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Fannin County Me. MINERAL BLUFF, GA. Some statistician has estimated that 426,088,080 railroad ties now rest un¬ der the 161,397 milos of track laid in the United States at the present time. No road uses less than 2640 tics a mile, and 6omc lines over whichihc traffic i heavy lay 3816 or more. The average life of the tie is about five years, so that the yearly consumption of tics is about 85,217,616. Says the San Francisco Chronicle: ‘The free zone is a standing nuisance which will perhaps remain unabated until Mexico becomes part of the United States. The latter event may not happen soon, but the manifest destinarians are all firm believers that the people of North America will one day find it to their interest to live under one flag, and something is bound to come from tho belief.” The Bell telephone patent monopoly in England has expired, announces the Scientific American. The patenl there was granted for fourteen years. Cheap telephones will now prevnil in England the same as in Germany, where Bell failed to obtain a patent. In this country tho Bell patent will ex¬ pire March 7, 1893, having been origi¬ nally granted March 7, 1876, for o term of seventeen years. A pallietic interest attaches to the discovery of the new work by Aristotle at tho British Museum in London, England. A month ago Monsicui Jules Barthelmy St. Hilaire completed, as lie thought, the translation of Aris¬ totle, which has occupied him for the last fifty-nine years. If the discovery is authentic, and of that there seems to be no doubt, then there lies before the great French scholar a task which would be truly herculean for a man af eighty-five to attempt. His transla¬ tion, as it stands now, is published in uo fewer than thirty-five volumes. Tho opium traffic is troubling tho people of California. Within eleven years $8,000,000 worth of the drug have been imported And seven-eighths of that \Vas prepared. The legislature will adopt a resolution calling on Con¬ gress to prohibit to importation of prepared opium and limit the importa¬ tion of the crude article. The smok- ers use the prepared exclusively. Collector Phelps’ idea is to bar out tile drug altogether and then destroy all that is soized. “This will probably prove a very practical means of bar- ring out the Chinese,” observes the Atlanta Constitution. The interesting fact that asplialtnm is being made out of crude Ohio po- tioleum at the rate of 7600 barrels per day is of great importance to street contractors and others. The refiners of Lima and other grades of petroleum have discovered that although there is but from twenty-eight to thirty-six per cent, of pure white illuminant and ten per cent, of naphtha and benzine in the oil there is sixty per cent, of as- phaltum residuum. Tho Standard Oil Company refine about 8000 barrels of crude petroleum daily and the outside refiners about 4000, making 12,000 daily. The output in asphaltum is profitable enough to refine for that product alone. 1 he dearth of intellectuality among German army officers, amounting to an almost complete suppression of literary aspirations on their part, lias been made the subject of acrimonious newspaper discussion. It seems to be a fact that German army officers con- tribute far less to military literature than their English, French and even Russian colleagues. As a reason is given the extreme discipline, which not alone claims nearly nil the time of officers for physical exercises, but also subjects all their literary efforts, be¬ fore they can be published, to their superior officer’s approval. There was a time, muses the Chicago News, when the German schoolmaster ivas looked upon as tho best friend of the German army", but sineo the school¬ masters’ have become liberals the powers that be may not look as favor¬ ably upon intellectual freedom, and, least of all, in the army. The New York Commercial Adveiv tiser alleges that Germany is already finding its African colonies an un¬ doubted white elephant on its hands. The European fad of founding African colonies for the fun of the thing and the benefit of the rum trade is not likely to be half as popular ten years hence as it was when the powers divided u>p what did not belong to them in the Dark Conti¬ nent. “A small item ‘of news’ has jus appeared in the papers, which to my thinking,” writes the Taris (France) correspondent of the Bostpn Tran script, “is the most pathetic story that could be told of human misery, and the bitterest sarcasm that could bo cast upon this age of highly organ¬ ized philanthropy. A poor woman who sold pins and needles in the streets of Toulouse died from cold in lier tireless room, and when her corpse was found it was perceived that the last tears which her anguish had drawn from her eyes were frozen on her checks.” The amount of capital invested in new