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THE WELCOME BACK.
Sweet is the hour that brings us home.
Whore all will spring to meet us.
"Where hands are striving as we come
To be the first to greet us.
When the world has spent its frowns and
wrath
And care been sorely pressing,
•Tis sweet to turn from our roving patb
And find a fireside blessing.
Ah, joyfully dear is the homeward track.
If we are but sure of a welcome back!
What do we reck on a dreary way,
Though lonely and benighted.
If we know there are lips to ehide our stay
And eyes that will lieam love-lighted!
I What, is the worth of your diamond ray
To the glance that flashes pleasure—
When the words that welcome back betray
We form a heart's chief treasure!
Oh, joyfully dear is our homeward track,
If we are but sure of a welcome back!
■ • CONQUERED.
It might be said of oid Sam Sladger
I that his counting house was his temple.
F his desk was his altar, his ledger was
t his Bible, and his money was his god.
I Next to his money be loved his only
I child, his daughter Julia.
One could hardly realize that Julia
; was his daughter, or even that she bore
; the unromantic name of Sladger. She
was beautiful, well bred and accom
plished, and was sweetly winning in
K manner.
Old Sam had determined that Julia
should wed his (riend Aiderman Choz
zle. who was worth a mint of money,
and would be mayor at no distant day.
It was an excellent match from every
point of view except one—Julia’s. Julia
would have nothing to do with Chozzle,
much less would she marry him. The
matter was often debated between father
and daughter, if that can be called a de
bate, which was all command and low
voiced argument on the one side, and
all tears and silent obstinacy on the
other.
Had Chozzle had no favored rival in
the field it is possible the poor girl might
have been bullied into accepting him.
But there was a rival. He was an artist.
He was very poor. He was a complete
failure in his profession. He was ex
ceedingly romantic, and his name was
Vandeleur de Vere. Any one must see
at once that these were quite eood and
sufficient reasons for any young woman
falling in love with him.’ At any rate
they were quite sufficient for Julia.
At last Chozzle became too much for
Julia, even thoush she wasn’t married to
him. Her life seemed all Chozzle. Her
father served him up at breakfast, at
dinner, and between meals. At last this
incessant Chozzle diet, as it may be
called, became intolerable. So Julia
went out one fine morning and married
Vandeleur de Vere, according to a prear
ranged plan.
“Now, if there was one man old Sam
objected to more strongly than another,
it was Vandeleur de Vere. He branded
him, with fine scorn, as 'one of them good
ior nothing, ascetic fellows’—by which
he was understood to mean the great
aesthetic brotherhood in general. When,
therefore, he received a letter from his
daughter, putting him in possession of
the stale of affairs, imploring forgive
ness for herself and ‘darling Van,’ the
old man’s feelings may, to use a novel
phrase, be better imagined than de
scribed.
In their rooms in a back street, Mr.
and Mrs. Vandeleur de Vere awaited the
outraged parent's reply with a good
deal of anxiety. They did not expect
that he would come around all at once—
that would be too much; but they did
hope that he would, after his first'fit of
passion, accept the inevitable, and his
son in-law.
But they were soon undeceived—not
quite so soon, however, as might have
been supposed, for two days elapsed be
fore a letter made its appearance, bearing
on the cover the stiff, awkward writing
of Samuel Sladger. When it did come,
the young couple found it very brief and
to the point. It was addressed to Mrs.
V. de Vere. and ran as follows:
“Madam:—Your favor of the 4th instant
to hand, and contents noted. As you have
made your bed. so must you and your vaga
bond lie. You have not broken my heart
by your wicked and disgraceful conduct, but
you have closed it against you forever. I
am a man of my word: that you know well.
1 east you off; I disown you as a daughter, 1
forbid you or your M. de Vere to set foot in
my house under any pretense whatever, and
I tell you now, once for all. that you shall
never have even one penny piece, or the value
of it, from me. It will be quite useless to
write to me, as all your letters will be re
turned unopened.
Samuel Sladgeb.”
Writing to the obdurate old man under
these circumstances was certainly a for
lorn hope, but the young people did
write—more than once, and each time
the letter was returned unopened.
