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WHY MEN STAND.
Cossplei iMkaln Bandera It Feasible
bat Ikt Attltade la Mat Normal.
From the Scottish American: We art
o accustomed to standing upright m
a natural attitude that few of as think
What a special complex mechanism li
required tor this purpose. A moment's
consideration will ahow that the or
dinary explanation of the erect posi
tion (the center of gravity to be direct
ly above the feet) la Insufficient. When
a man It suddenly shot, whether from
the front or behind, he drops on his
face, for the truth la that there Is much
more weight In the front ot the spinal
oolumn than behind It. The fact Is that
when we are standing a large number
of powerful muscles (both front and
back) are simultaneously at work, the
effects of their action being to neutral
ise each other. Thus, the legs would
fall forward were it not that they art
kept vertical on the feet by the strong
tendon (the "Achilles") at the back ot
the heel. At the same time tbe muscles
at the thigh are tightened so aa to pre
vent us taking a sitting post,? and
ths muscles of the back are pulled tense
so that tbe trunk does not stoop for
ward. The head Is prevented from
dropping on the cheat by the ligaments
la the nape of the neck. That the up
right la not Its normal position la eaatly
shown by the fatt that a man nods as
he falls asleep; for as soon aa the con
trolling nervosa force is deadened the
bead drops toward by its own weight,
only to be palled baok in position again
with a Jerk when the brain becomes
suddenly aware ot an unusual attitude.
BLOOMERS WILL NOT LAST.
Sa Sara aa larentor of a Bicycle Coe
tame. "Bloomers may, perhaps, be worn by
a certain class of women cyclists, but
they will not prevail," says Mrs. Alice
Nash, a well-known wheelwoman ot
Minneapolis, according to an exchange.
"They are for the most part ungainly
In appearance," continued Mrs. Nash,
"and for that reason, as well as for the
question of their strict propriety, they
will not come into universal use. The
Ideal costume is that which combines
the convenience of the bloomer with
tbe modesty ot the skirt, and this, I
think, will be the future aim of dress
reformers." Mrs. Nash has put her
Ideas Into practice and has contrived a
costume which combines bloomers and
skirt Several Minneapolis women
have adopted It and wear It not only for
bicycling, but also tor skating and other
outdoor sports. The costume consists
of a short skirt, to the hem ot which
beneath Is attached a short pair of
bloomers extending Just below the knee.
Tbe attachment of the bloomers to the
skirt prevents the latter from blowing
up, and the combination affords perfect
freedom of limp. Leggings are worn
over the stockings. Tbe costume is
put on like aa ordinary pair of men's
trousers, Is made of tweed or similar
strong material, and is fashioned with
side pockets. Waists and jackets of the
prevailing styles may be worn and the
same ot the hat That worn by Mrs.
Nash has the shape ot a fried egg, but
Is very neat and dainty withal.
ARTISTIC HINTS.
Good Taste Bather than Striking; Effects
Mow In Vogue.
The tables loaded with bric-a-brac,
which had the effect of making a draw
lng-room look very much like a china
shop, are not to be the rage any more.
There may be bits of bric-a-brac about,
but those bits must be of some in
trinslc value, and they need not all be
grouped together as though offered for
sale. The prettily bound books which
ta now the fashion are allowable
Vilngs In a sitting-room, and books
m' Vs give a homelike air, even if the
are not cut. The silver tables
l reign, but these collections are
r interesting in many cases, ana
,3ark plush or velvet on which the
Iments are placed Is really a thing
01 oeauty as a general rule. Tbe tea
table Is part and parcel of tbe furnish
ings ot tbe room, but need no longer
be In evidence. It must be placed be
hind anma anfa nr lnunva and near
enough to be brought forward at the
proper time. Brocades and tapestry are
used for furniture coverings, and there
are many new designs, mow mat u is
no longer a fixed rule that all furniture
should match, different materials are
Mmklnml In what would have been
thought a few years ago a most Impossi
ble combination. urocaae, piusn,
tapestry, corduroy even, have all been
massed together without looking badly.
