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Fitzgerald Leader. -- FITZGERALD, GEORGI \ * —rUBLlBHED BY— KISTAFP d) BOINJ. L1HTOK1AL NOTES In descriptions of noxious insect and weed pests, the words, “intro- duced from,” are usually about the first that meet the eye; for it is a fact that a very large per cent, of our worst pests , have been , introduced , , from , abroad, and, worse yet, if possible, importations of this character continue. , ______________ A fast steamship service is to be established between Canada and Great Britain. Canada is to pay a yearly subsidy of $500,000 for ten years and the British Government is to pay $250,000 yearly. The vessels are to have a guaranteed speed of 500 knots in twenty-four hours and four of the ships are to be ready in 1898. In Switzerland a new federal code, which is to unify the laws for the whole of the country, is now being prepared. Taking advantage of this fact, great numbers of the women of Switzerland are exerting themselves to secure the correction of many of the evils at present resulting from the so¬ cial laws of the country, which are very hard on women. The movement js really amounting to the dimensions of a popular uprising. The Swiss women are evidently just beginning to feel their o\Vn powers. Statisticians have been calculating the eunual income of Great Britain, whicji must have trebled or quadru¬ pled within the present reign. It is now supposed to amount to 7000 mil¬ lions of dollars annually. The actual earnings are reckoned at 3500 million dollars a year. The actual expendi¬ ture by the people is considered to be less than the total income, so that probably $750,000,000 may be put hy and saved annually. Thus by degrees the accumulation becomes so enormous that the sum total is hard to grasp. It is reckoned, however/, at something between 45,000 and 50,000 million dollars! Such comiputations are based on figures supplied by French statis¬ ticians. Says the Cincinnati Tinffes-Star: The development of the ragged school in London is a vivid illustration of ■what a few determined souls, backed up by a man of wealth like Lord Shaftesbury, are capable of accom¬ plishing. From the small beginnings in one schoolroom fifty years ago the work of lifting up the lowly has- gone on in the greatest city in the world until now there are 192 separate build' ings in London, where 253 afternoon and evening schools are held, with an average attendance numbering more than 50,000. In these schools there are 4S87 teachers. An idea of the en¬ thusiasm and self-sacrifice prompting these teachers may be gathered from the fact that out of the 4887 but sev¬ enty-nine receive a salary. Ninety- seven school libraries have been es¬ tablished, seventy penny banks, in which there are 21,000 depositors and more than 11,000 pounds sterling on deposit. Physical culture has become an important feature of the work. A hundred and nineteen men’s and lads’ clubs have been established, with 3500 members, and what are known as the recreation classes number 222 members. Says William Drysdale in the Inde¬ pendent: The Porto Ricans, or, as they call themselves, Porto Ricanians, who contribute money to the Cuban cause, have to do it with the secrecy of the grave. To be caught at such treasonable work would mean utter ruin. If the Cubans have one reason to detest Spain, the Porto Ricans have twenty; and they hate her with a hatred too bitter for utterance. They are ground down, robbed, insulted, im¬ prisoned, dragged about with thumb- cords, by their hated masters; and nothing but their utter helplessness has prevented their joining in the Cuban revolution. The condition of the natives of that island is almost be¬ yond description, and they are ripe for any ferocious retaliation in their power. The Cuban’s hatred of Spain is a gen¬ tle June zephyr compared with the tremendous cyclone of hatred that the Porto Rican has for the mother coun¬ try. And no American who spends a month on that beautiful but persecuted island will need to ask w T hy. There are some Porto Ricans of great wealth, and a large number in moderate cir¬ cumstances, notwithstanding the grind¬ ing taxation and other official rob¬ beries; and they have taken, in many instances, dangerous risks to forward money to the Cuban authorities. As long as the Porto Ricans have a dollar loft, the Cubans can safely count upon at least half of it. t SINC A sonc.: ! tf you’ll sing a song as you go along, | [n the face ot the real or the fancied wrong; | ■ tn spite of the doubt if you’ll brave fight it stont; out, I And show a heart that is and If you’ll laugh at the jeers and refuse the tears, ever-reluctant cheers you’ll force the That the world denies when a toward cries, I [ And To give you’ll to the win man success who with bravely a little tries; Song— If you’ll sing the song as you go along! Will catch the strain of the glad retrain; g* That sky; will out by and by; the stars come An(1 ; ,. ou ’n mn jj 0 new friends, till hope de- scends From where the placid rainbow bends; A nd all because of a little song— If you’ll sing the song as you plod along! jf you’ll sing a song as you trudge will along, You’ll see that the singing make you strong; load road. An ,i the heavy and the and stripe the rugged ol the tortur¬ And the sting ous goad that afloat; Will soar with the noto you set ' viil ohan « e t0 a triflias That the world is bad when you are sad, And bright and beautiful when glad; That all you need is a little song— If you’ll sing the song as you trudge along! —Rufus McClain Fields, in Nashville Amer¬ ican. IALI’S PERIL, ^em'ae-ieieisiQeiefiseieieieieieieiei'eBie’ii \ UNDA-TSANG was an A innkeeper. He was . .J Ballawari-Dak, sole proprietor of which the j is a very big name for a very small native ho¬ tel about sixty miles _ north of Penang, and on the high road to the hunting steppes of the Bakit, or hill country'. Punda was a good sort of Malay, which means a bad sort of anything else. That is, he would plunder only on the securest principles, and never quarrel with a bigger man or a fetter armed one than himself. In this he differed from other Malays, who would plunder and knife upon no principle or provo¬ cation whatever, if they thought there was a ten-anna piece to be gained thereby. ■ / But a deeper reading of this pros¬ perous Boniface of the jungles revealed the fact that he was capable of love- yes, even a tender, human affection; and that little Iali, his five-year-old daughter, was the object of a worship in his heart even more fervent than that which he bestowed upon the five home-made clay gods before which, in a dark corner of the Dak, he burned a vast deal of ill-smelling incense. The second year of Tsang’s married life had hardly begun when his beautiful wife was bitten by a yellow viper while gathering healing herbs down in the valley. When they found the poor creature she was dying—with her new born babe in her arms. This calamity the bereaved husband regarded as a direct visitation of the clay gods in the corner; only the day before he had robbed a Kling hunter of his rifle, leaving the poor fellow to make his way unarmed down to the sea, where he ran upon a pair of half-starved ku- kangs, a vicious species of Malay chimpanzee, in fleeing from which he fell over a cliff and was dashed to pieces. And Punda-Tsang always felt that that yellow viper was sent direct from the land of the judging gods to avenge the blood of the poor Kling hunter. But there was one thing that mitigated the harshness of this ven¬ geance—the presence of the little child, whom he tenderly cherished, and whom he had. called Iali, which is to say, “forgiven.” One day two officers of H. M. ship Scorpion stopped at the Dak on their way down from a hunt in the hill country. We were seated under the palms before the bungalow after tiffin, smoking cheroots, while I listened to their exploits with interest. Suddenly four native Malays approached, wheel¬ ing a live tiger in a clumsy wooden cage, and halted before the Dak. They were going to dispose of him to a naturalist down on the coast, who had a method of killing and stuffing animals by which the marvelous lustre of their skins was preserved. The forest king was certainly a magnificent- specimen, and the officers evidently thought him, so, too, as they concluded to buy perhaps to swear that they had captured him. They bought the animal for a good round sum, sent the natives back rejoicing, and started down toward the coast, while ,Punde- Tsang, not contented with exacting fifty per cent, commission from the poor fellows for using his Dak for a tiger mart, committed the meanest act of his life. He slyly sawed one of the hind bars nearly through in four places. Then he went to work planing to waylay the tiger on his way back to his haunts after he should break