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SPRING PLACE JIMPLECUTE.
**’• ECEARTSEXiL, Eel, and PuTb.
VOL XIV.
The lam! of “Pretty Soon.”
I know of a land where the streets are paved
With the things which we meant to achieve,
tt is walled with the money we meant to have
saved:
And the pleasures for which we grieve,
The kind words unspoken, the promises
broken
And many a coveted boon,
Are stowed away there in that land some¬
where—
The land of “Pretty Soon.”
There are uncut Jewels of possible fame,
Lying about in the dust,
And many a noble and lofty aim
Covered with mould and rust.
And oh; this place, while it seems so near,
Is farther away than the moon.
Though our purpose is fair vet we never get
there—
To the land of “Pretty Soon . 11
The road that leads to that mystic land,
Is strewn with pitiful wrecks,
Andthe ships that have sailed for its shining
strand,
Bear skeletons on their decks.
It is father at noon than it was at dawn,
And farther at night than at moon;
Oh let us beware of that land dotvd there—
The land of “Pretty Soon.”
•—[Ella W. Wilcox, in Youth’s Companion.
MARRIAGE IN RUSSIA.
BY LIZZIE YORK CASE,
When a young man in Russia takes
ft fancy to a maiden ho sends his
mother or some other matrimonial
medium to the parents of the girl to
negotiate for her dowry.
As an incidental lie has no objection
to any chance affection she may have
to bestow along with i fc.
The girl has no voice in the matter:
often has an offer of marriage accept¬
ed or rejected by proxy without know¬
ing anything about it. This custom
has one thing in its favor; it certainly
saves a great deal of wear and tear to
her feelings.
The marriage settlement being satis¬
factory the courtship begins. The
youth must never go to the house of
his betrothed without taking her a
gift. A long courtship in this country
would be liable to bankrupt a man.
J However, it is not the custom to lin¬
ger long in this primrose border land.
A betrothal is almost as binding as
marriage itself. There is never a slip
between the cup and the lip, save for
very grave and serious reasons.
At the betrothal feast the girl cuts
oft’ a lock of her hair in the presence
of witnesses, in order that it may bo
authentic, and gives it her betrothed,
who in turn gives her a silver ring set
with turquois. These rings are kept
*s heirlooms in the family, hut never
must they do duty twice. They never
use a second-hand engagement ring in
Russia. What becomes of the lock of
hair history does not inform us. It is
safe to suppose, however, that it de¬
preciates in value as the years roll on.
A well-to-do bride brings her husband
a dozen shirts, a dressing gown, and a
pair of slippers. She is supposed to
have spun the flax and woven the cloth
and made the garments with her own
hands. The fact is, she often buys
them ready-made, as we do in America
in this ready-made age.
Before the wedding the dowry is on
exhibition and is blessed by the priest.
Thus we see that in Russia as well as
other places nearer home, the most
interesting part of the ordinance of
holy matrimony is the avalanche of
good clothes it brings with it.
In the upper and middle classes the
bridegroom gives a bachelor dinner
the night before the wedding. The
bride-elect at the same time goes with
her friends to the bath.
At the appointed time the bride¬
groom come to claim his bride. She
falls upon her knees before her par¬
ents and craves forgiveness for the
follies of her youth. They kiss her,
giving her bread and salt, typifying the
necessities of life, leaving the door
open behind her when she goes out,
indicating that she still has a home in
h«# father’s house.
We have now the happy pair at the
altar, with lighted tapers in the hands
to signify aspiration, the loud voice of
the priest uttering a short prayer;
the ring which they exchange with
each other in token of the trinity, and
the cup of wine from which they drink
a symbol of eternal love.
Three times the bride parades
around the altar with a crown of gilt
held just above her head, by an im¬
portant functionary whom she chooses
f#r the office, but be must on no ac¬
count tread on the hem of her gar¬
ment or derange her headdress, as he
SPRING PLACE. MURRAY COUNTY, GA. SATURDAY. MAY 26. 1894
will be denounced by the lookers-on
for a heretic.
This personage has also other con¬
nubial porterage to look after. He
must attend to the lighted tapers and
carry the piece of carpet upon which
the couple are to kneel for the priest’s
blessing. By the way, the one who is
first to touch this bit of carpet with
the foot is supposed to rule the do¬
mestic kingdom. It is only fair to
say that the bride usually gets there
on time.
Thus ends she symbolic marriage.