To do Julia and her husband justice,
they bore up under their misfortunes
pluckily. Van painted by the perch,
rood and acre, but the pictures would
not sell. By the time all Julia's trinkets
had been turned into money, and actual
starvation was staring the young couple
in the face—for dealers and art shop
keepers wouldn’t even look at poor Van s
productions now—the landlady who was
getting anxious about the rent, which
was rapidly falling in arrears, volun
teered this—to Julia—very mysterious
piece of advice.
“If you can’t sell ’em.'’ and she indi
cated the blushing canvass, “why not
spout ’em?”
“I—l beg your pardon, 1 don’t quite
understand,” replied Julia, looking a
I good deal bewildered.
The landlady, in a tone of ill concealed
pity for her lodger’s ignorance, explained
that “spouting” the pictures meant
pledging them at a pawnbroker's for
whatever he could be induced to lend
upon them.
Julia shrank from the idea at first, and
Van was indignant when it was sug
gested that he should pawn his works of
genius just as if they were flat irons or
Sunday suits. But Julia had grown
more practical of late —was beginning to
come out of her shell, as the landindy
said—and soon reconciled herself to the
notion of obtaining small advances upon
her husband’s pictures.
T1 e work of pledging them was by no
means a pleasant one. Only a few pawn
brokers here and there could be induced
to lend anything upon Van's priceless
art treasures. And those who lent any
thing at all lent very, very little, grumb-
ling that “picture* were a drug in the
market,” and suggesting that they were
prepared to make really liberal advances
upon any articles of solid commercial
value.
In their keen struggle for life both
| \an and Julia became smart and artful
!to a degree which surprised even them
selves. Van very soon got to know the
sort of pictures upon which most money
could be lent, and was lavish in the use
of his brightest colors. But to Julia
must be given the idea of Van’s produc
| ing endless copies of his most popular
1 piece— a red-cloaked maiden walking in
a gamboge corn field under a brilliant
' ultra-marine sky. Vai soon dropped
into the knack of “knocking off’’ these
I masterpieces at a terrific rate. He worked
I upon some half-dozen at once, first put
i ting on six brilliant skies, then calling
into being six ficldsof waving grain, and
then introducing into each the simple
| maiden in the excruciating scarlet cloak.
For many a week did the young peo |
j pie live upon the pro eels of their gaudy
rranufacture, but there came a time
when there was scarcely a pawnbroker
in New York who had not in his keeping
one of Van’s outrages upon nature. But
it gradually became harder to part with
them, or any picture at all, and the
young people were getting terribly
anxious about the future.
“Van, dear,” said Julia, for the thou
sandth time, “we must have money
somehow. I'm getting desperate. I
wish, oh, how I wish 1 could earn some I
But what can I do? I was never taught
anything useful. 1 can play decently,
it’s true, and I can sing; that’s one thing
I can do leally well. But where can I
sing? I have never sung in public. I
have no recommendations nor introduc
tions. I shall never make anything by
singing.”
“I’m afraid you're right, darling,”
said her husband, gloomily, as he clinked
the few half dollars remaining in his
pocket. “You could never make a pub
lic appearance unless—” and here he
smiled at the quaintness of the idea—
“unless you make it in the public streets,
like that girl we saw with a crowd round
her the other night, don’t you know?
How delighted your amiable parent
would be if he knew it. Wonder what
he’d do!”
Julia was always ready to laugh at a
qnaint conceit, even in the midst of their
poverty. But she did not laugh now.
she started as Van spoke, and turned
quickly away from the table. Van rose
also, went to his easel, began misrepre
senting nature, and in that pleasing oc
cupation very soon forgot about old
Sladger and the cantatrice of the pave
ment.
AU that day Julia was exceedingly
quiet and thoughtful.
“Van, dear,” said Julia, suddenly,
when they had been sitting talking for
some time after tea, “I’m going out.”
“All right,” said Van, “I’m ready.
Where do you want to go?”
“Oh, not far! there are several little
things to buy. I can get them quite
as well by myself. You needn’t
come.”
“Needn’t come! But I don’t like
your going out alone at night, dear.
Beside, why should you go alone?”
“For a woman’s reason. Because I
want to. Now, don’t be angry, Van.