loose, which he knew would happen before the purchasers could get many miles down the valley. He quietly pursued his planning until late that night, when he heard from good authority that the tiger had broken jail, and nearly killed one of his owners. Then he prepared to put his plans into ac¬ tion. Punda knew well enough that the instant a tiger smells blood he will drop flat, and, even if the feast is a mile away, will begin a slow, creeping journey toward it, wasting hours, per¬ haps. When he has approached with¬ in twenty feet of the prize, quivering with desire and terrible with greed, he will leap into the air like a cannon ball and plunge down upon his victim. Punda-Tsang knew all this; so he dug a pit down the valley, constructed a network of brauches over it and laid a quarter of a bullock upon it. Then he waited for the tiger to scent the blood and make his slow, crawling journey, knowing that when he made the grand twenty feet leap he would go crashing through the network into the pit be¬ low. Then Tsang planned that he would starve the beast, let down a cage baited with more fresh meat, and, sliding the bars from above, haul the captured tiger out and sell him over again. All of this might have hap¬ pened, but events somewhat stranger and more terrible for Punda-Tsang in¬ terfered, doubtless as another direct visitation of the vengeance of the little clay gods in the bungalow corner, half concealed in clouds of punk smoke. As little Iali was the innkeeper’s constant solace and companion, she went with him to the pit digging, her father explaining to her the manner of capturing the “four-footed jungle god,” which facts, instead of frightening the child, only helped to increase the stock of her play gods and demons, which she moulded deftly from the red clay of the ravine. For two days nothing was heard of the tiger, and Punda- Tsang began to fear that he had gone back to the hilfs by another route. On the afternoon of the third day I sat on the cliff’s edge, watching the mists rise from the roaring river bottom, a phenomenon which al- ways accompanies the closing day. Suddenly there was a great shuffling of sandals about the compound, and I knew something ex¬ traordinary was takin g place'. I turne d quickly; the big form of Punda-Tsang, the inn-keeper, burst upon me sud¬ denly, his flat face as pallid as a demon’s, ferocious, but with the fero¬ city of nameless fear. “Iali!” cried he hoarsely. “Have you seen Iali!” “No!” I replied, almost in a whis¬ per. He did not wait, but sped to¬ ward the so-called bullock sheds, which were really caves cut in the solid rook beyond the Dak. I had be¬ come attached to the child, whose marvelous beauty had charmed and whose weird ways mystified me. The coolies were flying hither and thither, making the air ring with their loud wails. Such agitation on the part of these vagabonds roused me to a realization of the child’s danger. Suddenly I turned my eyes and thoughts iu the direction of the ravine where the tiger trap lay. I recalled vividly the child’s interest in the 4 4 jungle god” who was to be captured in the deep pit; and knowing the lit¬ tle creature’s absolute fearlessness, thought that acting upon some child¬ ish impulse, she might have strayed down the narrow path to the pit. Meanwhile the wailing about me in¬ creased. I dropped over the ledge, soon reaching the pathway by a short route. As I penetrated the jungle, now suf¬ fused with mist in the ruby glow of the expiring day, I realized with what risk to myself I was entering this dan¬ gerous spot, all unarmed. I was still debating whether or not to return for a weapon of defense, when, as I leaped over a soft spot in the red clay, I saw two footprints that shot terror into my heart; one was that of a mammoth tiger, the other belonging to a little child. I dropped down beside them. No. There was no mistaking them, so clear and fresh were both. Then I crept forward, scarcely daring to breathe, my heart beating faster and faster with apprehension. The distanoe to that tiger pit seemed to be doubled, and the time that elapsed before reaching it everlasting. The crackling of the leaves and twigs on the moss beneath my feet added to my trepidations. Almost before I re¬ alized it I had reached the big trap, and then halted short, thrilled by the sound of something human. Looking ahead through the deepening mists and intervening boughs I saw