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MORGANTON, GA.
The governor general of the new
commonwealth of Australia is to re¬
ceive $50,000 a year for his services.
President Diaz thinks that with 6000
miles of railway Mexico has enough
for some years to como ami cannot
afford to extend government aid to
new lines .
It is an interesting fact that of the
865 colleges of the United Stales, 204
are co-educational. Women at present
constitute fifty-five per cent, of the
Under-cxaduntes in this country.
Says the Boston Traveller: it seems
that in Great Britain, as well as in
Germany, the cities are growing out
of all proportion to the rest of the
country. Apparently these are (lie
tendencies in all the great industrial
nations. This drift cityward fore¬
shadows an active demand and good
prices for farm products everywhere,
and an improvement in conditions for
the farmers.
One of the latest electrical dis¬
coveries is the power of electricity,
under certain conditions, to destroy in
water bacteria that causes diseases,
and possibly in the human system as
well. There are good and bad bacteria,
some of them of great value to fann¬
ers for the increase of fertility of soil.
These we have sometimes thought
were increased in activity by thunder-
storms. So when scientists aim their
electrical discharges at bacteria tiiey
should have a caution to aim to de¬
stroy those only that are known to be
injurious.
During the seventy-five years that
the American Bible Society has been
in existence it has received in legacies
and contributions $9,900,000, and
gifts of Bibles and special funds con-
tributed made up a grand total of
$20,864,000. Four general distribu-
tions of Bibles have been made in the
United States. Every eighteen cents
expended have represented a copy of
the Scriptures. At the last general
distribution, beginning in 1882, 8,-
000,000 Bibles in twenty-seven lan¬
guages were sent out.
_____
Charles Emmott, the Oldham (Eng-
land) cotton spinner, who is to marry
Lady Constance Campbell, daughter
of tiie Duke of Argyle, is the son of a
man who began life as a factory
operative and is now the head of a
millionaire firm. It is told of old
“Breadbasket” Emmott that he used
to take his dinner along with him,
wrapped in a handkerchief, when he
went to the Liverpool and Manches¬
ter markets,and so saved the eighteen
pence which he would hare had to
pay had he dined at an inn.
TheSt.Louis Star-Sayings observes:
“One result of the marvelous growth
of American citizens and tho conse-
quent crowding together of large num-
bers of citizens and their families, has
been a renewal of the agitation in fa¬
vor of a new cabinet officer to have
charge of a national health department.
In all the crowded countries of the
Old World such a department and
such a head have been found necessary,
and there is no good reason why we
should wait for a very serious epi¬
demic before following the example.
The expense would be quite nominal,
and the -concentrated action which
would bo rendered practicable in cases
of emergency might be the moans of
saving thousands of lives.”
There is a marriage bureau in Ber¬
lin which during the last eleven years
has received 19,959 applications for
husbands and wives from all civilized
countries, while matches have heeu
brought about for 4399 women appli¬
cants and 5417 men. “To such an ex¬
tent is the traffic carried on,” assorts
the Philadelphia Record, “that the
matrimonial agent arranges with the
keepers of American boarding-houses
where the American girls live to take
young officers into their homes, with
the promise of a commission if a
match shall be brought about. Tho
penniless Lieutenant Herr Baron,with
waxed mustache, blue eyes and red
uniform, has frequently found liis
fate in one of these accommodating
wmcies.”
Superintendent Totter says tlmt n
compendium of the work of taking the
census will bo completed in time for
the next Congress, which will he throe
years and a half ahead of the last
census reports. IIo states that the
compiling of special data will require
longer time, but that the entire work
will be completed about seven years
sooner than ever before.
A company lias recently been organ¬
ized in New York city which proposes
to make its principal business the
preservation of the health and comfort
of citizens. It proposes to establish
an institution to bo known as a
‘•Ilealthery,” similar in its nature to
institutions of that name in London.
It is proposed to make this an adjunct
of the Board of Health. Three chem¬
ists will be employed to make analyses
of food, to conduct experiments as to
the value of various food preparations
and to make examinations of any and
all articles of diet which may bo sub¬
mitted to ascertain whether they may
be safely used or not. One of the
provisions of the company is that it
will hold each year an exposition of
food products.
