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About The McCook tribune. (McCook, Neb.) 1886-1936 | View Entire Issue (May 11, 1894)
HE KNEW TOO MI CH. AS A CONSEQUENCE HIS WEDDING COST HIM A LITTLE EXTRA. He Wan No Jay. on HIh First Journey Away From Homo, and Didn't Hare to Show HI* Ticket* —He Turned Out to Be a * Pretty Oood Sited Han After All. C. F. Daly, general passenger agent cf the Lake Erie and Western was stand ing one afternoon in the Union depot at Kansas City. The west bound trains had backed up on their allotted tracks and were receiving their passen gers. A tall, well dressed man with a lady on his arm presently approached the rear sleeper on the Burlington train. Mr. Daly’s experienced eye told him at a glance that they were bride and gToom. Without hesitation or inquiry of any kind the man was proceeding to hand his bride up the steps of the Pull man sleeper when the conductor de manded his tickets. Oh, I have got my tickets all right, ’ ’ replied the tourist. “I know where I am going, and I don’t need to show my tickets to you.” "lam very sorry at having to incon venience you,” replied the conductor affably, “but my instructions aro not to allow any one to get on my train without first seeing his tickets.” “There is no law to make me show you my tickets,” growled the man. “1 haven’t got to, and I don’t mean to, I tell yon. I know where I am going, have got mv tickets ami am able to take care of myself. I am uo jay. out on my first trip abroad." “I am 6orry." again replied the con ductor courteously, “but my i.:. unc tions are peremptory. Stand aside, please, and let these other passengers into the car.” “Oh, show him your tickets, dear, and do not make all this fuss about so simple a matter,” sweetly remarked the bride. “No, 1 will not,” replied the gentle man. “I haven’t got to, and now that my ire is aroused over this thing I don’t propose to back down. I know where I am going and howto take care of my self.” There is our superintendent ot car service. You may speak to him about this matter, ” said the conductor as he saw his superior officer approach. ‘ ‘ If he says you can board the car without showing your ticket, why, it will be all right.” ‘‘What is the trouble here?” asked the car superintendent as he came up to see what the altercation was about. “Your conductor demands that I show him my ticket before I board the car, “replied the man. “I say I have not got to and do not mean to. I know where I am going and am able to look after myself.” “Have you got your tickets?” asked the superintendent. “Yes, 1 have them in my pocket all right. 1 know what I am doing. ” “Haveyou got your sleeping car tick ets?” “Yes, I have it all right in my pock et. It is for section 7. I know wbat 1 am doing, I tell you.” “Oh, well, let the man on the car,” said the superintendent. “If he has his tickets, as he says he has, it is not worth while contending with him over the matter and delaying the other pas sengers. ” The conductor stepped aside and let the couple pass, calling the porter to take the satchel as he did so. Present ly the train pnlled out of the depot and was speeding across the prairies at a rapid rate, when the conductor began to collect the tickets in the sleeping car. As he did so he noticed that all the seats in section 7 were occupied, and he immediately surmised that there was a peg out of place somewhere, and that there would be more fun with the obstreperous passenger. He kept his counsel to himself, however, and went <a with his collections. When he reached section 7, he took the tickets of the two parties occupying the seats opposite his bridal friends, saw that they were for that section—for the up per and lower berths respectively—and his surmise was thereby developed into a certainty. Without asking the man again for his ticket he passed through all the other sleeping cars on tbe train, took up all the tickets and found that every berth was occuied without leav ing any for his friends. rickets, please, demanded the train conductor. The man drew forth his pasteboards, and the conductor ex amined them closely. “These tickets do cot read over this road,” remarked the conductor as he folded them up and handed them hack. “This is the direct route to Denver from Kansas City. Your tickets read round by Pueblo.” “ What is the fare from Kansas City to Denver?” asked the man. “The fare is $18.15, ” replied the train conductor—“$36.30 for two.” The money was counted ont without a word. “Can you sell me a berth?” asked the man, turning to the sleeping car con ductor. “I am very sorry, but every berth on this train is sold. The best 1 can do for yon is to pnt yon in a chair car. There are a few seats still unoccupied there. Porter, take this gentleman’s traps to the chair car. ” On reaching the door of the car the man turned, and in a tone of voice loud enough to be heard by every one in the ear said: “Conductor, at the suggestion of this lady, my wife, I want to make yon a humble apology for my hoggishness for refusing to show yon my tickets in the first place. There was no occasion for it. I thought I could take care of my self, but now 1 find I cannot. 