THE LION PATH.
I dare not—
Look—the road Is very dark—
The trees stir softly, and the boalurn shake;
The long grass rustles, and the darkness moves
Hem—there—beyond——
There’s something crept across the road Just
now!
And you would have me go?
Qo there—through that live darkness hideous
With stir of crouching forms that wait to kill?
Ah, look! See there—end there—end there
again—
went yellow glassy eyes close to the ground!
Ixwkl Now the clouds ere lighter, I can see
The long, slow lashing of the sinewy tails
And the set quiver of strong JaA that wait.
Qo there? Not II Who dares to go who eeee
So perfectly the Hone in the path?
Oomea one who dares.
Afraid at first, yet bound
On each high errands aa no fear could stay.
Forth goes he, with the lions in his path.
And then
He dared a death of agony—
Outnumbered battle with the king of beasts;
Long struggle In the horror of the night;
Dared and went forth to meet—O ye who fear I
Finding an empty road and nothing there—
A wide, bare common road, with homely fields
And fences and the dusty roadside trees—
Some spitting kittens maybe in the grass.
—Charlotte Perkins Stetson in Boston Wom
an’s Journal.
Saved by a Qypey.
An incident of the Aostro-Prnssian
war of 18M was told by the Archduke
Joeeph to a party of friends. The story
is told as follows in the Nene Pester
Journal: On our retreat before the ad
vance of the Prussian army, said the
archduke, we camped in the neighbor
hood of a Bohemian town. I was lodged
in a peasant's cottage, when about mid
night I heard the sentry challenging
some newcomer. My adjutant entered
and reported that a gypsy wanted to see
me in private. A soldier (a gypsy) en
tered, and on my asking what was the
matter he told me that the enemy was
approaching to surprise us.
“The outpoets have not heard any
thing suspicions,” I said. “No, your
highness, because the enemy is still a
long way off.” “But how do yon know
this?" I asked. “Come to the window,
your highness,” answered the man. “Do
yon see those birds flying over the wood
toward the south?” “Yes, I see them.
What then?” “What then? Do not
birds sleep as well as men? They cer
tainly would not fly abont if they were
not disturbed. The enemy is marching
through the wood and has frightened
all those birds.”
“Very well, my lad.- Yon can go.” I
at once ordered the outposts to be re-en
forced and the camp to be alarmed. An
hour later the outposts were fighting
with the enemy, and our camp was only
saved by the keen observation of a sim
ple gypsy._
A Philadelphia Incident.
The easy and comfortable attitudes as
sumed by most men riding in street cars
have frequently been a source of irrita
tion to women, and one feminine pas
senger had the courage to publicly con
demn the practice. A Sixteenth street
car was scudding np town with many
masculine passengers and one woman,
who sat in an upper corner and whose
physiognomy stamped her as a school
ma’am.
Another woman entered the car at
Poplar street, and finding no vacant seat
was proceeding to grasp a strap when
the voice of the scboolma’am piped out,
“If these men would put their legs to
gether, there would be plenty of room!”
A dead silence was followed by a stealthy
shifting of' nether limbs until sufficient
red cushion was visible to accommodate
the standing passenger.—Philadelphia
Record. __
Their Titles.
Shakespeare has been a mine of wealth
to authors in choosing titles to their
books. Tersely descriptive are “The
Quality of Mercy,” “A Woman’s Rea
son,” “A Modem Instance,” “The Un
discovered Country,” which W. D. How
ells found in the great dramatist. Mrs.
Oliphant remembered her Shakespeare
when she named one of her novels “The
Primrose Path.” Mr. Hardy must have
been reading “As You Like It” when he
called his book “Under the Greenwood
Tree.” Other writers have taken “Airy,
Fairy Lillian,” “A Daughter of the
Gods” and “The Heir of the Ages” as ti
tles from Tennyson.—Journal of Educa
tion.
An Infelicitous Speech.