The Biamlne Was Catting.
At a certain Cambridge viva voce ex
amination a particular candidate had
so far failed to answer any question
whatever. After wasting a good deal
of patience on htm the examiner la
desperation finally tore tt-va a sheet ot
paper a portion t" In.bes square,
placed It In front ot tha luckless youth
and cuttingly observed:
'Oblige me, sir, by placing upon this
paper the whole ot what you know on
any subject ot any kind whatever. "-i-Ex.
Bleyala Crank
Riding a wheel with one's hands la
the pockets Is not ths fun that It la
cracked up to be and yet there are
many who do it, and they ceme from the
ranks ot those who Insist that the street
cars shall be warmed. Buffalo Com
mercial. Mrs. Bedyard Kipling.
Mrs. Rudyard Klpliag attends to all
ot her husband's correspondence and
carefully guards him against would-be
Intruders. He Is said to be tbe most
unapproachable literary man In ths
world.
Traa.
"Maay er man," said Uncle Eben,
'marines dt he's a philosopher when
he's Jes' plain laxy." Washington Star.
Klnslre Fame.
A critic who desires to be reckoned
among the Inspired adulators ot Mr
Sargent speaks of the artist's portrait
of "one Coventry Patmore, Esq." And
this is fame. The author of "The An
gel In the House," the poet whom John
Ruskin has been delighted to honor, the
writer ot felicitous phrases that will
live as long as the language described
as "one Coventry Patmore, Esq.!"
Well, the ages will see to it Concelv
ably there will be a time when Mr. Sar
gent will be more Indebted to his sit
ter tor the preservation of his renown
than the sitter to his Sargent Fun.
Base Kaarlana,
The Nile crocodiles are of the largest
species, but they are now very uncom
mon In lower Egypt, where one at the
present time would be considered al
most as great a curiosity as it would be
In the Thames. Crocodiles cannot turn
and are therefore frequently captured.
Their bodies are covered with scales
hard enough to turn a musket ball,
The females lay from fifty to 100 eggs
In a season.
He Paid the Fine.
An amusing incident occurred In tbe
uindeford. Me., municipal court A
woman was on trial for banging her
husband over the head the night be
fore. She was fined S3 and costs. In
stead of paying the fine herself, she
said he'd have to pay it, as she had
no money. So the husband fished out
a well-worn pocketbook and produced
tbe necessary funds to pay the bill.
Ill Dream Book.
"Let me congratulate you on the suc
cess of your dream-book, said Mr. Du
kane to a rising young author.
"My dream-book!" repeated the au
thnr. in surnrise.
"Well, I tell asleep while reading it
and dreamed lota of things before I
waked up." Pittsburg Chronicle-Tele-
eranb.
AMERICAN DESERT.
Aa Effort to Make It Safe (or Travel
a Mapa and Signboard.
The great Mojave desert la no longer
to be a trackless waste. Tbe loss ot
hapless prospectors who have perished
from year to year has finally moved
the board of supervisors of San Ber
nardino' county, which Includes within
It 20,000 square miles of the desert, to
take some action to make It possible for
prospectors to travel that arid region
In comparative safety. Recently a
number of mining men petitioned that
a complete map of the desert be made,
showing the roads, trails, and sources
ot water supply, and a committee was
ordered to Investigate and report The
result ot their Investigations has Just
been made public, and they recommend
all that was asked and more, mere
are trails and roads leading all over the
desert to ths various mining camps
which dot the waste ot sand, and It is
proposed to have maps made, with blue
print copies, which will be supplied to
desert travelers, with all Ce landmarks
designated, thus enabling them to fol
low ths trails with much less danger of
losing thslr way. But In addition it is
proposed to establish a system of sign
boards and guide-posts at Intervals
along ths trails, giving Information as
to directions and distances, and, more
Important than all, the nearest point
where water may be found. Nine-
tenths of ths people lost in tbe desert
ale ot thirst Not Infrequently their
bleached bones have been found within
a short distance ot the spring they
sought By ths new system which is
planned the unlucky prospector will
know how far he ts from water and will
lay his plans accordingly. These in
dices are to be put up at short Intervals
along the trails, so that It will be almost
Impossible for travelers to miss them.
