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A GEM OF THE SOUTH SEA. A. SPECK OP LAND BELONGING TO THE UNITED STATES it* Thirty Inhabitants Wealthy and Contented—lsolated and Hard to Find. A San Francisco Chronicle correspond ent has this to say about the little JSouth Sea island of Quiros in the Tokelan group. For many years ihe island lay deserted •f human inhabitants. If the cocoa palms had bean destroyed by a hurricane they grew again. Whatever its con dition at the time of its abandonment the prolific forces of tropical nature had restored it—or preserved it, as the case may be—just as typical a “gem of the sea” as it was when the ancient navi gator Quiro saw it and fell ir. love with it. Such it was when a waudering Kew Englander, Eli Jennings by name, see ing its capabilities and noting its unoc cupied condition, conceived the idea of setting up a kingdom in the sea all on his own account. Seeing that the island was going a beg ging for an owner, that it was a goodly place, and just the right size to main tain a family upon in all South sea abundance and luxury, Jennings took possession of it and brought there his wife, a native of one of the islands that lie to the south of his new abode, his children, and one or two serviceable people to work for him. There he set tled, seldom leaving the islet; there he reared his family ami laid up a reason able amount of wealth, and there he died. How r the natives found Quiros island at first or returned to it after wandering away is a mystery. Navigators of Eu ropean race have been known to run for It and fail to find it. As you approach it nothing appears at first but the tops of the cocoannt trees, like a little cloud against the horizon—sea to the right, ku to the left, and just these palm leaves gleeping in the sun. You are quite close to the land before you discern whence these trees spring. Not only is there no mountain peak, but there is not so much as a little hill. Prol ably no part of the l&nd is ten feet above the high tide level, and the differ ence between high tide and low tide is not worth speaking about. Insignificant as is the height, so is the extent of the island. You go ashore and boldly plunge into the “interior of the coun try.” Vou pass by the side of a small lagoon, push on through the groves and suddenly something bright gleams through the trees. It is the ocean. You have traversed the whole island; it is not a mile across. You turn to the right or left al<-ng the beach and presently you find yourself where you started from, in front of the Jennings domicile and beside the fiag fctaff from which, in honor of your visit, floats the flag of the l nited States. Length aud breadth are just about the game; that is all there is of (Quiros Island. This veritable speck in the ocean is considerably more tliau 1«>0 miles from even any similar speck and much more than that from land of any considerable extent. No isolation could be more per fect. Out of the ordinary track of trading vessels, it is scarcely ever visited except by the craft which its present owners annually charter to carry their copra to market at Apia and bring back theyear’s supplies for the little settlement. Just once in many years a man-of-war of some nation calls at the island, tempted probably out of the ordina y course of its cruise by the rumor that poultry there is abundant and cheap. Trading ships, espe ally labor vessels, are by no means welcome at Quiros Island unbiddeD. The presumption is that they do not come there for any good purpose. Be sides they unsettle the minds of the younger members of the little commun ity. Not a dozen years ago a wandering labor vessel lay of the island for a day »nd anight. Her people were hospitably entertained, and the provisions they wanted were supplied to them. When she was none it was found that no loss than three of the islanders had disap peared with her. The traders subse quently protested that they had no hand in the matter and would have returned the stowaway-, only it was too much of an undertaking to beat back against wind and current w hen their voyage had already been uuprofitably protracted. None of the runaways ever returned to the iff&id Perhaps they were not so much enamored of ocean solitudes a>old Eli • dinings. However, if there have been truant spirits in this little community the smajority of the Jennings family and ■their dependants are patriotically fond ■of their island home, and though those r of them that get the chaice enjoy to the full an occasional jaunt to Apia, which for them represents the great busy world from which they live secluded, they would none of them change Island for the finest domain elsewhere. The old Jennings died some years ago. liis eidest son, as has already been hinted, in bis stead. He is a white man and has inherited the shrewdness of his father. There was little of senti mentalism about Jennings’ choice of his solitary island. He had made money be fore he went there, and he turned his sea-girt dominion to profit. Is'ow his son follows in his footsteps. The bounties