-ir v. V
piiUsmouth Journal
C. F. MIt ItilA. fublUbrr.
ASK
ru v-VJ Beak s
CopvriirtiU WW. by
4.'. C the Author J
mine as any ia
Australia, is the
Gilt Edge, and I
should have
been a rich man
years ago," said
Alec, ''if it
hadn't been or Bob Jones' parrot."
"Why, what on earth did the parrot
do to the mine?"
"Do to the mine? Oh, nothing;
nothing whatever. It only ruined it,
that was all."
"Kuined the mine!"
"Yes, it did as far as I was con
cerned, at any rate."
'But how was that?"
"Well, I'll tell you. Bob and I had
been out prospecting', aDd landed on a
really pood thing', and Bob went home
to England tj pet up a syndicate to
work the reef, lie had some friends of
the right sort, men with money, and
the pluck to back a pood tip when tney
pot one. Well, he came back in three
months with the money to start with,
and we very soon pot to work, and it
looked a moral certainty that at the
end of a year or so we should be able to
sell the Gilt Edge at a swinging figure to
a company. But we reckoned without
Bob's beastly parrot For when Bob
went home he bad heard a sonff at some
music hall or other. It was all the rape
then, with Ta-ra-ra-booin-de-ay for a
chorus. An idiotic thinp anyhow, but
it was catchy, and Bob and 1, in our pood
spirits, were perpetually at it. All day
lonp it was Ta-ra-ra this and Ta-ra-ra
that, and as Bob had shown me how a
woman in London, Lottie somethinp, I
remember, sang it, we were always
Ligh-kiekiug and trying- to wipe the
ground with our back hair.
"We were a couple of youDg fools,
no doubt, but it did no harm. I dare
eay we should have pot sick of it in
time. But Bob had caupht a younp
parrot, the bush all round was simply
swarming with them, and he taught it
the air of Ta-ra-ra, and it was funny
enough, when we were in luck's way
and everything looked rosy, to hear the
bird whistling it, for to g;ve the devil
his due it used sometimes to chime in
with it, when Bob and I were talkinp,
in the neatest way in the world. But
one day the parrot was missing. It had
bitten through a bar of its cage, made
by Bob out of a whisky case, and was
pone. We were sorry at the time, I re
member, and we put the cage outside
our hut with a lot of sugar and stulf
all about it. in the hope of the parrot's
coming back. If we had only bhot it!
"But one day as we were poinp across
to the m'.ne we suddenly heard the
well-known refrain from the top of a
puin. We stopped dead, and while I
stayed to watch the parrot's move
ments. Bob ran back for the cape, which
we put on a bit of open pround as
temptingly as we could, and then stoxi
by, a poou way off, to watch results.
While we were waiting, we were as
tonished to hear Ta-ra-ra-boom from
another tree behind us, and immediate
ly afterwards Ta-ra-ra-boom from an
other direction, and then the truth
flashed on us. Bob's parrot had been
teaching all the others Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ayl
And so it was. There was not
a bird in the bush that did not know it,
and there were thousands of them. We
laughed at first, so did the men at the
miue. There were twelve of them, all
ver3 decent, well-behaved fellows. But
the parrots kept on at it, all the morn
ing. Then they slacked off about noon,
when they generally have a sleep, and
commenced again about four, and went
on till it was dark. By bedtime we had
pot tired of the joke The fun hid all
petered out of the thing.
'By da3-break next morning the
bird:; were at it again, and all the time
that we were getting breakfast ready
and eating it the wretched brutes kept
steadily on. Ta-ra-ra-boom . To add
to the exasperation of it not one in a
hundred ever finished the line, but
broke off at the 'boom' Conversa
tion was impossible with this mono.
onous obligato of Ta-ra-ras going on,
and even sitting still to breakfast
seemed difficult. We were all very
short-tempered by the time the meal
was finished, and as we went out of the
hut I saw Bob take up his pun. We
pot to work, but it was just aw ful, 1
tell you. trying to do anything with
those parrots all about. If they had
all talked at once it wouldn't have
been so bad, or if they had kept on '
talking without any stoppages. But
they used to do it one at a time, at
irregular intervals, and from all sorts
of unexpected directions. One would
whistle it out loud, the next would
drop its voice to a confidential whis
per, the third one wheezed out the
words as if it had asthma, the fourth
would put it as a question in a rollick
ing, jocular way. It was fairly mad
dening trj-ing to do anything with
parrot saying Ta-ra-ra-boom at inter
val of a minute on all sides of you. I
could see the men pausing in their
work in suspense, waiting for the next
Ta-ra-ra to come, and as for attempt
ing to talk, it was out of the question.
