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“WBUILD THE LADDER.
Heaven is not reached at a single bo..nd,
But we build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowiy earth to the vaulted skies,
And we mount to the summit round by
rouad.
< l count this thing to be grandly true,
That a noble deed is a step toward God,
Lifting the soul from the common sod
To a purer air and a broader view.
We rise by the things that are under feet,
By what we have mastered of greed and
gain,
By the pride disposed and the passion
slain,
And the vanquished ills that we hourly
meet.
We hope, we asp’re, we resolve, we trust,
When the morning calls us to life and
light;
But our hearts grow weary, and era the
night
-Our lives are trailing the sordid dust.
We hope, we aspire, we resolve, we pray,
And we think that we mount the air on
wings,
Beyond the recall of sensual things,
While our ieet still cling to the heavy clay.
Wings for the angels, but feet for the menl
We may borrow the wings to find the
way;
Wo may hope and aspire and resolve and
pray,
But our feet must rise or we fall again.
Only in dreams is a ladder thrown
From the weary earth to the sapphire
walls;
But the dream departs and the vision
falls.
And the sleeper wakes on* his pillow of stone.
Heaven is not reached a single bound.
But wo build the ladder by which we rise
From the lowly earth to the vaulted
skies.
And we mount to the summit, round by
round.
—J. G. Holland.
THREE AGAINST TEN,
AN EriSODE OP THE SEMINOLE WAIL
ROUND abend
on the Ock-
1-iWaha, just at
sunset, there
appeared a dug
out paddled by
two stalwart
% fellows in a sort
t.; of homespun
mmm a uniform, boy officer dressed while sat
as an
in the stern. Five minutes be fare the
crocodiles and crune3, water turkeys,
bitterns and herons had had the black,
oozy river all to themselves as it slug¬
gishly made its way through the swampy
palmettos and cypress.
The boat bumped nlong slowly, strik¬
ing against cypress trees and fallen tree
trunks. The paddlers looked anxious
for the chance of finding a comfortable
camping ground was growing slighter
before young Will Loring began to, be
sick of his escapade. He had left the
camp eight miles away without orders
and taken two of his company with him
to do Indiau scouting on his own ac¬
count.
Little more than a year befoi’e he had
been a schoolboy, playing soldier iu tne
streets of St. Augustine with other
youngsters. When the Seminole War
of 1S35 broke out, sweeping with a wave
of lire and massacre across the State, he
rau away from home aud joined a com¬
pany of volunteers. Ills daring and
coolness at the battles of the With
lacooehee and Alaqua, in connection
with the social importance of his family,
bad given him his epaulets at an age
when other boys of the same years were
still in terror ot the schoolmaster’s birch.
< “Wall, Lieutenant,” drawled one of
themeu as he peered wearily into the
depths of the dark cypress arches, “we're
in a ’orrid fix, I reckon. If we keep on
we’ll run plum into a uest of then lnjin
-devils, dead shore.”
Both the soldiers were Crackers, bred
in the woods and swamps, good shots
aud skillful hunters, though thin, slouch¬
ing figures were not ornaments to a
dress parade.
“Keep on paddling,” said young Lor¬
ing in low tones, but with an air of stern¬
ness, which did not set well on his
smooth lace aud mischievous black eyes,
“and await my orders.” Then feeling
that he had asserted his authority, he
continued with a burst of boyish confi¬
dence, “I tell you what it is, Scraggs,
we'll have to get back to that hammock,
about a mile up the river, where we can
fiud pine knots to cook, supper; don’t
you thiuk so?”
“Bless you, Lieutenant, d’ye hanker
to lose yer skelp? No supper to-night
but a drink of swamp water, and a chew
of raw bacon. I’ll bet there’s a hun¬
dred of red varmints in two miles on
us.”
“You're not afraid, Scraggs, are you?”
said the youngster with a lordly air; ‘‘a
fellow who can bore a potato tossed in
the air at a hundred yards with a rifle
Ball, ought to have plenty of spunk.”
“A leetle more skeery than I war forty
year ago,” answered the Cracker, with a
twinkle in his eye. “ Howsoiuever, as
men of my inches do, I reckon I’ve got
as much el’ar grit as most on ’em.”
This talk had gone on in half whispers.
The darkness was increasing every min¬
ute. The boyish officer in spite of his
•airs was evidently uneasy, for ltis eyes
shot continual glances ahead and on both
sides into the swamp, as the dugout
glided at a snail’s pace. They were
nearing another bend in the stream,
when through the tangle of leaf aDd vine
there was a red gleam like a huge firefly.