manufactures in Maine during 1890, as bliow’n by the Lewiston Journal’s annual industrial report, was #4,000,000. Just 149 new manu¬ facturing industries have been started and ninety-six old ones have been en¬ larged. This growth has given em¬ ployment to 5800 additional hands. The two branches of industry that show the greatest progress are tho shipyards and pulp mills. The largest single enterprise of the year was the construction of the new iron ship¬ building plant at Bath, but the busi¬ ness of building wooden ships lias been better than for several years. France is suffering as much as Ger¬ many from the overcrowding of the learned professions. Fifteen thou- sand schoolmistresses, 7000 primary schoolmasters, and 500 high school in¬ structors are looking in vain for em¬ ployment. There arc 27,000 French physicians, that is about 6000 or 7000 more than there are in German}-, with her 10,000,000 more inhabitants. Paris has 800 apothecaries, Two thousand lawyers in Paris, who have passed all preliminary examinations for a full practice, cannot make livings injthcir profession. Civil and mining engineers are so numerous that hun¬ dreds of them are seeking eagerly petty positions in mines and factories. The New York Central boasts a car that is a novel specimen of a labor- saving machine. Inside it is some clock-like mechanism which, as tho car goes over the track, records every defect in the rails. If these have spread the thirty-second part of an inch beyond tho standard width, or there is a loose joint or defective con¬ nection, (lie machine notes it all down, as well as the distance from one place to another. Formerly this work was done by an army of track-walkers. It is proposed, says the Chicago Ilcrald, to develop the invention and combine the detective mechanism of the car with an ordinary coach so that mechanical examinations of the tracks can be made with the regular trains. The New York Tribune says: “One of the most notable characteristics of tho Hebrew race is the generous con¬ sideration and benevolence displayed by the rich to the poor in general, and to the impoverished members of their creed in particular. Rarely, however, has this trait been manifested in so munificent manner as by Baron Ilirsch, who lias cabled to the truslees of the Hebrew Immigration Fund in tills city an authorization to draw on him for $2,500,000. He adds that if the in- come of this sum proves inadequate to accomplish the good work for which it is destined among the poor Hebrews in the United States, the trustees can make use of the principal, and that lie will make good the amount. Nor does this in any way constitute his first donation to the fund,which lias already received from him sums to the amount o£ $100,000 during the last twelve months. Since the death of his only son, a few years ago, the Baron has devoted much of his time and his for¬ tune to analogous deeds of benevo¬ lence, and has created and endowed with many millions of dollars organi- zations both in Russia and Austria for the relief of indigent Hebrews.” . DOMESTIC GEESE. Some Facts of Interest Concern¬ ing Them, They Originated In Wild Geese Domesticated Ages Ago. There is some difference of opinion regarding tho origin of the domestic goose, some authorities insisting that the wild goose is a different species. But the writer of the article upon thegoose in the Biitannica says that the gray-leg goose, which is the type of the. genus anser, and a bird which had a wide range in the old world, is undoubtedly the original of the well- known domestic race. Mr. Darwiu says: “The domestication of this species is doubtless of very ancient date, and yet scarcely any other ani¬ mal that has bceu tamed for so long a period, and bred so largely in cap- tivity, has varied so little. It lias in¬ creased greatly in size and fecundity, but almost the only change in plumage is that tame geese lose the browner and darker tints of the wild bird, aud arc invariably mdre or less marked with white, being, indeed, often wholly of that color.” The custom of plucking feathers of geese forjso many centuries has helped to perpetuate the variation, as a white feather is often produced in place of one of the natu¬ ral color pulled out. The goose is historic bird once especially dear to the Romans and are cordially hated'by the Gauls. Owing to its ivatch-dog character it gave the alarm which saved Romo from tho Gauls in the year 388 B. C. Hence, the story goes, that tho Romans maintained a certain number of geese at public cost, and oil the anniversary of tho day the un- faithful dogs were whipped for their carelessness iu presence of the watch¬ ful geese. In poetry and fables as well a3 in history, the goose has fared badly, its namo becoming a synonym for silli¬ ness, greeness and lack of discretion. Fortunately for thegoose the influence of societies for the prevention