"If you opened your mouth to speak
Ta-ra-ra-boom a parrot overhead would
scream out, and when you got your an
swer you had to take another Ta-ra-ra
mixed up with it. Bob was giving
some directions to one of the men.
Look here, so and so, I expect the
(Ta-ra-ra-boom) up here to day, and
you must have that bucket-rope in or
der, lor if La ieea it as it La ho wiil say
i - j r
(Ta-r a-rib-boom-de-ay) end Bob
stopped short, looked savagely up into
the gum trees, and then walked to the
teat. Ta-ra-ra-boom, said a parrot, in
a loud aside, as he disappeared within.
And then Bob came out with his pun in
his hand. Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay, cried a
parrot in the heartiest jovial voice pos
sible. Up went the pun, and a parrot
came slipping, bumping down through
the branches. It fell at my feet not
quite dead. It pave itself a sort of
shake, tried to roll over on to its feet.
bu.t;fell back, and then it opened one eye,
looked at m and then said, in a posi
tive emphatic kind of voice as if it was
no use my crying to argue with it or
contradict it Ta-ra-ra-boom and died.
Bung went the gun again, and down
came another parrot.
"With the same irritating irregulari
ty, the same exasperating changes of
voice and direction, the pertinacious
parrots went on, while we all set to
again, silent, dogged and bad tem
pered. There was no conversation.
Only an oath now and again, dropping
on the air in a sullen, shell-fire fash
ion, and contrasted queerly with the
idiotic payety of the parrots. From
angry looks to words, and so to blows.
Two of the men began to tight. Ta-ra-ra-boom!
cried the nearest parrot in a
voice of delight, and the men went at
it savaeely, while the birds, with the
lucky way they have, hit in so pat
sometimes, with a Ta-ra-ra-boom, that
it souDded like a 'Bravo!' after a well
placed blow. This made the men all
the madder. How it ended I don't
know, for I went away to wind up the
man down the shaft, who had been for
gotten all this time. He came up pro
fane and furious, and insulted me. 1
dismissed him on the spot, and then
there was another row, and somehow
the angry spirit spread, and Bob and I
at last foud ourselves looking on at a
general melee. Bob, with one eye only,
as a 'phid' of misdirected clay had tem
porarily shut up the other.
"In the middle of all this rumpus
who should step out of the bush but
the inspector, and just as he did so a
chunk of quartz knocked his hat off.
He insisted on the arrest of the
offender, but the order was too big to
execute, and the end of it was that h9
and his posse went off back to town,
and reported a state of riot at the Gilt
Edge. 2iext day. Bob and I, the
captains of the shift, with half a dozen
other men, were on our way to explain
to a magistrate and pay the penalty
for an assault on 'the authorities.
When it was all over and we had got
back, leaving three of our number be
hind us in custody for 'contempt of
court,' we found the place half de
serted, and the remaining men lying
about idle, plaj-ing cards and quarrel
ing, while the parrots overhead cried
Ta-ra-ra-boom in response to every
oath. When they heard of the men in
jail, they went off in a body to pet
their chums out, and Bob and I found
ourselves alone in camp with the con
founded parrots. After the excite
ment of the previous day our nerves
were, perhaps a bit shakj-, but any
how we thought Ta-ra-ra worse than
ever. We stuffed our ears full of wad
ding, but the wretched refrain was
running in our heads, so that we found
ourselves humming it at every turn,
and when we took out the wadding to
speak to each other the parrots were
still at their Ta-ra-ra-boom! But we
got the camp into order, and, working
like riggers all the time, waited for
three days for the men to return, and
then we went into town after them.
None of them would come back and
face Ta-ra-ra-boom. So we had to get
another shift, and by and by we started
again.
"But almost the same things hap
pened, thouph worse. For the men
after two daj-s of it were so infuriated
by the parrots that they would not
work. They loafed about the bush all
day with revolvers and lumps of stone.
