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SPRING PLACE JIMPLECUTE
SPRING PLACE, Mamr Co., Go.
M«. Annie Smith,of Richmond ,wa^ts
to practice law in Virginia, bat can’t.
The courts say “no" and the law say*
“no,” and so Mrs. Smith has set to work
to hare the law changed.
The fact that the World’s Fair Post-
office will supply hourly mails to 150,000
exhibitors, and that the force employed
will be as large as that at the Milwaukee
Postoffice, involves no slur on Milwaukee.
But it does show, says the New York
Tribune, what a big thing the great ex¬
hibition will be.
While nothing startling or epoch-
making in the way of fact or hypothesis
arrested the attention of students of
icience in 1891, says the Baltimore Sun,
yet our knowledge was materially ad¬
vanced, and practical men are able to an
Increased extent to turn to their use the
secret forces of nature. Investigators
maintained their activity. The aspira¬
tions of humanity, the teachings of
icience, the evolution of life, the nature
of the bodies scattered through space,
space itself with the old problems of
matter and force, have continued to oc¬
cupy the energies of spirits impatient of
delay in making out the final inventory
of the universe.
In only five States has a mother any
absolute legal right to the custody of her
children. Theso are Iowa, Nebraska,
Kansas, Oregon and Washington, where
both parents have equal rights in the
matter. In other States a mother has
no control over her children, not even if
driven from homo by her husband's
cruelty, unless she applies to the court
for the custody. In other words, "Ex¬
plains the Chicago Herald, the father,by
right of fatherhood, can claim his child,
but motherhood is not enough,tho court
must be appealed to before tho mother
can have absolute right to her children.
Tho injustice is so tangled with logal
technicalities that it is hard to unravel
the snarl, but since it has boon doue in
five States it can be done in others.
The climate of Oregon and Washing¬
ton is so much like that of England in
its mildness and moisture, notes tho New
York Post, that the plan of importing
song-birds of the latter country bids fair
to be a success. Iu a consignment of
birds received the other day were sky¬
larks, nightingalos, thrushes,, finches,
and the English robin. They are to bo
kept in an aviary until the spring, when
they will be released in tho Willamette
and other sheltered valleys near the
coast. A story went tho rounds recently
that the song of a nightingale had been
heard in Oregon, and many persons who
read it were incredulous, believing that
the nightingale was never seen or heard
out of Europe. The only explanation
possible was that this nightingale was a
new comer that was being acclimated.
Says tho New York Press: Estima¬
ting five persous iu each family, Census
Bureau calculations demonstrate that tho
Federal debt of the United States
amounts to $78.15 per family. On a
similar basis of calculation the debt of
Great Britain is $337.60 per family; of
Austro-IIungary, $354.20, and of France,
$581.75. Germany has no statistics
from which to figure out accurately her
debt per family, but the indebtedness is
estimated ati$400. It is one of the no¬
table icatures of the financial stability of
this nation that tho National debt per
family is so low and it is the subject of
comment that while the ratio of National
debt to families has decreased steadily
the National wealth has been growing
faster than that of any nation on the
globe, and our capital and resources have
improved more rapidly thau those of any
other nation.
In August, at the Palais d’lndustrie,
In Paris, there will be an exhibition of
decorative and industrial arts for feminine
purposes. This show will be called
“l’Exposition des Arts de la Femme,”
and, it is expected, will be of universal
interest. The programme contemplates
a brilliant show of all the art of luxury
and usefulness exclusively devoted to
woman. Everything iu bad taste or
which does not show women as estima¬
ble, amiable and useful will be tabooed.
Pictures and sculptures, showing her at
the toilette, or engaged in industrial pur¬
suits, such as kuittiug, lace making,
cooking*and sewiug, will be admitted.
An appeal is to bo addressed to curators
of museums and others who have old
toilet services, laces, silks, ribbons, ; shoes,
scent-bottles and so on to place them¬
selves in communication with the Secre¬
tary. The proceeds of the exhibition
will be devated to a museum in the in¬
dustrial part of Paris for documents,
drawings and tracings in which manual
orkers in decorative arts may find
models, — . ~ ...........
The frontier of Texas, along the Rio
Grande, reaches over 1300 miles—a line
as long as from New York City to Key
West, Fla.—and most of it is difficult
country for military operations.
