UNDER THE MISTLETOE.
Grandmamma, in your frame on the wall.
Beautiful maid of the long ago.
Stately and slender, blond and tall, •
With the pinched In waist and the foot so
small.
Prithee tell—for I fain would know—
What did you on that Chrlstmastide
When great-great-grandpapa made you bride?
Handsome and courtly and debonair,
Wi.h his powdered cue and his Roman nose,
As richly dark as his bride is fair.
He rests a hand on your straight backed chair
To whisper to you, I suppose—
To whisper again as in long ago
When he kissed you under the mistletoe.
8ay, beautiful bride in the antique dress;
Say, beautiful bride in your bridal white.
Hid you let him gaze on your loveliness
Till lifted eyes did your heart confess
As you led the dance on your wedding uight?
Did he press your hand as he bent to say
Sweet words- as the lovers do today?
Ah I courtly groom of the vanished years.
Beautiful bride of the days long fled.
Dust, but dust are your hopes and fears,
Oold your kisses and dried your tears:
But I hang here, over your head,
A sprig of such Christmas mistletoe
As you kissed beneath in the long ago.
—Mary Clarke Huntington in Good House
keeping.
Hollow Spars.
The nee of hollow spars for boats de
signed to attain great speed has intro
duced a new and novel industry requir
ing workmanship of the finest charac
ter. The stick for this purpose is re
quired to be of exceptionally fine and
straight grain, and after being roughly
shaped is split longitudinally from end
to end; the center of each of the halves
is then hollowed out, and a greater or
less amount is removed, according to
the intended location of the spar, the
upper spars being much the lighter.
These hollows run nearly the length of
the spar, great care being essential to
have them follow the taper of the out
side of the spar exactly, to insure uni
form thickness at every point—ot coarse
when this has been done and the two
halves of the spar replaced in their
original position, a circular hole is left
in the center of the spar, running near
ly the whole length, and following its
taper from end to end. After this the
two halves are fastened in place again
by means of wooden dowels, which fas
ten the split together, being placed al
ternately on either side of the central
hollow, and both dowels and split are
carefully glued. These dowels vary in
Bize with the size of the spar, but are
usually as long as they can he made
withont piercing its outside surface.
They are placed slightly nearer the cen
ter hollow than the outside, in order to
give them all the length possible. In
small spars the glue and the dowels
suffice, hut in large ones metal hands on
the outside are added.—New York Sun.
As to Giants.
There has been no subject concerning
which more lies have been told than
about giants. Until it was found that
modern men could not be squeezed into
the armor at the Tower, it was taken
for granted that we had degenerated in
size. This is not only not the case,
but in the matter of giants we have the
advantage of our predecessors. The Em
peror Maximinian indeed was said to
have been 8>£ feet high, but ancient
mensuration, especially in the case of
an emperor, is not to be trusted; in
deed, from its not having made him
taller, it is certain that there was no
one else nearly so tall. Orestes, it is
true, we are told, was 10 feet long—aft
er death, but he was not thought so
highly of when alive; we may reasona
bly take 8 feet as his ultimatum.—Lon
don News.
On the Free List.
Poor Hankinson, who had come to
make an evening call, paused at the
doorway of the parlor. Young Fergu
son was there ahead of him.
“I can hardly hope for any inter
change of ideas this evening, Miss Ka
jones,” he said, with a ghastly attempt
to be facetious, * * on the basis of unre
stricted reciprocity. You seem to be
fully protected.”
“Protected?” exclaimed Miss Ka
joces, with a ravishing smile. “Not at
all, Mr. Hankinson. Raw material is
on the free list here. Walk in.”—Chi
cago Tribune.
Spanish Etiquette.
There is a curious story of how the
Duke d’Aoste, when king of Spain, told
a muleteer to whom he was talking to
cover himself, the sun being hot, for
getting that by so doing he made him a
grandee. Marshal Prim, to prevent this
catastrophe, knocked the man’s hat out
of his hand, and according to some the
muleteer had something to do with the
assassination that followed a few days
afterward.—London Spectator.
An Office Secret.
Junior Partner—Our traveler ought
to be discharged. He told one of our
customers that I am an ignorant fool.
Senior Partner—I shall speak to him
and insist that no more office secrets be
divulged.—Boston Gazette.
