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jHE KANGAROO. I Himble Fellow, But He Can’t Bun Down Hill. gisS&n Has a Wonderful Mus¬ cular Fiber. Leatber made from the skin of the Jungaroo is one of the new products jj, the leather line, it is soft, strong, fcdthe light grades are particularly -ell adapted for light summer shoes ^ for shoe tops, while the ^heavier des will bear more usage than any P leather finished on the gram otter skins made into ide . The light are dull .'Bt brilliant glazed kid, and in a shoes; and the Kish for ladies’ fine bvy ones are finished for men’s line U. Much of it is crimped and of U for tongue boots. Shoe laces Ld %e qualities are also made of it. skin of the kangaroo has a won jrfully muscular fiber, which con .b tes largely to the strength of the a ,j ma l, enabling the females to carry lair young in their pouches until old lon gh to take care of themselves, ,1 aiding the kangaroo in his long tips when in motion, fhe animal is a native of Australia (J adjacent islands. It is a distinct Lies, and has no counterpart in L|er countries. There are a great Liber of families, some scarcely irger than a rat, others of almost juantic size. The giant kangaroo [feeropus major), the family which hushes .the most valuable skins, was hovered by Captain Cook about a jentury ago, at which time naturalists, it attracted inch attention among t The natives of Australia call the old Lu “booma,” and are slow to at L them. The “booma” has paws Llarge If as those of a mastiff, though different shape, his feet are his Lpons, Lgerous and when attacked he is a antagonist. When raised this full height his hind legs and hi form a tripod, upon which his lody rests, carrying his head as high I that of a woman on horseback. The kangaroo lives upon -vegetable ad and roams over the plains of in large flocks. Its teeth so constructed that it can feed roots and live upon barren where other animals would and to its destruction of roots the sterile plains so com in Australia. The (ireat Firefly. M great firefly is an inhabitant of (Savannahs of most of the warmer N of America and the West India Ms. It is Bald to attain a length flinch fight and a half. In the gloom these flies are extremely lu¬ pous and the effect is brilliant. The cliiely produces from four parts, i > fr om two glandular spots behind 1 eyes and one under each wing. j P have the power to cut off the f will, in which case the glandu PPots become perfectly opaque. ® |hght is of this wonderful insect by such that if the creature be . IQ P a m °f the hand, print or * "script is as easily read as by a Be. - The aboriginal natives cage e creatures and make use of them ^ erns. Ladies adorn themselves M 1 this electric light luminary. related of Don Domingo Conde ‘-olornbia that he would appear on :'-raing promenade with a large [ ornamenting the buckle of his hat, while a band of snfaller luminous insects surround it. The j eame Spaniard lighted his palace with fireflies in silver The display ' cages. must have been enchanting, for at one | time the light is ruddy, at another j the tinge is greenish, then there is a i change to golden yeliow. It is stated that when the Spaniards were about to i land one of their expedition:! against Mexico a panic was caused by these luminaries. The host of fluttering lights on land was supposed to be an j indication of the enemy arousing their camp to resist the attack. When the English were attacking the West India Islands the fireflies were taken to be a Spanish army ad¬ vancing with burning matches against them, and the upshot was a hasty re¬ treat to the ships—All the Year Round. Sources of Color. Au interesting enumeration has been made by somebody, and pub¬ lished in a technical journal, of the sources of color. From this it ap¬ pears that the cochineal insects fur¬ nish the gorgeous carmine, crimson, scarlet carmine, and purple lakes; the cuttlefish gives sepia, that is, the inky fluid which the fish discharges in order to render the water opaque when attacked; the Indian yellow comes from the camel; ivory chips produce the ivory black and bone black; the exquisite Prussian blue comes from fusing horses hoofs and other refuse animal matter with im¬ pure potassium carbonate; various lakes are derived from roots, barks and gums; blue black comes from the charcoal of the vine stock; Turkey red is made from the madder plant, which grows in Hindoostan ;tke yellow sap of the Siam tree produces gam¬ boge : raw sienna is the natural earth from the neighborhood of Sienna, Italy; raw umber is an earth found near Umbria ; India ink is made from burned camphor ; mastic is made from the gum of the mastic tree, which grows in the Grecian Archipelago; bister is the soot of wood ashes; very little real ultramarine, obtained from the precious lapis lazuli, is found in the market; the Chinese white is zinc, scarlet is iodide of mercury, and ver¬ milion is from the quicksilver ore cinnabar.