Spirit of the Age from Woodstock, Vermont • 2

for the 014 tore's Sake. carried with me, a practice I had acquired in the East, email American revolver which fitted in my waistcoat pocket. It would kill at twenty paces, and add give me my mittimus easily enough. 1 drew it out and placed it aainet my forehead then it struck me that the ball, after passing through my head, might pas-s also through the partition dividing the compartments and strike some one in the next carriage. I turned, therefore, my back to A Kiss.

onu Ui two faent met, the bruM were Jmit vai cheeks wers Just oue ki tlitn np n1 ay Jlut its Uiai tt will fur many ft day. Just one kiss and just one word, iftly spoken and liar Jly heard Just "one word tliat was said through tears, And told the story of aU the years. Jaat one look from the deop darl eyes Just one Rrasp at a glorious prize Just one kiss then up and away But eh audi a heavy debt to pay 1 special care, then, of any overruling Providence, a I bad fondly deemed myself. My wonderful warning and deliverscsc was a mere affair of chance and accident. As I pissed the man's couch again, he lay on it stiff and stark and dead.

On my return to England, I made inquiry of the officials of the revenue department, and found there really had been a fraud of the kind in question, that the collector implicated in it had died suddenly by suicide, it was thought. As to the defalcations, the defaulter's surieties had paid a part one of them, his father, having been sold up in consequence and the rest had been paid over again by the parishioners he had defrauded. So I found out the old man at Bedford. He was living with a daughter, in abject poverty, and I paid to him the hundred pounds with compound interest. To him 1 seemed a celestial vkitant.

The Cold-meat Train is now a thing of the past, I believe. A luggage train carries belated officers back to camp; but, to this day, I confess that 1 always prefer to pas Wokh.g in broad daylight, and that I carefully look inside the carriage before I enter it, I desire no more Loans from the Dead. A fiefornt Seeded, It through the unequaled manage-meut of the French women of all clashes that Franca now, despite its enormous losses the recent war, is showing resources which amaze all Europe, and seem to rank her as the richest country or at least the country of best distributed wealthunder modern civilization. Every family has been trained to save, and, in the middle class, to make a tasteful appearance on small means. This is, of course, only done through careful management and judicious self-controL A rentier in Paris who sees an expensive play, dines that day on a bowl of bouillon, will, on the next day have a stylish dinner in both cases keeping within the exact average expense apportioned toach day: The German woman succeeds in the same department, but with much severer labor.

She trusts more to work than to management She saves by doing with her hands a great deal which an American woman gets done. She is contented, too, with less show for herself; and her main extravagancies are in dinners and out-door pleasures. The German matron has, moreover, an immense advantage over the American, in escaping two of our heavy expenses carriage hire and cost of education. Whatever else is dear in Germany, these two are always cheap. The market supply of teachers whether in music, art, or science is always beyond the demand, aud thus the teaching of children costs little.

For Automaton RemUiit.enees. A large proportion of our readers hsv probably seen or heaid of the automaton chess-player which was exhibited throughout the United Slate some years ago. To such, and to others, the subjoined reminiscences, which we find in a late translation from the French, will be found interesting Maelzel and Mouret as partners, were exhibiting at Amsterdam before the king and court. The king had announced his intention of having a game of chess with the automaton. The day arrived.

Maelzel occupied himself with the decorations, to give the greatest eclat possible to the coming contest between the king and the machine "a mere machine, gentlemen The exhibition was ordered for 12:30 and as 12 o'clock sounded, his accomplice not being in the dressing-room, as was always his custom, Maelzel stepped across the street to the hotel to hurry him up. Imagine his surprise to find poor Mouret in bed, covered to the nose with the blankets. Goodness gracious What do I see What is the matter cries Maelzel. Oh, I've got a fever coolly replies Monret. A ver How so You were all right at breakfast Yes but this has come on since like a clap of thunder." Well, but Why, the king is coming, man alive greatly excited.

Oh, he will have to go back cool as a cucumber. "But what can I tell him Tell him the automaton has got a fever. Oh, quit your joking, and get up imperatively. 'Ah! but I can't," decidedly. Why, we have never received more money for one exhibition." "I know but you can give it back." The devil you say I'll run for a doctor." "No that useless." Why What can I do Is there no way to break the fever Oh now you talk.

Yes there is a waj' one way." Tell me the way." "Pay me thai thou 0 west P' Oh, well is that all Yes so I will, when the soiree is over." No sir I must have it here." Now "Before we begin. I want the 2,000 francs that was paid you this morning." All of it Just that and no more and no less, Then I will play and not till then." Maelzel looked the little man in the eye, but determination was written there. This was evidently no time for excuses. He had the money, and his partner knew it, and, besides, was only asking what was his due. He looked at his watch it marked 12:15, and His Majesty, who was known as a model of punctuality, would be thdre at 12:30.

