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I Immense Estates. What is to become t f the great Irish mansion houses? Is the close of the next decade to find half of them in decay ? It is difficult to see how this can be otherwise if matters con* tlnue as they are. The Land Com mission has in many cases reduced rentals ot farms from 10 to 20 per cent. Few laudlords have other sources of income, and in most cases it was as much as they could do to keep up their places before the troubles began. Among the foolish vanities of the Irish gentry the erection of places of infinitely too great a scale for the in comes available to maintain them has been conspicuous. As a consequence you see in many cases vast mansions sadly in need of paint, more or less out of repairs and surrounded by ill-kept grounds. It is quite common to see in the hands of a man with £10,000 a year an area of pleasure ground and garden for the maintenance of which thrioe that amount would be deemed requisite in England. The extent of the demense is amazing in some Irish seats. At Curraghmore (Lord Waterford’s) it is 8000 acres. At Rock ingham, Mr. King Harman’s, • 2000. \At another seat you travel through about five miles of private road from the turnpike road to the house. Many Of these houses contain from 40 Lo 80 rooms, and have cost from 115,000 to over $500,000. In some are splendid gjatuary, &c. This applies to some in very remote places, Lord Sligo’s in Mayo, for instance. About the finest mansion In the country is Lord Bel- more’s in Fermanagh. It has crippled the finances of the family to this day. There are very few parks under deer in Ireland—probably not thirty in the whole country. Where they exist the park is rarely around the house as in England, but in a place apart. Red deer are only found in Kerry. * The Women of Quebec. The French Canadian people have had the rare taste or luck to keep their surroundings in harmony with tneir character. I imagine the city would be dull, or even distasteful, if its drowsy and romantic spirit were re placed by a coarser life. The women of Quebec are attractive by their ap pearance of good health. Few of them are pretty, but many are good-looking and pleasant. You meet them at al most any hour returning from mass or confession, dressed always in dark colo s, and walking with a slow gait that might be taken for a sign of med itation. Their manners are unobtru sive ; their voices are low and pleas antly modulated. The young women, as you brush close by them on the narrow sidewalk, look up frankly, without either boldness or shyness, and pass on with a direct and modest manner. You see on the Cathedral steps some ladles of the old French type, with highbred features and a dark complexion rich with color. Their walk, though dignified, is grace ful and free from haughtiness; and their manners suggest characters at once strong, sympathetic and digni fied. But the most beautiful objects in Quebec are certainly the children— rosy, bright and cherubic. The Most Superior Cat Yet Heard From. A literary friend of mine at Bath had been often vastly amused at the Interest with which her oat appeared to view her proceedings at the writing table. He would sometimes jump up beside her and lay his paw upon her wrist. On one occasion, however, he leaped on the table in front of her and watohed her narrowly and with such a preternaturally knowing glance in his bright eye and with his head held slightly on one side that she was im pelled to lay down her pen and look at him. What was her surprise and delight to see him walk deliberately to tno inkstand, take a pen in his mouth and, leaping to the floor, oommence tracing characters with it on the car pet, fortunately for which poor Timo thy had forgotten the ink. Another day his mistress said to him, in fun, “ Oh Timothy, I have lost the button oil my dress, I wish you would find it 1” The animal look ed at her, walked out of the room and returned in a few minutes with the missing button in "his mouth. Alas! poor Timothy! he has disappeared, and this is probably the only perma nent record cff his winning ways. \ Robert George, a mining oapltal^t, was drugged at Pueblo, Col., and ibbed of *6000. Lite in Morocco. No sooner does one laud in Africa than be passes into a sphere of tran quillity and enj >ys a state of rest and c dm to which all parts of Europe are strangers. The haste and flurry of life fall off like an irksome garment shed on a hot day; time is of no more ac count, and worry is lmpossibl amidst a population Which moves with digni fied slowness and defers all unneces sary exertion till to-morrow. What ever may be the bustle of arrival, the clamor of boatmen, the indescribable noise and tumult and vociferation of the swarm that assails the stranger, seizes his property with a hundred hands, and threatens to scatter it all over Morocco; whatever may be the market-place, with its camels, and donkeys, and dervishes, and conjurers, and beggars in clouds, pellers of lentils and greens, and bundles of stick for firewood, grain, sugar-candy, dates, oranges, pottery and “ truck ” of all sorts powdered with dust; whatever may be the importunity of sellers, and the eagerness to act as guides of bright eyed boys, who have a smattering of half a dozen languages and ofteh the oourtly manner of young princes, there