—Detroit Free Press. Tlie Cradle. The cradle is man’s first and great est school-house. There his educa tion begins. The mother’s smile and caress give him his first evidences of human love and gentleness and sym pathy. Her words are -like a revela tion from another sphere. Everything about that cradle is educative; and, what is more, this primal education is radical and determinative. It gives shape to the mind; the impressions there made are deep and abiding; they are not easily rubbed out by all the later rough usage of the world. In the nature of the case the mother is the first teacher, whose lessons al¬ most inevitably abide through fair weather and foul, How important, then, that these early teachings be correct! “The most important part of education,” says Plato, “is right training in the nursery, The soul of tbe child in his play should be trained to that sort of excellence in which, when he grows to manhood, he will have to be perfected.” He should be elevated by an inclined plane rather than vertically; the former is usually easy, - while the latter is always diffi cu It, sometimes impossible. The era die song is often the inspiration of the whole life. Keeps Tab on His Ranch. The Los Angeles (Cal.) Times says: The owner of a San Diego ranch lives in the East. He has a novel way of keeping track of the condition of his property without visiting it. Peri odically he has an elaborate series of photographs taken, which show the fruit trees and buildings, These pic tures show exactly the amount of work done, and the growth of the trees from time to time. Clever Horsemanship. An interesting illustration of the Indian’s clever horsemanship was given by a young buck at Wilbur, Wash., a few days ago. Carrying in his hand an ordinary cup filled to the brim of water, he rode on a cayuse at full gallop the length of the main street and return without spilling so much as a drop of the water.—New York Sun. CRAB RANCHES. An Important Industry on Chesa¬ peake Bay Shores. The Meat Now Packed in Cans For Winter Use. Crab ranches are among the insti tutions along Chesapeake Bay, es pecially on the eastern shore of Mary land. They raise soft-shell crabs, and do not cultivate hard-shell crabs to any extent, In connection with the ranches there are canneries, which pack crab meat into cans for use dur¬ ing the winter. The ranches have done much toward bringing the price of soft-shell crabs down, although often the price depends upon the weather. Before the advent of crab ranches the price of soft crabs ranged from $1 to $1.50 a dozen, while now often they can be bought for thirty cents a dozen. The ranches constitute an important industry. In the neighborhood of Crisfield, Md. , alone, more than 1,200 men are employed in the crab busi¬ ness, and from May to October their catch will average 5,000,000 soft-shell crabs. The value of the industry to the fishermen is more than $100,000 annually. Deal Island is a rival of Crisfield and ships about 50,000 soft crabs weekly to Baltimore, which is tbe distributing point. Very few of the soft crab fishermen hunt for hard crabs, for there is very little profit in them. Baltimore is the distributing point, but New York is the best cus¬ tomer. Very little capital is needed to start a crab ranch. The main trouble is watching the crabs. The ranches are situated along the water and a place is made in the bank to form an artifi¬ cial bay. This bay is about three feet deep and is shut off from the main water by heavy wire netting. When a man starts a ranch, which is early in the spring, he catches a lot of hard-shell crabs. These arc fed reg¬ ularly on meat, clams, oysters, etc., and great care is tak’en of them while they are shedding their hard coats. Each section of the bay has to be visited every two hours, day and night to take the soft crabs from among the hard ones, and this is the most diffi¬ cult part of cultivating crabs. To get the crabs, men wearing high boots wade in among many thousand crabs, sorting them over until all the soft ones are picket out. If this work was not done regularly every two hours the hard crabs would eat the soft ones. Sometimes the men