He took out hi3 pocket-book from his breast pocket, and counted out the four jiotes of 500 francs each, with a groan. The cure was marvelous to behold for, as soon as Mouret's hand closed on the money, he jumped out of bed, full divssed, boots and oil! The artful dodger had been watching for Maelzel from the window, and when he saw him cross the street had just time to pop into bed. The soiree came off as appointed, and never had the automaton seemed to means of escape that they Lad not mind -ed the iaties of the machine. The ruse of his rival, thus promptly met, did no harm, and the field of battle was left iu quiet pousemsion of the greater light, but Maelzul often said he could atiord to pay that man handsomely, for he showed him the only defect in his machine. The Town of Sitka, in Ala-La.

The village contains forty or fifty houses. The population consists of one thousand Indians and two thousand dogs. Of the dogs, all but one are of the same sharp-eared, wolfish type seen among the Indians of the plains. The exception was a bandy-legged, lop-eared cur of civilized breed, the only one among the two thousand that showed a lack of civility bv barking at our heels. The houses much more resemble the semi-subterranean abodes of the Laplanders and Esquimaux than the wigwams of American Indians.

Like the oak described by the American poet, they extend as far into the earth as above it. Some of them are from twenty to thirty feet square, and built of very wide cedar planks, many of them more than four feet across, worked out by these rude people. We entered severah Creeping through apertures, both square and round not more than three feet in diameter, we descended flights of steps into the large single room. Iu the centre of each a fire was built on the ground, and in the centre of each roof a hole, out of which passed a small portion of the smoke, the most of it remaining for the benefit of the salmon hanging over our heads, and to make sore eyes for the inmates. The whole inside is floored, except the fireplace in the middle.

On both sides are the sleeping-places, covered with skins and blankets, and in some instances separated by low partitions. In the rear, and on shelves below the dormitories, were stored potatoes and dried salmon in small bales, covered with matting. Their largest potatoes are the 6ize of a hulled walnut. The ladies beautify their complexions with soot and red paint, and still further enhance theircharms by wearing a bone through the upper lip, the size of which is increased from year to year until, in some of the old ones, it attains a width of two inches. An Indian lady thus adorned, with her coarse, black uncombed locks hanging iu matted profusion around her beautiful pig eyes and lop ears, is only resistible to those whose affections are thoroughly preoccupied.

The delights of courtship must be doubled by the pleasant aroma of salmon which prevades the premises and, I have heard, their persons. Among them the crow ond the raven are held sacred, and fly around their abodes undisturbed. They live mainly on fish, and have a monopoly of the trapping. There is but one white trapper in the country, and he is at Cook's Inlet, six hundred miles west northwest. He came down to Sitka once to go to Lodiak.

Learning that no vessel would sail for a month, and growing tired of the place, he said he wonld take "a little walk." He started with his rifie and a pocket full of salt, aud traversed alone that mountain wilderness for three weeks. He had no covering at night but the skins of freshly slaughtered animals. He returned in good condition, and in answer to questions, boasted that he had lived better than his questioners. Burmese Courtship. The Burmese are Buddhists, and Buddhism has nothing to do with marriage.

In other words, marriage is contrary to the principles of the Buddhist religion. JLnd have you forgotten quite, dear, Or sav, oo you sometime dream What life might have been if we wandered still Together by wood and stream Do tou think of days wheu my love was all The world could "give or take, And eav, with a sigh, they were happy days," Just tor the old love's sake? Do you ever sit in the twilight, And think of that wintry day When we met and parted and" journeyed forthj Each on our separate way I turned, and stood for a moment, dear, And looked in your face, to take Its memory far on my way through life, Just for the old love's sake Just for the old love's sake, Sweetheart! Just for the old love's sake. Do von ever think they were bitter words Their memory haunts me yet. Do you wonder how you could say them all, And wonder if I forget Yes, dear, mv heart has forgiven them long, Though I thought at first 'twould break And whenever I think, it is kindly still, Just for the old love's sake Just for the old love's sake, Sweetheart, Just for the old love's sake. AND FROM SUCH A SOURCE.

A good many years ago the regiment to vbich I then belonged was quartered at Aldershott. After a long absence from Ensland, spent on a parching rock in the middle of the Red Sea, bleak and dreary Aldershott seemed a very paradise. It was delightfully near London, too; leave was easily to be obtained and a great part of my spare time, and more than all my spare money, was spent by me in the metropolis spent, I am ashamed to confess, in riotous living and much disorder. Still, had it only been that, I should, possibly, like many of my brother officers, at the cost of much subsequent pain, and weariness, arid pinching, have passed through my cycle of dissipation, and settled down at last but, iu addition to my youthful aberrations, I had a fatal predilection for games of skill and chance. I was the best whist-player in the regiment, and could hold my own with the crack players of the clubs and had I stuck to whist, which, in my belief, never ruined any man who had a head upon his shoulders, I could have made a do-cent income out of my skill but my moderate winnings at whist were swallowed up, and much more lost besides, at unlimited loo, blind hookey, hazard, and other kindred games.