A passionate longing for the blood of
the parrots possessed them. So over
whelming was the mastery of this fero
cious thirst for pore that, not content
-vJ
"is rnir to throw a bottle."
with perpetual fisticuffs, they pro
ceeded to duelling1 with revolvers, and
from this to busting-up the machin
ery of the mine, setting fire to our hut,
and. most astonishing of all. an old
Scotchman was actually -seen in his un
poverable f u-y to throw a bottle three
parts full of whisky at a parrot! It
was now our 'urn to seek assistance
from the authorities. But so exasper
ated was the neighborhood for Ta-ra-ra-boom
had by this time spread from
our camp over the whole of the district
that when it was known we were in
town to prosecute our men at the mine,
popular feeling ran so high apainstus
that the police advised us to make a
bolt for it. Which we did, and at once.
Nor did we dare to go back. We should
probably have teen lynched if we had.
So there was nothing for it but ta sell
the mine with the plant on it, as a po
inp concern. It was pat up without
reserve, and, amid jeers and cries of
Ta-ra-ra-hoom-de-ay, ;he (Jilt Edge
was knocked down to )U' own brace
man for a hundred pou-ds! So we were
thrown on the world again, and from
that day to this I have ntr chanced
on a bit of luck again.
"Bob? Oh. Bob is in the Yarra Yarra
asylum down in Melbourne. He went
clean off his chum, poor chup. He was
a right gixd fellow-, was Bob, but he
made an awful mistake ia teaching
tnat parrot 'Ta-ra-ra-boom-de-ay.'"
The idea cf the balloon first oc
curred to the Montgoifier brothers
from seeing a large piece of paper fall
over the tire, become inflated with
smoke and hot air, rise and sail away.
Silas was of Latin origin, oceaning
a countryman.
Tig".
nd
FRUITS OF PROTECTION.
.Republican Rule liesponsibla for Social
ist ic Demonstrations.
The Coxey movement is chiefly sig
nificant as an expression of the social
istic tendencies that have developed
under republican rule .nd protectionist
principles. In France the doctrine of
protection has been accepted by the
socialists in its logical ccviseqnences,
and men are saying to the state: "Since
protection makes price hich. give us
also protection for wa es. Fix a mini
mum scale, and let the state compel
emp'.oyers f observe it."
There was no principle more essen
tially embodied in the foun lations of
Atuerier.n liberty th:m the principle o?
individual liberty the independence
of the citizen. The state was sov
ereign only because he. the citizen,
gave it of his own sovereignity. It
was his creation; he owed noth
ing to the state but loyal t and
Obedience to necessary laws. The state
owed all to him. This spirit gave
the dignity and strength that char
acterized the men of America. In its
destruction there has been no influence
more potent than the doctrine of pro
tection. In its very essence it assumes
that one set of individuals is not as
strong as another set of individuals,
that s. iu:m isn't ;:b!e to .stand up be
fore the v.-or' I smd win his own" way
through it. In practice, it has fostered
the idea that one class must be inaia
to contribute to another and far small
er class; that t be government has the
l ight to interfere in the affairs of its
citizens and determine how- much of
one man's goods shall be given to an
other m;;n. It has m-ide the govern
ment a part of and a party to the
money-getting machinery of the fav
ored class, and has made money-getting
a governmental function, leaving the
minds of the citizens with no sensj of
their personal independence and indi
vidual responsibilities. We are no
longer a nation of sovereigns, but of
dependents. So paternalism drifts into
socialism, ami so protection comes back
to the protected in the appeal of
Coxey 's "army" for help.
In this country the masses have not
yet learned to apply the logic of the
situation; but they are fast learning it.
It is no new idea; the inevitable conse
quences of protection were foreseen
years ago by studerts of sociological
tendencies. So long ago as lbol Cavour,
the Italian economist, said:
'I maintain that the most powerful a'.ly of
socfcilisa. in its logical relations, is the doctrine
of protection. It sew out from absolutely the
sU" principle. Reduced to its sitsplt st terms,
it aniraiB the riphi arnl uuty of peverumcnt to
intervene in the employment ana distribution
cf capital; it aflirnvi '.hat the f unction and mis
sion of government are to substitute its moro
enliehteue-J decisions for the freedocision of the
individual. If those principles should become
rejorriizej as inccntcslably true, I do not t-ee
what answer could b'. mide to the working
classs and their rpresen'.itivea when they
catne to the eoverr.meut and said: 'You believe
:s the ri-rht an I dity of r"-ulatinj the dis
tribution of cipitol why not also tan-1 up the
regulation of production and wa.-es? Why not
establish povernnieut workshops:' "
Germany and France, and now the
United States, have verified these
wc rds. The proposition is so self-evident
that it scarcely needs discussion.