In front of his early home, in Swe
den, stands a monument with this in
scription, ‘‘John Ericsson was born
here.” It is a large granite monument
and was built by the miners of his na
tive region wholly at their own charges.
Conductor James McEnteeof the Un
ion Pacific railroad claims to have las
soed a deer with a bellcord, an experi
ence that is vouched tor by the train
hands. The train was going at full
speed near Echo, U. T., at the time.
This is a progressive age. The king
of Corea has purchased an electric light
plant in this country, which will have
2,000 incandescent lamps and will illu
minate the king’s palace and grounds.
One of the largest retail dry goods
houses in Boston has a standing con
tract with a daily newspaper to take all
the small change received each day by
‘he newspaper.
The average cost of building an Eng
lish ironclad is £48 per ton; French,
£55; Italian, £57; German, £60
ADULTERATED FOOD.
DECEPTIONS RESORTED TO BY THE
GREEDY AND UNSCRUPULOUS.
Information Which Will Enable the Hon»e
wife to Tell the Genuine From the Doc
tored Article—A Little Joke at the
Butcher** Expense—Bogus Spice*.
The adulteration of articles ot food
is by no means an invention of modern
times, but was practiced by our classic
al ancestors. Daring the middle ages
the cunning baker mixed h’s flour with
lime,sand and gypsum,'and on discovery
was thrown into a prisoo cell and com
pelled to eat the product of his entire
bakery, which cured him of the fraudu
lent habit.
The most important article of food in
every household is the meat. The meat
which comes from healthy animals is
distinguished by a pleasant odor and
fresh color, from a delicate pink to a
deep carmine, according to the animal
from which it comes. It must bo clas
tic to the touch. The dent which is
caused by pressing a finger on it must
disappear when the pressure is removed.
The fatty substance of the meat is a
good indicator of its quality. In healthy
animals the fat is yellow and elastic
and has a pleasant odor. The fat in the
meat from sick animals is pale, gray
and smeary and has an unpleasant
odor.
Sausage offers a wide field for adul
teration of the most dangerous kind,
and in the pamphlets which vegeta
rians send broadcast over the land from
time to time they give prominence to
an anecdote which is as terse as it is il
lustrative of the esteem in which they
hold the sausage. “A man saved the
life of a butcher by endangering his
own. The poor butcher, overcome with
gratitude, cried out in a moment of self
forgetfulness, ‘Never in your life again,
my friend, eat sausage.’ ”
ido auuuerauons in mis line are
manifold. To produce the fresh red
color, bo alluring in sausage, fucbsine is
mixed with the ingredients instead of
blood. It is a very common practice
to put flour in sausage, and while a lit
tle of it is harmless, it nevertheless
leads to early fermentation of the ar
ticle in question. The buyer, however,
is very much imposed upon when flour
is added in large quantities, for it en
ables the sausage makers to add from
60 to 70 per cent of water, which is
paid for at the rate of meat. France
has lately put a stop to this fraud by
limiting the addition of flour to 3 per
cent.
Fish are adulterated in the same way
by rubbing their gills with aniline,
which gives them the appearance of
freshness. The aniline is easily washed
off and the fraud detected. In fresh
fish the eyes are full and protruding,
while in old fish they are opaque, dull
and sunken. The best way to recog
nize an old fish is to watch the gills,
which emit an odor of decay if the fish
is too old for use.
Crawfish or crabs should always be
bought alive. Crabs that are sold al
ready cooked have usually been boiled
after they were dead, and soon decay,
generating a very dangerous poison. A
crawfish that has been boiled alive will
show a curled and twisted tail, while,
on the other hand, one that was cooked
after death has the tail perfectly
straight.
The best way to tell butter from ole
omargarine is to put a piece of it on a hot
potato which has been boiled in the
jacket and freshly peeled. The taste of
butter is more pronounced when eaten
in this way than any other, and the
fraud is detected. It is also the safest
way to discover the age of dairy or
creamery butter.
Lard is frequently adulterated with
water to increase its weight, and mixed
with cornstarch, salt, chalk, etc., to
bind the water to the fat. This may
be discovered by carefully melting the
lard and setting it aside in a lukewarm
place. The fat not only separates from
the water, but collects at the bottom
of the dish with all the other foreign
ingredients.
To tell good eggs from bad ones it is
only necessary to put them in a dish
filled with water containing from 5 to
10 per cent of salt. Fresh eggs drop to
the bottom, old ones swim on the sur
face, and those of medium quality sink
half way down.