Without waiting orders Scraggs whirled
the boat back with a powerful paddle,
and turned to his officer with eyes al¬
most starting from their sockets, shaking
his head in warning.
“Injuns, Injuns, Lieutenant Will, a
dozen on ’em,” he whispered. “I seed
the hind end of two canoes jiss roun’ the
bend. Tear must be. a hummock whar
they’re camped. They’re jiss got
through eatin’, an’ are stampin’ out the
embers. Sh— don’t speak. I’ll work
the old scow deep into the cypress.
We’ll see what tricks they’re up to, see
in’ we’re byar and can’t get away very
easy. But by Jimmy, my skelp kinder
crawls as if ’twould not be thar to-mor¬
row mornin’.”
Young Loring nodded, and the pnd
dlers cautiously forced the boat fifty feet
through the mouth of a black arch into
the heart of the swamp. Hidden here
they were nearer the savages than before,
and could hear their movements.
It soon became clear that the party of
Seminoles had no niglit, purpose of leaving
their camp that and no suspicion
of white men close at hand. One by one
they dropped asleep, and their slumber
chorus, which souuded not unlike the
grunting of the alligators in the swamp,
was music to the prisoners squatted in
their gloomy covert.
Three hours had passed, and the grow¬
ing light that silvered the lagoon outside
of their retreat proved the moon well up
over the tops of the trees. “Now is our
time,” -whispered Scraggs, “to get outer
this hole and paddle up stream for a sale
landing place and vamouss back to
camp.”
Lieutenant Loring answered not a
word. Ilis boyish mind was deep in
thought—a daring thought which thrilled
him with excitement.
If he returned to camp as ho left it
there was sure to be sharp reprimand,
perhaps a court martial for absence with¬
out leave. The excuse that he was an
irresponsible lad would alone save him,
and at that fancy his heart had waxed
hot with shame. But to go back as con¬
queror and hero—ah 1 that was worth
risking his scalp for.
“Are ye asleep?” whispered Scraggs
again. “No,” the reply; “I going to
was am
take these redskins back to camp with
me. So, Scraggs, you two can just tie
your hair ou, for it will soon be in
peril.”
The men jumped as if they heard the
whizz of Sem-nole lead.
“You see it would be a shame to
sneak back empty handed. We can’t
exactly take their scalps, but we can take
themselves as a present to the General,”
said the ingenious youth. “The Indians
are fast asleep. We'll paddle up and
take their canoes. Then I’ll land on the
hummock, you know, aud pick up their
rifles. Then in the morning we can or
der them to surrender on peril of being
shot down, for we shall have loaded
guns, and thev’ll have none.”
° groaned this
The two Crackers over
piece of youthful strategy, but Scraggs
responded*
” The dugout left it,' covert and glided
silent a 3 a shadow into the open stream.
A few strokes brought them in full
sight of the Indiau camp. The island
where the savages lay was well-shadow
ed by the trees, but their forms could be
dimly seen stretched on the earth.
Silently the little party detached the
two canoes and towed them to a secure
position, where they fastened them to a
cypress tree fifty yards from shore.
As the boat approached the shore on
its second more dangerous mission,
young Loring slipped off his b~ots and
stepped into the ooze, regardless of
moccasins aud rattlers. Scraggs and
his comrade covering the advance with
leveled guns, felt their stout hearts quake
as their boy leader crept iu among those
sleeping figures of bronze.
A stumble or the snapping of a twig
might make the difference of life and
death. The lad moved as if he were a
cat. The coarse hummock grass, armed
with miuute thorns, cut into his flesh,
but he scarcely felt them. The sleeping
redskins lay partly iu the moonlight anti
partly iu the shade of the trees which
rose in the centre of the hummock, each
one with his rifle by his side, the fierce
copper face chiseled as if in metal.
Hud the Indians disposed of their guns
as the whites do, by stacking or resting
them against a tree, the task of securing
them would have been less risky, But
they had kept their arms within reach,
and some even had their tomahawks
loosened from the belts as if for instaut
use. The Indiau rarely sets a guard at
night, unless iu the immediate presence
of an enemy. Here in the depth of a
great cypress swamp, impassable to
troops, a surprise would seem impos
sible. Yet even now the cunning and
suspicion of the race had not forsaken
them.
The nerves of the young officer were
strung to the highest tension. Oae by
one he stealthily lifted the rifles from the
earth till he had what he could carry.
