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GOSSIP FOR THE LADIES. The S'lowM.. Fond husband*, who fain would have home be an Eden, For you and your Eve* all complete as a whole, To read in, to write In, to sleep In, to feed In, Forget not the closets eo dear to the soul, But build them in corners, In nooks and i crannies, ■Wherever a closet may heritor or hide, And give to your Marys, your Kates, and your Annies The big, airy closets, their Joy and their pride— The roomy, clean closet-, the woli-ordered closets, Tho big, s’ly closets, their Joy ami their pride. I'irsl I.ovca. A long story in one of the papers is headed, “Her First Love.” We have no time to read long stories, but if it was really and truly licr first love it is safe to say be got away. It takes a practiced hand to Ki ev just when to reel in, pay out more line, and “play” him till he can be landed and put in tlio basket. It can’t bod lie by a girl with her first love, because of the excitement when she first feels He re is one nibbling, enusing her to shnt both eyes, pull for dear life and throw him fifteen feet into the air, when the hook drops out of his mouth, he falls “ slap ” into the water and scuds under some old root. The desert of life is strewn all over with the bleaching bones of first lov >.s, who have had their jaws torn off so they could not masticate their food.— Peck's Sun. I’oor I deed. Thousands of girls are never taught to work, and their condition is most pit iable. They have been taught to do spise labor ami to depend iijsin others for a living, and are perfectly helpless. If misfortune comes upon their friends, as it often does, their ease is hopeless. Tho most forlorn and miscral do women upon earth lielong to this class. Every daughter should I* taught to earn her own living. The rich as well as the poor require this training. The wheel of fort une turns swiftly nround—the rich aro very likely to become jsxir and the poor rich Skill to labor is no disadvantage to tho rich, and is indispensable to the poor. Well-to-do parents must educate their children to work. No reform is more imperatively needed than this. The ( iinr.ii of Womanly Uodmly. Man loves tlie mysterious. A cloud less sky and an rose leave him unmoved ; but the violet which hides its blushing beauty behind tho liuhli, snd the nrooii when emerging from be hind a cloud are to hiua sources of inspi ration and of pleasure. Modesty is to merit what shade is to a figure in paint ing—it gives boldness and prominence. Nothing adds more to femnlo beauty than modesty. It sheds around tho countenance a halo of light which is borrowed from virtue. Botanists have given tho rosy hue which tinges the enp of tlio white rose the name of tho “maiden’s blush." This pure ami del icate hue is the only paint Christum vir tuo should use. It is the richest orna ment. A woman without modesty is Jikc a faded flower, diffusing an un wholesome odor, which tne jn-udjjnt gardener will throw from him. Her des tiny is melancholy, for it terminates In shame and repentuncie. Beauty passes like the flowers of the ulhc which bloom and die in a few hours; but modesty gives tho female charms which supply the place of the transitory freshness of youth. Qnlrl Wcilrt Quirt weddings ure rapidly gaining in luvor. 'I1u?ro is no fuss, no, ostenta tion, 119 at 10 Vi A (tor tho ceremony tlio hrido uressea in a traveling dress and ltonnet, and departs for her wedding tour. But even tho tour in no longer obligatory. If tho newly-married pair nAffin )lfilUlVflati'nc n* AU .■ f , - orally issiio u few 4 * At-home ” cardH, and thereby open easy door for future hos pitalities. Certainly, tho onoo-porfnnct ory bridal tour is not now deemed es sential, and the more-sensible fashion ousts of tho taking of a friend’s house a few miles out of town for a month. Thu period of card-leaving after a wedding ib not definitely Used. Home authori ties say ten days, hut that in a crowded city and with an immense acquaintance, would ho quito impossible. If only in vited to the church, many ladies con sider that they perform their whole duty by leaving a card some time during the winter and including the young people in their subsequent invitations. Very rigorous people cal 1, however, within ten days, and, if invited to tho house, tho call is still more imperative, and should be made soon after tho wedding. If, however, the young couplo neglect to give their future address, visits must be postpoued until they notify their friends of their whereabouts. The Housekeeper. Clinruiiiig (alrl. If yon are fortunate in possessing beauty, my dear girls, ho thankful for the gift, hut do not over-rate it. The girl who expects to win her way by her beauty and to ho admired and accepted simply because she is a lady him tho wrong idea. Khe must secure a lovable character if alio wishes to he loved, ami my advice to you all is to lay the found ation of a permanent influence. To win and bold admiration yon must cultivate the gifts that uaturo has bestowed upon yon. If you have a talent for music, develop it; learn to sing some choice songs and to perform upon some instru ment, for many are charmed more by music than by handsome features. Pur sue tho same course with regard to paiuting, drawing and designing, and if you have the power to obtain useful knowledge in any direction, do it 1 have heard young men in speaking of their young-lady acquaintances sav, “Oh ! they look well, but they don’t know any thing.” There ia no necessity for suoli a state of things ; books are cheap and accessible. It you labor all day iu shop or store still at odd intervals you can gather up an education luideonteud with nt greater difficulties than did Clay, Fillmore, Webster and others of our greatest men. If you go through fife a flitting butterfly, how will you lie spoken of by-and-by ? 