the lit¬ tle child figure of Iali creeping out upon the withered branches over the pit. For the instant I had no power to move, nor dared I speak, lest, over¬ come with sudden fright, the frail lit¬ tle one, might lose her foothold. Sud¬ denly a new horror disclosed itself. What were those two glaring, cold, yet fiery points just beyond the pit, burning their way through the shad¬ ows? It was th,e tiger. In moments like these one’s reason¬ ing powers become superhuman. I saw that in all probability either Iali or I was to be sacrificed, which one depended merely upon the caprice of the wild beast. I had heard that the calm, steady, fearless stare of a human is more terrifying to wild animals than guns that kill. On the instant I re¬ solved to practice it; it was my only expedient. So I stared at those two coldly bright and glowing points of light like a madman. Suddenly I saw the little figure waver on the dead branches over the mouth of the pit, aud then, with a weak little cry poor Iali had lost her foothold and slipped slowly through the yielding boughs into the cave be¬ neath. For a moment all was silent. Then I heard her childish prattle. The soft sand had broken Iali’s fall and saved her life, while I was brought face to face with the most awful prob¬ lem of my life. For what seemed hours I stood like a pillar of stone, the perspiration pouring down my neck, my tongue hot and parched. Suddenly, ns I stood like one in a trance, facing this growing problem, I was conscious of a stir in the reeds and underbrush at my right hand. Though the sound caused me to trem¬ ble, I dared not take my eyes from the crouching monster beyond. The next instant a strange, huge shape crept stealthily out of the underwood and advanced into the clearing toward the pit—a ponderous black monster. It was a mammoth orang-outang! The tiger crouched lower, He seemed to be as nonplussed, as stunned by the intrusion of this huge inter¬ loper as I was. In motionless silence he transferred his burning gaze to the mammoth monster. Advancing to the very edge of the pit, the huge ape slipped, but he re¬ covered. He saw that the branches were only a blind. Then he walked around the edge of the trap and knelt down like a human being, slowly, de¬ liberately reaching out his long, hairy nnu till his giant hand clutched that bullock bone. Then, to my intense relief, the orang slowly dragged the great mass of flesh off the network of branches upon the solid ground. of For a moment longer the gleam those two terrible eyes, now like peep¬ holes into a fiery furnace, followed the unsuspecting pilferer. Then came a rustle, a strange shriek like thunder, a bound and a roar, and the “jungle god” had sprung into the air and come down like a flashing avalanche full up- on tlie broad body of the kneeling orang. A single paw struck the mam¬ moth ape in the back, and with an al¬ most human groan the rescuer of my life and hers gave up the booty, to- gether with his own life. Then the tiger, with a final flash of eyes full in- to my own, snatched up the carcase of th e bullock in his flaming jaw/ and slid off into the thick of the jungle. After that, when he knew all, Pun- da-Tsang burned incense harder than ever, for he avowed that the gods had at last forgiven his former crime; and, ” generally speaking, Punda became before.—■ better sort of a Malay than London Mail. SCALINC WITHOUT A LADDER. A Pyramid of Soldier* Enables Men to Surmount a 31-Foot Wall. Corporal Leary, the limberest man at Fort Sheridan, took the chance of breaking his neck and tumbling the storming pyramids of forty-one soldiers in a bruised heap Saturday as he sprajig upward from the shoulders of Private Miller, caught with three fingers of Ins left hand the top of the high wooden wall behind which lurked the enemy, hung for one perilous in- stant, and then gallantly pulled him- self to the top, seized his lifle, and sprang into the midst of the foe on the other side of the improvised parapet in the Coliseum gallery. The liumau pyramid swayed, but held its sturdy place while gallant infantrymen swept up the stalwart shoulders , ,, and , over the thirty-one-foot . . wall to Corporal Leary s support,while a platoon of twenty-five men kept the enemy away in front of the wall. It was at- this point that the regufer army officers, who were watching me fray from the Coliseum gallery, led the applause, for Corporal Leary and his