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A Dream of Murder. The narrator said that, some years ago, he was “best man” at the mar riage of a friend, who afterward pro ceeded with his bride to a large town in England. The lady possessed great personal charms, and had quite a fol lowing of suitors, the most conspicu ous of whom was a young chemist,who did not bear the most irreproachable of character; ; but shortly before the marriage,this young man disappeared. The married couple were very happy for several months, till an event happened which bears on the story. Returning from a concert one evening, the young wife received a slight chill, which threatened to rest on the lung?, and medical assistance was procured. The doctor came ; and after ordering a sim ple prescription, he retired, remark ing that his patient would be all right in a day or two. This anticipation, however, was not fulfilled. To the great grief of the husband, his wife showed symptoms of extreme lassi tude ; and the most skillful diagnosis of an eminent physician failed to ao- oount for the abnormal condition. Medicine was of course prescribed freely, but with no beneficial result. Exhaustion supervened; and at this crisis the husband telegraphed for his friend in Edinburgh to come and per form some little business. The summons was readily obeyed, as the friend had a sincere admiration for the husband, and the greatest re spect for the suffering wife. Seated that night in a Midland carriage,with no companion but his thoughts the young man recalled all the circum stances of the marriage, not forgetting the sinister incident of the disappoint ed apothecary’s disappearance. As he t howght on all these matters, he 'ii- asleep. He awoke with a start, hd found he was at Carlisle. His sleep had not been refreshing, for it had been disturbed by a dream that [troubled him. Unsentimental by na ture, he tried to laugh the fancy away ; Vut it refused to be exorcised. Still \arping on some of the incidents, he ed bis friend’s home, and found oungSvife in a hopeless condition, (husband was saddened and per- and his friend, realizing that on of some kind was necessary to rank the mourner from his stupor, succeeded in getting him to talk about the business he wished transacted. They went through a number of streets conversing familiarly, when all of a sudden the husband found himself grasped by the arm, and looked round to see his friend gazing eagerly into the window ot a shop. Recovering himself in an instant the visitor talked freely, and did not vol unteer an explanation of his rather erratic conduct; but on returning to the house, he requested the servant to bring the bottle containing the medi cine last given to the suffering woman, he girl brought the bottle, and said fie had just washed it, as the doctor c4Vred her to go for another first called forth against.the criminal,.. The friend at once told hia story. Id the railway carriage, he had dreamed that he was waiting tnrough a large city which he had never visi ted. At length he came upon a row of shops, and at a window of one of these he observed the face of a man, debased and vindictive in its expres sion, and quite familiar to him. The man held a mortar and pestle in his bauds, and while he mixed up some drug, there was a baleful light in the fishy-looking eyes. Then the sharp whistle of the engine awakened the dreamer. The sequel was plain. Walk ing with his friend through the laby rinth of streets, could he despise his sleeping fancy when he saw before him the actual row of shops, while at one of the windows stood a figure that haunted his memory like a night mare? It was a perfect revelation. When he returned, and secured the medicine and prescription, he went to another chemist, and procured the needed restorative, and then called upon an analyst with the first bottle. It was found to contain a deadly nar cotic ; and the police authorities hav ing been satisfied with the main facts, ordered the arrest of the jealous and wretched man, before the guilt of actual murder lay at his door. Different Modes of Taking the Oath. Wbenltae returned 18 and AjjtuUive about the e ^disappointing, certainly. a born detective, girl went the medicine. Fith it the young man took the bottle md without acquainting the husband Fof his intention, left the house with kthe prescription, returning after a jrief interval with the medicine. Dur ing the night, the breathing of the r patient became easier, and when the doctor called the next day, he was able to report symptoms oT recovery. in the evening the Inend, accom panied by a man of severe demeanor, entered the room where the husband sat, and requested him to come out on a little piece of business. They walked in silence through several streets, and at last reached a police station, which they entered. Behind the desk there was seated a man with his faee buried in his hands. The officer on duty, without much cireumlocution, told the business which had called them ier^^^.ddressing the husband, he r said that the man seated in the office was charged with administerln noxious drugs. When the accus •tood up, the party saw the altg^d Matures of the missing chemfpT A light seemed ^^bash ov^j^Ve hus- mnd’s facej^^^aJJjyJ^Prad made he hur- assizes, the ten years’ he pleaded lio knew nothing of tances more than was eon- the charge. One of the lecutors, however, had manifested rest interest