1 have had to pay for my ill breeding, hut no more than I deserve. 1 want to apol ogize as pnblicly as the offense was committed. Yon have acted the gen tleman all through this affair, and 1 now humbly apologize to yon as 1 ought. ’’—Chicago Post THE VIOLET. It is in IVauce in 1794. The month is May, and Mother Nature has just awak ened from their winter’s sleep the flow ers, the loTeliest of her children. Afiei such a storm as history seldom records the last wares of the revolution are sullen ly beating upon the land of the Burgundy rose and Bourbon lily. By a quick combination of old royalists and Jacobins the new convention of Paris, though preferred by the people, is Xkely to be beaten by the mob. The 96 wards ot the city on the Seine are ablaze with pas sion. The women who dipped their hand kerchiefs in the blood that spurted under the guillotine when the last of the un broken line of Louises died in the Place of Peace are full of savagery of the ancient days, and nothing but the red stream flow ing anew can quench their mad thirst. The convention is in session. It is awed by the old royalist armies and the newer national guards. One commander after another has gone over either in person or spirit to the ene mies of peace. Barras, who leads the con vention, is alert and ready, full of the fer tility of expedients that characterizes the Latin race, but he can see no hope. The republic is lost, and mighty France, whose traditions of honor and glory for a thou sand years have had one nnbroken line in history, is to lose her place among the na tions at last, for who shall be her deliverer from the awful cruelty of her own unnat ural children? The shadows of the soft May day were growing longer when Barras, the people’s champion, left the heated hall of the con vention for a little rest and thought, and his steps led him to the salon of a woman famous in those days—for she was beauti ful, well born and patriotic—whom he tenderly loved. She was alone, and to gether they spoke of the nation’s danger, of the fear which filled each heart that the life of the republic might soon run out in a stream of blood. “There is no longer a leader among ns, chere amie,” said the great statesman and orator, whose fervor and passion had so touched the people’s hearts. “The end has come.” “Never despair. Perhaps the good God may help us, ” softly replied the gracious woman who was so dear to him—a woman to fill the ideal of such a man as her lover was; a woman brave with sweet heroism, tender and true. “B#h, that good God—he is so long in coming!” said Barras. He had learned his theology from the great orator of the mountain who died saying, “Sprinkle me with perfnme and crown me with flowers, for death is but an eternal sleep. ” “Nay, believe it not, mon ami,” sh6 softly whispered. “Help will come. “And you say you have no leader?” She spoke after a long silence in a musing way, thinking aloud. “Whoare your com manders then? Where is that droll little man yon presented to me at Mme. deStael’s the other evening? He seemed to have brains an4*ourage, too—that little Corsi can?” “Pardie!” said Barras, springing into new life. “Belle amie, you have given me a thought that may yet save France!” They talked very seriously for a few minntes, and he returned to the conven tion full of a new hope. Bnt before he had left the saloon he bad written a little note addressed to “The General of the Bri gade, Napoleon Buonaparte”—who spell ed his name thus until after his corona tion as emperor—praying his immediate presence at the convention, and a trusty servant was charged to deliver it person ally into M. Buonaparte’s hands and not to fail. “1 have sent for you, M. Buonaparte,” said Barras an hour later to the small, pale faced man with whom he was ear nestly talking, “because you are our last hope, and I will now present you to the convention.” “Can you restore*peace and order?” said the president to the young man before him. The members looked curiously on and listened. “So France has come to this,” whisper ed one graybeard to his neighbor, “that her life and fate lie in the hands of a youth of 25”—who looked even less than his age —“only 5 feet 2 inches in stature, with hair combed low on his brow like a wom an’s? Farceur va!” “Iam perfectly aware of the difficul ties in the path, bnt I am accustomed to success,” said the young man, speaking with a strong Italian or rather Corsican accent. “Bnt one thing I must insist upon. It is that I must not be embarrassed by orders. I must have supreme command. That is all.” And bowing low to the people’s repre sentatives the little pale man, bnt 5 feet 9 in stature, with gray brown eyes and hang ed hair, left the hall, and the convention, with closed doors, proceeded to consider his proposition. As Buonaparte left the hail Barras fol lowed him for a last word. “Go to your rooms and remain there,” said the poli tician in quick speech to the young offi cer, “and I will send yon the result as soon as possible.” “It must be all or nothing,” answered the other. oust then a aower girl came up to them with her basket full of fragrant violets, and Barras bought a bouquet for the wo man he loved. The little man’s eyes soft ened. “They always remind me somehow of home,” he murmnred apologetically as he gave the seller a son and took a tiny bouquet. A thought struck Barras. “Go to the salon of Mme.