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WHY NOT SAVE MOTHER.
The farmer sat in his easy chair
Between the fire and the lamplight's glare,
His face was ruddy and full and fair;
His three small boys in the chimney nook
Conned tho lines of a picture-book ;
His wife, tho pride of his home and heart,
Baked the biscuit and made the tart,
Laid the table and steeped the tea—
Deftly, swiftly silently;
Tired and weary, weak and faint.
She bore her trials,without complaint,
Like many another household saint
Content all selfish bliss above
In the patient ministry of love.
At last, between the clouds of smoko
That wreathed bis lips, the farmer spoke ;
"There's taxes to raise and intor'st to pay,
And if there should come a rainey day
Twould be mighty handy, I'm bound to say
T' have something put by. For folks must
die:
An' there’s funeral bills, snd grave-stones
to buy
Enough to swamp a man, purty nigh :
Besides, there's Edward an Dick an' Joe
To be provided for when we go,
So, if I were you, I'll tell you what I'd du :
I'd bo savin' of wood as ever I could
Extra fires don’t do any good :
I'd bo savin' of soap an' savin' of ile,
And* run up some candles once in a while :
I’d rather bo savin' of coffee and tea,
For sugar is high
An'all to buy,
And cider is good enough drink for me
I'd be kind o' careful about my do es
And look out sharp how the money goes
Gewgaws is useless, nater know’s :
Extra trimmin'
'8 the bane of women.
I'd sell the best ot my cheese an’ honey,
An' eggs is as good, nigh bout, as th' money:
An' as tu the carpet you wanted new—
X guess we can make the old one du;
And as for th' washer an' sewin’ machine,
Them smoothed-tongued agents, so pesky
mean,
You’d better get rid of em slick an' clean.
What do they know 'bout women's work?
Do they cklkilate women was made to
shirk?"
Dick and Edward and little Joe
!Sat in the corner in a row.
They saw the patient mother go
On ceaseless errends to and fro ;
They saw that her.form was bent and thin,
Her temples gray, her cheeks sunk in ;
'They saw the quiver of lip and chin —
And then, with a wrath he could not
smother,.
Outspoke the younges, frailest brother:
"You talk of Mivin' wood an' ile
An' tea an' sugar all the while, •
But you never talk of savin’ mother!"
Economies of Science.
The fact that an aniline black can be
formed with vanadium has provoked
investigation into the feasibility of the
production of that metal for commerce.
M. M. Osmond and G. Witz have found
a considerable source of supply in the
foundry scorias of Creuzyt, France,
which contain two per cent, of vanadic
acid. The scorias have only to be
treated with hydrochloric acid to obtain
from them a green liquor which can be
used directly in dyeing.
A foreign techinal journal gives the
following method for detecting the
presence of lead in tinfoil: A drop of
■concentrated acetic acid is let fall upon
the suspected leaf, and a drop of tlie
solution of potassium iodide is added.
If there is lead present there is formed
in two or three minutes a yellowish
spot of lead iodide. Dr. Kopp moistens
the leaf to be examined with sulphuric
acid. If the tin is pure the spot re
mains ^hite. but if lead is present there
is a black spot.
Works are projected in Vienna for
obtaining a great quantity of electrical
power by means of the water of the
Danube. The electricity is to he stored
in “ accumulators,” of different dimen
sions, which would be delivered to cus
tomers for use either for electric light
ing or for motive power. Besides being
thus accumulated the electricity is also
to he conducted through underground
wires. By combining the two methods
together electricaPSBfces will he erect
ed in several parts of the town, from
which the manufacturers, etc., will
receive the required current.
The case of the City of Worcester,
which went ashore in New York Har
bor just at the lower end of Blackwell’s
Island, suggests the plan proposed some
time ago by Edison to light the chan
nels of New York Harbor by a number
of submerged incandescent lights.
