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Seeds and Words. I dropped a seed beside a path, ADd went my busy way, Till chance or fate—I say not which— Led me, one summer day, Along the self-same path, and lo! A flower blooming there, As lair as eye has looked upon, And sweet as it was fair. I dropped a sympathetic word, Nor stayed to watch it grow, j.' or little tending’s needed when The seed is good we sow; But once I met the man again, And by the gladsome way He took my hand I knew 1 sowed The best of seed that day. Working for Uncle Sam. A WOMAN CLERK S STORY. The life of a feminine clerk in one of the Government Departments at Wash jngtoo is not by any means a bad ex- istenee. I have tried it and speak from experience. One day not long ago I found my way to the office of the Secretary in the Interior Depart meat, A colored man of great dignity sat outside of the door, ail( j upon my entrance into the ante- room rose respectfully and, taking my I c^rrd waved me to a scat to await re* suits while he disappeared through a doorway opposite me. In a few minutes I was ushered into a large room, half office, half library, aiK i facing a dignified gentleman who rose and politely asked me to be seated. He still held in his hand the letter I had sent in by the porter together with my card, the black border of which looked as strange and forlorn as my life was then. In as few words as pos- sible 1 told him my history up to that moment and why I had applied to him. Would he give me a position as a clerk in the Department? He silently turned over several pack¬ ages of paper lying on the desk beside him, and then said: ‘‘Do you know your application makes 1001 that I now have before mo, asking for clerk- ships in this Department?” One thousand and one! How quickly a favorite waltz, “One Thousand and One Nights!” The room and the man before me faded before another vision— a group of gay young girls dancing to the music of that waltz as it dripped from my careless fingers. “One Thou¬ sand andjOne Nights!” Less than that many nights before I had been one of a party listening to that music played by a German band, “Under the Lin- den” in Germany, loved and cared for, with no thought of sorrow. I was brought sharply back to the present, with its bitter contrast, by the entrance of the porter, followed by two gentlemen. The Secretery shook my hand as a farewell, and promising to send me an answer in the morning, bade 'h e porter see me safely to the car in the next street. In arranging my veil a watch guard unclasped and dropped with a rattle to the floor. One of the gentlemen who had just entered picked it up, and looking significantly at it and then to the Secretary, handed it to me. It was the square and com¬ pass set m large white diamonds, be¬ longing to my husband. Ido not know whether that little incident helped me to gain my position or not, but have thought possibly it did, as I saw the same design hanging from a chain worn by the Secretary of the Interior. Next morning the bell boy brought a note and a large official document con¬ taining my appointment to a clerkship in the Pension Office at a salary of $1003 a year. I was to go the follow- ln g Monday morning at 0 o’clock for examination and to be assigned to a room with others thus employed. . The next two days were spent in search for a boarding-house. Of these I found plenty, but at not one desirable place could 1 get room and board without that all-important thing, some recommenda- tion, a thing I had never once even dreamed of having. I think my experience those two days ought to be written, and would be in¬ toresting, to say the least, to students of human nature. My only crime, un- , fdness or whatever you may term it, ns expressed or hinted, was my being “so young,” “so pretty *» and “a widow! ’ Think of it. I wished most heartily that day that I might be old, gray and hideously ugly. I am gad there were no wicked fairies about that could change peop e at their own wish. 1 fear I should hare been left repent¬ ing, a clerk to this day in that old g-oomy building on the avenue. As I could not change my facj, and certain¬ ly it was not my forture, 1 decided to change my tactics, and through the means of the telegraph I was enabled to secure satisfactory references, even for that particular and pampered class, Washington landladies. On the Mtoday following I went to a building on Tenth street—I think the same one where President Lincoln was carried mortally wounded; if not, it was next door to it—where the exam¬ inations were held. In answer to my rap I was admitted to a long, low- ceiled ro< m filled with writing tables and chairs. At one of these tables two ladies were busily bending over pen and ink, evidently undergoing the ordeal through which I must pass. A short, stout gentleman with a pair of large green glasses surmounting his nose looked over my paper of appoint¬ ment, and giving me a chair at one of the vacant desks, put before me seme printed questions. I think I passed creditably, for I was not requested to rewrite or given any hints, as one of the other two was. While my pipers were being folded and written upon