To" crown all, I took to backing horses, and lost at that, I need hardly say. A long run of evil luck beset me I had lost all my available funds, had mortgaged my commission to the utmost penny 1 could raise upon it, and found myself, at the end of the Ejjsoin week, fevered and parched in body, in soul wretched and despairing. 1 had come to the end of my tether; I was regularly done up; life had nothing but evil in store for me. On the following week I should be posted as a defaulter on the turf; I should leave the army in disgrace, and such tidings would kill my old widowed mother. It was Sunday night I had been in London, trying to raise money, but uselessly; the Jews closed their fists to me.

I only wanted a hundred pounds to pay my Derby losses this achieved, I could sell out, and retiie without open disgrace; but 1 couldn't raise it. One man ottered me fifty pounds for my bill of two hundred and fifty pounds at three months, but I wasn't quite so mad as to take that I might as well smash for a hundred as fifty. My last sovereign was chained in paying my hotel bill on that Sunday night. I had a return ticket to Aldershott'in my pocket, and a few shillings besides nothing else in the world in the way of available assets. I think if I had been possessed of a five pound note I should have gone down to Liverpool and taken a steerage passage to America.

It was the limited extent of my means which made me resolve to go back to my quarters at Aldershott, and appear on parade the next day. The clock in the coffee-room where I was sitting showed half-past ele7en as the hour of night the waiter only was in the room, arranging his spoons and napkins in the buffet, yawning surreptitiously every now and then, quite indifferent to the problems which were agitating me. AVaterloo Bridge or Aldershott I must make up my mind quickly; another five minutes, and it would be too late for the one the other was always open. "Waiter, a hansom I shouted all of a sudden in a tone which made the man jump. At that time there was a train which left not Waterloo, but some station a little djstance down the line; it might have been Yauxball, or possibly Nine Elms, I scarcely remember which left the station at midnight.

It was popularly known among us as the Cold-meat Train. Its passengers were dead bodies for the Woking Cemetery. The railroad comuany, ever solicitous to accommodate the rmblic find turn nn honest penny, had, for the convenience of me camp, affixed to this train one first-class carriage. After leaving the dead bodies at Woking, the carriage was run on to Farnborough, whence you could walk to camp, if you had not been prudent enough to order a fly to meet you. The hotel servant who ushered me to the cab got a handsome gratuity for his pains.

It was my leave-taking of the world of pleasure, and I was too insolvent to be careful about little matters. The cab sped me quickly to the station but the clock at the hotel had been slow as we passed under the railway arch, a premonitory shriek from the engine overhead warned me that the train was on the point of starting. I stopped the cab at the bridge, and ran quickly up a narrow flight of steps which led dwectly on to the end of the platform known only to the initiated the train was 'moving on, but I just time, despite warning shouts of guard and porters, to open the door of the last carriage and jump in. The other compartments of the car rige I noticed were lighted, but this one was dark that didn't affect me, I didn't want to read. I took out a box of wax matches and proceeded to light a cigar.

As the glow ol the match lit up the interior of the carriage, I saw the corner a long dark object, quite black, and yet with some little metallic gleam about it was a coffin, reared up at the farther side of the carriage, a board being placed behind it, against which it leaned. As I looked steadfastly at the coffin, it appeared suddenly to glow with a faint radiance. Every nail and every plate upon it began to gleam with strange mysterious light. Bah! it was the moon. We had just left the clouds of London behind us, and the great round moon, rising out of river-mists, cast her glorious beams right athwart us.

But 1 tu: ihJ away from her disgust. What was te beauty of the night to me a ruined spendthrift -the scorn and laughing stock of the world! The black coffin on the other side was a more congenial companion to me. I lit another match, and read the inscription on the plate: "William Heath-cote, died 25th May, 18, aged twenty-five years." The hair on my head rose in a mass my heart heart ceased to beat. My own name, my own age, and the very oafce qf the day that was now just born It chimed in, too, did this inscription, so mysteriously with that impulse I bad felt the whole day a turning to self destruction as a means of escape from all the degradation of life. I would accept the omen.

the window, and again placed the muzzl of the pistol to my forehead. Again I with drew it. There was no hurry. The train did not stop till it reached Woking. could not possibly be disturbed.

I wanted a signal: the whistle of the engine, as the driver sighted the red lamps at Woking, should be the signal for my departure from the world. Yes," I said, aloud, turning upon my self, as it were, in a sort of frenzy "yes the moment the whistle sounds, illiain lieathcote, you shall die." I have said that the rising moon was shining brightly into the carriage, full upon the coffin, and upon the mysterious in scription. I don't think I really believed that this cofun had any tangible existence. It might be but the production my own levered brain, but none the loss, on that account, was it a veritable warning of my doom. Looking up, however, to see if it had indeed disapoeared, I saw no loneer the eibn-lid, but a white shrouded ngure, a pallid, corpse-like face, the eyes of which, in the moonbeams, shone upoue me with a sepulchral gleam.