will get only half a dozen crabs, and two hours later may go back and pick out a hundred or two. Every day new hard-shell crabs are caught and placed in the ranch to wait their turn to be- • come soft. At tbe end of the season all the crab3 arc taken out of the ranch, and, after being boiled, are picked and sold to the canuers. The value of the soft crab to the epicure depends entirely upon the shortness of the time which it has been out of the hard-shell. The new shells begin to grow at once, and every hour thereafter detracts from the soft crab’s value. When the crab j s preparing to moult and its shell is loosening it is known as a comer, a . ] on g comer, or a short comer. When n 8 shell has begun to crack it is ca n e d a shedder stage it is a highly pr i zec l by fishermen as bait. When it has reached the shedder stage, if it is not in a ranch, it seeks a shallow inletor shore where there is plenty > of graag> craw ] s out of its shell, and rema j n3 i n fear and trembling. One of its brethren in the enjoyment of a ^ard shell happening along would p rom ptly devour it. This is what the cra b ranches prevent.—New York gun. How He Made an Impression. They sat at his favorite table in an uptown rertauraut. Both were dressed in tbe height of fashion. The attention of the other guests m the dining room had been attracted to the couple by the evident anxiety of the young man to make a favorable impression on his fair compauiou. He gave orders to the waiter with an air D f self-styled superiority, and his tone Q f TO ice was warrauted to reach the ears G f all present, As the courses progressed the time {or serving desert came. The young woman was heard to confess a weak¬ ness for huckleberry pie. “Ah!” exclaimed the youth “so funny,you know. I, too, am passion ately fond of huckleberry pic. f have it almost every day that I am here. ” “Isay, waiter,” he called at the same time snapping his lingers above the table. “Bring me two portions of huckleberry pie.” The waiter executed the order with due haste, and as he sat the plates upon the table the final act of the lit¬ tle drama that was being enjoyed by the persons at other nearby tables be¬ gan. The young woman frowned, then blushed, and leaning over com¬ plained to the young man in a stage whisper that the powdered sugar had been omitted. “How stupid, ” he cried as he beck¬ oned the Waiter again, “Brooks,” he said to that functionary, “what is it that I always order with huckleberry pie, and which you invariably for¬ get ? ” “I know, sir,” replied tbe waiter after a moment’s hesitation. “Go at once then,” continued the youth, “and bring it to Miss--.” By this time several new arrivals who had come in just in time to hear the last part of the conversation joined the rest of the audience in watching the couple. Everybody waited impatiently for the waiter’s re¬ turn. In a few seconds ho came back hur¬ riedly, and walking to the young woman's side laid beside her plate—a knife! The young man’s face was a study in chromatics of high tints as he saw the expression of suppressed laughter about him. He hastily paid the bill and left with his fair companion, who showed by her countenance that he had evidently made a lasting impres¬ sion.—New York Sun. The (Heat Natural “Blow Hole.” One of the great natural curiosities of the world is tbe great “blow hole” on the Australian coast near Ixlama, New South Wales. It is situated in the middle of a rocky headland run¬ ning out into the sea, forming a truly wonderous sight, With each suc cessive breaker the ocean spray is sent shooting up into the air, sometimes as high as from 300 to 4000 feet,descend¬ ing in a drenching shower,and accom jjanied by a rumbling noise as of dis¬ tant thunder, which can be heard for many miles around, This “blow hole” is a singular and phenomenon, and consists of a perpendicular hole, nearly circular, with a diameter of about ten yards across, and has the appearance of being the crater of an extinct volcano, This is connected with the ocean by a cave about a hun¬ dred yards in length, the seaward opening of which is in all respects similar to St. Fingal’s cave, on the west coast of Scotland, tbe same per¬ pendicular basaltic columns forming tbe side walls of each. Into this cave towering waves rush during stormy weather, and, as the cave extends some distance farther into the rock than the “blow hole,”ou the entrance of compressed air, which, when the tension becomes too great, blows the water with stupendous force up the perpendicular opening.