But, not to stop at pointing out tbe
trails and sources ef water, new sources
are to be developed and old ones better
cared for. Rewards are to be offered
to any one discovering new springs or
developing any water at points where
none is known to exist Springs al
ready known will be cleaned out and
the water protected from pollution by
wild animals or by careless handling.
Tbe mining men are intensely Interest
ed in the proposed Innovation. It is
estimated that in the thirty years in
which mining has been followed In the
desert not less than f 20,000,000 has been
taken out while In that time scores ot
men have been lost whose lives might
have been saved had such a system
been In vogue as Is now proposed. The
desert is now fairly swarming with
prospectors, and others will go out as
soon as the weather becomes more tol
erable. Queer Facta A boat Air.
The celebrated chemist of the six
teenth century who argued that It
would be Impossible for us to lire on
the earth's surface It the atmosphere
should suddenly Increase to twice its
present thickness could not have been
tar wrong after all that Is, If the ex
periments ot Dr. Arnott are to be taken
as conclusive. In his observations on
atmospheric pressure at tbe bottom of
the deep mining shafts ot Europe, Prof.
Arnott has found that the change be
tween the readings of a barometer at
the bottom of a 4,000-foot shaft and one
at the surface is great enough to war
rant htm in making the statement that
air at the bottom of a shaft twenty
miles deep would be as dense as water.
Figuring on the same ratio he finds that
if a bole could be sunk forty miles Into
the bowels of the earth the density of
the air at the bottom would be as great
as that ot Quicksilver. St Louis Re
public Cable Car Keenest Nothing.
That the bump ot veneration Is singu
larly absent in the average American
was long since discovered and exploded
by Mark Twain In his "Innocents
Abroad." This fact Is nowhere more no
ticeable than In the little happenings
that go to make up the ensemble of life
In a bis city. Coming uptown In a
clanging Third avenue cable car, a fun
eral cortege Interrupted for a moment
the car's passage. It was tbe funeral
of a Free Mason and the hearse was fol
lowed by a band of musicians playing
the dead march. Only for a moment
the car slackened, then with a clang
and start It sped along between the car
riages of the mourners. A curious crowd
lining the pavement on either side
gazed at the procession. Not one of the
assembly lifted his hat a custom ot
respect observed In almost every city
abroad. New York Herald.
Tea Bablea Week.
The town ot Fort Deposit, Lowndes
county, Alabama, has broken the record
on babies. A week ago Mrs. Lattimer,
wife of a leading merchant, became the
mother ot two boys and a girl. The
next day her neighbor, Mrs. Hunter,
gave birth to three babies. Mrs. Cham
pion has now capped the climax with
four children at a birth. All the babies
are well formed and healthy and the
mothers are doing well.
Inexcusable Neglect.
Great Editor We have no longer any
use for your services, sir. Brlghtwltx
Eh? You said that the article that I
had In the paper yesterday was the
best thing you'd ever published. Oreat
Editor Yes, but you neglected to write
a lot of letters from old subscribers and
general readers, praising ths article as
a brilliant example of this great paper's
enterprise. A pretty sort of a nine
teenth century, fin da slecle, metro
politan Journalist you are!
The Baling Passion,
The sufferer slowly raised his eye
lids. "Where am I?" he asked.
"You were run into by another bi
cyclist," answered the attendant
Later, when he was about to breathe
his last, he asked In a touching manner:
"What was the name ot kls machine?"
Exchange.
A Cvcllst Lamplighter.
Paris possesses a cyclist lamplighter.