All spices sutler more or less adulter
ation, but most of all those which are
sold in a pulverized state. Ground pep
per is mixed with paprica, millet,
bread, powdered olives, almond meal,
dust, sand, gypsum, sawdust, spar, and
almost the same ingredients are used
for the adnlteration of cinnamon. Pul
verized ginger fares no better and is
mixed with potato flour, wheat and
cayenne pepper, while the sweet scent
ed anise seed comes in for a share of
earth, sand and little brown and black
6tones. Housekeepers will always be
more or less cheated in buying powder
ed spices, which should be bought in
their natural state and ground at home.
The vanilla bean before the invention
of the aritficial vanilline was deprived
of its natural aroma and basted with
balm of Peru.
Coffee is adulterated in all forms and
in every possible way. Machines have
been invented and large factories erect
ed, where artificial coffee beans are
made from acorn flour and gum arabic,
and these are mixed with the real
coffee, and even the real beans are cov
ered with poisonous chemicals if they
have been damaged by sea water in
transportation or the influence of the sun
or time. Ground or roasted coffee offers
the best opportunities, however, for
fratid.
But all these perpetrators of fraud
and deception cannot hold a candle to
the Chinese, who are masters in the art
of the adulteration of tea, which they
dye, mix and prepare from leaves that
Lave but a bare resemblance to the real
tea plart. —St. Louis Post-Dispatch.
I
THE ANGLER FISH.
It Secured Hi Prey Like un Artist, With
Regular Strategy.
There is a fish that seen res its prey
like an artist, with regular stiategy,
and, strange to relate, nature has fur
nished it with a full equipment for the
purpose, rod, line and bait. The an
gler, as it is called, is by no means a
beauty. It is about a yard long and
has a huge, toadlike head, an enor
mous, gaping mouth and a formidable
array of teeth. The first dorsal, or back
fin, is almost wholly wanting, its place
being occupied by two or three long,
slender, movable spines which are fas
tened to the body by means of joints.
One is attached by a hinge, which per
mits of only backward and forward mo
tion.
The first spino is connected by a reg
ular ring and staple and admits of
movement in all directions, as it is pull
ed this way or that by the muscles.
This is the angler's pole, which contin
ues into a fine filament or lino, and at
the end there is a loose, shining Blip of
membrane, which plays the part of a
bait.
The angler fish is a slow swimmer, and
It would have but little success if it had
to chase the swift, active fishes upon
which it feeds, so it snares them. Par
tially hiding itself in the mud or sand,
it waves its long filaments with their
glittering tips. As is well known, fishes
are attracted by glistening objects
moved about in the water. The neigh
boring fishes, following the instincts of
their inquisitive nature, come to exam
ine the curious object, and suddenly
they find themselves snapped up in the
wide jaws of their hidden foe.
The angler is a very voracious crea
ture, and on several occasions it has
been known to seize a fish that had been
hooked and was being drawn to the
surface. In one such case the angler
seized a codfish and would not loosen
its grip until it was struck on the head
with a boathook. On another occasion
the fish fell a victim to its own glut
tony, for having dashed at a conger eel
that had just been hooked, and having
taken it into its mouth, the eel con
trived to escape through one of the gill
apertures, and thus it was the uncon
scious means of involving its captor in
its own fate.
Even the cork floats on lines and nets
have been swallowed by the greedy
fish, and when taken in a net it de
vours its fellow prisoners with perfect
unconcern.—Mary M. Friend in Phila
delphia Times.
A Slag Steam Generator.
A slag steam generator, for utilizing
the waste heat contained in the furnace
slag for the production of steam for mo
tive power purposes, has been designed
by an Australian inventor. The ma
chine consists of a steel shell in the
form of a strong egg ended receiver,
having flattened faces on the top and
bottom, and through these flat portions
a number of Galloway tubes arranged
in two rows and tapered from 5 inches
at the top to 10 inches at the bottom
are passed, secured to the shell by
flanges. The lower or larger end of each
tube is closed by means of a cast iron
door manipulated by means of a con
venient lever, and the upper end of each
tube is provided with a funnel for con
veying the slag into the tubes, a pair of
iron rails also passing across the upper
face of the boiler and all the funnels,
thus serving as a track for the slag
pots. At each end of the boiler a bin
is provided, into which the skin of the
slag is dumped, which always sets on
the cast iron pots from which it is pour
ed, and this redhot material lying
against the ends of the boiler plates
serves to conserve the heat.—New York
Sun.
