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How They Make Stetl Pens.
A French paper, Chronique Indmtrv-
elle, tells how the great steel | en manu
factories turn out these useful little ar
ticles. Yet, after all the work of min
ing, reducing, and tempering the
metal, and its many'manipulations,
*9 recorded h< re, how cheap they are,
and how dear they would be but for
the great aid that machinery gives to
the hand of man 1
The steel used comes to the factory
in sheets about two feet long by one
foot three inches wide, and 0.004 inch
thick. They are cut into bands of dif-.
ferent widths, according to the dimen
sions of tbe pen required, the most
usual widths being two, two and a
half, and three inches. The bands
are then heated in an iron box, and
annealed, when they are passed on to
the rolls and reduced to the desired
thickness of the finished pen, thus
being transformed into ribbons of
great delicacy, about four feet long.
The blanks are then stamped out from
the ribbons by a punching machine,
tool of which has the form of the
pen required. The blanks leave the
die at the lower part of the machine,
and fall into a drawer, with the points
already formed. They are then
punched with the small hole, which
terminates the slit, and prevents it
from extending, and afterward raised
to a cherry-red heat in sheet-iron
boxes. The blanks are then curved
between two dies, the concave one
fixed, and the convex brought down
upon it by mechanism. The pens,
now finished as regards their form,
are hardened by being plunged, hot,
into oil, when they are as brittle as
glass. After cleansing by being placed
in a revolving barrel with sawdust,
they are tempered in a hollow cylinder
of sheet-iron, which revolves over a
coke fire after the manner of a coffee
roaster. The cylinder is open at one
end, and while it is being turned, a
workman throws in twenty-five gross
of pens at a time, and watches care
fully the effect of the heat on the color
of the pens. When they assume a
fine blue tint, he pours the pens ore,
a large metal basin, separating them
one from another, to facilitate the
cooling. After this process, which re
quires great skill and experience,
comes the polishing, which is affected
in receptacles containing a mixture of
fine sand and hydrochloric acid, and
made to revolve. This operation lasts
twenty-four hours, and gives the pens
a steel-gray tint. The end of the pens
between the hole and the point, i-
then ground with an emery wheel in
'volving very rapidly. There only
rmnains to split the pens, which
most important operation, being
by a kind of shears. The
de is fixed, and the upper
mes down, with a rapid motion,
slightly below the edge of the fixed
blade. To give perfect smoothness to
the slit, and at the same time make
the pens bright, they are subjected to
the operation of burnishing by being
placed in a revolving barrel almost
entirely filled with boxwood sawdust.
Carlyle’s Religion.
He was a Calvinist without the the-
Wogy. He had been bred in a Calvin-
^tic home, and was by nature firmly
and ardently religious. His conviction
was intense as to the broad fact of the
Divine government of the universe
and as to tbe Divine origin of a moral
law—the right reading of which was
essential to human welfare, the reve
lation of which lay through experi
enced fact—and generally as to the
spiritual truth of religion. He flung
away the whole of miracle and the
supernatural; it is as certain as math
ematics, he said, that no such thing
ever has been or can be. The natural
was far more truly wonderful than the
supernatural, aud all historical relig-
were bona fide human efforts to
lain human duty. On the other
, he rejected scepticism as to
and wrong, and as to man’s re-
to his Maker. He rejeot-
materialistic theory of
at intellect is a phenomenon
at conscience is the growth
nvenience ; he would have
say to utilitarian ethics. It
sary to pursue this into fur-
It is the Christian relig-
theology, miracles and
arlyle said that the
ed his real convio-
bottom of all his
man’s doings
hlch he was
r day,
lug. It
oother
Valuable Clips from Demorest.
A Cureall.
Dr. .iseuiav, » French physician, is
now in this country with a remedy
for most of tbe ills to which flesh is
heir. Disease, according to him, is
due to the presence in the body of
morbific germs. Kill those germs, he
says, and you cure the disease. Hence
he recommends the use of phinic acid,
a preparation of pure carbolic acid.