His route Is under the fortifications and
be carries his long lamplighter's pole
over his right shoulder and guides the
machine with his left hand. He goes
his rounds and lights all his lampr
without once dismounting.
A Patriotic Frenchman.
A man in Bourges is still wearing the
blouse he had on when the Prussian?
entered France. He swore that he
would never wear another, and by
means of patches has kept his oath.
The town council has offered him 100
francs for It for the town museum.
Hardly.
Cholly Chumpleigh Extraordinary
thing! Champagne never seems to glvt
me a head. Miss Coldeal Did you
think champagne was stronger than na
ture? New York World.
The Missionary Movement.
Who can bear the thought of one ret
rograde step In the missionary move
ment? Who would not sooner give hit
last mite and divide his last loaf?
Mary Lyon.
The "Rubber Trust" must have or
ganized for the purpose of furnishing
consciences to the other trusts.
Something Lacking.
"There is one thing that Is badly
needed In our post office," remarked
Wheeler, as he opened another dun
ning letter.
"What's that?" timidly Inquired his
typewriter.
"A 'Post No Bills' sign." Truth.
Mnttn't So Abroad.,
The lord chancellor is the only mem
ber of the British cabinet who Is not
allowed to go outside of Great Britain.
This is because he must have the sreat
seal in his personal custody, and to
take the great seal outside of Great
Britain would be high treason.
AN OLD IRISH KINO.
A Beat Peraonage Was
Brian Bor
Hla Harp Still Preserved.
Brian Borolhme, or Bom, was a real
personage and perhaps the greatest ot
the old Irish kings, says the Brooklyn
Eagle. He belonged to a celebrated
clan known aa the Dalcasslans. He
had a brother named Mahon and for a
time the two worked together to drive
out the Danes and extend their own
power over other parts of Ireland than
that to which their clan belonged. They
were very successful. Mahon became
king of a section of the country, but
was soon after taken captive by some
of his rivals and murdered. Then
Brian rose In his might Gathering his
clansmen together, he marched with
great rapidity from point to point,
sought out the men who had slain his
brother, defeated them and took posses
sion of their lands and, by means ot the
deeds he performed with his strong
right arm, became king of Munster.
Then he marched Into Lelnster and ex
acted tribute and homage from the
kings there. It was a time when Ire
land was divided up into separate king
doms. But over all was ths ard-ree or
chief king, and at tha period when
Brian Boru began his great work ths
leading monarch was Malachy, also a
great warrior. Brian and Malachy be
came Jealous of each other, and though
for a time they agreed to aa arrange
ment whereby Malachy was to be re
garded as sole ruler over ths north of
Ireland, Brian had the notion that all
Ireland should be controlled by one
man and that he himself was the man
for the work. So he picked a quarrel
with Malachy, and marching against
that king at Tara, challenged him
either to surrender or settle the ques
tion of supremacy In battle. Malachy
said he would not submit He would
rather fight than do this, but he needed
help and he told Brian that he would
meet him fairly In the field In a month's
time. Brian actually agreed to wait
until Malachy got ready for fighting.
Malachy, however, could not get tbe
help he wanted and he therefore sur
rendered to Brian, who was so pleased
at this act that he bestowed such honors
as he could on his captive and gave him
his liberty. Brian was now master ot
Ireland and for many years the coun
try was peaceful and prosperous. Roads
were made through tbe land, bridges
were built over the rivers and houses
and castles that had suffered during
the time of conflict were repaired or re
built Colleges and seats of learning
were erected also and crime was scarce
ly known In the country.
HOW TO CLEAN LACE.
Soma Useful Information Given by On
Who Knows.
As lace has never been more fashion
able than at present a few hints In re
gard to cleansing It may' not come
amiss. Many persons find attar wash
ing it once that it has lost Its beauty.