Although the service of the Greek
church is more dramatic and fuller of
significant detail than the Roman
church, and that is elaborate compared
with the German or Protestant church,
yet in Russia they do not waste much
real sentiment on marriage. There
are parties who regularly contract for
marriage unions, a kind of real estate
agency in connubial felicity*, upon
which they get a percentage of the
spoils.
There were marriage fairs held for¬
merly in St. Petersburg and Moscow,
but now only in provincial towns,
where men and maids resort. The
rich man may take his pick.
Sometimes people travel long jour¬
neys to attend these fairs. Now, how¬
ever, the better classes do not, so they
are the popular resort of servant girls
who get a week’s leave of absence for
the marriage fair and often come back
unwedded, but as much demoralized
as a colored cook in the south of our
own land after a campmeeting.
In this blessed land of Russia, where
“more than half mankind are women,”
old maids are very scarce.
When a woman is not married at
25 she disappears from view, goes on
a pilgrimage or round of travels, and
comes back posing in society as a
widow.
Etiquette in Russia forbids any al¬
lusion to a lady’s dead husband in her
presence.
You see a woman’s life in that land
is not complete without the adjunct of
a husband, or even the ghost of a [hus¬
band, to give it a kind of cold respec¬
tability.—[Detroit Free Press.
Chinese Punishments.
In December, 1891, I was in Can¬
ton. One afternoon I visited the prin¬
cipal law court. Two prisoners in
chains were introduced—one an old
man, too infirm to walk, the other a
youth tolerably vigorous, but abject
and forlorn in demeanor. The pre¬
siding mandarin appeared, sat down
and sipped his tea, while an official
pattered out a loug oration, presuma¬
bly an indictment, for the prisoners
proceeded, as I understood, to plead
“not guilty.” What followed was
this: The old man was held up—not
held down—while two stolid China¬
men flogged him with long,pliant canes
above the knees. The youth was di¬
vested of his chains, which wore then
piled up in front of him. Upon these
he was compelled to kneel, while his
feet, hands and pigtail were all at¬
tached by a cord to a post behind him
and tightly secured.
The cries of the victims and the
complete composure of the spectators
were alike disgusting. I said as much
to my guide, whom I generally re¬
garded as an amiable being. His re¬
ply was: “This very interesting. I
never seen this before, ” though I have
no doubt he had. The explanation of
the dreadful scene — excuse there
could be none—was that, by the law
of China, no man can be executed un¬
til he has confessed his guilt. These
two individuals had been convicted
beyond doubt of heinous crimes, but
they refused to confess. The alterna¬
tive before them was execution or
death by torture, and apparently they
preferred the latter. The ceremony
I witnessed was to be repeated de die
in diem until either life or resolution
gave way. How the end came, of
course I never knew.—[The Spectator.
A Fearful Ordeal.
“Hello! There’s Jablers, the half¬
back of Princeton, looking like a
wreck. Must have been playing foot
ball.”
“Not much! He’s just been seeing
his sister through a millinery opening.
—[Chicago Record.
A Victim of Speculation.
“How are you on the market, old
fellow, a bull or a bear?”
“Neither, my boy; I’m just a sim¬
ple donkey, nothing more.”—[Phila¬
delphia Life.
“TELL THE TRUTH.”
The Death Plant of Java.
Java, the land of the famous and
much-exaggerated “Death Valley,”
has many wonderful curiosities in the
shape of ornithological, geological,
zoological and botanical oddities, the
chief among the latter being the
“Kali Mujah,” or “death plant.” It
grows only on the sterile soils of the
volcanic regions of the Java and the
adjoining islands, and is even there
reckoned as a curiosity on account of
its extreme scarcity, being rarely n et
with even by those having a knowledge
of its haunts and general characteris¬
tics. It grows from two and one-half
to three feet in height, with long slen¬
der stems, well protected by stout
thorns nearly an inch in length. The
ground leaves are of a delicate satin¬
like smoothness, heart-shaped, emer¬
ald green on one side and blood red,
streaked and veined with light buff on
the other.
The flowers of this death-healing
beauty are oven more, beautiful than
the plant itself, being very large and
cup-shaped, and of a color almost
deathlike in its whiteness. The name
of the plant is from a characteristic of
these splendid flowers, which, beauti¬
ful though they are, continually drip
with a deadly poison.
