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r The lout* new States come into the
Union with an area three Hmm m great
as the British Isles.
The owner of tae finest collection of
watches in the world is Sir Julian Gold-
schniid, n wealthy Englishman, whoso
riches arc said to nearly equal those of
the Kothschilds.
The Government of Denmark lias for
years spent over $50,000 yearly for the
maintenance of dairy schools. The re
sult has been an immense improvement
in dairy precincts, and a lively demand
for Danish butter.
Robert E. Porter, Superintendent ot
the census, estimates tho population of
the Uuited States at 65,000,000. He
thinks there are 57,000,000 la cities
and village! aui on farms, and 8,099,-
000 negroes.
Tho attempt at training swallows to
carry messages, instead of using carrier-
pigeons, promises to meet with success.
A swallow recently made tho record of
115 miles in an hour and thirty minutes.
Should such a messenger service prove
feasible it will probably bo adopted i»
the F.ench armir.
In Italy women continue to pusuo
occupations which seem properly to be
long to the stronger sex. Women
brick-layers and women hod-carriers are
employed in all Italian cities. They
dress wretchodly, go barefooted, and
lheir fare is of the poorest. Their
wages are twenty cents a day.
The London Standard calls attention
lo the fact that no person now living
will again dato a document without
Bjing a ‘ ‘9." It now stands in the ex
trema right—1839. Next year it will
take second place—1890, where it will
remain ten years. It will then move
into third place—1900, anl thoro will
rest a century.
Chinese highbtndors are committing
murders with great frequency in this coun
try. The New York Sun considers “it
may bo necessary to seud all tho Chinese
homo. There are less thau 1000 Amer
icans in China, and a considerable pro
portion of those aro engaged in diplo
matic pursuits. If all tho Americans
cams home we should lose nothing; we
could well afford to exchange tho Chi
nese in this country for the Americans
in China.” ,
The jury law, as amended, will soon
go into eftect in New York City, and
under its provisions, it will bs moro
difficult than it has been to escape jury
duty, provided the Judgos, whose pow
er is increased by tho amended law,
will act strictly. Trial by jury, remarks
the Epoch, is a farce unless you cm got
good men to serve,and it is in the high
est degree unpatriotic for citizens to
by all kinds of frivolous pretexts,
to escape being jurymen.
y —' ~
\ The people of Paris, who have been
impressed with the conviction that Edi
son was tho inventor of the tclogrnph,
the telephone, tho electric light and tho
•phonograph, and possibly even of elec
tricity itself, will probably think him
more nearly a demi-god thau ever sinco
bis gift of $2000 for the benefit of the
poor of Paris. Mr. Elison is claimed
to have received the greatest ovation in
Paris ever accorded to a foreigner. M.
Jules Ctarote even declares that it may
bo said of Edison, as it was of Hum
boldt, that no nation can claim him as
exclusively its own; bis country is the
world.
The eight-hour movement in Great
Britain, according to ths San Francisco
Chronicle, “docs not make much prog
ress; on the contrary, there seems to bo
a decided reaction of sentiinentuufavor-
ablc lo the proposition. At Ihe session
of the Trades .Union Congress at Dun
dee, a report was submitted showing
that only 39,029 members of the union
favored the movement, while 62, 883 re-
cordel themselves as being opposed to
it. The matter has been vory intelli
gently and earnestly discussed, and the
opinion seems to have been reached that
any further reduction in the hours of
labor in Great Britain would inevitably ho
followed by a reduction of wages. Tho
mnj >rity of thoso who favor the eight
hours a day movement do so on the dis
tinct ground that it would, if carried
into effect, necessitate the employment
of many who now remain idle for want
of something to do. Tho idea is full
of broad charity, and is a further illus
tration of the fact that the poor are their
own best friends.”