Dr. Durant, of New York, cured
Edwin Booth of a dangerous tongue
malady with pure carbolic acid. It is
soon seen what value Dr. Declat's
phinic acid will have in curing dis
ease, for physicians are now every
where testing it.
The Dead of China.
Jn view of the myriads of human
beings which have lived in China
from time immemorial, scientists say
that every ounce of soil must have
passed through the bodies of human
beings in that empire not only once
but hundreds of times. .China is a
densely populated country and its
records are very, very ancient. If all
born were still alive they would cover
the country completely and extend
miles into the air. It is a suggestive
idea that the soil of every populous
country must represent the m> riacis of
animated beings who once lived and
loved.
A Novel Cure for Smallpox.
A boat which was conveying sixteen
Chinamen sick with the smallpox, to
an hospital in San Francisco Bay,
suddenly upset. The Chinamen were
thoroughly drenched in cold salt
water, and it was a full hour before
they could be placed in comfortable
quarters. The physicians and attend
ants of course supposed that they
would all die, but to every one’s aston
ishment they all got well. If China
men with the smallpox are cured by
the application of cold salt water, may
it not show that the previous treat
ment was all wrong. The people of
San Francisco would very willingly
dump all Chinamen, sick and well,
into the bay, and would not cry much
if they never got out of the water.
Eleotrio Light Stook.
The speculative craze of the day in
England and America is in the stock
of electric light companies. In Lon
don alone over $10,000,000 has been
invested in this manner, and the
shares of electric light companies in
this country must represent double
that amount of money. It was always
thus. Every invention intended to
benefit tbe race is at first neglected
and then over appreciated. When
railways became popular in England
the shares reached fabulous figures.
The first successful cables represented
high values, and now there is an over
estimation of the value of electric
lights, yet undoubtedly in large cities
they are destined to replace gas and
will return handsome profits on
money legitimately invested.
Hydrophobia.
Three physicians of Milan, Italy,
declare they have discovered a cure
for hydrophobia. So confident are
they that if a pecuniary reward is
offered sufficiently large, one of them
will allow himself to be bitten by a
dog in the presence of witnesses so as
to test the value of the antidote. They
ask that a fund shall be raised to test
this important matter publicly. In
the meantime an \merican physician
declares that he has successfully
treated hydrophobia by giving medi
cines which brought on profuse per
spiration. There ought to be prizes
for antidotes to maladies which are
dangerous or are usually considered
incurable. Hydrophobia is the result
of specific poisoning and there should
be some way of neutralizing the virus.
Tree Planting.
93,000 acres of land have been
planted with trees in KanSfts under
a new law relating to arboriculture.
This is done to supply wool to the
future generation, and, if possible, to
increase the moisture of the atmos
phere. This example ought to be
followed very extensively, for, since
the country was settled, the waste of
woodlands has been enormous. Im
mense sections of the earth’s surfaoe
are barren to day, because of the re
moval of the ancient forests, and the
drought and freshets of this country
are, in a great part, due to the same
cause. Every farmer and land-owner
should regard it as a duty he owes to
his country and posterity to plant
more trees than he outs down. Then
every municipality, every State, and
the nation Bhould oombine to enoour-
age tree-growing, and to oheok the
reckless cutting down of wood.
Antiquity of the Amerloan Man.
How long has man been on this
planet? i? a question often asked,
but the answer is always unsatisfac
tory, The remains of implements and
articles used by human beings have
been found in strata hundreds of thou
sands of years old. Ages must have
passed since the savage man first
emerged from a semi-brute condition.
Mr. Wlgglm, of Waverly, New Jersey,
found on the top of the Alleghany
mountains in Perry County, Penna.,
a piece of metamorphic limestone upon
which was cleaTly visible tbe print of
the right foot of a human being. Tbe
impression is about au inch deep and
shows the five toes and the perfectly
formed fiot of a man. This piece of
stone has been sent to tbe Smithsonian
institution. The rock is of great an
tiquity and must have antedated the
oldest memorials of Egpyt. It cer
tainly is the earliest trace of man in
America.