“Why,'you’re looking better already,
Sir Ronald!”
“Yes, thanks to your delightful hos
pitality, I’ve had everything my doctor
ordered me—‘fresh air, good food, agree
able society and cheerful conversation
that involves no strain on theintellect.’ ”
—Harper’s Magazine.
A Inst Resort.
Little Boy—I want you to write me
an excuse for being late to school yes
terday.
Jeweler—Eh? Yon are not my son.
Little Boy—N-o, but mamma says I
had plenty of time to get to school, so I
gness the clock you sold her doesn’t go
right—Good News.
In early times what is now Ireland
was called Scotia, and its inhabitants
were known as Scoti, or Scots. A branch
of this Scotic stock invading north
Britain ultimately gave its name to all
of what is now Scotland.
Golf is spoken, it seems, withont sound
ing the “L" English folk call it “gowf,”
and if we import the game it is only
proper that we should import the pro
nunciation.
It is a very laiy man who will not
take the trouble to reverse his cigar
when he finds that he has pnt the lighted
end of it by mistake into his mouth.
A square copper coin struck by the
Swedish government in the sixteenth
century is nearly one-half inch thick and
weighs a pound and a quarter.
A Parisian lady wean bell shoes with
tiny watches set in the insteps. Presum
ably this enables her to keep time with
her feet __
India has.60,000,000 at Mohammedans
—a larger dumber than are found in the
entire Turkish empire.
HOW THE WORLD WILL END.
•ur Planet Will Die lfot by Accident, but
■ Natural Death.
According to ail probability, notwith
standing all the circumstances which
threaten it, onr planet will die not of an
accident, bnt a natural death. That death
will be the consequence of the extinction
of the sun in 20,000,000 years or more—
perhaps 80,000,000—since its condensa
tion at a relatively moderate rate will
give -t, on one hand, 17,000,000 years of
existence, while on the other hand the
inevitable fall of meteors into the son
| may doable this number. Even if yon
suppose the duration of the sun to be pro
longed to 40,000,000 years, it is still in
contestable that the radiation from the
snn cools it and that the temperature of
all bodies tends to an equilibrium. The
day will come when the snn will be ex
tinct. Then the earth and all the other
planets of onr system will cease to be the
abode of life. They will be erased from
the great book and will revolve, black
oemeteries, around an extinguished sun.
Will these planets continue, to exist
even then? Yes, probably in the case of
Jupiter and perhaps Saturn. No, be
yond a donbt, for the small bodies, such
as the earth, Venus, Mars, Mercury and
the moon. Already the moon appears
to have preceded us toward the final des
ert. Mars is much farther advanced than
the earth toward the same destiny. Ve
nus, younger than ns, will doubtless sur
vive us. These little worlds lose their
elements of vitality much faster than
the sun loees its heat. From century to
century, from year to year, from day to
day, from hour to hour, the surface of
the earth is transformed. On the one
hand, the continents are crumbling away
and becoming covered by the sea, which
insensibly and by very slow degrees
tends to invade and submerge the en
tire globe. On the other hand, the
amount of water on the surface of the
globe is diminishing. A careful and
reasonable calculation shows that by the
action of erosure alone all the land on
our planet will be covered by water in
10,000,000 years.—Camille Flammarion
in Astronomie.
Dynamos.
There exists a general and deeply root
ed idea that direct current dynamos of
▼ery high potential are not at all prac
tical. The actnal historical and prac
tical facts are that the high potential di
rect current machines were more exten
sively and successfully operated when
the dynamo first came into general use
about 1880 than any other type, either
direct or alternate. Furthermore, their
number and size have largely increased,
and the voltage at which they can be
practically worked has been steadily
raised until we now have 60 light dyna
mos as the standard size of large ma
chines, generating about 3,000 volts and
10 amperes.