I looked with curi¬ osity at my comrades. One was un¬ doubtedly a “schoolmarm.” It showed for itself in many ways. Tall, thin, plain, with an intellectual face, She wrote carefully and without study her answers to the questions and folded her papers with a precision and neatness that spoke well for any work entrusted to her, and made me feel green with envy. Both ladies had reached that stage in life called one of “uncertain age.” Why uncertain I could never see plainly. But the other writer interest¬ ed me. A lady without doubt; once “of the world,” but of it no more, was written plainly on the strong, thought, ful face and iu the diguititd, queenly figure. Age and care had lined the once handsome face and whitened the hair. Later I learned her history and that my surmises were correct. By a stroke of fate our desks were next to each other for many m nths and through her eventually my life’s story was changed. She was the widow of a once noted army officer. Through the carelessness of trustees her fortune was swept away. The same government that honored her husband while living soon gave her means of earning her bread. A bill had been introduced in congress to give her a suitable pension, but was delayed and seemed almost hopelessly cast aside, Later it was granted and she gladly resigned her position to others more needy and less interesting. Wc all three left that building and went to the pension office on Twelfth street. It was a relief to me to be with the two older ladieq and they both assumed a care aud helpfulness that I have never ceased to remember gratefully. Another office, with several desks, occupied by men busily writing and messengers coming in and going out, carrying papers, We waited some time, and at last, our papers being seen and approved, we were given cards, with our name and number of building and room thereon. The “school¬ teacher” said “good-by” and went to another building, while the other lady and myself followed a messenger up a flight of stairs and into a large, well- lighted room. It was filled with desks, men, women and chairs, and all swam in a confused circle before my frigkt- ened eyes. In a moment of composure 1 began counting, and found .that there were eighty clerks assigned in this room, seventy of whom were men and ten women, The desks were arranged in rows, as at school, eight rows, with six in a row. The ladies (all, with one exception, looked like ladies) had the lightest, warmest side of the room and were in a ;ow by themselves, The scratch of pens, or rattling of papers, with an oc- casional subdued remark, was all that broke the silence. At the end of the room and facing the others were the desks of the Chief and Assistant Chief of the division. I almost expected to see a pples, knives and marbles there; it seemed like a “grown-up” school-room over which two teachers presided. A soldierly looking gentleman cams for¬ ward, and offering chairs, looked at our cards. In a few minutes we were shown the ladies’ cloak-room, a small, neat room, cared for by an eideriy colored woman (once a maid to one of the mistresses of the White House), and upon our return were given desks at the end of the line of ladies. The work was making out papers f< r pension cases, eopy.ng old war records and trying to rewrite the rec¬ ords of the revolutionary war. Theso last were really interesting, containing many quaint historical facts, that lie hidden in the old yellow parchments. In one of the payrolls was pinned a receipted hill, made out to “George Washington for ye shoeing of one horse” by one “Pliineas Seely.” i have forgotten the amount, but the debt was paid. There were many funny applications for pension?, the reasons for applying being absurd be¬ yond belief. One old fellow applied because “his wife’s first husband had been killed in battle, and he, having married her and endured her temper and bad cooking for many years, until death released her from this world and himself from the two above trials, he desired a pension on that ac¬ count.” 1 From 9 in the morning until 4 iu the afternoon we wrote at our desks, with a half hour for lunch, every day but Sun¬ day. Of the men employed as clerks nearly ail had suffered in some way from the war, through which most had passed. Some few were there through influence. Of the twelve (counting the last two assigned) women employed, eight were widows, either wives or daughters of men killed in battle. The four young women were orphans. The most perfect decorum prevailed and I can assert that no lady could fail to be treated with greater respect by all with whom she may come in contact. I speak from only a brief month’s experience, but in that time, on account of rapid penmanship, I was sent from one room to another to assist in work needed in a hurry, I saw and heard enough of the different people to write many novels that would verify the old adage that “truth is stranger than fic¬ tion .”