You must let me have my own way. I
won’t come to any harm I promise you.”
And Van gave in, of course.
But he had a fresh remonstrance to
make when he saw Julia wrap herself in
a faded old black shawl, and put on a
bonnet which had long seen not only its
best but pretty nearly its worst days.
“What on earth are you putting on
those wretched old things for?” he in
quired. “We are poor enough, good
ness knows, but you have some respecta
ble clothes left, anyhow.”
“For the sake of economy. I don’t
care how I look about here,” and with
that she hurried out.
“Julia walked rapidly, looking neither
to the right nor left. She feared if she pro
ceeded slowly, or hesitated, the courage
to carry out the resolution she had made
might ooze away.
At last she arrived near her father’s
house, a handsome corner building. It
was about!) o’clock, and old Sam and
his guests, for he was giving a dinner
party, were in the brilliantly lighted
dining-room.
Sam Sladger had changed a good deal
since his daughter’s departure from
home, He looked aged and haggard.
He missed her sorely, and yearned to
have her back with him: but he had
stuck stubbornly to his determination to
have nothing further to do with her.
He had found, too, to his bitter an
noyance, that the opinion of nearly all
his friends was that he had treated his
daughter with undue harshness and
severity, not to say actual cruelty. He
feared that Vandeleur might be driven
by poverty to resort to any shady means
of getting a living that might present
themselves, and be was filled with a
vague terror that he might thereby find
himself—the respected Sladger- —in-
volved indirectly in some scandal
brought about by his son in-law.
The old man then was not happy.
But on this particular evening he was
less unhappy than he had been for a
considerable time, for among the guests
was one of the “.nobs” he worshiped.
“Well, as I was saying,” remarked
the aristocratic gentleman, continuing a
conversation, “there was quite a scene,
i Regular excitement; everybody upset.
I don’t say there was anybody in par
ticular to blame. But a scene is a thing
I really cannot stand; and so I’ve never
been to the house since.”
There was a murmur of applause at
this very spirited and aristocratic way of
treating the affair, which had hardly
died away when Sladger’s face suddenly
became ashy pale.
He listened with feverish eagerness,for
it was something he had heard which
had caused the blood quickly to leave
his cheeks. Yes, there was no mistake.
Tremulous and low at first, but growing
louder and clearer now, a woman’s voice
singing a simple ballad could be heard.
There was nothing much in that to
other hearers, but there was a good deal
in it to oid Sladger. It was his daugh
ter’s voice. Surely he could not be mis
taken. Making some trivial excuse for
going to the window, he raised the cur
tains and looked out. There before his
very doorstep, was a small crowd; one
of those crowds which spring up in New
York as if by magic; and in the center
of it was a young woman wrapped io a
faded and old black shawl, with a
patched and shriveled bonnet on her
head In spite of this it was clear from
her general appearance and the timidity
of her manner that she was not a woman
accustomed to get her living by singing
in the streets Some in the crowd were
sympathetic, others were mirthful, and,
others again, merely looked on and lis
tened, and wondered vaguely.
Old Sam knew her in a moment. He
had not mistaken the voice. It was his
daughter he saw before him He looked
out at her for some moments, unable to
decide bow to act. He must not have a
scene, and he must have his daughter.
He cursed himsalf for having held out so
long This sort of thing must be put a
stop to,at all hazards. His daughter sing
ing in the streets! It would certainly
come to be known and talked about.
The scandal would be too great.
Leaving the dining-room with as com
posed an air as he could assume undei
the circumstances, he went quietly to the
hall door, opened it and passed out. As
he did so the song came to an end.
Stepping up to his daughter who looked
at him with steady eyes, he said aloud:
“Very well done, young woman—very
well done! You must be tired. Come
in and take a little refreshment!” And
then, in a tone that reached only her
ears, “For heaven’s sake, Julia, come
into the house and stop this horrible
masquerading! You’ll disgrace me for
ever! Don’t hesitate or make a scene.
I wouldn’t have a scene here for any
thing. I’ll take all back I wrote you.
I dare say your husband's a very good
fellow—in his way. I’ll make friends
with him too. You shan’t want for
money, either of you.” And so saying,
the old man drew her into the house.
