f SERVANT GIRL PROBLEM. It Im a Hubjcct In Which the llonfte vtltcn or livery Clt Mixed Conn ' try Are Deeply Interested. 'J'hc bcrrtuil fjirl question, while "settled" time und time again upon paper, is Htill n very live issue among those who are moHt vitally interested the housewives of the country. Jn Aincricn it iH said Unit tho Inck of good help nl reasonable wages is (lie cause for so inaiiy people living In lints und hotels, and there is no iiniucdinte proHpcel of a change in this direction, ns good domcHtio servants are beeom ing more and more dlfllcult to obtain. Jn view of thin fact, it Ik Interesting to look nl the question ti8 ll is handled in other lands. Great Itritain clnima to he the best country In the world for good servants, from both points of view. A lending English journnl stales that "England's greatest industry is domestic service." The Ktntemenl sounds untrue, and yet the returns of the board of trade vouch lor 1,700.000 female domestic servants hi England and Wales, an against l,-10O,O00 men engaged in min ing, while farming Ings far behind and the rest of the trades nre nowhere. And there Is no fuss. All the scrub bing of floors, cooking of meals und making of beds are done without any of the banners, processions, oratory, strikes or lockouts of other employ ments. The "servanl problem" vexes the :oul of ninny an Kngllsh housewife, but to learn the value of the British domestic one must go abroad. In the households of the czarina of Kussia, the German empress, the queen of Sweden und Norway and the young Queen Helena of Italy, the English nursery governess Is a power behind the throne, and pretty nearly every reigning sovereign of Europe seems to Tinve been nursed and taught by nn English maid before ho passed on to 1hc throne. Jlut with all the foreign demand for English maids, there are conditions in ninny countries from which the most lnring would shrink. Even a downtrodden "slop-gap" -would not go to France nl the French wnges of 5 a year for the good do mestic or the fourpencc an hour of the visiting mnid, who corresponds in Paris with our Saturday charwoman. ThoU'rcnci maid Is very clever, and if she can get permission to pay the weekly bills, collects five per cent, commission from all the tradesmen, lint English wages would seem to her n fortune. Only in wealthy households tins she n chance to get plump. Ilurul England scarcely knows such tragic poverty as that which drives HUSSIAN MAIDS A1U3 HUMULB, women from many parts of Europe to abandon their own children and seek tMuployment a? nursemaids in the cities. The mountain women of the Pyre nees have a monopoly of nursing the children of the rich in Madrid, the girls 'from the valley of the Spree supply the like wnnt in Uerlin, and llreton or Norman women are the nurses of Parte, while Montenegrin peasants swarm to Homer In Paris one may know the nursemaid's prosperity b the length and splendor of her cap ribbons, trailing to the heels, and in the other capitals they wear beautiful peasant costumes. These "costume nurses," however they may havo suf fered by the wrench which tore them i from their native districts, have a very good time in service. By doctor's or- iders the "nurse" must not be crossed or, contrndh'ted, so rules both her mls- tres und the household with iron rigor, making herself as disagreeable - ias she pleases. She adopts the chil ttfruiu who are barred by etiquetto from knowing their own mother ex cept as n visiting stranger. . The qua'rtitest of all domestic service Is in Russia, where the peasants have only lntely beea released from slavery, aad for fear of starvation in winter flock to the houses of the nobles, where they 5mnsh the crockery in grateful Jret i- lr siu're board und lodging. The Russian lad, alwoya merciful to the poor, finds her house overrun by useless but htimblo retainers with swarms of children, and when she hopes to rest there is euro to be n for lorn maid scratching the door like a little rat because she dare not knock. To stop the scratching she Is admit ted, then, falling on her knees, kisses the foot of the mistress, pleading with tears that she did not know it was wrong to boll potatoes in n silver dish. As to the upper servants, they march Into the most private rooms, disdain ing to knock at the door, and, if n guest is dressing, the maid thinks nothing of taking a short cut through the room rather than go 'round by the passage. If the guest Is displeased they will abjectly kiss his hands, won dering what on earth lias put him out of ills temper. Cincinnati Commercial Tribune. OLD MEXICAN VASE. Tlir Muni MiiK'nlllcr-nt .Specimen of An clcnt American Ceramic Ho Vnr Discovered. Among the strange and valuable ob jects which have been recently in stalled In the Mexican hall of the Amcrlcnn Museum