Newspaper Page Text
official organ
—Ol*—
franklin county.
VOL 111. NO. 20.
One of tho hottest regions in the
[I„jiod States is along the lino of the
Southern Pacific railroad in Arizona.
At Bagdad in that territory, tho ther¬
mometer has boon known to stand as
high as HO in the shade for davs in
succession. The ticket agent at Bag¬
dad says that iio has seen the mercury
standing llt 128 0,1 4,10 c ° o1 sido of tlje
depot building at midnight.
An effort lias been made on tbe
west sido of Now York city, in the
neighborhood of the proposed now
she of Columbia College, to “create a
ue igliborhood”— so it is stated in the
papers (hat mention it. A contractor,
David If. King, who has built the
Madison Square Garden, the Washing¬
ton Arch and Die Bartholdi Statue
pedestal, lms endeavored in a full
square of private dwellings, number¬
ing 175 houses, to introduce a novel
ami harmonious system. Itcomprises
two entire bheks, and each block is
intersected -by • cross streets on the
Philadelphia plan, so that all the pur¬
veyors of supplies and all the re¬
movers of refuse can approach the
rear of (lie houses. These private
ways are broad, well paved and closed
by wrouglit-iron gates, All the
houses are solidly constructed, and
their plumbing has boen under Die
charge of a well-known sanitary ex¬
pert. __
Facts show that it is possible to pre¬
vent disease. As science lias moved
we have obtained a betto- knowledge
of tho laws of life and health. Great
improvements have been made -in the
mode of living. Houses are better
constructed, ventilation and drainage
are more complete. Food is more
varied and nutritious, clothing is more
adapted to Die climate, and tiie moral
uid physical aspects of tiie community,
taken as a whole, are improved.
Hence the death rate has been reduced,
md the mass of men aud women may
jonsole themselves with the fact that
they are likely to attain the alloted
four score years of life. AYith regard
lo diseases, the death rate of small pox
since the passage of the first vaccina¬
tion act in 1840, has diminished from
57.2 to 6.5 per 100,000 for 1880-84.
The diminution in the death rate from
typhus fever is quite as striking.
Diphtheria and scarlet fever are more
obedient to the skilful physician than
over before, while in cholera, tiie
deaths have diinished since its last
appearance as an epidemic, and it
never has appeared in the same pro¬
portions since. International philan¬
thropy and experience have had much
to do with the change, aud the: o is
reason to believe that the future may
be prolific of even more improvement
than the past.
For the first time in the statistics of
the semi-tropic and nut industries of
this conntry have been collected and
are now printed in a bulletin, which
has just been issued by the United
States census office. It is stated in the
bulletin the acreage of oranges, as a
matter of course, exceeds that of all
the other products, yet the possibili¬
ties of pineapple culture on tiie south¬
east coast of Florida and for 100 miles
north of Key AVest, on tbe gulf coast,
are such as to give promise of a very
great and profitable extension of the
culture of this delicious fruit. Pecan
culture in north-west Florida and all
the Gulf States has apparently just
begun to develop some of its wonder¬
ful possibilities ns a reliable and
profitable crop, while there is every
reason to believe that within a few
years the figs, olives, maderianuts and
lemons of California will rival in
v “1 ue her wondrous crops of
mangos, and yet a comparison
of the tables of bearing
and non-bearing trees will show
three times as many non-bearing as
bearing orange trees in the census
year, and as planting has been go-
ibg on more rapidly than ever since
the census was taken the number of
trees now growing in California must
be neaarly double that of eighteen
month ago, all of which means an
output of at least 10,000,000 boxes of
oranges from California before the
2nd of the present century. The Fios-
ida figures show a greater proportion
of non-bearing trees than do those of
California, though most of Diem have
been planted five or moreyears, while
the reverse is true of California.
Most of the orange trees in that state
reported as non-bearing have been
planted since 1886 and very many of
them during the census year. Ari¬
zona makes quite a showing of young
orange trees, tbe mere beginning of
1 new industry there, where soil aud
climate seem well adapted to the j>cr*
iect development of citrus fruits, aud,
Wl, h an abundance of water for irri¬
tation, the development is likely to
3l! rapid. However, the time of
ripening '■belts” of Die fruit in the different
is such as not to materially in¬
terfere with each other.