One of the most interesting sights
along the Rio Grande is to see a regi¬
ment of Mexican soldiers taking a com¬
pulsory bath. It is only under compul¬
sion that the rank and file of the army
ever do bathe, and when the ceremony is
in progress one-half of the regiment en¬
ters the water while the other half stands
guard on bank, rifles in hand, to shoot
down any man who attempts to desert.
When the ablution has been finished the
men resume their places in line and guard
their comrades while they bathe.
There are no statistics at hand to show
whether coal mine casualties are more
frequent and fatal in this country than
in others or not. But the fact of record
is that of late gas explosions in Amer¬
ican mines have been very numerous and
attended by heavy losses of life. That
there ought to be additional means oi
safety provided by the advancing science
of the age needs not insistence in words;
quch catastrophies as that in the Indian
Territory speak their own warning better
than columns of argument or appeal
could do.
Itris estimated that the losses by fire in
tho United States during 1891 reached
the enormous amount of $135,000,000.
This is an average loss of nearly $400,.
000 a day, or, to put it in mother way,
it represents the destruction of six oi
eight good-sized fortunes every twenty-
four hours. Nearly the whole o;
this large loss is practically borne by tbe
people, comments the San Francisco
Chronicle, for the business of insuring
against fire has developed to such an ex-
tent that only the most careless persons
refrain from taking advantage of its ben.
efits.
Edward Murphy, the only pensionei
Michigan has ever had, has just died in
Jackson. Murphy was sent first to State
Prison for life for a murder which wai
committed on shipboard while he was a
sailor and which was fastened upon him.
For years he suffered patiently in soli¬
tary confinement until his mind gave
■way. He was then put to work on a
contract. For some years he worked in
this mannor until the perpetrator of the
murder confessed. He was released and
as a part reparation has since been re¬
ceiving $30 per year as a pension from
thc State. Ho was struck by a Michi¬
gan Central train, receiving injuries
which caused his death.
Tho remains of Henry M. Griswold,
of Baltimore, Md., who was heir to a
fortune of $100,000, after a five years’
search in tho South, have been dis¬
covered in the cemetery at Langley, a
small town near Augusta, Ga. Young
Griswold was of a roving disposition. He
started South in 1835. It is supposed
that his funds gave out and he went
tramping through the country. He was
a fine machinist, and earned sonic money
repairing clocks and machinery, Ho
drifted to Langley, became sick and was
taken in charge by a kind old man. Ono
day Griswold was fouud dead in bed,
and the remains were buried. No ono
knew anything of his history until the
last few days.
“The Settlement of the Germans in
Western Maryland’ 8 was the subject of a
lecture recently delivered by Louis P.
Hennighausea before tho German His.
torical Society of Baltimore. Maryland,
he said, was an insignificant colony be¬
fore German immigration set in. As early
as 1730 the German settlers had converted
the wilderness of Frederick County
into a blooming garden, and by 1790
had made it the largest wheat-producing
county in the United States. They began
to arrive in large numbers in 1733, and
in fifteen years thereafter the population
of Maryland rose from less than 50,000
to 130,000. In 1734 the first German
church in Maryland was erected, on the
west side of the Monocacv, at the cross¬
ing of the Virginia road, about ten miles
above the site of Fredericktown. It was
of the Lutheran denomination. One of
tho Germans of that time was Thomas
Schley, an ancestor of Captain Schley,
thc Commander of tho United States
cruiser Baltimore. Conogocheague was
the first settlement in Washington
County. One of its citizens was Jonathan
Hager, the founder of Hagerstown. An¬
other family bore the name of Pohs,
from whom descended the Alary laud
Poes. In the French aud Indian wars
the settlers of Conogocheague tell vic¬
tims to the fury of the Indians, few es-
caping. The war for independence was
very popular among the Germans of
Maryland, and it said there was hardly a
Tory among them. The feeling had its
origin in the obligation to contribute to
the support of the Church of England
established in the colonies, the Germans
maintaining their own schools and
churches at great expense.
THE MEASURE OF OUR DAYS.
Id all our walks, in all our ways
Think not the measure of our days
Is gauged by figures and by rules.