Arc dynamos of 90 light capacity are
also regularly made by several manu
facturers, and 120 or even 125 light ma
chines are built and used. I happen to
know of one station where there are four
arc dynamos rated at 125 lights each
which run every night with a load of
from 100 to 105 lights. These machines
must generate about 5,000 volts each.
No great practical or other difficulty is
found in operating arc machines, except
that of danger to persons, but this is
merely due to the high potential and does
not depend very much upon the type of
machine or character of current.—Gas
Bier’s Magazine.
He Dost His Case.
“Judge Emerson, one of the most elo
quent men Illinois ever produced, was
once taken down completely in a speech
at Decatur,” said E. F. Layman, an at
torney of Chicago. “He had a case in
which there were some peculiarly pa
thetic circumstances, the rights of a
young girl whose property had been
squandered and who was reduced to des
titution being involved. Judge Emerson
made the most of it, and as he closed his
speech a solemn hush had fallen over the
courtroom.
“Tears stood in the eyes of the jurors,
and even the judge coughed sympathet
ically and hid his head behind the trial
docket. His opponent, whose name I
have now forgotten, saw that the spell
had to be broken in some way, or his case
was lost. Arising slowly to his feet, and
in a voice of deep solemnity, and with
slow deliberation, he said, ‘Gentlemen
of the jury, let us continue these solemn
exercises by singing the one hundred and
fifteenth psalm.’ A roar of laughter
followed from the audience, and Judge
Emerson lost his case.”
A Little Learning.
We have been often told that “a little
learning is a dangerous thing,” and we
may be just as well assured that a little
bread is not the safest of all things. It
wonld be far better to have plenty of
both, bnt the sophism of those who use
this argument is that they represent the
choice between little and much, whereas
onr election must be made between little
and none at all. If the choice is to be
made between a small portion of infor
mation or of food and absolute igno
rance or starvation, common sense gives
its decision in the homely proverb, “Half
a loaf is better than no bread.”—New
York Ledger.
The Oldest Dressmaker’s Bill.
Most likely the oldest dressmaker’s bill
in the world has been discovered on a
Chaldean tablet, dating 8800 B. C. It
has an entry of “98 pure vestments for
the priests.” Among the items are “10
white robes of the temple, eight robes of
the house of his lady, 10 collars of the
house of his lady, 10 pair of gold col
lars, two white robes and four scented
robes.” Also “two winders,” probably
scarfs for binding about the waist.—
Philadelphia Ledger.
It Depends.
“Papa,” said Johnny, who has recent
ly joined a debating society, “is it cor
rect to say 'The noes hasit,’ or ‘The noes
have it?”
“It depends, my son, on whether yon
are talking about a vote or about a cold
fat the head.”—London. Punch.
I HER ATONEMENT.
i _
Pathetic storr of a Wealthy Woman’*
Theft, Confemion and Restitution.
I beard a little story today that makes
it seem conscience, Christianity and self
abasement are something more than
mere words, after all, and it is so nice,
too, to bear such a story of a distress
ingly rich woman. The heroine—and
she is a genuine heroine—none other
conld do as she did—is the wife of a
magnate .whose wealth is inestimable,
whose income is incalculable. She lives
in one of the most gorgeous mansions
of the metropolis and is famed for her
piety and charity. But she was not al
ways rich—indeed she once was actual
ly poor. When she was a girl at board
ing school, she had probably less pock
et money than any of her classmates.
One time a collection was taken up
among the girls for a most worthy and
needy object. Our young heroine longed
to help, and she was so ashamed not to
be able. A schoolgirl’s pride is a dis
torted, disproportionate sentiment any
how. , So, in a moment of temptation
and weakness, she stole $5 from her
chum, who was the richest girl in school.
The latter, with the happy careless
ness of a petted child, who has more
than She wants, never even missed the
money at all. The end of the term came,
and the girls all went home. The rich
girl never returned. She became lost
to the ken of her former schoolmates—
all save one, who remembered her with
agonizing and conscience quickened dis
tinctness.