“Even in a fog,” says ‘Mechanics, “a
row of these lights along the banks of a
channel would probably he sufficiently
visible to enable a steamboat to feel her
way yi and out with comparatively
little danger. The wrecks of a single
year would pay many times over for the
establishment of the system, and the
continued saving in wreckage would
more than pay for the cost of mainten
ance.” i
The Tcx'ik Record says that a new
departure in cotton mills will he found
in Augusta, Ga., viz., The Riverside
Mills—a cotton mill whose source of
raw material is the waste that is gath
ered from other mills, pud from this
waste is turned out a product in threads
and twines that are fully equal to those
made by mills using cotton as it comes
from the gin. Every part of the waste
is in some w^^htilized here, even to
i
(
burning the trash and seed husks ; and 5
even the old bagging is sewed together
and put on the market again in rolls
like as first, before it was used at all.
This null has the very finest machinery,
all moved by a 300 horse-power Corliss
engine.
For Our Youth.
Dr. Merkel states that the height of
an individual after a night’s rest, meas
ured before rising from the bed, is two
inches greater than it is in the evening,
measured standing. There is a gradual
diminution in height, caused by the
yielding of the plantar arches and of
the intervertebral disks, and a sudden
diminution, when the individual rises,
occurring at the articulations of the
low r er extremities. The sinking at the
ankle is one-third inch ; at the knee,
one-twelfth to one-eighth inch; at the
hip, two-fifths inch. The shortening
at the knee is probably due to the elas
ticity of the cartilages. At the hip
there is, in addition, a sinking of the
head of the femur into the cotyloid
cavity.
Algiers is said to abound in deposits
of copper, silver-bearing lead, zinc,
and especially iron, and one of the
principal mines is reported to yield 18(XJ
tons of iron-ore per day. Materials for
construction, building stones, lime,
marble, etc., are also abundant, and
salt is found in a great many places.
The number of men employed in the
various mines already exceeds 3500.
The cultivation of tobacco has increased
largely within the past years, but the
greatest future expectations are based
upon the culture of vineyards, and the
extent of land‘devoted to vines is about
50,000 acres. Pu,blie works also have
reached considerable importance, and
there are now 5528 miles of highway
and about 800 miles of railroad in
course of construction.
The Philadelphia Medical Timex has
found some choice reading in a small
manual used for children of 11 or 12
years old in the schools of Manchester,
England. In one of them the author
explains scientifically the things of
common life. Youths of 12 are quite
ignorant of what jumping means. He
tells them “jumping or leaping is ef
fected (1) by the sudden contraction of
the muscles of the calf, by which the
heels are suddenly raised and the body
jerked off the ground ; (2) by the simul
taneous contraction of the muscles
which bend the thigh upon the pelvis ;
(3) by the sudden extension of the legs
by the contraction of extensor muscles,
this movement following immediately
on the two movements first described. ”
Should this be called condensed milk
for babes ?
Professor Reinsch, in a lecture lately
delivered, gave the results of his re
searches regarding the manner in which
coal had been formed. He had exam
ined with the microscope not less than
2500 sections of coal, and had come to
the conclusion that coal had not been
formed by the alteration of accumulated
land plants, but that it consisted of
microscopic forms of a lower order of
protoplasm, and although he had care
fully examined the cells and other re
mains of p’ants of a higher order, he
computed that they have contributed
only a fraction of the mass of coal veins
how r ever numerous they may have been
in some instances. He refeired to the
fact that Dr. Muck, of Bochum, held
that alga have mainly contributed to
the formation of coal, and that marine
plants were rarely found in coal because
of their tendency to decompose, and
that calcareous remains of mollusks
disappeared on account of the rapid for
mation of carbonic acid during the pro
cess of carbonization.
An Old Actor’s Reminiscence.
To Young Men.