What passed between father and
daughter then, is, perhaps, hardly worth
relating, but a reconciliation must have
been effected, for the young couple and
the old man are now on the friendliest
terms.
Strange to relate, Sam has come to be
fond of his son in-law, for Vandeleur
has made a name as the founder of a new
school of art, by his friends and admir
ers called ihe Mystic, and by his de
tractors culled the Moonstruck, and
which, whatever its claims to considera
tion, is talked and written about a great
deal, and that is the main thing, after
all.
Julia says she has no secrets from her
husband, but, all the same, Vandeleur
has never learned what became of his
wife when she donned the old bonnet
and shawl, or how it was that Sam Slad
ger’s heart warmed so suddenly to his
runaway daughter and her husband.
A Tall Snow Plow.
Engine No. 912, of the Union Pacific
road is being fitted up with one of the
largest and most effective snow plows
in the country. The plow weighs four
tons, is twelve feet wide and sixteen
feet high at the wings, and can throw
snow forty feet on either side of the
track. This gigantic snow shovel is
balanced on the front of the pilot plat
form, being securely braced by bars run
ning along the frame behind the cylin
ders, and bolted to uprights reaching to
the back of the plow. The shear or
edge is some eight feet beyond the pilot
platform, and just escapes the rail. This
plow is shod heavily with iron. The
engine’s balloon stack is replaced by an
open straight stack, as it was found by
last winter’s experience that a balloon
stacked engine stood a poor show behind
plow killed thirty-six head of cattle
a snow plow in a heavy drift. This
last winter in a cut where they had
wandered and were shut in by drifts.
The engineer and fireman behind that
machine do not find life so rosy as it
might be. The engineer cannot see
ahead, so he goes it blind, and as 912
weighs forty-five tons, when she strikes
a drift, if there are any cattle or China
men around, they are sent flying six ways
for Sunday, as the expression is. And
the beauty of it is they never know what
hurts them. Both runner and fireman
generally get wet, and may be out two
days in that shape before getting any
rest. Railroad men don’t view any
prospect of taking 912 with favor.—Den
ver Tribune.
‘Japan Village Shops.
Japanese villages are full of shops.
There is scarcely a house which does not
sell something. Where the buyers come
from, and how a profit can be made is a
mystery. Many of the things are eat
ables, such as dried fishes, one and a
half inches long, impaled on sticks;
cakes, sweetmeats composed of rice,
flour, and very little sugar; circular
lumps of rice dough, called mochi; roots
boiled in brime; a white jelly made
from beans; and ropes, straw shoes for
men and horses, straw cloaks, paper um
brellas, paper waterproofs, toothpicks,
paper mouchoirs. tobacco pipes,hairpins,
and numerous other trifles made of bam
boo, straw, grass and wood. These
goods are on stands, and in the room be
hind, open to the street, all the domestic
avocations are going on, and the house
wife is usually to be seen boiling water
or sewing, with a baby tucked in the
back of her dress. A lucifer factory has
recently been put up in one place, and
in many house fronts men are cutting
up wood into lengths for matches. In
others they ate husking rice, a very la
borious process, in which the grain is
pounded in a mortar sunk in the floor by
a flat-ended wooded pestle, attached to
a long horizontal lever, which is worked
bv the feet of a man, invariably naked,
who stands at the other extremity.
Chinese Secret Signals.
The Chinese wood sawyers have a sort
of sign language of their own, in which
the signs are made with sticks of cord
wood. When a Chinaman has taken a
contract to saw a pile of wood he places
several sticks on the top of the pile in a
peculiar position, which informs all other
Chinamen that the contract has been
let, and thus the owner of the wood is
kept free from the annoyance of having
a dozen Chinamen a day ring ng his bell
and asking for a job. Should the wood
pile belong to a man who is not good
pay, several sticks of the wood are
arranged by some Chinaman who has
been victimized by the party, in such a
manner that no other Chinaman will ask
for the job of sawing it. Any one who
has had a pile of wood lying in front of
his premises for several days without
some Chinaman apply ng for the job of
sawing it may know that he is down in
the black list, and will just pitch in and
saw his wood himself.— Purlland (Jr,
‘jonian.