—New York World. Peculiar Prescriptions. is We have the queerest kind of pre¬ scriptions callel for sometimes,” said a pharmacist a few days since, “Not very many days ago a reputable physi¬ cian sent to ask me if I could get him some of the virus from a bee sting, to be used, I think be said, in scarlet fever. And another physician once told me that he had secured marvellous results in a case where powerful opiates had failed, by using virus from the bite of a rattlesnake. “But the mass of queer prescriptions are brought in by ignorant people, and are not vouched for by any member of the medical profession. Not long ago a young colored man brought in a bit of paper that called for nearly twenty different substances, among which were a lock of hair from the head of a baby, five whole black peppers, the tooth of a cat, a nail from the left hind paw of a dog, a bit of gum bezoin, and a drop of blood from the veins of a living man. All these were to be put to¬ gether at midnight when the moon was in a certain quarter. To be taken in¬ ternally? Oh, bles3 you, no. It was to be worn in a bag about the neck, and was, I fancy, the relic of some old superstition of plantation days.”— N. Y. Sun. Migration of Big Game. Some of the Maine hunters report that the caribou are fast leaving the Maine forests aud arc going north into Nova Scotia. John Darling informs us that John Francis of the Trout Brook region and Captain Barker of the Rangeley lakes, two well-known hun¬ ters, report that the caribou have been leaving their localities for the past five years and now only a stray one is found in the woods. The deer, on the con¬ trary, are growing more plentiful in these parts and are fast leaving the Macbias and Union river region. The hunters are unable to assign any reason for these movements of game .—Bangor {Me.) Commercial. The Question is Unanswered. “You are an authority on feats of strength, I believe?” remarked a stran¬ ger to the sporting editor, The latter bowed, and replied: “What can I do for you?” “I wish you would tell me which is the stronger, the female shoplifter or the woman who holds up a train?”— if unity's Weekly. The Best He Could Do. Mrs. Brown—What made you chalk your name on my new table? Little Johnnie—Cause I’d lost my jackknife. ’’— Epoch. ARCTIC SEALING. How The Newfoundland Hunt¬ ers Capture Their Prey. Slaughtering the Animals Among the Icebergs, Describing what he saw while on a Newfoundland sealing vessel among the northern ice floes, a writer in the New York Times says: As the morn¬ ing brightened out the seals could be seen with the naked eye, scattered here and there in little coveys and lying quite still. How glorious the sight was when the clear, bright sun arose out of the distant east! Everywhere Mi uhed a white gleaming field; the summits of the bergs sentineling the flue caught the sun first and fairly quivered and scintillated in flame. The side turned to the east was burn- ing gold; the side away from the sun was a steel blue. Biids which make these icy peaks their home till they reach their breeding haunts further in the south rose and circled iu swarms about the top of the berg. But when the sun rose about the smooth-ice level it sent long spears of yellow fire, so numerous and so bright that you could not look at the pathway of scintillating light. It needs no orders from the Captain to get the men out on ,ho ice such a morning as this. Every man cf them, except the regular crew, sailed forth, his gaff in his hand. The gaff is a weapon with a stout wooden handle and a steel spear and gripping con¬ trivance at the end. This is the hun- ter’s weapon of slaughter. He carries a coil of rope on his shoulder and his great knife in his belt. He has no fear on this floe, for all the armies of the world and all their horses may vest upon it with safety. It consists of a vast agglomeration of “pans” or “cakes,” frozen together and compact except when the floe begins to break up. Ocean ice always foims in this way, and never in great sheets, as on rivers and still water. The wintry ocean waves are forever in motion, which would break up large areas of thin ice. The bergs are regular ocean wanderers and get imprisoned by the flat ice, but they break away as the spring advances and have a fondlcss for the track of ocean ships. Of all other floating things they are, in foggy weather, the most deadly menace to ships. The writer went out for slaughter with a great brawny hunter who soon showed how the work was done. Here and there on a broad ice pan was a covey of three, four or five seals, all sunning themselves, and apparently sucking the ice. They have no other food in this wilderness so far as can be seen. They go on the ice to bring forth their young, and also perhaps to get a free ride down from Greenland to Newfoundland and the shores of the Canadian provinces. They seldom make much effort to get away as you come up to them, but the hunters declare that there is a look of terror in their soft, dark eyes, and they have, moreover, the firm belief that the seal sheds tears. Lifting his heavy gaff the hunter strikes the animal on the head, strikes every one of them in the group, then taking out his knife he strips off the pelt by opening the ani¬ mal back and front down to the lean meat. The skin, which is gray, goes with the'blubber or fat, and the carcass is left on the ice. These pelts are