in the oase; and as husband and friend were leaving the oonrt, he requested the lattelio vo hi& some explanation of r in whl^h his suspicions The followers of certain creeds object from conscientious scruples to the usual verbal oath, holding that it is impious to take words of such awful sanctity npon the lips in connection with secular matters. These—notably the Quakers—make a simple affirma tion, none the less binding in law, though it is said (and one can well be lieve) that no conviction of perjury upon an affirmation has pet been known. Jews are sworn upon the Old Testament, Mahometans upon the Koran, and we occasionally witness a curious scene in our law courts when special and exceptional form of oath is rendered necessary by the national ity of the witness—as, for example, when a Chinaman breaks a saucer, or a disciple of Zoraster gives his replies with his hand uplifted over a torch. It may be noted, however, that in China there are several forms of attestation in vogue, according to the rank and numerical dignity of him who swears ; while in Japan oaths are taken vica riously by the bonzes or priests, who are paid for doing s > according to a fixed tariff, which is regulated corres ponding to the vehemence or impor tance of the vow. Mahometans, too, swear by other things than the Koran, all the more or less holy in their faith —by the Prophet and his bread, by the beards of ttieir fathers and grand fathers, and their own, and by the horses descended from the Prophet’s favorite steeds. The Koran itself abounds with cautions against false or trivial swearing, and inculcates strongly the sacredness of an oath. In French courts of justice the witness raises his hand to heaven while mak ing his avowal. This seems to be one of the earliest, if not the original cer- there is something natural action, for we prawtfck it almost uncon sciously when we make a solemn assertion under the influence of strong emotion. Its significance is easily recognized. The Apawhai and other Indians on the Isthmus of Panama bow their heads to the earth in swear ing ; Kaffirs are said, by early Afri can travelers, to swear by two peeled sticks placed crosswise—from which it is even inferred that they might have some ancient tradition of the Catholic religion ; and the remnant of Obeah or fetich worshipers, which still lin gers in some parts of Jamaica and a few other West India Islands, trace circles on the ground with the finger smeared in their own blood, in token of the ghastly obligations imposed upon ^nem. There can be no doubt the oaths of many secret societies at the present day must be so constituted hat their perjurer would wreak his own destruction, since they are so faithfully observed.— London Globe. Pao* o itailroad Land Gr&nta. Mr. Gray, representing the North ern Pacific Railroad Company, ap peared before the sub-commitUt? of the House Icommittee on the judiciary and concluded his argument in oppo sition m the proposed forfeiture of lands granted to Pacific and other railroa<rcompanies. Mr. Gray’s argu ment was to the effeot that while the Government had the power fx> with draw the grants from the respective railroads it was not in the power of Congress to use the lands in question for jflfcether purposes. The corn 's thafkatter. Bowing on the Continent. Perhaps one of the most agonizing incidents of foreign travel is the prac tice of universal salutation—standing with ore’s hat off'out of doors, when addressing a lady, or in the presence government flunkies, capping people you never knew because they happen t© know the friend you are walking with, bowing to the shoeblack at your hotel, to the scullion in the yard, to the chambermaid on the stairs, to the secretary, to the shop-girl, to the in definite female character seated at the desks in all the cafes, to the people at the table d’hote, in the railway or omnibus, and I know not where be sides! Well, I thought all this was understood abroad ; I went about say ing, “How beautiful is this custom! how much we have to learn in polite ness!” I did a little of it with great difficulty myself, aud pretended to like it, and looked surprised and shocked when anyone voted the whole business a bore! Judge, then, of my astonishment upon reading the fol lowing note in the Paris Figaro: “Ought one to salute on entering a railway, omnibus, etc ? This question which we huve submitted to our readers, has been answered differently by many correspondents. Out of twenty, eight are affirmative, twelve are negative ; we select the following replies. Affirmative:‘When you get into a train, you enter a private or a public place, whichever you may choose to consider it. In raising your baud to your hat, you simply act in a polite manner to strangers who will do tbe like to you when they alight; ’tis a simple rule of good company.’ “Here is the negative: “ ‘Never whilst I live! 1 have paid for my place, I take it, and occupy it like the rest; they are prepared to growl at me the instant I get in, it is needless to salute them.’ “Here is another negative : “ ‘No; no more need to bow in a railway than at a cafe or restaurant; you might as well bow on entering a circus! notice the people who bow; they either look nervously timid, silly or like people afraid of the police.’ ” • But the most remarkable sentence is this closing opinion of the editor of the Figaro : “This last negative opin ion is on the whole our own !” Now upon this truly awful aud complex subject of Continental bowing I almost hesitate to pronounce an opinion, but one of two things is clear. Either bowing is essential to politeness,or it is not; if it is, the influence of the crude Briton is rapidly corrupting the polite Frenchman, who evidently won’t goon bowing without a return, in which case the Briton is an im porter of bad manners; or if all this bowing is not essential to politeness, why thtn the Briton is a public and courageous benefactor, a model of good sense, and the Frenchman ought to be thankful for being corrected. I should like to believe this, but I have some qualms. As naturally practised abroad, a certain almost uni versal grace of manner, of which this bowing is a part, seems to me to add sweetness and dignity to life. I don’t think it can be imported into Eng land, but I confess I should be sorry to see the Frenchman or Italian give up his bow in imitation of the Eng lishman (as the editor of the Figaro seems to propose), as I should be an noyed to see the English shopkeeper adopt the foreign practice of haggling over the price of his goods. A'a*! how truly has someone said, “When na tions meet, they exchange their vices not their virtues!” Personally, as to bowing at home, I intend to err steadily on the wrongside ; but when I am in France aud Italy, I intend to doas much like the foreigner as I can, short of wearing out my hat or wagging off my head! Agricultural. It is estimated that New York has one aere of park area to every 1142 in habitants ; Chicago, one ac/e to every 252 inhabitants; Philadelphia one to every 282; 8t. Louis, one to every 166 Baltimore, one to every 433; and San Francisco one to every 198 inhabitants, New York has 1,250,000 inhabitants and a park area of 1094 acres; Paris has 2,000,000 inhabitants, and a park area of 8000 acres; London has 4,000, 000 population, and a park area ©f 15,000 acres. Among some Nihilists recently ar rested in Odessa is a woman named Svitioch, who was tried some years ago and sent to Siberia. From Siberia shAescaped to Odessa, and there set up a secret revolutionary press, which was found at the time of her arrest. It ip the easiest business in tbs woaid to do a thing. The learning how is where the labor is.—Lampion. Sorghum seed is readily eaten by poultry, and is better for small chick ens than corn. Milk should stand at least thirty-six hours before skimmiug to get good re sults. Farmers take notice. Kill the dog first and hunt for his owner afterwards, is the maxim of certain Georgia farmers who mean to make sheep-raising profitable. Cockle seed will remain in the ground many years if untouched by the plow. As soon as brought to the surface they begin to sprout. If sulphur is well dusted around the sheds and hog-pens it will effectually drive off lice. Dust it on the hogs also, and leave a little in the trough for them to eat. Horseradish is a profitable crop to grow as it finds sale at from five to six cents per pound unprepared. It is bought readily by manufacturers of the prepared article. Nearly all kinds of fruit do well on a mixture of superphosphate and wood ashes. Lime is not suitable for strawberries, but excellent around apple, peach and pear trees. Every farmer should select a portion of rich soil, clear from weeds, which should be devoted to roots, such as beets, turnips, rutabagas or carrots for feeding cattle and hogs. They are good starters tor fail feeding. Our farmers can raise one hundred loads of pumpkins with very little trouble. Put the seeds into the corn planter with corn and there is no trouble to get crop enough to teed all the cattle on the farm during the fall months. Try it. John A. Phelps, of Connecticut, in culcates iu his boys a love of country life and the paternal acres, by renting them plots of ground for potatoes and other crops, selling them manure and taking pay iu labor, teaching them to make their own sales, keep their own accounts and handle their own money. The rhubarb bed should be attended to as early as possible. It is the first fruit of the garden, and making its advent thus early it is very acceptable lor pies or sauce. The beds can be increased—and indeed it is tl e best way—by dividing the roots, each piece having a little of the crown ; and it will begin to yield a supply the follow ing year. The new beds can be pre pared and set out, say three feet apart each way, as early as the ground is fit to work. Fish Farming. By attaching a pump, propelled by the wind, to a well, says the St'. Paul Pioneer Press, you can supply a basin from fifty to seventy-five feet in diam eter, and six to eight feet deep, with water to raise several thousand carp or other fish. The cost of the pond and appurtenances need not exceed fifty dollars. The bottom and sides need to be cemented thoroughly. When the basin is complete, place in it a small quan tity of brush or floating weeds. If you intend to raise carp do not place other fish of a predatory character in the pond. The spawning will occur dur ing the spring months, the female laying from 50,000 to 500,000 eggs. The eggs will adhere to whatever they touch, and will soon hatch. The green scum of a partially stagnant pond is fine food for the young fish. Mud in the kottom of the pond is beneficial. The fish will feed readily on kitchen- garden refuse, such as cabbage, leek, lettuce, borniny or other substances. Water