THE ENTERPRISE. (
As You Go Through Life.
Don't look for the flaws as you go through
life;
And even when you find them
it is wise and kind to he somewhat blind
And look for the virtue behind them.
For the cloudiest night has a hint of light
Somewhere In its shadows hiding;
it is better by far to hunt for a star
Than the spots on the sun abiding.
The current of life runs ever away
To the bosom of God’s great ocean.
Don’t set your force 'gainst the river’s
course,
And think to alter its motion.
Don’t waste a curse on the universe—
Don’t butt at the storm with your puny
form—
But bend and let it go o’er you.
Hie world will never adjust Itself
To suit your whims to the letter,
Some things must go wrong your whole life¬
long,
And the sooner you know it the better.
It is folly to tight with the infinite,
And go under at last in the wrestle.
The wisest mail shapes into God’s plnu,
As the water shapes into a vessel.
— [Ella Wheeler Wilcox, in the Weekly.
GOLD-HEELED SHOES.
BY GEORGE I. PUTNAM.
“A million a minute! Gold heels
on my shoes!” A tall spare woman
bobbed up from the blueberry patch
and looked around half guiltily, then
drew a reassured breath, for no one
was within ear-shot. “True as I
stand here,” she said, addressing a
mingied multitude of ferns, rocks and
berry bushes, “some day I'll do it.
And when I’m worth a million a min¬
ute, I'll have gold heels to ray shoes.”
She shut her lips tightly, defying
more thoughts to escape; but even
then the lino of her mouth was p'.cas-
aut. She knelt and industriously
stripped the low bushes, holding her
pail beneath with an experienced hand
to catch the dropping berries. She
had 15 quarts to deliver at smiset, and
the terms of iter contract left no time
for monologue.
This was Abby—“Miss” Abby to the
children, “Amu” Abby among the
sick, simply Abby to ordinary adults.
People did not trouble themselves
about her surname. They did not
even think much about her, but accept¬
ed her as their just due from a friend¬
ly Providence. Children discovered
her living in a little house in the edge
of Pomfret, and spoke of Miss Abby
as an acquisition. Then some sick
man, yearning for herb remedies, was
gratified by her and thereafter declared
Aunt Abby had saved his life. The
wise— those who moiled with an eye
single to the inrolling dollar—began
by mistrusting her sincerity, and
ended by questioning her mental bal¬
ance. They did not perceive how
one could live by works non-rcsuilaiit
in a stipulated wage.
Abby moved towards a competency
as steadfastly as did the wise, but by
a different path, pleasanter ami as di¬
rect There wero happy, kindly faces
along her way. And if they did not
always comprehend her, they at least
nodded and smiled encouragingly as
she passed. To such a one, brighten¬
ing some dark (urn of tiie path, elia
would say :
“You wait (ill I get niv gohl-hceled
shoes. Then l can smile for you.”
“Real gold, Abby?” inquired the
practical one,
“Y r es, indeed, AVhy not? AVlien
you’re worth a million a minute, you
jan do that sort of tiling.”
At sunset she walked, fatigued, to
the village store, and delivered the
berries. said Die
“And here's your pay,”
storekeeper. “Eight cents a quart,
fifteen quails, dollar twenty, What
yon going to do with so much money,
Abby?’ with an expectant oblique
glance for the benefit of some dozen
loungers. towards those golrt-
“It all goes
becled shoes,” said Abby, cheerily.
Then the loungers followed the store-
keeper in a laugh.
“Abby s all right,” said lie, after
she went out. “You don’t iiave to
measure her berries. But she's a
little queer. A fel ow lias to laugh at
her now and again.”
Abby ploughed her way homo along
the dusty July road. “One twenty,
one twenty,” “lie repeated. “There’s
i day’s work for you. There's another
peg in your gohl-heeicd shoes. They’re
joining, coining.”
She invigorated herself, mind and
jody, by this alchemic formula.
“Gold-heeled shoes” to Die storekeeper
md his ilk was a vagary for their
diversion, To Abby the wotds were
nere qualitative signs.
Tne widow Barker, with her way¬
ward son Jim, were Abby’s nearest
neighbors. Barker pere had served in
the navy. After his death a small
peusion came regularly, affording the
widow a meagre living. It was her
sole support, for Jim was a thorn.
