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Too Late. What silences we keep year after year, With tnose who are most near, to as and ,lear! We hve beside each other . day . , by day, , And speak of myriad things, but seldom say The full, sweet word that lies just in our reft'-h. Beneath the commonplace of common speech. Then out of sight and out of reach they go— Those lose, familiar friends who loved us 80 ; And sitting in the shadows they have left, Alone with lonliness. and sore bereft, Ve lhint with vain regret ot some fond word, That onee we might have said, and they have heard. For weak and poor, the love that we ex ' pressed Now seems beside the sad, sweet, unex pressed, And slight the deeds we did to those un¬ done, And small the service spent, to treasure won. And undeserved the praise for word or deed, That should have overflowed the simple need. This is the cruel fault of life—to be Full visioned only when the ministry Of death has been fulfilled, and in the place Of some dear presence, is but an empty space. What recollected services can then (live consolation for the “might have been?” —Norah Perry. OUR CuUNTRY COUSIN » This is how it all happened: My two sisters, the fashionable Misses Hey mo nr, toward the end of a certain summer having been the round of all the old summer reports and tiring of the lust ouo, suddenly remembered that somewhere in the rural districts in the interior of the State they pos¬ sessed some cousins of more or less nearness or distance. As a last resort, in order to over¬ come the ennui that was gradually taking possession of them, they de¬ cided to settle (lowu upon these cousins for tho remaining days of the late summer aud the heated period of the autumn. With them to decide was to act, so with almost unfashionable alacrity— and my sisters were sticklers for fashion, too—letters were despatched to the suddenly remembered cousins and the answer to them awaited with breathless impatience. They came at last, bearing the most cordial invitation for my sisters to follow their inclinations and come up into the country at their earliest con* venience. To say that my sisters jumped at the chance would bo wholly mislead¬ ing ; my sisters never jumped at any¬ thing; they wore entirely too elegant for that. But with surprising haste they an¬ swered, informing their hostesses when they would arrive, and then ou the heels of the letters swept up into the country, bag, bandbox and bag gage. Letters told us bow they found tbe cousins, a charming widow aud her daughter, with a flue old place, and, what blessed it, real country hospital¬ ity. The widow was set down as a person who had seen something of life and the daughter was voted nice, though a trifle old fashioned. As lather and I were very busy in town that summer we did not join the ladies in the country, but merely took a week’s fishing at one of our favorite haunts and went right back to work again, so it was not until early October, when the girls came back to town, brown as berries and full of the pleasures of their trip, that I received a regular detailed descrip¬ tion of my cousin ^Harriet and her daughter Alice. And from the description I gathered that the young lady was a person who would do very well—for the country. Indeed, my sisters gave me very plainly to understand that our cousin, Alice Seymour, would not shine under the city’s lamps. In a few days after their return there was nothing new to tell either oi their trip or of their entertainers aud 1 heard no more of my couutry cousins until one day in earlv winter, when the female portion of the house¬ hold was thrown into sudden conster¬ nation . the arrival of a letter from Mi's. Harriet Seymour, iu which she informed my sisters and their mater aul parent that she would iike to have her daughter spenu a month in town with them. There were sundry other remarks of a pleasant and personal nature in the letter, but they were hardly noticed in the all obscuring importance of the desire expressed. Sister Florence came to me with in dignation written in every feature. “To think,’’she exclaimed, “Cousin Alice wants to come here!” “Well, why shouidh’t she?" I ag j £e( j t . Why shouldn’t she?” echoed Flor enee. “Why, it simply can’t be done.” i • Why not?” My sister did not deign to answer me, but swept away iu great indigna¬ tion. It was Caroline next who expressed to me how awful the idea’ was, I ex pressed my entire inability to see its awful ness, and was told by my sister that men didn’t understand these things at all. “I understand, I think,” said I, “that you accejit the hospitality of people whoso kindness you are unwill¬ ing to return,” and Caroline left me in disgust. Then mother whispered to me con fidentially