These he bore to the low bank and
passed to the men ou guard in the dug
out. No word was exchanged. Again
he returned to the dangerous sleepers, a
distance of about a hundred feet from
shore, for a second load. A biawny sav¬
age tossing in his dreams gave a fierce
sjrunt and threw out a hand, which
touched the young thief’s ankle as if to
clutch it. The moment thrilled him with
all the agony of discovery, but he stood
stock still waiting for something further.
It was a false alarm, but cold sweat
poured from his face. Another of the
savages had his hand on the stock of his
gun, and the piece had to be gently slid
from under his fingers.
Again, the third time, he went back
to complete his work. The moon was
now high up m the sky, and poured a
flood of light ou the little islaud. The
recumbent Indians were cut out like
monstrous silhouettes against the grouud.
The boy’s swimming bead -warned him
that his strength couldn’t last much
longer. But he resolutely went at his
task, though his throat felt as if squeezed
by an iron grip. He had gathered the in
last a.mful, when one of the red men
bis dream3 raised himself on his haunches
and sac with chin resting on his knees.
The moonshine flickered on his face
through the quivering foliage, and his
sunken eye 3 appeared half open and fol¬
lowing his white enemy. The watchful
Scraggs, too, observed this movement,
and his tanned cheeks turned white as
chalk, as his finger was about to press
his rifle-trigger. But he waited, and the
savage sleeper made no further sign.
At last the work was done. The ten
minutes had seemed a year. The lad stag¬
gered to the boat, staggering as if with
an ague. “I must speak,” he panted, I’d
“or I shall yell. I thought twice
have to whoop or go into a faint. But,
Scraggs, I pulled through, didn’t II
Help me in.”
“Walll You've got the guns, snore,”
said Scraggs, “and drat my skin ef the
biggest bully in Jessup's camp would a
done it.”
No time had been lost while Scraggs
was relieving his mind; the dugout was
skimming out into the stream with lively
paddle strokes. The plan was boldly
executed in the morning. With the
coming of light the Seminole3 discov¬
ered the robbery of their weapons and
rushed to the edge of the swamp with
frantic yells, brandishing their toma¬
hawks. But the marauders were far be¬
yond the throw of axe or Knife, and sat
with levelled rifles.
Then came a shrill voice, demanding
in Spanish the instant surrender of the
little Seminole band, for at that time
nearly everyone in Florida knew some¬
thing of this language. After consider¬
able parley the red men agreed to throw
their knives and tomahawks into the
marsh. They were taken aboard in pairs
and their right wrists tightly fastened
together with stout strips of Scragg’3
homespun shirt. The dugout towed the
cauoes up stream, while the young officer
sat in ttie stern and guarded the captives
with loaded pistols.
So the daredevil returned to camp the
same afternoon, and instead ot a rowing
he was covered with praise and honor by
General Jessup and his little army.
This boy afterward became a dis
tinguished General—Major General
William W. Loring—who led armies in
the far distant East as a Pasha in the
service of the Egyptian Khedive, as well
as in this country. But in his long ca
reer he never did anything more daring
and heroic than the feat planned and
the General himself—8. F. Feme, in
bt * T<ouis Lcpu me.
Reversible Snakes iu India.
A snake not often heard of, at least in
America, is the liver-colored snake with
two heads, or perhaps they should be
called mouths, though it does not have
two mouths at the same time. They are
reversible mouths, occupying the opposite
end every six mouths. It lies with the
two ends crossed in each other, a3 with
folded bauds. Every six months the
change of the seasons reverses the func¬
tions of the two ends, the head becoming
the tail aud the tail becoming the head.
The mouth at one end heals or closes up
all but a small opening, while the oppo¬
site end becomes the mouth for the next
six months.
A friend of mine in India who told
me about this remarkable snake said he
refused for a long time to believe that
the functions of the two ends were re¬
versed every six mouths, but one day he
found one of these snakes in the jungle
and carried it home, where he had a
physician examine it. The result was
the physician confirmed the stories of
the creature, and my friend was skeptical
no longer. I learned no other name for
this singular reptile than that of “the
liver-colored snake.”—Hartford (Conn.)
Times.
Rubber Tires Far Carriages.