Upright mothers quoted him to chli¬
dren as a warning- He even pricked
Abby; until she was half mn.dcd to
Equal Rights to all, Special Privileges to None.
CARNESVILLE, FRANKLIN CO., FRIDA Y. MAY 20,1892.
report ids lapsos to his mother, when
•he would fall in a temper and rate
herself roundly.
“Gold shoe*, indeed! I don’t do
•erve leather. As if that woman didn’t
have trouble euough without its being
piled on free 1 Providence has been
toe good to me; there’s nobody to
mourn over; nobody to worry over.
A little cross like this will do me
good.”
Abby had intended to stop for a
moment's chat with tho widow, hut
the house appeared deserted, aud she
passed on.
“It’s pension day," she thought. “I
know whore she is. Upstairs crying
for him that’s gone. Blue—blue as
she can be. H’ml I’m blessed that
my past don’t sorrow me, nor my
future either. There it is now 1 Mil¬
lion a minute! Gold-heeled shoes I
Keep it up!”
Abby spoke of wealth with rich
exaggeration. Her ideal independence
was simply freedom from debt.
She had one desire that ruled her life
—and that, to possess a home. The
knowledge that her landlord might,
on a lapse of payment, turn her out,
rode' her as a sense of inferiority. Her
material standing seemed as inBccuro
as her credit- But to own the ground
she walked on, that was to wear gold-
heeled shoes. Every step left the
impress of wealth’s equalify. All
her efforts, then, were directed to the
reduction of Die insufferable mortgage
that threatened her home.
She labored hard in every channel
known lo her countrywomen. She
picked and sold berries. She gathered
and cured sweet-flag. She had a
patch of garden with many herbs in
it, and others she gathered wild and
sold, in bunches for the druggists and
medicine-makers. She stitched boots
wheu that seldom work offered. She
knit and setved. She did not know
an idle moment the year round.
By years of patient toil Abby had
reduced the amount of the mortgage
to one hundred dollars. And one
night, when she looked at her bank¬
book and counted the day’s receipts,
she found enough to cancel tiie debt.
It was a matter of verification only,
for she knew to a ceut the state of her
finances.
Pardonably she wopt a little that
her work was accomplished, The
goal was reached she had eet, and be¬
yond which she had not before looked.
Now she was brought face to face
with blankness. Whither should she
wander through it, and what should
she strive for? She asked herself
these questions, for it was borne in
upon her that the old desire was a
thing of the past, being gratified, and
that she must discover a new one.
Through anticipation, her hope had
mirrored brightly, but now she found
its reverse side dull; and with the dis¬
appointment mingled a bitter surprise
that it was so.
The widow broke in upon this con-
jured-up sadness with real living sor¬
row of her own. She was crying,and
all Abby’s heart-leiulenioss went out
to her at once, for the widow was a
proud little woman, and had kept her
griefs at home until now, fairly driven
fur consolation to Abby’s kindly arm-'.
And there she lay and sobbed her
story—how Jim had bceti placed
under bonds and had broken them,
and could not pay and must go away
to some prison. Little by little she
hud bare Die trial of desolate years,
and Abby listened sympathetically.
“Jim could get away,” said the
widow, “he would go into the navy,
as his father did. Jim always wanted
to, but I couldn’t let him go; he is all
i have. He can do nothing else, and
I would not let him go. I was so
selfish—1 kept him against his lean¬
ing—and now lie must go to prison.
It’s a judgment on me.”
And Abby consoled her distress and
lulled her to rest as gently as she
would a grieving child.
The next day Abby strode down the
wiiitc rode to the village, aud drew
all her money from the bank. The
cashier joked her upon extravagance.
“Going to buy gold-heeled shoes
now, Abby?”
She looked up smiling. “Yes, my
gold-heeled shoes. Took a long time
to pay for them, didn’t it?”
“1 wish we might all get them if it
would make us look as happy as you
do now,” said he.
Abby maiched from the bank into
the presence of the town officials sit*
ting on Jim Barker’s case. The con-
stable was there, ready to conduct him
to the state reformatory.
“What will it cost to get Jim off ?”
she demanded.
“One hundred dollars,” said the
clerk.