-,” said he, “and remain there until 10. If I suc ceed for you, she will send you a violet.” The young officer went as he was told. It was early, hours before the time of re ception, but he was admitted. The salon was empty. Alone the young Corsican paced the spacious room. It was 7, then 7:30, then 8. At last the clock in the hall began to strike off 9. As its chimes ceas ed a servant entered the room with a bil let. “For the General Buonaparte, from Mme.-,” said the man as he with drew. Bather listlessly Buonaparte opened it, and, lot it contained only a violet.—Ex change. Arizona Rubies. The finest known garnets are obtained in the country of the Navajo nation in northwest New Mexico and northeast Ari zona, where they are collected from ant hills and scorpions’ nests by the Indians and by soldiers stationed at adjacent forts. The insects and arachnids mentioned fetch them to the' surface from their burrows. The stones are known as Arizona rubies. They rival in beauty the garnets of the cape of Good Hope and weigh from two to three carats np when cut. By artificial light they are more beautiful than those from the cape. Most of them are of a rich red or claret tint, but some are yellow_ Boston Transcript. A MODEL SAVAGE. ■In{ Khama I« an Autocrat of the Bust Pouible Type. King Khama is a model savage, if a black man who has been thoroughly civilized by European and missionary influences can still be called one. He is an autocrat of the best possible type, whose influence in his country is en tirely thrown into the scale of virtue for the suppression of vice. Such a thing as theft is unknown in his realm. He will not allow his subjects to make or drink beer. He has put a stop also to the existence of witch doctors and their wiles throughout all the Bamang wato. He conducts in person services every Sunday in his large, round kotla, or place of assembly, standing beneath the tree of justice and the wide canopy of heaven in a truly patriarchal style. He is keen in the suppression of all super stitions and eats publicly the flesh of the duyker, a sort of roebuck, which was formerly the totem of the tribe and held as sacred among them 20 years ago. The late King Sikkome, Khama’s father, would not so much as step on a duyker skin, and it is still looked up on with more veneration by his sub jects than Khama would wish. As an instance of Khama’s power and judgment, it is sufficient for us to quote the sudden change of his capital from Shoshong to the present site, Palapwe. Shoshong was in a strong position, where the Bam angwato could effectual ly protect themselves from the Mata beles’ raids under Lobengula, but it was badly supplied with water, and in dry seasons the inhabitants suffered greatly from drought. The change of capital I had been a subject discussed for years, but Khama waited quietly until people began to think that he was against it and would never move. He waited, in fact, until he was sure of British pro tection, until he knew that Lobengula could not attack his people at Palapwe without embroiling himself in a war with England. men suauemy one aay, witiiom any prefatory warning, King Khaina gave orders for the move, and the exodus began on the next day, and in two months’ time 15,000 individuals were located in their new capital, 60 miles away from Shoshong. Under Khama’s direction, everything was conducted in the best possible order. To every man was given his allotted ground, and he was told to build his huts thereon. Not a single dispute arose, and no one would imagine today that only a few years ago Palapwe was uninhabited. Khaina, in manner and appearance, is thoroughly a gentleman, dignified and courteous. He wears well made European clothes, a billycock hat and gloves; in his hand he brandishes a dainty cane, and he pervades every thing in his country, riding about from point to point wherever his pres ence is required, and if he is just a lit tle too much of a dandy it is an error in his peculiar case in the right direc tion.