For a moment, I thought that I had indeed passed into the land of shadows that I was a disembodied spirit, looking upon my -own mortal remains and the thought that 1 had ceased to be an individuality, and had become the mere shadow of a thought, struck such a chill terror and horror to my soul, that every other impulse of it was lest iu an eager effort to resume my individual existence. I came to myself with a deep gasp, digging my finger-nails into my palms. Ah, the joy of that moment, after the torture of the stiuggle back to life Life ragged, miserable, it might be, but still dear life how precious it seemed how unfathomably deep, below the utmost wretchedness of being, was the dread abyss of non-existence! Shadows I defied them. Come forth, old mole I shouted to my double in the coffin. He came forth.

As I live, he stepped out of the coffin, seated himself opposite to me, and laid a finger on my arm laid a finger on my arm, and leaaed forward to speak in my ear. II Mercy, mercy," shrieked the figure, in a voice that pierced the roar of the train, then thundering over a bridge. See cried the figures, slipping a paper in my hands keep it; keep it; only don't be-trav me." Whew-w went the whistle of the enaine, shrieking, as it seemed, close into my ears. I turned my head for a moment the moon had just passed into a cloud the figure had vanished the coffin still stood in the comer, dark and grim. The train slackened, stopped.

Jem," said a voioe that of the guard's there's a body in that middle first-class coach there's some parties coming to meet it with an 'earse." "All right, Jack," said another voice; "they've come to fetch him. Bear a hand here, will you Oh, Lord shouted the man, as he saw me sitting in the corner. "Oh, I beg your pardon, sir. 1 hope you aren't been annoyed, sir? Jack, what did you mean by putting the gent into this compartment?" I didn't," growled Jack he must 'a got in by hisself." "All right," I said, getting out and stretching myself on the platform. I'll get into the next carriage.

No bodies there, are there D'ye call me nobody said Pat Rcil-ly, looking out of the window. "Jump in, Billy, me bhoy! I've cleared out the rest of the company; ye'll introduce a little fresh capital into the concern." What a contrast to the scene I had quitted- was the cheerful, lighted with its occupants, all brother-officers ol mine, smoking, chaffing, and playing loo on a rug stretched over their knees! Surely the whole of the previous scene had been a dream, or could it have been an incipient attack of D. not brought on by drink, indeed, for I was not given to that, but by irregular habits and stress of mind. It wasn't till I had reached my own hut at Aldershott, that I thought of the paper which the ghost had given me, and which, in my delirium, I had imagined I had thrust into my waistcoat pocket. Here was a test, at all events if there was a real paper, bearing signs of its ghostly origin, then I was still sane, and the appar-ation I had witnessed was not a delusion of the brain.

In the corner of my waistcoat pocket was a crumoled piece of flimsy paper I unfolded it, and found it a Bank of England note for one hundred pounds. From that time I was a'l altered man. I paid my gambling debts confessed all my embarrassments to my friends, who lifted me out of the mire never touched a card or a die; studied for the Staff College passed a good examination went to Sandhurst, came out with high having a little intorcst at headquarters, got an appointment as commissioner, to watch the operations of the American War of Secession, on General 's staff. It was at the close of a bloody but desperate battle, or series of battles, which resulted in the retieat of the army of the South, that I vis'ted the field-hospitals at the rear of the army, in search of a friend who had been wounded during the day. The doctors and attendants were tco busy to pay any attention to my wants, and I walked down the Jong rows of hastily improvised couches, trying to recognise my friend.

Scraps of paper, on which the names of the patients had been hastily scrawled, were pinned to the coverings; and I started as I read on Heathcote" my own name. The man appeared to be sinking from exhaustion, but he brightened up when he heard the tones of a friendly voice. I knelt down beside him, and asked if I could do anything for him. He nodded his head. "You're English he whispered.

-'Yes, I am." So am I. If you should be in the neighborhood of Bedford, and should be able to hear of an old man named Heathcote, a retired draper, will you tell him his son died in a creditable way I was a disgrace to him, sir, when I was alive; but when I am dead, perhaps he'll think kindly of me again. I'll tell yon my story, sir. I was a rogue I was an undertaker, but I was a collector of taxes too and I entered into a conspiracy to defraud the government. It came out; but 1 had warning in time.

I shammed dead, and got away in one of my coffins with all the swag. They wasn't very keen after me; I don't know why but just at the last moment I thought they'd have me. A detective followed me right to Working but I squared him with a hundred pound note, and got clear away to America by the Southampton packet. It never prospered me, that money and I got lower and lower, till I listed as a soldier, and here I am I'm getting tired sir. Dou't forget Bedford "Heathcote, retired draper." I passei en in wonder and astonishment and, if I must confess, a little disappointed and disenchanted.