Finally, in the course of many years,
our poor heroine had become the wife
of one of America’s richest men, and
one day she heard that the girl she had
never relinquished the search for was
poor, ill and a widow, with little chil
dren. She hunted her up, invited her
to come to dinner, and without telling
her invited also 20 of the friends whose
friendship and esteem she most valued,
among them her paBtor.
After dinner, to every one’s amaze
ment, she had every servant summoned
to the drawing room. There, before
her most cherished friends and her paid
Subordinates, she confessed her petty
pilfering of 80 years before and ended
her confession simply, “But I will pay
back the money tonight. ” There wasn’t
a dry eye in that stately drawing room
when she finished, but only very few
who listened to her self abasement knew
that the widowed friend took home f 1,
000 for the pilfered $5, and besides a
promise of education and subsequent
care for her three little children.
Don’t you think my heroine had in
her the spirit of the early martyrs—or,
indeed, I believe it a higher type of
soul?
God bless her!—Mollie Knickerbock
er in New York Recorder.
PREHISTORIC REMAINS.
The Skeleton of Another Tall Man Recent
ly Discovered Near Mentone.
Fresh discoveries of human remains,
probably prehistoric, were found this
'week on the Italian frontier near Men
tone. Two years ago the skeleton of a
man more than S feet high was unearth
ed at the same spot under the direction
of an English archaeologist. Workmen
in a cave recently uncovered several
slabs of stone which seemed to form a
part of a dolmen. The earth contained
many bones of animals, broken evi
dently, for the extraction of the mar
row, and there were indications of fire
close by. Several small, pierced shells
which once formed a chaplet and a
row of stag’s teeth were near at hand.
The skeleton of a man 6 feet 2 inches
in height was lying on its back. The
legs were crossed below the knee. The
right arm was extended and bent back
ward toward the head. The hand was
clinched. The left hand was placed
under the head. The same position has
been frequently observed in early neo
lithic burials. A fine crystal of carbon
ate of lime beside the skeleton was prob
ably a talisman. Further excavations
in the cavern revealed innumerable
bones of animals, notably a fine verte
bras of a mammoth. Still another find
is a flint implement, which appears to
be of palaeolithic age.—Paris Letter.
To Be Tried For Mailing Bible Quotations.
A case of unusual interest in which
the United States is prosecutor and An
thony Beerpass is defendant will be
tried soon in the United States court.
Beerpass was violently enamored of Ce
lia Qrasaby. In a fit of anger and jeal
ousy the lover wrote Celia a very ob
jectionable letter. The girl promptly
turned the letter over to the proper au
thorities, and Beerpass was arrested for
sending obscene matter through tbe
mails. He acknowledged sending the
letter, but claims be cannot be made to
Buffer for it, as every sentence in it is
|a quotation from the Bible, which he
readily proved. The defendant says that,
as the Bible is mailable matter, he had
a perfect right to nse the mails for
transmitting a few quotations from it.
—Trimble (Tenn.) Correspondent.
Incidental Marriage.
There was no fuss and flummery
about the wedding cf a Portland wom
an last month. She bad a job washing
doors at the city hall, and one morning
appeared with her pails and mops as
usual. Along in the forenoon she sur
prised the janitor by announcing that
she was going out for a few minutes to
get married, and in just 45 minutes she
jwas back, the ceremony all over, tbe
nuptial kiss duly attended to, and re
sumed her scrubbing. She probably ap
preciated the fact that sometimes it is
'easier to get husbands than employ
ment.—Lewiston Journal.
j -
Changes In the French Language.
5 The French academy has announced
that 1,200 changes have been made in
[the French language. Among others
is the uniform formation of the plural
j—e. g., materiaux will become mate
riels, voix will be vois. The ph will
give way to f, as in philoaophie, mak
ing it filosofie. These alterations, it is
said, are to go into into force immedi
ately.—Journal of Education.
