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VOL i. England, France, Germany and For tugal have by this time divided between them nearly all of Africa. Iwo hundred and four of the three hundred and sixty-fivo colleges in the United States are coeducational. Siberia has a population of 868,552. In Irkutksk,the capital, are 487 schools. In the Transbaikal, where the political convicts arc chiefly to be found, there are thirteen schools, the teachers of which are exiles or deported criminals. Sir Andrew Clark, a noted London physician, believes that tea is whole some, but that it must be China black tea, and must be drawn in this fashion: Put in a teaspoonful for each person, and one for the blessed pot; pour on briskly boiling water, and within five minutes pour it off again, or it will be come wicked instead of good. A large amount of land in Lassen County, Cal., is being reclaimed by ir rigation. One scheme is to place a large siphon in Eagle Lake, and by means of it water all the the sage-brush plains around. This desert grows all grains and many fruits when water is brought upon it. Lassen is one of the counties which has had the least growth in ten years, but it is now, believes the New York Observer, on the eve of great develdpment. The Germany War Department has concluded its experiments with American corn, and has decided to recommend the use by the army of bread made of equal proportions of corn and rye. It is be lieved, states the New York Times , that the Department of the Interior will follow this example. Minister Phelps anticipates that in consequence of this decision the German markets will be thrown open for the admission of many millions of bushels of American grain. The New York Advertiser is respon sible for the statement that a French military surgeon has made a really im portant discovery, as he believes. He has found out what makes us tired, and how to prevent it. According to this surgical savant, “that tired feeling” is produced by the series of slight shocks which comes from the heels in walking, and which are transferred to the nerve centers. Having found the cause, the remedy, in his opinion, is an easy matter. India-rubber heels on the shoes break the shock, and lo! there shall be no more tired men and women. Says the Cincinnati I'imes-Star: Many country residences in England are supplied with electric lighting machin ery, and with household water works supplied by an electric garden pump, which serves very simply and effi ciently when connected with a pond or fountain. All the new electric wrinkles do not originate in America by any means. In France the science is es pecially active, and many gold and sil ver medals are bestowed on French electricians. One recent invention bears on the gong-ringing nuisance on street cars. Anew form of electric bell is de vised, whose note is clear and distinct without being noisy, as the hammer is in contact with the gong only the infin itesimal part of the second. The drivet touches a button with his foot and the response is given instantly. Where do all the pins go? can be matched,says the San Francisco Chronicle , by another inquiry even more difficult to answer. Where do all the pennies go? The United States has coined in the past a vast amount of copper cents. Of these 119,000,000 remain entirely unaccounted for. It is not probable that they were melted down for the purpose of obtain ing copper, for at no time has that metal been dear enough to wanant such a course. There are also about 3,000,000 bronze two-cent pieces unaccounted for, coins of that denomination being rarely seen nowadays. It is easier to suggest where the unaccounted fractional cur rency has gone to. In 1879 Congress estimated that $8,375,932 of this class cf money had been lost or destroyed, and there is still outstanding $6,906,691 of ine same currency, which, with the ex ception of the few specimens contained in collections of curio seekers, has prob ably met the same fate. The loss of this immense sum of a single class of cur rency suggests that the people may be making a mistake in elevating conven ience to the first place. Paper money may be easier to handle than gold aud silver, but it is subject to greater vicisis tudes. Staff of tlai> fctnl > v ' i A SONG OF LOVES. Love is a shallow brook Tenderly wooing Each shady nook With murmered suing. Love is a river strong Restlessly sweeping Part sigh and song Laughter and weeping. Love is an ocean deep Round the world flowing, Where hidden sleep Realms beyond knowing. * * * • 4 Draw closer, heart of roe. Thy secret telling; Which of these loves with thee Maketh its dwelling? —Duffield Osborne, in Harper's Bazcur. THREE^RIVALS. BY MARY KYLE DALLAS. Laura Hunt stood