seldom becomes too warm for the fish. During freezing weather they bury themselves in the mud at the bottom of the pond. While in this condition they Bhould not be dis turbed. In a pond of given dimensions several thousand fish have annually been taken. If weeds and grass grow profusely about the borders of the pond, «p much better for the fish. In two years time you can have a constant supply of sport and food, and the ad vantage of a pond to assist in beauti fying your home. Ths Vegetablo Garatn. In these days of a soant supply of labor and high prices for it, economy whleh does not approach meanness, is one of the tine arts. For instance, it is economy to hire only good, well- trained farm hands, but it is not econ omy to set them down to a meanly furnished table. It is economy to feed your people well, hut it is far from economical to have to purchase all they eat. A farmer is expected to have something besides salt pork and pota toes on his table, and a variety is more economical than meat, wheat flour, oanned goods apd stoie truck geni ally. Vegetables are so healtfifth, so eco nomical and so lndispensa^cfc that it is a sign of a poor farmer if his table lacks them at any season of the year. There is no land on the most produc tive farm in the country which pays one third as well as a well laid out vegetable garden, properly planted and cultivated. As hand labor is costly, it is both wise and economical to dispense with it whenever possiblej My experience in market gardening has proved that all kinds of garden truck can be grown and cultivated by a man or boy, with a one-horse singlo shovel cultivator far more successfully and at far less expense of time and wages than by the employment of any three good men with hoes. A garden for vegetables should have no bushes, trees or perennial plants in it, but should be convenient for the plow and teams at all times. It should be long, to save time in turning, and wide enough to supply the family demand. It should be covered with good, old, well-rotted manure six inches deep, plowed under twelve inches, then it should be covered again with manure three inches deep, and this last coat should be first buried out of sight. The ground should then be harrowed and cross-harrowed till fine, marked in rows twenty-eight inches apart, and left to stand three days before plant ing. I never plant for a succession; but plant early sorts for early use, medium sorts for later use aud late sorts for fall use and for storing away for winter. This gives a variety for use through the season, and we do not have the monotony of the same flavor throughout the season. I plant aa early as the soil will permit—hardy sorts in March or April; tender onea in May ; but I get everything ready aa early is possible. I am particular in having pure, true fresh seeds; this is aii absolute necessity,and if a iarmer is not a judge, he must avoid “box seeds” and buy direct from some house of established character, if it cost five times as much. Never let a poor crop be laid to bad seed, because that is a sure sign of a bad gardener. The time to plant seed is, as a rule, when apple tree leaves are as big as a mouse’s ear. The depth to plant, as a rule, about three times as deep as the size of the seed. As soon as they are planted walk along the rows flat-foot ed, treading in the seed quite hard, then draw the rake over the row to break up what would become a hard crust after a few heavy dews or a light shower. Cabbage and tomatoes are, in the hands of most farmers, best planted at once in the ground where they are to grow, as house-grown plants are usually so bably grown, so long-legged, as to be unable to stand the change to hot days and cool nights, so that they do not recover till the season is half over, and never are so fruitful. Having got thus far, aud the plants all showing above ground, pay no more attention to them for the season, but attack the weeds with all possible vigor ; don’t allow one to grow a quar ter of an ineh high, and if the seed was put in properly the crops will not even need thinning. But every plant must have room to grow, both roots and tops. One horse to a cultivator may be run between the rows as often as every four to six days to advantage, and in gathering tbe vegetables al ways pick the finest; this will allow the smallest to grow. It will surprise novices to find how this simple mode of managing a vegetable garden will produce the finest, earliest and most succulent products. The faster the growth is made, the better they are. Never let the ground bake, and if heavy rains beat the soil down hard, run the cultivator through as soon aa the storm is over, to let the roots have air, or the plants will stand still as to growth. Marble. Marble ia generally considered to be a very rigid material. A remarkable case, however, is given by M. Gueb- hard, in which a marble slab at one side of a door in the Alhambra of Grenada haa been bent considerably out of shape by superincumbent weight, without breaking. The slab is ten feet high, nine inohea broad and two inohea thiok. Lake Funcino. In Italy Lake Funcino, lying about fifty miles distant from Rome, among, the mountains of Abrazzio, haa been] completely drained and 42,000 aorea of* land reolalmed. The we ter in the lake in 1871 waa seventy-five feet deep. T.: It took two yeaas to work. The scientific study of a most difficult ot bransb*^ edge te thia