1 own it m nice to eat, drink and be merry, and he courted tuid , fluttered by all your friends; but how muoh better to cultivate chi-actor, seuso and true womanliness 1 JV.pi.lnK ibo qumilon. Let us suppose that the lady has been out during the evening before to a patt v. The gentleman might say that she looks fatigued. On her rejoining that this ■was a foolish thought he will get an op portunity of saying, “ Not foolish, Emi ly. I foel too much interest in you to permit my own wishes to run counter to your welfare," This is properly called the magnificent maimer of beginning. But very qfteti thg young ladv is con siderate enough to assist her blushful lover. For instance, there was oueo a timid fellow who was fond of borrowing John Phoenix's jokes ; when she asked him how he felt he avenged himself ac cording to the Phoenix plan of being very definite, and said he felt “ about fpt peroemt.” “ Indeed,” she said with a demure look, “ are you never going to par ? ” And she got in her work tliot evening. Another young man was saying, as he scratched a lueifer on the side of the house, “ I like these houses with sanded paint; nice when yon want to strike a match, you know.” “Is that so?” she asked demurely; “I wish 1 lived in a house with sanded paint,” and then she looked things unutterable. If he had asked “ What for ? ” she would have hat ed him. Hut lie didn’t. He took the hint, and the match was struck then and thero. This method of “giving a hint” lias been put poetically in this way : Young Frorl, a bagful yet perglatent swain. Was very much in lovo with Mary Jane. One night pbe told him in her temlereit tone. ‘•lt in not good for inan to be alone.” field Fred, “Just *o, you darling Utt.'e elf; I’ve often thought of that kaijj* thing myself.” Then wiid the la*g, while Fred wag all af? g, “You ought to buy yournolf a terrier dog.” What may be called a physiological proposal in illustrated by the case of M ins Mary Flynn and Mr. Budl. Tho young lady—a Boston girl, by the way was studying medicine and Mr. Bud<l was courting her. One evening, while they were sitting together in the parlor, Mr. Budd was thinking how he should manage to propose. Miss Flynn was explaining certain physiological facts for him. “Do you know,” she said, “that thou sands of people are actually ignorant that they smell with their olfactory pe duncle ?” “Millions of ’em,” replied Mr. Budd. “And Aunt Mary wouldn’t believe me when I told her she couldn’t wink with out a sphincter muscle I” “ How unreasonable I" “Why, a person cannot kiss without sphincter I” “Indeed !” “ i know it is so !” “ May I try if I can ?" “ Oh, Mr. Budd, it is too bad for you make light of such a subject. ” Then he tried it, and while he held her hand she explained to him about tho muscles of that portion of the human body. “ Willie,” whispered Miss Flynn very faintly, “ What, darling?” “ I can hear your heart beat. “ it beats only for you, my angel. “Anil it sounds out of order. Tho ventricular contraction is not uniform.” “Small wonder for that, when it’s bursting tor joy.” “ You must put yourself under treat ment for it. I will give you sumo med icine.” “ It's your own property, darling ; do wliat you please with it.” Fortune-Tellers. Tho fortune-telling sisterhood contrive to make considerable money iu pander ing to the credulity of their “clients.” Tho usual charge for a consultation is fifty cents Or a dollar; hut tlio prieo is os clastic as the seer’s conscience, and can ho stretched indefinitely. The trade of fortune-telling is now monopolized by women. Home yenrs ago there wore a few men in tlio business. They called themselves astrologists, and had an as tonishing kind of intimacy with tho stars. But the women now have the field to themselves. Tho impression that till their dupes are of the servant girl class is a mistake. A groat many wealthy ladies patrouize them. It is not l>y any moans uncommon to henr a woman of average intelligence and fair educa tion sav that she believes in fortune-tell ing. With a groat many women of this sort, tlio first impulse when anything goes wrong, is to consult a fortune-teller. Tlio parlor as well as the kitchen contri butes to the coffers of the card-shuffling swindlers. When the late Philander cPoesticks, P. It., wrote up tho fortune tellers of New York, some live end twenty yenTR ..non the imde wnt. i.....i.i,r fiui t, for sonic timo. But it soon flour ished again, anil is now as ever, if not more so. We have a law against it, but the harpies who follow it don't mind that. The law Bays that those who “pre tend to tell fortunes, or where lost and stolen goods can lie found” shall he held as disorderly persons. But it is easy enough for them to find bail, take an other name, and go on with their uefari iotis business Fishing in Jnpnn. Fishing in tlio rivers anil streams of the Main Island is not considered as a sport by the Japanese, but as a means of livelihood, and therefore “the gentle angler ” will not receive much encour agement from the brotherhood in the Land of tho llisiug Sun. Salmon trout, trout nil ai (a small hut game fish) are “educated,” ou some rivers, to take tho fly. Tho Japs work with very small flics, fine tackle, slight bamboo rods, with which they are very successful. Altogether, however, the game will he found scarcely worth tlio candle on the main laud, hut capital sport with the salmon trout can he obtained in several streams near Satsuporo, in Yezo, during May and June, with a genuine British fly. Tho most impel taut export from Yezo is in dried salmon, which are netted in incredible quantities in various rivers of fho northern part of the island and in tho southern Kuriles ; hut sport in these rivers among the dense masses of fish ia out of the question, even if the proprie tors of the fishings would allow their fish to he poached. The Japaueso seaboard is everywhere picturesque, and the seas abound with fish, giving employment to the crews of thousands of fishing-boats. When sailing along tho coasts, numbers of large black w hales imd sharks, both lurge and small, will he seen, the latter being caught by the fishermen, as their fins arc counted a delicacy and the skins servo many uses. The hilts of all the old swords are covered with white shark’s skin.