is, nevertheless, in all this noise and rout, a sense of underlying calm, of absence of hurry, very grateful to Europeans, whose nervee,«in the de velopment of civilization, have all worked out upon the surface. There is even .something soothing in the ceaseless and monotonous tom-tom of the drumB and the skirmishing and plaintive attempts of the flutes to sug gest the minor air they are too lazy to play, and in the spasmodic and die- away ejaculations of the musicians, who sit upon the ground worrying away at the tunes that are a thousand years old, and will be played with the same industrious idleness a thousand years hence. It requires less energy for the performers to go on with this sort of music than to stop. Highest Bridge in tbt World. The highest railroad bridge in the world, now being constructed on the extension of the Bradford branch of the New York, Lake Erie and West ern Railroad, is now nearly half com pleted, and will, no doubt, be finished and trains crossing within six weeks. The bridge spans a deep ravine, at the bottom of whioh flows the Kinzua creek, situated in^ McKean county, Pa., three miles from Alton, the pres ent terminus of the Bradford branch. The structure, when finished, will be 2052 feet long between abutments and 302 feet high from..the surfaee of the ground to the base of the rail. It is composed of continuous lateral girded irons, supported on twenty iron tow ers, formed by columns strongly con nected together by bracing, so as to give the greatest amount of strength and stability to resist pressure from winds and storms. There are twenty clear spans of sixty-one and one of sixty-two feet in length. Dae provi sion is made for expansion and con traction, as in the girders of the truss on the plates'oonnecting the columns at the base of the towers and to the masonry. The towers are firmly an chored to the masonry piers by heavy iron rods. The floor system of the viaduct, which is twenty feet in width, consists of oak ties eight inches in width and twelve Inches deep, laid on the girders eight inches apart, on which the rails rest. Every provision is made for safety by double timber guard rails and au inside steel guard rail. On each side, outside the guard rails, a sidewalk is laid and protected by a hand rail. The weight of iron in the structure is 4,200,000 pounds. The Power of Figures. It is stated that the cost of shoeirq? a hbrse with eight nails to each shoe, commencing at one oent for the first nail and doubling the amount of each suooessive nail, amounts in the total to forty-two million, nine hundred and forty-nine thousand, six hundred and seventy-two dollars and ninety- five cents. This is altogether too much money for shoeing a horse, though no doubt the blacksmith might be pre vailed upon to throw off the odd nine ty-five cents. A cheaper plan would be to pay him one oent for the first nail, and then take the horse home, and return him next day and begin over again, commencing at the second nail at one oent, and so on until the horse was shod. This would consume thirty-two days iu the shoeing, but the owner of the animal would save a big pile of money. Mabel’s Lover. Under the shadow of a great fig-tree a young girl sat iu a deep reverie Such a sweet smile of full satisfaction on her face that a stranger would cer taiuly have said : ‘ She is thinking of her lover.” But no lover had Mabel Rae. Her pleasure sprang from a far less dangerous source—from the hand ful of tuberoses in her lap. Their spiritual, dreamy beauty, and rare, rich perfume always held her as in a spell of measureless content, and the lovely waxen flowers, pale, pure, and white as moonshine, haunted her heart and imagination, and received from her a perpetual love and friend ship. There she sat until the heat and stillness of the tropic noon drove her to the house, a grand old home, hid among giant live oaks gray with the solemn waving Southern moss. She went to the large dim parlor intend ing to put her favorites am6ng the damp moss of the hanging baskets, but the dreamy languor of the room overcame every desire but that of sleep, and she lay down on the nearest couch holding her flowers in her hand. Half an hour later Mr. Rae opened the door and ushered in a gentle man who had accompanied him from New Orleans. “Sit down, Allan,” he said, “I will soon arouse the house. You see It is the hour for siesta, and I believe all take it at the time when I am away.” For a few minutes the young man believed himself alone. A subtle pow erful perfume was his first sensation. Then, as his eyes became accustomed to the dim light of the jalousies,he saw a sight that he nevermore forgot—a most lovely girl, in the first bloom of maidenhood, fast asleep on the silken cushions piled on a low divan. Her white robes made a kind of glory in the darkened corner, one hand had fallen down and the flowers gemmed the carpet at her side ; the other lay across her breast as if embracing the tuberoses which it hud scattered there. Never in all his native mountains, never in any dream of love or fancy, had Allan Monteith seen a woman half so fair. He stood gazing on Ma bel as if he had “seen a vision,” There lay his destiny asleep ; he knew it and opened his whole soul to wel come “Love’s young dream.” But when Mr. Rae, followed by a negro valet, returned, and Mabel