QUEER WEDDING CUSTOMS.
PHASES OP MABBXAGS IW DIFFBB
EHT LAIDS.
The Australian who Woo. his Hrhle
with n Club—The Asiatic who
Hays Iler. Steal* Her, and Flffht*.
“In Australia the native lover woos
It s sweetheart with a club, in some
parts of Asia ho has to buy her of her par
ents, in other* he has to steal her,” says
Myers Delay, an Englishman who has
traveled in almost every land, especially
in the out-of-way places, and who re
cently arrived in New York from China.
“The Australian, when he would wed,
makes up his mind as to which woman
shall be his bride, and then hides in the
bushes in the vicinity of her dwelling
place. It is not necessary for her to
know that there is a lover looking for
her, especially with a stout cudgel, or
may be she wouldn’t be won as frequent
ly as she is. As soon as she comes near
where the anxious swain lies hidden,and
if she is alone, he pounces out
uprfti her, promptly and effectually
knocks her down with the club, and car
ries her off before she comes to. If ho
does not. get her to his hut before she
recovers, there is likely to be a lively
tight in the bush, for the Australian
damsel is generally a vigorous one, and
she may have reasons of her own
for objecting to the lover's efforts to win
her. The would-be bridegroom may then
be obliged to club her again, and as this
is considered to be rather a reflection on
the ardor with which his earlier effort
was made, he generally puts as much
soul and muscle into his first love tap as
he can summon.
“When a resident of the capo, or
Kaffir land, yearns for a life partner, he
has an interview with the father of the
lady. If the old gentleman thinks well
of the youth, and that he would do
honor to him as a son in-law, he says:
“ ‘Well, can you give me two hundred
cattle for my daughter?’
“That is, it may be two hundred or it
may be more or less, just as the old man
values his daughter or appraises the
stock owning or getting capacity of the
prospective son-in-law. If the young
Kaffir is determined to wed the maiden
whose hand he seeks, he will always
reply that he can fill the bill as to cattle,
no matter if he hasn’t enough on hand
to make a good sized dish of hash, and
never expects to have. He’ll fix
that. There are plenty of Kaffirs who
have cattle galore. and he gath
ers together a few congenial fricnds.and
they stroll over to some convenient kraal
of a neighboring tribe, and walks away
with the requisite number of cattle to
make the bridegroom happy. 4>f course
the owner of the cattle usually raises
very strong objections to this exchange
of property, and there may be a number
of woolly heads broken before the ex
pectant bridegroom secures the herd. If
hegetsthem all right to his kraal, that
settles the mutter. The man that lost
them knows that other tribes have cattle,
and that he may want to marry some
body himself without having the neces
sary stock on hand to win the bride.
Then he will forage on his neighbor in
the same way. Thus is Hymen’s torch
kept lighted in Kaffir land.
“In some parts of Central Asia the
bridegroom has a tough time in getting
and keeping possession of his bride. In
the first place, he has to steal her, and
if she don’t object to being stolen the
couple may get to the wedding place
with whole skins, for if she don’t object
sheis not .compelled to give any alarm,
and the whole village wid not be at their
heels unless they are discovered by acci
dent while making off. If she gives an
alarm the bride stealer must make his
way hindered with the struggling damsel
and followed by a crowd of yelling
neighbors. The wedding place is the
hut of the young man’s parents. And
there he must take his bride before he
can claim the right to her hand. If she
has not lungs enough to summon rescu
ers nor muscle enough to get
away from the lover before the
hut is reached then she can
make no further protest against the mar
riage. The bridegroom can’t claim a
bride until he has a hut of his own to
take her to, and in taking her from her
father's house to his own he has another
gauntlet to run. The bride’s friends,
whether she be a willing bride or not,
have the right to assemble and attempt
to rescue her while she is en route. The
bridegroom throws his bride across his
back. She is always covered with a
scarlet garment. He is surrounded by a
number of youths living in the village,
and all the bride’s young lady friends in
her village, armed with stones and clubs,
batter and pelt the bridal procession and
fill the air with fiendish yells in their
efforts to keep the bride among them.
