TOPICS OF THE TIMKS.
A CHOICE SELECTION OF INTER
ESTING ITEMS.
Commrat and Crittri.mn lUt-d I pan th pufsi bly bencH t tiJT some good influ-llapH-aini;(
ol tua lj-lll.tori. l and etl(.e. We pity this silll le minded
Ivii ASAPfH.is r uts Its unemployed
t work on the -tone j lie. and seems
rather pleaded at her two generosity.
Ik a way has been found to control
the ower of Niagara Falls why not
try it on the .Niagara hackmen?
Yorxn lidies leloiiiring to the
charity orijanl ation known as the
Io:tors' Daughters dehire it under
stood that th-y are not the daugh
ters or phvi-ians Gallantry com
pels a-ceptance of the lucid explana
tion that they call themselves what
they do becau.se it expresses what
they are not.
A HwoKi-swAM.iM kk of abnormal
capacity thrust fourteen blad s at
once a-down his leathern gullet, and
the medical gentleman who pulled
them out did so so rudely that the
eater of i old steel couldn't use his
swal!ower for mashed potato now.
The value of restraining the appetite
has merely ten illustrated again
EniToii Stead says that the daugh
ters of rich men, selling tliemsel-es
to broken-down specimens of nobility,
should be pointed out with the linger
of hcorn. The flngerof scorn, It is
grievous to state, has not been
trained on the lines suggested by Mr.
Stead, and If detected in the act of
pointing at one of these salable per
sons would Involuntarily turn and
point at Itself.
A riiA( rif 'AL charity Is that under
taken, liberally, by Cornelia Brad
ford.sister of a New York divine, who
proposes to bury for 2 In decent style
any deceased person whose family
gives her the trust. Miss Bradford
says truly the expensive funerals are
among the curses of the iMor. She
will also loan money at 1 per cent In
small sums to relieve actual distress,
but reserves the right personally to
Investigate the character of the lior
rowcrs. This Is uionte de plete be
yond even the government so ialisru
of 1'aris. Miss Bradford's experiment
will be watched with more than 4
per cent, intere.it
Chicago has again sustained her
claims to the possession of the finest
climate on earth. The blizzard hit
us It Is true, but wo suffered mildly
compared with towns Sou miles
further south, wbleh are still buried
la the drifts. The cold wave, too.
which It was predicted would follow
in the wake of the boreal visitor,
was switched off somewhere In route
from Manitoba, and as de from the
Inconvenience caused by piled up
snow we arc enjoying mild autumn
weather. All that is needed to con
stitute Chicago a full-fledged winter
resort Is a bad-smelling mineral
spring, high railroad rates and a lawn
teunis court on the Lake Front
Chicago Herald.
The reported Intention of the
Navy Department to i.bandon the
Hartford to l.otten How and Haul de
struction does violence to a popular
sentiment and has the further disad
vantage of violating the instructions
of Congress. The Hartford has been
specially exempted from the ojicra
tion of the law condemning vessels
when the cost of repairing will run
above 20 per cent of thj cost of a
new vessel, and Congress appropriated
the money needed for repairs. The
IDOO, 000 that it will cost to put the
Hartfoid n condition for service
may seem a good deal to pay out for
sentiment, but the Government bas
to deiiend in time of trouble on just
the kind of sentiment that now de
mands the preservation of the Hart
. ford, and it Is a very good thing to
cul tl vate
There are occasions when the
United States Government can afford
to siend some money for a senti
mental purpose Sue l an occasion
presents itself now. The historic
iblp of war Kcarsarge, recently eunk
on a West Indian reef, can be raised
by t he expenditure of a few thousand
dollars. There should be no hesita
tion about ordering the expenditure.
The old vessel may not be worth
raising from a material standpoint,
but she occupies a place In American
. naval history second only to that of
the frigate Constitution. It would
be pitiful economy to allow her bones
to rot on it coral icef for the sake of a
few dollars. She should bo raised,
towed to one of the National Navy
yards and retired from service as an
honored veteran whose fighting days
are over.