of which nature in this enchanting clime is so prolific are turned to good account. It may be doubted whether there is a farm in all California that for the same scant acreage returns so much as Quiros Island does to the Jenn ngs family. The whole community probably does not exceed thirty souls, i»ut they to hire no more labor, nature does so much for them, and what is made is saved. Here are no attractive stores to 1 ure the dollars out of one’s pockets; no saloon or corner grocery to help a ma 1 to swallow his money. Mor is there a stock market to lead the years savings into uncerta u and leaky channels whence they are not recovered. Granted the annual surplus, which is the real miracle, there is no wonder that the lord of uiros Island should grow rich. Whether he hides his accumula tions in a stocking or buries them in the soil, converting his little island into a silver mine, noone has found out. Hu mor, that most uurebable historian has it that Jennings can put by a good couple of thousand dollars a year after living in the lap of the South Sea Island and paying for all the little wants of his own household, and those of other members of the family. He will before long, be as perplexed with his “surplus” as is the Treasurer of the United States. Some fine morning he will think his island too small, will be for making a change, and will announce that this time he would prefer to buy a continent. SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL. One pound of mercury converted into fulminate is sufficient to charge 50,000 percussion caps. In the eighty years—lßoß 88 —no less than 117 earthquake shocks have been recorded at San Francis o. Paraldehyde is a new sleep producer. Its action is quicker than chloral, it is as safe as the biomides, and is not in jurious, except when used to excess. It is estimated that 100 tons can now be carried thirteen miles an hour by steamship at a mile c ost, including fuel, insurance, etc., of one-eighth of a penny. The shore of France is sinking at the rate of seven feet a century. In ten cen turies all the seaports will be under water, and Paris itself will be a maritime city. Baron Albeit Rothschild has expended $40,000 in the purchase and setting up of the largest mirror telescope that has been constructed at Paris for the \ ienna observatory. Without taking into account the small variations due to refraction, etc., the days and nights are always of equal length at all points on the equator, with out regard to the position of the ecliptic. If gelatine be suspended in ordinary alcohol it will absorb the water, but as it is insoluble in alcohol that substance will remain behind, and thus nearly absolute alcohol may be obtained watiout distil lation. The Liverpool and Manchester Ship Canal, which is to cost $30,005,000 and be built in seven yeais, will be dredged by German dredging machines, as the Engbsh contractor finds nothing iu Eng land to equal them. In some rifles the bore is twisted. There is an advantage in this, because it is supposed to produce a rotation of the ball around an axis in the direction of its motion, which overcomes the com pression and irregularities in the air, and renders the ball less liable to deviate iu its path. According to Dr. Howship Dickinson, a furred tongue is not necessarily an alarming symptom. To some persons it is normal to have a clean tongue, and to others equally normal to have a coated tongue, so that it is impossible to fix any degree or limit of coatiDg as a necessary accompaniment to perfect health A new method of weather prediction has been discovered by a French phy sicist. He has observed that the scin tillations of the stars increase before many storms, indicating disturbance of the upper atmosphere hours before the meteorological instruments show any change. The fiercer the storm the more is the strength of the scintillations in creased. For several weeks, says the Atlanta Constitution, there have been on exhibi tion, in the office of the clerk of the Su perior Court samples of pulp made of the hulls and stalks of the cotton plant. The pulp is as white as snow and can be converted into the finest writing paper. It is regarded as valuable and is regard ed as the produ t of parts of the cotton plant hitherto deemed valueless. What is said to be a satisfacto.y sul*s stitute for the high-pribed gum acacia is prepared by Trojanowski by treating the mucilage of flax-seed-with sulphuric acid; and another, lately patented in Germany by Schumann, is made frorfi starch. The euphorbia gum, a peculiar African resin is coming into extensive use as a substitute for, or addition to, caoutchouc, whose quality is even claimed to be improved by mixture with the cheaper gum. In spite of the much-proclaimed dan gers from overwork, it is interesting to read from the statistics of the Insane Hospital of Westboio that ot 180 pa tients the alleged cause given for insanity xvas overwork in only nineteen instances, three male aud sixteen female natients being afflicted from that cause. Proba bly 10 per cent, is more than should be produced iu this age, when every man and woman should understand the wear to the brain of continual thought upon one object, this being true “overwork.’ Tigers and Ghosts. Indian folk lore cherishes many strange traditions about the tiger, borne of these are collected in a paper read lately before the Bombay Natural History So ciety. Natives believe, among other things, that the ghost of a man killed by a tiger rides on the beast’s head to warn him of danger and point the way to fresh victims. Bating tiger’s flesh gives one couiage; but unless the whis kers are first singed off the tiger’s spirit will haunt you, and, what is worse, you run the risk of being turned into a tiger in the next world. God allows a tiger one rupee a day for his food, so that if a tiger kill a bullock worth five rupees he will not kill again for live days. To this may be added a true tale of a tiger. An unfortunate villager was killed by one. The police held an inquiry into the matter and submitted the following artless report: “Pandu died of the tiger eating him; there was no other cause of death. Nothing was left of Pandu save some fingers, which probably belonged either to the right or left hand.”— Boston Globe. “Give Him Jessy.” The origin of this phrase was discussed in the new Journal of Av eri-.nn Fo'k lore as follows: “When two American boys are fighting together, and a crowd is watching the mill, a spectator will often encourage one of the contestants by cry ing: “Give him jessy!” In my own boyhood the e> j ression was too fa miliar to seem worthy' of note. Hearing it after many years, it seemed a subject fit for inquiry. It appears certain that tins phrase is a remnant of the days when the 'anguage of falconry was fa miliar among the youths as that of horse raeing now is. The jess was a thong by which the bird was attached to the wrist, aud when it retrieved badly it appears to have been the custom to punish it by the application of the thong. It ia not unlikely that this convenient bit of leather may also have been used from time to time in arguments with boys.” DANGERS OF THE DEEF. LIABILITY OF VESSELS RUNUJTNG INTO OCEAN DERELICTS- Many Abandoned Vessels I>riftin{j About on the Atlantic —A Naval Derelict—A Big Buoy at Large. A derelict, writes Lieutenant Under wood, of the United States Navy, in the Argonaut , is anything that has been forsaken or abandoned, and, as applied to the sea, it is a vessel that has been abandoned by her crew, and left float ing on the oe an. Derelicts are much more plentiful than a casual observer would imagine. Besides vessels sunk near the coast in sufficiently shallow water to make their protruding masts dangerous to passing ships, there were, on an average, seven teen floating derelicts in the North At lantic reported to the Hydrographic office for each month of the year 18815. A larger number of them was sighted in the late fall, winter, and early spring thin during the other seasons of the year, no doubt because there were then more dangerous storms on the ocean. Some of these derelicts drift around, month after month, at the will of the wind and current, aud are reported time after time by passing vessels. The most interesting wreck that has b en reported for years is doubtless that of the derelict schooner Twenty-one Friends. She was abandoned on March 24, 1.885, about one hundred and seven teen miles east of Cape Henry. Being lumber-laden, she continued to float. Her masts were carried away close to the deck, so that there was but little surface exposed to the wind, and her progress was almost entirely due to the current of the gulf stream. Her track across the Atlantic was directly in the route of the European steamers, by whom she was sighted many times, and whose captains doubtless grew to regard her as worse than tw'enty-oue enemies! The last re port received placed her about seventy miles north ot Cape Ortegal, Spain, on December 4, 1885. She was probably toWed into some port by the Bay of Bis cay fishermen, who must have regarded her as a rich find. During her long cruise, she covered some three thousand three hundred miles, which made an average of about four hundred and twenty-five miles of progress each month. The bark 1 owland Hill was abandoned on February 27, and last reported on November 12, 1885; the derelict schoon er Ida Francis zigzagged between Ber muda and the coa,st of Florida for nine months; the schooner Levin S. Melson was wrecked on February 27, about one hundred and fifty miles east of Cape Ilattera-, and was last reported on October 3, 188(5, about two hundred and fifty miles south of Cape Race, New foundland. Each of these vessels was lumber laden ; each has drifted hundreds of miles aud been reported many times, and one or all may be sighted again. A number of similar cases could be given where derelicts have been reported month after mouth in the highways of commerce. Fogs and icebergs are encountered only at a particular period of the year, and within certain limits of the ocean, but derelicts are liable to be met any where or at any time. A ship