>
- --
A ROYAL KID.
Bulgaria Went Wild With Joy One the
▼UH of the Baby Frlaoe.
A man of 64 yean and a boy of as
many bonn are the two meet conspicu
ous figures in Earope today. One, it is
feared, must soon close one of the moat
remarkable public careers of this or any
other age. The other, born in a palace,'
may some day sit upon a rather shaky
throne. All Europe has smiled indul
gently over the extravagant welcome
with which Prince Ferdinand and his
subjects received the wee bit of human
ity at Sofia. The royal youngster must
think this world an awful humbug.
Before he had a chance to enjoy his
first meal he was frightened half to
death by the firing of 101 cannon under
his window. He had hardly donned his
swaddling clothes before he was con
demned to be “Bearer of the Collar of
the Order of 8t. Alexander.” The poor
child would have howled in protest, but
the royal decree informed him that as
the chief of three regiments of infan
try, cavalry and artillery no such weak
ness would be tolerated. Some ordina
ry infant indulgences might be permit
ted him .as prince and duke, but as a
full fledged “Knight of the First and
Fourth Class Military Order of Valor”
be must preserve the stern dignity of
his rank.
It was a hard week for him. In the
first place, the palace yard was thronged
night and day by his singing, dancing,
affectionate subjects. His royal daddy,
in spite of the nurse’s protests, persisted
in dangling him at a window several
times a day, to the frantic delight of
the cheering crowds. The whole prin
cipality took a week’s holiday, and the
rejoicing was so spontaneous and unre
strained that the nation found the spec
tacle a welcome relief from the solemn
croakings about war.—New York Sun’s
London Letter.
THE NICKEL STEEL GUN.
—
Interest at the Government Ordnance Shops
Over the New Method of Assembling.
The force at the Washington ordnance
ehopa has nearly completed the assem
bling of the first nickel steel gnn for the
navy, and the result is awaited with in
terest. The ordnance officers have been
engaged some time in the construction
of a furnace for beating the tube of
this gun, which is of 8 inch caliber.
The furnace will apply the heat to the
gun in a horizontal instead of in a per
pendicular position. The jacket, the
piece of metal which fits over the base
of the tube and gives it greater strength,
will be forced over the tube while the
latter is kept beyond the expanding in
fluences of the heat by the constant ap
plication of a stream of water.
The delay in assembling the gun, the
forgings of which have been ready for
some time, has been caused by the dif
ficulty in securing a pyrometer, a deli
cate instrument for registering the fear
ful heat of the furnace. This instru
ment has been received, and everything
is ready for the assembling of the guD.
There is naturally much interest among
ordnance experts over the result of the
new system of patting great guns to
gether, for, if the proposed method is a
snccess, it will take the place of the old
way, which required a good deal of
shifting of heavy weights and the use
of a shrinking pit.
There is also much interest in the
trial of the nickel steel gnn. It is ex
pected that it will prove stronger and of
longer life than the simple steel gun.—
Washington Star.
Died While the Doctors Quarreled.
Here is the latest episode of Parisian
life. The cold weather of late has been
rather severe on the simian population
of the gay capital, and it was keenly
felt by Maurice, the orang-outang of
the Jardian d’Acclimatation. When
Maurice fell ill, it was decided by the
managers of the Jardin that inasmuch
as Maurice possessed far more resem
blance to a man than to an animal, a
regnlar doctor should be summoned,
and accordingly the services of a physi
cian were invoked. On his arrival how
ever, the doctor declared that, as the
patient occupied an intermediary place
between the quadramanes and the hu
manes, its treatment should devolve
upon a veterinary surgeon, who, how
ever, hesitated to assume the re
sponsibility on the ground that Mau
rice was more human than beast.
While the discussion was in progress
between the two medicos the monkey
died.—Boston Herald.
An Archbishop on Suicides.