Speaking of Mr. Leon Say's proposi
tion that protection innsibly leads to
"nationalism," a French authority on
economical questions lays down the
principle that "between protection and
socialism the line of distinction is very
difficult to perceive." A Frenchman
defined the difference as being that
the protectionist was a rich man,
while the socialist was a pauper.
Undoubtedly, if the robber barons
are risrht, Coxey is also right, and so
are the populists, and with cure jus
tice on the side of the latter, for their
needs are greater. The populists are
but the natural outgrowth of republic
anism and protection.
Let Coxey blow his trumpet long and
lustily at the gates of the robber
barons. It is his turn now. Louisville
Courier-JournaL
NEGRO LYNCHING.
A Chance for the Kepubltcan Moral Ex
tractor to Get in His Work.
The reported lynching of a negro
brings several reflections forcibly to
the mind. One of the first reflections
that thus come thronging is the reflec
tion how easy it must have been, in ex
citing times, to write "editorials" for
the republican press. It is true that so
far as the substance or the style of the
articles were concerned no great diffi
culty attended the composition of them
in off years. Only when the party was
wrought up beyond the critical point
by the danger to the nation, the edit
orial writer used to dismiss even his
usial very small fear of being laughed
at and let himself go with entire reck
lessness. The lynching of a negro wa-s
a godsend to him. or, to speak less pro
fanely, a windfall. He squared his
elbows to extract from it the most
promiscuous and bewildering morals.
One of them was that the south was in
the saddle Another would naturally
be that the lynching showed the sur
vival of the spirit of caste, of southern
race hatred, and of the democratic con
tempt for the toiling masses and the
desire of the democrats to bring the
toiling masses into contempt by hang
ing representatives of tne toiling
masses without process of law. These
morals are all more or less dislocated
by the circumstances of the latest
lynching. It did not take place in any
southern state, but in Pennsylvania,
the seat and citadel of current repub
licanism, which gave a majority against
the democrats and the Wilson bill at
the last election of something like two
hundred thousand. The extraction of
republican morals from the lynching
thus requires great ingenuity, and we
shall look with curiosity to see what
use the moral extractor makes of his
unpromising material. X. Y. Times.
Who has ever heard a protection
ist give a valid reason for his belief?
His reasons for believing in protection
would apply equally well for belief in
polygamy or plutocracy or phonog
xpphy. Everything that he can see
has happened under polygamy, plu
tocracy and phonography has happened
under protection and what has hap
pened has had the same relationship to
the one as to the other. He thinks it
was protection, and not phonography,
but oniv because he is told to think so.
X. Y." World.
' Morel "" 'i"
prices. 1 For pi-
REPUBLICAN ATTACKS.
Shifting the Ii'.amn Due to the Itlihtlns
31cKibIev Art.
The effrontery of the republican lead
ers and organs in charging upon the
democratic party and especially upon
the administration the stringency
through which we have passed and the
resulting consequences to the business
of the country is the most brazen thing
of the kind the country has ever wit
nessed. If these leaders and organs
hrrd any sense of responsibility or of
fehauie they would be doing penance ia
sackcloth and ashes for the sad effects o
the cont'net and reckless mismanage
ment of their party instead of trying to
foist the responsibility upon the
shoulders of their political oppo
nents. For it is as clour as day to the
intelligence of the world that, in so far
as the troubles from which the country
has been suffering and still suffers can
bo traced to the action of any political
party, they are directly traceable to the
action of the republican party.
Largely, of course, they are due to
causes with which the country has had
long cxperienci. to extravagance and
over-confidence in business an.l to the
undue extension of credits which can
not with entire justice be charged to
r.ny party. But we challenge success
ful contradiction of the statement that
the bulk of cur business troubles are
due directly to the extravagant ex
penditures of the republican r-rty
while in power and to the class legis
lation which bears the label of that
party. That the result did not show
itself until that party had been driven
from power by an indignant and out
raged people does not change the fact.