that she couldn’t see how she was going to avoid having that girl come, and was entirely amazed when I asked why she should wish to avoid it. “Why, It would never do in the world, Hubert,” said my mother. “I love the girl as well as any one can, but yon know that the country and city are so different.” “Is my cousin a lady?” I asked. “To be sure,” said my mother, “but”- “Is she an idiot?” “Why, certainly not, but”- “Can she tell a truin of cars from a hansom?” “Hubert!” “Well, then, I can’t see why it’s going to be such a terrible thing to bring her to the city.” My mother left me with tho parting assurance that men never could ap¬ preciate such dilliculties. But, after studying it, they could find no way but to allow the girl to come, and come she did. The girls wanted to send a servant to meet her, but I insisted on going myself, so Florence went with me. I could hardly believe that the dainty little lady in the gray travel¬ ing suit, who answered my sister’s greeting with a quiet smile, was the objectionable country cousin, She was a lady all over from her charming hat to her pretty little walking boots. She was so pretty that as I looked at my sister I began to understand the point of objection which the com¬ ing of my cousin had raised. Now, while I do not believe in love at first Right, I must confess that a strange fancy for this quiet little girl took immediate possession of me, and as the days passed it grew. What else could be expected of any obstinate young fellow, anyway, when his mother and sister opposed him? So I found myself loving Alice Sey¬ mour. But iu this I was not alone ; several other young fellows seemed to share my feelings, and it made me uneasy. Her manners were so perfect, and yet she said and did much quaint aud unstudied thiugs that a man couldn’t help being attracted to her. She was not conventional, but she possessed a natural dignity that was greater than convention could give. As Bevurly Bridges said, she was one of nature’s noblewomen. Confouud the fellow, he always had tho trick of turning a neat phrase. Well, like a blind man, I went on seeing nothing about me, until one day I came upon my little cousin looking very dolorous. She was alone in the parlor, and she looked as if <«he had been weeping. I was all up in arms in a moment to know who had offended her, but she hesitated a long time before she told me falteringly that she had grown to believe that my sisters did not want her there, aud that she was go¬ ing home. Somehow I steeled myself to say: “I do not want you here, either.” She raised her tear stained face to me—I had forgotten to tell yon that she was freckled—just about a dozen bewitching ones placed where they would do the most good. I saw sur prise in her look, but before she could speak I kissed her aud pared: “Let ns make a little homo ot our own, dearest, and”— Oh, pshaw, a fellow can’t tell about these things, yon know, but she was willing, and I was happy. When my sisters were informed they acted very well, kissed us and feigned a great deal of enthusiasm. I thought at first it was all pre¬ tended, and I never understood until later. Both of my sisters are now mar¬ ried.—Chicago News. A New Kind of Club. The Broken Plate Club is a curious little association or brotherhood, with headquarters in a small village in the Department of the Nord, France. Several years ago a party of manu¬ facturers and merchants were dining together when by chance a plate rolled from the table, fell into the fireplace and broke. Strangely enough, the number of pieces corresponded ex¬ actly with the number of diners. Upon this circumstance a society was formed to include only those then and there present aud to terminate finally on the death of the last member. To each man was assigned a piece of the broken plate. The men meet and dine each year, and though no deaths have occurred as yet in the little association, the un¬ written law reads that when each member dies his piece shall be handed over to the president, who, one by one, shall fasten the fragments to¬ gether. When every member save one has passed away, that man shall add his final bit to the plate, cement¬ ing it firmly in, and. shall have it buried.