—New Orleans Picayune. An Ancient Sea Chest. Mrs. Charles Stevens, of guilford, Maine, has in her possession a sea chest which was once the property of her great-great-grandfather, Richard Fassett, who £ft the age of 14 years was cabin boy on the flag-ship of the English fleet which under command of Gen. Wolfe, and assisted by a large land force,-.captured Quebec, Septem¬ ber, 1759. This makes it certain that the chest is 136 years old, and no one knows how much older. Money Canned With Fruit. Airs. W. B.# German of Elkhart, Ind., died recently leaving a large es tate. A search was made for money believed to have been secreted about the house by Airs. Garman, who was noted for her eccentricite-'. The re suit has been the finding of gold and silver coin to the value of several thousand dollars canned up in fruit, It is believed that more buried treas ure will be found.—New York World. The State of Maine is worth $235, 978,716. SCIENTIFIC SCRAPS. It is said that steel containing 12 par cen t c f manganese cannot be mag netized. Dropping a steel magnet, or vibtat ing it in other ways, diminishes its magnetism. Decayed teeth can now be stopped aluminum. A process has recently been discovered. Electric power is used for operating exhibits in the now machinery hail on the State Fair Grounds at Sprinfleld, Ill. For scientific purposes it is pro¬ posed to fly ten giant kites to the height of two miles during every pos¬ sible phase of weather. Trunk wires to connect London by telephone with Edinburgh, Glasgow and Dublin, have just been put up by the English postoffice department. The Western Union Telegraph Com¬ pany makes about $1,500,000 annnnly furnishing “exact time” from its naval observatory office in Washing¬ ton. A telephone was recently installed between Berlin and Potsdam by trot¬ ting cavalry. The distance is about twenty miles and occupied four hours. Au experiment in reheating steel by elecricity under the Bessemer process was recently made at the Homestead, Penn., Steel Works, The result was most satisfactory. Some scientists have been raensur ing Bismarck’s bead and calculating its contents. They find it very big and lignre that bis braiu weighs 1867 grammes about one-third more than the average. Out of a thousand flowers 284 are white, 226 are yellow, 220 are red, 141 are blue, 75 are violet, 36 are green, 12 are orange, 4 are brown and 2 are black. White flowers become proportionately more numerous as one advances towards the north. A steam dredger, claimed to be the largest ever built in America, has just been finished at Alameda, California. It is one hundred and ton feet long, fifty feet broad and ten feet deep. The dredge bucket weighs five tons, and will lift twelve tons of mud at each scoop. Aluminum wire is increasing in use and if it continues to cheapen may be the,wire of the future. Its electrical conductivity is three times that of iron and more than half as great as copper, while tbe tensile strength is one-third that of steel, and its resist¬ ance to corrosion phenomenal. Professor Keeler, of the Allegheny Observatory, has just published a paper ou the rings of Saturn, in which he demonstrates from spectrum analy¬ sis that the rings are neither solid nor liquid, but are composed of a host of small satellites, revolving around the planet in circular orbits. The same theory was mathematically demonstrated by Clerke Maxwell in 1859. Wool Production. The principal wool exporting coun¬ tries are the Australian colonies, Ar¬ gentine Republic, Uruguay ami tbe British possessions in Asia and Africa. The Argentine Republic exports an¬ nually about 266,000,000,000 pounds, and New South Wales about 200,000, 000 pounds. Tbe total product of the United States is about 300,000,000 pounds, on the average, annually. In 1890 our production was 285,000.000 pounds, and we imported 126,000,000 pounds. In 1891 we produced 307 000,000 pounds. We produce about 70 per cent, of the wool we consume. Thirty per cent is imported, and it comes chiefly from Australia and South America. A Paradise for Prisoners. A Portland lawyer, who has been down to Cathlainet, Oregon, tells of the courteous treatment the few jn-is onei’s in the County Jail at the river town receive at the hands of the au thoriti* s. When the time came for the restaurant or hotel men to make their bids on furnishing food to jail prisoners they refused to bid at all. As they did not bid no one got the contract, and when they have a pris oner now they take him over to the hotel and he gets his meals like any respectable guest. — San Francisco Chronicle.