This poison, which is distilled in
the bottom of the cup-shaped blossom,
has the sickening odor of chloroform
intensified a dozen fold, it being pow¬
erful enough to overcome a full grown
man in a few seconds, even when in¬
haled in tho open air. The perfume,
if such a pungent odor can properly
be so called, produces insensibility in
the form of convulsions, distorting
the face, especially the mouth and
eyes, into a horrid, crazy-looking
grin. Recovery from the effects of
inhaling this odor is said to be very
slow, and to be followed with violenii
headache, ringing in the ears, and
sometimes even partial or total deaf¬
ness. Mrs. Madison Black of Savan¬
nah, Ga., owns the only plant of this
peculiar species ever brought alive to
America.—[St. Louis Republic. 1
rutting Up a Whale.
When a fish, as the whalers will
forever call it, is taken, tho ship gets
alongside, and the creature is fixed
head and tail in a curious aud ancient
fashion, so that by slacking or [tighten¬
ing the ropes each part of the vast
body can be brought uppermost. A
whole boat may be seen inside the
giant mouth, the men hacking with
axes to slice away the ten-foot screens
of bone, while others, with sharp
spades upon the back, are cutting off
the deep great-coat of fat in which
kindly nature has wrapped up this
most overgrown of her children. In
a few hours all is stowed away in tho
tanks, and a red islet, with white pro¬
jecting bones, lies alongside, and sinks
like a stone when the ropes are loosed.
Some years ago a man, still linger¬
ing upon the back, had the misfor¬
tune to have his foot caught between
the creature’s ribs at the instant when
the tackles were undone. Some aeons
hence those two skeletons, the one
hanging on the other, may grace the
museum of a subtropical Greenland,
or astonish the students of Spitzbergen
Institute of Anatomy.
Male Housekeepers.
One of the oddities of life in the
Maine factory villages is the class of
men who can appropriately be called
“housekeepers.” In almost any town
where much manufacturing is done,
numbers of these men may be found.
If one calls soon after meal time, he
will be likely to find them with aprons
on washing dishes. At other hours
they may be seen sweeping up, making
beds, cleaning and washing the chil¬
dren, cleaning house or cooking.
Whether any of them do the family
sewing is not so certain. These men
are housekeepers for the simple reason
that their wives can earn more work¬
ing in the mill than they can, and it
becomes a matter of rnoney-saving to
let them do it. Some of them saw and
pile the wood in the shed, aud do the
chores, and take care of the garden,
and do other man’s work around home
as well as the housekeeping and tha
arrangement seems to be profitable.—
[Lewiston, (Me.,) Journal.
A Slight Mistake.
Old Lady (in court room)—What a
murderous looking villain the prisoner
is. I’d be afraid to get near him.
Her Husband—Sli! that isn’t the
prisoner; that’s the magistrate.
COFFEE.
'nteresting Facts About the Berry
and Beverage.
Growers Of Coffee Drink a,
Frightful Decoction.
The coffee plantations in the depart¬
ment of Matagalpa, on the table lands
of Central Nicaragua, are year by year
nearingperfection and give great prom¬
ise of profit. Anyono visiting the ha¬
ciendas of the American colony will
admit that a well-kept coffee planta¬
tion in full flower is as beautiful a
sight'as a peach orchard in blossom.
The coffee trees naturally grow twen¬
ty or thirty feet high, but are gene¬
rally kept trimmed down to twelve
feet, so that the crop igay be conven¬
iently gathered. The leaves are ob¬
long in shape, dark and glossy and
form a beautiful background for tho
dainty white blossoms. The coffee
first resembles the cranberry, but when
fully ripe it is somewhat darker col¬
ored. It is at the time of picking
juicy and pleasantly acid.
The first step toward preparing cof¬
fee for market is to remove the pulp
of the fruit, generally by machinery,
although it can be done simply by
soaking the berries in water for seve¬
ral hours and washing them until the
seeds, the coffee beaus are free.
Each berry contains two seeds, each
inclosed in if light papery shell. Un¬
derneath this is another shell, gossa¬
mer and tissue like. This second
shell has to be removed with great
care, for if the slightest bit remains
the coffee will have a bitter, unpleas¬
ant flavor.
The sorting and grading is done by
machinery able to separate the berries
accurately into classes uniform in size
and perfection. After a little experi¬
ence it is easy to determine in what
locality coffee is grown simply by the
appearance of the bean. Coffee from
Exv-.v is of medium size, rather light in
color. Tho Mocha is decidedly smaller
and of a dark bluish green, Rio has
a distinctive size and shape, The
coffee grown in Central America is of
higher grade than the Brazilian, and
indeed it has been pronounced by
New York importers to bo equal to
the best in tho world. It is somewhat
smaller than the Java, hut larger than
tho Mocha bean, which it is like in
color.