of Natural History, New York, of which Mr. Marshall H. Savllle Is curator, Is a wonderful terra cotta jar, designed and decorated in imitation of n turkey. This is con sidered the most magnificent speci men of ancient American ceramics so far discovered. Besides the striking and artistic turkey head handle, the most cxtraor- t i , v ? AN ANCIENT AMERICAN VASE, dlnnrv feature of the iar is its orna mentation of solid gold leaf, with1 The Ilev. H. P. Perkins, of Pno-ting-which it was profusely decorated in , fu, China, says there is a greatdemand former times, many layers of which for native schools and churches there, still remain on the jar. It is consld- Chemistry students hi the Univer cred to be a priceless example, illus- sity of. Heidelberg are compelled by trntlng the culture and workmanship the rules of the institution to insure of that mysterious civilization which their lives. flourished n thousand years ago in The largest electrotechnical insti' Mcxico, I ut(, ,, wuroni! has hist been completed The jar is thought to have been a funeral or votive offering, says the roof is lI8ed ns nn experimental sta New York Herald, which was one of tion fop wlreless telegraphy. wie wnui II1UIIUHI-.Y riii-B oi me people of that time. Its age cannot be accurately stated but it probably reaches back for a thousand years or more. It was found by Carl Lum- holt, during one of his exploring ex- pedltions. It came to light while dig-, ,,l,wr n a nrivntn irnrdnn in ih. rttv tJ-"M " D - - 'J of Topio, which had evidently been In remote times the site of some tem 'ple or wealthy burial place. Two skeletons were unearthed. Around the neck of one were found 26 balls of solid gold, also a large breastplate ornament of gold. IDLE RICH ARE SCORED. Former l'HMtor of Koekcfellcr Snya Thtre la n Hnpldly Groivinir CI una Which Hum So llltfht to Live. Rev. Dr. W. II. P. Faunce, president oi uruwn uuoeiMij, uiKiuiuici tmmur of the Fifth avenue Raptist church in New ork city, which Jo in D Roelce- feller and his son attend, delivered n QUittliillU 1ULJ11JVU I V II1U MUUltll,) iWlOUit' class of this country in the baccalaure ate sermon to the graduating clnse of Prown university at Providence, It. I. deuce, R. 1. Dr. Paunce said: "The man who has no wish to serve his fellows, but only to use them, has no moral right to be here. He may shelter himself behind legal documents, behind the pride of birth, or the Insolence of office, but if hu is not here as a willing, loyal serv ant, he Is at odds with the universe, he Is anti-social, anti-Christian, and has no moral right to live. "We see a rapidly growing leisure class in America who are tempted to interpret life as a series of rights u-lll,nnt ,lnlt..u ii ml iilmiKiirne ivltl.nul h responsibilities. They conceal mental vacuity behind the arts of the caterer and upholsterer nnd contribute to society nothing more novel than a simian bnnquet, nnd by lives of 'luxury and alimony' sow seeds of social revolt whose harvest their unwelcome chil? dren must surely reap." Tin' AliMMit-Mlinlnl Man. "A bright spring day," she "makes mo liku a ,?Irl a grain." said, "You don't look it," nit umed the absent-minded man, who wished to . i. ,11.1.. be complimentary. Brooklyn Uajjl The Voter and the Caucus By HON. ROBERT M. LA FOLLETTE Governor of Wisconsin always has manifested the same willingness to participate in the affairs of government, to perform his duties in the elections, to serve in the rank and file' of his party in the campaigns, that he has to defend his country in the field when the sterner duties of war summoned him in its defense. A close study of the history of caucuses and conventions will convince anv unbiased mind, in search for truth, that the voter has been gradually eliminated as a factor, after long, patient trial, because the delegate system has utterly failed to reprc sent him or to reflect his opinion in its results. - No man enjoys being made a puppet of, and to rally to' the- caucus only to have his effort defeated by a well-organized and well-disciplined minority, or, if delegates arc chosen who seem to reflect the will of the majority in the caucus, to discover later that through the complicated systcin of delegating and rcdelegating their authority, the nominations finally made arc the result of the dickers and deals and combinations and commercial transactions which rule modern conventions. It would1 be strange, indeed, if the citizen should continue to be interested' in the ' proceedings of a system productive of such results. Abolish the law which now make elections an honest reflection of the will of the voter i and introduce the same elements of uncertainty and fraud which are an inherent part of nominations through convention delegates, and the interest of the citizen in the general