languidly opened .her great pensive eyes and stretched out her arms for her father’s embrace, Allan almost thought he should faint from excess of emotion, and it was with difficulty he con trolled himself to receive the introduc tion and apologies necessary. Allan Monteith was a young Scotch man, the only son of a gentlemtfh with whom in early life Mr. Rae had formed a most aident friendship. He was rich, and by nature and birth equally noble; nor was he destitute of the traditional business capacities of his house, as some late transactions in cotton and sugar in New Orleans had proved to Mr. R*e. And partly be cause he liked the young man, and partly as a matter of interest, he had invited him to his home among the woods and lagoons of the ever green bayou. Mabel, iu this transaction,had scarcely been properly considered; but to her father Bhe was yet a child. True, he recognized her beauty, and was very proud of it, and she possess ed an exquisite voice and great skill in* music, and the passing idea of showing his pearl of great price to the foreigner rather flattered his vanity than alatmed his fears. Ha did not dream that he was Introducing anew olaimant for its possession. Allan lingered as if in an enchanted castle till he had no life, no will, no hopes, but those whioh centered in Mabel Rae. And she soon returned his passion with a love even more ab sorbing and far less selfish than her lover’s. Oh, the sweet, warm, love-laden days in those solemnly shaded woods! Oh, the blisjful hours in the cool evenings, when the perfume of tube roses and jasmine filled the air I when the soft moonlight glorified every lovely and every oommon thing 1 It was like a dream of those days when the old rustio gods reigned, and to live was to love, and to love was to be happy. With the fall, however, there c£ne letters from Sootland, and Allan oould no longer delay. Mr. Rae would hear of no engagement for two years, by whioh time he said he hoped to give Mabel such a fortune as would make her acceptable In the eyes of Allan’s father. But for the present he abso- lutelr refused to look upon the young people’s attachment as binding on either side. “ In less than two years I will be here again, Mabel darling,” were Allan’s last whispered words, as he held her in bis arms, and kissed again and again the face dearer than all the, world to him. And Mabel smiled through her tears and held the last tuberose of the summer to her lips for a parting pledge. But the two years brought many changes. The war cloud gathered,snd long before Allan could redeem his promise the little inland plantation was desolate and deserted; Mable was an orphan and cruelly embarrassed in money affairs; claimants without number appeared against the Rae estate, and creditors forced the planta tion into the ground at the most un favorable time. She was driven from her home in strict accordance with the letter of the law, but she felt and knew, though powerless to prevent it, that she had been wronged. For the first time in all her life Mabel thought for herself and dared to look the future in the face. She had promised her father neverto write to Allan without his permission, bat she considered that death annuls all con tracts, and surely now if ever it was Allan’s duty to befriend and care for her. So she sent him word, in a few shy, timid sentences, of her sorrow and loneliness. But it was doubtful if ever the letter would reach him; mails in those days were not oertain- ties; and even if It did reach Allan it was still more uncertain whether he oould reach Mabel. And In the mean time she must work, and though Mabel could command no higher posi tion than that of a nursery governess, yet she found in it a higher life than ever the dreamy, luxurious selfish ness cf her father’s home had given her. Her employers were of the ordinary class. I can weave no romance out of them. They felt no special interest in Mabel, neither did they ill use her. She was useful and unobtrusive, and asked for neither sympathy nor atten tion. No letter came from Allan, though she waited and hoped with failing heart and paling ckeek for more than a year. She had not the courage to write again, and her anx iety and distress began to tell very perceptibly on a naturally frail consti tution. Then a physician advised her to try at once a more invigorating cli mate, and she not unwillingly agreed to accompany the Invalid wife of an officer returning to her home in New York. This was the dawn of a brighter day for Mabel. By the advice of friends she established herself in a fashionable locality and commenced teaching music. I think few women oould have been more successful; so In the seoond winter of Mabel’s residence In New York it became “ the thing ” to invite Miss Rae to preside over select social and musical entertainments. I have a friend who met her during that season and who describes her tact and influence as something extraordinary and magnetic. H ;r rare beauty was undiminished though more thought- fi«l; her dress was uniformly the same —a pale pink lustreless silk, with tube roses In her hair and at her breast, for her passion for these flowers was stronger than sver. Sae had many lovers, but she de cidedly igndred or refused all. Her heart was still with the tall fair moun taineer who had won it amid the warmth and perfume