It was clearly foreseen while the party
was in power and in the main as clear
ly predicted; and it was because- it was
so seen and predicted that the party
was driven from power.
That the Sherman silver law was in
great part responsible for our financial
troubles has been clearly, though
grudgingly, admitted by t!ie more in
telligent leaders of the republican
party. That the MelCinley act is also
responsible to a great degree is suscep
tible of the clearest proof. To it can
be traced directly the failing off in our
exportation of breadstuffs and other
staples which has been so important a
factor in the diminution of our trade. I
This Aras clearly foretold. The framers !
of the McKinley act were distinctly ;
warned that the imposition which that
act contemplated n oar purchases of
foreign goods meant retaliation in
kind. It required no gift of prophecy
to utter tbe warning. It was simply
the voice of all experience; and the end
merely confirmed the teaching of the :
past. Great Britain is nothing if not
commercial- She buys of those to
w hom she can selL Finding that she '
could not sell to us she lought her
wheat as well as she could of Russia
rnd the Argentine Republic, and her
cotton of India, sending in exchange 1
what she had to sclL It was not senti
ment, but business. Sh has bought of
us what she was compelled to, but she
has liought no more; and the conse
quence has been an enormous falling
off in our trade, sufficient alone to ac
count for half of the disaster which has
befallen our business interests.
The McKinley act was responsible
also, very larcely, for the overproduc
tion in manufactures which has glutted
our markets and brought about stagna
tion. It has been the result of protec
tive tariffs from their first inception.
The first effect is to unduly stimulate
manufacturing and thereb- competi
tion. Then follows that falling ia
prices over vhich the short-sighted
protectionist gloats as the fruits of his
pet policy. The next step is tbe scram
ble to unload and this soon results in
stagnation. There is nothing new in
the process. It is as old as protective
tariffs are.
The most absurd of the pretenses by
which it is sought to justify the attack
on the democratic party is that the
foundation of the trouble has been
dread of tariff change. It is undoubt
edly true that the inaction and delay
in congress has produced, and is pro
ducing a feeling of uncertainty which
militates against the revival for which
we are all waiting-. But it is arrant
nonsense to talk of the panic, so called,
having been produced by anxious an
ticipation of tariff changes. Aside
from the fact that the blighting effect
of the McKinley act is abundantly suf
ficient to account for the mischief done,
it is notorious that because of the evils
it foresaw from that act the country
voted overwhelmingly for those very
tariff changes which it is now repre
sented as looking forward to with
eloom and for eboding. Detroit Free
Press.
OPINIONS AND POINTERS.
While McKinley is fighting to
keep free wool out of the country, the
Chinese are being smuggled into his
state by squads. The major never did
favor placing duty on cheap foreign
labor. Detroit Free Fress.
The republicans of the senate ob
struct the settlement of the tariff ques
tion in the hope that by keeping the
country unsettled until November they
will be able to control the next con
gress. This vicious policy ought to be
well understood, and it will be. N. Y.
World.
Th tariff bill cannot become the
law of the land before July 1. The de
bate in the senate is to begin the first
week in April, and its discussion wiU
last at least six weeks. It then goes to
the conference committee, after which
it will be submitted to both houses.
Albany Argus.
There are just three things that
are absolutely essential to the exis
tence of the democratic party just now,
and they are these: (1) That a tariff
reform bill be passed. (2) That a
satisfactory tariff-reform bill be
passed (3) That a satisfactory tariff
reform bill be passed speedily. -Indianapolis
SentineL
There is no man so poor," says a
protectionist contemporary, "that he
will be spared pa ing a tax on sugar if
he cats any of it." Thus proclaims this
oraclo when the democrats propose to
levy a tariff tax; when the republicans
levy such taxes it insists that they are
paid, not by the consumer, but by the
foreigner. Louisville Courier-JournaL
ju i. i
FOR YOUNG PEOPLE
THE OUTGROWN DOLL'S LAMENT
Oh. llBten well
While to tale I tell
Of a poor unfortunate dolly,
Who was born la France
And civen t y chance
To a sweet little girl named Polly.