election would fail as certainly a? it has failed in the preliminary. I It is not enough to say that the voter has his opportunity to attend upon the caucus and express his choice as to delegates. This is to of fer the form of the thing for the substance. If the voter, time after time, casts his ballot and elects the delegates of his choice only to dis cover in the end that he has been in some way betrayed, and the de cision of the majority in fact reversed, it is inevitable that he should as a serious-minded citizen refuse further to participate in the farcical proceedings. It is this that has driven the majority of the voters from the caucus until it is only in times of profound public concern and in tense public feeling that even a respectable minority of the voters are represented in the caucus and convention system. SCHOOL AND CHURCH. in Vienna at. a cost of $G00,O00. Its jev Morton c Andrews, rector of gt pnul, K ii chlirch of 0sh- j restaurant to fl , , , , , , .. ., , r , ; f Woken farm and grocery store nvuntnge. Ibshop Grafton forbade the enterprise and now Mr. Andrews has withdrawn from the church. Mr, Andrews has been an extreme ritual ist. He drew no salary from the church, insisting upon the right to support himself by his business under takings. In addition to the paid choir, the paid treasurer and the paid collector of church revenues, which have become buch prominent features in many churches in this country, a prominent church in New York has a movement on foot to raise "an educational endow ment fund of $100,000, the interest of which is to be used: 1. To pay cduca- tional experts who shall teach the tencbcrSi 2. To pny tlle heiul of (le. I pnrtjncnts In the BchooK 3. To ,om. t ns fnp I1S possible all teachers who will accept remuneration, pro vided they can demonstrate their fit ness based upon preparation conform ing to established standards of re quirement." 1'i'jOf. Pryee, in his biographical study of Pishop Fraser, of Manchester, tells of a clergyman of Fraser's diocese who had knocked n man down who had insulted him. The bishop wrote him a letter of reproof, pointing out that ex posed as the Church of Knglandwas to much criticism on nil hands, her minis ters ought to be very careful of their demeanor. The offender replied by saying: "I must regretfully admit that, being grossly Insulted, and for- j i t i l i t 1 1 jji fUUIIlg HI Uic Ul-.u HI UlC IllOIIieill UIC ;rlt!c1 position of the Church of Fug- land, 1 did knock the man down, etc." Prnser was delighted with the turning jf the tables on himself, and afterward .nvi'ted the clergyman to visit him. 11 In 13iii'cnmIoiin. Piano Teacher Don't you think, Mrs. Smith, that your daughter plays ivlth a good deal of expression? Mrs. Smith 1 never noticed that ihe said anything '.vhen she was play- r !, I.,,t I niii .(ll'PV In K11V lhnt ennm ofb,MPtSmUh's expressions at times tilniv frihifiil.Iinstii Trim. i ,,.!,, It is no longer open to dispute that the nomination of candidates for office has in a very large measure passed out of the hands of citizen. For many years it has been popular with certain theoretical writers upon the subject to place the responsibility for this entirely upon the citizen himself, and to charge him with dereliction of duty and want of interest in pub lic affairs, absorption in business- interests and pursuit of fortune being assigned as primary causes of neglect of these elementary duties oi citizenship. But it 'is fair to say that the citizen HUMOROUS. "Papa, what is eccentricity?" "The foolishness of a rich man, my son." Town Topics. Pirst Lawyer "The judge seems quite sweet on tlie widow." Second Lawyer "What you might call 'legal tender.' " Princeton Tiger. Matter of Taste She "Are you fond of birds?" He "Sure thing! I simply ndore them." She "Which is your favorite?" He "Quail on toast." Chicago Daily News. Mistaken Identity "I think I have met you before. Aren't you timekeep er for the Eloss & Gloss company?" , "No, sir. 1 am a singer of topicnl songs and know nothing at all about keeping time." Kansas City Journal. "You were very lenient with that conductor," said the first passenger. "Oh," replied the other, "we're all lia ble to make mistakes." "Perhaps you were a conductor yourself once." "No, sir; I'm a weather fore'easter." Phil adelphia Press. ' "So your sister 'is married?" "Yes,, and she did very well splendidly. You have heard of the duke of West minster?" "Oil, yes. Did she marry into that, family?" "Well, yes, so. to, speak. She married a nephew of one of the duke of Westminster's cooks. He is the driver of a 'bus!" Loudon. Tit-Pits. And They Did. The prisonar told a. remarkably straight story. All' who. heard him were impressed. Many were the comments made about the courtroom, such as: 'Mothinks there is