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A RARE FOSSIL. The Ancestor of the Higher Forms of Animals. The Most Remarkable Discov¬ ery of Recent Years. Professor Whitfield, the curator of the Department of Geology in the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, has just received a pew addition to hia department. This is a cast of one of the earliest mammal fossils which science has yet discovered. The inter¬ est in thiB specimen is keen, owing to the fact that the fossil is the skeleton of an animal which is regarded ns the par¬ ent type of all animals of today which are distinguished by having hoofs. Its aqientifie name is Phenaeodus primsevus. The fossil was discovered several years ago in the Wind River of Wyoming Ter¬ ritory, and was afterward secured by Professor Cope, who learned of the cir¬ cumstance. The preservation of the animal is re¬ markable. It had apparently lain down to die in the clay, and the body remain¬ ing undisturbed, the bones were not scattered. In appearance Ihe skeleton is not formidable. The animal which is believed to have been full grown, was not when alive much larger than a sheep or a yearling calf. What first strikes the observer is its remarkable preserva¬ tion. The smallest hone appears to be preserved. Apparently tin animal sank down in the clay exhausted and went into its last sleep. The carcass was not disturbed, the bones were never scat¬ tered and the skeleton was gradually, in the course of thousands of years, trans¬ formed with the surrounding earth into stone. The skull lias some resemblance to that of a horse, but is moro of the general type of the rhinoceros. There are no tusks, but slight protuberances which indicate an approach to them. The teeth have much tho same charac¬ ter us those of modern animals. Each of the four feet has five long and slender toes, which have tho general appearance of human lingers, except that each of the toes is capped with a small perfectly shaped hcof, h<W|W* which is a copy in minia Uug of a Thc animal, Professor Whitfield says, fed able on to plants and the flesh, as it the was other, best fbc procure ono or cartilaginous portiiyi of tho skull at the mouth is wailing, that but thc general Structure is similar to of the rhinoc¬ eros, wliicli 1ms flic long pointed lip like tho beginning of a trunk for thc purpose of bettor gathering in the grass or foliage, while the teeth in their struc¬ ture aro adapted in somo measure to the food of carnivorous animals. If the larger animals of today had not then mado their appearance the Phenaeodus must have been in thc habit of making his special meals on snakes,frogs and the like. From the appearance of his feet lie was a flat-footed animal, but the toes also rested on the ground and aided him Y c'Uf'’>hq ProL;,. ,r 11 ; ro i vlV s. 4c C Ol f Hit )»%, to nwu is 'nrb A ul jHBseed fora, • ’ animal w led some years ago m i’muce, the subject of much speculation by Cuvier the naturalist. It was termed the Pal eotlierium, and was regarded as the an¬ cestral form of the horse. Several other specimens have since been discovered in good condition, showing that the ani¬ mal had reached the size of a deer, but its toes were reduced to three or four. Professor Cope, as tho results of his studies on thc early character of animals indicated in a paper which he published in 1881, that the older form of these animals if ever found would possess those distinctive traits which are indi¬ cated in this specimen of the Phcnaco Hus, which he has since obtained. The stratum in which tills fossil was found belongs to the early Eocene,or the lower Tertiary period, in thc first of which the remains of mammals have been obtained. The time of their existence is calculated by geologists as anywhere between 400, - 000 and 500,000 years ago, so small a matter of 100,000 years either way mak¬ ing little difference. The Phenaeodus Dr. Cope regards as the distinct ancestor of the higher forms of animals. In succeeding ages the larger animals, like the elephant and giraffe, were developed from it, and the different surroundings and conditions led to the growth of plantigrade ani¬ mals like the bear, the carnivora like the i leopard, and the lion and hoofed ani- mala like the horse and deer, all of these branches developing some of the minor traits which were possessed by the origi¬ nal type. When the new building of the Museum of Natural History is com pleted, Professor Whitfield expects to secure for his department a complete col lection of fossils showing the develop¬ ment of these branches of animal life so far as science has yet been able to indi cate them .