A wee little Kirl
With hair all a-curl.
And dimpled cheeks and shoulders
When I and Bhe
Took an airing, we
Were the Joy ot all beholders.
Day after day
As time pascd away.
We'd nothing to do but keep jollyi
Cut it could not last.
For she crew so fast.
This dear little girl named Polly!
First she was seven.
Eight, nine, ten, eleven,
Afed then bhe was four times three I
She outgrew her ?rib,
tier apron and bib.
And now bhe has outgrown mot
Forgotten, forlorn.
From night till morn
I ia left In the playroom corner;
From morn till night
In the same sad plight.
Like a pit-less Lituo Jack Horner.
And Polly, she
At school must fee.
Or else the piano strumming.
While I sit here
Growin; old and queer,
Vainly expectins her coining.
With a frozen stare
At the walls I glare.
My mind to tie C'-ieon giviajr.
If the life of a dolly
Outgrown by Polly
Be really worth the living:
Julia Scbayer, in St Nichol
TRAVELS OF A DOG.
An Albany Canine Wlio I a Pet of
Uncle
Mm't I'ost mantrr.
Ownc3' went to Chicago, Cincinnati
and St. Louis, and they attached
checks to his collar. Then he went on
through Salt Lake City to California
and from there to Mexico. In Mexico
they hung a Mexican dollar on his
neck. From there he came up through
the south, finally reaching Washing
ton. His collar was hanging full of
tags and checks, and poor Owney was
weary of the heavy load about his
neck. Postmaster General Wanamaker
saw him and took pity on him. He
carried him out one day and had a har
ness made for him; then he took the
badges from bis collar and fastened
mm
rfr. a . v
OWXIT UI FULL REG ALL..
them to his harness, as you see in the
picture. If you look closely you will
discover the Mexican dollar, and also
a King's Daughters' badge which some
one presented to him.
Owney did not tarry long in Wash
ington, but was soon off again with
his new harness. The farther he
went the more checks he had to carry,
and the heavier grew his load. At
last the attachments alone weighed
over two pounds, and poor Owney was
tired of carrying the dangling things,
about with him.
A Boston postal clerk saw him and
took pity on him as Mr. Wanamaker
had done; he carried him home to his
house, and wrote a letter to the post
master at Albany, telling him of the
dog's difficulties. Word came back to
take off the harness just as it was, and
forward it to them. This was done,
and the harness with its attachments
can be seen at any time in the post
office building at Albany, preserved in
a glass case with Owney's picture.
Once in his travels Owney reached
Montreal, and happening to follow the
mail-bags to the post office, he was
taken possession of and locked up,
while a letter was sent to Albany tell
ing the officials there of his where
about. A reply came to let him go
and he would, take care of himself.
This the Canadian postmaster refused
to do till the cost of feeding and keep
ing him was paid, in all amounting to
two dollars and fifty cents. A collec
tion was called for among his old
frienda, the money forwarded and Ow
ney released.
Everybody in the postal service in
the United States knows him, and per
haps the next time he visits Canada
he will not be a stranger. M. I. Inger
Boll, in ht. Nicholas.
BIRD'S EYES AND EARS.
They Far Exceed in Keenness Those of
Our Own Kind.
It is certain that the keenness of vi
sion in birds far exceeds our own, but
in what degree we cannot precisely es
timate. We know, ' however, that a
hawk 6o high above the earth as to
seem a mere speck against the sky
above him can at this distance distin
guish his prey from its earthly sur
roundings. Snipe and plover, migrating at 60
great a height that to tis they are in
visible, seem by their calls able to
recognize individuals of their own
species feeding, perhaps on some mud
fiat, wl-ere, if they are motionless, we
can distinguish them at fifty yards
with difficulty.
Flycatchers launch forth after
pauy-winged prey we could not detect, 1
unrv i nave seen jacamura m iuc jjjoomy
forests dart more than thirty feet into
the air after some tiny insect.
The locrrrerhead 6hrike of the sooth
always selects, like a hawk, a perch J
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gates, couseuucunj
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from which he may have an unob
structed view of his surroundings.
From this outlook he scans the ground
for some luckless grasshopper or
cricket, and sometimes flies eighty or
one hundred feet to pick from the
grass-grown ground an insect he had
evidently seen before he left his perch.
