a huge fire against the “face” of
the tunnel, and in the morning take out
the ore that had been thawed loose dur
ing the night.
In fact, this was the only mode of
mining used when going through the
frozen belt some ten or fifteen years
since. The tunnel is now many hun
dred feet deep, ana still there is no
diminution of the frost. There is, so far
as can be seen, no opening or channel
through which the frost could possibly
have reached such a depth from the sur
face. Besides this, there are many other
mines in the same vicinity in a like frozen
state.
The theory is that the rock was de
posited in glacial times, when there was
cold enough to freeze the very earth’s
heart. In that case the mine is an ice
house, whose stores have remained un
thawed for at least 80,000 years.
The phenomenon is not uncommon or
inexplicable when openings can be found
through which a current of air can pass,
but cases wjiich, like the Stevens mine,
show no opening for air currents must be
referred to imbedded icebergs of the
glacial period.— Troy ( N . F.) times.
The Healthful Fast.
Weeks before the nppearance of more
alarming symptoms dyspepsia foriustance
announces its approach by an unmistak
able want of appetite. That demand for
a temporary suspension of the aliment
ary process asserts itself on various occa
sions, but never without due cause. In
the crisis of certain diseases it means
that the orgauism needs all its available
strength for a process of reconstruction,
as a general would recal his foraging
parties on the eve of a decisive battle.
In sultry weather it means that one of
the functions of alimentation, viz., the
development of heat, has already been
overdone by other agencies. During the
enforced indoor life of rainy seasons it
means that for want of exercise the di
gestive organs have become clogged as a
mill with grist and cannot take any more
contracts until the arrears of former en
gagements have been settled. One fast
day would generally suffice to set mat
ters aright, and it is a good plan to de
vote such days to occupations that will
help to divert the mind from the sug
gestions of the meal hour. At night fa
tigue will negotiate another eight hours’
respite, and the next morning the stom
ach as well as will be ready for
breakfast. The ancient lawgivers who
went so far as to make a periodical fast
day a religious duty kuew what they
were atout. —American Rural Same.
BUDGET OF fUN.
HUMOROUS SKETCHES FROM
VARIOUS SOURCES.
Woman's Way— A Novel Sensation—
Faint. Heart Never Won Fair
Lady Listened to With
Respect, Etc., Etc.
i
Fair woman doesn’t hate the men—oh, not!
That scarcely chimes In with her plan;
But had she her way there wouldn’t be
In all the world a single man.
—New York Herald.
A NOVfCL SENSATION.
First Tramp—“l see Stanley hac just
declined a dinner.”
Second Tramp—“l wonder how it feels
to decline a dinner, Bill?” —Neva York
Sun.
FAINT HEART NEVER WON PAIR LADY.
Lady—“ How dare you pursue me in
this fashion in broad daylight?”
Suitor (meekly)—“Begpardon. I can
come again in the evening.” —lllustririe
Wespen.
—s
LISTENED TO WITH RESPECT.
Professor—“ What is wisdom?”
Student—“ What your girl’s father
says when you are trying to make an im
pression on the family.” —Somerville
Journal.
SAVING HIS PROPOSAL.
“Are you going to marry my brother?”
“Yes.”
‘ ‘Then there’s no use my asking you
to be my wife, because you'll be a sister
to me, anyhow. ” —New York Sun.
READY TO DIE POE HER.
“Do you love me as much as ever,
dear?” asked Mrs. Gazzam, anxiously.
“I should think I did,” replied Gaz
zam. “Didn’t I eat two whole biscuits
at breakfast that you made yourself?”
Lippincott's Magazine.
A HONEYMOON THAT WAS REAL SILVER.
Philosopher—“ls marriage a failure,
do you think?”
Merchant—“On the contrary, I have
known marriage to prevent a failure. A
friend of mine wedded an heiress, and
she saved him from insolvency.” —Lowell
Citizen.
THE TENNIS PARTY.
Alfred (a stutterer) —“M-my d-dear,
I 1-love you. Will y-you ma-ma-marry
tn-me?”
Alice—“ Marry you? Indeed no! I
don't care to be proposed to on the in
stalment plan, if you please.”—Pitts
burg Bulletin.
TOLD FAMILY SECRETS.
“What are you crying for?”
“I—boo-hoo—hit me finger with the
er-er-hammer—boo-hoo!”
“Oh, well, be a man. You never hear
me cry when I hit my finger.”
“N-o-o-o, but you’d whip me if I’d
swear.”— Life.