As erst was taught us in the schools^
But, as we help a brother’s needs
By noble acts and generous deeds,
By giving comfort where we may,
By lighting up a mourner’s way;
The sum of means that we employ
To turn a fellow’s ills to joy—
This is the measure of our days.
A veteran in tbe wars of life,
A prisoned soldier in the strife
Of soul with stingy, envious Time
Is he who makes his actions rhyme
• To universal brotherhood.
Though long or short hath been his road,
Centuries or decades his abode *
Among his kind, it matters least
So fellows by him have been blest.
His life is measured by his plan
Of dealing with his fellow man.
This is the measure of his days.
And much metbinks of time he gains,
For allhis labors, all his pains.
For reaching outward far and near
To succor want and shelter fear.
No stingy paddock hems him in
To mean desires or groveling sin,
A widow’s blessing him avails,
An orphan’s prayer some good entails,
While stretching outward overman
He converse holds with Nature’s plan,
And solving life’s deep mysteries,
He grasps eternal verities—
This is the measure of his days.
—T. C. Rice, in New York Press.
TED’S LAST THICK.
U8T about every-
v y-jac- Mg~—• tb * n g had seemed
to come to Ted by
instinct until he
was taught the
great “ring trick.”
jtr _ ha fl been born
l g ~ J l0D 11 the circus, and
f f, before hc
* 1 could walk was
", f0 r 1 d * “ 8
round a and ! round - the ring - on the
“learned pony, swinging his bare legs
and crowing with glee every time he
passed the starting post. Ho climbed
ladders and poles, holding on by his
chubby little hands, as soon as he could
toddle alone, and crept into risky places
StJ““an‘ wltehinghim wUhtefaXridf W™
“five on veL bv his evelkk" hetod
Whenhe w old to
TierfomreBffimlvwith femous^^bare-back” old inthe^‘wild Bennv the
rider Ster ” f
Indian” act All the coter st S
lifoof
youngster’s existence, lie was so used
to the sight of expert riders and acrobats
going through their parts he had no
Suld ing“thrir exToitHnd 0 all “that “othel to
? i do ,?• he ? felt if hecould ami a d l0 Ion “S ecl
%£■ i,S“,ss , , d S"
he carelessly stooped to feel the fetlock.
That was when Ted was but two years
f. - »V * :;E ' *“
oe no aouot tnat nature had given him
the true eye,the steady head,the indomi- |
table nerve and the quick sense of the
■*«* •> f. »r ,*
..“I'h“”vor.r“,t‘S"m.±£
Was a farmer's daughter, who bad , ns, la
a romautic match by ........lag aw„ wlU.
maineu m uie commum.j alter hei hus-
bands early death as a sort of “wardrobe
woman woman, ” it It was wassne she who who rcfnrbklmd re.urbished tho the
old costumes, braiding them with tinsel
aml s c'''i n g ‘>a spangles. She was
called Mrs. Llcwellen, aud she and her
boy lived m a small compartment of the
great property van, which, when the
show show moved rnovori from lrom town town to to tow,, town, was
drawn by six wh,te horses. Few ex-
periences pleased Ted better than this
sort of royal progress, which, m spite of
its grandeur was extremely convenient,
since Ins mother could cook their meals
or go on with tbeir sewfog while they
weie in motion, and Ted couid eat his
bread and butter while he • nodded and
waved to the boys gathered at every cor-
ner to welcome the procession.
Ted had learned to read from the
great g a , ,ng hand-bills “Greatest Show
ontheUniver.se,” “The Unequaled aud
Matchless Troupe,” etc., and iris'heart
had thrilled with u sudden conviction of
his own pre-eminence wheu he spelled
out “Master Edward Llewellen, the Re-
maikable Infant Rider and Acrobat.”
But his pride was in the fact of his
belonging to the circus, and not in him-
self. lor all the members of the troupe
were so interesting, so superior. There
was old Benny—not that he was old but
so-called to distinguish him from young
Benny, the lion tamer. Actually there
was nothing that oid Benny could not
do; it was he who performed the famous
bumpkin trick, at which Ted was never
tired of gazing; in the first place mount-
ing the horse on the wrong side, and
holding on by the maue as if he were
going to fall off; then, after committing
every possible blunder, suddenly show-
ing bis real powers and going through a
series of dazzling transformations, until
he emerged the inimitable Benny, the
King of the Circus. Then there were
the clown, a great friend of Ted’s; a
quiet melanchaly fellow who played the
banjo, and the lady riders, chief of whom
were Mrs. Bill and Miss Fanny, rival
queens of the circus. All were so ac-
eomplished, so splendid in their attire
(at least on occasions), and so kind and
tender to Ted, it was little wonder If he
thought it the finest life in the world,
At times when his mother sighed over
her work, it disturbed him to think she
was not thoroughly happy and contented,
but no doubt, he said to himself, she
was thinking about his father.