Some idea of the magnitude of the
postal service may be gathered from
the fact that the combined length of
the railway postal routes of the coun¬
try is 144,557 miles, while the trans¬
portations of mails on those routes in
1880 reached the enormous total of
186,575,884 miles. Germany, which
comes next, only has 24,522 miles and
a total transportation of 89,267,000
miles per annum. But while the rail-
way service is one of great magnitude,
there are the star-route and steamboat
services, which extend over 251,792
miles, with a total annual transporta¬
tion of over 12,000,000,000 miles. To
carry on successfully this immense
service requires tho work of over
90,000 persons. The postal corres-
pondence of* this country with foreign
la “ d8 , fa , " ,, 8 / ^ below that of Ger.
^ Of the 90,000,000 pieces sent
abroad last year 70,000,000 -were car¬
ried by vessels of foreign register.
The United States is now the great-
est iron producing country of the
world. We have long been second
only to Great Britain, and last year
we passed our rival, going to the
front with an unprecedented produc-
* 30n 9,202,708 gross tons of pig
* r0I1 > au excess of 1,200,000 over the
ll! S tl0sfc figures ever reached by the
furnaces of any country. Noting this
fa3t the Philadelphia Telegraph recalls
tba ^ Nicholas Biddle and other
citizen9 of Pennsylvania offered a
botlllt f of SoOOO for the first furnace
* n continuous blast for a period of
three months. It will thus be seen
how brief is the history of this grea t
interest in our land. It is true tlia 1
iron was made in that state many
years before 1838, and we exported
pig iron to England before the revolu-
but it was not until 1841 that
the prize for running a furnace three
months in continuous blast was won
in Pottsville.
The Washburn & Moen Company,
at Worcester, Mass., is making a sc¬
ries of experiments which promises
to transform the rod and wire busi¬
ness. Copper is now used altogether
in rods and wire where great strength
and resistance to tension are required.
Steel lacks this tenacity. It is stated,
however, that the company’s experts
have discovered a process by which
steel can be tempered so as to possess
this necessary tenacity, and that steel
wire has been actually made which
will stand all the strain and tension
that copper wire will. It can be man¬
ufactured, it is believed, at a much
less cost than the present figures for
copper, and its success would canse a
decided drop in that metal. Despite
the secrecy of those who have iiad the
experiments in charge gossip about
them has been current for some time
among the brokers, and speculation
as to their influence on the market is
rife. The late Mr. Moen, it is under¬
stood. was tiie active spirit in this
matter, and the new plant which the
company is starting at Chicago is sup¬
posed to be intended for the extension
of the business which would result
from the success of these experiments.
The willingness of (he company to
part with its barbed wire patents to
the trust is explained by this new in-
dustry.
Toilny.
£!<■ swift to love vour own, dears,
Your own who need you so;
■Bay to the speeding hour, dears,
“I will not let thee go
Except thou give a blessing;”
Force it to bide and stay,
Love has no sure tomoirow
It only has today.
Ob, hasten to he kind, dears,
before the time shall come
When you are left behind, dears,
In an all-alone home;
Before in late contrition
Vainly you weep and pray,
Love has no sure tomorrow.
It only has today.
Swifter than sun and shade, dears,,
Move the fleet wings of pain;
The chance we have today, dears,
May never come again.
Joy is a fickle rover,
He brookoth not delay.
Love has no sure tomorrow'.
It only has today.
Too late to plead or grieve, dears,
Too iale to kiss or sigh,
When death has laid his seal, dears,
On the cold lip ami eye,
Too late our gifts to lavish
Upon the burial clay;
Love has no sure tomorrow,
It only has today. [Congregationalist.
—
THE FIItST-BOM.
Preston found his wife in a low arm¬
less rocking-cliair before the grate fire
of her bed-room. Their baby boy,
whose first weak rail against the mis¬
eries of existence had been heard bat
two months before, lay flat upon hi s
back in her lap. He was swatlied in
a long woolen night-gown, which
bulged restlessly under the impatience
^ e ° S '
The mother was pinching his cheeks
and smothering him with kisses.
This caused him to give vent to bub.
bling gasps of delight and to wave liis
clinched fists convulsively. When she
saw her husband she lifted the baby,
supporting his body with one hand,
and his uncertain back with the other.
His big head, fallen forward, rolled
from side to side, while his bright
eyes stared at his father fixedly, and
without the smallest gleam of intelli¬
gence. Preston smiled constrainedly,
and put one forefinger under the
rather damp chin.
As the cliil#r showed that he disap¬
proved of tlurehatige of position, his
mother put him in her lap again, and
began the interrupted play. . Preston
looked down upon it with an irritated
expression. When the nurse came iu
with a small tub partly filled with
warm water, ho looked about awk¬
wardly, as though iie were out of
place. Then iie sat down in a deep
leather chair by the window. As he
watched the two women and tiie baby,
a feeling of isolation and sadness grew
upon him. .