A Dakota divorce Is bettor than
none, and If It will enable tho
Princess Colonna to prevent hor
scalawag husband from seizing her
children, by all means let her have
It An American girl who Is fool
enough to buy a foreign title with
drunkard, Rambler, and libertine In-
rumhran e it not the let Imagin
able guardian for children, but as she
will probdbly have to t-pend most of
her time in th s country they tuay
Ev- Bra-yaot Col nna, but our pity is
largely alloyel with contempt She
uiarr ed wiih her eyes open to Co
loimaatd his character God save
the ruark!) and now when she nods
, bhe cannot escape the bitter toiise
; ,uences of her w llf ulne-ss bhe de
S serves no sympnthv. Her bard case
! Js not uncommon enough to excite
oiuch remark, but It is well to call
' attention to It if It will be taken to
i heart by other American women
i whose mental vision Is weak enomrh
, to be dazzled by the tawdry gilt of an
empty coronet. Unfortunately there
appear to be many 6uch.
"kv Yokk J'i:kss: Yaillant was
an anarchist, animated by hatred of
Bociety, and alo, no doubt, by love of
notoriety. His last words, "Death to
tlit bourgeoisie:" spoke at once the
destK-ratlon and danger ot anarchy.
The bourgeoisie" means In broad
language the people who have a stake
in the community manufacturers,
merchants professional men, olicials,
tradesmen indeed, everylwdy who
would be recognized a a settled, in
dustrious citl.en. The anarchists
asert that these are the rulers of the
Trench Republic, and the assertion
is undoubtedly true, with the quali
fication that the thrifty peasantry of
France have at least as much to say
as the -'bo irgeoisie," and that every
man, no matter how humble his place
in life, who chooses to exercise his
civil rights, can do so fully and
freely. To make war on the "bour
geoisie" is making war on the He
public itself, and is a hopeless war
on the part ol the anarchists. The
first French revolution could never
have achieved success but for the so
called middle class, and, although It
drifted levondttieir control and bc-
came a reign of term, ibey retained
the helm and subdued the Jacobin
mob That exirienee has never
been fori." ten by 'he middle classes
of Franc and it K t he. rca-on why
wretchc. ' ii! r on-et no mercy
when the 1 n us grasp
upon them.
Old Kearsargc deserved a kindlier
fate than to be pounded to pietcs on
a coral reef and deserted in a storm
by the successors " the men who
never deserted her under tire. It was
part of a peculiarly hard and ironical
fate that the famous old eleven-inch
pivot gun with which Capt Winslow
did such elective work on- the Ala
bama oil Cherliourg nearly thirty
years ago was tho first object to bo
cut loose and thrown into the sea
liutold ocean knows no sentiment
lie was in his ugliest mood whep he
drove th's noble corvet upon the re
lent'ess reef of liancandor. Not only
the gun had to eo to save the ship,
but even the masts were cut away.
It was then only after a terrible night
of almost superhuman eert.lon that
a sorrowing crew escaped from a
floating prison with their lives.
Kcarsarge was a hopeless wreck.
There Is no dilTerence of opinion now
as to the part which this famous
ship was permitted to lay in the
war of the relclllon. As modern na
val warfare goes she was almost a
puny thing. Mic was a third-class
wooden cruiser of only 1,550 tons.
She carried only Ave guns and 160
men when she steamed Into Cher
bourg harbor June l'-, lWS-i, and
Joined in battle with the craft which
Capt. Semmes had made terrible to
Union shl ping on every sea Yet
the engagement was destined to be
one of the most momentous In our
naval history. It lasted but a few
hours, but when it was enied the na
tional fame had been vindicated and
the ocean rid of a most dangerous
enemy. Tho bravery displayed on both
sides was creditable to all American,
North and South, but the victory
fell, as the right belonged, to tho
Union flag. It is a gratifying sign of
the times to And, even at this late
day, In so influential an organ of
Iirltish sentiments as the London
Dally News such words as these In
praise of the American vessel and the
American cause.