Still, much as Ted delighted in the
excitement of his life, the climbing.
vaulting, balancing, and above all the
ridina when he leaned forward “drink-
ing in the wind of his own speed,” he
was happiest on Sundays, when it seemed
to him in the sudden hush as if the very
heart of the world stopped beating.
Then in bad weather he and his mother
could shut themselves up in their own
little nest, or if it were fine were free
tc wander outside the town into the
fields. It wa3 only at such times that
his mother really talked, but alone
with her boy she would string out stories
about the old farm where she had spent
her happy, Iree girlhood, Ted heard
about the old house with its pent-roof
and gables; the well by its side, with its
long sweep, which moved with a mourn¬
ful musical creak when the bucket was
lowered. He was used to lions and tig¬
ers, and there was satisfaction in the de¬
scriptions of the soft-eyed oxen and cows
—all the tender, patient creatures of the
farm, besides the fierce turkey gobblers,
hens, and fluffy, downy chickens. Close
by the farm ran a little river, where tbe
geese and ducks paddled, and on the
other side was the wood, where there
were always rustics and murmurs, where
nuts pattered down in the autumn and
squirrels whisked their tails aud chat¬
tered in defiance of the intruders who
poached on their winter stores. The
garden and the orchard, too, were some¬
thing to hear about. Ted knew every
flower which grew in the borders, and his
mouth watered at the account of the ap¬
ples, wWte and red, which ripened on
the hillside. It is a great deal to know
as much about the world as Ted did, so
he used to tell old Benny about the farm
which wa3 to him such a wonderful
fairy tale.
“Pity now your mother couldn’t go
home and take you to see her folks,”
said Benny.
“Go homo and take me,” said Ted.
“Why, “Why'nott” could she?”
said Benny.
This new and startling idea dawning
oa Ted »„ m ; ud took b - is breatb awav _
“Mother,” he cried, running to her,
<< wb y don’t you take me down to see
g rand f at her and grandmother and the
flowers and tlie apples?”
“Ah, why not?” burst out the home-
gick womau with a bitter cry. “Be-
cause I gave all that up wheu I ran away
w ith your father. Because they wouldn’t
speak to me; no, not if I went down on
m y knees to them.”
“Why wouldn’t they speak to you?”
ga ; d -p^d, a ghast.
“Because I belong to a circus,” she
re piied.
Ted comprehended the pain behind
his others words, although he did not
understand the words themselves. He
was indeed really amazed that anybody
should not be proud to know the distin-
S^hed people he was used to. But he
realized now that the reason that his
pother sighed sometimes was that she
^ ‘jSb'too* ° PerW h£ ho was
sV tete i n ™
ener gone a little beyond his childish
length, but he began to feel fretted by
tbe a 0 i se of Srr the circus ss and *srz a curious
® trainband cats
animals not noi traineu arm kept Kept inca in es.out but
jsa.’sri
. Dr0U!er3 tI used us “ l to 10 swim 8 " lm on 0,1 summer summer af- ai
tc ~s The season was hot, and on
S US’wttttTl-i.-n r „7LS‘“; iiaSSLl*
“f f “ d “ r “f»; “ J tU ' h f"*“
d T.C' “ d
1
, p ’ Timm 1 “ere was was no no air air to to hreathe breathe, and and
th c many scents made him long for the
fl e!ds o[ clover and tbe .rarden ° with its
beds “Mother?” of mte-nonette.
he burst out over ’ “why y
d .fvYho?” k ( !ike tbe c ; vcus p>
vv f? said ' Ids mothe- mocne., startlea. startled
She a . sat lato-on . hsr , sewing as usual, but
, . kad , sa i>P 03CCl d tb Ul ° v bo > ” a3 f
‘
timmsfofth.m” ..randfather and S nrindrao’her randmother
, lnd
< iS ome people i)eo W le don’t aon t like nice a a circus circus,
... , . “*•)«.<-•
“But _ it . , the , greatest show , earth!”