comrades had broken the world’s escalading record by three feet. As n partial reward for his daring feat Corporal Leary will he recommended by Lieutenant Percival G. Lowe, in command of the camp, for promotion, When Corporal Leary climbed to the apex of the pyramid and stood on the shoulders of the men in the top row', the tips of his fingers lacked five inches of reaching the top of the wall, The highest wall that was ever escaladed beforo was twenty-eight feet, and the men who climbed over that in the military carnival at New York broke the world’s record then, The wall at the Coliseum was thirty-one feet high, and it took just four minutes to scale it. Eighteen of the heaviest and strong¬ est men in the regiment formed the base of the pyramid, ten mounted on their shoulders and leaned against the wall, six stood on the shoulders of the ten, four on the shoulders of the six, and three on the shoulders of the four. Corporal Leary scrambled up this escalading pyramid of blue, and stood on the shoulders of the top three, braced against the wall. When he stretched out his arms,and found his fingers would not reach the. edge of the wall, he crouched, aud then, as the human mountain swayed dizzily beneath his feet, with the mighty and yet delicate effort of the trained athlete he sprang boldly five inches upward at the edge of the harrier. He tried to grasp the top of the parapet with both hands, but only three fingers of his left hand went high enough. The pyramid under him was still swaying. He held to the hazardous edge by the three fingers for an instant, and then, witha heave and a twist, pulling his whole body up, caught the wail with the other hand. An instant after he was on the enemy’s side of the barricade, —Chicago Tribune. Bicycles in the Gorman Army. The German military papers have just published the report of the Minis- ter of War regarding the results of the introduction of bicycles into the army and the training of a bicycle corps dur- ing the year 1896, says the Philadel- phia Record. A large number of ex- perimental runs were made and the bicycles were also employed in maneu- vers to advantage. The average of the runs was about thirty-five miles, with an average speed of nine and one- half miles per hour, including stops. greatest speed obtained was twelve miles per hour in a run of thirty miles. I The greatest distance covered in any one run was one hundred aud thirty miles an hour, including stops. The soldiersmttached to the bicycle service were given practical training on tli.e wheel, hut also received instruction iu reconnoitering, reading of the map, ! etc. Not long ago Lieutenant von Puttkammer tried to dispatch a mess- a 8 e by relay bicyclists going aud com- ing a distance of twenty-eight miles, He had placed four relays of three hi- cyclists each at points six miles apavt, and three dispatches were taken each way,the cyclists’speed exceeding thir- teen miles per hour. It is estimated by the Minister of W ar that after for- ty days’ training a company mounted on bicycles should be able to cover one hundred and twenty miles a day with full arms aud equipment. Ihe present j weight of the military bicycle, which is of the folding type, is thirty-two pounds, but the new type, of which a number has been ordered, will six pounds less. The principal will be found in . the abandon- of chain gearing and the substi- of a cog-wheel driving gear. .. rno m MwA Tii; l f m . mj g- \l Mm f. m u. A 'M V If I i ci • l®' 1 i -1 'Mwm '"il ‘K'lttFZZ •v (*» > ’Ml ■■l m mm m&z. i \pi A Remarkable Widow. Pans harbors a widow, Mme. Jules Lebaudy, who inherited from her lius- band $25,000,000. As she dispioies of the way in which he made liis for¬ tune, she refuses to use it, contenting herself with an income of $1200. Lovely Shades of Brown. There are many and lovely shades of brown in the cheviots this spring. By brown is not meant the hot look¬ ing cinnamons or tan or gravel colors tinting to red or yellow, but soft tones of wool color, with a little suggestion of dull pink or mauve in them. These are cool tints. Some of the brown cheviots show a thread of pale color running through them here or there. wln s , vap a Mot hcr for a Mike. , There is a poor hut energetic young v , oman j n England who is bound to haveftl) . leif she hag to 8wap a widowe d mother for it. She—the en- er „ et j 0 womftn — lives in London, and although she does not say in so many W ords that she will exchange one good widowed mo ther for a new ’97 drop f rame roadster, she intimates it clearly enou „ b in the following advertisement Av hj c h appeared in a London daily . Kj er . am 0 yonng gir i vith a widowed mother in unfortunate circumstances, and cannot afford a bicycle. My mother and myself will work out either hy the day or permanently second-hand in excb for a good wh , or a new one o{ opprov ed pat- tern.”