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SPRING PLACE JIMPLECUTE
SPRING PIAL'E, Murray Co., Ga.
One of the leading mine owner* in
Colorado says that Electricity has
opened up a new eraiu the production
of silver. Many of the high moun¬
tain mines have been almost valueless
because of the expense of transporting
fuel to them. Now, through the
utilization of water power with the
electric motor, those mines can be
operated cheaply, and a notable in¬
crease of output may be looked for.
Professor Nordcnskjold of Arctic
fame wilt soon start from Australia
in two small sailing vessels, having
auxiliary steam power, for an ex¬
ploration of the Antarctic Ocean. The
vessels will be thoroughly equipped
with every device found useful in ice
navigation. The location has not been
visited since James Ross’s expedition i
in 1841, although the English ship
Challenger went as far south as lati¬
tude 65 degrees 42 minutes in 1874.
The Now York Tribune muses:
“That the United States still lias vast
stretches of land practically unknown
to man where in time many millions
of people may be received is shown
by the story of a letter which was sent
from New York city to a civil engi¬
neer out Wost. Tho engineer is in lho
wilds of Montana surveying a new
railroad. The letter sent to him asked
for an immediate reply and tho an¬
swer came in seven weeks. The letter
had go no on as far as tho railroads
went, then as far as stago coaches ran,
and some traveller had taken it from
there on through tho uninhabited I
stretches. It finally reached tho on-
gineer after having been carried in ail
manner of ways. Likewise tho an¬
swer was entrusted to some man who
was working his way back toward
civilization. When ho roaehod stage
facilities lie gavo up the letter to the
muiis ami it was whirled to the East.”
Among the grand achievements of
tho United 8'tttos last year, boasts the
Albany (N. Y.) Journal, was a rocord
in tho production of iron end cxceded
that of Great Britain and placed our
country at tho bond and front of the
nations. The rolativo figures of iron
productions were 8,202,703 and 7,876,-
130 tons tho excess in favor of the
United States being 327,678 tons. That
the light, little island should have
been distanced in the competition by
the great wostorn republic was a sore
point for John Bull and a matter for
congratulation on tho part of Unelo
Sam. The year 1890, however,
marked lho culmination, for
the time being, of iron
production in the United
States, which for several years had
moved higher and higher with each suc¬
cessive surge. Tho Argentine collapse
in tho indirect, but none tho loss dis¬
astrous, cffoct which it exercised on
Wall streot through tho Baring failure
in London, annihilated in a day tho
American market for new issues of
railroad securities; and the delay in
the beginning of now railroad enter¬
prises aud the cessation of work ou
projects already under way, led to a
sharp decline in the demand for iron
for railroad purposes. The effect of
the panic of last November and
December in Wall street was to place
Great Britain again iu the lead during
the first h|df year of 1891. Her pro¬
duction for that period is estimated at
3,812,887 tons, a decrease of 355,667
tons compared with her output for
the corresponding six months of 1890.
Tho falling oft' was moderate, how¬
ever, compared with that which oc¬
curred on this side of the Atlantic.
Thus the total output of the United
States during the first six months of
1890 was 3,776,656 tons—36,231
tons less than Great Britain’s record,
and a falling off of no loss than
1,831,219 tons, or more than twenty-
live per cent, when compared with tho
United States during tho first six
months of 1890. While Great Britain
passed the United States and regained
her old position of supremacy during
the first six months of 1891, her tri¬
umph will be brief. During the year
ending with the first six months of
1891 she was 1,466,956 tons behind
the United States. During the year
that will end witii 1891 her record
will also be behind the figures for the
United Slates; for our production of
pig iron during the past two months
has been well up toward the heaviest
“Auction of last year. While our
nl output will not reach the tttipre-
t lented figures of 1890, it will he
sufficiently heavy to place us ahead of
“tit transatlantic rival. Great Brit¬
ain, concludes the Journal, has per¬
manently lost her position at the head
of the iron-producing nations of the
world.