Asafetida Seasoning.
At a lecture in New York a popular
cookery teacher hesitated perceptibly
while dictating the recipe for her de
licious lobster Columbus.
“I know I may expect a groan from
the bottom of all your hearts, but real
ly the dish will be twice as fine if you
will only have the courage to add a
penknife's point of powdered asafetida.
It smells horribly, I know, but there is
nothing that gives such a flavor to made
dishes.
“Do you ever use it on beefsteak,”
asked a pupil.
“Indeed I do! And isn't itdelicious!
I never dare to put it into my books,
but when I find an audience that can
appreciate it I always give them the
benefit of my experience. You will find
asafetida in my recipe for catsup, for
women are used to putting little messes
into catsup and pickles that they would
never think of putting into anything
directly for the table. I always give
those other recipes privately to those
who ask for them.”—Boston Globe.
An intelligent Bird.
A species of woodpecker inhabits the
driest parts of Mexico, where during
the droughts it must die of starvation
unless it made a store. To prevent this
it selects the hollow stem of a species of
aloe, the bore of which is just large
enough to hold a nut. The woodpecker
drills holes at interval in the stem, and
fills it from bottom to top with the
nuts, the separate holes being apparent
ly made tor convenience ot access to the
column of nuts within.
The intelligence which not only con
structs a special storehouse, but teaches
the woodpecker to lay by only the nuts,
which will keep, and not the insects,
which would decay, is perhaps the high
est form ot bird reasoning which has
yet been observed.—London Spectator.
He Married Her.
He (after the honeymoon)—Why did
you use to talk so much about being
afraid that some one would marry you
for money?
She (a smart woman)—Because if any
one did marry me for money, it would
be such a terrible mistake, you know,
because I haven't any.
He—Oh—um—yes, yes. of coarse.—
New York Weekly.
MUST FACE DANGERS.
THUS OUR SOULS GROW AND OUR
MISSIONS ARE FULFILLED.
Reflections on the Uselessness of Shallow
Water Explorers—Where Should the
Blame Rest For Slany Failures?—The Re*
sponsibility of Paternity.
What would be thought of a ship that
was launched from its docks with flour
ish of music and flowing wine, built to
sail the roughest and deepest sea, yet
manned for an unending cruise along
shore? Never leaving harbor for dread
of storm. Never swinging out of the
land girt bay because, over the bar, the
waters were deep and rough. You
would say of such a ship that its captain
was a coward and the company that
built it were tools.
And yet these souls of ours were
fashioned for bottomless soundings.
There is no created thing that draws
as deLp as the soul of man; our life lies
straight across the ocean and not along
shore, but we are afraid to venture; we
hang upon the coast and explore shal
low lagoons or swing at anchor in idle
bays. Some of us strike the keel into
riches and cruise about therein, like
men-of-war in a narrow river. Some of
us are contented all our days to ride at
anchor in the becalmed waters of self
ish ease. There are guns at every port
hole of the ship we sail, but we use
them for pegs to hang clothes upon or
pigeonholes to stack full of idle hours.
We shall never smell powder, although
the magazine is stocked with holy wrath
wherewith to fight the devil and his
deeds. When 1 see a man strolling along
at his ease, while under his very nose
some brute is maltreating a horse, or
some coward venting his ignoble wrath
upon a creature more helpless than he,
whether it be a child or a dog. I involun
tarily think of a double decked whaler
content to fish for minnows. Their
uselessness in the world is more appar
ent than the uselessness of a Cunarder
in a park por d.
What did (jrod give yon muscle and
girth and brain for if not to launch you
on the high seas? Up and away with
you then into the deep soundings where
you belong. O belittled soull Find
the work to do for which you were fit
ted and do it, or else run yourself on
the first convenient snag and founder.
Some great writer has said that we
ought to begin life as at the source of a
river, growing deeper every league to
the sea, whereas, in fact, thousands
enter the river at its mouth and sail
inland, finding less and less water ev
ery day. until in old age they lie shrunk
and gasping upon dry ground.