—Contemporary Review. Teapot Collectors. Tea was not known in England till the time of Charles II, but it is inter esting to trace the gradual increase in the size of teapots, from the diminutive productions of the Elers, in the time of Queen Anne and George I, when tea was sold in apothecaries’ shops, to the capacious vessel which supplied Dr. Johnson with “the cup that cheers but not inebriates.” Mr. Croker, in his edi tion of “Boswell’s Life,” mentions a teapot -that belonged to Dr. Johnson, which held two quarts, but this sinks into insignificance compared with the superior magnitude of that in the pos session of Mrs. Marrayat of Wimbledon, who purchased it at the sale of Mrs. Piozzi’s effects at Streatham. This tea pot, which was the one originally used by Dr. Johnson, holds more than three quarts. George IV had a large assem blage of teapots, piled in pyramids in the pavilion at Brighton. Mrs. Eliz abeth Carter was also a collector of tea pots. Also Mrs. Hawes, who bequeathed 300 specimens to her daughter, Mrs. Donkin. Among them are several be longing to Queen Charlotte. — Salas Journal. White Blood Absorbing the Hawaiian. The marriage of young American men to half whites is becoming quite fre quent among respectable white families in Hawaii. It is of no use for the for eign parents to turn the cold shoulder. Ofttimes tbe half white girls are fully equal in intelligence, taste and domes tic virtues to those who marry them. There will be more of these marriages, and the mixed blood will improve with growing prosperity and better educa tion, and as the primitive influences and environments decrease with the lapse of generations. Indeed one way that the Hawaiian population is now decreas ing is not so much by the disappearance as by the dilution or by whitening of the blood.—New York Evening Post. The Obliging J ary man. Some jurymen have too low an opin ion of what some philosophers call their ego and are willing to depute their du ties to an alter ego. When Mr. Justice Gould had been about two hours trying a case at York, he noticed there were but 11 jurymen in the box. “Please, my lord, ” replied the foreman in an swer to the judge’s natural inquiry, “the other has gone away about some business he had to do, but he has left his verdict with me.”—London Illus trated News. Terrible Death of an Inventor. A chemist named Liardet met a shocking death at Melbourne recently. He was engaged in his laboratory in some experiments with a powerful ex plosive, which he had just succeeded in inventing after years of patient labor and at an outlay of several fhousands of pounds, when the substance explod ed, with the result that the unfortunate man was blown to pieces, his mangled remains being projected right through a wooden partition. — Melbourne Ga lette. SHORTHAND WRITERS THOUSANDS TAUGHT STENOGRAPHY EACH YEAR IN AMERICA. A Few Expert* Receive Rich Salaries. The Art Not a New One, a» It Date* Rack to Cicero, Who Used More Thao 7,000 Characters—New York's Veteran. There are more stenographers in New York and its vicinity than there are lawyers or doctors. But not all of them are competent-. A first class shorthand writer is very difficult to find, and if he is a fast writer he is sure of a good salary. Shorthand writing as a means of earn ing a livelihood is not as lucrative as many other callings, bnt it affords a young man, if he is quickwitted, a fine chance to watch the internal workings of a business house, and thereby helps him toward a business education such as he conld get in no other way. The only field that is highly remu nerative is law reporting, hut to become competent for this work requires years of assiduous practice, and the field of employment is limited. The highest salary paid to a court stenographer in New York is in the surrogate's court. Mr. Edward F. Underhill, probably the oldest practicing stenographer in Amer ica, holds this position and receives a salary of $3,000 per year. He has been in the service since 1849. The municipal departments and courts in New York city pay annually in sal aries for stenographic services $154, 000. This salary list includes 90 ste nographers, 27 of whom are conrt re porters, each receiving $2,500, and 19 $2,000 annually as salary. In addition to this, however, all court stenographers are allowed by the code 10 cents per fo lio of 100 words, for furnishing copies of transcripts to the parties interested in any case when desired. uptown at ddii west l wenty-tmra street the stenographers of New York have a clnb, where they meet each oth er socially. In connection with the club is a “classroom,” where the mem bers may practice the art of shorthand writing. Here nearly every evening are gathered scores of ambitions young shorthanders industriously driving their pens for love of perfection in their craft, while some one of experience reads or dictates. The classroom is provided with all the different styles of typewriting machines for the use of members when there is no dictation. The clnb also maintains an employ ment bureau. The club is open to ei ther sex. In fact, it is the large mem bership of young ladies that gives zest to the social side of the clnb, which is one of its important features. In the winter the club gives receptions, enter tainments, occasionally a dinner and once