Ills ONLY BENT.
Editor (to applicant for position)—
“But what cau you do, young man?
Haven't you some special talent or taste
—some bent, as they say?”
Applicant (dubiously)— “N —no, sir,
not that I can think of—except that I am
a little bowlegged.” —Burlington Free
Press.
MERCIFUL MAN.
Husband—“ There's a tramp at the
door.”
Wife—“ Give him some of those bis
cuits I baked this morning.”
“No, no, wife. Have you forgotten
the minister's text Sunday about a man
asking for bread and being given a
stone?”— Statesman. .
A MISTAKE SOMEWHERE.
Servant (answering bell) —“My mas
ter isn't in, sir; you may leave the bill if
you wish.”
Caller (in surprise)—“Bill? I have no
bill; I wish to—”
Servant (in surprise also) —“No bill?
Then you must have called at the wrong
house.” —Le Oaulois.
KNEW nE WAS AN ARTIST.
Miss Lakeside of Chicago—“ The gen
tleman you just bowed to is an artist,
isn’t he?”
Miss Gotham—“ Yes, a great artist.
Y'ou divined his profession from his finely
chiseled features, I presume.”
Miss Lakeside—“No; I smelled the
turpentine. —New York Weekly.
A DIRECT SHOT.
Pert Shopgirl (in defiance of every pro
test) —“It is precisely the shade, ma’am.
We haven't a finer pair of gloves in the
store. lam more able to judge than you
are, don't you think? You’ll find they’ll
answer.”
Old Lady— 1 If they do answer, I hope
they won't answer impudently.”— Epoch.
NOTHING TO BOABT OF.
Guide—“ This is the place where Cap
tain Jack jumped from the bluff clear
across the creek; it’s full thirty feet.”
Tourist—“ Were the Indians after
him?”
“Yes; they’d chased him five miles.”
“Oh, then the jump was nothing won
derful. See what a good running start
he had!”— Eew York Sun.
CRUSHED THE MASHER.
First Masher (trying to introduce
himself) —“May I have the pleasure of
learning your name?”
Saucy Young Thing (without stopping)
—“Pearl.”
“Second Masher—“ Are you the pearl
of great price?”
Saucy Young Thing—“No; I’m the
pearl before swine. Good-by.”
BAD AT THE BEST.
“How did you like my last poem,
Charley?” '
I “I thought it was the best thing you
have done yet.”
“It was dashed off in a hurry.”
“I judged as much.”
“You did?”
( “Yes; it read as if the feet were
dreadfully hurried.”— Burlington Free
Press.
OMENTAL MAGNIFICENCE.
“In Java you need not bo very distin
guished to have a hundred servants at
your back. I kept sixty myself, and it
took four to mix my grog.”
“What! four servants for one glass of
grog?”
“Certainly; one made the water hot, a
second put in the sugar, a third added
the rum, and the fourth drank it, for I
don’t take grog myself.”— Wiener Bilder
bogen.
A CAVERNOUS SMILE.
If a woman does not like a man, she
can characterize him as no man ever
could. A certain young man, Mr. Smith,
was noted for an extraordinary and per
ennial smile. One of his lady school
mates described a meeting with him
thus:
“As I was going out of chuichl saw a
smile down by the door; when I came
nearer, I discovered-that Mr. Smith was
around it.”— Christian Advocate.
TOO LATE.
After the wedding ceremony a friend
of the family took the father of the bride
apart and whispered to him, “You do
not seem to be aware that your son-in
law is over head and ears in debt.”
“Are you sure?”
“Certain. He has only married your
daughter with the object of paying off
his creditors.”
“Why did you not mention this be
fore?”
“He owes me five thousand dollars!’
JUST WHAT SHE WANTED.
Young Lady (at bird store) —“Has this
parrot any accomplishments?”
Proprietor—“He can speak a little,
but he’s too old to learn anything new.”
Young Lady (hesitatingly)—“Would
he imitate any sounds he might hear,
such as a sneeze, or a cough or anything
of that kind?”
Proprietor—“ No. The girls were
trying the other day to teach him to imi
tate the sound of a kiss, but he wouldn’t
do it.”
Y'oung Lady—“l’ll take him.”—Chi
cago Tribune.
died for ms country’s good.
A party of Seattle men were discussing
the characteristics of a Tacoma citizen in
the presence of the town crier one day
last week.
“He is the meanest man, without ex
ception, that I ever heard of,” remarked
the first.