But there are more who do not sail
at all than there are of those who make
the mistake of sailing up stream. There
are the women who devote their lives
to the petty business of pleasing worth
less men. What progress do they make
even inland? With sails set and brassy
stanchions pclished to the similitude of
gold, they hover a lifetime chained to
a dock and decay of their own useless
ness at last, like keels that are mud
slugged. It is not the most profitable
thing in the world to please. Suppose it
shall please the inmates of a bedlam
house to see yon set fire to your clothing
and burn to death, or break your bones
one by one upon a rack, or otherwise
destroy your bodily parts that the poor
lunatics might be entertained. Would
it pay to be pleasing to such an audi
ence at such a sacrifice? We were put
into this world with a clean way bill
for another port than this. Across the
ocean of life our way lies, straight to
the harbor of the city of gold. We are
freighted with a consignment from
roomage hold to keep which is bound
to be delivered sooner or later at the
great Master’s wharf. Let us be alert,
then, to recognize the seriousness of our
own destinies and content ourselves no
longer with shallow soundings. Spread
the sails, weigh the anchor and point
the prow for the country that lies the
other side of a deep and restless sea.
Sooner or later the voyage must be made;
let us make it, then, while the timber
is stanch and the rudder true.
When you look at a picture and find
it good or bad, as the case may be, whom
do you praise or blame, the owner of
the picture or the artist who painted it?
When you hear a strain of music and
are either lifted to heaven or cast into
the other place by its harmonies or its
discord, whom do you thank or curse
for the benefaction or the infliction,
whichever it may have proved to be,
the man who wrote the score or the mu
sic dealer who sold it? You go to a
restaurant 8nd order spring chicken
which turns out to be the primeval fowl.
Who is to blame, the waiter who serves
it or the business man of the concern
who does the marketing? And so when
you encounter the bad boy, whom do
you hold responsible for his badness,
the boy himself or the mother who
trained him? I declare, as 1 look about
me from day to day and see the men
and women who play so poor a part in
life, it is not the poverty of their per
formance that astonishes me so much
as the fact that it is as good as it is.
With the parents that many boys and
girls have aud the training they receive
1 am perfectly amazed that they ever
attain to even half way respectability.
Did you ever stop to think. 1 wonder,
wbat an awful responsibility is laid
upon you with every child given to
your home? If you appreciate the risk
and take the responsibility 1 shouldn’t
think you would find much time for
other callings. A man who is drawing
up the plans for a new house attends to
his business closely and doesn’t go off
on many picnics or sail over seas in
pursuit of pleasure while his plans are
pending. A man who has entered a
young horse for the Derby spends most
of his time training the colt. He doesn't
loaf about town or read novels or lie
abed late; he is alert and on hand if he
expects to win the race. Carelessness
and indifference never brought a win
ning horse under the wire yet.—Amber
in Chicago Herald.
WHY THE JUROR HELD OUT.
The Extraordinary Secret Imparted to a
Chief JuAttce In England.
The most remarkable case of a jury
j “standing out” against what seemed
1 irrefutable testimony, and all through
the resolution of one man, occurred be
fore Chief Justice Dyer many years ago.
He presided at a murder trial in which
i everything went against the prisoner,
i who on his part could only say that on
his going to work in the morning he
had found the murdered man dying and
: tried to help him, whereby he had be
come covered with blood, but when the
man presently died he had come away
; and said nothing about it, because he
was known to have had a quarrel with
i the deceased and feared he might get
into trouble. The hayfork with which
the man had been murdered had the
prisoner’s Dame on it. In other re
spects his guilt appeared to be clearly
established, and the chief justice was
convinced of it, but the jury returned a
verdict of “Not guilty.”
This was Chief Justice Dyer’s case,
and he put some very searching ques
tions to the high sheriff. The cause of
the acquittal, said the official, was un
doubtedly the foreman, a farmer of ex
cellent character, esteemed by all hiB
neighbors, and very unlikely to be ob
stinate or vexatious. “Then,” said the
judge, “I must see this foreman, for an
explanation of the matter I will have.”
The foreman came, and after extracting
from his lordship a promise of secrecy
proved at once that the prisoner had
been rightly acquitted, “for,” said he,
“it was I myself who killed the man.”
It had been no murder, for the other
had attacked him with the hayfork, and
—as he showed—severely injured him,
but in the struggle to get possession of
the weapon he had the misfortune to
give the man a fatal wound. He had no
fears as to his being found guilty of
murder, but, the assizes being just
over, his farm and affairs would have
been ruined by a confession, through
lying in jail so long, so he suffered mat
ters to take their course. He was hor
rified to find one of his own servants ac
cused of the murder. He supported
his wife and children while in jail;
managed to bo placed on the jury and
elected foreman. Ho added that if he
had failed in this he would certainly
have confessed to his own share in the
business, and the judge believed him.