every year a ball. In many of the public schools of the country stenography is a part of the training. An evidence of its recent re markable growth is shown by a circu lar issued by the bureau of education at Washington. Here it is shown that from July 1,1889, to June 30, 1890, 57,375 persons receiv ed instruction in the art of shorthand in schools and colleges in the United States. Five thousand five hundred and fifty of these were in New York and Brooklyn. A similar circular was is sued by the bureau in 1884, in which it was shown that daring the year 1882 the number of pupils receiving such instruction was 12,470. It is therefore quite safe to say that the number for 1893 exceeded 75,000. But this number does not take into consideration an army probably equal ly large who receive instruction from some other source or from professional stenographers. Out of this vast army, however, but a very small minority are either phys ically or mentally qualified to become court reporters or even office amanuen ses. Cicero is said to have been the invent or of shorthand writing, and the freed man, Marcus Tullius Tiro, his friend, the first stenographer, ’and he undoubt edly did use a method of shorthand writing as early as 60 B. C. The first English treatise was by Tim othe Bright, entitled ‘ * An Arte of Shorte Swifte and Secrete Writing by Charac ture, Indented by Timothe Bright, Doc tor of Phisike. Imprinted at London by I. Windet, the Assingee of Tim Bright, 1588. Cum priuilegie Regiae Maiesta tis. Forbidding all others to print the same.” jjt. migm m inis wora says: vjicero did account it worthie his labour, and no leas profitable to the Roman common ■weale (Most Gracious Soueraigne), to inuent a speedie kinde of wryting by character, as Plutarch reporteth in the life of Cato the younger. This inven tion was increased afterward by Seneca: that the number of characters grue to 7,000. Whether through inure of time, or that the men gaueit over for tedions ness of learning, nothing remaineth ex tant of Cicero’s inuention at this day.” Every stenographer who recalls the efforts required to properly master the few characters used in the art today will not wonder that of Cicero's system, with its 7,000 characters, nothing re mains at this day. It was not until 1642 that the art be came of any practical use, and it was first used in the house of lords in 1699 in taking testimony in a divorce suit. Stenographers were not regularly em ployed in parliament, however, until 1802.—New York World. Undaunted by Defeat. While female suffrage has carried the day in New Zealand, it has experienced defeat in South Australia, where the adult suffrage bill, which embodied the principle, was rejected in the popular house on the third reading, but only by a narrow majority. The friends of the cause, however, are not at all discour aged and will return to the battle with undaunted spirits till victory crowns their efforts.—Melbourne Letter. CTatgcaCTMBBuwwKwrwBwi wn t:'»——rr^* irnnw— rm*nr. A WRECK. A little 80 ton schooner ashore, almost in the identical spot off which one of the large lake steamers had grounded one year before, lip in a shady spot on the shore, jnst above the little schooner, was the wreck of a small shanty, likewise an evi dence of the severity of the gale, it having come down upon the heads of its inmates during the same night. These two--Ned Fairly and Fred Can field—were camping in the open air since the disaster, and sleeping under the prop ped up roof, the interest in a gang of men working on the beached schooner being too strong for them to find time to patch up the shanty. A tug had parted a 3% inch hawser try ing to draw the Plow Boy off. Captain Jackson, a short, sandy bearded man, with a very red face, was shouting orders and encouragement all day long. She was dug under and long beams used in attempts to pry her up and off, in the manner of the Mississippi steamboat men. On the fifth day of the little cruft’s stay on the shore, she was deserted by the workers in a body. They held a council at the noon hour; asked for their pay, and when it was not forthcoming threw up the : job. At first Captain Jackson went and snt on the cabin house of his little vessel in ap parent indecision. Toward night Fred saw him picking his way up the sand bank toward the ruing of the shanty. He had come to ask them if they would be sbipkeepers for him while be ran down to Buffalo to trytopai.se tbe funds; be could not offer them provisions, for the last of the little vessel’s stores had gone to feed the hands who had deserted her. But the boys were only too delighted to exchange the tumbledown shanty for the snug cabin of the little Plow Boy, and they began shifting the hardtack, soups and other canned edibles of their store aboard cheerily. The next night the western sky looked threatening. This was late in September, and fall gales might be expected at any time. Ned took a long look about before he drew the