News comes from Hobart Town
Tasmania, that the government has
created a department for conserving
the crown forests, which cover 1
000,000 acres, and promise to be very-
valuable. The various gum frees are
the most common, and some are of
groat size. A blue gum 330 feet liigb
has been observed, and there is one
called “Lady Franklin’s Tree,” neat
HobartTown,which measures 10 7 feet
iu girth a few feet from the ground.
Laizo Takage, a leading merchant
of Kioto, Japan, now in Chicago, oavs
that a most friendly feeling cxlsists in
Japan toward the United States, to¬
gether with a strong desire for the
building up of a larger trade between
the two countries. Educated Japan-
nese who have visited the United
States return to their homes full of
praises for the public school system of
the United States and the great ad¬
vance over other countries iu the way
Of mechanical inventions.
The undergraduate students in the
Michigan University are younger by a
full year or more on the average than
tlioy were twenty years ago. The
ability to enter the university at an
earlier age, in spile of the increased
requirements for admission, is due,
President Angell says, to two causes.
The schools are better than they were,
and the more prosperous condition of
the parents makes it less generally
necessary than it was for the youth to
spend years in earning the means
to gain a college education.
The increased prosperity of
the parents is manifest in a somewhat
more generous style of living on the
part of many students than prevailed
twenty years ago.
Tho committee appointed to con¬
sider the project of making Paris an
inland seaport has handed in its re¬
port to the municipal authorities of
tho French capital. The great canal
which it is proposed to construct be¬
tween Paris and Rouen would he 182
kilometres, or 114 miles long, and 6.2
metres, or nearly 21 feet, deep. For
large ships a port would be built be¬
tween St. Denis and Clichy, and
smallor ports would be constructed at
Audeleys, Vernan, 1’oissy, Acliieres
and Argcuteull. The cost of the un¬
dertaking is estimated at §31,250,000.
A plebiscite has been taken of tho
feeling of the peoplo on the matter,
and of the 346,000 answers received
only 13 are not in favor of the schemo.
At the recent International Congress
of Hygiene the mortality of persons
in various professions between* the
ages of twenty-five and sixty-five was
rated as follows: Ecclesiastics 100,
gardeners 100, farmers 114, grocers
139, fishermen 143, cabinetmakers 148,
lawyers 152, workers in silk 152,
mechanics 155, merchants 158, cloth¬
iers 159, miners 160, shoemakers 166,
commercial travelers 171, bakers 172,
millers 172, upholsterers 173, masons
174, blacksmiths 175, clerks 179, road
laborers 185, workers in wool 186,
gunsmiths 186, tailors 139, hatters
192, printers 193, workers in cotton
196, physicians 202, stone qunrrymen
202, binders 210. butchers 211, glass-
makers 214, plumbers, painters, etc.,
216; cutters 120, brewers 245, cab
drivers 267, wine merchants 274, pot¬
ters 304, Cornwall miners 881, weav¬
ers 338, hotel boys 397.
“It makes mo tired to hoar so much
about higher wages for men and to
see women getting paid precisely the
same as they received twenty years
ago,” said an Allegheney housekeeper
to a Pittsburg Dispatch reporter the
other day. “Nearly every trade in
which men have control and are em¬
ployed has seen a gradual but great
increase since the war. Witii woman
it is different. Twenty years ago a
woman who came to my house for a
day’s work got a dollar—that’s what
she gets today. Twenty years ago I
paid my cook $3 a week; I pay an¬
other girl the same wages for the i-aiiie
work today. As far as I know, the
scale of wages for women in the lines
which they monopolize, is exactly
what it was a generation ago. I don’t
coinplain, because I am an employer,
perhaps it is just; perhaps women
were worth so much iu 1860 and ex¬
actly the same in 1890 in certain lines
of work. But if this is so doesn’t it
seem singular that men’s wages
should all have advanced in the same
time; and advanced as much as 100,
and even 200 and 300 per cent, in
some cases? I know that all men’s
wages ) *vo not grown in this way,
but there are enough to make a pretty
strong contrast. 1 fell to thinking of
it when my husband was talking to
me the other day about the compara¬
tive value of men’s and women’s
work, and perhaps some profoumler
student of economics can give me ar
explanation qf the phenomenon."