s on
‘‘I know it s agreat thing m its way.”
said Mrs. Llewelleu, “but you see, Ted,
my family are quiet people and their way
is different. I suppose it is partly the
spangles aud tue crowds, the gaudy,
make-believe, which made father feel
nothing is modest and honest and
rea ^ about anybody who belongs to a
circus. But if father knew old Benny,
« he knew him as you and Ido, he
would say he was a good man. Aud if
hc kucw bow everybody had to work, to
S® over every part again and agaiu he
would see that no good performer
oould be dissipated or lazy. ’
It was just at this time that Ted was
learning the “ring trick and certainly
there was plenty of hard work about that.
It was, as we have said, the first thing
tlla t Ted did not take to by natural in-
stinct, as a duck to water. Never be-
fore had he shrunk back from what he
wa s bidden to do, giving wav to a fit of
trembling. As old Benny said the new
trick was no harder than the trapeae, and
Ted liked of all things to go flying from
ro P® to T0 P e 1° Hie topmost ring, loving
the idea that the heart of the spectators
sometimes sank into their boots at the
conviction that he was in danger. Now
suffered nameless terrors; he felt
clumsy, he had lost faith in himself. The ;
truth was up to the present he had gone
on doing everything that came in his way
without a thought of what might happen
H ke failed. Now he was like a som-
nambulist who awakens to find himself ^
in a position of danger. It was as if lie
bad }° tearn his tricks all over again,
gaining again piece by piece by hard trial
aud proof instead of heretofore swiftly
and inerringly by iqptinct. Old Benny
' vas patient aud tender with tne little
‘dlow.
,
“All you have to do is to catch hold
j si the ring and turn round on it,” said
e “Yoti know all the while there is
cushion underneath you, and that if you
were to fall you would not be hurt.”
“I shan’t fall,” said Tom, “nut I
don’t like it.”
“You have not got used to it, and it’s
there that the fun comes in,” said Benny.
“You never had a stumble yet, not even
a balk; you're like a bird.”
Ted huDg hi3 head and confessed to
himself that he no longer felt like a
bird. He was so weary. There was a
gray haze over ail this narrow world of
his, and each day it settled closer and
closer. He felt dull, inert, as if he
longed to sleep; at least to sit down
aimlessly and dream wide awake about
the hill and the river and the cool, quiet
nights in the old place. “I myself have
hated to do things that I grew mighty
proud of when I had got at the knack of
them,” said Benny. “Come, now try
again, Ted.”
„ , , . ,, d , ent ,
f UP “ .7
through the rehearsal, but when it was
all over he burst out crying aud sat
°'.vnah m a tremble.
a &Ig ’
said • Mrs. w Bill. u u “It a n ■ t tue mess one
is afraid of that one trips m, but those
one ee.s sure oi.
They all flattered and encouraged
hun and Ted felt ashamed of his famt-
heartedness. A regular salary was
promised him by the manager as soon as
he had made a success of tue ring trick
and this was what he and his mother had
been looking forward to ever since he
was ten years old.
It was odd how he dislik ed the ring
trick, when it was simply a matter of
swinging himself up to the top of a
bril framework on rings which
hun S oa horizontal bars. The supports
below were twelve feet apart, but met
with another transom beam and ring on
the apex. The way was to catch the
lower ring, swing round on it, then with
tbe impetus gained to leap the gap,
seize the opposite ring a little higher up,
and so on from right and left and left
and right to the top ring and down
a g« in - 11 was a P rett y feat, and, per-
haps, no harder than any other of the
flying tricks, but it needed a clear head,
aud the trouble was that Ted had got
into a dreamy mood. He was so home-
sick nowadays for the farm and for the
different life. He liked better to brood
over the idea of tbe bees humming over
the flower beds and the doves and mar-
tins calling for the cows than to give his
whole heart and mind to the actual
things he saw and touched.