When tho nurse had put/the bath on
the rug near the fire, site pushed to
the mother’s side a small table spread
with the articles of a baby’s toilet.
While the child was bathing, the
mother kept up a steady flow of talk,
at times addressed to the father, al¬
ways intended for the son.
She took off the long woolen gown.
Then she lifted the child and laid him
gently in tho bath. At first touch of
the water he clutched wildly and
twisted his face into a crimson tangle.
But the warmthand the safety guaran¬
teed by the voice and fingers of the
mother reassured him. He was soon
splashing and kicking as widely as the
narrowness of his bath allowed.
Ilis face reddened and puckered as
he was lifted to the blanket on his
mother’s Jap, but the softness of the
fleecy towel consoled him. At last she
was done, and he lay ^straight and
glowing. His eyes closed languidly.
The talk of the mother ceased. There
was silence in the room, except her
monotonous and soothing “Sh-h-h!
sli-h-h!” as she rocked to and fro.
The husband’s eyes turned away im¬
patiently as he saw the look iu her
face. She was admiring, wilh a look
of perfect love, the beauty of the
smooth round form in her Jap. The
skin of tiie child was soft and delicate.
Waves of color, first pure white, then
rosy pink, passed across it from head
to feet.
They put a few clothes upon him so
quietly that he only smiled, and did
not awaken. The nurse left the room,
and there was no movement or sound
but the occasional slow rock, with the
^aint “Sh-h-h I” which accompanied
it. The mother looked steadfastly at
her child. The husband watched her
sadly.
They had married two years before.
As both were strong-willed and posi¬
tive, there had been much clashing in
tho first twelvemonth of their life to¬
gether. Each was finding out the
real character of the other, so di fie rout
in many ways from tho character
each had admired beforo marriage.
But in this undeceiving there had heeu
no serious disillusion, and their love
had grown stronger. Through this
love happiness had gradually come.
Just, as they were entering upon
this unexpected happiness, which
comes in married life if any at all, just
then tiie baby was born. Preston had
looked forward to the event with un¬
easiness and dissatisfaction. It had
seemed to him that a third person
would be an interloper. And liis
feeling was shared by his wife.
But with the birth of the child came
the birth of the maternal instinct.
Preston found himself alone in lus
dissatisfaction. He realized this when
he saw his wife afterward. At first
he was awed by the change in her
face, by the mysterious being whose
head nestled to her shoulder, by the
wonder of birth and maternity. Then,
as the meaning of it for him came to
his mind, the instant thought was
that she was more lost to him than if
site were dead.
A few days before her eyes had in
them the sparkle and the frequent flash
of passionate love for him. Now
those same eyes were turned to him
with tenderness, but with a changed
tenderness that pained him keenly.
She was still young. She was still
beautiful. But in those few days the
quality of the youth and the beauty
had been transformed. Her face now
shone with the calmness and serenity
of a mother. And the sad conviction
came to the husband that tho change
was final.
On this morning, two months after¬
ward, as she sat in the low chair, in
health and strength again, he studied
tiie change more carefully. He had
been trying to deceive himself during
these two months. He felt that he
could deceive himself no longer.
He cared for her as before; more,
perhaps, since he grasped so clearly
the change in her. But she, sitting
there with her child, cared for him in
a new way. The child was first, the
central figure, in her life henceforth.
She loved the father through the child.
In the days of their courtship he had
fancied that the passing of years
would not touch them. When her
hair would bo gray and his hair would
be scant they would cling together
still, excluding everything and every¬
one else. Now all this was thwarted,
brought to naught in tiie very dawn
of their real happiness. The girl wife
was gone, with no hope of return.
This small form had pushed in be¬
tween. These clinched hands, so un¬
skilful, so helpless, had yet battered
them apart. They must come, each to
the other anew, and through tiie
child.
He seemed to himself to be passed
away. He felt as though he were in
another world, looking across a wide
gulf to the far place where the child
lay in the mother’s lap. And he
thought, with utter lack of hope, that
he was straining his arms and his
heart in vain.
This instinct love which showed in
her eyes as she looked at the scarcely
featured face filled him with bitterness.
“And as time passes,” he thought,
“this will not grow less, but greater.