striking one of these water logged wrecks would be apt to sustain about as much damage as if she ran upon a rock. An inhospitable coast is known at night by its lights, the presence of icebergs by the chill of the water in their vicinity; but during darkness or fogs there is nothing to indicate the presence of a derelict. ft Sometimes, when it L found necessary to abandou a vessel, her Captain is thoughtful enough to set her on fire. Sometimes, if the sea be smooth aud the weather favorable, a Captain, on meet ing one of these derelicts, will lower a boat and send some of his crew to fire her, but this is also a rare occurrence. Reports are occasionally received of ships injured by striking wrecks, and no doubt some of those that have left port, and never been heard from after ward. have been lost in iust this way. Perhaps the most novel derelict on record was that of the great raft w'hich it was attempted to tow round from the Canadian coast to New York some mouths ago. The attempt failed, and the great mass of logsVas left to float about directly iu the path of vessels coming into New York. Fortunately, the raft was speedily broken up, and the logs were scattered, and no serious casualty is known to have occurred from collisions with them. A w ord on the subject of buoys which have gone adrift may not be amiss. While most buoys are small and insig nifi ant. a few are large and heavy, and might do considerable damage to a ship if run into at full speed. There is a small number of lighted, whistling buoys, at important points on our coast. These are of mammoth size, and act as beacons, and, at the same time, they give warning by the noise they make. The whistle is automatic, and is sounded twenty or thirty tjmes a minute oy the action of the sea. There is a chamber into which gas is forced, and it is lighted by means of a lens lantern at Ihe top of the buoy. Ot course, the gas must be replenished at regular intervals. One of these enormous buoys was driven From its moorings off Cape Hatteras, in December, 1885, and, after taking an involuntary journey of about twelve hundred miles, it was, on the twenty fifth of the following May,captured and tow'ed into Bermuda by an Euglish Reamer. It was in good condition, but evidences of its long trip were found in the large barna: les adhering to it. When it started on this cruise the gas was soon exhausted, causing the light to become extinguished, but doubtless the whistle continued to pipe lustily with every rise and fall of the sea. Imagine the dismay of some supersti tions mariner, whose ears should be greeted by a half-dozen violent whoops in the small hours of the night, when he comfortably believed that no object was within miles of his ship. A blind boy w r as once asked the meaning of forgiveness. After think ing a few moments he replied: “It is the odor which the trampled flower gives oat to hies- the foot that crushes it.” ______ It seems queer that the man who takes life never has it after he takes it. SELECT SIFTINGS. A fathom is six feet. There are no frogs iu Ireland. ■ The new French rifle will kill at two miles. Robert Bruce, of Scotland, diei ol j leprosy in 1329. The Chinese make a sacred rite of paying every cent they owe before be ginning a new year. There is a clump of thirty orange trees near Lakeland, Fla.,that yields annually over 100,000 oranges. Babylon was taken by the Medesjand Persians under ( yrus. anu Belshazzar, the King, w T as slain 538 B. C. After a hard fight a few days ago, near Delta, N, Y., a rabbit prevented a crow front eating her little ones. In the reign of Ogyges, King of Attica, 17(54 B. C., a deluge so inundated Attica that it lay waste for nearly 200 years. One of the wonders of Paris is a well 2009 feet in depth. Hot water rushes out of this well iu a stream 114 feet high. At Wallingford, Conn., a big pointer dog was caught trying to bury alive his rival—a small spaniel—of whom he yr as insanely jealous. The latest thing in envelopes is an article which will turn black, blue and red when any inquisitive person attempts to open it by the u-e of steam or water. A Georgia man has a Plymouth Rock chicken, astonishingly lively, which has but one wing, the other side being as smooth as the breast of an ordinary bird. The famous Chinese wall is said to have been erected about 300 B. C. In 1879 it was reported to be 1728 miles long, eighteen feet wide, fifteen feet thick. The average growth of the beard has been computed to be six and one-half inches each year. A man eighty years of age, therefore, who has shaved regularly all his life may be said to have sacrificed to the razor about thirty five feet of hair. An immense radish has been-picked by Miss Mary Lambert, of Island I ake, Fla. It weighed four pounds and was six inches in diameter at the largest point. This radish was thirteen inches long in (he body proper, while its tap root was thirteen more, making twenty six in all. The American work of fiction that has had the greatest sale is Mrs. Stowe’s “ : ncle Tom’s Cabin.” Next to it comes “The Lamplighter,” a