Every rose must have its thorn, of
course; and it is now charged that the
smokeless powder, which is so popular
with military experts in Gormany, Italy
and France, is worse than anything over
known before. The Washington Star
thinks it possiblo that the next humane
congress that meets in Europe may have
to pass resolutions on tho cruelty of ad
ding to tho already multitudinous hor
rors of modem warfare.
That Queen Victoria is a woman of
more than ordinary force of character
is clearly shown by the fact that during
her recent visit to Wales slic on several
occasions flattered the natives by address
ing them in their own language.
Moreover, she is able to both read and
write Hindostanoc with considerable
fluency. There are but few ladies, in
the opinion of the San Francisco
Chronicle, who at the aga of seventy
would have tin perseverance and cour
age to acquire proficiency in two such
excruciatingly difficult language as
Hindostancc and Welsh.
The consumption of China tea in
Great Britain ton years ago amounted to
123,000,000 lbs., and that of Indian
produce to 23,000,000 lbs.; but last
year odly 87,000,000 lbs. of China ten
were consumed in Great Britain, as
against 93,000,000 lbs. of Indian and
Ceylon tea. This great change in the
tea trade is principally attributed to tho
defective method of cultivation prevail
ing in China, and to the discredit which
has been brought on the Chinese pro
duct by the systematic adulteration
practised by the native dealers. The
export duty, which amounts altogether
to about 50 per cent, of the present
value of the article, has also contributed
considerably to ruin tho Chinese tea
trade.
A correspondent of the Havana,
Cuba Progreso describes a visit to the
Isle de Pinos, the “Pino Island,” on
tho South coast of Cuba, where the
Spaniards have established a penal
colony for political offenders and cer
tain classes of criminals. The colony
is nominally under the supervision of a
military governor, who, however, seems
to devole his timo chiefly to nautical
experiments, leaving tho convicts to en
joy their leisure the best way they
can. Some of them own quito exten
sive bannua gardens; others assist tho
governor in tho construction of patent
life-boats; but the plurality gain a liv
ing by the (raining of lighting cocks,
which they raise by hundreds and ship
to Havana and Cicnfuegos with every
out-going steamer.
The demand for American beef in the
English market has had an almost
boom-like growth during the past year.
The high water mark was reached re
cently when tho steamship England
sailed from New York for Liverpool
with 1022 live steers, averaging 1400
pounds each, and 1700 quarters of beef.
In London the price of a good bullock
is from $90 to $100. This would
make tho livo stock shipment by the
England worth not les3 than $140,000.
Something like 10,009 heads of cattle
are shipped from American port3 every
week to Europe, and ^Tew York gets
the lion’s share of the business, sending
out about 6000 heads a week. The
boom has also extended to the sheep
trade, and the prices obtained aro very
satisfactory.
Tho career of the late Wilkie Collins,
observes the Washington Stir, shows how
little the most conscientious of parents
can judge for his children what calling
in life holds out tho brightest promise
for their special powers. Collins’s
father had a notion of making either a
university don or a clergyman of him,
but tho boy haled the classics and had
little tasto for tho duties of a clergy
man, and, ill order to avoid both, en
tered a counting-liouso. He was 22
years old beforo he made up his mind
to desert commerce and try his hand at
law. For five years lie read law in a
desultory way, and continued a barris
ter in name to the day of his death, but
without a brief. In the meantime lie
gave his thoughts almost wholly to
literature. IIow well he did his work,
how thoroughly he vindicated liis final
choice of letters for a profession, need
not bo discussed; but it is safe to say
that, had he followed his father’s bent
instead of bis own, his name would
scarcoly have crossed the borders of the
parish in which be lived and labored,
unless in connection with the story of
a man whose career had been a disma'
failure.
A World for Wort*?*
This world is good enough for those wfco do
their part while in it,
Who find the work they ought to do aud
cheerily begin it;
It's far too good for thoso who spend their
days in more complaining,
And better than, unless they change, the one
they will bo gaining.
The honest, earnest toiler gets his share of
joy and money;
The loud-mouthed drones may rant away—
’tis work that wins the honey.