— Thr London Field. “ Oh i Thom Golden Slippers.” 111 Judge Jameson's court wlieu a ; comely French maiden took the stand to i testify against a man who had stolen her watch it was noticed that the twelve sol emn jurymen sat with downcast eyes throughout the whole time she was giv ing her testimony. Those twenty-four windows of the soul were all turned to ward tho littlo platform on which the witness-chair stood where two small shapely fit, encased iu the tiniest of French slippers, saucily kicked out from lieneath the folds of a very heavy silk skirt mid knocked all idea of the testi- mony out of the men who sat in judg ment. Ihe judge looked severe and then pleased as he, too, eyed the pretty feet. The State’s attorney addressed his question’s to the little slippers and the oounsel for the defense tried to cross examine them, bat gave it up and sighed, “You may go.” The witness stepped down nnd the spell was broken, but re gretting the loss the counsel recalled her, and again the little feet kicked out, bringing smiles to all faces. Three times were the pretty bet recalled and three times was the prisoner at the bar forgot ten.—Chicago Intor-Ocean. “ You\o man,” said a college pro fessor to an under-graduate who had asked for and obtained leavo of absence to attend his grandmother’s funeral— “young man, 1 find, on looking over the records, that this is the fifth time you have been excused to attend the funeral of your grandmother. Y'our leave of absence is therefore revoked. Your graudmother must get herself buried without you this time.” Dialogue with a Painter. Citizen—l want you to paint this door tor me, white, with gray panel#. Can you do it ? Painter—[As usual.] C.—Will you do it ? P. C.—Allow me to call your attention to the heads of my discourse. I have asked you to paint this door; that means that the door is to be painted for my personal benefit, at my expense, and in accordance with my ideas of what a painted door should be. I have asked you to paint this door for me, white, with gray panels ; that means that tlie door is to be painted for my personal benefit, at my expense, and in accord ance with my ideas of what a painted door should be; and that my idea of what a painted door should be is white, with gray panels. C.—Are you a betting man ? C.—Because, if you were, you might lose some money very comfortubly, bet ting that I don’t want that door white, with gray panels, C.—Perhaps I do mean gray ? with white panels ; but, wliile I am in my present state of blind ignorance as to what I do mean, don’t you think it would be just as well to humor my delu sion ? C.—My friend, I know well that you never painted a door in that way before. That is why I have sent for you, and why I am going to spend my money— just to give you the gratification of ex periencing a novel sensation. C!.—Of course, pea-green, with pink panels, would look much better; but then I have sworn an oath, on the tomb stone of two twin-uncles of mine, who died in infancy, never to havo a pea green door, with pink panels, in my house. I would do almost anything to please you ; but I draw the lino at per jury- -I>. o.—Yes, I would like to have you paint that door brown, with blue panels. As I remurked, I want the door painted for my own personal benefit, at my own expense, and in accordance with iny idea of what a painted door should be; but, if it pleases you to paint it bro tvn, with blue panels, do so, by all means. Only, when you have got through, please paint it over again, white, with gray panels. r.— 0. —Everybody does not paint the panels lighter than the door. Ido not, and old Triptolemus the Second, the man with the celluloid eye, did not; and you aro not going to, this time. C.—No, my friend, there isn’t a square inch more to be painted in this house. C —That window-sill would look bet tor for a coat of paint; but I mean to humblo that window-sill’s pride, and keep it simple in its tastes. C.—That dado does need touching up; but I liavo let out tho job to a profes sional dadoist, who works for tho love of art, and doesn’t charge anything. O. —Yes, yon will come to-morrow to paint that door, as you remark ; but you won’t paint it gray, with white panels, as you also remark ; you will point it white, with gray panels. P. C.—l know it will look badly when it is done. That’s what I’m laying for. 1 want' something to sober me down. My Is*’,* i<• full qf C lUd mnuj painters. Oivo thee good don, sweet slatherer.— Puck. , Prose Poems From the Chinese. A Woman lief ore Her Mirror. — Heated beforo her mirror, she gazes at the moonlight. The bamboo blind is down, and breaks the entering light; it seems as though all through tho room one sees jade shivered into a thousand atoms. But instead of combing her hair she lets down the bamboo blind, and tho moon nppoars yet more brilliant, even oh a woman clad in silk, who lots her robe fall. The Porcelain Pavilion. — In the midst of the little artificial lake there rises a pavilion of green and white por celain. It is reached by a bridge of jade that curves like the back of n tiger. And iu that pavilion frieuds clad in bright rolies are drinking together cups of lukewarm wine. Gaily they converse or write verses, pnshing their hats a lit tle hack on their heads, or tucking up tlieir sleeves. And in the lake itself, where the littlo bridge, reflected upside down, looks like a crescent of jade, tliero are also friends in