—New York World. A Timid Giraffe. It is very curious how timid these creatures are about certain sounds. Noisy sounds, like a man walking by with'hob nailed boots, it does not no¬ tice, but a lady coming in with hardly more sound than the mere rustling of her dress, makes it stare with pricked ears and eyes distended. We remem¬ ber well after the terrible explosion of gunpowder on a barge on the neigh¬ boring canal, asking the keepers of the giraffes of that day how they had taken it, and he said he was surprised how very little notice they took at all. They jumped to their feet, but almost at once lay down again when they found nothing had happened. “But,” he said, “if I was at night time to creep along that gallery in my sooks, they would be so scared that I believe they would dash themselves to bits. ” They fear the lurking foe, and a big bang scares them less than a faint, rustling sound. They are in that very deerlike. —Leisure Hour. Not That Kind. Au English writer would abolish the honeymoon, insisting that it spoils many a promising marriage by weary¬ ing the young couple one of the other. There are not a few old couples left who would suggest an in¬ definite extention of the honeymoon rather than the abolition, having found that closer acquaintance opens up depths of affection undreamt of on the wedding journey. The subject recalls the reply of a homesick soldier to General Thomas. The General met the man’s request for his second fur¬ lough in a single year with the remark that he himself hadn’t been home in a year and a half. “That’s all right for you, General,” retorted the homesick man, “but me au’ my wife ain’t that kind.—Midland Monthly. Too Much Civilization. Civilization, says au exchange has demoralized the Samoans, They have taken a fancy for the large men-of war’s boats, for which they have dis¬ carded their canoes, and iu which they row about from village to village, discussing politics and neglecting their crops. To build the boats they have mortgaged their laud, and in¬ stead of making an attempt to raise money to pay their creditors they spend their time playing cricket for stakes consisting of pigs or kegs of salt beef. The Only Chance. “Do you think,” said Chappie, “that a gentleman ought to speak to his barber when he meets him on the street? “Certainly,” said Briggs. “It is about the only chaDce he has to get a word in.”—Indianapolis Journal, VOLCANIC CHAIN. A South Pacific Region That Covered With Volcanoes. Most Destructive and Terrible Any in the World. The bay of Naples and Sicily are small and insignificant volcano dis¬ tricts beside the northern peninsula of the island or Celebes, just to the east of Borneo, in the South Pacific Ocean. Veruvius and Etna are of little moment in comparison with the volcanic chain that studs this island region, flanked by its hills and heaps of lava and ashes. One or the other of the volcanos in this great chain is continually belching forth, throwing up, if not streams of lava and great stones, then fluid clay that is blue, gray and red. The Douda, 9,000 feet in height, and the Sapoetan, 6,000 feet high, are the two great volcanoes of the dis¬ trict, and each of them has been in eruption several times during the past century. Were it not a sparsely set¬ tled country the loss of life would be terrible there. But there is no Pom¬ peii to be destroyed. The inhabi¬ tants, wild and savage natives, live far away from the volcanoes and quite out of the reach of their torrents. K lab at, or “Two Summits,” an¬ other terrible volcano, is marked by a great lake in its crater, and not far away is the Doewa Soedara, or “Two Sisters;” still another is the Lakon, which local tradition says is inhabited by an evil spirit, and from which there came a fearful eruption 50 years ago, which devastated the entire dis¬ trict. All the islands around this northern end of Celebes are volcanic. The Archicapelago that runs up to the Philippine Islands, to the north, is dotted with active mouths of fire, im¬ portant among which is the superb pyramidal volcano Aboe (which,being translated, means ‘fashes”), and Gu nova Awn, which in all probability has been the most destructive volcano the world has ever known. Thousands of the inhabitants of Celebes, in 1812, in 1856 and iu 1871, were buried beneath the stream of hot ashes and lava that came in molten sheets and utterly overwhelmed them. All these islands are nevertheless a paradise in the luxuriance of their vegetation and the multiplicity of their animal life. In them the virgin forests have never felt the touch of the axe. Holland owns these islands now, having made provinces of them when she gained a foothold iu the far East. Of Malay and Alfooroos race are the people, the more civilized population of the coast being Malay, the savage tribes of the interior Alfooroos. There are many tribes in Celebes, some of Philippine origin, others of Papuan. The Bougis tribe is yet another of the dominant population, savages strong and skilful and with¬ out the possibility of civilization in them. These fellows the Dutch Govern¬ ment have essayed to train as soldiers, because of their strength and power of legs and arms, but the attempt proved unsuccessful because of the Bougis disposition to “run amuck” whenever