However, practice makes perfect, and
^ . in f ‘lietime to ™ Ted he new bad season mastered opened the ring in
trH *’ There was a famous programme,
8 ! x different pars; in the
IudiaD a f’ the b " ffal .° * un «j> tbti cbar 10
race and so on, finally to the wouderfu f
tl“l q- he ’ excTtement was he°had -ood for Ted
Tbo duI1 ’ ,vear ? feelings suffered
from of late vanished, hi, blood warmed
}° fel h J tbe whh W > ° bebked E h 18 " wn tUo ? out ^gallop, h a « d f^agth he
imd was read y to f take wln S s and fl° at
-.•««^
and clown cracked frcsb f okes > at which
even t h e members of the comnanv could
days of the greatest show m the universe,
j t ; e ,, riu rln b „ tr i ck -> was t0 b# tile 0 „ rund rand
“An «a nu b,»„ sm .
«•»«£««»* Of tbt‘
with“”o?ri. tie
«»»» 6
lowest ring, spun round, and light as a
" j j 1 j Lap d u t 10 u c opposite 0 =it one one and ana
^us zigzagging - mounted to the upper
rin g. Here, just to rest and steady him-
self . be swung round twice, then reversed
before he should begin the descent. He
bked it up there. A cold breath of air
; fr b d k; ulm ’ T1 1 ' middle miauie nap flap oi of thc uie
tent was open for the , sake of ventilation
aud i igbt , and as he swung he caught
glimpse fleecy of the sky dotted with tender,
little clouds, like sheep in a pas-
ture * as lli3 motber once said - His
Se. p dt th" wld to the farm for a
what he had to do; yes, he had to re-
vei . jC . He uite forgot that he had al .
read revci . sed . What was this? Where
was the ri ? IIow still it was j How
cooll W ho was it gave a sharp cry?
What was the roar? Not of wild beasts,
but of men and women. Oh, that crash
_ t he end of the world must have come,
‘‘I’m not hurt )} said Ted “really I’m
’
not o>
Then he fainted away aud was earned
out in oid Benny’s arms. Word was
passed round that the boy was not hurt,
and tlle sbow went oa to its clo3Ci al _
though all the performers were flurried
and everythin^- went badly,
r p ed had broken no bones, strance to
say; ]iehad fallen on the cushion,' yet
somehow he was hurt and badly hurt,
Hobody quite knew why they were afraid
it was his back. Days came and-went,
and be i ay on i ds little bed holding his
mother’s hand.
“I couldn’t get up to-day,” he would
mutter m alarm when anybody came
near hj m , “but I’m getting rested and
perhaps by to-morrow—”
yj e was s0 used to playing his parts
tba t be was ashamed thus to lie and eat
the bread of idleness. But he and old
g enn y used to plan the wonderful feats
be wou ld accomplish as soon as he got
well. Yet it was soon understood that
be would never regain his old powers.
„ Y ou see,” the doctor said, “he is
sba ttered. His age is in his favor, and
jf be could have a good home in the
CO untry—”
“He shall have a home in the eoun-
try,” said old Benny, and he did not
j ose an bour> He set off to Mrs. Lle-
wellen’s old home, he saw her father and
mother and pleaded Ted’s case with
them, but he did not need to plead long,
Ted had his first glimpse of the house
and the river and the road within a
w eek. The sight of it brought color to
Is cheek and the light to his eye.
“Why, mother,” he cried, raising
himself up. “It paid. It paid to have
the fall. Perhaps we couldn’t have come
home if I had not been laid up. ■"—»
Courier-Journal.
Freaks of Human Nature.
“We doctors have a much better op.
portunity than most people for studying
human nature,” saida Washington phy¬
sician to a Star reporter the other day.
“Most patients do not consider it neces¬
sary to put on airs before their -radical
attendants. Oae thing that has often
struck me is the disregard which young
folks generally have for the old. I
don't mean that they are not courteous
to them, for courtesy to one’s elders is a
matter of ordinary education; but when
it comes to really caring for them they
are lacking as a rule.
“One is shocked to read of the man-
tieria which savage tribes all over the
world leave the old people to die neg-
lected cvea depriving them of .shelter
Realise they are no longer useful. Even
in civilized countries the same thing is
often done. Go to Savoy ’ aud you find
’
that thc d and iafirm aro t out to
beg „ a the public highways. Itiscom-
monly said that the love of the child for
the t is much le33 st evea
the amon affection „ tbe most enlightened pe0 ple,thaa
of the parent fm the child,
There is a reason for thi whLch f [)hi .
losopher3 Und in a natural yhe 0Te
of tke / t for t!lfi chiId is necessary ^ to
the tuetioil of the ra for ich
nature makes provision beyond^ll things
else: but, on the other hand, there is
no such reason of necessity for cars
taking on the part of the child in behalf
of tbe parent.