something in that story." "lie Rounded very much as if he were tell- ' ing the truth." All agreed that his words carried conviction with them. And so it, proved. For the jury, with out leaving the box, rendered a verdict of "Guilty." Paltlmore- American. How Could Jslu-f She had been naughty, there was no doubt about that, and her maninia was administering corporal punishment. All morning she hnd been perverse, and now, as the maternat hand fell with depressing force upon her small person, she yelled lustily. "He still, 1 tell you!" said her moth er, without interrupting the business in hand. "Stop crying! Stop this mln ute!" The small person turned defiantly. "Well, how am 1 agoin' to stop cry in'," sjie sobbed, "when you keep n-spankin' me all the time to make me cry?" N. Y. Times. Hutlrcly IllKht. Tess 0, yes, I feel pretty sure of him. 1 rejected him when lie proposed first because I was positive he'd try again. Jess And you were right. He did try again, and 1 accepted him,- Stray Stories. HANGER FOR A KETTLE. gfioulrt lie din 1e of Strrrojt Material mill l'ut Up Klriuly und with CoiiKlUrrnlilc Crer. An exceedingly bimple ytflonvcn ient hanger for a kettle Is slVown. Let a represent a post 4x30 inahes; b piece 3x-l edgewlH?rwiUi three-quarter-inch bolt through it and the post, so b can turn easily; c is a small iron loop-like rod on wagon end gate, so SWING FOR, HANDLING'.ICETTtE: chain can turn easily; d is a-ohain running-from c to c, which is'ni one-half-inch hook for hanging chain. On the other hook, e, at other end of rod',, b, hang the kettle. This nrrangement al lows the kettle to be swung off the fire easily at any moment, and with out legs or anything under the kettle to interfere with building a fire. Suck a hanger is easy to make but should be- made of only good, strong material and pnt up substantial and firm. IE. C. Beergisser, in Farm and Home. SMALL GERMAN FARMS!. OTirev wf n. lunrtor Section' Ih Chn hIiIovpiI n Wealthy I'crHoii liv the Old Country. G:. W. Grimmer, a farmer and feed er at Greeley, Kan., who is a native of Germany, in commenting on the visit of the German student of agriculture to this country at this time said to a Drovers'' Telegram representative: "If a-German farmer; that is, the average- coimtrynian, has a ten or Iff ncre tract of land, he Is considered somebody. Many farmers own only five acres, but they plant so many dif ferent kinds of grains, vcgetnblesand the like and till and fertilize the ground so well that the five acres is ample to support a generoiisjCpd family throughout the year. A qi!j ter section of land is a moderate-sizcl fnrm in America, but in Germanytho owner of such a tract of land would be considered a very wealthy person. Another thincr in which American and German farm life is different is that the German's farm is rarely in one body. The land there is so valuable and' it is divided into such small tracts that a farmer often finds himself own ing a couple of acres in n body, an aero or two half a mile away and four or five acres In another direction. The fnrms nre thus nothing more than good-sized gardens. Many a western Kansas farm has a larger garden and family orchard than the average G'er man farm. A farm in the old country costs from $200 nn acre upi"' THE AGE OF A HORSE. A Old JVew York Ilornpninn'M Ade nn How Not to Mnlio- u 31 In take Ahout It., "The groom that came to Chester with Old Abdullah, the sire of Ham bletonian, 55 years ago," said a vet eran Orange county horseman to a New York Sun reporter; "toTd mo how to tell the age of a horse, and it has run in my head ever since. This is the way it ran,'" nnd he re pented the following rhyme: To tell the ape of any horse, Inspect the lower Jaw, of course. The six front teeth the tale will tell. And every doubt and fear dispel. The middle "nippers" yon be)iold Bofore the colt is two weeks old; Before eight weeks two more will romo; Eight months, the "corners" cut the gum. Tho outside grooves will dlsnppear From middle two In Just one year; In two yenrs from the second pair; In three tho "corners," too, nre bare. At two. the middle "nippers" drop; At three, the second pair enn't stop; When four years old, the third palrsoea; At live, a full new set he shows. The deep black spots will pass from view. At six yenrs from the middle two; The second pair at seven years; -y At eight, the spot ench "corner" clears From middle "nippers" upper Jaw, At nine the black spots will withdraw, Tlie second pair at ten are white; Eleven anus tae corners light. As time goes on the horsemen know The oval teeth three-sld.'d grow; They longer get. project before ' Till twenty, when w know no more. Many a little chick dies .from what ia supposed to be some mysteiious ail ment, when the trouble is uii-ply lice. Commercial Poultry, If