The buttle is waged in earnest, and both
bride and groom are always covered
with blood and bruises, even if they
succeed in reaching the boundary line of
safety. This they usually effect. If a
bridegroom fails to get away with his
bride lie is compelled to pay a ransom
in cattle or other gifts to her parents be
fore she will be delivered up to him.
“In other places in Asia the question
of a man’s title to a bride must be set
tled by a fierce fight between the friends '
of the contracting parties. If the bride- :
grooms friends are victorious, he has his j
inamorata as a trophy. If his friends are
victorious, he must pav such price as the
victors demand. All over that
country some ceremony of violence
or physical powers must pre- I
cede a wrestling. In certain
districts there must be a wedding match
between the bride and groom. If the
man wins, the woman must surrender
herself to him. If she wins, she has the
Option of .accepting him or not. Some
native tribes compel a foot race between
the bride an 1 bridegroom to decide the
question of marriage, and others require
a long chase on horsebeck.
“They have interesting marriage cere
monies in Norway and Sweden. The i
custom among the Swedish peasants is
exceedingly droll. When a girl is to be
married in Sweden she is dressed in her
bridal garments, and is placed in the
middle of a room. As she stands she is
surrounded by a circle of bright lights.
The groomsmen then enter, each carry
ing a lighted lamp. The villagers have
assembled about the cottage in the
mean time, and the doors ana windows
are thrown open. Through them who
ever wishes may enter, and the most
liberal criticisms of the bride are made.
Men and women walk about her and
talk freely to one another about her
' appearance, her character, her prospects,
etc. tine will hear-some young fellow
say:
“Weil, she’s to be married at last,
ch? About time, I think. It’s the first
offer she has had since 1 jilted her.*’
“ ‘Yes,’ some one else will say, ‘and I
pity the man who marries her.'
“ ‘But don’t, she look o'.d. though,
another spectator will say; ‘and won’t
she make the poor follow stand around?'
“Women wearing masks and different
disguises will always bo present for the
purpose of making remarks both pointed
and insulting, but everything is borne
patiently and in good part by the bride
and groom. The chaffing is kept up for
an JJliour or two, every one but the
friends of the parties are ordered to quit
the house, and the ceremony is per
formed.”—Note York Sun.
SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL
Attention is called by the Coal Trade
Journal to the fact that the value of
water as an aid to blasting, when used
in connection with explosives, is rapidly
becoming recognized in this country, as
well as in the larger mines and quarries
of Europe.
On a clear night, about 3,000 stars are
visible to the naked eye. A like num
ber in the opposite hemisphere makes a
total of about 0,000 that can be seen
without a glass. The telescopic stars,
unseen by the unaided eye on account of
their remoteness, are classified as high as
the fourteenth magnitude; and their
number is vastly greater, being reckoned
as high as 20,000,000.
Imitation black walnut can now be
manufactured very cheaply. One part of
walnut peel extract is mixed with six
parts of water, and the wood is coated
with the solution. When the material is
about half dry a solution of bichromate
of potash with water is rubbed on it,and
then your walnut is ready. In this way
excellent walnut can be made from poor
pine, and it is said to defy detection ex
cept upon very close examination.
The Mobangi, a large and important
tributary of the Congo, and probably
the lower portion of the River Velio, has
been explored by Rev. G. Grenfell in his
little steamer Peace from the Congo in a
mean direction of north by east for a
distar ce of between four hundred and
four hundred and fifty miles, including
the turnings of the stream. It is na,vi
gable for vessels of considerable size,
and its mean depth Js stated to be
twenty five feet.
The icebergs of the Southern ocean
are magnificently colored. The general
mass has an appearance like a sugar
loaf, with a slight bluish tint, except
where frosh snow resting on the topsand
ledges remains absolutely white. On
this ground-color there arc parallel
sroaks of cobalt blue of various intensi
ties. The coloring of the crevasses, caves
and hollows is of the deepest and purest
azure blue possible. It seems a much
more powerful color than that in the
ice of Swiss glaciers. The intensity of
the blue light received from the bergs is
such that the gray sky behind them ap
pears distinctly reddened —assuming the
complementary tint. Al night the bergs
hove a slight luminous glow, suggesting
that they are to a small extent phos
phorescent.