I was no Fait and Fancies. If you court a young woman and you are won and she is won, you will both be one. A sarcastic young lady says that the most unpleasant things in nature are lovers and pigs. "Where have you been since the cow kicked is a delicate way the Chi-cagoans have of referring to the late calamity. The new French Tariff bill imposes the following duties On wool, 80 francs per 100 kilogrammes cotton, I francs resin, from to 7 francs cheese, from 15 to IS francs hops, 60 francs.

During the last five centuries mora than t250, 000,000 worth of land has been washed away from the eastern coast of England by the encroachments of the sea. Holland has lost 8500,000,000. Titusville bridegrooms step upon hy-menial platform, adjust the fatal noose, and swing off into that silent bourne from whence they can never return save by the Indianapolis or connecting lines. The last subject discussed by a debating society was, "If you had to have a boil, where would you prefer to have it The unanimous decision of the members was, On some other fellow." A gentleman riding in a Paris fiacr indignantly abused the coachman for driving so slow. The latter disdainfully replied: "Do you think that simply to please you I am going to spoil a pair of horses worth thirty-five fraacs." The Chinese have a custom at their weddings which we protest is no improvement upon our own practice on those blissful occasions.

Instead of kissing the bride the bridegroom and guests slap her gently on the mouth with their sandals. It is a noticeable fact that in elite society flirting is not carried on in as great a degree as was formerly the case. It is indeed cause for sincere congratulation, as in most instances what was life and pleasure to one party was intense misery to the other. A California Judge recently had a grocer brought before him for selling matches without stamps. He decided that the grocer had not violated the law which forbids exposing for sale" unstamped packages, because the matches in question were sold from under the counter.

I weeded my friends," said an eccentric old man, "by hanging a piece of stair-carpet out of my first floor iront window with a constable's announcement affixed. It had the desired effect. 1 soon saw who were my friends. It was like firing a gun at a pigeon-house. They forsook the building at the report.

A man stopping at a hotel in Kich-mond, lately caused no little trouble by the reprehensive habit of walking about at all hours of the night. Having established the reputation of a first-class somnambulist, he walked off to an early train with bis carpet-bag as naturally as though he had been awake, and left his bill unpaid. The Offended Dandy. I had quite a laugh in the park the other day. Not far from where I was lounging'a gentleman was promenading, accompanied by a magnificient greyhound, while just in advance of him walked a well-known dandy.

The gentleman called, "Bruno, Bruno!" The dandy stopped and looked around, but not knowing the gentlemen, quickly resumed his walk. Again the gentlemen called "Here Bruno come here Upon this the dandy turned, thus angrily demanded, What is your pleasure, sir With you nothiiig." "Then how dare yon, not knowing me, thus address me on a public promenade Pray, sir if I may ask what is your name "How, sir Do you wish to insult me?" "But will you please give me yoar name quietly pleaded the owner of the greyhound. There is my card, sir And the dandy handed forth a slip of pasteboard. Why," said the gentleman, reading aloud the letters upon the card, this is B-r-u-n-o-w. You need borrow no further trouble, si: My dog spells his name without the Greatness of London.

The population of London, according to the last census, is 3,883,000. This vast multitude is more than the combined population of New York, Philadel phia, Brooklyn, fet. Liouis, Chicago, Baltimore, Cincinnati, Boston, New Orleans, San Francisco, Buffalo, and Allegheny City, Penn. To lodge these pe-jple, 777,000 dwellings are required, and the people consume annually about 4,480,000 barrels of flour, 420,000 bullocks, 2,975,000 sheep, 49,000 calves, 61,250 hogs, and one market alone supplies annually 7,043,750 head of game. This, together with 5,200,000 salmon, irrespective of other fish and flesh, is washed down by 75,600,000 gallons of ale and porter, 3,500,000 gallons of spirits, and 113,750 pipes of wine.

To fill its milk and cream jugs 22,750 cows ate kept. To light its streets at night gaslights are required, consuming every 24 hours 22,270,000 cubic feet of gas. Its water system supplies the enormous quantity of 77,670,824 gallons per while it sewer system carries ofl 16,629,770 cubic feet of refuse. FAtLLE and Silk. The palest tints of silk are most stylish.

At the beginning of the season only fine failles, worth $5 or 6 a yard, were produced the faint shadowy tints, but now cheaper silks marked 2.50 or $3, are shown in a pale rose, sky blue, light green, and the delicate ecru and cuir shades, that combine so prettily with rose and may bo trimmed with either black or white lace. These cheaper silks, when lined, are quite handsome, and are so covered with tulle, grenadine, and muslin over dresses that their quality is not apparent. The Western New York Poultry Asso ciation opened their second annual ex. hibition under the most flattering aus spices. The collection of domestio fowl and other birds was admitted to be th finest exhibition in the section of th country.