"The Kar8HfKK deserved an honored
pliKjo on the rntlrod lint of the Navy, bavlntf
hid claims toNotlonal grHtitiidoonly wteond
to those of the Constitution. Its crew had
ft noMnr iilua to fight for than had the medley
of mrTRcnaries who crowdud too Alabama,
It wa a nlorloo victory,"
No such peaceful fate was reserved
for the brave old veteran, but her glory
remains undiminished for all time.
The Hot Way Out.
Churuley How the mischief did
you come to marry that old widow?
Why didn't you marry tho daughter?
Benedict I thought over the mat
ter carefully. It I had married the
daughter, I'd have the mother on my
hands, anyhow. Then I'd have bad
both on my hands, but as it Is, now
that her mother Is provided tor, very
likely somebody else will marry the
daughter, and then I'll only have
one of them to provide for. "
A man, like a watch, Is to
valued for bit manner of going.
be
AGRICULTURAL NEWS
A FEW SUGGESTIONS FOR OUR
RURAL READERS.
Lrarn tba ChemU-al Chmatra of Your Roll
and Thru Mako It Olva Foil Valiwt A
t'hrap Flood Cute Don't Knlarge th
Farm.
4ft Cheap flood Gt.
In sections where streams abound,
the flood gate is uite as important
as any other division fence or gate,
and those that have experienced more
or less trouble with .other tonus of
Hood gates will find the one shown in
the Illustration which is from the
American Agriculturist, to be cheap,
substantial, and self-regulating, and
INEXl'KXKIVE WATER GATE.
not liable to be swept away by heavy
tn shets. The supporting part Is two
nr three strands or No. or D an
nealed wire, twisted tog'ther and
suspended from posts or trees about
one foot above high water mark.
Three two-inch strips of suitlclent
length to reach to within eight or ten
Inches of tl.e led of the stream, are
nailed four inches a art to a strip of
board and suspended by two wires to
the overhanging wire. It desi ed
four or live strips mav be nailed to
form one section, using enough sec
tions to span the stream. Jt is plain
that in low water the sections will
stand i eipendicular, while, as the
water rises, the lower end conforms
to the rise and fall of the stream.
I looilwood or other obstructions are
allowed to pass uninterrupted. Twist
the upper end of all tho short sus
pension wires tirmly around the main
w.ie, t hat the sect ons may not move
endwise or con tie t all the sections
together at the top with short pieces ,
u f wire that will retain them in pos
tion yet allow the sections to move
lown stream during the high water
if the rainy season.
htul Your -otl.
That there are active chemical
changes going on all the time in cul
tivated soil Is evident. This laet
constitutes one of the greatest pu.
les to the agricultural chemist Cer
tain things which he finds nearly sol
uble do In some way in the - soil tie
come soluble and available as i lant
food. The act. on. of carlionio acid,
the great decomposer in nature, sets
at naught th.- work in the laboratory,
and sets up changes, the lull extent
of whi h chemists have et hardly
real! ed, says the Pacific Farmer.
Nature bas a wonderful reserve
power, and in some soils her store ot
food which only slowly becomes avail
able seems to bo entirely exhaustless.
In all the red clays of the granitic
formation east of the Blue Kldge,
potash, one of the most essential ele
ments of plant food, even the most
worn and exhausted conditions of
these red clay lands seems exnaust
le but slowly available. It is well
known that on some lands, particu
larly on lands near the coast, plaster
Is of little value, beyond what value
the lime in it may have, while on
other land it has an Immediate and
great effect.
Those who have noticed the de
posits ot plaster rock In the natural
beds are aware that tho outer part,
exposed to tho weather, loses its
character as a sulphate and becomes
merely a carbonate of lime, while in
the quarry it is pure sulphate. And
this is the secret of Its action ou soils
abounding .in potash. The lime
greedily ' combines with the ever
present carbonic acid In the soil, and
the sulphuric acid is left free to act
on some other base, and attacks the
potash, giving us sulphate of potash
for our crops an efliclent help to
clover and other legumes. Whenever
plaster can be had at reasonable
price farmers on these clay soils can
usually get their potash more cheaply
by the use of plaster than by buvlng
potash in an already available form.