—New York Tribune. Samoan Houses. George Turner describes a native Sam¬ oan bouse as a gigantic beehive, thirty five feet in diameter, a hundred in cir¬ cumference, and raised from the ground by a number of short posts at intervals of four feet from each other all around. The spaces between these pests, which may be called open doors or windows all round the house, arc shut in at night by roughly plaited cocoanut leaf blinds. The floor is raised six or eight inches with rough stones, then an upper layer of smooth pebbles, then some cocoanut leaf mats, and then a layer of finer mat¬ ting. In the centre of the house there are two, sometimes three, posts, 20 feet long, sunk three feet into the ground, and extending to and supporting the ridgepole. These arc the main props of the building. The space between the rafters the na¬ tives fill up with what they call ribs, the wood of the bread-fruit tree, split up into small pieces, and joined together so as to form a long rod the thickness of the thumb running from the ridgepole down to the caves. AH are kept in their places, an inch and a half apart, by crosspieces male fast with sinnet, or rope made out of cocoanut fibre. The thatch is laid on with great care and taste; the long, dry leaves of the sugar-cane arc strung on to pieces of reed five feet long; they are made fast to the reed by overlapping the one end of tho leaf, and pinning it with one rib of the cocoanut leaflet run through from leaf to leaf horizontally. The reeds thus fringed with the sugar-qane leaves hanging down three or four feet are laid on, be¬ ginning at the eaves and running up to the ridgepole, each one overlapping its fellow an inch or so, and made fast ono by one with sinnet to the inside rafters. Upwards , of hundred , , of „ these , reeds , ‘ a , > ; of thatch , are required . , for single . , row \ a r ;, . from the , to , the , ridgepole. . , , running ° eaves ° 1 Another then g made, « and , so on all » round the house. Two, three or four thousand fnagod , . , reeds , may be required . , for a good sized house. The thatching, if well done, lasts for seven yearn. - * « To select thc sugar cane leaves and “sew” the ends on to thc reeds is tho work of tho women, An active woman can sew fifty reeds in a day, and three men will put up and fasten to the roof of the houso some five hundred in a day. Thc great objection to the thatch is that in gales it stands up like a field of corn, and then the rain pours into tho house. The Milk Soured by Thunder Myth. You ask, says tho New York Sun in reply to a question propounded by a sub¬ scriber, why does thunder cause milk to sour? a question that. cannot be an¬ swered, for tho simple reason that thun¬ der has no such effect as stated in the question. It is ono of thoso old super¬ stitious notions that are very difficult to eradicate from the minds of persons who are accustomed to handle milk. It is well established, however, that milk be¬ comes acid sooner in damp, hot weather than when there is little humidity in tho air, and as it is during the damp and rainy days that we are visited by thun¬ der storms, the rapid souring of milk is attributed to the thunder, and not to the true causes, which aro high temperature and humidity. Curious Animal Remains. A man named Shumway, while dig ging a well near Livingston, Neb., has found a portion of the jaw of some ex tinct monster containing two teeth, one of which is teninches long and four wide, and weighs seven and one-half pounds, The animal is supposed to have been a species of fish, as fragments were found of fins about as large as a man s hand, The skull is long and flat and has a horn between the eyes nearly two feet long and resembling that of a rhinoceros.