Abby counted the amount on the
table, while all the room stared.
•‘Come, Jim,” said she.
Jim came from his constable-guard¬
ed corner, and followed her out. He
was amazed. His malodonts career
had not brought him many acts of
kindness at tho towns-pcople'a hands.
“What does this mean, Miss Abby?’’
he said, huskily.
Slio smiled at him reassuringly.
“Just this, Jim—gold-heeled shoes.
And, Jim, go home now, and say
good-bye to your mother. Then be a
good sailor—aud a man.”
Quickly he stood bareheaded. “Be¬
fore God, I'll try," ho said.
That night Die widow again lay in
Abby’s arms. “Jim’s gone; he told
me all," she whispered “Hew could
you? Abby, Abby, here I’ve lived be¬
side you for years, aud I never know
you.”
“I haven’t changed a speck,” said
Abby, in affected grimness, her face
turned away.
“Abby, don’t turn away, you've
saved Jim. You’ve saved me. Ami
think what it cost i Oh, Abby, your
gold-heeled shoes!”
“There,don’t mind. Leather is good
enough the rest of the way.”
“I can never pay you back, Abby,
but while I have a crust— Oil, Abby,
I can't tell you all I think,” she cried,
for Die event bore a poetic fancy iulo
her plain-furnished mind. “But I do
believe your gold-heeled shoes are lay¬
ing up for you to walk the streets of
Paradise.”]—Harper's Weekly.
Not so Long, but Quite as Wide.
It is customary for railroads to issue
annual passes to the highest officials
of other railroads in the sanje section
of Die country. A while ago Die
president of a little lumber railroad in
Minnesota—a line only four miles
long and built solely for the transpor¬
tation of lumber—called at the general
office of tbe Great Northern Railway
at St. Paul, presented his card and
said that he had issued an annual pass
to President James Hill of the Great
Northern and would like a similar
courtesy. The office employes were
thunderstruck by this display of
nerve and politely refused to honor
the request. The caller grew indig¬
nant and demanded to see "Jim” Hill
personally. Being ushered into Presi¬
dent Hill's private office he again
stated his case and asked for an an¬
nual pass.
“But, my dear sir, your road is not
a passenger line, and a pass over it is
worthless,” said Mr. Hill.
“I know it,” replied the insistent
caller, “bnt it is customary to honor
requests for courtesies. We railroad
magnates cannot afford to discriminate
against each other, you know. It’s
a matter of regular form—discipline.
It’8 part of the railway business, you
see, and we ought not to violate any
of the regular usuages of reputable
lines. See?"
“Yes—perhaps; but don’t you see
that you have no real railroad lines?
Your is only a ‘jay’ freight line about
four miles long, beginning at a lum¬
ber camp and ending the Lord only
knows where.
“Well, Mr. Hill, I'm willing to ad¬
mit that my road isn’t as long as
yours; I never ctaimed it was. But
my road is just as wide as your s, sir,
and I want you to keep that fact in
view. Don't you forget it, sir,” ■
“By George! I never thought of
that,” cried Hill, and a minute later
the caller left the office with an annual
pass over the entire Great Northern
system. — [Chicago Mail,
A Remedy That Never Failed.
His hist >ry is briefly told.
After sevreal days of thought he
discovered a sure way to make money,
and, like other men, lie was in a hurry
to try it.
He made haslo to insert an adver¬
tisement something like the following
in several conntry weeklies:
“Sure way lo kill potato bugs; send
twenty 2-cent postage stamps to X. Y.
Z. —, for a recipe that cannot fail.
Then lie hired a dray to bring his
mail from the postoffice, and had 10,-
000 of his recipes printed. Inside of
two weeks something like 6000 or 7000
farmers had contributed twenty 2-ceut
stamps each for the printed recipes. S
Then several hundred of them
bought clubs and railroad tickets and
started out to interview tbe advertiser.
At his office they were informed that
he had left to attend to some business
in Europe, and he was not expected
back. All he had left was a package
of 3000 or 4000 slips of paper, on
which were printed the following:
“Put your bug on a shingle. Then
hit Tribune. it witli another shingle.”—[Chica¬
go
Plenty In It.
Bulflnch—How is th-.t little miniDg
scheme of yours getting along? Any
money in it?