Probably the principal reason why their
lace does not look well after their clean
ing process is that they have rubbed it,
and the one thing to remember In
cleaning lace Is to avoid rubbing It The
best way to do Is to obtain a bottle or
round stick or some other round,
smooth article, and around It roll the
lace, dampening It slightly as you do
so. This will stretch it and make It
smooth. Leave it on the bottle, or
whatever you may use, until it is quite
dry. then take It off and lay It in folds
of five or six Inches long. The best plan
is to tack the lace so as to be quite sure
that the edges are even. Fill a basin
with cold water and add a little am
monia or borax. In this put the lace
and let It soak, squeezing It gently
every new and then until all the dirt
Is out If the lace is very much soiled
It may be necessary to change ths
water. When it seems quite clean take
It out of the water, press it so as to get
rid of some of the water and put it to
dry in the sun. Then lay It flat on the
palm of one band and slap It hard with
the other several times. The stitches
may then be cut out and tbe lace re-
folded In different creases and the slap
ping process repeated. With the ex
ception of torchon it is a mistake to
Iron lace, but by treating It In ths man
ner already described It will look as
good as new and retain the soft appear
ance which Is one of its chief beauties.
Batterfllea for tha Hair.
Jeweled ornaments In the hair are
going to be much worn this winter.
In the stalls of a smart theater, a few
nights ago, I noticed that nearly every
third lady wore a diamond butterfly or
Star lightly poised with excellent effect
A true lovers' knot of dtamonds caught
la a fluffy, fair fringe looked well, but a
ruby and diamond butterfly perched on
a coil of dusky hair was still more pleas
ing. Velvet bows, aigrettes and tiny
plumes were also to be seen. The Prin
cess. Tha Boat
As some rare perfume in a vase of clay
Pervades it with a fragrance not its
own.
So when Christ dwelleth In a mortal
' soul, .
au nesven own sweetness seems ;
about It thrown.
Harriet Besehsr Stows.
The Parti Kzpeeltloa lottery.
Subscriptions will shortly be lavited
by a number of Paris banks for 3,260,-
000 exhibition lottery bonds at 20 franca
each, designed to form tha guarantee
fund of tO.ooO.OOO franca, for tha ex
penses at the exhibition to as held tha
year 1900. Among the prises will be
five of 600,000 francs each and twenty
feur ef 100,000 francs each.
la His Neck.
"This thirst," gasped the Arab. Ha
glared at ths parched desert at tha
biasing sky, and cursed them. "Thai
thirst" In despair he poshed forward,
muttering: "I am always getting It la
the neck." Detroit Tribune.
Beady for Him.
"Our side Is going to spring some un
looked-for disclosures on you," said a
lawyer to one of the opposing attorneys.
"We've been expecting some unlook
ed-for disclosures," was the reply, "so
you'll not take us unawares." Oakland
Times.
Got Even.
Wool On the excursion yesterday
Mrs. Enpec fell overboard; in an Instant
a man stripped off his clothing, dove In
and rescued her. Van Pelt What did
Enpec do tor him? Wool Reported
blm for nude bathing. New York
World.
Utah's Constitution,
One of the novel features of ths Utah
constitution, Just adopted. Is a pro
vision for trials by a jury ot eight mem
bers. Utah Is the first state to establish
a court-of-rocord Jury with less than
the traditional twelve jurors.
A Bear Farm Krperlmant.
Frank Schwato was engaged In bear
farming near Superior, Wis. Some of
the live stock got loose the other night
and ate Frank up. At last accounts tha -
neighbors had assembled and were set
tling the estate with their rifles.
Bach Is Fate.
Fortune comes once to every door,
And usually comes no more.
When she comes here I'll bet my hat
The bell won't work that calls our flat .
New York Sun.
A Warm Welcome.
Traveler (In a tropical paradise) I
would Just love to live here, Forty,
Million Natives (snakes, bugs and
things) We'd Just love to have you
stay.
Gentle Hint.
He (at 11 p. m.) "Well, misery loves
company, you know."
She (repressing a yawn) "Not at thif
lour, I think." Detroit Free Press.