Every year for 15 years the judge
made inquiries as to the foreman’s ex s
tence, and at last, happening to survive
him, he considered himself free to tell
the story.—London News.
An English “Water Witch.”
A young man of the name of Rodwell,
in the employ of the Grinton Coal com
pany in north England, has shown won
derful powers in his occupation as pro
fessional “water finder'’ or “water
witch.” Professor E. R. Lankester, the
great English scientist, stated very plain
ly in one of the journals that he doubted
the attributed powers of either the
“witch” or the “divining rod,” with
which he is armed in all professional
operations. This evoked the following
from Dr. McClure, the chairman of the
Grinton company: “I deny emphatically
that the lad is an imposter! He has been
tested time and again and has never
failed to locate veins of either mineral or
water, depending upon what the search
was being conducted for. The ‘divining
rod’ which he holds only moves in obedi
ence to the muscular contractions of his
hands and arms, and lie can use a rod of
any kind of wood or material, providing
it be what is known as a ‘good conductor
of electricity.’ Another oddity about the .
lad, and one of which I have never heard
in connection with ‘water witching,’ is
this: The lad habitually walks with his
ha-1 da clasped behind him, and as soon
as he steps upon the ground directly over
a mineral or water he is powerless to un
clasp them until he moves away from
the region of the lode or conduit.”—St.
Louis Republic.
The Salt In the Sea.
The amount of common salt in all the
oceans is estimated by Schafhantt at
3,051,342 cubic geographical miles, or
about five times more than the mass of
the Alps, and only one-third less than
that of the Himalayas. The sulphate
of soda equals 633,644.36 cubic miles,
or is equal to the mass ot the Alps. The
chloride of magnesium, 441,811.80 cu
bic miles. The lime salts 109,339.44
cubic miles. He supposes the mean
depth to be about 300 meters, as esti
mated by Humboldt. Admitting with
Laplace that the mean depth is from
four to five miles, which is more prob
able, the mass of marine salt will be
more than double the mass of the Hima
layas. The weight of water in the oceans
equals 2,494,500.000.000.000 of tons,
and the percentage of common salt in
■ the oceans is 2.7. Therefore, the amount
of common salt in all the oceans taken
together is about 673,515.000,000,000
of tons. Were all the salts of the oceans
precipitated and spread out equally ever
the land they would, it has been com
I puted, cover the ground one mile deep
i over an area of 7,000,000 square miles.
—Brooklyn Eagle.
How to Save Slippers.
A recent advertisement emanating
from a bootshop reads like this: “Slip
pers for ladies should never be used for
spanking purposes.
“Careful mothers with unruly chil
1 dren will be presented with a fine, well
! made rattan carpet beater with every
! pair of shoes. The wearing quality
: of our slippers will not then be eudan
I gered hv using them for correcting pnr
j poses.
| “Bring your boy with yon. and wo
i will show yon how to use the carpet
i heater.”—Pearson’s Weekly.
His Honors.
“And so your son has finished his col
lege course? Did he graduate with
honors?”
“Oh, yes, but he tells me that some
of the other fellows carried them off.
j Rascally, wasn’t it?”—Boston Tran
; script.
FLEET FOOTED ZEBRAS.
Their lliull of 1 .tied When Alarmed l»> the
Whiz <>*» id tl« Hath
The rapidity with which tbodiiferent
zebras have been extenninutd, owi g
to the advance of civilization in South
Africa, is shown by reference to such
works as that of Kir C'ornwalim Ilan •<,
written in 1840, in which tlis author
tells us that the quagga was at the time
found in “interminable herd.'' la. ads
of many hundreds being frequently
seen, while he describes Burchett's ze
bra as congregating in herds of 80 er
100, and abounding to u great extent,
but now, after the expiration of but 50
years, the one species is extinct or
practically so, while the other has been
driven much farther afield and its num
bers are yearly being reduced.