bright robes, upside down, in a pavilion of porcelain. The Stairway of Jade. —Under the sweet light of the full moon, the empress remounts her stairwny of jade, all glim mering with dew. And the hem of her robe softly kisses the edge of every step —the white satin and the jade resemble each other. The light of the moon lias burst into the apartment of the empress; as she passes over the threshold she is all dazzled ; for before tho window, upon the curtain that iB embroidered with crystal jiearl, there soems to be a com pany of diamonds disputing for the light, and ou the floor of pale wood there scemetli to ho a circle of dancing stars. Characte.rs Eternal. —Even while I make verses, I watch from my window tho awaving oi the bamboos. I let char acters fall upon the white paper; afar off one would fancy plum tree leaves were falling crosswise upon snow. The de lightful coolness of mandarin oranges passes away when s woman carries them too long in the gauze of her sleeve— as a white frost vanishes in the sun ; but the characters which Fhave let fall upon the paper will never become effaced. [Any one who has noticed the peculiarity of Chinese written diameters will ap preciate the extremely poetical simile.] The Fan. —The young bride is sitting alone in the perfumed elinmlier, into which the husband entered for the first time only tho evening before. In her hand she holds her fan, whereon these characters are written : “ When the air is stifling, and the winds are still, lam beloved, aud they beg the boon of re freshment from one. But wheu the winds arise, and the air grows cold, I am disdained and forgotten.” And while reading these characters the young woman dreams of her spouse and sail thoughts, like clouds, wrap themselves nbout her. "Now is the heart of my husband young and ardent; my husband comes to me that liis heari siay be re freshed. But when his heart shall have become chill and tranquil, will I not, perhaps, be disdained and forgotten ?” A sontsrisi says—your scientist is al ways saying something—that each adult person carries enough phosphorus in his body to make 40,000 matches. They who know how hard it is to make a match of two people will begin to lose their faith in scientists.— Boston Tran script, Jokes of the Conductors. It is probable that railroad conductors play more jokes on each other tnan any other class of people, and we would pub lish more of them, only the most of the conductors are big men who might tie us up in a double bow-knot. We tell more jokes on Rumsay than any of the rest, because he is probably the only one we could handle in a rough and tumble fight. Fred Cornea and Hum soy are represensativo conductors, in re gard to fun, and each is laying for the other to play a joke. Not long ago Rumsey hired a passenger that was go ing out on Fred’s train, a fellow who had three cat boils on his face, to go into the refrigerator in one comer of the car, and when Fred came to pull him out, to tell him he had the smallpox. The scheme worked splendidly, and Fred went into the baggage car and washed himself all over in a tin wash basin, with bar soap, and stopped the train at Brook field Junction and lot the passenger get off without paying, that being bis desti nation. As tho train was moving off the passenger yelled to Comes and told him if he saw Rumsey in Milwaukee to tell him that tlie cat boils passed him through all right. Comes at once saw through the joke and laid for Rumsey. A spell ago the two met, and both were tired, so Fred suggested that they take a Turkish bath and go up to his house and get dinner, and then lay down and have a good sleep. Rumsey consented, if Fred would promise to wake him up at five o'clock, as he had an engagement to meet a lumberman 'who wanted to buy some of his pine land. Fred agreed, and tney went up to the house on Keewaunee street, near the school house, where Fred comes home once in a while, and went to bod. After they had slept for a couple of hours Fred got up and dark ened the windows, lit the gas in the room and turned the clock ahead to half past seven o’clock. Fred’s wife was let into the joke, and she darkened the rooms down stairs, and the hall, and lit all the gas. Then Fred went up and woke Rumsey, who yawned and rolled over. Rumsey looked at the gas burn ing, and then at tho clock, and saying, “This is a pretty trick to play on a gen tleman,” ho jumped out of bed and got into liis pants. As lie pulled on his boots lie told Fred that was the last time lie would catch him in that house. “I havo been drugged,” said he, as ho grabbed a cigar and his coat and vest and started down stairs. He stopped in the hall by tlie dim gas light to button his suspenders, and pulling on his vest, he took his coat on his arm, yelled an adieu to Mrs. Cornes and opened the door and jumped to the middle of the sidewalk. Let Rumsey tell tlio rest of tho story. Says he: “I pledge you my word it was light as day. The sun was shining brighter than I ever saw it, and more than a million children were coming out of the school-house. When they saw mo come out of the house on a hop, skip and jump, they thought I had been fired out, ane they gave me a big laugh. I looked around sort of innocent, just as though I always came out of houses that way, and then put on my coat and looked at my watch, and it was just four o’clock. My first impulse was to go back into the house and murder Cornes, but he stood at the window with his wife, looking so sorry, that I just lit my cigar and walked off. But lam lay ing for him, now, and don’t you forget it. No man can play me for a snoozer. You just wait. Some day you will hear more about this. Thero don’t any of them get away with Rumsey. Why, I killed u man at Rush Lake Junction, once, for less than that.”