cabin slide. s By midnight the storm had broken, and the pounding, gushing surf made shout ing the only mode of conversation practic able. The wind whistled through the rigging of the little vessel in long wails. | Ban-els and barrels of water were beiDg hurled upon the top of the cabin and hec i decks—she could even be felt to sway at the blows of some of the heavier seas. “Let’s take a look out,” Fred proposed. To have opened any of the cabin win dows would have deluged the little apart ment. The chnms crawled down through the door into the hold and thence to the forward deck by way of the forecastle. Climbing upon the bulwarks and cling- I tog to the forestay, a stirring sight lay In-- i fore and about them. The Plow Boy was as completely sur rounded by water as though she were afloat, the seas breaking far up on the shore and all about her. It would have been a hazardous undertaking to have at- | tempted to have gono ashore. “Fred!” halloed Ned in his companion's ' ear suddenly, “this is as big a gale as she came ashore in, and the water’s higher, because it’s blowing down the lake. I’ve been thinking—are you in fora big trip?” “You don’t mean we can do anything?” shouted Fred back. “We might get her off and riding to the anchor if we could get the cable forward. The way it is made fast jnst now would only make her bow swing in further if she works loose.” Wet to the skin—more nearly drowned— they managed to reach the wheel, when, working knee deep in swirling water most of the time, they were able to cast off the heavy cable from the sheet bits at last. Fortunately the ship’s end of the long I cable was still at her bow, so that they j only had to cast the part they loosened overboard, or they might have been drawn over the side in the attempt to carry it for ward. Clinging to the bulwarks like parrots, they worked their way forward again, manned the windlass and took in the slack of the big line as much as they were able. Nor were they any too soon in doiDg so. “Boom!” a great sea struck the little vessel and the boy3 felt her rise from the sand. The rushing power of water tried to sweep her down the beach and in, but the cable’s resistance could be distinctly felt. If the long line held, the boys knew it would draw the little craft off with every sea that tried to wash her farther in and down the dark shore. With a thrill that set both boys shout ing they soon felt the little Plow Boy ris ing, falling and pitching on the inrushing waves as she swung loose from the shore— the little schooner was off! Then followed a night of heaving and rolling and backaching work at the pumps —for the vessel leaked quite a little—that Ned and Fred say they vill never forget. They did not grow seasick, because there was no time to tbl»k of it. But they have since declared that they would not have missed the experience for worlds. The storm eased up in the morning, when the lighthouse skiff brought old Captain Jackson out tothem; norwas there ever a very much more pleased man than he. They helped him sail her into Erie har bor, when he pressed them to be cabin passengers on her later run to Buffalo.— Conyers C. Converse. Fared to His Fate. They sat in the parlor, gazing at the natural gas flames as they chased each other over the asbestus surface. The two were Miss Belleiield and Mr. Van Brat; m. and the young man was in love with the young woman. He was doubtful of her feelings toward him, how ever, for she was not a girl to display her love, if she had any, until it was sought. ' The young man had not spoken. He dread ed the ordeal. He was fearful of the re sult. The conversation turned upon mar riage, and in the course of the discussion Miss Belleiield said: “In Burmah the women propose to the: men.” “How I wish we were in Burmah,” the young man replied, with a slight stress on the plural pronoun. “It wouldn’t do you any good if we were,” replied the girl, and Mr. Van Braam did not linger much longer that evening.—New York Recorder. Anonjmoas. “What's the most insnltin ting yez kin 1 do till a mon?” asked the janitor as one 1 of the tenants entered the building. “I don’t know. I suppose an anony mous letter is about the most disagreeable thing known.” “That’s it. f’U Bind wan to Clanty. Be way of icsultin me lasht noigbt he kem bound an cut the whisker off me goat. Oi’ll wroite him au anonymous lettber. That he can make no mistakes if he fads ‘.oike foightin, be gob Oi’ll soign me name iillit.”