ELFRIDA’S PLACE.
Old Mrs. Galway sat sorrowfully at
her west window, watching tho apple
gathering. Above tho hills hung a
soft, yellow mist; the groat chestnut
tree in tho lane was turning to a bou
quet of rustling gold; the asters and
dahlias along tho garden-walk were
blossoming in gau ly profusion.
“It’s the fitst year," said Mrs. Gal
way, “that I haven't been able to help
’em barrel up the rod sweets and the
yaller pippins. And I'm helpless with
tho rheumatics. Oil, dear, dear, to
think it should come to this! What’s
that noise? I'll hot a carroway-seed it’s
the cat among the milk-pans I And it’s
time the kettle was over for tea, and
Sarah Soper’s forgot to come and sea to
it!”
She looked piteously up at the clock,
but just as she was about to lift up her
voice in shrill summons, a footstep
creaked heavily on tho doorstep.
“It’s me,” said Sarah Soper, a gray
haired, sharp-featured spinster, who
lived in the house who e yellow gable
end was just visiblo through the maple-
trees beyond. “I’m a little late, on
account o’ stoppin’ to buy a paper o’
hair-pins and two cards o’ buttons of a
peddler that came along.”
“I thought you never was coming,”
said Mrs. Galway, petulantly.
Sarah looked sharply at her.
“I tell you what, Mrs. Galway,” said
she, “you made a great mistake when
you set your face against Zenas’ mar-
ryin’ that pretty factory-girl two year
ago! If you’d a nice stirrin’ daughter-
in-law, now—
“Instead of depending upon other
folks to come and help me—yes,” said
Mrs. Galway. “I’m beginning to think
so mysolf. Bu. if you haven’t nothin’
better to do, Sarah Soper, than to re
mind people of their short-comings,
you’d better go back home again.”
“And there wasn’t nothin’ against
Fanny Walters as ever I heerd on,” re
flectively went on Sarah S.ipcr, as she
seta match to the shavings and kindling
wood in the cooking stove, “except her
good looks. Yes, Almira Galway, you
made a mistake there. Zenos ain’t
never been the same man since.”
Mrs. Galway moved uneasily in her
chair.
“Where is Zenos, anyhow?” ques
tioned the merciless catechist, as she
settled tho shining tin teakettle in its
place, and slid the dampers to let the
smoke go up tho chimney.
“Gono to town,” curtly answered
Mrs. Galway.
“Eh—wlmt for?”
“To get a hired girl.”
Barah Soper opened her mouth and
eyes.
“Well, I never," said she. “You
come to that—you, as always said
nothin’ would induce you to keep a
girl!"
“That was before I had the imflam-
matory rheumatism," sighed Mrs. Gal
way. “There ain’t no law against
folks changing their minds, as I know
on. I can’t bo do pendent on neighbors
all the time.”
Miss Soper chuckled softly.
“The idee of of Zen as Galway in one
o’ them intelligence offices 1" said she.
“I would like to be hid away and
hear how he manages it! ’
“I guoss Zenas can manage as well
as anybodyl" sharply retortod Mrs.
Galway.
But slie was nettled, nevertheless, and
more than once while Surah Soper was
cutting tho bread, bringing the butter
from down cellar and opening a jar of
preserved blackberries for tea, she said
to herself:
“I ’most wish I lu.da’t made such a
fuss over Zenas’ notion for Fanny Wal
ters!”
While these domostic preparations
were going on in the Galway farmhouso,
Zenas, the son and heir of tho estab
lishment, was sitting, in a despairing
attitude, on a hard, unpainted settee in
Mr. Cummings’ “Headquarters for Do
mestic Aid,” interviewing a long suc
cession of hopeless incapables, of differ-
eat ages and nationalities.
“Pretty hard to suit, ain’t yon?” said
Mr. Cummings, lifting his spectacled
eyes above the line of his ledger at last.
“It’s no use,” said Galway, in a de
jected way. “I don’t think my mother
would have one of these women in the
house.”