— Easy to Get One. Mrs. McCorker (to new servant)—The last servant had a habit of going into the parlor with her young man and sitting there the whole evening. Have you a young man? New Servant—No, mum; but I might get one with such inducements offered. SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. The average size of an American fam /l y> according to statistics, is 4.13. Invention will make future telescopes thirty per cent, more powerful than the pld. Steam heating is reported to have passed the experimental stage on the trains. Edison says that only one-fourth cl the coal is used—the rest goes up the chimney. There is talk of building an alumi¬ num factory at Duluth, Minn., as the clay there is the richest in that metal of any yet discovered. The fault found with many insula¬ tions is that on the smaller size3 of wire they are altogether too thin, while on the larger sizes there is often more than is required. What is known as the admirable Con¬ nelly method has been applied to cards in some of the Lowell mills, and, it is reported, with good success, increased production and improved work being the result. A ninety-foot Greenland whale has re¬ cently gone ashore at Cattegat, Den¬ mark, the first one seen in those waters in many years, although once they were common. Its skeleton is to be sent to the Copenhagen Museum. The electrical apparatus by which doomed criminals will bo put to death in New York consists of a chair, proba bly of iron. Tho current will be sent from arm to arm of the subject, or from the hfcad to the spine. The exact loca tion of the poles will, no doubt, vary with the subject and the opinion of phy¬ sicians. Professor Mosso of Turin that the blood of eel3 is poisonous in jeeted into the veins of dogs and other animals, and that an cel weighing five pounds contains poison enough to kill ten men. The blood of the eel is inert, however, when taken into the stomach, and the poisonous properties are de¬ stroyed by heat. Dr. Frithjof Nansen, the Greenland explorer, who is awaiting thc end of the “ice period at Godtliaab, ,,, , the largest , , of , the ^ Greenland , , settlements, ... , , has , been taken , , to , Denmark _ , by , the ,, steamer , Ice¬ , bear. ... Dr; ,, Nansen intends . , , to , publish ,, a ^ .7 dMlin wltt thc rcsuUs .. . T . •> , of , his journey. . It , is to be published m D 8wwU ^ Gm mi Eng lish. Professor Brooks, director the Smith Observatory, Geneva, N. has obtained several observations of the new white region on Saturn’s ring, and an¬ nounces his discovery that the light is variable, and that pulsations of the light at irregular intervals have been detected by him. This evidence of a change in Saturn’s system is of thc highest scien¬ tific interest. Vibratory law, said Mr. C. C. Has¬ kins in a recent thoughtful paper, lies at the very bottom of all vegetable and animal life. To it we are indebted foi all that is beautiful in art and in nature. It gives us all our magnetic and electrical action. It actuates our telegraphs and our telephones, the fire alarm and the electric light. Our batteries would be powerless without it. Much interest is felt in the novelty and success of Hollis’s raisin-packing factory at Holbrook, Mass., one ton of raisin? per day being assorted, stemmed, weighed, put in cartons, packed into sixty-pound boxes and shipped, the fruil being from Mr. H.’s own vineyard in Ettiwanda, Cal., no other such factory being in existence east of that state) 170,000 pouuds have been shipped this packing season. The Brooklyn elevated and Union ele rated roads of Brooklyn are experiment with fche }nvCDtion of a Brooklynite to substitute crude petro leum for coal in locomotiycs> The invcntor clairas that ^ WOfked succcssfully with stationary ^ and caQ be equally as we n uti b ^ for loComotive3> Tbe petroleum U on ^ tender> and is fed t0 th< ^ ^ & smaU jet that tWs a con , sinuous sprav of the fluid, combine! ^ compressed air . ____ Her Donkey Had a Defect. Ethel (who hears her new pet donkey bray for the first time)- -Oh, mamma! mamma! Ethel’s Mother—TTha’l is it, my dap ling? Ethel (breathlessly)—Oh, mamma, you know how much I love my donkey J but I do wish he wouldn’t doak. EARLY AMERICANS. Simplicity in their mode of living was the marked characteristic of the early settlers of America. Everyihing which pertained to them was plain and unostentatious. The food which they ate was frugally served and of the substantial kind. Their clothing was home-spun and (hemocca¬ sins which covered their feet were a home pro¬ duct, being made from the hide of animals and ornamented with beads after the Indian fash¬ ion. Their homes were simplicity itself, consist¬ ing shingles—the of roughly hewn logs and home made Log whole cons ituting the old Cabin home of frontier life. Yet thos3 were model homes. tlhe wives and mothers were well verse 1 in the art of all that pertained to housewifery. Conspicuous figure in the early home was the strik¬ ing of the old grandmother. Not only was she the adviser in social affairs but she was the medical adviser and prescriber for the sick. Often were her bauds engaged