“I don’t see how in the world he has
ever escaped being hanged so long,”
was the verdict of the second.
“He has never done a good deed yet,”
said a third.
“You do the man injustice, sir,” said
a stranger who had just dropped in.
“The man did a very good deed for the
whole community last night.”
“What was it?” asked the trio, in
breathless eagerness.
“He died.”— Seattle (Washington)
Press.
How to Climb High Places.
It is the duty of one of the employes
of the Brooklyn Bridge to regularly
climb to the top of the towers in order
to examine the cable and see that every
thing is ingood working order. I saw
a large crowd yesterday anxiously watch
ing his operations. The ladder is built
into the masonary, and to any one not
used to such work the task seems a peril
ous one. WheD the climber came down
I askgd him if his head did not get
dizzy after reaching the top, but he
only smiled at my ignorance and re
marked in an offhand way that it was
both simple and easy. “The most ner
vous man in the world,” he said, “can
climb to any height, provided he ob
serves one principle; that is, never to
look down. If he does he is in danger.
The first time I climbed that ladder I
I found no difficulty whatever in getting
up. Coming down, however, it was
different. I happened to look below
just when I was about hnlf way down,
and became so nervous that I remained
on the same rung for several seconds.
My strength seemed to have deserted
me, and it was with great difficulty that
I restrained myself from letting go and
being dashed to pieces.”— New York
Star.
The Cast of Wars.
The war between France and Mexico,
in 1866, 75 million dollars.
Prussia and Austria, in 1866, 100 mill
ion dollars.
France and Austria, 1859, 225 million
dollars.
Kussia and Turkey, 1876-77, 950 mill
ion dollars.
The civil war in Europe, 1848, 50
million dollars.
United States war, 1861-65, 3700
million dollars.
France and Algeria, 1830-47, 190
million dollars.
Brazil and Paraguay, 1864-70, esti
mated cost, 240 million dollars
France and Germany, 1870-71, 1580
million dollars.
The war between Spain and Portugal,
1830-40, cost 150 million dollars.
The war between Great Britain,
France and Russia, 1525 million dollars.
Vanilla.
Vanilla is produced from a species of
orchid that attaches itself to walls, trees
and other suitable objects. The plant
has along, fleshy stem, and the leaves
are alternate, oval and lanceolate. The
flower is of a greenish-white color, and
formsaxillary spikes. The fruit is a
pod. measuring, when full grown, some
ten or twelve inches in length and about
half an inch in diameter. The quality
of the pod can be determined by the
presence or non-presence of a crystalline
efflorescence called givre, and by its dark
chocolate-browa color.— The Ledger.
MIRAGES.
OPTICAL, ILLUSIONS THAT HAVE
STARTLED MANKIND.
Cities in the Sky and Vessels Sailing
Blithely Upside Down Nat- ”
ural Phenomena Not Eas
ily Explained.
In looming mirages distant objects
show an extravagant increase in vertical
height without alternation in breadth.
Distant hummocks of ice nrfe thus magni
fied into immense towers and pinnacles,
and a ship isu sometimes abnormally
drawn out until it nppears twelve or
thirteen times as high as it is long.
Rooks are seen drawn up to ten or twelve
times their proper height. Houses, as well
as human beings and animals, appear in
like exaggerated shape.
Another form of mirage is when a
ship or some other object near the water,
seems greatly elongated, and a second
inverted image meets it from above.
Sometimes the proper image of the ob
ject is elevated far above the lake or sea,
while the second image strangely ap
pears inverted beneath it; the.whole sur
rounded by a sheet of sky, which is
mirrored and repeated within it.
In 1822, in the Arctic region, Captain
Scoresby recognized by its inverted
image in the air, the ship Fame, which
afterward proved to be seventeen miles
beyond the visible horizon of his obser
vation.
Dr. Vince, oh August 6, 1806, at 7 r.
M. , saw from Ramsgate, at which place
only the tops of Dover Castle towers are
usually visible, the whole of the castle.
It appears as though lifted up and bodily
placed on the near side of the intervening
hill. So perfect was this illusion that
the hill itself actually could not be seen
through the figure.
Some forms of mirage are lateral ns
well as vertical, arising from unequal
density of two contiguous vertical bodies
of air. Thus, on Lake Geneva, a boat
has been seen double, the two images
some distant apart. Persons have been
duplicated in the same way. Any one on
a hot day, by placing his eye near to a
heated wall, may see lateral mirages of
objects at a distance, and nearly on a
line with the wall.