Wooden—Any money in iti Well,
I should say so! All of mine, all ol
my wife's, and about fifty thousand
that I got from my friends.— [Boston
Courier.
—
DIRT ROADS.
Best Methods of Maintaining
Country Thoroughfares.
Proper Drainage is the Essen¬
tial Feature of Improvement.
By tlds term (dirt ronds) is meant (hose
road* which aro formed ot tho natural
•oil found in tho lino of Die roadway.
They aro so common ns to bo almost
our only roads outsido of town and
city limits, and will for many years
be used largely in country districts,
•mi especially on the lino* of cross¬
roads which connect tho main high-
ways. Dlrt roads, at their best, aro
greatly inferior to Macadam and Tel¬
ford roads in every essential of a good
highway; in durability, cost of main¬
tenance, drainage, tractive qualities,
and, in many locations, in point of
economy also. But the dirt road is
here, and the public band must bo
directed to its treatment. The first and
most important tiling necessary for Die
maintenance of a dirt road may be
dated in a single word—drainage. It
is the one thing (hat can neither be
dispensed with nor neglected. Most
dirt is solub'o and is easily displaced
under tho softening influence of rain,
mid this process is hastened in the dirt
road by the passing of lioavy wagons
over the wet surface. On every mile
of roadway within the United States
there falls each year an average of
27,000 tons of water—a heavy, limpid
fluid, always directing itself to the
nearest outlet and seeking tho lowest
level. Water is hard to confine and
easy to release, and yet, through sheer
neglect of the simplest principles of
drainage, water is the most active de¬
stroyer of our country roads.
In providing for the drainage of a
dirt road we should first consider the
material of which Die roadway is
composed. If a heavy, viscous clay
predominates, the ordinary »idc-
ditebos should be of good depth, and
will even then, in many cases, be in¬
adequate for thorough drainage with¬
out the addition of a centre-drain run¬
ning midway between, and pavallel
with, the side-ditches. The centre-
drain should of course ho tilled with
loose irregular boulders, cobble¬
stones, broken bricks, or similar fill¬
ing, covering a lino of tiles or fascines
at tho bottom, and should be connected
with the side-ditches by cross-drains
carrying the water outward from Die
centre-drain at proper intervals along
the length of the roadway. Centre-
drains, though often greatly needed
for the improvement of country
roads, are not in common use. They
add somewhat to the cost of the road¬
way, but, in most rases, considerably
more to its value, and should be em¬
ployed in all situations where sand or
gravel cannot be had to relieve Hie
heaviness and water-holding proper¬
ties of Die clay. If gravel, sand, or
other porous material can be con¬
veniently or cheaply obtained, the
centre and cross-drains may often bo
dispensed with by mixing Dio gravel
or sand in plentiful quantities with
the clay roadway, so as to insure as
nearly as possible a porous and self-
draining surface layer, which should
not be less than ten inches in depth,
and should be laid on the rounded or
sloped sub-soil so as to insure easy
drainage into the side-ditches.
In locations where Die prevailing
material is of a loose, sandy nature,
the difficulties of drainage are more
easily overcome, and side-ditches, if
found necessary at all, may be made
of moderate depth and left open,with¬
out incurring risks and dangers of
travel that prevail where the deeper
open ditciies are use for draining
heavier soils. But, on the other band,
the light and shifting nature of sandy
road-material destroys its value as a
surface layer for an earth roadway,
and its deficiency in this respect is
most easily remedied by the addition
of a stronger and more tenacious sub¬
stance, such as stiff clay. When mixed
with sand in proper proportions
(which in each case depend upon the
nature of the clay and sand
used, and which can bed be deter¬
mined by experiment), this composi¬
tion affords many advantages which
make it superior to a roadway com¬
posed of either sand or clay when
used alone. The sand serves to quick¬
en the drainage and to destroy the
sticky, tenacious qualities of the clay,
while the clay supplies the quality of
cohesion in the substance of the road-
surface, counteracting the shifting
qualities of the sand, and making tbe
roadway more easily packed and
rolled, and more likely to retain its
proper grade and slope.—[Century
Magazine.
Bards often write, “Oh, onward flow,
Thou silver stream the meadows through.