on the front porch of her aunt’s residence looking across the garden where the artemisias were iu bloom and late dahlias nodded their heads upon their slender stalks, and the seeds were browning on the morning glory vines. She made a pretty picture in a calico of crushed strawberry tint, belted at the waist, and with a white kerchief pinned turban fashion about her head to keep her gold-brown, waving hair from the dust. She had been doing the Friday’s sweeping, as became a poor relation, while the cousins, the Misses Cumfry, were taking their last morning nap, with Madame Cheatham’s celebrated dream of cowslips on their noses to repair the ravages of late hours, and gloves on their hands to whiten them. To carry out the Cinderella simile, these Misses Cum fry ought to have been ugly spinsters with very evil tempers, but really they were very pretty girls,with neat features and trim figures, twins who loved each other and cared for nobody else, and who had been humored into a sort of dual selfishness by their mother, while Laura, their cousin, the child'of her late husband’s sister, was early taught to make herself useful and find some oc cupation for every hour of the day. So Laura had already. swept and dusted the parlor and filled the flower vases and tidied the cup-clcset and rubbed the dining-room windows, while the twins, side by side in their pretty, white bed, were still fast asleep. As Laura leaned upon her broom and contemplated the lingering autumn flow ers, some one watched her from the road —a young man, fashionably dressed, and with his full share of good looks. “If that is the girl she is rather pret ty,” he said to himself. “That makes it easier, and although I’m a lucky fellow, I expected to find a dowdy or a fright. Pretty cheeky business this, but I’m en dowed with the natural qualities neces sary for the adventure.” And he walked slowly up the road, opened the gate, and lifted his hat fully. “Beg pardon,” he said. “Mrs. Cumfry live here?” “Yes,” answered Laura, glancing at her big apron, and regretting the broom and turban a little. “Yes, sir, and aunt is in if you would like to see her.” “1 should very much, indeed, thanks,” the young man replied, and Laura ush ered him into the pallor, where, while he waited, there came to him, through a door that had been unwittingly left ajar, fragments of a conversation: “Laura Hunt, why didn’t you ask what he wanted?” “Laura Hunt. I’m all right,” he said to himself. “It’s a book agent or a lightning rod man, or somebody with silver polish, of course," continued the shrill voice. “You might as well have said no as 1.” “Ob, auntie, I’m sure he is nothing of the sort,” said the softer voice of the girl who had spoken to him. “They always look so tired and anxious, poor things! And he is so—so stylish." “Good! I’ve made an impression,” said the young man to himself, as the steps of a woman came toward the door, and a middle-aged lady opened it and entered the parlor. “If it’s anything to subscribe for—” she began. Then, seeing a smile on his face,paused suddenly. “There are so many of them,” 45he apologized. The young man bowed and offered her his card; on it she read: “Mr. Mayne Morton.” “Still you have the advantage of me,” she said. “I am quite a stranger, Mrs. Cumfry,” young Morton replied, “but I think you knew my aunt, Miss Brunder, once upon a time. She boarded with some of your neighbors." Mrs. Cnrnfry smiled vaguely; she did not remember the name; still, no doubt he was right. “I am taking my vacation rather late. ” he said, “and this is such a pleasant lit tle place, and my aunt told me that if you would take me to board I should be so comfortable.” “I?” cried Mrs. Cumfry. “Why, I haven’t taken a boarder in five years! Then it was only old Mr. Palmer, the real-estate agent. He gave no trouble and wanted the comforts of a home.” “Exactly what I want, and I will promise to give no trouble either,” said young Morton. “I detest hotels; I can’t endure the class of people one meets at a common boardijig house. A refined TRENTON, GA. FRIDAY, DECEMBER 25,1891. family, especially where the young ladies were musical, would be my ideal.” This thought had occurred to him as he remarked the presence of an upright piano, on which the twins were wont to play duets. Airs. Cumfry looked at him. “He is stylish,” she thought. “Laura was right, no doubt. He is very well off, in good business, anyhow.” Her thoughts climbed the stairs and viewed the sleeping twins in the innocence of their morning slumbers. “What a nice match for Dora or Cora,” she said to herself. “Eligible young men are scarce here. I think I’ll do it.” “I have no need to keep boarders, so 1 don’t make a practice of it,” she said, after a little