—Washington Star. CURIOSITIES OF SEEING. Remarkable i:xj>irim<n!s Which Show How !:«iily the Eye h Deceived. Some very remarkable exiieriments, which any one, with a little care, may repeat for himself, have recently been mutlt; on the perspective effects of color. If on n screen of black velvet placed about TO feet away largo letters are pasted, some bine and some red, the let ters will not appear to be at an equal distance from the eyes. To some per sons the red letters will soem nearer than the bine letters, while to others the contrary effect will be manifested, the blue letters appearing nearer than the red ones. To produce this curious effect both eyes must be used. When one eye is closed, the letters are all seen at the same distance. On opening the other eye one set of letters immediately ap pears to take a position in advance of the others. The explanation offered is that a sort of stereoscopic effect is produced in the eye itself, depending on color. The im age of a blue object is shifted by the eye toward one side, and that of a red object toward the other side, the cause of the shifting being the eccentricity of the pupil of the eye. This eccentricity may be increased by holding a black screen close to the eye so as to cover one-half of the pupil. The effect is best viewed by screening both pupils at the same time. If on looking at blue and red letters on a black background placed 10 or 13 feet away you see the red letters nearer than the blue ones, screen off one-balf of the pu pil of each eye, on the outside, and you will then see the red letters retire be hind the blue ones. if you screen the pupils on tlio side toward the nose, you*will see the red letters advance apparently still farther ahead of the blue letters. If, on the other hand, you naturally see the blue in advance, screen the in ner side of your pupils, and the red will come to the front. It has lately been shown by Dr. A. D. Waller that very beautiful effects can be produced with one eye alone when, instead of letters, red or blue rings are pasted on a background of the opposite color. Placing red rings on blue paper and using the right eye with the inner side of the pupil cov ered, the appearance is that of circular red hillocks resting upon a blue ground. To produce this effect in its highest degree the pajier should be held to tbe left and sloping in that direction. When the onter side of the pnpil is screened, the red ring become circular trenches in the blue paper.—Youth's Companion. Ineffectual. In country places where amusement is not abundant and people depend upon each other for diversion, neighborly fa miliarity naturally flourishes, and the habit of “running in” to visit friends may be carried to an unpleasant excess. A family living in North Carolina found it something of a strain upon their ideas of hospitality to be obliged every day to entertain a tedious woman of 80. The favorite book or the neces sary piece of work had to be put aside in order to shout bits of conversation in her ear. At last the father, in desperation, planned to go into a sudden fit of tem per in the presence cf the obnoxious caller in the hope of convincing her that they were not pleasant people to visit. Accordingly one evening, when he re turned from business and found the old lady present as usual, he began to talk loudly and in an irritate(T voice. Then, growing more excited, he stamped about the room, knocking furniture right and left and ended by going out and bang ing the door after him. The old lady knitted away quietly through the confusion, and when the man was gone she turned to the family and said in a comforting voice: "I reckon it was mighty lucky I was here, or you’d had to take it. But yon needn’t be frightened. I’ll stay right herewith you till he gets over it.”— Exchange. Commodores by the Hundred. A fellow mem tier of the cabinet call ed on Secretary Herbert one day shortly after the inauguration. His face was not familiar, and he was stoppo u at the door. “Are you a commodore?” asked the messenger. The cabinet member caught his breath and said he wasn’t. “Then you can't go in,” said the messenger decidedly. It took some explanation to set things right. The cabinet member was a “commodore." but he did not know it “Commodores,” in the understanding of the navy department messengers, aie not those of that official rank. Senators and representatives and all of such offi cial positions and relations as entitle them to prompt admission to the secre tary are “commodorfes.”—St. Louis Globe- Democrat. A Maine Stage Une. There is a cross country stage lino from Abbott Village, Me., on the Pis* oataquis river, to Bingham, on the Ken nebec, the only intervening settlements being Kingsburg and Mayfield, both such small villages that they are scarce ly distinguishable from the surrounding conntry. The length of the route is over 25 miles, and it is doubtful if there are many more than 50 occupied dwell ing houses on the main road along the line.—Lewiston Journal. An Observant Michigander** DiscLVcrj. “Bid you ever notice.” said M. B. Church of Grand Rapids at the Nor tnandie, “that the Washington menu ment has the exact dimension? • * sn ocean steamship? It has. It is 550 feet long and 55 feet at the base. J ust com pare these figures with those of the lead ing Atlantic linera. and you will find that they are .tust about the same— length 10 times the beam and depth. It is the sntcome of symmetry.”—Wash ington Post. — - i