Here, on the shores of Lake Ontario,
many beautiful and wonderful mirages
are witnessed. The lake is so wide, the
opposite side is not at all visible. And
yet during some peculiar states of the at
mosphere it is clearly outlined. A gen
tleman witnessed a most perfect mirage
from Sheldon’s Point, Oswego. It was
about 1 o'clock in the afternoon, when a
splendid view of the Canada shore was
given. It extended from a point nearly
opposite Oswego City to Cape Vincent,
it points on iuu ouneisoii vuvimj shore.
Whole blocks of the city of Kingston
were visible and localities distinctly de
fined. From Sackett’s Harbor to Point
Peninsula, ten miles distant, has appeared
not more than two or three miles away,
and so plainly in view that the limbs of
trees were visible. Stony Island stood
out plainly in view, and far beyond it
could be seen Gallop and Duck Islands.
Even the Canada shore in the vicinity of
Long Point and Prince Edward’s Bay
were at times plainly in sighf.
A vessel has been seen sailing along
the horizon with the hull uppermost,
visible at Lake Bluff. Accompanying
the appearance of the ship was that of
mountains and hills, as though the Cana
dian shore was coming into view. A
puff of wind apparently caused the whole
phantasmagoria to melt as if by magic.
In Syracuse, a distant city, a remarka
ble mirage was witnessed by many per
sons. It lasted two hours, and was best
observed from University Hill looking
northwest over Onondaga Lake. Lake
Ontario was plainly visible, and stretch
ing out at an augle of twenty-five degrees
of the horizon it looked like an ocean.
Professor Comfort says that & few years
previous a similar mirage occurred, and
it was so distinct that by means of a
glass he could discern a town, probably
Kingston.
Portions of Rochester and sections of
the country lying south of it have been
seen out in the lake six and ten miles
distant, as though the city was standing
erect in the air. Trains of moving cars
and other objects were clearly defined,
the aerial phenomena continuing for
nearly an hour.
A well-known lake captain has also
witnessed a wonderful mirage out on Lake
Ontario. While on his way from the St.
Lawrence up the lake and near the islands
known as the Falsa Ducks, and while
standing at the wheel, there suddenly
burst into view the city of Oswego,thirty
one miles distant, with the gas-lights in
the streets and all the appearance a town
lighted up would present from a hill in
the immediate vicinity at night. The
lighthouse at Oswego, as well as others on
the lake shore below as far as Sackett’s
Harbor, were distinctly seen. It was a
sort of night mirage, and a rare sight, in
deed. It lasted for several minutes,then
slowly faded away into darkness.
At Rochester, which is about twenty
miles inland from Lake Ontario, a mir
age of a most surpassing character was
witnessed by many. The entire northern
sky as far as the angle of vision was
lighted above the landmark with the blue
waters of Lake Ontario, while reflecting
from her bosom could be seen the mount
ains, hills, valleys, bays and rivers of the
Canada shore inward for miles. The coast
could be plainly seen mirrored over a
stretch of fifty miles, and so perfect at
one time that the forests could readily be
distinguished. The reader can form some
idea of its grandeur by knowing that a
country separated from Rochester by a
lake seventy miles in width was, as if
suddenly by the hand of its Creator,
painted upon the heavens so plain as to
be seen from a standpoint of nearly 100
miles distant. —New York Observer.
There arc sixteen colored jockeys In
the country who are paid from $2500 to
SBOOO a year.
The first railroad in the United States
was built by Peter Cooper.
Chinkmen lh the ' J
The British steamer.MerionetghireSwiii
recently at Pier*No.'--40;-East'River,Cflnl
loading a cargo of teas’from Hong Kong,
There were seventeen Chinese sailorsin
the crew of the Merionetshire; and.the
watchman on thd wharf.had to keep’his
eyes wide open at night to see that some
of the Mongolians did not slip' ashore in
violation of the Exclusion Act.-jKTbe
number of Chinese wjio come to thiiLport
as sailqrs is increasing every,
Chinaman looked upon >as for
midable rivals'to the Jack Tars ; of .Eng
land and America in tie worlds mafkel
for labor on the high seas. As yet"-the
itf given to the Caucasian be*,
fore the mast,- but as coal-passers,'
stewards, cooksj”. etc., on board siifn, 1
the yellow, men “have tips call.” " Con
signees of vessels with Chinamen, on
board have to sign a bond when the ship
tenters an American port that All'the Mon
golians on the ship's article at the time
she enters will also be aboard when she
puts to sea. The average pay of a
Chinese sailor is about fourteen Chinese
dollars a month, a Chinese dollar being
equal to seventy-seven cents in American
money. There is always one Chinaman,
however, who, by reason of his speaking
English, has charge of his fellow-coun
trymen on board, and sees that the
orders of the ship’s officers are carried
out. This head Chinaman gets twenty
dollars a month.