Bcston school teacher’s work, that has been through 200 editions of 1000 copies each. The third book on the list of successes is Ilalberton’s “Helen’s Babies.” While the three-months-old infant of Mrs. Ilenry Crocker, liviug near Milwau kee, was sleeping in its cradle, a large cat jumped into the latter and curled it self up for a nap over the little one's face. When the child’s grandmother, who had fallen asleep while watching at the crib, awoke, she found the baby smothered to death. According to a writer in Blackwood's Magazine the gypsies of Transylvania teach young bears to dance by placing them on heated iron plates while the trainer plays on the fiddle. The bear, lifting up its legs alternately to escape the heat, involuntarily observes the time marked by the violin, and eventually learns to lift its legs whenever he hears the music. Minnie Lewis, the six-year-old daugh ter of William Lewis, living near Butler, Penn., went into a thicket to gather wild flowers. While there she was at tacked by a black snake, which wound itself around her neck and choked her to death. The snake was found in this position by a brother of the little girl, and was killed. It was eight feet in length. Facts About Butter. A New York dealer who knows whereof he speaks said to a Midland Ex press reporter: “ The annual product of butter in the United States is not less than 4,000,000,000 pounds per annum. It is generally admitted that one-half of thebutter produced is arti cially colored. If this be so, and if natural high colored butter is valued at five cents more per pound than the uncolored article, it fol lows that the public pay no less than $25,000,000 per annum for an artificial color, believing it in most cases to be a natural color and an indication of supe rior quality, for which they receive no equivalent. It is also true that if one pound of color, which consists of an natto color, dissolved in cotton seed oil, is required for 1000 pounds of butter, there must be not less than half a million pounds of spurious butter added to the product of the country in the shape of cotton seed oil.” Turmoil for Trees. Apropos of the vibrant property of wood, have you never heard the grind ing in the dead, dry trunk of the pine— the gnawing of the minute teeth of the borers? It is like a busy carpenter shop in full blast. I remember, in a recent walk in Conway woods, that such a tree audibly announced its presence fully twenty feet in advance of me. Sawdust poured out from hundreds of apertures, and on laying my ear against the trunk and closing my eyes I seemed to be in the midst of a metropolitan bedlam—a whole city block behind in its contract and rushed for its finish, with hammers aud planes and chisels in wild echoing confusion. I could hear the saws and augers, gouges, derricks and pulleys, al most the hurried footfall —indeed,every- thing but the profanity of the workmen. And yet a single one of these disclosed in his hiding place was scarcely larger than a brad. — Harper's. Half-Masting Flags. The custom of putting flags at half staff or half-mast is probably as old as the use of the flags themselves, which certainly dates ba k to the time of the Punic wars if not further. It was cus tomary at that time to lower the flag in token of defeat, for we are told that after the capture of the Carthaginian ships by the Romans, their flags were taken down and trailed over their sterns by the vigors, as is still done when cap tured vea-els are brought into port. The custom of putting the flags at half-staff is, in all probability, quite as old, and most likely was confined to the navy at first. A SODA WATER FACTORY. HOW THE GREAT SUMMER THIR3T a NCHER is MADE. Generating Carbolic Gas, the Vital Element in Soda Water, From Marble Dust—The “Fruit Syrups. Theie xvas quite a long row of big bellied, ccrious looking ob eels. in general appearance they resembled a battery of smooth, shining Armstioug breech-loading guns. Theie was a rumbling, humming noise in the air,and a great deal of bustle and activity. It was not on board of a gigantic man-of war, however, but in the engine room of the largest soda water factory in the United States. “How is soda water made.” repeated Mr. Vosteen, the N compounder and gen eral superintendent of the main works of the Uhicago Consolidated Bottling Com pany, otherwise the so Ja water trust of Uhicago. “Told in a lew words, it’s something like this: Get up your gas in a, ‘generator,’ convey it into ‘purifiers,’ then mix it with water and flavor it with whatever flavor you want. That’s all. But the explanation wouldn’t be under stood by the general public, Pm afraid. So I’ll have to give some details. Car bonic gas, the vital element in soda water, is made in this mortar-like ma chine, known as the generator. “In the round receptacle is the marble dust, aud the vitriol drips on it and generates the gas. The gas, however, not being pure carbonic acid, it has to pass through various ‘purifiers,’ being conveyed there in block-tin tubes. In the ‘purifiers’ is water, which gradually absorbs all the