No date can be assigned to tho firs*-
bread, specimens having been found
among the remains of the mysterious
people who lived on the Swiss lakes be
fore the dawn of history. The bread of
the lake-dwellers was made from wheat,
barley and even poppy seeds, and was
baked between red-hot stones. By Chi
nese writers Ghing-Noung is reputed to
have been the first who taught men—
about 2,000 B. C. —the art of husbandry,
and the method of making bread from
wheat, and wine from rice. The baking
of bread was known in patriarchal ages
-see Exodus xii, 15—-and became a pro
session at Home in 170 B. C. Barley
bread was used in England in the time
of James 1., potato-bread is now eaten in
Ireland, and powdered codfish is made
into bread in Iceland.
The Treasury Waste Paper Room.
Down in the basement of the treasury
department, at Washington, is a room
in which about a dozen girls sit and sort
over the waste paper which has accumu
lated from the work of tho day before
by the 2,500 clerks in the room above.
All of lhe waste paper of the department
is transferred to this room by the sweep
ers at the close of each day. Then the
girls go over it carefully, piece by piece,
and they frequently make very valuable
discoveries. Not long ago 110,000 worth
of bonds were found in a waste basket
in the office of the comptroller of the
currency, and there was a great howl
about it at the time, but in the end no
body was punished for the gross candess
ness; but such large sums as this seldom
find their way into the sorting room. The
principal discoveries arc penholders and
stationery which has been accident
ally dropped into waste baskets.
Sometimes a valuable document disap
pears in an unaccountable manner from
the files of the department. The rooms
are ransacked, and every one connected
in the division becomes well nigh crazy.
As a last resort the waste paper room is
appealed to. In nine cases out of ten,
if the paper has been disposed of in that
way, the girls will find it. They have
become remarkably expert in sorting
over this rubbish. A girl will take a
mass of it in her hands, and, in less
than the time it takes to tell it, her
sharp eyes will have seen al),the different
niece*, and if there is even a scrap that
looks though it might be valuable, it is
carefully laid aside for future examina
tion. Experience has convinced the
treasury officials that these girls annually
save many timestheir salaries to the gov
ernment. The sale of waste paper is
one of considerable importance, and the
revenue each year is, in the course of
business, turned back into the treasury,
where it properly belongs.
A Serenade
Beneath thy tatties, Gsautoous mail.
Mai l of the starry eyes;
Ere he begins his serenade
Thy fathful lover sighs.
Fair Ilian shows tier silvery light;
The casement pray unbar,
And I will tou h for thee to night,
Sweet love, the light guitar.
I’d sing besides, but ask me not,
My own, my gut ling star,
This night, at least, for 1 have got
A touch of light catarrh.
, —Boston Courier.
THE HOME DOCTOR
Dyspepsia.
A most important part of the treat
nent of every case of nervous dyspepsia
s to secure and enforce thorough re*t.
The conditions existing being those of
nervous irritation and exhaustion more
or less profound, rest becomes one of tho
necessities of the case. Too often ner
vous dyspepsia occurs in persons who
tro carrying heavy loads in the way of
business cares, anxiety or grief, or who
suffer exhaustion from some form of
emotional disturbance, and sr, is next to
impossible to restore such persons to A
normal condition healthwise without re
lief from the causes which have operated
to produce the difficulty. While plenty
of exercise should be taken regularly
each day, the intervals between exercise
should be employed in more or less ab
solute rest. Lying out-of-doors, in a
hammock or on a cot, for hours at a
time, during pleasant weather, is a
means for restoring nervous tone and
vigor.— Lain of Life.
Cara or the Fars.