Over $2,500 in prizes were offered, and the attendance was large. All the New York City Notaries whose terms expire March SO, 1872, have been renominated by the Governor, and were confirmed by the Senate Cutting and Polishing Diamonds, The art of cutting end polishing diamonds is supposed to have originated in Asia at a very early period, but was first introduced into Europe by Louis Ber- quen, ot lruges, about the middle of the fifteenth century. He accidentally dis covered that rubbing two diamonds to gether caused an abrasion of their sur faces, and from this soon deduced the art as it is now practised. The process of polishing and cutting, as I observed in Amsterdam, is very slow and tedious, nearly every part of it, from the delicacy and exactness required, needing: to be done by hand. The preparation of a single demands two months of continuous abor and the famous Pitt or Regent diamond underwent two years of constant manipulation before it was com plete.

In the mills one diamond is em ployed upon another, each being cement ed into the ends of a handle, and a model of lead being taken of the gem to be cut, which determines the faces. The stones are then nibbed together with a strong pressure, and held over a metal box with a double bottom, the upper bottom being perforated with small holes, through winch the diamond dust falls. The dust is of such value that it is veT carefully collected, and, after mixture with vegetable oil, 13 used for polishing the gem upon a steel or cast-iron plate, which is made to revolve rapidly, some times by steam, as I have said, but generally by means of a tredle. The dia mond powder is also used for cutting. It is placed upon a steel wire or saw, and this, drawn swiftly backward and for ward, makes the required incision.

When a large piece of the stone is to be removed, it is occasionally done with a fine chisel and hammer but this so increases the danger of breaking or destroying the gem, that it is rarely resorted to. No kmd of woric can be nicer or more difficult, for the workman must thoroughly understand the character and peculiarity of diamonds, and must have an absolute knowledge of the cleavage planes before he can be trusted with their manipula tion. How to Make Scrapnle. In New York a discussion exists as to the cost of living. A lady housekeeper sends lie following: Get a young pig's head (fresh) weighing five or six pounds, which can, be bought for twenty-five or thirty cents "one 110m the country prelerred.

Clean it well, cutting off the ears to en able you to clean them well inside. (Get the butcher to take out the eyes and teeth when you buy it. Put the head in two gallons and a half of cold water. Let it boil until the bones can be easily separated from the meat. Chop the meat very fine, put it back into the liquor it has been boiled in, and season with pepper, salt, thyme, sage and sweet marjoram.

(Don't put too much of the herbs.) aeu take equal parts of buck wheat and corn-meal, and stir in until the compound is about the consistency ot musii lining it oil the fire while thickening, to prevent it getting lumpy. Ihen let it boil for about fifteen or twen ty minutes, stirring it to prevent burn iag. Turn it into pans to cool. Cut into thin slices, and fry brown as you waut to use it. The cost will be about fifty cents.

For that sum my family of five grown persons Lave plenty for breakfast every day for a wsek. As my husband is, as lie calls himself, some what of nn epicure, and decidedly ob- jests to an uninterrupted course of beefsteaks and chops, which mainly comprise the range of Bridget's bill of fair tor breakfast, I have several domestic dishes, the result of a long experience in houskeeping, which I will be happy to furnish at some future time, as I am afraid I have already trespassed too mucn on your valuable space. The Extent of England. Hon. James Brooks, in a letter from Calcutta, speaks as follows England, once more, one everlasting England That little sea-girt island has not only girdled the great isles of the world, anil put its stamp upon them, but, here am in the portals of a great British East ludia Empire, the very magnitude of which is astounding.

Think of it, over ot people, native aud British in the Indian Government proper, under the British flag Satiated with the very vastness of dominion here, the British Crown deolines more land, and all the population it wants nay, more, too, and refuses, actually, to be bothered with yet more Taink of the revenues and expenditures of this British Indian Empire, of our money, incoming and outgoing, each year. Think of its immense army, 320,000 in all, of whom 70,000 are European soldiers, the others, Indians, under British officers, all Think of a Christian Government over 110,000,000 of Hindoos, 25,000,000 of Mussulmans, 12,000,000 of Aboriginal Nothingarians, 3,000,000 of Buddhists; What a medley of humanity to rule What a mixture of laws, as well as of creeds, and of tongues, and languages (There are sixteen, or more, languages that a British ruler ought to learn. What a vast trade, some of imports, and over of exports I The little England at homo, which governs all this vast territory, and these millions of people, dwindles, herself, into insignificance, when contrasted with this, her misrhtv Empire of the East. Japanese Fashion. In Japan the ferrymen are held responsible for the safety of their passengers, and if one of these is drowned the ferryman is in duty bound to either drown with him or com mit harikari on the instant.

If he does neither the government very considera-tively relieves him of his head. The adoption of this principle with respect to railway passenger traffic in this country would probably have the effect of considerably lessening the number of accidents. The Missomi Legislature has appointed a committee to receive the Grand Duke at the State capital. some inscrutable reasons, also, hacks and carriages are remarkably low-priced in German cities. Rent, too, in French and German cities is less than in ours.

but then you get much less with it. The same comforts in New York and Berlin would not now cost so very differently. Still this does form a marked advantage with the Continental housekeeper in making both ends meet on a small in come. The grand reason, however, of the su periority in this matter of the foreiem house-lady, we are convinced, lies in the tact that she looks closely after her kitch en. She sees waste at once she detects thieving or giving she can direct the application of each odd and end she knows immediately if grocer and butch er and tradesman are putting down wrong items, or are overcharging.