— Pock'a Sun. A Horrible Trngedy and its Sequel. I cannot close this letter without •lironicling a tragic event which took place recently. It was on the northern frontiers of this empire, over againsi Saxony ; the scene, an inn; time, even ing. Many old customers of the place were assembled in the snug room, with its time-polislied tables, its tail-tiled stove, its amazing pictures of saints and angels. Beer enough to float an iron clad, wine enough to intoxicate a conti nent, had been served out in that place since its first dedication to Bacchus two centuries ago. To-night tlio worship oi of the wine-crowned deity was proceeding ns merrily as usual, and the air was thick with tobacco smoke, when a man with a sleeping child in liis armr slouched in and sat down iu a corner. Ho drank a glass or two of beer, while the child, a golden-liaired little fellow of about five, rested his head ou tho table and went on with his nap. The jolly topers soon forgot all about the stranger, who after a while desired to be shown to his room, as he wished to put liis son to bed. But soon an angry dispute was heard without, at the foot of the stairs, the father using shocking language, the child whining piteously: “Father, father, you know I have been unable to go up stairs by myself ever since I broke my leg.” “Nonsense,” exclaimed the man menacingly, “you can get up very well if you clioose, aud, besides, you have only yourself to thank for your broken leg—up you go or I will heat you black aud blue,” and lie administered a cruel blow to the cripple. Several of the guests had come out into tho passage, and now remonstrated vehemently with tlio brutal father. “Is that your child, you monster?” | asked one. “What’s that to you?” was the an swer. “Yes, oh, yes, he is my father,” moaned the boy, as he sat helpless on the stairs, and' rocked himself in an agony of tears. The man became still more enraged, and would, doubtless, have belabored his sou, had not one of the persons present laid hold of him, ex claiming, “Cease your brutality, or we’ll fetch the police.” But this only had the effect of throwing the father into a real paroxysm of rage. He drew a knife, and struggled frantically. “ Take care, take care,” screamed the boy, “he will rip us all up, same as he did mv poor mother.” “ Little fiend,” yelled the father, and freeing himself with a great effort, he burned the knife in the child’s body. The poor little soul sank down with" a groan. A shout of indignation came from the others, who rushed at him on masse; but the man, taking his hat off politely, said with a winning smile: “Gentlemen, we have to do with a wooden child. lam a ventriloquist and no mean one either, as yon will admit.” A pause of speechless astonishment, dur ing which could have been heard the dropping of the traditional pin, and then the rafters shook with prolonged (Hom eric) laughter. The clever deceiver was dragged into the parlor, where, besides exhibiting many a funny trick of voice, he took much more wine then was good for him, and finally rolled to bed with his pockets full of money, and his mur dered child smiling blandly under his arm. —From a Vienna Letter . Thk great men of the earth are but the marking stones on the road of hu manity ; they are the priests of its religion. ■ - The Stereotyped Smile. It is impossible, of course, for a mere human being to fathom the secret springs of human action in another. A person s features may express something and it is very often the ease that they do, when he gets a full hand or four of a kind ; but upon general principles it is safe enough to say a man’s face expresses a little of what is running through his head, and his language still less. In stances have been known where men speculated, on the board of trade and lost every dollar they had in the World and more too, so if they had settled up they would have been sixteen thousand dollars in debt, but they never let on. They continued to do business, buy and sell,"draw checks, and their bright smile haunted them still, and before the final day of reckoning came around they had recovered lost ground and were ten thou sand dollars ahead of the game. These instances, of course, we do not hear much about. It is only those who fail to catch on before the settlement comes around that are spoken of in the news papers as being “temporarily embar rassed to the extent of $20,000 or §30,- 000,” and for whom there is much sym pathy. Actors and actresses have con siderable control over their features, scJ that they can be called from clawing each other’s hair behind the scenes to go upon tho stage and melt tlie audience to tears by their gentle tones and silver plated sorrow. But it all ends at the drop of the curtain, and they go to their hotel and sleep like a hired man after a day’s work in a bay field. Tlie business man, however, who is skating over a mighty thin place in the ice, takes his little comedy right home with him, and thoughhis countenance may be as smooth ns though he had been ironed by the Sheriff—(and feels ho is liable to be at any moment) —liis dreams will be filled with cat concerts, and crows will come and step their feet in the corners of his eyes. But we started out to tell what a Boston bankrupt told his creditors the other day, when they had assembled to see how much be could pay on the dol lar. He said he had been bankrupt for years, that all ho could do he could not turn the tide ; he kept sinking deeper and deeper, but he had never seen a chance to let go. The business hung to him like a dog to a bone, and he could not kick it off. People were willing to lend him any amount of money, on in terest that he could never pay ; he had a family to support, and could not see any other chance to make a living. He was lashed to the wheel, and the only way was to keep the old thing dead ahead until she filled and sunk. The man did not say this in a gloomy manner, but with that winsome smile that ho had practiced for twenty years, until it had become stereotyped.