Mysterious Tracks in Stone.
The discovery of tracks in the quarry
at the State Prison at Carson, Nev.,
created quite a flutter among the local
scientists, and brought up several emi
nent gentlemen from California to
examine them critically. Dr. Hark-
ness brought materials for taking pho
tographs, and also traces of them on
canvas showing their direction and
mutual relations. They will be poured
full of plaster of Paris and exact casta
made of them. Professor LeConte, of
the State University of California,
spent some time in examining the
tracks, and he informs the Reno Ga
zelle that, while they are very inter
esting, they teach nothing new. There
are the tracks of the mammoth and
another track which he thinks is that
of a man. He says some persons are
entirely convinced that they are hu
man, but he is more cautious. While
he believes them to be sd, still there
are doubts. The track is so large, be
ing nearly twenty inches, that it sterns
impossible that any human being ever'
lived with a foot capable of making
such an imprint. If it was a foot it
was wrapped up in something soft and
pliable, or wore a sandle of some sort.
The peculiar outline of tbe human foot
is distinct. The curved outride, the
heel bending inward, the broad ball
and wide front, with the inward curve
at the hollow on the inside of the foot,
are still there. The Professor says he
looked carefully to see if it could
be Ihe footprint of a bear or some
other animal, but found no marks
of claws or toes, which would be part
of a bear track. He tried to imagine
an animal which stepped with his hind
foot into the track of its fore foot and
made Buch an impression, but he found
nothing to indicate it. Being a|ked if it
might be a foot wrapped in bark or skins
as a defence against cold he thought not,
because if it were cold the mud would
be frezen and there would have been
no impression. It could hardly be
that the foot was wrapped to keep the
body from pressing it into the mud, as
snow-shoes are worn, for then the out
line of the foot would not be preserved.
On the whole the human track is a
puzzle. One tning remarkable about
it is tbe distance between the linesaof
the tracks made by the right and left
foot (the straddle), which is about
eighteen inches. The length of the
stride is that of a common man, being
less than three feet, but the size of the
foot and the distance between them
were those of a giant. -It will be con
sidered carefully by men of science,
and no doubt more light will come.
The track of the mammoth is about
Buch a one as would be made by the
one in Prof. Ward’s collection, now on
exhibition in San Francisco. The
professor thinks the prints were prob
ably made in the soft mud on the
bank, perhaps near the mouth of a
river, and soon after a spring flood
came down and spread a layer of sand
on them, which was followed in years
by the large deposit which became
the rock now seen there. The profes
sor assigns the tracks to a period at
least as far back as the glacial epoch,
and thinks perhaps they belong to the
pliocene. There seems to be no grea
significance In the fact of finding hu
man tracks (if they are human) with
those of the mammoth, because it has
been long known that man appeared
on earth before the mammoth became
extinct. Still the discovery is very
interesting to science, and may lead
to important results.
It may beBaidof the “belle of the
ball,” that when she bows an assent
to an invitation to dance, “she stoops
to concur.”
It is said Mr. Slssendorf always
trembles when his wife sings in ohuroh
with prayerful earnestness, “Oh 1 for
a thousand tongues.”
Cangenlal Friends.
A irhort Story With a Moral.
Simpkins hail been out over night
at a little party, and this morning did
not feel exsctly up to (he store. Per
ceiving a tendency in the wife of his
bosom to be huffy about tbe ten o’clock
breakfast, ami ostentatious in her man-
n* r of displaying the holes in the heels
of the children’s stockings, he took his
hat and went un to “Maliuda’s.”
Malinda is one of those blessed spirits
who make tolerable the thorny track
of life to tbe men whose tender natures
suffer from the coldness and uncon
geniality of their spouses.