“Picking the cars” is a most mis
chievous practice; in attempting to do
this with hard substances an unlucky
motion has many a time pierced the drum
and made it as useless as a bursted rub
ber life preserver; nothing sharper or
harder than the end of the little finger,
with the nail pared ought, ever to be in
troduced into the ear, unless by a phy
sician Persons arc often seen endeavor
ing to remove the “wax” of the ear with
the head of a pin; this ought never to
bo done; first, because it not only en
dangers tho rupture of the ear by being
pushed too far in, but if not so far, it
may grate against the drum, excite in
flammation, produce an ulcer which may
finally cat all tho parts away; second,
hard substances have often slipped in,
and caused the necessity of painful,
dangerous and expensive operations;
third, the wax is manufactured by na
ture to guard the entrance from dust,
insects and unmodified cold air, and
when it has subserved its purpose it be
comes dry, scaly and light, and in thia
condition is easily pushed outside by new
formations of wax within. — Phrenological
Journal.
Hestless Children.
Mothers often complain that their
children arc wakeful and restless at
night. They seem well during the day,
but, as soon as they go to bed and fall
asleep, they moan, cry, grate the teeth,
rub the nose, and roll and thrash nearly
all night long. As a rule, such symptoms
are thought to be caused by worms, and
the unfortunate victims are freely
purged with “worm medicines," with a
view of curing their nocturnal “tan
trums.” Now, in nine cases out of ten,
the whole trouble is caused by indiges
tion and constipation. The child goes to
bed with its stomach full of indigestible
food. The quality and quantity of food
it has taken during the day has been
unfit for its powers of digestion, and
therefore acts as a constant irritant to its
entire system. The irritation of its
stomach and bowels by indigestible food
excites the brain and spinal cord, and
through these the whole system is kept
in a state of excitement. “Hence, then,
it is proverbial in early life that the
stomach being delicate and susceptible
to any disturbance, we should be most
careful to select a proper diet, to con
sider the quality of food that is sup
plied. io measure the capabilities of the
digestive system, and to deal with them
accordingly.”
A Page from Baby's Diary.
To day I saw papa sticking knife aud
fork into a chicken, and tho chicken
never moved. So I took a fork near me
and stuck it into kitten, lying on my lap;
the naughty Kitten sprang on the table
and upset the gravy-dish over the cloth.
Everybody jumped; some caught tho
kitten, some the dish, some wiped the
cloth. I never saw so much excitement.
I never created so much excitement as
that kitten did. Now, if they had
fixed that kitten on a chair ns they fixed
me she never would have jumped on the
table. Everything was taken away from
me then, so 1 played with a button on
my bib; the button came off, and I, try
ing to find out how it tasted, swallowed
if. From that moment everybody left
the table in a great hurry. Mamma took
me up, turned me on her knees, face
downward, and stuck a finger in my
throat until 1 thought I should choke to
death. After she hud half killed me she
began to cry, and screamed: “Send for
the doctsr!” Everybody looked nt me
as if they expected me to do something;
but I was so scared that I couldn’t do
anything. Then the doctor came, and
he laughed, and as I couldn’t laugh I
cried. My mother asked ever so many
questions of the doctor, but he only
shook his head and smiled, saying it
would be all right in tho morning. I
never heard any more about it, sa 1 sup
pose I was all right in the morning.
ll'du/hood.
Grecian Burial Customs.
A correspondent at Athens gives an
account of many curious burial customs
peculiar to Greece, which lately camo
to his notice. A piece of linen as wid*
as the body, and twice ns long, was
doubled, and a hole large enough tor
the head cut out of it. In this the body
was wrapped and then dressed in uew
clothes, and more especially new shoes.
Beneath the bead was placed a pillow
full of lemon leave*. In the mouth was
placed a bunch cf violets, and around
the temples a chaplet of flowers. These
are used only for the unmarried,
and must be white. Both head and feet
were tied with bands made for the pur
pose, which were unloosed at the edge
ol the grave when the coffin was about
to be closed. A small coin ?a relic of
the fee to the ferryman) was placed in
the palm of the hand. At Athens a soe
is dropped into the coffin. Tho greatest
attention is given to this point. In re
moving the body the feet always go first.
A priest came on three succes ive days
to sprinkle the room, fumigate it, and
repeat certain prayers, as for that period
afier death is was sappjsed to be haunt
cd. After burial women are hired to
keep a light burning over the grave until
the body is supposed to be decomposed.
To assist this, the bottom of modern
Greek coffins is of lattice work. Every
Sa irday the poor of Athens place on the
gravi s of the r friends eatable: c; the
sort they used to like.