The World’s Disguise.
At times a giant spirit moves and etirs Id
me,
And I would reDd the veil of human mock¬
ery.
Bidding each brother look upon his brother’s
face,
Which, hid behind the mask, they failed be¬
fore to trace.
And I can see each starting back In sadden
tear
Before the ghastly skeleton, the empty leer,
That would unfolded be before their doubt¬
ing eyes,
Now hidden by the dainty hollow world's
disguise.
Again, I think that if the mask were cast
aside,
With all the chains of empty worldliness
and pride.
And man unfettered stood before his brother
man
That each the secret of the other’s life might
scan—
I fee! th.*.; hand would reach to hand, for it
would prove
That all mankind was one in Brotherhood
and Love,
And that in each heart was enshrined Love’s
pure ideal,
That each had kept in secret, doubting it
was real.
[F. S. .Mines, in Harper’s Weekly.
ONE OF LIFE’S LE; 'NS.
BY AMY RANDOLPH.
Mr. Copperedge had just co»e from
the postofiice, plunging throfcli the
snowdrifts like a Polar bear And set¬
ting frost and cold at deliberate de¬
fiance. For, out in those bleuk Mass¬
achusetts hills no uniformed postman
came, nobody knew how many times
a day, with iotter-bag and whistle.
If people wanted their mails, at Cop-
poridgo Farm, they had to go after
them.
Mrs. Copperedge was hustling
around the bright kitchen, busied in
getting tea ready—a savory meal that
meant hot waffles, houoy, cold roast
pork and quince jam. Mrs. Copper-
edge prided horseif on her abilities as
a housekeeper. All day long site had
been dying carpet-rags for a master¬
piece of a carpet, which she was med¬
itating—a wedding present to her
daughter, Melinda Ann, who was soon
to be married to a well-to-do young
farmer of the neighborhood—and now
ho came into the room just iu time
to hear the contonts of her husband's
letters.
“What I” said Mrs. Copperedge,
“your mother coming to live with us?
Copperedge, I never shall consent to
that, in tho world!”
Mr, Copperedge sat serenely gazing
into tho fire, apparently quite undis¬
turbed by this expression of his wife’s
sentiments.
“Why not?” said he.
“ *Why not?’ ” shrilly echoed his
wife. ‘ ‘That’s a man’s question all
over. Do I look like a person to be
domineored over and dictated to by a
mother-in-law?”
“No,” said her husband, composedly,
“I can’t say you do, Phrnbe Jane.
But my mother don’t want to domi¬
neer and dictate—so there’s a pair of
you!”
“No, thoro ain't!” said the lady.
“Aud there never will be, what’s
morel”
“I think,” said Mr. Copperedge,
reflectively, “she would like the south
room in the wing. You don’t use .it
for anything now.”
“And where am I to keop my
feather-beds and spare pillows?” in¬
dignantly demanded his wife. “The
south room is tho one of all others
that I can’t spare.”
“The west chamber, thou?” suggest¬
ed the fa: mer.
“Pm calculating to keep summer-
boarders in that next season,” said
Mrs. Copperedge, with compressed
lips.
“The little settin’-room, out of tho
big parlor?”
“That’s the room I always use when
I quilt or weave,” declared Mrs. Cop¬
peredge.
The old man glanced shrewdly at
his wife.
“I guess, Phoebe Jane,” said he,
“the trouble is there ain’t no room for
my mother in your heart, If there
was free quarters there, there would¬
n’t be no trouble in finding room iu
the old farmhouse!”
“You may as well write to her that
she can’t come,” said Pluebe June.
“She’s got other children; lot her go
to them.”
And she bustled out of tho room,
while her better half still sat before
the fire, without a muscle of his face
stirring or becoming relaxed.
“He has got such an obstinate
streak through him,” said she to her¬
self. “But I guess what I've said will
make some impression on him. One
thing I know: I’ll have no peeping,
prying, meddling old mother-in-law
about this house!”
But as Mrs. Copperedge sat down
to her patchwork that evening, a
curious recollection, half painful, half
pleasurable, of her oven good old
mother, wiio had died twenty odd
years ago, shot across her memory.