— Peck’s Sun. Drnnkenness In Germany. For many centuries past the children of Teutons have endured with placid equanimity the scoffs and jeers of their neighbors, whether of Latin or Slavonic extraction, aimer! at their beer drinking proclivities ; for they were hitherto com fortably convinced that the asSisuous consumption of malt liqilors was by no means incompatible with a high standard of national sobriety. On the other hand, among Continental critics of British manners and customs none have so persistently denounced the practices of tippling and dram drinking, as vices peculiar to tlie natives of these isles, than have German writers, grave as well ns gay. The gin absorbing capacities of English operatives have aroused the righteous wrath of many a Teutonic journalist, in whose comments upon his own countrymen's amazing feats in tho way of swallowing seven or eight gallons of ale at a sitting, his readers might in vain search for auy expression of con demnation. It would appear, however, that whether or not the Germans of times past were justified by facts in lay ing claim to a conspicuously sober people, tiie Germans of to-day are un questionably open to the same reproach that they have been accustomed to lavish in such prolusion upon the Englishmen. We learn from Berlin that so enormous has beon tho increase of “excessive drunkenness ” within the last few years that the Imperial Chancellor has just submitted to the Federal Council a bill devised by him for the repression of a habit which “has become a national scandal.” Hard times and cheap spiriis are terrible promoters of inebriety, and it is more than probable that the severe trials though which German agriculture, commerce and industry have recently passed, and the low prices at which corn and potato brandy are purchasable throughout the Fatherland, may have brought, about the deplorable prevalence of drunkenness with which Prince Bis marck proposes to grapple by exceptional legislation.—New; York Herald. 3,500,000 Seals Robbed of Their Fur to Make Sucqueg. The Providence Journal lias looked into the statistics of the seal trade and presents tlie following interesting points relating to it: A seal skin sacque costs fifty per cent, more than it did five years ago. Seal skins have not been worn more than fifteen or eighteen years. Fashion and the discovery of new methods of preparing and dyeing, or first the latter and second the former, brought thorn into use. The seal fur, as seen here, is the inner coat. When on the back of the seat this fine fur is hid by coarse hairs, which are removed by a process of pining down the upder side of the skin. The color of the fur as known to wearers is artificial. If the govern ment had not taken measures to protect the seal new wearers of seal sacques would be few in a short time. The Shet land seals were once numerous, but have ' ieeu exterminated. The Newfoundland seal is iu the market, but is inferior to the seal of Alaska. The islands of the Behring Sea are the only ones in the world where seal catching has great com mercial importance. From 1751 to 1870 the scientific world knew nothing in regard to the history of the seal. The Smithsonian Institution did not possess a perfect skin and skele ton of the seal, although thousands of men and millions of dollars have been employed in capturing, dressing and sell ing fur seal skins for the last hundred years. The vast breeding grounds bor dering on the Antarctic have been en tirely depopulated. Between the years 1797 and 18212.232,374 seal skins were taken in the Pribylov Islands; between 1821 and 1842, 458,502 skins, and from 1842 to 1861, 372,000 skins. In the year 1808 the number of skins taken was 242.- 000. In 1870 only 9,965 were captured. During the last ten years the catch has l>een a little less than 100,000 pier year. The whole number taken between 1796 aud 1880 was 3,561,051 skins. The seal catching is done in June and July. After that time the fur begins to “shed” and is worthless. The natives are paid forty cents a skin for their labor. It cannot be too frequently stated that strangers are not allowed to carry concealed weapons in this city. They do not vote here, and they cannot expect to enjoy all the privileges of citizenship on a fifteen minutes' acquaintance, lYctc Orleans Picayune. ORIENTAL AMUSEMENTS. Sou .c of the Fecnarme. .. The entrances and exitst° and from the staire of a Japanese theater are all made through the audience by a long, raised platform down one side corre sponding with one of our side a lB1 ®** and introductory remarks aremade from it. Prompting is not so adrfflfly done as with us. An attendant in black squats behind the star, book m and reads every word of his part to him in full view of all but those of the au dience directly in front, since lights are not used, but each actor is accompanied by an invisible (a man with hm face covered with a black cloth) who holds a candle at the end of a long pole, just under his face. The attendant must be well up in the action ot tho part, for he is never in the way of his principal, but nimbly manipulates his candle so as to avoid intercepting him. Women do not act, but men represent them, and it is noticeable that men who are above the average height aro always chosen, and whose natural voices are anything but effeminate. Stars are paid well, the best at the best theater getting SI,OOO per month. The dressing is quite as ex travagant as ours, and he requires no less than forty servants, so that his ex penses, like those of all high-salaried people, are large. The stage has a thirtydoot turn-table in the middle cf it by which scenes are changed quickly by simply turning it around. The stage machinery is quite simple. An