This author's description of the com
mon zebra is well worth repeating. lie
says: “Seeking the wildest and most
sequestered spots, haughty troops are
exceedingly difficult to approach, as
well on account of their extreme agility
and fleetness of foot as from the abrupt
and inaccessible nature of tbeir high
land abode. Under the special charge
of a sentinel, so posted on some adja
cent crag as to command a view of ev
ery avenue of approach, the checkered
herd whom ‘painted skins adorn’ is to
be viewed perambulating some rocky
ledge, on which the rifle hall alone can
reach them. No sooner has the note of
alarm been sounded by the vedette, than,
pricking their long ears, the whole
flock hurry forward to ascertain tlio na
ture of the approaching danger, and
having gazed a moment at the advanc
ing hunter, whisking their brindled
tails aloft, belter skelter away they
thunder, down craggy precipices and
over yawning ravines, where no less
agile foot could dare to follow them.”
Of Burchell’s zebra he says, “Fierce,
strong, fleet and surpassingly beautiful,
there is perhaps no quadruped in the
creation, not even excepting the moun
tain zebra, more splendidly attired or
presenting a picture of more singularly
attractive beauty.” Zebras are by no
means amiable animals, and though
many of the stories told of their feroc
ity are doubtless much exaggerated they
have so far not proved themselves
amenable to domestication..—Saturday
Review.
Dumb L.u<‘k.
I saw a case of hick awhile ago that
nearly made me crazy. I was in a pool
room down in Baltimore, and I was
playing close to the cushion. Nothing
came my way, and I had but a few dol
lars between me and the touching of
some friend for a stake. I saw a little
fellow come in there with a $2 bill and
get out with $1,402 in cash. 1 wasn’t
next, and I didn’t get a cent of it. After
it was all over be told us his system,
and it almost made me daffy to think
that any such fool scheme would go
through.
“There were five races that after
noon, and he played them all. He par
leyed his money, and $1,402 is what he
palled out. If he'd had a good sized
roll when ho started, he’d have broken
the room sure, and every' other room in
the city. And what do you think his
system was? You couldn’t guess in a
thousand years. He placed the seventh
horse in every race. He started at the
top and counted down to the seventh,
and she won. Then in the next race
there were but four horses, and he count
ed one, two, three, four and then start
ed at tlie top again and counted five,
six, seven. He played that horse aud
won. That was his scheme. His pick
won every race. And what do yon think
made him do it? His girl told him to.
Luck? Why, some people have it to
burn, and be was one of that kind. Not
again in 67.000,000 years would that
scheme work. I tried it for a week,
and I know.”—Buffalo Express.
Court Martial Witnesses.
All court martial witnesses who are
Protestants are sworn by laying their
right hand, ungloved, on the Bible,
closed- or open, while the oath is re
cited. Kissing the hook is frequently
required in addition to the laying on of
the hand. Raising the right hand and
keeping it raised during the,recital of
the oath is also a form adopted by a
number. There are many who prefer to
affirm rather than to swear, and those
are accommodated by saying: “You dc.
solemnly affirm, “ instead of “solemnly
swear,” the right hand being raised
or placed on the Bible as before. Form
erly it was required to place the right
hand on the open Evangelists.
In swearing Roman Catholics, the
Bible is closed and has marked on the
outer cover a cross, generally cut out of
white paper and pasted on. Sometimes
a crucifix is placed upon it, which the
witness, after the oath is recited, ki3ses
when there is any suspicion in the mind
of the president of th : court martial, or
in that of any of its members. The
witness, if a Roman Catholic, after
kissing the cross, is frequently directed
to cross himself.—New York Times.
The La*t “Lion Sermon.”
The last annual "lion sermon” has
been preached in the city, and the leg
acy, left for the purpose 2 >•? centuries
ago, will in future be devoted to ether
uses. Sir Richard Guyer, who -e’
quently became lord may'or, so the story
runs, while traveling in Arabia was at
tacked by a lion. He fell upon his
kn< es and vowed to devote his life to
charity if spared from the lion’s jaws.
Th- lion thereupon walked quietly
away.-—London Tit-Bits.
A Missing “V” Discovered.
The Buffalo Express says, * ‘Pack my
box with four dozen liquor jugs” is the
shortest sentence which contains every
. letter of the alphabet. Says the Roches
ter Post-Express, “Where’s the letter
v in that sentence?”
To which the Rochester Herald re
plied, “Probably they went to the man
who sold the jugs.”
None 6eems to have seen that it was
I probably originally “ five dozen,” etc.
[ —Journal of Education,