She had never seen this mother of her
husband’s. Copperedge was not a
man to be commuuicative on the sub¬
ject of his own family relations, but
she knew that he both loved and hon¬
ored this venerable old matron.
“But. for all that, I think I am
right,” said Mrs. Copperedge to her¬
self. “I always said 1 wouldn’t tol¬
erate a mother-in-law; and 1 won’t!”
WTiile her liusbaud sat opposite her,
calmly reading the papers, and from
the adjoining “best parlor,” where a
fire had been kindled, the voices of
Melinda Ann and her swain, Mr.
Rufus Hcdgman, could ever and anon
bo heard.
“Want to hear the President’s Mes¬
sage?” said Mr. Copperedge at last.
“I’ll read it aloud if you’re anyways
curious.”
“Just let me run upstairs first and
get a bag of pieces,” said Mrs. Cop¬
peredge. “I’m clean out of these
turkey-red blocks.”
So while her husband trimmed the
lamp and adjusted his spectacles, she
hurried, in the dark, up into the bed¬
room abovo the best parlor, where she
kept her treasures of calico aud cam¬
bric in a bureau drawer. In the floor
there was a stovepipe hole, stuffed full
of waste paper, communicating with
the room below, which had been un-
used for gome time, and without the
slightest idea of eavesdropping or any
other surreptitious practice she plainly
heard the tones of Melinda Ann, in
tho room below—Melinda Ann, who
evidently had not studied that especial
feature of “Shakespeare,” which
commends a “low voice" as being a
most excellent possession of woman¬
kind, and wlio generally pitched her
accents on high G.
“And then,” said Melinda Ann, “if
anything should happen to pa—and
we’re all mortul, you know, Rufus—”
“Yes,” blandly assented her suitor,
“we’re all mortal.”
“Then nia could como home and
live with us,” said Melinda Ann;
“and the little red room would be the
very one for her, and—”
“No you don’t” said Mr. Hodgmau.
“Eli!" said Meliuda Ann.
“No mother-in-law for me!” said
the young man, with emphasis. “Not
if I know it! That’s a kind of article
1 don’t care to have about my house!”
“B-but,” said Melinda Ann, scarce¬
ly witling to believe her own ears,
t t she's my mother!”
“Exactly,” said Hodgmnn, “and she’s
all very well in her place. But her
place ain't my place, he! he! ho!
Mrs. Copperedge stood bolt upright
beside the treacherous stovepipe-hole,
while the expression of her counte¬
nance would liuvo been a study for
Hogarth himself. How ineffably coarse
and heartless had this common form¬
ula on the subject of mothers-iu-law
seemed to her! IIow devoid of all
logic and common sense! As if she,
the guardian of Melinda Ami’s infan¬
cy, the loving custodian of her riper
years, were not the truest and most
valuablef riend she could over have!
And was she to be shut out from all
companionship with her own child,
because, forsooth, peoplo chose to
laugh and sneer about mothers-in-law I
Hodgmau seemed a brute, a fool;
Melinda Ann seemed strangely lacking
iu duty and principle ever to allow
him to speak in such a fashion as this!
And then, with lightning-like ra¬
pidity, it flashed across lier mind what
she herself had said to her husband
that very evening upon that identical
subject.
“It’s a judgment upon me, so it is!”
said Mrs. Copperedge, bursting into
the first real genuine tears that she hai
shed for a year.
She went straight down stairs.
“Copperedge,” said she, “I’m
wroug.”
MijCopperedge looked up in grave,
kindly surprise.
“About your mother,” explained
Mrs. Copperedge. “She shall couu
here, and welcome, any time she
pleases, and I’ll try and be a (laugh tes
to her.”
“Plicebo Jane,” said Mr. Copper*
edge, “I always knew you had a goo 4
heart. And I don't believe you’ll eves
regret what you are saying now.”
Grandma Copperedge came the next
spring—a sweet, saintly-faced old
lady, who was like a household angel
at the hearthstone, and who regarded
her son’s wife as little less than per¬
fect. And Melinda Ann married Mr.