The archbishop of Canterbury, at a
church convocation the other day, en
tered a strong protest against the grow
ing tendency to what is called “cod
dling suicides. ”
He protested against the conventional
verdict of temporary insanity in order
to grant a Christian burial. In spite of
the repugnance to speak ill of the dead,
suicide is becoming too prevalent, and
a healthier public sentiment against it
should be encouraged. He urged that
newspaper headings, instead of being
“Romantic,” “Pathetic,” “Interest
ing,” should be “ Revolting Self Mur
der.”—London Exchange.
Wants a Convict Wife.
Warden Weyler recently received at
the penitentiary a letter in which the
writer asked “if there is a young girl
in your prison the age of 16 or 17, 18
or 20 years who can be taken out by
marrying.” The writer asked an an
swer and signed the name of John Mob
ley, adding the names of his father and
mother and the information that he was
born in Wilson, N. C. No address was
given to which an answer to the letter
might be sent.—Baltimore Sun.
Prescott Peculiarities.
Things are being run with a rather
high hand in not the best localities in
Prescott. The kicking in of doors and
the seising against their wishes and
dragging around of women by men
loaded down with six shooters is bound
to result in bloodshed.—Prescott (A. T.)
Courier.
NIAGARA NOW IN HARNE8& I
The GmM Xiftrlmmt Enr Made la j
Electricity b Belas Pat to Teet.
At last Niagara faila hava been har
nessed, and the dream of engineers for
years has been realised. One of the
greatest engineering enterprises ever
undertaken in this country and by far
the greatest experiment ever made in
electricity has been put to the test to
decide whether $4,000,000 have been
ponred into a hole in- the ground or
whether this enm has been planted in
frnitfnl soil to bring forth a hundred
fold.
The object of the company which un
dertook the stupendous task is to catch
the immense power of the fearful on
rush of water of the great river and
turn it to utilitarian pnrpoeea. If the
water which rushes down the penstocks
140 feet tarns the wheels below and
sends back np to the surface 6,000 horse
power from each wheel, the day is not
far distant when every wheel in New
York west of the Hudson river shall be
turned with power from the falls, and
a mighty current shall be transmitted
probably as far west as Chicago, and it
may be as far south as Baltimore.
The tunnel, through which 500,000
cubic feet of water will flow each min
ute when it is used to itB full capacity,
is a gloomy place. It is 31 feet high
and is horseshoe shaped, being 18 feet
10 inches wide at the widest part and
14 feet 5 inches at the bottom. Since
Oct. 4, 1890, when N. B. Oaakell, who
was then president of the Cataract Con
struction company, dug the firBt spade
ful of earth for the tunnel, 17 men have
been killed in the tunnel, 8 in the wheel
pit and 2 in the work outside. While
the tunnel was being dug some 1,500
men were kept busy, and the payrolls
ran as high as $69,000 in one month.
Dr. Coleman Sellers of Philadelphia
has had charge of the work dnring all
the late years of its progress and super
vised the great test, of which the tele
graphic reports in the press have given
ample account. The realization of what
was once a scientific day dream will
add new luster to the glowing achieve
ments of the closing nineteenth century.
—Philadelphia Press.
STATESMEN’S ECCENTRICITIES.
Kate Field Says Our Senators Would Bo
Bolt Without Trousers Pockets.
“Do yon prefer side or slant or top
pockets in yonr tronsers?”
“I don’t care, I’m sure. All I want
is pockets that I can get my hands in
to.”
This was the conversation I overheard
the other day between a tailor and his
customer, and I was reminded of it an
hour later as I looked down upon the
Boor of the senate chamber and watch
ed our grave and reverend lawmakers
going through their work. In the mid
dle aisle, carrying on a triangular de
bate, were Senator Proctor and Senator
Gorman, each with his left hand in hiB
trousers pocket, and Senator Allison
with both hands similarly incased.