foreign components of the gas. When finally pure the gas is pumped into vessels holding water. To bring about a thorough mixture of the w T ater and gas the water is constantly agitated by steam power. The syrup is conducted to the bottling machine in separate pipes, and then by means of a pump is put into the bottle, and the latter, if small, is closed with a patent stopper; if of quart size it is tightly close 1 with an ordinary cork, wired, tin foiled and labeled. One of the principal thiugs in making good, wholesome soda water is the water. Ordinary lake water won’t do. It must be thoroughly cleansed first. That is accomplished in tanks. We have in this establishment, for in stance, a number of such tanks, from six to ten feet high, and holding altogether 5000 gallons. There is a perforated metal bottom to it, through which the water filters. Above are alternate layers of coarse gravel and sifted charcoal.' Every impurity in the water is absorbed in this way, and the water is chemically pure upon finishing its roundabout jour uey through these filtering tanks. The thing next in importance is the correct compounding of the syruns. Pveybody knows their names, aud new names are invented every season and certain novel 3yrups always achieve a great run for a season or two —lemon, raspberry, and strawberry—are and remain the favor ites. There are no fruit juices in these syrups, but certain extracts, prepared chemically, take the place of them. It would be an impossibility, with the low price of soda water, to furnish genuine fruit juice. Mead is made of sugar, honey, carbonated water and various flavors. Birch beer is made both fer mented and carbonated. Champagne fizz is compounded out of a variety of flavors. Root beer| and sarsaparilla and spruce beer, and ginger ale are all made iu this way. Mineral waters are made after an analysis of various waters, tak ing the component jiarts ot chemicals and carbonating the whole. Now, what I have said so far refers only to botiled waters. When we come to louiitaia soda tvaterthe case is some what different. Fountains are kept in drug stores, restaurants, confectioneries, etc., and hold as a rule from six to teu gallons each. In price they vary from .>l4O to SIOOO each and over. Many big drug stores make their own soda water and their own syrups, of course, aud own their own fountains as well. But the bulk of the fountains are furnished by a concern that makes the manufacture of fountain soda and the renting out of fountains by the season its exclusive business. Now, then, ea h fountain is filled with water and the gas is conveyed into it by meaus of pipes, and then the fountain is placed on a ‘rocker’ and its contents rocked as if it were a cradle— only longer. Then the gas becomes thoroughly mixed with the water. As the contents of the fountain are used up another one takes its place. There are about twenty syrups used mostly for fountain soda. And each syrup, despite the contrary assertion of the funny para graphers, is in a receptacle of its own and conveyed into the soda by a separate pipe. Of course, there is no pineapple in ‘pineapple’ soda, no more than there is of strawberry or raspbery or banana. But the juice which takes its place tastes just as nice aud is just as harmless. In chocolate and coccoa and coffee there is the genuine thing, however, and in lemon syrup there is some lemon oil, and in \ aniila some extract of vanilla. So thift’s fair enough.”— Chic igo ILrald. a Scientific Description of Drowning. “How do persons die from drown ing?” asked a Health Board doctor of a New \ ork Telegram, reporter. “For want of air?” “No.” “ -ive it up then, what is it?” “I will tell you. After a person is; oelow the surface long enough, he fills his lungs with water. The first stage of! deep inspiration lasts about ten seconds, followed by a reaction caused by the re sistance to the entrance of water into the bronchiales. This is followed by arrest of respiration and loss of con ■ciousness.” ••In a lew seconds more he makes four ,ve respiratory efforts and then dies, umersion causes an immediate rise in ;he blood pressure with slowing of the art beats. The action of the heart re gains slow but strong till death ensues. Hie pressure gradually lessens, but rises ust before death, to fall to zero imme diately afterward. The heart continues to ?