pause. “But still, to oblige—” “It will be a great obligation,” said the young man: and so it came to pass that when Dora and Cora came down to their late breakfast, the news they heard fully aroused they from their still rather stu pid condition. “A young gentlemen!” they cried. “And is be nice? Is he handsome? How funny he should come here!” “Yes, it is odd," Mrs. Cumfry said. “I wonder whether he has seen either of you?” The idea was so delightfully romanth that they kissed each other then and there, and rushed upstairs as soon as they had swallowed their chocolate to put lace in the bands of certain new fall dresses in which to appear at the lunch table, where they should meet the stran ger for the first time. Meanwhile, out in the kitchen, where she was rubbing the spoons, Laura was saying to herself; “Who knows but he has seen me? I’m as nice-looking as either Dora or Cora. It was singular, his edming so, and he stood watching me from the road quite a long while.” It was she who set the table for lunch, and she wore the crushed-strawberry calico, but the apron was removed, and a bow at her throat and another in her hair were becoming, Cora and Dora blushed and giggled, and talked pretty nonsense. Their mother kept her eyes upon them, but certain glances, of which they were not aware, reached Laura, and she laughed to herself as she w T ashed the dishes at the kitchen sink, and heard the twins playing duets in the parlor. Through the window she saw Richard Beech mending his fences. It would be stupid after all, she thought, to marry a plain man who owned a little two-story house, which had sunk a little to one side, to go on washing dishes and ironing table-cloths all her life. Mr. Mayne Morton’s wife would prob ably have servants to wait on her. Then, how beautifully he wore his handsome clothes. And Dick Beech had on an old striped linen jacket and a fisherman’s hat, in the brim of which sundry straws were sticking, Dick was good and in love with her, but neither Dora nor Cora would have looked at him, and, oh, the joy of cut ting them out with an elegant New Y T orker! Dick looked up just then, but he could not catch Laura’s eye as he usually did, and when he called on Sunday evening, Laura was not disposed to give him a chance to talk to her in the corner. In fact, by this time she had learned that Mayne Morton had come to the house on her account solely. He had told her so one Saturday after noon, following her to the far end of the garden where she was spreading napkins to bleach, to talk to her. “I know you’ll be angry,” he said; “still, 1 want you to know my reason for coming to Mrs. Cumfry's to board was a glimpse I had had of you. Faint heart never won fair lady, and I never mean to lose the girl I love because of not going to the point at once. You know I shall not let my wife do housework and wear cotton gowns. You don’t know what life might be yet.” Laura was too bright uot to coquette a little, but her heart was beating with flattered vanity. She was angry at herself when a mem ory of Dick Beech’s pleasant face—a little soft heart-tug as it were,came over her. She drove it away ;she tried to believe that she liked Mayne Morton for himself, that she was not moved by a longing to live elegantly and a wish to triumph over the petted twins, but it is impos sible to deceive one’s self in such things. As the weeks passed on,great changes occurred in the little household. To their mother’s horror the twins began to quarrel. Instead of cooing and kissing as had been their wont, they actually slapped each other with their soft, little pink palms, and called each other “mean” and “hateful” without saying for what. Both of them were furious with Laura, aud did all they could to hurt her feeliDgs, while their mother gave her many haul tasks that filled the day and evening, never guess ing of meetings that took place at odd times, or an engagement ring that Laura wore on a ribbon about her neck. But one day squeals rent the air of the Cumfry home, bringing Mrs. Cumfry from her room,and Laura up the kitchen stairs to the twins’ own apartment, when, behold those young ladies in wrath and tears. Dora grasping a handful of tulle from Cora’s neck, Cora a little tuft of hair from Dora’s curls. “It is I!” screams Cora. “It is I!” squeals Dora. “You are always coming where you are not wanted.” “He always wants me,” sobs Cora; “only you hang on forever, when we wish you wouldn’t.” “Oh, my children!” sighs the mother; ! “it is only that you are both so pretty that he doesn't know which to choose.” It is Lauia's face that looks in at the door at this moment—Laura who closed it, and stands with an air of triumph at j the loot of the bed on which Cora has cast