“Ah, Jaggars, you’re a man to be
envied, your wife is one in a thou
sand.” *
Jaggars, who was down on his knees
hunting the baby’s stockings out of
tbe pile of dirty clothes in the bot
tom of the china closet, assented
blandly.
“Things are as bad as ever up at
your house, I suppose, George?” said
Malinda, pausing in her perusal of the
afflictions of Alticidora Multiflora, or
The Bold Buccaneers of Bussora.
“Worse,” groaned George, “they’re
beastly, they’re ferocious, they’re hor
rid ; that woman has no more concep
tions of the art of amusing or enter
taining a woman than a—a, ichthyo
saurus.”
“It’s plain to be seen,” responded
Malinda, soothingly, “that if you ever
do enjoy youself it will have to be
aw&v from her.”
The entrance of Mrs. Simpkins, who
came over to borrow some yeast cakes,
interrupted the seance, and Simpkins,
deprived of his opportunity to bask in
the sunshine of sympathy, went oft - to
the store. That night when Simpkins
entered his parlor he started back in
horror. A cold sweat broke out on
his marble brow, and bis slim shanks
trembled beneath him. Had pademo-
nium broken loose, or was he bewitch
ed. He backed helplessly out of the
hall and looked at the number—242.
All right. He must be sick, and this
sight which met his eyes was the
phantasmagoria of a violent fever. The
neat Brussels carpet, the pictures, the
statuettes, the piano, where were they?
This was what he saw: A sanded
fleor, two deal tables, three eucher
decks, a checker board, a billiard table,
lemons,sugar, and a demijohn, flanked
with tall glasses, and Pickens, and
Bostwick, and Warren, and Wilson,
and saints above, it was the pretty bar
maid from the “ Cove’s Retreat, or the
Sailor’s Delight,” up street.
‘Come in, come in! said Pitkins,
waving his hand hospitably, “free
blow, won t cost you nothin’.”
“Jolly feller, Simpkins’s wife,” said
Bostwick, approvingly, “love her like
a brother a’ready ; no, like a sister, I
mean ; no, that ain’t It either; hanj? it
what is it I do mean, anyhow ?”
“Have some tonic, ol’ feller?” hic
coughed Warren , “you’re welcome to
an’thing thre’s ; no stinginess ’round
here.”
“Wish you well,” said Wilson, bow
ing with immense gravity ; “wish you
well, friend, whoever you are ; no mat
ter what’s your ’ligion or politics, I
wish you well.”
The pretty bar maid smiled malic
iously; she had Mrs. Simpkins best
lace tie in her pocket.
“ No need to go out in the cold to
seek congenial society now, Mr. Simp
kins, you’ve got the spice of life at
home.”
It took two policemen three hours
to clear that house, and cost twenty-
five dollars to get the tobacco spit
cleaned up from the floor and repaper
tbe walls, and it was half-past eleven
before Mrs. Simpkins could remove
from the door of her room the bureau,
the baby’B crib, the coal scuttle, and
the slop jar, with which she had barri
caded herself and her precious darlings
from the congenial friends of the part
ner of her bosom.
When the boys in tbe streets shout
“congenial spirits” after Simpkins
now it makes him mad.
Mrs. Browning s Marriage.
“Lady Geraldine’s Courtship” was
written in twelve days by the invalid.
It contained several allusions to liv
ing poets; and among others, to Mr.
Robert Browning, whose “Bells and
Pomegranates” was referred to in
these lines:
Or from Browning Home "Pomegranates"
which, If cut deeply down the middle,
Show a heart within hlood-tlnotured of a
veined humanity.