The mere fact of her overlooking the kitchen checks a great deal of petty jobbery. The kitchen being on the same floor with the drawing and bed-rooms, puts the Continental housekeeper at once on a vantage ground. Probably our basement Kitchens sink a good deal of our incomes. We doubt if most American housekeepers make a study of house management. The immense gain in the winter season of wholesale purchase of meats the lav- iag in of wholesale groceries, and careful watching ol them the using of provisions, and checking of waste, are not much known in practice to our American matrons.

It is true that, owing to the democratic spirit of equality, the middle class here aim often at a style far beyond their incomes. And in the matter of dress and furniture, all classes are extrav agant. This general style cannot easily be varied from. Yet with all this, and under all our disadvantages, and with a taxation eating out our means, skillful financiering ought to enable our families to lay up one-fifth of an income of thousand. The reform must begin with our women, who, in American society, are absolute.

They must be trained, as girls, more to accounts and house-management, and not be kept in such charming ignorance. And they must set the fashion of more moderate display in dress and house furniture, and show that highest business faculty of the cultivated lady, the power of producing effects of beauty in the homes by small expenditure of money. A Trinity Tombstone. Tender interest clings round an unpretentious and almost undiscovered tomb. in Trinity Church yard, which is seen by but few it lies so close to Broadway tnat it may almost be touched from the sidewalk.

All old New Yorkers at least will recall the melancholy story of young and most beautiful girl, who, nigh upon a hundred years ago, was taken from a boarding-school by a British officer of high rank and by him betrayed ana deserted. by her friends, she with her child were found by her tamer in wretched quarters, both at the point of death, The heart-broken par ent was just in time to receive her last sigh and to close her eyes for ever. The pitiful story was written out in book form, and was dramatized and played in every theatre then in the country, thus becoming familiar as household words to thousands who had no personal knowledge of any of the parties. Years thereafter the officer made such tardy reparation as he could, by placing a stone table with an expensive silver head plate over the remains of his dead vie' tims. This silver plate has been wrench ed off and stolen by sacrilegious thieves, and now all that remains to mark the last resting place of these unhappy ones, is a plain brown stone slab, lying level wi.th the paved walks Trinity Churchyard, and bearing but these two words, Charlotte Temple." jteaktjts.

ine peanut, which is so popular a commodity, has one peculiarity of growth which distinguishes it from all other known plants. The flowers and leaves are produced as they are in other plants of the pea or bean tribe but when the flower has withered, the stem which supported it grows rapidly in a curved manner, bending toward the ground, into which it penetrates several inches. In this position the fruit becomes ripened and from this singular operation the pea nut has derived the name of earth-nut in Europe. This nut is a valuable article of food in many tropical countries, and 13 extensively cultivated. Formerly it was largely imported now we depend chiefly on the crops from Virginia and the Carolinas.

It contains a large percentage of clear yellow oil, which is largely esteemed for domestic purposes, and is frequently used to adulterate olive oiL In Cochin China and in India peanut oil is used in lamps. An Insane Woman. A young woman whose father's palatial residence in situated in one of the principal streets of Missouri's capital, recently in the space of a single twenty-four hours managed without discovery to get herself tied in the matrimonial knot of eight different men, and told them all to come at the same time the next day to obtain her father's blessing on their union. They all did so and the scene that ensued can be better imagined than described. The lady meantime had left the State disguised as a Jew peddler.

How they, do it. A printing office in Chicago is selling to anxious whiskey bummers the following blank form Permit, Permission is hereby granted by me, the lawful wife of and I declare and witness by my own signature that my husband has the perfect right and liberty to drink, and as often as he chooses to drink, and I hereby re linquish all the claims arising S.J Two miners were frozen to death, at Helena, Montana. play with deeper inspiration. The king did not move the pieces himself he simply counseled his Minister of War, who played for him, but the coalition was completely routed in two games. The defeat, however, was put wholly on the shoulders ot the Minister.

"Had they won, it would have proba bly been the King who was the victor In this same city, a few days after wards, ended the travels of the machine in Europe. The partners separated, the best of friends, and Maelzel began his preparations for a tour in the New World, the details of which were ably recited in the Chess Journal, formeily edited by Paul Morphy and published in New York. Schlumberger, a German, and a very strong chess player, directed the movements of the machine, and the secret was undiscovered, except by some boys in Baltimore, who, not having the eash to pay for an admission, climbed upon some sheds overlooking the rooms 111 the, rear and were so startled upon the conclusion of the exhibition to see a little man in shirt-sleeves hop out of the machine, that they nearly broke their neclss in their eflorts to get away, and upon reaching home, repeated what they had seen. These facts were published by a Baltimore newspaper, but Maelzel had the good sense to buy its further silence, But their fate was more especially set- tied by some 01 the leading JSew iork and Boston papers, who took them up (f their oivn free will, and combated them as the most preposterous ideas ever put forth, and worthy of the childish minds they came from," and the machine continued to be considered the greatest mechanical triumph the world ever saw Oh most learned pundits There was one thing among the numerous instructions which Maelzel invariably gave his accomplice that deserves to be remarked. "If any oue, at any exhibition, should cry he, don't you be in the least bit alarmed.