Young man, in the follow ing para
graph you will find the entire law and
the testmony : Young man, save that
penny; pick up that pin; let that ac
count be correct to a farthing ; find out
what that bit of ribbon costs before
you take it ; pay the half dime your
friend handed you to make change
witli; in a word, be economical, be ac
curate and know what you are doing ;
be honest, and then be generous, for all
you have or acquire thus belongs to
you by every rule of right, and you may
put it to any good use you please. It
is not parsimony to be economical. It
is not small to know the price of the
article you are about to purchase, or to
remember a little debt you owe. What
if you do meet Bill Pride bedecked out
in a much better suit than yours, tlie
price of which he has not yet learned
from the tailor who laughs at your
faded dress, and old-fashiofied notions
of honesty and right—your day will
come. Franklin, from a penny-saving
boy, walking in the streets with a loaf
of bread under his arm, became a com
panion of kings.
Poor Billy.
Among the most remarkable of ca
nine experiences was Billy’s, who went
into the jaws of a crocodile and came
out alive. His master, an Englishman,
on a sporting excursion in South Cen
tra! Africa, was strolling along a nar
row, deep stream one evening, looking
for birds. The dog Billy, was running
along the water’s edge, doing his best
Speaking of love scenes between ac
tors, I once knew two actors of tho op
posite sex who positively disliked each
other, hut were forced by their parts
into the most devotional tenderness of
conduct. One evening as he was play
ing at love she was to rush into his
arms. Being a true artist, she did
her work with energy, and between
speeches he muttered : “You need not
swallow me.” She replied. “You
are too bitter a dose.” While holding
her in fond embrace wrapped in deli
cious transport, lie growled in a whis
per : “Don’t lean so hard against a
man.” With her head in tender repos#
upon his breast she retorted: “You
are paid for holding me, and I intend
you shall earn your salary.” She mar
ried another actor, and clings still to
tl»e dislike lor the man with whom she
plays,
to drive up game for his master.
There was, however, a small crocodile
who was also on the still hunt, and as
Billy ran along the bank, he seized the
poor animal by the hind quarters and
pulled him into the water. Seeing
what had happened, the master jumped
down the bank, and standing close to
tlie water, waited for a chance to save
his dog.
Poor Billy’s head soon came above
the surface, but was the next instant
dragged out^ of sight again. As the
crocodile turned with the dog, its white
belly seemed to be just under the wa
ter. Thinking to make the reptile lose
his hold, the hunter fired both barrels
at it.
But when Billy’s head again appear
ed, the crocodile was still clinging to
the dog’s leg. Reaching out the gun
by the barrels, the hunter put out the
stock near the dog’s mouth. It was
seized by tlie dog and held with the
grip of death. Getting hold of Billy’s
ears, his master pulled with such force
as to draw the crocodile’s head out of
#iter.
Just then, a friend appeared on the
bank, and fired a charge, of shot into
the reptile’s eyes, which made him let
go his hold in a hurry and swim away.
The narrowness of the stream—it was
only six feet in width, but deep—pre
vented the crocodile from using its
strength, though it left three bad
wounds on Bill y, which marked him as
a dog who had “escaped by the skin of
his teeth.”
A Knowing Mouse.
Have you ever wondered, children,
how animals and insects carry on their
conversations with one another ? I have
frequently ; and perhaps when we see
little <logs, as we do so often, standing
at the comers of the streets, wagging
their wise heads and knocking their
noses together, they are communicating
some grand piece of intelligence ’ that
would be well worth our hearing, and
would interest us very much, if we could
only understand them.
When ants want to warn their neigh
bors of approaching danger, they knock
their heads against one another; and
surely the little bees must have a very
wonderful way of making themselves
understood, to be able to form, and carry
out, all their little business arrange
ments as cleverly as they do.
But we seldom hear, or think any
thing about mouse conversation, and
perhaps it is a very good thing for tho
lit tle mice that we do not overhear their
plans ; put I connot help thinking those
pretty little creatures—and surely they
are very pretty—have also a good deal to
say to one another, and that they, too,
plan and arrange things in a very clever
manner, as the little true story, that I
am now going to tell you, will show.