Suppose they told it not to go—
AVbat do you think the strtfim would do?
Curious Conveyance In India.
A curious mode of conveyance in
India is the tlioppa, a long cane
basket with a seat in tho middle, from
which hangs a small board to sup¬
port, the feot. Over the head is a
covered lop of cane and cloth. As
you sit in this basket, says Graco
Grimwood, 111 “My Three Years in
Manipur,’’a man ean-ioi you on his
back, supporting some of the weight
by a strap which attaches the back
of the tlioppa to bis bead.
He always begins by informing
yon that you are much loo heavy to bo
lifted by n single individual, except
for double pay, but eventually picks
you up and c arries you as if you Were
a mere feather weight.
Going along backward and know¬
ing that, should (be man’s beadstrap
break, you will doubtless be precipi¬
tated iloavu the clifi, aro not pleasur¬
able sonsatioiig; but one becomes ex¬
ceedingly callous after a lengthy c mrse
of tlioppa rides in (lie hills.
Sometimes the bearer remembers
that it is a cold night, and bis patron
is going to a ball, and to be there four
or five hours while lie is left outside
in tho cold. Having arrived at the
conclusion that tho cold will probably
by that time be intense, bo will begin
the journey enveloped in all the
clothes he can muster.
After ho has gono some distance
with tho tlioppa ho becomes warm,
and rapidly divests himself of his
many wrappers, placing them on top
of the machine, where they flutter
about, now and thon hitting one play¬
fully in the mouth or eye. Having
made themselves as unpleasant as they
possibly can, they end by falling oil
into tho road.
The bearer perceives them, and im¬
mediately descends with you to his
hands and knees, and grovels about
until be recovers Die fallen raiment.
During tlds process your head assumes
a downward tendency, and your heels
fly heavenward; should you move over
so lightly in any direction, you im¬
mediately find yourself sitting on tho
ground, in an attitude less dignified
than hasty.
Then you may rage ot the native,
and abuse all his relations, according
to custom, in his own language, and
you will not impress him in tho least;
bnt use good, sound, fishwife Eng¬
lish and he will troat you as becomes
a person worthy of respect.
Lost in the Australian Woods.
At first sight it would seem impos¬
sible for one to loso himself in those
sparse, open woods, wherein long
avenues open and through whose
feathery gum trees the sky can always
be seen. I can vouch by personal ex¬
perience, however, that nothing is
more deceptive than tho apparent se¬
curity of the Australian bush. All
the trees arc alike and afford no land¬
marks; the monotonous gray color of
the trees and leaves is without accent
or chauge for miles and miles, and the
hazy atmosphere that fills the place
from decaying vegetation and the
sweating balsam of the eucalyptus add
to the ausubstantiai effect of one’s
surroundings. Straying a little ont
of the beaten track through a very
open slretch of woods, in chase of a
flock of cockatoos, I once became in
five minutes so bewildered and turned
about as to plunge every moment
into deeper labyrinths, while confident
that I was returning to the road.
It was a cloudy day aud night was
coming on as I wandered for half an
hour amid new perplexities and in an
awful silence. What might have been
the result I do notkuow, had I not
heard in the distance the ring of ax-
blows, and seen tho spectral smoke
curling up, which show the work of
the squatter in cutting a clearing for
bis future home. I soon came upon
three stalwart young men who were
iicwing at n giant log; two horses
were hobbled in a grass plot near
by, and before a canvas-covered
wagon a woman was cooking the even¬
ing meai over a brush fire.
Apprised of my predicament, one
of tho men left his work to set me
right, turned in tiie direction which I
thought to be less likely to be the right
one, and in five minutes put me in the
road to Die station from which I had
get out. My experience had been a
mild one and with a fortunate issue,
bnt it gave me an insight into the
causes of 6ome of the mental wrecks
which the traveler tlirongh colonial
wilds so often encounters.-—[New
York Times.
A Lively Creature.
Teacher—How many legs has a cat?
Class—Four.
Teacher—How many legs has a
chicken ?
Class—T wo.
Teacher-How many 1 legs ° has a
,nouse •
Litllegirl—Oool 'Bout a hundred
OFFICIAL ORGAN
—OT TUB —
FRANKLIN COUNTY ALLIANCE
$1.00 PER YEAR.