—New York Press. Mrs. Elizabeth Tilton's Will. The will of Mrs. Elizabeth K. Tilton -will be filed for probate in a few’ days, and will, it is said by those aware of jj s contents, prove a great surprise, has been generally supposed that wben Theodore Tilton and his wife separated the latter was provided with an income that would comfortably keep her for the rest of her days. It was not k nown though that in addition to this income she received a bulk sum, which, combined with what subse- quently came to her from her own family and w r hat she saved, made up a modest little fortune. This wms in- vested in Brooklyn and New York real estate, which has increased materially i n va i ue . The bulk of her estate will go to her daughter and a goodly share to the religious sect presided over by Rev. Malaehi Taylor. From the day of her trouble, when her name became a household word all over the civilized world, Mrs. Tilton had not looked at a newspaper.—Tren¬ ton (N. J.) American. Cotton Canvas. The cottou canvas gowns look so much like the wool ones it is quite difficult to tell them apart; they are, of course, much cooler aud less ex¬ pensive, although they require to be lined throughout. There are many different colors to choose from, but the smartest are the greens. A gown of the new shade of green is lined with black, the skirt trimmed with rows of narrow black velvet ribbon; the waist has just a little fulness in the back, but the fulness is drawn in at the belt; the fronts are gathered on the shoul¬ der and hang in full blouso effect; straps of narrow black velvet ribbon finished with tiny steel buckles trim the fronts, and there is an inside front of embroidered linen. Turned-over collar of linen with cuffs to match, a bow of black satin ribbon at the throat and a belt of bias black satin fastened with a steel buckle make the gown very smart. The sleeves are plain—small leg-of-mutton shape—with a puff at the top, and there are bands of the black velvet ribbon put on above the auff - The material for this gown was thirty cents a yard, and the entire es¬ P ense ? vas ve r y little. Black cotton cauvas 18 no * desirable, as it will sure- ' j ru L, and there is considerable doubt as to whether all the colors will no ^’ fade; hut gowns made oi this ma- tenal look smart enough for general ' v eal ’ au '\ -are as 000 as ^ n °f cooler than , ginghams, When duc.t is used for gowns, linen d «ch is generally preferred, as being cooler 3 “ a not shrinking so much; the cot t° n duck, on the other hand, is vei 7 mneh cheaper and wears quite as well; both a '’e used and make most ’ lsafuI al > d smart costumes. Severe tailor styles should always be followed for' these gowns, for the material is too thick to be much trimmed or elabor- at;< dy made , up. Harper rT , s _ Bazar, A Woman’s Factory. There is a thriving shirt and overall f acdor y jn Fond-du-Lac, Wis., run en- tirely by women. The president, secretary, treasurer, are a p young and unmarried, and near ]y all the stockholders are workers in the factory. The concern now turns out twenty-five dozen negligee shirts daily The directors leased a build- j n g w hich was put up especially for them, and business men think that there is every reason to predict success tbe novel enterprise, j lls t ten months ago the factory with fourteen regular and five Bpec j a i machines. Not being able to t heir orders with that number, have enlarged the plant to twen- regular and six special mu- The incorporation guarantees 3 shareholders seven per cent, on investment. The wages earned are from $4 to $12 a week, according to the skill of the operative, the work being done by the piece. Thus far there has been a balance each month above the expenso and wages, and or¬ ders on baud are sufficient to provide for the entire output for over two months ahead. “I cannot say who is justly entitled to be called the founder of our enter¬ prise,” said Miss Estella Brown, Secre¬ tary of the