A little mouse, living somewhere in
the vicinity of a dining-room chimney,
showed his fondness for cheese by com
ing down tlie chimney every evening
to him which he quickly picked up, and
with which he hurried back to his home.
One day a large piece of rind was
thrown to him, so large, that although
the little visitor ran at it greedily, he
could hardly lift it at all. The perse
vering little fellow, however, managed
to take it a very short distance, but lie
could not anyhow succeed in getting it
up tlie chimney. He tried so often to
do so, that those who watched his anx
ious little efforts were quite sorry for
him ; and then at lasf he disappeared,
to go home, as they thought, tired and
disappointed, with the task given up.
But not so ! A short time afterwards
lie reappeared, bringing with him an
other mouse—one evidently of a former
generation, being both larger and
stronger than himself—and this “friend
in need” he conducted to che piece of
rind, which he at once picked up, the two
then returning triumphantly, through
the chimney, home together.
We may well be astonished at the
sagacity of the little mouse who so clev
erly gained his end. Perhaps he had
said to himself, as lie gave up his task,
“I am too little too carry it, but I know
one who is older and bigger than I am,
and therefore stronger, so I will fetch
him to carry it away for me.” Then
he had his friend (perhaps his own
mother), to tell his trouble, to commu
nicate his wishes, to pursuade to en
counter danger and come with him ; or
perhaps lie had said that they were kind
people whence that cheese came, whom
she need not fear, and then lie had led
her to the'spot. There was much for a
little mouse to settle before his rind
could be safely taken home for him ; but,
as we see, he succeeded, and then, no
doubt, the friends gladly shared and
distributed their nice supper, for I be
lieve mice are very good and generous
in sharing food with one another.
Surely there seems to be something
very like reasoning in all this !
How wonderful is the instinct of a
little animal! I read a beautiful defini
tion of instinct in a book one day, which
said that “instinct was reason without
reasoning as it came straight from God. ”
But does there not seem to be also some
times reason without reasoning.—Chil
dren's Friend.
Selected Humor.
“In choosing a wife,” says an ex
change, “be governed by her chin.”
The worst of it is that, after choosing
a wife, one is apt to keep on lieing
governed in the wine wav.
A single Pennsylvania establislunent
sent out last year $80,000 worth of
frogs. It is not likely that a cent’s
worth of these will be eaten, however.
Not because epicures don’t like frogs’
legs, but because these particular frogs
kad no legs, and were intended for rail-
wav tracks.
“Can you help me a little,” said a
tramp, poking his head into a coun
try shop. “Why don’t you help your
self?” said the proprietor angrily.
“Thank you, I will,” said the tramp,
as he picked up a Dutch cheese and
two loaves of bread anil disappeared
like a lightning streak, followed by
half-a-dozen lumps of coal.
Early Women Journalists.
Tli^ first daily newspaper printed in
tlie world was established and edited
by a woman—Elizabeth Mallet, in Lon
don, 1702—almost two hundred years
ago. In her salutatory she said she had
established a newspaper “to spare the
public half the impertinence which the
ordinary papers contain.” Woman
like, her paper was reformatory.
The first newspaper published in
America of which we have any record
was in Massachusetts. It was called
the Massachusetts Gazette and News-
Letter. After the death of the editor
the widow edited it in the most spirited
manner for two or three years. It was
tlie only paper that did not suspend op
erations when Boston was besieged by
the British. Tlie widow’s name was
Margaret Craper.
In 1(532 Rhode Island issued the first
newspaper. It was owned and edited by
Anna Franklin. She and her two daugh
ters did the printing, and their servants
worked the printing press. History tells
us that for her quickness and correct
ness she was appointed printer to the
colony, supplying pamphlets, etc., to
tlie Colonial officers. She also printed
an edition of the colonial laws of 340
pages.