“They‘re a superstitious lot,” said the
chief officer of the Merionetshire, “and
always getting into rows and giving us
a lot of trouble. We had a Chinese
painter on board who died at sea, and
would you believe it? those yellow devils
did not want us to bury him at sea.
After ho died they congregated around
the body and kept up a chin-chin Joss
all night, burning sticks and firing off
crackers. Next day they refused to put
the body overboard, and two white sail
ors had to perform that task. The
painter had a box in hi3 room, and one
of the Chinamen went to itforsome pur
pose one day soon after the painter died.
That night an awful row broke out ia
their quarters. I ran forward and found
the man who had opened the painter's
box and another man covered with
blood.
“ ‘What’s all this about!” says I.
Then they told me the spirit of the
painter had come back and beaten the
man who opened the box. The truth
was that two of them had fallen foul of
each other in the dark. It was with the
greatest difficulty that we got a painter
when we reached Hong Kong, because
the former painter had died on board.”
—New York Tribune.
Why Apples Are Never Cheap.
Wiuter apples are never cheap. When
the crop is short prices of good apples
go up among the unattainoblcs for peo
ple in moderatoAcircumstances, and even
when nature has been bountiful to the
apple grower the price of a barrel of good
apples is something to make an economi
cal householder wince. Bananas and
oranges are brought up from the tropics
and sold at very low prices, thus afford
ing the children -of the poor an oppor
tunity to get an occasional taste of fruit,
but the native apple is held aloof as the
aristocracy of the fruit farm.
One of the reasons for the cheapness oi
tropical fruit, as compared with the win
ter apples, 's the fact that the products
of the fiuit fields of the ‘‘sunny South’ 1
are more perishable than the apple, and
consequently must be marketed without
delay. To put in a winter stock of ban
anas would bo to invite ruin; and
oranges, although they are firmer in
quality than bananas, are also far more
delicate than apples.
Jhe demand for good apples from Eu
rope is another strengthening element in
the market for winter apples. The Eng
lish people last year ate no less than
680,884 barrels of American apples, and
they would undoubtedly have eaten more
if prices were a little lower. The follow
ing table, compiled by a prominent New
York fruit exporter,shows the movement
of apples across the Atlantic during the
past nine seasons;
Barrels. Barrels.
1881- 289,253 1838-7 811,®
1882- ... .395,594 1887-8....... ,608,5S
1888-1 81,582 1888-9 1,401,382
1884- 787,785 1889-90 ..630,884
1885- 893,375
This table seems to prove that England
will always take apples enough to pre
vent anything like a glut of the fruit in
American markets. The Britons had to
go hungry for apples In the winter of
1883- on account of a short crop, but
they made up for their enforced'absten
tion taking in the winter of 1884-5
nearly double the export of the winter of
1882-3.— Milwaukee Wisconsin.
George Francis Train's “Copy” i
When George Francis Train writes for
the press, which is a frequent occurrence,
his MSS. is a curiosity. It contains all
the colors of the rainbow, or as many of
them as his collection of vari-colored lead
pencils will produce. Ilis chirography is
a terror to the printers. Though his
writing is difficult to read, it presents an
attractive appearance on a sheet of paper.
Anybody who could read character a
little bit, if he never saw or heard of the
psychic crank, could read Train’s charac
ter in the strnuge hieroglyphics that roll
from the tip of his pencil. In preparing
his copy for the newspapers ho uses a
common, everyday black lead pencil,
punctuates in blue, underscores, empha
sizes and interlines in red.. He leaves a
wide margin o the left, which he fills in
with pointers and instructions to the typo
as to how to set his matter (to which no
attention is paid), writing such margin
notes in green or some other catchy color.
He uses the ordinary soft paper.
of numbering the sheets he pastes them
together, the top of the second to the
bottom of the first, and so on. He
usually writes enough in one article to fill
two or three columns of space, and his
string of copy when pasted together
would reach several times around the
block.
The number of horses in Massachu
setts is 63,838. New York State hai
673,950 and Texas 1,350,344.