>eut feebly for twenty minutes in some cases. The period of respiratory lesistance i 3 therefore due to the respir atory muscles, and not to spasms of the glottis. An interesting stndy, you see,” added the doctor, “but to appreciate fully the various symptoms causod by <udden immersion you, peihaps, had better experiment yourself.” “Thanks,” NEWS AND NOTES FOR WOMEN. Boston has a boxing school for ladies. Black lace toilets are as popular as ever. Both high and low dress collars are fashionably worn. White daisy weddings are the fancy of the passing season. Every well-made tailor suit is slightly but artistically padded. Sleeves are more frequently puffed above than below the elbow. < leorge Elliott never received less than $40,000 for any of her novels. The Duchess of Hamilton has opened a retail butter shop in Ipswich. Gray, blue and red is the fashionable combination in dress just now. There is a mining company in St. Louis composed entirely of women. Four women are studying medicine at the Christiania University, Norway. Oddity in sleeves is a feature in sum mer frocks-for both big and little people. Belva Lockwood’s campaign emblem is a delicate lace handkerchief of plain white. Out of 250 voters at the recent elec tion in Cimarron, Kansas, ninety-eight were women. Black horsehair bonnets embroidered in gold are among late imported Paris ian novelties. Old-fashioned sprigged muslins, soft, sheer and cool m effect and coloring, are again in vogue. The most serviceable jeweled novelty is a silver parasol handle that opens at top to disclose a fan. Accordeou pleated blouses and skirt 3 in light wool fabrics arc both very popu lar for summer wear. The Indiana Woman’s Prison and Re formatory, near Indianapolis, is man aged exclusively by women. A scientific paper has been started in Paris with the novel feature of publish ing nothing not written by a woman. Poppy red, ecru, old rose, reseda and gobelin blue are popular colors for the foundation of dressy black lace toilets. Mrs. Labouchere, wife of the editor of London Truth , is giving campaign ad dresses in favor of Gladstone and Home Rule. The Domino capo of lace is a very chic little garment which is worn some what in the same style as the Spanish mantilla. Queen Margherita, of Italy, is making a collection of pearls with a view to decorating, some day, the wedding-dress of her son’s bride. Mrs. Burton, a lady resident of the town of Ensenada, de Todos Santos, in Lower California, has opened an office for the sale of lands. Flower weddings are the outcome of the suggestive color dinners. Only one kind of flower is used for the decorations of a flower wedding. Mme. Pornero, the wife of the Mexi can Minister at Washington, is said to have no superior among the ladies at the capital as an entertainer. The box containing a wedding present to a New York bride from Mrs. Cleve land was lined with some of the material of that lady’s own wedding dress. Dresses and long wraps made for sea vovages have weights of lead in the hems of the skirts to keep them from being blown about too rudely on deck. The changeable or shot effect in ribbon is produced, not as in the case of dress fabrics, by warp of one shade aud woof of another, but by dyeing one hue over the other. Jewelry, which for a time almost dis appeared as an article of adornment, is again the rage, and is worn in the greatest profusion when occasion demands dis play of that sort. One of the largest ship owners in the town of Ellsworth, Me.,* has been Mrs. Mary A. Jordan, at whose death the other day the flags on the shipping were placed at half mast. Braided tulle is a novelty in bonnet making, and it would seem unsuitable as a material for this sort of manipulation, yet when made in two different shades the effect is very pretty. Short summer wraps approach more and more the mantilla, and lace or bead ed gauze, with a trimming of lace and passementerie, is the stuff of which such dreams are oftenest made. Fine plaitings of all sorts take the place of other trimmings, the skirts, waists aud sleeves as well as finish for the bottom of the skirt 3 are well laden with finest knife plaitings. The pith bonnet is an Euglish device altogether attractive, and the material in no way shows itself aggressively, in stead it has a light and pretty effect, and forms some stylish headgear. Queen Victoria has sanctioned the Local Government Electors’s act, which passed both houses of Parliament, and gives women the right to vote in county matters both in England and Wales. The Czarina of Russia, it is stated, often designs and even makes dresses for her younger children, and frequently takes their new hats to pieces and trims them over according to her own taste. Belts of kid or Russia leather, with dull steel or oxydized silver buckles are seeD in the best shops, aloDg with buckles of rhine-stone or brilliants for wear with the belt ribbons that finish new round waists. ' Some very new hats have the brim lined with stemless blossoms sewed thickly in, or else single petals of large flowers slightly overlapping one another, and the effect is youthful and quaintly pretty. Photographs of the interior of pretty rooms are a popular present among friends, and iu taking views of the cozy corner or the most attractive nook of ths house the amateur photographer is well occupied. Miss Kate yield, after living in almost every civilized country in the world, has Anally determined to take up her perma neut abode at I.os Angeles, Cal., where she is building a house that will over look the sea. A new double-pointed nail is the in vention of an ingenious women. The points turn in opposite directions. Th«y are especially useful for invisible nailing in woodwork. It is simply two nails joined firmly, the sides of the heads be ing placed together.