in the preparation of some healing potion or remedy for the relief of those in ill-health. Fully versed in all the bountiful supplies con¬ the tained in the grand store-house of nature, wisely knew how to utilize the curative proper¬ ties contained in certain roots and herbs and accordingly she transformed, them into certain remedial agents, which have made the old Log Cabin famous for all time to come. Con-cious of the great value of some of those old time home cures a successful effort has been made to re-discover the lost secret of their pre¬ paration, and, coupled with all the improve¬ ment which human ingenuity and progress suggests, they are now widely known under the name of Warner’s Log Cabin Remedies, the most prominent being Log Cabin sarsaparilla and Log Cabin cough and consumption erne. The suffering public has been quick to recog¬ nize and appreciate their true value and ihe manufacturers are daily in receipt of much praise for the re-discovery and revival of disease. these old time remedies against sickness and To the old Log Cabin home however is justly due the praise for all the good which may, thereby, he affected. Extraordinary Honesty. An unusual conscience contribution has been received at the Treasury Depart¬ ment, Washington, D. C., being a case of a man’s • honesty in paying a debt twenty-one years old, which would prob¬ ably never have been demanded of him. CharlesW. Hartshorn, of Taunton, Mass., recently called on the Deputy Collector of Internal Revenue at that place, and insisted on paying $2,0% which he claimed was due to the government from the estate of his father, Jesse Hartshorn, who died in 1868. There was at that time in vogue a succession tax law levy¬ ing a tax on estates as they passed from one hand to another. From some reason or other the tax on his estate was never paid or demanded, troubles in the family preventing a complete settlement of the estate. The account was overlooked in the office, and the matter was for¬ gotten, and would probably never have been remembered. Upon investigation it -was learned that the man’s story w r as correct, and that he really was the Gov¬ ernment’s debtor to that amount, and the money was sent to Washington and the account canceled. This is regarded at the Treasury Department as a most ex¬ traordinary case of honesty. One Way. An applicant for a postoffice forwarded his picture to the postoffice department at Washington, D. C.. The fact was published and others imitated his exam¬ ple, until now the First Assistant Post¬ master General has pictures enough to fill an album. One candidate, in addi¬ tion to his own picture, sent a photo¬ graph of a handsome residence. On the back of it was written: “This is the home of , applicant for the prst office, who came to this town a year ago with $40 in his pocket, and by industry and thrift has been able to build this handsome residence, costing $4,000.” This picture was put on file, and another photo soon came, forwarded by the same man. This was of a rather disreputable tough¬ two-story building, with several looking men standing in front of it. On the back of it was written: “This is the home of , the other candidate for the postoffice at-, the place for which I have applied. He lives up-stairs and underneath is a saloon.” The room was dark, the maiden rose To fetch a match, she said; But he persuaded her to stay And make a match instead. —Pittsburg Dispatch. “Sat, ma,” remarked the small boy, “isn’t it funny that everybody calls my little brother a bouncing baby? When I dropped him on the floor this morning he didn’t bounce a bit.” The Chief Reason for the marveUeua WSJ of Hood's Sarsaparilla U ferod la the that this me$cln« actually secomphah* * *n that is claimed tor it. It* W*l n*«rU h« Woo Merit Wins greater than that of any other- blood It curat Scrofula, all Human. Dyapepsla, «c. Prepared only by C. L Hood A Ce., Bowen, Kaw. Treasure in a Bureau. Isaac Newman and wife, early settlers of Miami county, died, the first on Sat urday and the latter on Sunday last. Two years ago Mr. Newman suffered a serious illness, from which he never fully recovered; and, during the time, made mention to his son, Benjamin, that, should he die, he would find in an old and unique family bureau a small sum of money, namiug the amount at about $100, and which he said was there for contingent expenses. Mr. Newman re¬ covered, the son moved to Minnesota, and the subject was entirely forgotten, it until after the burial of the couple