herself. “Really,” she says, in a superior tone. “I couldn’t help overhearing, aud since Cora and Dora are quarreling about Mr. Morton, perhaps I’d better tell them that I am engaged to him.” She draws a ring from her bosom and slips it on her finger, and there is a ! tableau—no matter for particulars. She has had her triumpu. The petted daugh ters of the house have been passed by for her sake, and the man can have had nc motive but pure love. Still she cannot feel proud of her own conduct, for she knows well that she likes Dick Beech far better than she does Mayne Morton, even now Happily Morton has left the house be fore the quarrel between Dora and Cora reached its climax. Laura looks into the parlor where he had been writing, and sees the blotting-book which Dora once decorated for him laying upon the table. He has blotted his letter hastily, and a whole page of the large, square paper ho has used has been transferred to the blotter—the writing reversed, of course. But behind the table rises a mirror, and looking into this, Laura sees the note plainly reflected. She sees her own name. “He has been praising me to some of his friends,” she says to herself; then she finds herself reading this: “Keep quiet, and I will certainly pay you soon. lam going to marry an heir ess. You know lam in Chew & Chow ser’s law office, and know about all that is going on there. Lately I learned that a rich old man, who cannot live six months, had made his will in favor of a certain Laura Hunt, his grandniece. The girl doesn’t know it yet. She is a poor relatiop in an aunt’s house, and doesn’t dream of her good luck, so I took time by the forelock, came here, pre tended to be smitten, and we are engaged. She jumped at me as a means of escape from the housework, and I shall hurry on the wedding. My bride to be is not quite my style. There are two much prettier girls in the'SVise, but—” There was no more, but Lanra had read quite enough, and if the twins, reconciled, and making common cause against a common enemy, could have seen poor just then, they would have felt themselves avenired. Laura was very miserable fotA while, then she began to be glad that she had had discovered Morton’s motives in time. Then she went to the window and looked out. Richard Beech was busy painting the front door of his little yellow house. What a pretty residence he could build on that ground if he had a rich wife, she said to herself. Then she found herself laughing, and as Riohard looked up from nis work, she nodded and smiled to him. That night Mayne Morton went dis consolately home to New York. He was no longer engaged to an heiress, and when Laura married Rich ard Beech, the twins made such lovely bridemaids, that the two groomsmen fell iu love with them on the spot, and every body was as happy as possible ever after. Family Story Paper. A Providential Dispensation. A curious story comes from Wenglisi ang, China. The town suffers from in undations of the Yellow River, and two years ago a movement was started by the local magistrate to build a breakwater. The chief difficulty lay in the want of sufficiently large stones. Suddenly, how ever, to the astonishment of the com munity, a heavy storm of wind and rain deluged the country, and brought down an endless quantity of huge stones ex actly suited to the purpose. The people naturally regarded the incident as a di rect manifestation of divine power in aid of a great public undertaking, and the Governor of the district cites a fact which conclusively proves the supernatural origin of the event. One of the stones, he says, which was as laige as a house, was inscribed with seal characters, two of which, meaning “work” and “stone” respectively, he was able to decipher.— London Graphic. Around the World. There are eleven hundred steamers traversing the four great ocean routes. The first is that across the Atlantic, an other by Suez to India, China and Aus tralia. Togo around the world that way takes eighty to ninety days and covers twenty-three thousand miles. The passage money is SIOOO. and the trav eler who wishes to go in comfort and ease should have another SIOOO with him. Another sea route described is that by which you start from San Fran cisco and sail around the American con tinent to New York. The journey is sixtee i thousand five hundred miles long, it takes one hundred days to cover it, and the fare is about tbe same as that around the world. To go around the Cape of Good Hope to Australia and back around Cape Horn is about twenty five thousand one hundred and fifty miles and can be covered in eighty-one days. The cost is only s7so, —London Tit-Bits. WORD" OF WISDOM. A lazy man steals from himself. There is nothing so brave as love. Talent and