The moral is, study your soli, and do
not buy what you can get more
cheaply out of your land itself.
Klghu-rn Ton of rotator I'er Arre.
It is reported from France that M.
Egasse of Archevilliers, in the De
partment of Eureet Loire, produced
an average crop of e ghteeti tons of
potatoes per a re, on forty acres. The
tons were what Americans call "long
tons," of 2,240 pounds This rosult
was attained by heavy manuring, the
land having rece ved, In addlt on to
farmyard manure, a dress ng of -HO
pounds of superphosphate, 24 pounds
Rich of sulphate of Dot ash and nitrate
of soda per acre.
Don't Enlarge tho Farm.
There seems to bo a very general
desire on tho part of the farmers of
this country to obtain a larger quan
tity ofjland. There are cases in which
this Is a wise ambition, but such in
stances are not nearly as common as
is the wish to obtain larger farms
Under the present conditions of agri
culture our farmers, as a rule, already
have more land than they can
cultl-
vate to the best advantage.
As things are now, and as they are
likely to be for a long time to conic,
tho routs of farming are to be in
creased by securing larger crops per
acre rather than by tilling a larger
umber of ai res. Most of the farm
ers who wish that they had more
land now own considerable areas
which have not yet been brought
nearly up to their limit of profitable.
production. In tbee cases the own- j
era will And it much more profitable J
to manure their present iields more ;
liberally and cultivate them more1
thoroughly than it will be to spread j
their w rk over a large number of
ac res. Fa r m N c ws
Fruit ultura.
The reason why comparatively few
farmers succeed in fru tra sing is be
cause th s bus ness demands more
constant and cont oued care in little
details than stock, da ry, or grain
growing, says the Massachusetts
1 loughmae It ;s easy enough to
set out 1,000 trees, or 10,000 small
fruit bushes or vines, but it is quite
another thing to cultivate and care
tor them as they need, from one to
live years before any return can be
expected, hew men base the needed
perseverence and steadiness of pur
pose, even if they have the money,
to carry them through so long a
period of fruitless labor which must
be done to insure success.
For this reai-on, perhaps more sue
ceed w th strawberries than with
vineyards or orchards. The straw
berry brings a crop the year after
planting, and the per.od of unpro
ductive labor s shorter. Still, for
those wl.o have the pluck and grit to
6tick to t faithfully, fruit growing
olfers, and will probably cont nue to
o.'.er, a good margin of profit
A Woman and Her Poultry.
Last fall I began my j oultry ex
perience with eleven barred I'lymoul h
Hock hens and thirteen pullets, re
ports Mrs. C. L. JIale In Farm and
Home They began laying in De
cember F'rom January 1st to May
1st they laid lJti-l eggs. I sold
eighty eight do en for $1.16. I fed
small potatoes turni, s, beets, and
pumpkins, boiled with cabbage, in
the morning, and twcie a week at
night, chopped apple and cabbage,
with pepper or ginger mixed with
beef scraps or tallow, mixed with hot
water or milk. I gave them two
quarts of corn, thrown into leaves
and chaff from the barn floor, gave
water twice a clay, and pounded all
the bone and earthenware I could
find. At last they began to pick the
feathers out. I bung a piece of salt
pork In the house that stopped the
trouble. This is one women's experi
ence. 1 took all the care oi tnem
,)ys lf( and fecl w(;11 p;li(1) as lny hens
are tame, and 1 can pick theru up any
time. ' -
IlonHMiiuile ."Mi-imnren.
It takes but a little time to nail
together seeral bushel or lialf-biisliel
measures. The former are the more
convenient A stardard bushel, con
ta ns 1 50 2-5 cubic inches, hence a
HOMKMADK BUSHEL MKASUBES.
box eleven and one-fifth inches wide,
eight inches high,, and twenty-four
inches long, inside measurement, con
tains one bushel. The bottom should
be on the insido and firmly nailed In
place, as showu in the engraving.