The success of rubber tires on bicycles
has frequently led to attempts to increase
the comfort of buggy and carriage rid
iug by fixing tires on to wheels, but
iu the majority of instances the attempt
was not a success, as the tire either came
off or wore out in a very shor; space of
time. Since, however, pneumatic tires
have displaced the solid ones on bicycles,
the attempt is being renewed, and bug¬
gies and other vehicles are likely to be
seen on the boulevards in large num¬
bers before long as noiseless and free
from vibration as bicycles. Carriage
builders believe there is an immense
amount of money to be made out of
vehicles with rubber tires on the wheels,
and they are likely to keep on experi¬
menting until they finally succeed in
producing the desired article-—St. Louis
Globe-Democrat.
7j
& o«s
!
0®. : i. V 41
vv m
Capes are the present fad.
Fashion dictates how to hang lace
curtains straight, so as to show their full
design.
In China small, round eyes are liked.
Bat the great beauty of a Chinese lady
is in her feet.
Six of the most successful business
stores in Machias, Me., are owned and
run by women.
In Brooklyn, Miss Cornelia K. Hood,
President of the Kempin Club, is lawyer,
lecturer and writer.
Mrs. J. G. Saflev, of Traer, Iona, la.,
owns 1040 acres of fine prairie land and
does her own farming.
The modern Persians have a strong
aversion to red hair. The Turks, ou the
contrary, are warm admirers of it.
“Cricketing teams” of ladies are the
fashion in England now. Lady Brassey
is responsible for introducing them.
The Province of Bhopal, India, is cele¬
brated for the unusually great adminis¬
trative powers of its female sovereigns.
The fashion in bridesmaids’ bouquets
lately has been the horseshoe, with the
nails worked out in contrasting blossoms.
Last year's gowns may be lengthened
by a band of cloth about the skirt,
while the waist is enlarged with vest and
falling collar.
j A college for girls is to be opened next
autumn at Buda Pesth, Hungary, which
is to be chiefly for the study of medicine
and philosophy.
i Panels of black and some light tone
may be inserted in street frocks, together
with a jaunty addition in the way of a
stimulated jacket.
I Nothing so rejuvenates a gown that is
beginning to bear evidences of wear as a
pointed belt of ribbon from which de¬
pend jet pendants.
Tea cloths that imitate not only the
Dresden china pottery, but also Royal
■Worcester, Coalport and other wares are
used with services to match.
} ■ Mr. JollIvet declares that American
women are welcome in Parisian society
because so many of them are pretty,
clever and exquisitely dressed.
> The long-train skirt which is now in
fashion among women is said to date
back to the time of Queen Anne, the
wife of Richard III., of England.
An artist’s rule as to color is:
“Choose carefully only those tints of
which a duplicate may be found in the
hair, the eyes or the complexion.”
The late Mrs. W. T. Sherman, and
Miss Mary Gwendolen Caldwell have
given more money to the Catholic Church
than any other women in America.
Miss Florence Nightingale is seventy
two years of age. Her health is very
poor, but she still continues to do a lot
of writing for the nursing journals.
Rice flour wafers, which are slightly
swe?t, are the correct thing to serve
with 5 o’clock tea. They are to be had
at the Japanese shops in pound tins.
The first International club for women
has been founded. The incorporators
are a group of American, French and
German women in residence in Nice.
The Prussian Minister of Education
has decided that from now on the con¬
tracts with all women teachers shall be
cancelled by their marriage at the end ot
the school year.
There has just died in Poland a once
celebrated beauty, who refused the hand
of Napoleon III. She was the Princess
Helene Sagonsko, and died unmarried
at the age of fifty-seven.
Mr.'Peter Marie, of New York, is said
to have the finest collection in existence
of the miniatures of pietty women, un¬
less there is excepted the collection of
the late King Ludwig of Bavaria.
The ladies of Arabia stain their fingers
and toes red and their lip3 blue. In
Persia they paint a black streak around
their eyes and ornament their faces with
representations of various figures.
Elizabeth Robins Pennell advocates
that a perfect cycling dress should be a
skirt of gray tweed, made without
foundation, with a deep hem turned uo
on the outside and secured by rows of
stitching.
Though the Duke and Duchess of
Edinburgh are not particularly wealthy
in a monetary way, the Duches3 pos¬
sesses jewels worth $4,000,000. They
are heirlooms, however, and by the late
Czar’s will they cannot be sold.
Princess Margaret, of Prussia, is one
of the most indefatigable equestriennes
in Europe. Horseback riding was re¬
commended to her as a palliative of
obesity, and the prescription pleased her
so well that she has taken it to excess.
Mr3. Mackay, wife of the Bonanza
King, never wears any jewelry at her
own entertainments. At her last party
in London, which was a concert for the
young Italian royalty, the Due d’Aosta,
she wore pale pink, without ornament.