of cruelty to animals has ameliorated the hard conditions of its lot in one re¬ spect, as fcathoarsf now begin , to be sheared instead of plucked. A case was tried not long since in the English courts wl ere a farmer was accused of cruelty to his geese—the result of plucking the feathers—and he was obliged to pay a fine. Shearing the feathers only slightly decreases the weight, while it increases the value, as the feathers are thu9 rendered more soft and downy. Goose raising, which has long since fallen into disfavor on many farms, may be resumed now that this cruel feature of it is re¬ moved. Both the Old and New worlds pos¬ sess several interesting types of the goose. Among the number may bo mentioned tlie bean goose, the pink¬ footed and the white-fronted, the bar goose, the snow, the horned wawa, and the painted, the rock and the up¬ land, the brent and the barnacle, the large swan-goose of China and the Australian goose. The Chinese swan- goose looks like a swan aud is very beautiful, and may be kept for orna¬ mental purposes in a warm climate. The Sebastopol goose is also handsome on the water, as its feathers are friz¬ zled and waved, but on the ground it has a bedraggled look. Tho goose is a fine pastoral bird, not duly appre¬ ciated, yet it makes a good appearance on a pond. The wild goose surpasses the tame in beauty of plumage, as it has five shades of green and purple op its graceful neek. Intelligence is indi¬ cated ill its manner of flying, as the triangular form allows all the birds in the real’ to see the leader. The wild goose obeys the signal of the guide aud docs not deserve to be called “silly.” Its strong cry, konk! konkl audits high, graceful flight are always heard and seen with pleasure by the country¬ man, even though l?e no longer needs the bird to prognosticate the weather. The two favorite kinds of geese for domestic purposes are the Toulouse and Embden or Bremen. The former is the larger variety, of excellent weight, a single gander sometimes weighing as much as 34 pounds, though usually a pair will weigh at maturity some 30 or 40 pounds. The Toulouse goose is quite profitable on account of the large yield of feathers. The Embdeti is smaller, but the flesh is superior and its snow-white feathers are preferred to the brow nisi', ones of the Toulouse; but the latter may be raised without a pond if provided with a trough of water, whereas t.*a white or cross-bred require a pond. No fowls can be so cheaply raised as geese, for they are good grazers and are able to take care of themselves if given a pasture with a water course as soon as the snow is off and the grass is up. Geese begin laying early in the spring. The eggs hatch better if the nest is on the ground, though a very good plan is to put the eggs under the chicken hens to hatch. The young goslings are very tender and should be protected from dew and rain for at least six weeks. On no account should they be out of the coop during a storm. Bread crumbs, scalded meal, onion tops, aud various other kinds of food may be given them', and in about two months they cau be allowed to forage for themselves. Some farmers dislike to raise geese, because they are considered worse than sheep about eating the grass off close on fresh pasture, but there is often waste or open land where they do very well, and they arc useful iu “stubbling” the farm.— [St. Louis Re¬ public. The Bible of the Buddhists. The bible of the sect is not without bea'uty and high moral as well as poetic conceptions. There is much in it of the nature of mythology and mysticism, which Buddhists do not pretend to understand themselves, yet there is much to admire. From a book of extracts and translations from the Buddhist biblo I give a few examples: “The perfect man is like the lily, unsoilcd by the mud in which it grows.” Another: “The perfect man will not bo angry with him who brings him evil reports of himself, lest he be not able to judge truthfully of the matter whereof lie is accused.’’ Its moral code contains such rules as “Do not steal”; “Do not lie”; “Do not kill”; “Do not bo a drunkard”; “Do not to another what you would not wish done to yourself.” From these examples it may be obsorved how nearly their moral law runs parallel with our own; and that this has exerted a potent influence iu form¬ ing the Chinese character is evident. Also, that they cover the cardinal rules of right living in good society, none •will question. The system offers motives in the way of rewards for right living, and punishments for evil-doing. It de¬ velops sympathy, the source of many virtues. It teaches the equality of all men. One mau is better or worse than another only as lie observes the laws of good society or breaks them. — [Popular Science Monthly, f Mermaids and Mermen. The dugong, a species of whale found abundantly in the waters of both the great oceans, but