“Well, look here,” said Mr. Cum
mings, “here’s a gal just come in.
Mcbbo you can come to terms with
her. ”
“But," spoke a soft voice, “I want
ed a place ns companion.”
“Well, this is a place as companion,”
said Mr. Cummings, doggedly, “to an
old lady up country—only she’ll expect
you to do tho housework.”
A silence followed; apparently the
candidate was considering.
“You've been cornin’ arter this com
panion place for a week,” urged Cum
mings; “and you ain’t had a chance
yet, nor the ghost of one. Come! bet
ter take what you can get.”
A slight figure came out from behind
the curtained rail and confronted Gal
way. She was a pretty, fair-haired
girl, with timid, hazel eyes, and a eheek
flushed with nervous excitement.
“What wages do you give?” said
slie.
“Eight dollars,” answered Zenas.
“I’ll come,” she decided, after a
brief hesitation. “I must get some sort
of a situation.”
“But I must take you home at once,”
said tho young man. “My wagon is
waiting down below.”
“I must go home after my clothes,”
said the girl. “I'll be back here in
half an hour. Wait!”
And she vanished.
“Now,” said Mr. Cummings, turning
over a new leaf in his ledger, “I call
that a stroke o' business for both of you.
They all want to be companions, or sec
retary, or somethin’ o’ that sort. It
sounds more liigh-tonod, you know.
But, arter all, good honest housowork’s
the thing!”
Mr. Cummings hero paused to talk
with a stout youug man, who desired a
position as porter in a store.
Zenas Galway sat staring at the check
ered reflection of the window panes on
the floor, ns they moved slowly along
with tho westering sun. And little
Elfrida Howitt fleJ swiftly down a nar
row street, up a winding stair to a close
little apartment, where lay a pale, young
convalescent, trying to while away the
weary hours with sewing cut-jet beads
on silken gimp for the nearest fancy
store. She looked up, her bright eyes
all inquiry.
“Well?” she said, eagerly.
“I've got a place, darling, at last I'
The invalid drew a long breath.
“It’s only eight dollars % month,"’
pursued Elfrida; “but I’ll send every
cent of it to you, dear, until you’re
well enough to get back to the store.
And it's quite a smalL family-—only one
lady. And I'll try so bard to suit her!”
“But, Fr da—oh, dear little Frida!—
what shall I do without you?” cried the
pallid convalescent, clasping her thin
hands.
“We mustn’t think of that,” said
Efrida, resolutely. “You’re going to
get well, and then wo shall both do
splendidly. Kiss me, dear. I've got
to pack my little bag, for the—the car
riage is waiting at tho ‘Headquarters.’”
“Tho carriage! They must bo very
grand people,” said the elder sister.
“But you haven’t told mo the address,
Fri'da."
Elfrida stopped packing and regarded
her sister with eyo3 of puzzled amuse
ment.
“I forgot to ask it,” said she, “but
I'll send it by mail. It will all be
right, dear. Now one more kiss.
Good-by!"
And Elfrida ran away, blinded by
the tears slio was'too bravo to shed in
her sister’s presence.
“Is it very wicked, I wonder,” she
asked herself, “to lot her think I’m
going to be companion to a sick lady!
But something had to bo done, or wo
both should have starved."
It was twilight when Zenas Galway
assisted liis companion to alight at the
door of tho farmhouse under the yel
lowing maple boughs.
“My mother is sitting there by tho
window,” said he. “Go and speak to
her; she can’t coino to you. She has
no uso of her limbs.”
Elfrida Howitt advanced boldly to
the kind-faced lit lie old woman in tho
cushioned arm chair.
Mrs. Galway held out her hand with
a smile.
“Who are you?” said she, pleasantly.
“I am tho new girl.”
“I am glad to see ycu, my dour*
What is your name?”
“Elfrida Howitt.”
“What can you do?”
Elfrida colored to tho roots of her
glossy, chestnut-brown hair.