They were presently joined by Senator
Brice, who had his right hand pocket
ed, while Senator Lindsay strode from
the Democratic over to the Republican
side, with both his bands in hia pock
ets, almost running into Senator Lodge,
who was carrying his in the same way.
I could not help thinking of the old
story of Daniel Webster and the button
on his jacket, which he always used to
twirl while making his best recitations
in school. It is said that a little girl
who had long stood neat to him in bis
spelling class, and who was ambitious
to pass him, contrived one day to snip
off this button, and at the neat recita
tion, when Daniel felt for it and found
it missing, he was so overcome that he
missed the world put to him, and his
clever rival went to the head of the
class. Suppose some malicious person,
bent on destroying the comfort and dig
nity of the senate, should contrive to
have the trousers pockets of all the sen
ators sewed up over night, what would
become of American oratory and legis
lation the neat day?—Kate Field’s
Washington.
Picture Owners Getting Tirotl.
The owners of works of art not only
in England, hot throughout Europe,
complain of the injustice of the increas
ing demands for the loan of their treas
ures for international, national and lo
cal exhibitions, says a New York Son
correspondent. The pictures just re
turned from Chicago are wanted imme
diately for Vienna and then for Ant
werp. English owners are openly talk
ing of refusing. To refuse to lend seems
churlish, however, and might prove
damaging to the reputation, not merely
of individual artists, but of the British
school. On the other hand, if the own
ers lend whenever they are asked they
never have possession of their own pic
tures. The Royal academy will prob
ably soon consider the dilemma.
Buddhism In Paris.
A fresh propaganda of Buddhism is
being undertaken in Paris, says a corre
spondent. It is asserted that 30,000 Pa
risians now profess the ancient religion.
Many well known women describe them
selves as eclectic Buddhists. A little
volume gives a summary of the doc
trines of the new creed. It has just been
printed, and large numbers have been
bought by wealthy neopbyte3 and will
be distributed next week among all
classes. The converts are not expected
to desert the churches of which they
are members. The copies of the bock
have been bound in black morocco, gild
ed to resemble prayer books.
Her Faith Led to Heath.
Mr3. William Seidentopf died Satur
day from tbe effects of a dose of poison,
which she spread on a piece of bread
and then deliberately ate. Mrs. Seidec
topf was a Christian science believer,
and it is thought that she ate the poi
son to prove her faith. Even after the
agony resultant from the action of the
poison baa began, she refused to allow
a doctor to be called- and was beyond
hope of saving when one was summon
ed.—Council Bluffs (la.) Dispatch.
DEATH THROUGH A KISS.
While Careening HU Grandchild the Old
Man Inhaled a Hair Which Killed Hlaa.
It was a joyous company of young,
middle aged and aged peoplo who con
gregated at the home of Mr. and Mrs.
Samuel Larkin in SasqnebanDa, Pa.
They met in honor of the fiftieth wed
ding anniversary of their host and host
ess, who bad passed their allotted three
score years and ten and were still in the
enjoyment of perfect health.
Several sweet faced, laughing grand
children were present to contribnte
their share of sunshine to the occasion.
Little 5-year-old Mary Edwards, with
her bright bine eyes and light tresses,
was there. After kissing her grand
mother affectionately she sprang upon
her grandfather’s lap, exclaiming,
“Grandpa, I have lots of kisses and a
bear hng for you.”
Then the old man pressed tho sweet’
face of his favorite grandchild to his,
fervently remarking: “God bless you,
Mary. No company would be complote
without you. You are the embodiment
of sunshine itself, and I trust you will
grow to be a noble woman.”
“Tell me how much you love me,
grandpa, ” said the child, “and then I
will give you the kisses and the bear
hng.”
“I cannot tell yon how much I love
yon, child,” answered the old man,
“but I can assure you it is a big lot.”