Hodgmau and went away,and neither
bride nor groom ever mistrusted that
Mrs. Copperedge had heard the latter’s
opinion of mothers-iu-law.
“The Lord knew that I needed a
lesson,” said Mrs. Copperedge. “And
I think that’s the way lie chose to give
it to me!”—[The Ledger.
The phosphate mines near Charles,
ton, S. C. t have iu use of the largest
steam shovel iu the world.
QUAINT AND CURIOUS.
Lions and leopards are very fond of
perfumes.
The telephone has been known in
India for thousands of years.
A delicious and nutritious jelly is
made of the dust filed from elephants’
tusks.
There are more than a thousand
islands over which the flag of Japan
floats.
Mrs. Ruth Davis, 100 years old,
died at New Bedford, Mass., a few
days ago.
Tacoma, Washington, has a well 100
feet deep from which the wind blows
continually.
Miss Mary Kay died recently at’ the
Hume for Aged Women, Wllkinsburg,
Penn., aged 103.
A man in New Ilamphire this year
sold 5000 ducks which he had raisd
by artificial incubation.
A gourd, with a neck coiled like a
serpent in the act of striking, is a
boasted curiosity iu Mount Holly,
N. C.
There are no cats in Leadville, Col.
The air is so rarefied in that high alti¬
tude that they cannot live there. Rats,
however, are numerous.
The metal in a five-ccnt nickel piece
is worth about half a cent and 15 cents
will purchase copper enough to make
two dollars’ worth of cents.
Some old Persian writer, no inattei
which, placed the whole secret oi
health in the ability to leave off eating
before the appetite was entirely satis-
fled.
A landslide at Roseburg, Oregon,
has exposed the jawbone of a prehis¬
toric monster, and the surrounding
country is said to be rich in such re¬
mains.
Out in Melbourne, Australia, abeautj
show was completely wrecked by at
enraged mob, because the style ol
beauty was not up to their expeeta.
turns.
In a Georgia settlement is a “school
tvith 21 scholars, all carrying the
same surname—Dreggors. Auni
t’abitha Dreggors is the grandmothei
of the lot.”
Apples weighing three pounds each
have been grown in Southern Califor.
nia and apples that weigh two pounds
and a half are so common as to excite
no comment.
A fine weeping willow tree in the
Hollywood Cemetery at Richmond,
Va., has grown from a twig that was
cut from a willow at Napoleou’s
grave and brought to Virginia by 8
Frenchman.
The word knot, signifying a certain
distance over the water, is one-sixtieth
of a mean degree of the earth’s meri¬
dian, which in figures is G,076,818
feet, 2025.6 yards, or one mile and
26.56 yards.
Historic Valley Forge’s original site
of fifty-one acres has just been trans¬
ferred by peremptory sale to John
Dunn for §10 per acre, It was Gen-
oral George Washington’s headquar¬
ters iu 1777-78, and here the iron was
forged for implements of war by
Washington and the Continental
army.
The centenary of the panorama oc-
curs in 1892. A young Edinburgh
painter named Barker was thrown in¬
to prison by his creditors. From the
way in which the light from a hole
in the coiling struck the walls he
evolved the idea of the panorama.
The first circular panorama exhibited
in 1792 in London represented the
British fleet at anchor off Portsmouth.
Business for Boys.
At the age of ten years this boy
began keeping poultry. His father
built him afowl-house, but this was the
only expense not borne by the young
fancier himse.f. He kept White Leg¬
horns and his spare time out of school,
hours was devoted to caring for and
enjoying his flock. Ho worked at the
business, and it was good for him. It
taught him regularity, and involved
responsibilities in seeing that his pets
did not suffer. When he reached the
atre of twenty he went into his father’s
office. His bankbook at that time
showed a balance of §1000, cleared
from his poultry while he attended
school.
That thousand dollars ivas worth
more than 100,000 cents to the lad.
It represented more than money. It
was the irate ial evidence of much
that could not be expressed in dimes
and dollars. It associated health aud
Vigor with the owner. Business hab¬
its also were necessarily formed in the
course of that decade which would be
useful in the future. Independence
was inculcated, a sense of being of
some importance and the means of
doing for himself were accompanying
features. All these are worth much.