upright post, a foot in diameter, was the pivot of the turn-table, and the periphery rest ed on well-greased wood bearings, and tlie power was that of a couple of coolies applied to a stick attached to the rim. The curtain is a light cotton cloth hung on a wire. The lights are large candles with thick paper wicks, which require snuffing every few minutes,, and are snuffed by an old fellow who handles the snuffers with a professional flourish, occasionally dropping a red end into a box without stopping to apologize. The foot and fly-lights he snuffs while the play is in progress, going in and out among the players, regardless of the situation. The play lasts all day and all night. A box for four costs $2 for a whole day or a whole night. Parties go and stay all day, lunohing and smoking at pleasure. It is an extremely social sight. The Chinese theaters do not give any idea of it. The ventilation is good, odors are not offensive, the gay dfesses of the people in the boxes are pleasing as well as their good faces and their bright eyes. That they are a sympa thetic people to proven by the fact that during the melodrama, while a poor blind orphan was reciting his tale of sorrow, heads were bowed all over the house, and women “ had real good cries” such as might flatter Giara Morris, were she on the stage. The streets in the vi cinity of the great theaters are filled with peep shows, and monkey shows, and low-priced comic theaters and wax figures, and side shows of all kinds, which are interesting for a glance, but not generally entertaining. The Sorrows of Singers. The lot of the famous singer is not always a happy one. From the days of Malibran, wbo was In America over half a century ngo, to those Of poof Christine Nilsson, trouble and sorrow have spared none of the great singers who have been popular idols. The most lucky of these is Jenny Lind, who retired on a fortune before her voiee failed, and who leads a happy domestic life in London. But Malibran when young married a rascal and although her second marriage was not unfortunate, she lived but a very short time after it. Her contem porary and rival, Mile. Sontag, married an Italian Count, and entered iashionable life, retiring from the stage when quite young. But her Count was also a rascal, "who squandered all her money in gambl ing, and she had, when nearly fifty years old, to resume her artistic career, which was brilliant to the last. But her husband was jealous as well as a spend thrift, aud when she died in Mexico there were suspicions that she and the hand some tenor Pozzolini were both poisoned. Mile. Grisi, who was the acknowledged grandest dramatic singer of her time, wedded a man whom she did not love and who was not worthy of her, and she made a scandal by leaving him for the arms of the equally famous tenor, Mario. Mile. Alboni, probably the grandest contralto singer that ever appeared in public, was married for the fortune in her voice by an Italian Count, but the marriage was not a happy one, and they lived apart for some years. He did not, however, squander her money, and when ho died she lost no time in becoming the wife of a French subalteran officer, much younger than herself, who loves her fortune devotedly, and makes him self generally disagreeable to those that rent houses or apartments of her’s in Paris. Nilsson’s husband, M. Rouzand, is said to have inherited insanity from his family, and he was literally madly in love with her when he persuaded her to become his wife. He was crazy, too, about stock speculations, and, after gambling all his own and his wife’s for tune away on the Bourse, he died in a mail-house. Another great singer, Mile. Heilbronn, who was a pet of Paris some years ago, married a French Count, and lost through him, all that she had, in the crash of the Union Generale. She is now compelled, after having lost the freshness of her voice, to return to the stage. Everybody knows how Adelina Patti threw herself away upon a poor old French Marquis, from whom she fled, after he had enriched himself out of her earnings; and how she has thrown herself away in another manner with Signor Nicolini. Adelina is reported by a Western interviewer, to have said, also, that her sister Carlotta’s husband is a bad fellow, who spends all liis wife earns in gambling. These are only a few examples; more might be given to illustrate the facility with which popular singers, who can earn from 8500 to $5,000 a night, sacrifice themselves on the altar of hymen, who must be a very mercenary kind of divinity. —Philadelphia Bulletin. Dr. Dkclat, the founder of antiseptic surgery, the first to propose what is called the Lister way of treating wounds, claims that the blood can be disinfected by proper preparations of carbolic acid. He uses carbolato of ammonia in cases of pyaemia of pns blood poisoning, and believes that he cured two butchers of malignant pustule derived from affected cattle. At all events two other butchers similarly affected, and not similarly treated, died. Borne such treatment as this ought to have been employed to combat blood poisoning in President Garfield’s case. A bickerixg pair of Quakers were lately heard in high controversy, the husband exclaiming: “I am deter mined to have one quiet week with thee. ” “ But how wilt thou be able to get it ? ” said the taunting spouse, in that sort of reiteration which married ladies so pro vokingly indulge in. “I will keep thee a week after thon art dead,” was the Quaker’s rejoinder. POPULAR SCIENCE. I J t•ft ■ Oyster shells are utilized by being burned to lime. ° Diluted oxygen sustains life ; ptlw oxygen destroys it. It is said that hysterical persons have a marked taste far vinegar and green fruit - River mud is mixed with ohalk and burned and ground to make Portland cement. Remedies are said to be known for the poison of all