Pleased with this compliment, the
poet called upon El’zabeth Barrett, in
order to have an opportunity of thank
ing her personally. Fate oftentimes
takes the shape of accident. The poet*
ess was never at home save to a few
intimate friend*, and a new servant,
who opened tbe door for Mr. Brown
ing, mistaking him for one of these,
unhesitatingly ushered him into the
invalid’s room, where they met for
the first time. Previously, when she
had finished that magnificent poem,
“The Dead Pan,” which teaches us
strange mysteries of melodies, and
flows fervent, free and pure, like, a
great crystal stream clown the swift
sweet current of sound into the vast
voiceful sea of profound thought, Eliz
abeth Barrett sent the manuscript to a
friend, in order to have his criticism,
who in turn showed it to Robert
Browning. The poet was much im
pressed by it, and wrote a letter to his
friend full of enthusiastic appreciation
which found its way into Elizabeth
Barrett’s hands. This incident no
doubt [caved the way to a friendship
between them which afterward result
ed in one of the happiest of unions.
This part of her life’s story reads more
like fiction than fact, but fiction were
colorless beside such reality.
Mr. Barrett refused his consent to
bis daughter’s marriage. Shv - as his
favorite, the object of his pric•* *s well
as his love ; he it was who 1. <ped to
form her mind, and store it v. ith the
riches it contained ; he could uot en
dure the idea of a severance. Alto
gether the idea of her union was pain
ful to him, and from the day of her
marriage to the end of her life he re
fused to be reconciled to her, notwith
standing her appeals to h1s affection.
However, she now loved in her thir-
ty-niuth year, and for the first (ime,
and fora conception of the great depth
and sublime fervor of this new affec
tion which broke over her still life,
and suddenly woke her to a nobler
conception of humanity, to a clearer
vision of that subtle soul-power which
binds heart to heart, we have only to
turn to those most glorious “S mneta
from the Portuguese.” In these we
see and feel that her heart has over
flown from very force of its happiness,
and has broken out in rapturous songs
which chain us with the unbreakable
and unbroken spell of deepest har
mony, tremulous with all the glow
and fire of ardent and pure affection,
flesh as morning, sublime and sweet
as the direct aspirations of a mind
rapt and overwhelmed by the first
ecstasy of virgin love, and full of a
music never before equalled, never
since exeelled. Perhaps there are no
two lines in the English or any other
language which with such simplicity
and force express so much as these :
1 $ laid tbe grave for tby sake,and exchange
My near sweet view ol heaven for earth with
And they help to show us and make
us comprehend, as far as rve are capa<
ble, the new spirit which awoke in
her. Two years after her interview
with Mr. Browning, Elizabeth Barrett
w as literally assisted from her couch
and married to the poet, and immedia-
ately after tbe ceremony^hey depart
ed for Italy. “Our plans were made
up at the last, and in the utmost haste
and agitation, precipitated beyond all
intention,” she writes to a friend ; and
further adds: “Perhaps it has struck
you that a woman might act more
generously than to repay a generous
attachment with such a questionable
gift and possible burden as that of un
certain health and broken spirits; to
which I can only say that I have been
overcome in generosity as in all else,
though not without a long struggle in
this specific case; also there was the
experience that all my maladies come
from without, and the hope that, if
unprovoked by Euglish winters, they
would cease to come at all. The mild
ness of the last exceptional winter has
left me to hope everything from Italy ;
so you see how it all ended.”
Nothing Stale in These.
No matter how good natured a man
may be, he will Invariably get mad
when he discovers that there is no
towel in the room, and is compelled to
dry his face on the bed quilt.
Grammatics!.
Remember, though box in tbe plural makes
boxes,
Tbe plural cf ox should be oxen, not oxea;
And remember, though fleeoe In tbe plural la
HeeoeB,
Tbe plural ol goose Is not gooses nor geeses;
And remember, though bouse In the plural
Is houses,
The plural ol mouse abould be mloe, aud not
mouses,
Mouse, It Is true, In the plural Is mloe,
But tbe plural of bouse should be houses, uot
hloe;
And loot, it Is true, lu tbe plural Is feet,
But tbe plural of root should be roots, and
uot reet.
“It resembles a walk in the open air
on a Sunday morning,” is the tribute
of a Berlin crltio to Longfellow’s po
etry. Why Mr. Longfellow’s best ef
forts are like going to get shaved is
not so plain iu this country.