Depend upon me. 1 will get you out safe, if I die in the attempt. Upon this pointhe was always extremely urgent and his reassn for it was this In the course of his travels he had arrived one day at a little town in Germany, where a celebrated prestidigitateur, the Professor Anderson of that day, was giving his exhibitions. The automaton soon eclipsed the lesser humbug, and he, in pique, jealous of the superior power of his rival, who caused his audiences to become small by de grees and beautifully less," closed his doors one fine afternoon, and went to see the wonder, determined, if possible, to discover its secret. Fifteen minutes in its company, and this skillful manipulator of humbugs saw through the veil and knew there was a man in that boxi Where he was concealed he couldn't say, but he knew he must be there, and seconded by a friend, he raised the terri ble cry fire I Fire 1 Fire One can judge of the terror spread in the audience, and of the immediate rush for the door, but strange to relate, the automaton, too, partook of the panic, apparently, for the most frightful noises came from its bowels, and a perfect succession of thumping and kicks, as though it was trying to break loose from if self, while Maelzel stood aghast sUnci speechless.

His surprise, however, was only mo mentary, and was ciused by the fact of a catastrophe he had never prepared for staring him in the face, menacing him with ruin, and demanding an immediate remedy. Kecovering his presence of mind, he pushed the automaton quickly behind the screen, and then proceeded to reassure the audience, who, by this time, see ing and smelling no smoke, hod began to think it a false alarm, but whose attention heretofore had so luckily been occupied with themselves and their So says a correspondent of the Palt Mall Gazette, writing from Rangoon and he adds A Burmese damsel is demure, laughter-loving and self-reliant. Her manner is graceful and pleasing. She wears a blight silk petticoat, a white jacket, a gold necklace, and has glossy black hair decked with flowers. She often smokes a green cheroot.

Of course she has admirers, and she gives them all a fair chance. Every evening she receives a visit from all these young gentlemen and such is the waywardness of Iranian nature that the same swain will often pay similar visits on the same evening toother young ladies of the same village or township. This courtship is always going on, aud courting time has been an acknowledged institution from time immemorial. Here some explanation is necessary. The Burmese evening is divided into three watches, viz.

children's bed time, old folks' bed time, and young folks' bed time, Children's bed tinie is sunset, or shortly afterwards. Courting time begins soon after children's bed time, and it continues long after old folks' bed time, which is about nine o'clock. Young folks' bed time depends a great deal upon the will aud pleasure of the young people in question we will say about eleven o'clock. When the hour of courting approaches the young lady trims her little lamp, so that it gleams through the window, and takes her seat upon a mat on the floor. Meantime the young gentlemen have been putting on their best bright silk putzoes, a nondescript garment, something between a pair of trousers and a petticoat, have donned their clean white jackets, have tied colored silk handkerchiefs on their heads in the most approved styles, and have turned out alto gether the height of Burmese fashion.

They enter, they seat themselves on the mats round the fair one, and then the chaffing begins. If a gallant has been unsuccessful in a boat race, or has tumbled into the water, or has paid too much attention another damsel, or has been deserted by another damsel, or has made himself ridiculous 111 any other way, the chances are that his feelings will be hurt before the evening is over. How the lady receives each lover, espe cially in the presence of other lovers, is more than we can describe. She herself reqiures considerable attention, and the old people never interfere. Indeed, why snouia tne old louts interfere The young folks can take care of themselves.

and are only doing what they themselves did in the days when they, too, wero young. A Hint. If a youth is wooingly disposed towards any damsel, as he values his happiness, let him call oa that lady when she least expects him, and take note of the appearance of all that is under her control. Observe if the shoes fit neatly, and the hair is well dressed. And we would forgive a man for breaking off an engagement, 11 he discovered a greasy novel hid away under the cushion of a sofa, or a hole in the garniture of the prettiest foot in the world.

Slovenliness in a woman will ever be avoided by a well regulated mind. A woman cannot always be what is called "dressed;" but she may be always neat. And as certain ly as a virtuous woman is a crown of glory to her husband, so surely is a slovenly one a crown of thorns. Onoe fob aiL. Miatress By the way Anna Hannah I'm not sure.

Is your name 'Anna or Hannah' Hew Cook (tartly) Which my name is Anna, mum Haich, Ha, Hen, Hen, Ha, Haioh, 'Anna'" Mistress (giving it up in despair) Ah! Thank you.".