snakes, except that o! the cobra. A herring yields over 30,000 egg, myriads of which are devoured by raff ous enemies. No less than one-fifth the algse of the Antarctic Seas have been identified with British species. A Boston chemist has found seventy, five per cent, of terra alba in a sample of cream of tartar. Experiments tend to prove that hu man respiration is less rapid in the trop. ic3 than in cold regions. A mvEB-DOLPHiIf of South America bas the greatest number of teeth found in the order of whales, 222. More water is admitted to th? atmos phere from the transpiration of a forest than from an equal body of water. Sauerkraut is cabbage in the first stage of fermentation, which, if com pleted, yields quass, a Russian tonic. ' Old boots and shoes are turned to ac count by tho chemical manufacturer in producing the cyanides and ferro-cys nides so indispensable in photography. The best known infectious agent of the soil, the Bacillus malarias, cannot live without air, and the more water its habitation contains the less favorable does it become to the life of the organ ism. "White wine is said to be more injuri ous to the system than red, the latter containing tannin, which being an as tringent, cloises the-pore s of the stomach and prevents the alcohol from at once reaching the brain. The suggestion is made that air for ventilation be drawn into buildings through tubes sunk about ten feet in the ground. By this means it would in winter be -warmed by 16° "F. and in sum mer cooled to 23° F. The chief constituent of the tea leaf is proved, by analysis, to be the alkaloid theine. When separated, so as to be seen in its perfect purity,. theine appears in snow-white, silky, filifrom crystals, flexible and fragile, without odor, but having a mildly bitter teste. flew England Churches. About the year 1700, the meeting houses in New England were plain wooden structures, in most cases without steeples. The windows were glazed with diamond-shaped glass, the walls un plastered, and the interior without any means of heating. Through the storms of winter the congregation shivered in the cold during public worship. About a hundred and fifty years ago, in the in terior of one of "these rough edifices could he seen the families of New Eng land. The men were dressed in the fashion of the age. They wore broad brimmed hats, turned up into three corners, with loops at the side;, long coats, with large pockets and cuffs, and without collars; the buttons either plated or pure silver, and of the size of half a dollar ; shirts with bosom and wrist ruf fles, and with gold and silver buckles at the wrist united by a link ; the neck cloths of fine linen, or figured stuff, em broidered with the ends hanging looselv. Small clothes were in fashion, and only reached to the knee, where they were ornamented with silver buckles of large size; the legs were covered with long gray stockings; the boots had broad tops, with tassels; shoes were some worn, ornamented with straps and silver buckles, The women had black silk or satin bonnets, gowns extremely short waisted, with tight sleeves, or else very short sleeves, with an immense frill at the elbow. The ministers wore large gowns and powdered wigs. Beaten by Chicago. A toledo commerical traveler who has been openiug up anew in Indiana encountered one dealer who didn’t think he had better change his custom. He had been, dealing with a Chicago house for several years, and he had no fault to find. “ I can make you brooms for $ — per dozen,” urged the Toledoan. “ Yes, but Chicago beats that.” “ How’s— cents a pound for starch?” “ Oh, Chicago beats that.” “I’ll sell you good tea by the chest for cents.” * ‘ That's purty fair, but Chicago beats that.” “Our house will give you four months’ credit.” “ Chicago’s ahead of that." The traveler couldn’t mention a thing that Chicago didn’t beat, and at last, despairing of receiving an order, he re marked : ‘ ‘ I did think of stopping over Sunday and going to church, but it seems —” f ‘' Oh, it’s no use in trying that on,” interrupted the dealer. “ The agent of a Chicago house has been running our choir over a year past, and a Cincinnati house has already agreed to send us on a Sunday-school library! Maybe you can do something in the next town, but we’re chuck full here and wouldn’t touch a Toledo house unless it promised us a twenty-acre lot for anew graveyard 1” Which is the Weaker Sex? Females are called the weaker, but why ? If they are not strong, who is ? When men must wrap themselves up iu thick garments, and encase the whole ia a stout overcoat to shut out the cold, women in thin silk dresses, with neck and shoulders bare, or nearly so, say they are perfectly comfortable ! When men wear waterproof boots over woolen hose and encase the whole in India-rub ber to keep • them from freezing, women wear thin siik hose and cloth shoes, and pretend not to feel oold. When men cover their heads with furs, and then complain of the severity of the weather, women hang an apology for a bonnet at the back of their heads,"and ride or walk abroad u the northeast winds, profess ing not to suffer at all. What Is Home Without a Mother? Miss Hortense is working a Beautiful Piece of Embroidery. It is a Motto in Gre’en and Gold. It asks, What is Home Without a Mother. When Miss Hor tense gets it Done she will give it to her Beau, who tends a Dry Goods Counter. You cannot see Miss Hortense’s Mother. She is in the Back Yard doing the Weekly Washing. By and by she will be Bringing in the Coal for the Parlor Stove, because Miss Hortense’s Beau is coming To-night, —Denver Tribune's Primer. A Minnesota mob did not lynch the man whom they had intended so to punish. He argued with them a while, and then gave them $5 to buy beer. They were convinced that he was not so bad as they had supposed him to be.— Chicago Inter-Ocean.