She may conceal it when she finds that
it stabs me. But her real heart will
be barred against me. She will care
for me, but she will plan and scheme
and try to control me for his sake—
for their sake, if there are more.”
Then he thought of his own father
and mother. How intensely his
mother had loved him! How often she
had shielded him from his father! And
he wondered how his father had felt
at first. He certainly cared for me,
and he and my mother lived happily,
conlentedly, loving their children be¬
fore themselves.”
And he saw that he too would no
doubt grow to care for this little one
in some such way as his wife now
cared. “And I shall he content,” he
said to himself, “as my father was
content, and I shall forget the happi-
ness that might have been in the
pleasure and pride - that are. But I
shall be a loser. For I have lost her
exclusive love. I shall have only the
second place in her heart, and in the
heart of her child. For he will love
her first. lie will bo first hors; mine
through her only.”
While tho husband was searching in
vain for consolation, tho wife also was
thinking of tho change in their rela¬
tions. She realized as fully as he that
there had been a change, a transfer of
love. And in a certain way she felt
sorry for him. But she had no regret
for the happiness they both thought
they should regret as they talked it
over beforehand.
Indeed she was wondering how she
could have been so blind thou. For
this new love was so sweet to her, so
self-absorbing and self-denying! How
strange, how wonderful, how satisfy¬
ing was the new love—the love for
this small being which was hers
through the miracle of birth, through
suffering to be remembered only with
gladness!
She realized the isolation of her
husband, yet she could not long think
of it. She was so absorbed wilh her
son. “My son!” she thought, and
she bent to kiss him softly, while the
joy of maternal possession went
through her like a strong wine- Her
thoughts leaped along the years, pic¬
turing him as he would be when he
could walk and talk, when he should
be a schoolboy, a youth, a great man,
of whom she was so proud,who loved
her so.
The look that came into her face
with these thoughts cut her husband
to the quiok. He arose and stood
looking bitterly out of tho window.
“She is no longer a wife. She is a
mother!” he said.—[Harper’s Weekly.
Cuteness of the Crow.
The crow, as we all know, is a saga¬
cious bird; but the following account
of its cuteuess, told us by Annie Mar¬
tin in “Home Life on an Ostrich
Farm,” affords a fresh instance of its
powers of reason. The hen ostrich—
so far from deserting her nest and
leaving her eggs to hatch, as was once
the common belief—on a hot morning
when she leaves her eggs as usual for
a quarter of an hour, first places “on
the top of each a good pinch of sand.
This she does in order that the germ,
which, whatever side of the egg is up¬
permost, always rises to the highest
point, may he shaded mid protected.”
It is at this time that the white-nock
crow appears on the scene. Unable
to break the shell with its bill, “he
carefully watches till the parent’s back
is turned and she is a good distance
from the nest; then, flying up into the
air, he drops a stone from a great
height with a most accurate aim, and
breaks an egg. In like manner, the
same kind of crow kills for food the
tortoise, numbers of, broken shells,
some of immense size, being found
about the veldt. It is not clear but
that the crow may carry the tortoise
into the air and let it drop and break.’*
As many have noticed either onr
crows or fish-hawks will collect large
whelks and sea-urchins at low tide and
carry them up and drop them on the
shore, as if to break them and get at
the animal within.
Bullet Proof.
The opponents of General Balma-
ceda, the Chilian dictator, claim that
he owes his survival to liis custom of
wearing a patchwork of silver coins
in the lining of his blouse. Persistent
luck has, however, enabled the heroes
of many battles to dispense with such
precaution, says Dr. Oswald in Bel-
ford’s Magazine. It has been esti¬
mated that in the course of his forty-
six battles and two hundred and ten
skirmishes, the first IS apoleon became
a target for at least ten thousand bul¬
lets, not one of which could do more
than kill his horse or rip his mantle.
Admiral Nelson owed his fate to his
habit of exposing ins person to the
thickest shower of every bullet-rain;
but in spite of a similar recklessness
of personal courage,Marshal Suwarofl
escaped with a few bruises; and
Frederick tho Great was “knocked out
of time” only once, when tiie frag¬
ment of a bursting shell unhorsed
him in the battle of Torgan. lie had
the advantage of a small stature, and
may more than onefe have owed hi*
life to the same mistake that saved
Hickory Jackson in his duel with
Dickinson; but “long pole” Welling¬
ton was equally lucky, and Joachim
Murat persisted in charging at the
head of his cavalry, relying on the
prediction of the Bibyl Lenormand,
who had told him that ho was not des--
tined to die on a battle-field.