Cleats, a, one inch square, should be
nailed across each end two inches
from the top. The sides should be
of half Inch clear stuft, the bottom
of the same, and the ends of Inch
stuff. All the boards should be
planed upo i both sides. The box
will cost about 15 cents when mater
ials for several are obtained at one
time Thev will be found alnu st as
convenient to handle as a basket, and
if there are several they will prove
convenient to hold apples or other
fruit or egetables, and to set away
full in the cellar until the contents
are needed A half-bushel measure
should of course be one-half the
lenuth. Smaller measures are as
readily made, but would not need the
end cleats
Airrlrultural Atomfl.
Mii.k can alwavs be used to
advantage in feeding pigs and
good
poul-
try.
Salt and wood ashes In reach of
i hogs are beneficial. Good for horses
. also.
So long as good wool and mutton
are a necessity, there ought to be
good money made in raising them.
Oats is about the best feed you can
give calves Mixed with corn-meal it
is c great milk producer for cows.
Wiie- laud is too rocky for cultiva
tion and too valuable for a timber lot,
it will make a good sheep pasture or
orchard.
Douni.K the life of farm machinery
by taking good care of it The mat
ter is possible for all because prac
ticed bv many.
Tkxas is at the head of the cattle
producing States having about
7.000,000; next comes Iowa with
nearly 4,000,000.
A Nkw Jehhey farmer recommends
as protection for an iron fence paint
ing it with earthly red iron ore and
crude petroleum. It is cheap, pleas
ing In color, preservative, but slow to
dry on iron.
Ontakhi carried oil the honors for
honey at the World's Fair. Her ex
hibits have taken twenty awards as
against twenty eight lor all the
United States and thirteen for all
other countries.
j Tiik farmer's wife bas a half in
1 tercet in what belongs to her husband.
; If he pets labor-saving Implements
! for the farm, he should loso no op-
tKirtunlty to (ret something: of the
kind for the house.
Keki' a mixture of salt, charcoal
and wood ashes constantly before
hogs, so that they can take what
they want and no more. Something
of this nature seems to be required
to arrest fermentation in the stomach
and promote general digestion.
THE GIRL WHO WAITS.
How a Vouuc Mao in a btrt-i-t Car Inter.
nt-d H -vn H'ouiru,
Tn a street car the other day was
a young man and even women, t-ays
the lietroit Free I'res The young
man was in that condition known as
befuddled, and as the car ro led
along he began t ) converse with him
self, starting out with:
'It was a wild night The wind
moaned and the raindrops had a sob
bing sound. 1 was louely and could
not rest."
Jie spoke so loudly that all in the
car could hear him. Three of the
women at once became interested. but
the other lour si upJy glanced at him
and turned away again
'At x oclock I ranur the doorbell,"
continued the young man, --and was
instantly a.luj. tied and s mwn into
i.be parlor and told that Miss Sweet
brier would be down in a moment
The dear girl was evidently expect
ing me."
The three women were doubly in
terested at this juncture, while the
other four pricked up their ears and
prepared to pay attention aud won
dered it tney had not lost a good
thing.
'he came down inv darling Clara,
She never looked more beautiful.
She greeted me. warmly- aye! lov
ingly and I retained her hand as 1
led her to the so a on which we had
sat and passed -so many loving
hours."
The entire seven women were now
so deeply Interested that none of them
saw a runaway horse go by, and two
of them hit hed closer to the young
man.
After awhile," he said in a mus
ing voice and his eyes on bis toes "I
put my aim around her slender
waist and she laid her golden head
upon my shoulder with the sweet
confidence of a child. It was a mo
ment of supreme happiness."
The two women who had hitched
before now hitched again, and the
five others followed suit, and all of
them wanted to kill the newsboy
who oeued the door and shouted h s
wares
' I s:iw the light of love in her
eyes I dared to press my lips to her
maiden cheek. I knew that she was
mine mine foreer. That s she
was mine if I wanted her.
that hour of happiness Will
foruet it!"
The conductor looked in
Ah!