Her guests were jeweled to the point of
barbarity. One woman wore diamond
ivy leaves and a diamond sun in her
hair, three rows of diamonds and
pearls around her neck and a colossal
river a.
SCIENTIFIC and
Cooking by eleetricit %
drcne y k inc ‘CSSias
1300 bee’s e 5es cuci
mirrors. conta'i
^ 4000 ms
Artesian b„ri assla
Let ^ »
A steam launch has w b I
which makes a mile i a tvo . «ea bai ?
one second. aiaiite,
A London firm finds
most economical a *,• ,
means of '
motive power necessary to ^
namo. 1 0 tJa a i
It has been computed bv
authorities that in a single io^
ether there are locked up
energy.
roti j ar alco ““" p,iM -5
Recent experiments in France
velocity of propagation on
of electric Wan
give actly a that mean of velocity which is a l mos: ei
light.
The best way to clean wells an-V
terns of foul air is to throw down
of unslacked lime. Tue heat apecj
carries out the foul bo cause
air with a rush, j
Experiments made by a HunganJ
physician on animals seem to show thal
permanganate of potash acts as aa effii
cient antidote in acute phosphorus po j]
flowers According is a single to Dr. pigment Hansen, theredij 3
water and decolorized soluble J
by alcohol,
capable of being restored by the addifid
of acids.
The dynamo is replacing the batted
to such will, an it extent is thought, in telegraphy be that it] J
use universal i a
few efficient. years. It is both cheaper audnJ
Investigations of rain drops lead J
the conclusion that some of the J
drops must be more or less hollow will 2
they fail when striking to wet the
surface enclosed within the drop. J
Many of the small takes of thegjfl Sti
and saline regions of California,
and other parts of the world are h
urated and deposit their salts evaporafiil wheiuJ
of the water is removed by
or when salts are added from the infaw]
A watch for the blind is among tha
newest inventions. A small peg iijss
in the middle of each figure. When a
hour hand reaches a given hour the own] pa
for that hour drops. The sightless
er, when he wants to know the time;
'finds which peg is down and then counta
back to twelve.
A new alloy for use in the manufac¬
ture of wire sheets and castings has been
introduced by a New England firm. The
wire made of this material resembles or¬
dinary copper wire ou the outside, hasa
pinkish white tinge at the surface of
fracture, and is very strung without;
losing much ductility.
There is still a chance for invention 1
in electric railway controlling switches.
The awkwardness of regulating a car’s
speed by a brake which turn3 one way
and a rheostat crank which turns the
other is evident. Sooner or later a lever
arm or some similar device will replace
some of the confusing number of crant
motions with which manufacturers at
present equip their cars.
The color Sea of varies the water considerably. of the M;di-j Da-j
terranean and si>j
ring storms it is deep green of
times brown, and when calm a
blue. In the Bosphorus and amon;*l
archipelago it is of varying hnsM
some places being of a liquid bms 1
uatinsf into a brighter green, uni
others assuming blue so deepa’ ai»
a
most approach a purple.
Cooking With Ice for Fuel
The generally accepted theory of the
cooking of meat relates to theappta ^
of heat; but Dr.
attention to the fact that almo>tpiw
the same chemical and physical exgr cfl- 3
cau be accomplished by the
animal flesh to extreme cold. t“ aeeJ ’
sensation experienced by touching r
ing is very much that ol a se
mercury
burn. referred to ap¬
Then the experimenter the preservadon
plied bis method to to ate
meats, first by subjecting them
perature of thirty-three L - —
Fahrenheit, and then sea ' 1D £ <1
hermetically in tin vessels. 1sJB
had been so - , ^
substances which oJ
for some time kept in tae=e dy P ’
examination proved to be extrex ^
table, quired and, being little heat partiaUj to P r co^e
very -. j
%
for the table. Haagy. do*
An establishment in
engaged in the preparation extensive sen 0 •
this method on an
York World.
The Horse in a Fire- o!
know that it is ristic
Few frenzied a
the horse to become ja .
rounded by fire. No a PP ea gjorf*
,
telligencs is of avail >- ur ‘^ pr g=eac«
made to remove him from P »ni
of flames. be He in is theisam terror^®^ is rf
seems to beB
mind as most human beings ^
panic. It is therefore use ^
a simple exped ^
that by a very of fir e.
can be easily manage.* : sW put*
All that is necessary to ithaB $
saddle him, and be can & ..-Qk
on difficulty Iron bie
the least
Anicoal Friends.