excited by driuk or gam¬ bling. When in that state they be¬ come wild and frenzied, aud stab, bit and thrust until they are knocked down and bound. The only way the Dutch policemen of Celebes can cap¬ ture them is by using a sort of fork which keeps them at a distance. It takes two or three policemen to cap¬ ture a single Bougis. Cause for Alarm. “Smith is walking around to-day as if he were stepping ou eggs.” 4 i He needs to.” “What ails him?” “Why, last night after he had gone to bed he remembered that he should have taken some quinine capsules. He got up in the dark aud took ’em. This morning he discovered that he had swallowed three 22-caliber re¬ volver catridges!” William Ludlam White of Jamaica, N. Y., who will be fifteen years of age j n October, is eight feet three j uc i Jes tall aud weighs 262 nounds. A Curious House Builder Joseph Ober.one of the most' trie persons who lived eceei ever who i passed all his life at Frankton T dropped dead with n J heart disease a nights ago. Twenty-five years the fall of 1870, he eS’h a? o of large began the a two-story house on the 1 ou which his old frame house atory affair, a was situated. As he want, it on the same site, he proceeded build around the i old house, i a vbi he continued to live. He had to for his living, and * penter, decided being a f a i r to do his own wor His services were in such demand he w r as able to work th on his own hon only at irregular intervals, and tj house made slow progress. He fi got the main part na i] up to the square,,, raised part of the rafters. The J went slowly ‘ V( ^ by with no appreciab progress. The inner siding was nail, on in some places, and the sheetii on the rafters on one side. Hewou make changes and tear down sectioi and put up others until the h ouse sented remarkable p a appearance. The little house is still i n th e corn of the unfinished big one, and i the n family have live d. Matters ke on in the same way, and year by he added to the ye finishing more building, nevi any part of it. It i 8 a hug ramshackle pile of houses, one on to of the other, only the rafters, u: sightly boards and other scaffoldi presenting themselves to view. T house has become quite a landmark , all over the country, and every one acquainted with the history of ti wonderful pile. At the time of h: death the old man was still at work o the building.—Chicago Inter-Oceai Rocking Chairs for Health. “I love it, I love it, and who shal dare,” asked the late Miss Eliza Cool in a moment of inspiration, armchair?] “tochidl me for loving that old Whether the article of furniture all tj which the poetess was so much tached was a rocking chair there is nl means of discovering. If it was, sh certainly would not have been chid den for loving it by the French doe) tor who has just discovered in rock ing chairs a new and potent agencl for good. The gentle and oscillations of these chairs have, ii appears, * ‘a wonderful effect in stimufl lating the gastro-intestinal peristal sis. ” If your disgestion is sluggish! and. you suffer from “atony of tlia stomach,” all you need to do is td rock yourself for half an hour or sq at a time, and all be well. Make the experiment the next time you feel that your gastro-intestinal peristalsid wants stimulating. The doctor who proclaims this new and very simple! cure for dyspepsia must be either a a benefactor to whom thousands of his fellows will be grateful or a parti ner in a rocking chair manufactory.! I wonder which?—St. Paul’s. A Curious Crab. One of the most singular-looking creatures that ever walked the earth or “swam the waters under the earth” is the world-famous man-faced crab of Japan. Its body is hardly an inch in length, yet the head is fitted with h face which is the perfect counterpara of that of a Chinese coolie—a veritable! missing link, with eyes, nose an< mouth all clearly'defined. This cnrioui and uncanny creature, besides thi great likeness it bears to a human he ing in the face, is provided with tw< legs, which seem to grow from th top) of its head and hang down ove the sides of its face. Besides thesi legs, two feelers, each about an ineia in length, grow from the chin world of IiM tbej animal, looking for all the a forked beard, These man-facelj crabs swarm in the inland sees ofj Japan. — Public Opinion. Valuable. Mrs. Cumso (reading)—A butcher in Indiana killed a cow and fouud her stomach several hairpins, a thim* ble, five screws and a $20 gold piece. Mr. Cumso—That bears out exactly what my Uncle Jim used to say. “W’hat was that?” “He always contended that was money in cows. —Life. Goggles are now supplied by British admiralty to the officers anl sailors serving on fast tordedo ns the high speed has been found be injurious to the eyes.