1 ever
to see
seven wome i craning their necks and
their eyes betraying the greatest
anxiety. They were now so close to
the young man that no one could
hitch nearer.
'.he waited for me to speak," he
went on, openlngand closing his eyes,
as if slee y, -'but I was too happy.
I didn't want to break the spell.
Besides how can I support a wife on
$S per week? Besides. 1 don't want
to get married. The dear girl Is still
waiting."
"What! Didn't you ask her to be
your wife?" demanded one of the
females as she rose up with crimson
face.
"No'm. Too happy. Told her I'd
call s'm'other night. Eight dollars a
week only buys my soda water and
cigars, and how'ru I goin' to sup
?
Seven feminine hands motioned
to the conductor to stop, and one
after another seven women dropped
oil the car and went their ways with
angry looks and compressed lips,
while the young man nodded and
nodded and muttered:
'What happiness! She waited for
me to speak, but I was too happy.
She's wait ng vet. Let'er wait I'm
goin' to sleep!"
Flow of Solids.
Changes ot form are very slow
though rapid enough to explain the
motion of glaciers but pressure in
creases their speed. Tresca of the
French Academy has proved by his
beautiful and varied experiments
that under a certain pressure all
solids "flow" like liquids and that
their molecules obey in such cases
the laws of the motion of liquids. A
block of lead, or of steel, or of ice,
placed In a cylin lerand pressed upon,
is made to How out of a hole in the
cy inder exactly as a jet of water. It
remains a solid all the time, but its
molecules, whose iaths are rendered
visible by a S ecial arrangement, are
seen to have aquired a certain free
dom of motion, and to flow in the
very same way as molecules of water
flow from a hole in a pail.
A cube of lead, steel, stone, or ice,
placed on a solid surface, submitted
to a sufficient pressure or loaded with
a sutbeient weight, -'flows" sideways
just as if it were a block of plastic
clay. The only difference is that
clay flows under its own weight,
while steel requires an immense press
ure in order to "flow" in its solid
state. As to ice, it stands between
tho twq much nearer, of course, to
tho former than to the latter, if both
are taken at ordinary temperatures.
A thickness of a few hundred feet, or
a corresponding load, would be quiet
suf1l lent to make It "flow," though
remaining solid, even over a quite
horizontal floor, and to behave in Its
spreading over the floor like a lump
of plastic mud, provided the temper
ature is but a few degrees below zero.
This is the net result of Tresca's
epoch-making experiments on "the
flowing of solids" under pressure, and
these experiments have been fully
confirmed as regards ice by the ex
periments of Heimholt., I'falT, and
espe tally those of the Bologna pro
fessor, Bladconl. The Nineteenth
Century.
The Diamond.
Sir Robert Ball, in one of his pe
culiar addresses described the dia
mond as consisting of an enormous
number of separate molecules swing
ing to and fro among themselves at a
rate of son.o millions ot vibrations a
second, all In action together, and
quivering with the shocks of Impact,
I The cause of the diamond's extreme
j barduesi and impenetrability is that
j when a bteel point is prestsed against
j it toe active molecules batter that
I point with such vehemence and
' rapidity that it cannot get beneath
; the crystalline surtace. In cuttim?
iflass the molecules of the diamond
drive the molecules of the glass be
i fore them, or mow them down like a
I mitraiiieusa
Smoking Hasheesh.
A favorite sweetmeat is obtained
by making an infusion of the plant
(Canabis indica) in hot water to
which butter or oil is added. The
resin attaches itself to the melted
butter or oil, and, when evaporated,
is kneaded with flour and spices into
cakes or pastilles called "majun."
Simple infusion of the leaves and
(lowering tops are also made and
drunk in many parts of India by old
and young al.ke at some or t lie r fes
tivals just as alcoholic drinks are too
frequently used in our own country
on similar occasions.