genius have many quarrels. The dress of truth is always a seamless robe. None can know what suffering is ex cept those who love. To have to look into the face of truth always kills a lie dead. The first test of love is its willingness to suffer without complaint. There are so many reformers who never want to do any work at home. Distrusting everybody is a good way to have the friendship of nobody. Getting the last word with a woman has been done at last. The phonograph does it. The recording angel never strikes a balance on his books by what is said of a man on his gravestone. No matter what its profession may be, the love that halts and turns back when it sees danger coming is a sham. The dog that barks at the moon is a fool, but he knows more than the one that nips at the hind legs of a mule. Before we condemn and despise men for their conduct, let us be sure that spirits just as black do not have their abode in our own hearts. A horse is never much bothered with flies when he is on the dead run. You have seen a mule on the walk stop to kick his sides, but you have never seen a running horse do it. —lndianapolis (Ind.) Pam's Horn. The Giraffe. The flesh of young giraffes, or fat cows especially, is excellent; there is the least musky flavor perhaps, but it is not un pleasant. The tongue and marrow bones are great delicacies, the latter particularly furnishing the rarest and most delicious banquet of the African hunter. Few beast3 of the chase are more poorly endowed with means of defense; but even the mild giraffe, when wounded and brought to a stand, will if the hunter ap proaches from the front, chop at him with its forefeet, and a blow from such a limb is an exceedingly dangerous one. I have questioned many hunters on this point, and cannot ascertain that the giraffe uses its legs iu any other system of defense. At the present time, the giraffe is mainly sought after for the value of its hide, which, even so far up country as Khama’s Town, (Palachwe,) now com mands a value of from $12.50 to $22.50 a skin, varying according to age and sex. The hide of a tough, thick-skinned old bull, from an inch to an inch and a quarter in thickness, is of course the most sought after. When one cf these great creatures lies prone upon the veldt, it seems as if enveloped in a mantle of brass, and the fingers can make no im pression whatever upon the carcass. Not many years since the hides of rhinoceros and hippotamus furnished ox whips and riding-whips—colonially known as sjam boks—all over South Africa. But the rhinoceros is all but exterminated south of the Zambesi; the hippopotamus be comes scarcer year by year, aud the hide of the giraffe is consequently in greatly in creased demand. A few years back, there happened a dearth of sjambok hide, the price of whips rose immensely,and agiraffe skin sold readily for $25 and more. Forth with parties of Dutch and native hun ters flocked into the Kalahari, and scores upon scores of giraffe were slaughtered. On coming out with their loads the hun ters discovered that they had overstocked the market and that prices had rapidly fallen again. Most up-country natives, especially the Bechuanas, use the hide of the giraffe for making the neat sandals they habitually wear, preferring it for its strength and toughness to any other. It seems a pity that f3r the sake only of whips and sandals, and to furnish the hunter with meat and an exciting form of sport, this stately creature should be exterminated from South Central Africa, as it bids fair soon to be.— Cuanibers's Journal. Diving for a Diamond King. Diver B. F. Beane, of the Chapman Wrecking Company, recently performed a very difficult feat iu the Sound, off the Larchmont Club house. Two miles off that point a Mr. McPherson, a wealthy Philadelphian, who is now traveling in Europe, lost a valuable diamond ring while fishing from a yacht. The water is fully sixty feet deep there, and when Diver Beane agreed to go down after the missing jewel he had very faint hopes of recovering it. The ring is an heirloom, and Mr, McPherson was willing to pay handsomely for its recovery. Beane made three descents, and the third time he found the ring. It was lying with the stone embedded in the sand, about twenty-five feet from the spot where it dropped overboard. —New York HeraM. Simple Remedy for Diphtheria. A simple and valuable remedy for diphtheria is the application of parafine. The diphtheritic patch is scraped off and the paraffine is applied every hour to the throat (internally) with a large camel’s hair brush. Asa rule the throat gets well in from twenty-four to forty eight hours and with improvement in the throat the paraffine is applied less frequently, but its use is advisable for two