Then Grandfather Larkin imprinted
kiss after kiss upon the ruby cheeks,
arid the child, delighted at tho mani
festation of affection, returned the com
pliment, and then, throwing her little
arms about the old man’s neck, gave
the promised “bear bug.” She then
crawled down from grandpa’s lap and
busied herself for a time among others
of the company. An hour later, and
just before the joyous party were about
to partake of dinner, tho same little
Mary approached her grandfather, re
marking, “Grandpa, I want to give you
one more kiss before dinner, and then I
want you to sit by me at the table. ’ ’
The old man smiled and lifted the
little girl in his arms. Two minutes
later he felt a tickling sensation in hiH
throat and realized that in retarding
the last kiss a hair had caught in his
month and been sucked into his wind
P‘FD
This immediately produced hard fits
of coughing, and before relief could bo
obtained a blood vessel was ruptured, •
and death resulted instantly.
Consternation reigned for a time, and
the aged partner of the unfortunate sep
tuagenarian, overcome with grief, fell
in a swoon. She rallied an hour later,
but it is thonght her great grief will
cause her death in a short time.—New
York Herald.
NOW A DESERTED VILLAGE.
Virginia City, Nev., Once Gay and Prosper
ous, Rapidly Falling to Ruing.
*‘A poet could write on ‘The Desert
ed Village’ with Virginia City as a sub
ject and surpass Goldsmith’s immortal
production on the same topic,” said E.
L. Hearne of San Francisco to a Globe
Democrat man. ‘‘The first time that 1
was ever there the population of Vir
ginia City was greater than that of tho
entire state now. Everything ran wide
open. Magnificent hotels and opera
halls, palatial residences, stores that
would have done credit to New York,
millionaires who spent money freely,
maintaining a society that for brillian
cy and gayety could not bo equaled in
the United States. I was there a short
time ago. The Hotels and opera bouses
are closed, the residences empty, the
stores removed to other and more pros
perous places. Dwellings that cost hun
dreds of thousands of dollars are given
over to the bats, and the broken panes
of glass, the shutters hanging upon a
single bingo or flapping in the wind,
give a grewsome sense of loneliness.
In years to come it will afford magnifi
cent spectacles of ruins, and even now
in some sections of the town there is a
sense to tho beholder of being in a city
of the past. Millions were made and
lost, and the history of Virginia City
would be one of the most thrilling sto
ries ever written. ”—St. Louis Globe
Democrat.
Savages la Modern War.
It was curious to see the effect of
the seven pounder and hotchkiss sheila
upon the Matabeles when they were re
treating. On the shell bursting among
them we could see through our glasses
the Matebelcs turn round and firo at the
place where the shell had burst, think
ing it was some diabolical agency of the
white man. From information we re
ceived after this fight we learned that
the enemy had intended attacking us at
10 o’clock the previous night, but ow
ing to the rocket having been sent up
to recall Captain Borrow they were
afraid to do 60, thinking that we were
holding communion with our gods by
shooting at the stars and bringing them
down.—London Telegraph.
A Fatal Blunder.
Blunders that are literally worse than
crimes are not uncommon. Such a one
was committed in 1886 by a New York
druggist, who, by potting up the wrong
prescription, caused the death of two
girls named Holtz by morphine poison
ing. But the consequences of the ter
rible mistake did not end there. The
betrothed of one of the girls. Dr. Low
enthal, whose prescription wa3 misread,
went insane. And now their father,
Christian Holtz, has died abroad, where
he retired, broken hearted, as soon as ho
could close up his large business inter
ests in New York.—Rochester Horald.
Boston h Crowded Tenement*.
In tho most crowded pieeinct of Bos
ton, the recent tenement house census
found the average number of persons in
a house to be 17.81, and the average
number of persons in a room 1.63. In
the most instances, the average number
of persons to a room was «.30, but in
all Boston there were found but 65G
persons occupy tenements in which tbo
average number to a room was three or
over.—Boston Com:- mwoaltlj.