Like op um, however, hasheesh is
chiefly used for smoking, aud when
thus used it is almost always in com
bination with tobacco. First, a plug
of tobacco is plac.-d at the bottom of
the bowl ol the pipe, and on the top
of this asma.l piece of hasheesh, and
ov'er this, again, a piece of red-hot
charcoal. Or this hasheesh is kneaded
with the tobacco bv the thumb of one
hand work ng in the palm of the
other until thorough y incorporated,
when they are transfe red to t e
bowl and lighted, as in the previous
case. Its first e ect when thus used
is one of intense exhilaration, almost
amounting to de irium.
The victim uses the power of
thought, and will carry on in the
most eAtravagant manner imagina
ble, alternately iaughing, singing, or
dancing, all the time believing him
self to be acting rationally. The
1- nglish derivative of the word hash
eesh gives a terrible and too well-deserved
significance in this connection.
Hashash is the term used for one who
smokes "hasheesh," and the plural of
the word is ' hashasin," from which
our English word ' assassin" is said
to be derived.
Doubtless, it is in this first stage
of hallucination and frenzy that
most of the crimes and they have
been many attributed to the use of
this drug have been committed: for
ttie second is one of dreamy enjoy
ment, finally followed, if the uose
has been full, by stuper so dense as
almost to amount to a im1 of ca
talepsy. It has been 1 vhat, a
fortnight's use of hashee ' : iake
its victim a comi'lete si- the
habit, and its end, as in the cas. of
the use of opium, is degradation and
ruin, physical, social, and moral. -r-Chamber's
Journal.
Wives Are Costly in China.
Pastor Gottschalk of the Berlin
foundling bouse in Hong Kong draws
a somber picture of the effects of the
custom of polygamy among the Chi
nese. Among these is the lack of
marr ageable girls. At present girls
are sold at a very high price; a girl
of 14 to 1 ei can scarcely be purchased
for less than $100 a price, which as
Herr Gottschalk quaintly savs, "poor
people can ill afford." Some buy for
their infant son an infant wife, who
is occasionally nursed at the same
breast as her future husband. If
this economical device fails, the mat
ter is regarded as serious, as they
may have no offspring to perform the
sacrifices at their tombs Young
girls adds Mr. Gottschalk, dare not
leave their homes for fear of being
kidnapped, as they not infrequently
are. In a place one clay's journey,
from Hong Kong thiee or four years
ago twenty young girls were stolen
in a night, taken on board a junk,
and carried no one knew whither,
Unfortunately the Berlin foundling
house derives no benefit from the
brisk demand for marriageable girls
partly because the institution limits
its choice of suitors to Chinese Chris
tians and partly because there is in
China a superstitious belief that an
evil fate hangs over a foundling girl.
London Times.
Parents oTTwenty-Six Children.
Manuel Cota, a tall emaciated
sheep herder and ranchman, living
about seven miles southwest of Po
mona, has the distinction of stand
ing at the very head of the proces
sion ot adders to the population of
this country. Manuel does not know
a word of English, has not $ -0 either
in money or property, and 11 es in a
house that hundreds of men would
not stable their horses in. He is the
father (of twenty-one boys and
girls, and has fathered, first and
last, twenty six infants Manuel and
his wite were married in San Diego,
in l-5!i thirty Ave years ago. Mrs.
Cota was then a blushing girl of 17
and Manuel but one year older. Their
eldest child is 3 1, and has started a
nice little family grou i of his own,
having seven children thus far. Mr.
and Mrs Cota's youngest child is 2
week's old and bids fair to become as
lively and strong as its twenty-five
predecessors. r ifteen of the chil
dren are married, and Manuel at the
last account found he was grandpar
ent to twenty one youngsters, all tho
way from z months to l't years old.
Pomona (CaL ) Progress.
Good Market for American Apple.
Farmers who have orchards or land
fit for orchards may find a useful hint
in the statement of the British Ex
port Journal that no fewer than 70-,
000 barrels of American and Canadian
apples are sold In England In a single
week between the beginning of Oc
tober and the close of January, says
the Baltimore Sun. The English
pay $2,500,000 a year for American
and 1500,000 a year for Canadian
apples . They aleo import from
Belgium 1500,000 worth of apples
year.
Sow oood services sweet remem
brances will grow from tbem