through¬ re¬ verted to him. Diligent search out the bureau failed to reveal the cash, and the conclusion was reached that it contained no money. The search was again renewed upon suggestion of possi¬ ble false drawers or bottoms, and a more thorough and systematic search disclosed a false bottom in which, neatly sewed up in various at tides of apparel, was the sum of $7,000 in gold, silver and paper. Mr. Newman to-day deposited the money in a Peru bank. A Camel Market. Nearly three hundred thousand camels pass in and out of Aden, Arabia, every year laden with the various products of the interior. The camel market is a large space devoted to the sale and pur¬ chase of the camel-loads as they are brought in. Every morning hundreds of laden c tmels come streaming in from the interior. Filing into the camel market, they lay down beneath their loads in the place assigned them and compla¬ cently chew the end or ruminate on the subject of their woes, while a motley lot of merchants,middle men and traders cir¬ culate among them, bargaining and chaffering over the piles of lire wood, charcoal and fodder, under which they are almost hidden, or for the bales of hides and skins, the bags of coffee, or of country produce for tlie city market. Tiie weakest living creature, by con¬ centrating his powers on a single object, can accomplish something. The strong¬ est, by dispersing anything. his over many, may fail to accomplish Strength to vigorously push a business, strength to study for a profession, strength la^. to regulate a household, strength to do a day’s bor without physical pain. Do you desire strength? If you are broken down, have no energy, feel as if life was hardly worth living, you can be relieved and restored to robust health and strength by taking Brown’s Iron Bitters, a sure cure for dyspepsia, malaria, weakness and all diseases requiring a true, and re¬ liable tonic. It acts on the blood, nerves muscles, and regulates every part of the sys sem. _ The tanning industry will go, if making leather by electricity proves success. A Radical Care for Epileptic Fits. To the Editor —Please inform your readers that I have a positive remedy for the above named disease which I warrant to cure the worst cases. So strong is my faith, in its and tues that I will send free a sample bottle valuable treatiseto any sufferer who Respy, will give me his P- O. and Express addresa. York. H.G. ROOT, M. C., 183 Pearl St.. New Catarrh aiKt"ctt''»fv® Cured. u ,4« c iSSS‘m4 , itllO'.. will receive the recipe free of charge. Keep them in the Nursery. rrmstiDation or indigestion, as they are liked by N.Y. ____ Bkadfteld’s Female Regulator cures all ir¬ regularities peculiar to woman. Those suf¬ fering should use it. Sold by all druggists. A ?- %. y) m m F m - .rfc ■ THE WOELD Otf&HT TO SHOW IT. The world ought to I | know wnat B. S. S. has done for me in the cure I | of a malignan t Cancer, which was so bad as to 1 I be considered meura ble by the physicians I I in Chicago, where I went to be treated. One I I of my neighbors sent me a copy of an adver -1 I tisement in regard to Swift’s Specific, the first and few 1 (began Idoses; taking the poison it. I was got relief from of I system, and I was gradually forced out | my It ten. soon cured sound and a well. is now have months since I quit tak-. * ing S. S. S. and I had no sign of return of the dreadful disease. Mrs. Ann Bothwell. An Sable, Mich., Dec. 29, ’88. Send for books on Blood Diseases and Cancers, mailed free. >, The Swift Specific Co. Drawer 3, Atlanta, Ga. RADFIELD’Sb- -PSMA.LE .REGULATOR Women! Cures all Diseases Peculiar to BOOK TO “WOMAN” MAILED FREE. BUADFIELD UKOCI.ATOK CO., ATLANTA, GA. Sold by all Dhcggists. SOUTHERN DYE HOUSE All kinds of Silk. Cotton or Woolen Goods handsomely dyed or cleaned. lYSnits a Specialty.^ tXPRESS PAID ONE WAY. 24 Walton St., ATLANTA, GA. wanted' TJIPOKT ANT—Insurance Agent*, Bank Clerkfljtx all over tbe country to act as oar agen ts; tidR not Interfere with other duties. No capital required. Liberal Inducements. Write for particulars to INTEBNATIONAL BANKING CO.. 31 aad 33 Broadway, New York City. SlNGJEl$§i 3 il PEERLESS DTES Are the BEST. Sold by Darocisri I prescribe and fully only en¬ dorse Big ti as the A FT TO&Dl-rtb^ specific o? this disease. for the certain cure a KurutLd no. G.B.I5GBAHAM.M. Amsterdam, N.Y. D.. 310 Bsriet are j irrd onlj by the We have sold and Big it GJ has 0T i- If—** _ . ,«. many |-»---the years, best of satis \ Bold by Druggist*.