At Night-Time.
Wr soothe the child for some wlthbolden
(■'ensure.
Till swret eyes smile that wore fain to
week:
Tomorrow—only wait until tomorrow—
After you sleep.”
-in we are soothed with solemn dreams ol
heaven.
When earthly days no further solace keep;
Hope tells us there sliallfbe a happy mor¬
row—
After we sleep.
— [Anne Iteeve Aldrich, in Picayune.
HUMOROUS.
It is easiei for a ship carpenter to
spar a vessel than it is for him to box
the compass.
Telephones are a groat convenience,
and yet people aro all the timo talking
against them.
If you pine to be introduced to a
rich lumberman's daughter, sue that
you look Bprueo.
The quality of mercy may not be
•trained, but it frequently manages
somehow to get exceedingly thin.
“Patti has a pensive air about her,
don’t you think so?” “Not a bit of it.
Oil the contrary, it is ex-pensive.”
Teacher—Mary? And what is your
last name? Young Woman—I can’t
tell just yet, but tho chances are it
will bo Smith.
Hunker—What a talker Miss Trotter
It! Spatts—She comes by her loquu-
city very naturally. Her father owns
several gas wells.
Ho—Upon my word, 1 think I’ve
gone through every experience except
hanging. She—Cheer up I there’s a
chance for that yet.-
“Bitten by an alleged mad dog” it
the way in which it is put in some
papers, to avoid hurting tho dog’s
feelings should he merely be laboring
under a temporary aberration.
He must have been a very bright
boy, a very bright little boy, who
said to his mother: “I wish a lion
would eat me up.” “Why?” the
mother asked. “Because it would be
such a joke on the lion. He would
think I was inside of him and I should
be up in heaven.”
Tbe world is like n crowded ’bus;
A few good men perhaps )
May find a seat, but most of us
Must bang on by the straps.
Valuable ltn»,'s.
S cretary Leiong and Quarantine
OfTicer Craw of the State Board of
Horticulture were in ecstacioa yester¬
day. All tho afternoon they bent over
a mysterious-looking set of boxes and
talked learnedly of bugs. There were
bugs in boxes, bugs on the tables,
bugs on chairs, bugs In tho air and
bugs everywhere about the place. In
all there were about 6000 beetles, and
of that nnnaber betwoen 200 and 300
were alive. “Those inssets,” said Mr.
Leiong, “I confidently believe will bo
worth over $20,000,000 to tho state.
When the Australian ship Monowai
arrived, she had onboard the consign¬
ment of little insects (bat are oxpectcd
to do so much good to the state. They
made the trip fit tho ice chest to keep
them dormant, Mr. Leiong explained.
Thoy were immediately taken to the
Slide Board of Horticulture and were
sent oft’, after careful examination, to
be colonized in Los Angeles. They
were sent here by Professor Albert
Koebele, who weut to Australia, Now
Zealand aud adjacent countries as tbe
accredited agent of the Department of
Agriculture and of the Slate Board of
Trade to search for predaceous and
parasitic insects. Professor Koebele
discovered the vidalia about three
years ago, and their introduction into
the orchards of die state has made a
profit of countless millions, AVitb
his present shipment he sends o posi¬
tive assurance that the beetles will be
found all (hat is necessary to destroy
the dangerous insects of the state. If
he be correct in his estimation of tlieir
value, then Hie bugs that come upon
tbe Monowai will represent by far
the most important event in tbe horti¬
cultural history of California.
TI.ere are representatives of thirty
species of beetles sent in tho last lot
They are all new to the srate, and lit¬
tle is known ot their habits other than
the brief statement of tlieir usefulness
written by Professor^ Koebele. They
are fatal to the pests of all citrus and
deciduous fi nits, apples, prunes,pears,
peaches, oranges, aud in fact almost
ever/fruit that grows in the state.
One of the greatest problems in the
mission of Professor Koebele was the
discovery of some destroyer of the
red scale. He thinks that among the
insects which the officers of the Board
of Horticulture inspected so enthusi¬
astically yesterday will be found the
.desired destroyer. Bo confident is he
in his opinion that ho dcciaves he will
not return to the United Stales until
the arrivals prove to be all that he has
claimed for them.—[San Francisco
Chronicle.