“So I am not surprised to find in my
practice ever so many instances where
old people are neglected by their chil¬
dren, who are apt to regard them as a
burden, considering often that they would
be very much better out of the world
any way. Another thing even more re¬
markable 'that I notice is that conjugal
affection is very apt not to survive long
illnesses. If tho wife is an invalid the
husband ofttimes becomes indifferent to
her after a while. Or, if the husband ia
sickly, the wife finds it burdensome. In
either case tho well partner to the mat¬
rimonial bargain becomes, though uncon¬
sciously, resentful of the invalidism of
thc other, aud in many cases seeks dis¬
tractions outside of the home.
“On the other hand there are men and
women so constituted as to be fitted as it
were by nature for the duty of taking
care of invalid wives or husbands. I
have known a man to marry three time 3
and on each occasion to select a bed¬
ridden spouse. There was in him evi¬
dently an exaggerated impulse to provide
for and take care of a mate. Of course
every one hears frequently of women who
marry drunkards for the purpose of re¬
forming them. Their impulse may be a
similar one, arising from the desire to
aet the part at once of wife and rescuer.”
What the Blind Have Done. i*
“The blind have done more for the ad¬
vancement of the world than one has
any idea of at first thought” said Pro¬
fessor Herman Arnann, at thc Southern.
“Have you ever thought of how many of
our great men have been deprived of th8
privilege of sight? Homer got his name
from the Greek word meaning blind
man, yet he wrote the greatest epic
poems that have ever been given to the
world. Thc fact of John Milton’s blind¬
ness is well known. Then there was
Huber, the blind naturalist, It seems
astonishing that a man totally deprived
of the use of visual organs should be able
to outstrip every scientist of his day in
the pursuit of minute examinations into
insect life, yet Huber did this. He pro¬
vided himself with fine optical instru¬
ments, and an intelligent, keen-eyed as¬
sistant, and in this way he discovered
more about the organic structure and
minute physiology of the bee than all
the savants who preceded him had done
together. His treaties on the respira¬
tion of this insect, how it makes its
wax, etc., excited the admiration
of the scientific world before it was
known that their author was blind.'
Gough was another blind natural¬
who achieved a great deal. Not be¬
able to use his eyes, he used the tip
his tongue, the most sensitive part of
body, in examining the minute
of plants, There was once a
sailor who could climb the tallest
pick his way with ease through the
of the rigging. On land be
an organ-builder, and did marvelous
work.”—St. Louis Star-Sayings.
The Most Powerful Explosive.
Chloride of nitrogen is the most
wonderful, as well as the most powerful
explosive known. For seventy-seven
years, from 1811 to 18S8, the secret of
the composition of this terrible explosive
was a mystery. Dulong, who lost one
eye and three fingers in the year 1812 in
a vain effort to determine its component
parts, was the first man of scientific at¬
tainments to give the stuff thought and
study. Later on Faraday and Sir Hum¬
phrey Davy devoted a great deal of tim4-
and attention to it.
Before entering the laboratory both
Davy and Faraday always provided them¬
selves with thick glass masks to protect?
their eyes from flying pieces of glass,
which were most sure to start on a tour
of the room whenever a drop of the dan¬
gerous stuff was exposed. Faraday once
narrowly escaped death as a result of
making an experiment with two
drops of the yellow, oily agent of death,
which he had dropped into a'small silver
thimble prior to making an experiment,
and at another time had his table ruined
and the glass mask on his face broken
into bits by less than one grain of it.
In 1SS7, as above hinted, Dr. Gatter-
mann of Gottingen, Germany, succeeded
in analyzing the mysterious compound.
It is the only known substance that will
instantly explode on ccming m contact
with a bright beam of light, whether the
beam be from an electric lamp or the
sun.—St. Louis Republic.
Immense flocks of crows have exterm¬
inated the grasshopper pest in some part*
of California. _........................