Native Nicaraguans (lo not make
the most of tho possibilities within
reach, for there, is “coffee, coffee
everywhere, and not a drop to drink!”
because of the bad way in which it is
prepared. It is generally roasted un¬
til it is fairly black. At that stage it
has parted with all life and flavor. It
is then ground into flour and put on
the stove to boil and stew indefinitely.
In this,however,tlieNicaraguans differ
but little from the natives on other
coffee-growing countries. The Turks
and Arabians think a thick, muddy
paste is the best form of coffee.
Whenever they have an opportunity
to try the clear amber nectar which
Europeans and Americans delight in,
‘they invariably declare for their bitter
taste.
There is a point in regard to coffee
which should be known and acted
upon. It is easily injured in flavor by
its tendency to absorb surrounding
odors. It is as susceptible as either
butter or milk. Though this effect
may bo partially counteracted by the
process of roasting, yet enough of any
unpleasant odor generally remains to
destroy the natural odor of the vola¬
tile oil or caffeine. For this reason
coffee when roasted should never be
put in a wooden box or chest. A tin
canister is better, but best of all is
an airtight glass or earthen jar. Nor
should the freshly roasted coffee be
left exposed to the air while cooling,
for the caffe ic acid, which affords the
greater portion of the flavor and pe¬
culiar properties of coffee, is set free
by the heat, and if the coffee is placed
at once in a closed jar much of the
aromatic odor will be reubsorbed.—
Detroit Free Press.
Greenland Bird-Skins.
To the Eskimo woman, says Doctor
Nansen, the mouth is like a third hand,
especially in the preparation of skins,
which is a very considerable part of
her work. As a consequence, the front
teeth of the older women are often
worn away to the merest stumps. The
Eskimo method of preparing bird-
$1.00 a Tear in Advance.
skins is extremely peculiar and there¬
fore interesting, and is thus described:
The first step is carefully to dry the
feathers; then the skins are turned in
side out, and the layer of fat is scraped
away as thoroughly as possible with a
rnussell shell or a spoon, and is eaten,
being esteemed a great delicacy. Then
the skins are hung up under the roof
to dry.
After a few days the last remnants
of fat are removed from them by means
of chewing; then they are dried again,
then washed in warm water with soda
and soap three times over, then rinsed
out in very cold water, pressed, and
hung up for the final drying. If the
feathers are to he removed so that only
the down is left, as, for example, in
the case of the eider duck, they are
plucked out when the skin is half¬
dry. Then it is thoroughly dried and
cut up, and so is ready for use.
The ohewing is a very remarkable
process. The operator takes the dry
skin, almost dripping with fat, and
chews away at one spot till all the fat
is sacked out and the skin is soft and
white; then tho chewing area is slowly
widened, the skin gradually retreating
farther and farther into the mouth,
often until it disappears entirely, to be
spat out again at last with every parti¬
cle of fat chewed away.
This industry is for the most part
carried on by the women and children,
and is very highly relished by reason
of the quantity of fat it enables them
to absorb. In times of scarcity the
men are often glad to be allowed to do
their share.
It is a strange scene that is presented
when one enters a house and finds the
whole population engaged in chewing,
each with a skin in his mouth. The
peculiar excellence of the Greenland
bird-skin is due to this process.
An Irish Bull,
A Irishman who served on board a
man-of-war was selected by one of the
officers to haul in a tow-line of con¬
siderable length that was towing over
the taffrnil. After pulling in fen-ty or
fifty fathoms, which had put his
patience severely to proof, as well as
every muscle of his arms, he muttered
to himself:
“Surely, it’s as long ns today and
tomorrow! It’s a good week’s work
for any five in the ship. Bad luck to
the leg or the arm it’ll leave at last.
What! more of it yet? Oeli, murder!
the sa’s mighty deep, to be sure !”
After continuing in a similar strain,
and conceiving there was little prob¬
ability of the completion of his labor,
ho suddenly stopped short, and ad¬
dressing the officer of the watch, ex¬
claimed: “Bad manners to me, sir,
if I don’t think somebody’s cut off the
other end of it.—[New York Sun.
JBacon for Song Birds.
We have received the following
plea for the birds: “Sir—It maybe
interesting to your readers to know
that for years I have fed the birds of
Regent Park with lumps of fat bacon
tied upon the balcony ledge, One
day I counted forty visitors—a black¬
bird, a thrush, a robin, two tits, sev¬
eral starlings and a host of sparrows.