company. ‘ ‘I think it was from the beginning a joint stock idea. It seemed a proper way of gaining a livelihood, and, as we all had worked in factories, and thoroughly under¬ stood the business, we thought we might as well work for ourselves as for other people. There were two hun¬ dred girls thrown out of employment by the abandonment of a factory in this town, and that set us to thinking. Among that two hundred were our twenty shareholders. That factory did not pay expenses, but we are able to profit by their experience and guard against mistakes. Our directors all have energy and push; moreover we are strong and healthy, and willing each to work for the other’s interest. “Did we have masculine aid in or¬ ganizing our company? Yes, we agreed to ask a certain kind and gen¬ erous-hearted man to help us to get started, and he took great interest in planning everything so that there should be no hitch to give us trouble afterwards. At present we employ two men to help us out, one doing the cutting and the other tending the en¬ gine, doing the pressing and other jobs that come his way. In the course of time we may see fit to do without any male help. The engine is a gaso¬ line engine, and any girl in the factory understands it quite properly now. We have in our employ five girls who are not shareholders, and as our busi¬ ness increases we shall he compelled to enlarge our force, but shall still keep our capital stock in the hands of the original shareholders. Our capi¬ tal was originally $1200, divided into twelve shares of $100, but afterwards we increased it to $2000.”—New York Post. Fasliion Notes. Dressy sailor hats have bell crowns, apparently put on topside down, quills, flowers, gauze draperies and ribbon, rosettes. Light-weight taffetas, wash silks and colored lawns are also much the vogue, and to be absolutely comfortable one needs a varied assormeut. The latest novelty in summer petti¬ coats promises to bring comfort in its wake, for the material is the all-popu¬ lar grass linen and the style is simple. The most fashionable colors are beige, gray, green, broivn and cherry red. Straw is now being tinted in the most refined tones, and manu¬ factured to correspond with every kind of costume. The most popular style shows a gored top, with a Spanish flounce twelve inches deep, which in turn is edged with a narrow frill, and these are no difficulties in the way of perfect laundering. A few gowns show an attempt at draping on a ride so as to show a fa'immed drop skirt below. Another design shows a narrow skirt front of mixed cheviot apparently fastened over with braid buttons on panels of black moire. Tiny tucks are used on capes in clus¬ ters of six to twelve. Tiny confections or shoulder capes of shot taffeta, trimmed with overlapping ruffles of mousseline and an immense neck ruche to match, are among the foreordained favorites. Violets literally overwhelm the new¬ est hats and bonnets, and are intensi¬ fied by violet velvet trimming and feathers. Bunches of spring flowers, as round as a cowslip ball, are sup¬ planting pompons, the pinky-lilac primula being a special favorite. Favorite shapes in hats are the beefeater, the sailor with a very wide, flat brim, and so loaded down with trimming as to be almost unrecogniz¬ able, the wide-trimmed hai with a stovepipe crown, the toque, and the hat with a tapering flowerpot crown. Millinery is not only very bright, but very ponderous—many hats and bonnets being literally covered with flowery garlands, lace, feathers and ribbons. They are of fine, smooth, glossy straw, rough straw which has the appearance of pleated chips, or thick, knobby straw. Linen sheds the dust and is easily kept clean, besides which it can be laundered at need and comes forth not only as good, but better than new. In addition it is deliciously cool aud light of weight, so that it would seem iu truth an ideal material for underskirts designed for warm weather wear. Hats are most in use for the street, and bonnets for the theatre and dress occasions. The newest shape is the Beguin, made of gold or silver stuff embroidered in old designs with tur¬ quoises, pearls and other stones, or of Venice lace, or turquoise-blue or old pink velvet richly worked with gold. The Beguin is trimmed with two black or white Ostrich feathers standing high in the middle, and high lace pleats, with colored rosettes or flowers, espec¬ ially camellias.