— [Poultry World.
Birds as Surgeons.
Some interesting observations relat¬
ing to the surgical treatment of wound*
by birds were recently brought by M.
Fatio before the Physical Society of
Geneva. He quotes the case of the
snipe, which he has often observed en¬
gaged in repairing damages. With its
beak and feathers it makes a very
creditable dressing, applying plasters
to bleeding wounds, and even securing
a brokeu limb by means of a stout
ligature.
Ou one occasion he killed a snipe
which had on the chest a large dress¬
ing composed of down taken from
other parts of the body and securely
fixed to the wound by the coagulated
blood. Twice he has brought home
snipe with interwoven feathers strap¬
ped on to the sile of the fracture of
one or other limb.
The most interesting example was
ihat of a snipe both of whose legs he
had unfortunately broken by a mis¬
directed shot He recovered the ani¬
mal only on the day following, and he
then found that the poor bird had
contrived to apply a dressing and a
sort of splint to both limbs. In carry¬
ing out this operation some feathers
had become entangled around the
beak, and not being able to use its
claws to get rid of them it was al¬
most dead from hunger when he dis¬
covered it.
In a case recorded by M. Magnin, a
snipe which was observed to fly away
with a broken leg was subsequently
found to have forced the fragments
into a parallel position,the upper frag¬
ments reaching to the knee, and se¬
cured them there by means of a strong
band of feathers and moss intermin¬
gled. The observers were particularly
struck by the application of a ligature
of a kind of flat leafed grass wound
round the limb, of a spi ral form and
fixed by means of a sort of glue.—
[Medical Record.
A Thing She Learned.
A persevering woman, who is trans¬
forming a newly arrived Swedish im¬
migrant into an accomplished maid-
of-all-work, says it is very disappoint¬
ing that the innocent peasant is so
slow to learn English and housework,
ami too quick to array herself iu high-
slecvedgowns.
Sometimes her imitative knack
brings about a decidedly funny situa¬
tion. Madam discovered to her dis-
may that her new T acquisition was in
the habit of walking away serenely
after she had opened the front door,
leaving the visitors whom she had
admitted to close it. “Adolphiu, you
must not do so,” said she, impressive¬
ly. “Listen. A lady will come this
afternoon. You open the door for
her. Hold it so aud show her into the
parlor. Be sure to stay and close the
door yourself.” This was accompa-
nied with appropriate pantomimic
gestures.
Aftornoon came, and the visitor
also. Adolphin’s mistress, an acci¬
dental witness in the shadow of a por¬
tiere, was surprised to see Adolphiu
not only fulfil her instructions, but
repeat the rather dramatic “physical
expressions which had accompanied
them. Ti e bend of the head, the
wave of the hand were reproduced
with Chinese fidelity.
“What a nice servant you have,”
said the visitor, who was an old
friend. She doesn’t speak much En¬
glish, but she makes herself under¬
stood so cleverly by gestures, You
d >n’t mind my saying so, do you, but
she waves her hands exactly as you
do yours.”—[New York Recorder.
His Excuse.
Aubrey has serious objections to
chopping wood. There are many boys
like him, I suppose. When he was
called upon the work he always found
plenty of excuse, and the family had
learned all the old ones so thoroughly
that lie had sometimes to rack his
brains for a new supply.
“Aubrey,” said his mother one day,
“go cut a few pieces of wood.
There are plenty of large pieces
to cut. Your lame foot is well, and
you haven’t had a toothache since last
week. You needn’t change your shoes,
for you’ve got on old ones. And the
axe is behind the cellar door, I saw
it there five minutes ago.”
“Now r , mother,” said Aubrey,
in an injured tone, “have you looked
at that axe? How do you suppose I
can cut wood with an axe that has an
edge like the coast line of North
America?”
An Innovation.
Hunker—What do you suppose
Miss Fiipp said when I asked her to
marry me?
Spatts—I suppose she said, •<o,
George! this is so sudden!"
Hunker—No, she said; “Fve been
expecting you to propose for three
months.”— fEpoch.