specially off the coast of Australia, in the Pacific, is believed to have furnished the slender basis upon which all mermaids and mermen stories have been founded. Its average length is from eight to twenty feet. It has a head much resembling that of the human species, and breathes by means of lungs. It feeds upon Submarine beds of seaweeds and when wounded makes a noise like a mad bull. Long hair in tho female species, and hair and beard in the male, adds to the human resemblance of the head and neck. The flesh of this species of whale is used for food and is said to have the flavor of bacon, mutton, or beef, according to the parts of the body from which the meat is taken. For Twine, $72,000. It seems to be the impression of many people that the mail when sent from an office is gathered carelessly together and thrown into a mail bag, which is then locked and despatched. This is wholly wrong, for even in the smallest offices the letters and cards are all gathered face upward and tied into a neat package. The Govern¬ ment furnishes the twine to do this, and some idea of the immensity of the postal service can be formed from the fact that in one year the cost to the Government of the twine for this pur¬ pose (which, though strong, is of the cheapest quality) was nearly seventy- two thousand dollars.—[St. Nicholas. Old Time Songs. The songs we used to sing? All me! I love them, and if I could bring My voice their sad, sweet tones to sing The air should with an anthem ring Of sweetest melody. The songs vre used to sing? Ah. met Their music fills my heart with te-rs, For those lost hopes of long-gone years. That Time’s eternal river bears On to Eternity. The songs we used to sing? Alt, me! In dreams I hear each tender strain, In mystic minor sung again— I wake, and dies the sweet refrain To all but memory. —[New Orleans Times-Democrat. HUMOROUS. Overland—The sky. Run to seed—Birds. A receiving teller—A gossip. A grave danger—The resurrection- ist. Coming up to tlw scratch—The vac¬ cinator. A little woman’s fidgets are four times as big as she is. An honest man pay9 up. The other kind lias to pay down. “Oh, what a snap,” ejaculated the tramp when the dog bit him. Because a man has a silvery laugh it docs not follow that lie has .a rich voice. Charity covers a multitude of sins, but most of them contrive to kick itfiE the covers. “Is'' Brown’s credit good?” “I should say so; his best friends lend him money. ” Speaking of hydropathic cures, it strikes us that well viator ought to be good for sick people. Then what reason have you for marrying?” “Really, no reason at all, only I’m in love.” A boat is a funny thing, and so polite, too. It never goes before the public without a boif. IIow good a man is to his w r ife the first day after she has caught him doing something wrong! Ethel—Does this picture do mo jus¬ tice? Maud—It does something nobler, dear. It shows you mercy. “Were you touched at'the minister’s eloquence last night?” inquired Weeks. “Yes,” returned' Went man, gloomily, “for ten dollars.” Old Lady (in drug store to small boy)—What am I to take this medi¬ cine in, sonny? Sonny—Take it in your mouth, mum; ’taint to be rubbed in. Husband—Six hundred dollars for that suck? Dealer—But, sir, it’s a perfect skin. Husband—A perfect skin! Yes; I know it is. Come on,. Clara. Husband—I sec that a woman is about to apply for a seat in the New York Stock Exchange. Wife—Why don’t some of the men get up and give her a seat? A Scotch gentleman of fortune on his deathbed asked the minister whether, if he left a large sum to the kirk, his salvation would be secured The cautious minister responded: “I. would not like to bo positive, but it’s weel worth trying.” Telegraph and District Messenger Boys. An army of 12,000 boys is employed in the telegraph and district messenger service in and around the metropolis. These boys get from $3.50 to $4 a week, but the cost of their uniforms and the heavy fines which are levied upon them for trivial causes would make their incomes very much smaller were it not for the odd “tips” which they get from time to time. Then, again, the messenger boy is in the line of promotion to sergeant, to clerk and to telegraph operator, and with every step ids pay increifies. Iu the up¬ town districts, especially in and around the Tenderloin precinct, where the district messenger service is only in full blast in the small hours of the night, the small boys do the day work and the big boys serve at night. Ihese lads make more in presents in a week than their wages would amount to in a month. The Stock Exchange pays the highest wages received by boys in the messenger service. Its boys get from $4 to $7 a week, their uniforms free, a yearly Christmas present,of $25, have only to work from 9.30 a. in. to 3 p. m., and have their Sundays and all public holidays to themselves.—PNew York Times- ,