left where they are till all the animals in a convenient radius have been secured. Then,tying several of the pelts together the hunter proceeds to collect them, putting them all together, and marking them with a miniature flag from his ship. Here is the advantage of the steamer; she can work her way up, following the lead of the men from day to day pick- ing up the pelts, The sailing vessel remains where she gets fast, and the hunters are oliged to drag their trophies for miles over the ice. They get lame at first from ice travel and they all get ice blind unless they wear green gog¬ gles, as they call that kind of glasses. The seal is not the valuable fur ani¬ mal from which ladies’ jackets and muffs are obtained; he is known as a white-coat, and tho fur is not in much request, being coarse and presenting a bristly appearance. In about a week :he ship had over 20,000 pelts, worth about $5 esch, and in another fortnight had added nearly another 10.000. This tilled her to the hatches, and the men slept on top of the cargo, Their clothes were saturated with seal oil and they smelled strongly of it. There are hosts of sea birds on the floes, and some ^ood sport can be had. The greenhorns looking for adventures would go after the huge 8temmatopu3, or hooded seal, but they usually left in much terror. Heavy seal shot has Littlo effect on the “dog hood.” He covers his head and lies defiantly on the ice before the hunter’s gun. He is nearly as large as an or. A curiosity is the small white fox known as the ice fox. He comes out to feast on the carcasses left by the scalpers, but if there is any chance of an off storm, which would blow the floe off from land, he scampers shore¬ ward. He is an exccUent weather prophet. The Laureate’s Salary. There has been considerable discus¬ sion in some of our journals recently, as to who will be Lord Tennyson’s suc¬ cessor as poet laurea e. As the laureate is at present in good health and spirits the discussion seems not only premature but somewhat discourteous. It is to bo hoped it will be along while before it will be necessary to appoint any suc¬ cessor, for there appears to be no one fit to step into the shoes of Tennyson. Of course, everyone has his favorite poet, and everyone thinks his favorite the only one fit to wear the laurel crowu. There is, after all, but little honor connected with the poet. It is an ancient office. Considerable over 600 years ago, in the reign of Henry I1L, the “King Versifier” was paid 100 shillings annually, and I do not sup¬ pose this officer occupied a higher post than the king’s fool did in those days. James the First paid his laureate 100 marks year, and Charles I. increased the salary to 100 pounds, with one tierce of Canary Spanish wine “to bo taken out of tho King's store of wiue3 yearly.” Tho remuneration of the laureate has remained tho same ever since, but I am not clear whether Lord Tennyson still draws a tierce of wino annually from tho cellars at Windsor Castle. I should think in all proba¬ bility he received the money value for it. The laureate is scarcely expected to sing to order in the present day. If he were his salary is terribly insufficient. It must bo borne in mind that £100 a year in the uays of Charles I. was a very different thing to £100 in 3890. Why, an industrious versifier could easily make that sum by contributing to tho journals and magazines of the day. However, it is an age for the abolish¬ ment of ancient offices, old customs and venerable institutions, and I should not be at all surprised if, wheu Lord Ten¬ nyson has done with the post, it should be abolished. A Jeweller’s Superstition. Nearly every jeweller, says one of the craft in the Atlanta Journal, lays down a rule never to credit anybody for a clock or watch or anything that keeps time. I don’t know why this is and never heard any good reason assigned for it, but nevertheless it is a fact. And, moreover, we firmly believe that a watch or a clock that is brought to us for repairs or regulating will never keep good time if the owner docs not pay cash for the job. You know we do a big credit business. I suppose jewel¬ lers do a larger credit business than any other c’ass of merchants, and it no doubt seems surprising that we have a c’ass of trade that is barred from the credit list on account of a superstition. Showing His Itespect. In Russia, it is customary for all laymen, the emperor himself included, to show their outward respect for tho church by kissing the hands of its min¬ isters. On one occasion it is related that a village priest, receiving a grand duke at his church door, and having no experiences of such exalted personages, hesitated to offer him his hand; the grand duke, getting impatient, ex¬ claimed: “Stretch out your paw, you fool!”— Argonaut. Thinks She is Still a Slave. Mrs. Divens of Lee county, Ga., has an old negro woman who does not know that she is free. When freedom dawned upon the negroes, and they all started to leave, this old woman, who is deaf and cannot talk well, could not be made to understand it, and she has not found it out to this day, and U still living on the old plantation. — Atlanta Constitution.