of tropic noons and moon-lit nights; and though twice two years had passed she still refused to believe him false. And she was right. Allan deserved her fullest faith. Her letters had never reached him, and he had with incredible difficulty made his way to New Orleans only to find the planta tion in the hands of strangers and Mabel gone. After a long dispiriting search he left Mabel’s discovery in the hands of well paid agents and return ed to Scotland almost broken-hearted. But he still loved her passionately and often on stormy nights when the winds tossed the tall pines like straws, and mountain snows beat at the barred doors and windows, he thought of the happy peace and solemn sileoces in whioh he and his love had walked, listening only to the beating of their own hearts or the passionate under tones qf the mocking birds. Thus the two walked apart who should have walked hand in hand, and it seemed as if the years only 'widened that breach over whioh two souls looked longingly and called vainly. But if we will wait the harvest of the heart will come; and so one day Mabel got a note from a friend an nouncing her return from abroad, and begging her to be present at a small reunion at her house that evening. She went early i » the day and spent the afternoon in that pleasant gossip which young and happy women enj oy. Her friend rallied her a good deal upon her growing years, and laughingly advised her to secure a youag Scotch man with whom they had a pleasant acquaintance in their travels, ar d who was now in Njw York and going to spend the evening with them. Did fate knock softly at Mabel’s soul then ? for she blushed, and instantly, as if by magic, there sprang up in her heart a happy refrain, whioh she oould not control, and which kept on singing, “He comes ! he comes 1 my lover comes 1” She dressed with more than ordin ary care, and was so impatient that her toilet was completed before the others had begun. So she sat down in the sun-lit parlors, saying to herself; “I must be still. I will be calm ; for how shall 1 bear a disappointment and what ground of hope have I ? Abso lutely none, but that he comes from the same country. There is no hope.” But still above the doubt and fear ■he oould hear the same chiming un der tone, “He comes, he comes ! my lover oomes!” She became nervous and supersti tious, and when the silence was broken by a quick ring and rapid footstep she rose involuntarily from her chair, and stood trembling and flashing with ex citement in the middle of the room, Ah, Mabel, Mabel, your heart has seen further than your eyes. Allan has come at last. “Ah, my darling! my darling! I have found you at last! ’ ’ was all that Mabel heard as Allan clasped her to his bosom. And so Mabel’s winter of sorrow and discontent was over, and never more did she have pain or grief, un soothed—for she was loved. The Diffusion 61 Bacteria. The researches of M. Pasteur and Darwin have shown how earthworms may aid the diffusion of small organ isms, some of which may produce dis ease. Professor 8chn?tzler states that the dfj actions of earthworms always contain numerous living bacteria and their germs (the hay-bacterium in cluded). It is clear that bacteria in enormous quantity flaat in the air ; and Professor Schnetzler points out a small apparatus traversed by about 8000 cubic centimetres of air per min ute, which may give information as to those floating germs. This is no other than the nasal cavity, on the mucous surface of which air-particles are de posited. To observe these he advises injecting the nose with distilled water (completely sterilized) by means of a glass syringe previously calcined. The liquid so obtained is put in one per fectly dean watch glass and%>vered by another. With a microscope mag nifying 700 or 800 one finds among the various particles in the liquid, some real live bacteria. If the liquid be kept a few days in a glass tube her metically sealed the bacteria are found to have increased very considerably. One sees bacterium termo, vibro, spiril lum,, bacillus, subtilis, e ven some infu soria, and spores and fragments of fungi. Professor Schnetzler has fur ther successfully cultivated the organ ized germs by means of a mixture of gelatine and dfttllled water. Why do not those bacteria in the nasal cavity always multiply and de velop and penetrate to the windpipe and the lungs? Their progress is doubtless opposed by the vibratory movement of cilia (or minute hairs) in the air passages, and the weakly alka line reaction of the nasal mucous may (it is also suggested) be unfavorable to some of them. Oohn has proved that bacteria producing acid fermentation ]>eriBh in liquids with alkaline reac tion. Infectious bacteria may, how ever, multiply to a formidable extent on living mucous surfaces, witness the growth of the miorooooous of diphthe ria, brought by the air into the air pas sages; aho the baoterlum of anthrax. The bacillus of tubercle, as Kooh has lately shown, may be transmitted from one person to another by the air passages. Professor Schnetzler thinks hay fever may also be due to baoterla entering the nose. While the devel opment of baoterla on normal muooua surfaces la usually limited, millions of them are found in the dejections of healthy children. Bet bard’s grist and saw mill, at Chatham, Ont., was burned. Loss, $12,OCO.