In summer I am rewarded, as the
blackbirds and thrushes take up their
abode near. I grieve to say they
squabble a good deal, and rush from
one piece of bacon to the other, think¬
ing their neighbor’s better than their
own; but in this way they are singu¬
larly like their betters (?)”—London
News,
Rubber Carpels and Floor.
In Germany, according to the
Maschineu-Constructeur, india-rubber
is beginning to be used instead of
carpets or wood flooring in apart¬
ments ; or, rather, many experiments
are being made in that direction. The
rubber is employed in the form of
sheets, which are placed side by side,
after the floor has received a coating
of beton. These floors are easily
washed, and on this account, and also
because kegs can be easily rolled on
them, they will be used in breweries
and other places where heavy objects
have to be moved.—[New York Trib
une.
A Neat Scheme.
Belle—They say that Dora is en¬
gaged to Count Moneyton.
Clara—She is. She told him she
could talk French, and when he began
to speak it she dropped into his arms
and exclaimed: ‘Oh, Count, this is
so sudden !’—[Hallo.
NO. 12.
SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS.
Paper pencils are the latest.
Silk is woven by electricity.
A rock on the top of Alpine Peak,
in California, spouts electricity.
A Swiss electrical firm are to estab¬
lish a central stution at Cairo, Egypt.
Bullets poisoned with infections dis¬
ease germs is the latest fiendish im¬
provement in the art of war.
Nicotine is present in about 2| per
cent, in the mildest Havanua tobacco,
and ranges up to 7J in the strongest
Virginia.
Civil engineers say the wings of the
butterfly display the greatest possible
lightness combined with tlie greatest
possible strength.
It is said that the 1 aural and sun¬
flower, planted in the garden of a
“damp” house, will change its atmos¬
phere from moist to dry.
It is stated that a railway train trav¬
eling at the rate of one hundred miles
an hour could not be pulled up in a
distance less than two miles.
In what are called “looming mir¬
ages,” distant objects show an appar¬
ent extravagant increase in height
without alteration in breadth.
Artificial wood for furniture, roofs,
insulators, etc., is now made by burn¬
ing magnesite together with wood,
shavings, sawdust, cotton, hair or
wool.
A retired French naval officer has
invented a rifle that is capable of fir
infi two kinds of explosive bullets,
both having immense power of pene¬
tration.
A German officer has invented a
motor in which a fine stream of .coal
dust is used to drive a piston by ex¬
plosions in the same manner as the
gas in the gas engine.
It is reported that a man in Arkansas
who attempted suicide by taking three
grains of morphine, was treated by
the new antidote, permanganate ol
potash, and quickly recovered.
How can you find out whether a
postage stamp has been used or not?
Photograph it. If the postmark has
been obliterated, the blue or green
color will not make any impression ol**
the plate, while the black traces of tha
obliteration will appear with great
elearnesss. Even when the stamps
have been well washed and no trace of
the obliteration can be seen by the ,
the naked eye or through the micro¬
scope the photograph will show very
clearly the two concentric circles of
the stamp, the date and even the name
of the locality.
Gall Flies.
One of the most remarkable facts In
the history of the gall fly is, that dif<
ferent species acting on the same tree
produces totally different results.
Thus, one of them puncturing the
wild rose, gives rise to one of those
pretty moss-like tufts which so fre¬
quently adorn it. Another on the same
plant produces round growths resem
bling currants in size and form. A
much greater variety of form is pro¬
duced on the oak tree.
No fewer than fifty species of gall
fly, indeed, are said to produce thSir
particular forms of growth upon it.
One of the most common is that which
produces the marble gall. This gall
is produced on the twigs in the form
of round bodies, soft and green at
first, afterward brown and woody. The
familiar oak-apple is of more irregu¬
lar shape and prettily colored red and
yellow, like a fruit, Of a similar
shape to the marble gall, but softer,
and of a pretty red color where ex¬
posed to the sun, is the cherry
gall.
Another fruit-like gall, small,
round, and often appearing in clus¬
ters on the male catkins of oak, is
known as the currant gall. Still more
remarkable, perhaps, is the artichoke
gall. In this case the gall fly has laid
its egg in the centre of a bud, and the
vegetable growth, though disturbed,
has asserted itself in a symmetrical
manner. The oval body in the cen
tre, containing the egg or grub, is
covered with a series of imbricating
or overlapping scales, so that the
whole bears a striking resemblance to
the involucrum of a thistle.—[Cham¬
ber’s Journal.
The largest cargo of coffee evej
brought into the United States num
bered 57,491 bags, and came from
Brazil *