“I can sing," said she, “and paint a
little in water-colors and play the
piano; I can real aloud and em
broider—”
“Land alive child!” cried out'Mrs.
Galway, “what on earth do you sup
pose is the uso of all that? Can you
churn? Do you know how to cook,
and wash, and mnko soft soap, and
“No,” said Elfrida, her fringed
lashes drooping and her lip quivering.
“But I can learn—I’m sure I can learn,
if only you’ll show me how. Please—
do try me!"
And Mrs. Galway found herself cry
ing for sympathy before she got
through.
“Do you think I’ve done right,
Zenas?” said she the next day. “The
child knows absolutely nothing about
housework, but she’s strong and will
ing. She’s broken two of the blue
willow-pattern cups already, and she
let the clam-soup burn this morning
while she stopped to play with the
kitten. But sho's such a sunshiny bit
of a thing, and she really does waul
to learn."
“Right? Of course you ore right,*
said the cheery Zenas. “Never mivd
the clam-soup and tho willow-patter®,
cupss She'll do first-rate when she’®
learned tho A B C of tho thing.”
“And Zena—”
“Yes, mother?"
“She told me so much about that
invalid sister of hers in tho tenement
houso down in tho city—the one that’s
had typhoid fever, you know—that I've
most a mind to send you to bring her
here. She’d get well a deal faster on new
milk and country breezes, and think ot
the company she’d be to Elfrida!”
“It’s a capital idea, mother,” said
Zenas. “I'll gol”
“Because, you know,” said Mrs. Gal
way, laying her hand on her son’s arm,
“it’s somehow borne in on me that l’v»
been sort o’ hard and selfish all my life,
and haven’t thought of other folks aa
much as I ought. And mebbe this
affliction’s been laid on me on that ac
count. ”
“Nonsense, mother!”
“It’s true Zenas. I’ve been too set
in my way. Things might have been
very different if I hadn't stood up ao
obstinate against your bein’ engaged to
Fanny Walters two years ago. If I
could only undo that mischief nowl”. ^
Her lips quivered; she looked up to
his face through a mist of tears.
“That’s all past and gone,' mother,”
said Zenas. “We wpn’t fret about it
now. Tell Elfrida to write to her sister
that I’Ll drive into town for her next
Tuesday with tho easy carryall, and she
must be ready to come back with me.”
When Zenas took the letter to carry
it to the postoffice, lie gave a little start
of surprise.
“Why, Elfrida, ” said he’ “your sis.
ter’s name is not the same as yours!”
“No," said Elfrida, innocently.
‘‘We aro only half-sisters; didn’t you
know that? But we love each other
just the same.”
Zenas Galway drove into town on tht
following Tuesday, with tho easy carry-
all and plenty of wraps and cushions.
Once more, in the yellow glow of twi
light, he brought back a passengef; and
led her up to the arm-chair where Mrs.
Galway sat knitting with half-closed
eyes.
“Here she is, mother dear,” ho said
exultantly. “Elfrida’s sister—aud the
dauglitcr-in-law you aro longing for m
your secret heart!”
“Why, Fanny Walters!" cried Mrs.
Galway.
Fanny burst into tears on tho old
lady’s shoulder.
“But not unless you bid mo wel
come,” sho sobbed. “I’m too proud
for that."
. “You aro welcome—a hundred timJL
welcome—my daughter!'' solemnly spoke
Mrs. Galway. “But—but—Idon’tun-|
derstand.”
“Nor I either 1" cried Elfrida, wh*
had danced joyously into tho room, i
“Is it true? Is Zenas to bo my brother?
and are wo * all to livo hero together?
Ob, Fanny, Fanny, I am so glad!"
“And so am I,” murmured Fanny,
hiding her face on Elfrida’s neck.—
Saturday Night. * ^
A cat may look at a king, and it had
better keep on eye on his majesty, too,
or it may not be able to dodge tho boot-
jack successfully.