But little as we know of birds' vi
sion, we know even less of their power
of hearing. There is, however, no
reason to doubt that the latter is not
quite as acute as the former.
The robin on our lawns may be seen
with head on one side, listening in
tently for the movement of a worm be
neath the sod, and it is said the wood
cock has the same habit. On one oc
casion, while seated quietly in the
woods, a barrel-owl lit about fifty
yards away, with his back toward me.
Watching him through my field-glass,
I made the slightest possible sound
with ray lips a man would not have
heard it at a distance of twenty feet
and instantly the bird turned its head
and the great black eyes looked direct
ly at me.
A friend of mine in South Carolina
tells me that a mocking bird which
was resident in his garden at the time
of the earthquake a few j-ears ago be
came a sentinel to his family, warning
them, by a sharp, twittering note, of
the approach of each shock several sec
onds before the rumble which preceded
it was audible to human ears.
Instances of this kind give us soma
idea of the acuteness of a bird's hear
ing, but as yet we have no observa
tions suitable for the purpose of exact
comparison. Frank M. Chapman, in
Youth's Com pan ion.
THREE QUEER FRIENDS.
IIow a Cat and an Old Pug Herelved m
Yoaoc Foodie.
These are pictures of the pets of a
certain little girl. They are Punch,
the pug dog, Iiillikins, 4-the prize-bred
Russian corded black poodle with a
pedigree," and Judy, the cat. Billikins
dwells on terms of friendship with the
others, as you can see by the fact that
he has had his picture taken with each
of them. But sometimes there are
slight misunderstandings.
For instance, one day Billikins was
lyin on the door-mat gnawing on the
backbone of a duck when Punch ap
peared. Punch wanted a bone, too,
but Billikins didn't care to share his,
so Punch wandered off. By and by
there was a dreadful commotion on
the other side of the house, a wild
barking and scrambling. Billikins
jumped up and rushed off. He was
afraid something had happened to his
mistress and he wanted to help Punch
defend her.
When he reached the other side of
the house, there was no one there. No
one was hurting his mistress, the
house was safe and Punch had disap
peared. After a little investigation,
Billikins went back to his mat and his
bone, and there lay Punch gnawing
contentedly at it! The false alarm had.
been a trick of the wily old pug to get
that bone.
One Christmas the little mistress re
ceived a curious present which the cat
and the dogs could not understand.
Every now and then, out of a box, a
bird would step and say "Peep, peep."
Then a door would close, another one
would open and another bird would
appear and say "Cuckoo." Billikins
hated the noises and so did Judy, and
the cat planned to kill the birds. Billi
kins was glad enough, but he didn't
intend to take an active part in the
matter. He was just going to watch.
Well, in the middle of the night Judy
came and woke Billikins up. WheB
A COXSCXTATI0S.
the little "peep' bird came out of the
box Judy prepared for a spring and
when the cuckoo came out she leaped
up on the stand where the box sat and
keized the bird by its throat. The
whole thing box, birds and all fell
on poor Billikins. and the more he
tried to get from under them the more
tangled up he became. Judy disap
peared as soon as trouble bgan.
The whole house was aroused by the
clatter. Down came the little mis
tress, and there she found Billikins
and her pretty new cuckoo clock all
broken to pieces. She was very angry
and she punished Billikins, while Judy
looked on with amusement. Billikins
thinks now that cats are very deceitful
animals, but he doesn't quarrel with
Judy. It seems better to him to live
on peaceable terms with her and to be
very careful not to give her even a
negative support in her schemes. N.
Y. World.
Catherioe Points for m Sermon.
A laughable incident is told of a
distinguished Massachusetts clergy
man, who thought he had a point for a
sermon. One day he walked through
the local soap works, and, after hav
ing bad explained to him some of the
intricacies of saponification, asked the
foreman how he adulterated his goods.
Thinking t was all in jest, the fore
man gave him elaborate explanation
of various mythical ways of substi
tuting marble . for soap. The next
Sunday the soap manufacturer himself
was at church, and had the pleasure of
listening to a wrathful sermon about'
adulteration, especially of soap. The
poor man had a dreadful time convinc
ing the minister of his error, and then
it was the minister's turn to feel
sheepish.
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