In 1772 Clementine Reid published a
paper in Virginia favoring the Colonial
cause, and greatly offended the Royalists;
aftd .two years after another paper was
started in the interests of the Crown by
Mrs. H. Boyle, borrowing the name of
Mrs. Reid’s paper, which was the Vir
ginia Gazette, but which was shortlived.
Both of the papers were published in
the town of Williamsburg. The Col
onial paper was the first newspaper in
which the Declaration of Independence
was printed.
In 1773 Elizabeth Timothy published
and edited a paper in Charleston, South
Carolina. After the Revolution, Annie
Timothy became its editor, and was ap
pointed State Printer, which position
she held seventeen years. Mary Crouch
published a paper in Charleston about
the same time, in special opposition to
tlie Stamp act. She afterwards re
moved her paper to Salem, Massaehu-
i
when part of the meal consisted of that
commodity. He was encouraged to do 1 setts, and continued its
so by having little bits regularly thrown there for years a
A preacher, raising bis eyes from his
desk in the midst of Ins sermon, was
paralyzed with amazement to see his
rude boy in the gallery pelting the
hearers in the pews below with horse
chestnuts. But, while the good man
was preparing a frown of reproof, the
young hopeful cried out: “You tend
to your preaching, daddy. I'll keep
them awake.”
Anecdotes of Law ye ns.—, J'.rskine
observed, on coming into court one
day, that Mr. Balfour, a brother bar
rister, had his- ankle bound up with a
silk handkerchief. “Wlut’s tlie mat
ter, Balfour?” he inquired. The suffer
er, whose mode of expressing himself
was always very elaborate, replied: “I
was taking a romantic ramble in my
brother’s grounds, when, coming to a
gate, I had to climb over it, by which
I came in contact with the first bar,
and grazed the epidermis of my teg,
which has caused a slight extravasation
of blood.” “You may thank your
lucky stars,” observed Erskine, “that
your brother’s gate was not so lofty as
your style, or you must have broken
your neck!”
Lord Erskine, while going circuit,
was asked by the landlord of < lie hotel
how lie had slept. He replied dogmati
cally, “Union is strength,a fact of wkidJu
some of your inmates appear to be una
ware ; for had they been unanimous
last night they could easily have pushed
me out of bed.” “Fleas?” the land
lord exclaimed, affecting great aston
ishment. “I was not aware that I had
a single flea in the house.” “I don’t
believe you have,” retorted bis lord-
ship, “they are all married, I think,
and have uncommonly large families.”,
# Lord Ellenborougli showing some
impatience at a barrister’s speech, tho
gentleman paused and said : “Is it the
pleasure of the court that 1 should pro
ceed with my statement ?” “Pleasure,
sir, has been out of the question for a
long time ; but you may proceed.’’
A Wonderful Party at Windsor
Castle.
Tlie following good story comes from
a quarter where we are assured “its
correctness cah be vouched for. ’ ’ Many
years ago, at the time of a great cere
mony, Windsor Castle was honored with
the presence of three sovereigns. After
breakfast the three potentates walked
and talked on the celebrated “Slopes,”
and were of course, hi “mufti.” They
were delighted with the grounds, and
presently entered into conversation
with a gardener, who evidently took
them for a party of “gentleman’s gen
tlemen” out for a stroll. After some
little affable talk he could not resist the
query: “Now what may you gents
be?” ..“Well,” said the^ spokesman,
“this gentliman here happens to lie the
King of Prussia ; that one standiug by
your side is the Emperor of Austria;
and as for myself, l am the Emperor of
Russia.” This wits carrying the joke
too far, thought the gardener. “I’ve
seen a lot of queer furrin gents here
lately, but this beats meso lie burst
out in a rather rude guffaw. “Well,,
my friend,” said the Emperor Nicholas,
“you seem amused; perhaps you will
tell us who you are.” “Oh, certainly
so taking up the skirt of his coafcwit
the action of a great eagle spreading
wings, and spinning round on 1
he said : “Jf you are all w
you are-'-tu/ny, I am the Q.
Tho three majesties roai
and, jet