or three days after the complete dis appearance of the patches. —Chicaai News. WHAT IS LIFE? A little crib beside the bed, A little face above the spread A little frock behind the door, A little shoe upon the floor. A little lad with dark brown haw, A little blue eyed face aud fair, A little lane that leads to school, A little pencil, slate and rule. A iittle blithsonie, winsome maid, A little hand within it laid; A little cottage, acres four, A little old time household store. A little family gathered round, A little turf heaped, tear dewed mound; A iittle added to his soil, A little rest from hr -test toil. A little silver in his hair, A iittie stool and easy chair; A little nightof '/ j > gloom. A little cortege t . rp altimore Herald. PITH AND POINT. He who talks and talks away . Escapes what other bores might say. A counter irritant—An impudent dry goods clerk. —Buffalo Inquirer. The description “late lamented” ap plies forcibly to the delinquent debtor. It is easier to forgive enemies we have worsted than enemies who have worsted us.— New York Herald. A man never bas so grea a trouble as when he has one he can’t blame on anyone else.— Atchison Globe. The business in which you know you could make the mouey i3 generally the other man's. — Texas Siftinqs. The man who lives upon his brain, By wit earns all his bread, Ne’er finds it in the least wav vain To stand upon his head. —Harpcls Bazar. Queries “Doss Miss Prym believe everything in hr Bible?” Cynicus— “Yes, except the eutry of her birth.”— New York Journal. Employer—“ Your first duty will be to post this ledger.” New Clerk (rather too readily)—“Yessir; where shall I send it?”— Pick He Up. “I am not vain, ah no,” she wrote, With evident sincerity. The doorbell rings, to the glass she springs, With positivo celerity. Yankee Blade. It was the cynical bachelor who sym phatically observed that there was no slight danger attending a fashionable wedding there was so much typhus about it. —Boston Transcript. It always seems to me that cheek Succeeds in besting worth and skill; Why, e’en in church one small red cent Makes more noise than a dollar bill. —Colorado Sun. Timid Citizen (who has just escaped from a riot) —“Who are you, sir?” “Po liceman—“l am a member of the police force. There is my badge.” Timid Citizen (vociferously) “Help! help!”— New York Journal. Time Makes All Things Even: Pegg —“Sometimes the absolute faith my boy has in my wisdom makes me almost ashamed of myself.” Potts—“You need not worry. It will average up all right. By the time he is twenty he will think you know nothing at all.”— lndianapolis Journal. Laura—“lf papa gives his consenc, George, dear, when you go to ask him, won’t you be fairly trausported with joy?” George (somewhat apprehen sively)—“Yes, Laura, and if it shouldn’t happen to strike "him favorably and he’s feeling right well I shouldn’t wonder if I’d be considerably moved anyhow.”— San Francisco Examiner. Jrate Mamma—“Goodness me! It’s half an hour since I sent you around to the store to get those things, and here you are back without them.” Little Dick—“lt was such a long time before my turn came to be waited on that I for got what it was you wanted.” ‘Then why didn’t you come and find out?’ “I was afraid if I left I’d lose my turn.” I mat a tearful little lass: She sobbed so hard I could not pass, I wondered so thereat; “Oh, dry your tears, my pretty child. Pray tell me why you grieve so wild?’ ' * ‘ A—mouse—ate—up —my—cat !” *'A mouse ate up your cat!” 1 cried, To think she’d fib quite horrified; “Why, how can you say that?” Her tears afresh began to ran. She sobbed the words out one by one; “It—was—a —candy—cat!” His Habits Betrayed Him. A theft has just been brought home to a man by means of an egg. Some days ago, M. Douet, pottery manufac turer, living in the Rue Goudou, Paris, was disagreeably suprised on returning from the theatre with his family to find that his house had been ransacked, almost all the furniture destroyed, and a sum of SI2OO in gold and notes stolen. The next morning he put M. Siadoux. Commissary of Police, in possession of these facts, who thereupon proceeded to the spot and opened an inquiry. In the course of his search he found a broken egg, from which the white only appeared to have been sucked. He brought the circumstance to the notice of M. Douet, who then remembered that a carter named Delbars, who he had dismissed for dirty habits, was accustomed to eat eggs in this way. They arrested him along with his brother. When questioned as to how and where they had spent their time on tbe night of the robbery, they were embarrassed, aud finally confessed that they had broken into M. Douet’4 house for motives of revenge. Galig nani Mestenatr. NO