The Tribune from Scranton, Pennsylvania • Page 6

THE SCEANTON" REPUBLICAN, TUESDAY MOItXIXG, JULY 31. 1894, A GIRL'S DRESSING TABLE. HOW SHE CAN MAKE AND DECORATE IT HERSELF. Every Stitch and Tack for the Table Can Be Put In by Her Own Hands and the Result Will Be Something Everyone Will Admire and She Will Feel the Greatest Comfort and Pride in. Written for The Republican.

Any girl, who likes pretty things abont ber, who has a little pocket money at ber disposal nnd sews neatly, can contrive for ber bed room a dressing "table that will be both useful and very ornnmental. Now before she chooses the materials tor ninkinpr her table better look about her room and de cide on a color. If the paper on her wall all over plo yellow roses and delicate green vines it will'be best to have the dressing table done in green, as near the same shade of the vines on the wall as she can match. The foundation of her table can be made of one or two things, a common white wood kitchen table or a big dry goods box, and the latter is the cheapest and best. It can be bought uf the grocer or ary gooas dealer's in the village lor abont twenty five cents and one that is thirty by thirty six inches 6quitre or as near that size as the grocer can supply it will serve.

I mention this size because the nicest dressing table stands about two feet and a haif high by three feet long. When the big box is secured set it between the two windows of the bed room and begin to tack on the drapery. This ought to be of cotton, washable, and figured sreen and white, and if there isn't any thing in the house nearly line that mother can 6pare for the table's decoration, why then the suitable stuff must be bought. Very cheap chinty is the best materiil, for it can be had in green and white prettily figured, durable and washaDle, and for fiftecu cents a yard. Six yards are necessary and at the price mentioned ninety cents of money must go to pay for it.

Out of that six yards cut a piece to lit exactly over the The table. top of the box and tack it down along the edges. The rest is made into a great full flounce, showing on inch wide hem at top and botton, just long enough to reach the floor and fastened to the edg of the box by gilt beaded tacks thsit are twenty cents a dozeu. A dressing table mirror may be round, square or many sid it may be small or large, nnd to secure it most inexpensively it can te either rescued from the garret or bought at au outlay of about three dollars. If there is an old mirror one can borrow from psrhnps a brolren down banished bureau, all the better for one's carefully hoarded packet moner.

No matter if the frame is buttered and scratched, a fifteen cent pot of cream white enamel paint will remedy all that two coats puts the frame in perfect order, nnd when the mirror is hung in place one begins to thir.k of the curtains. These ure charming when made of cheese cloth, cream color, figured iu large green dots. It is only twelve ceuts a yard and six yards is enouga to the curtains and the extra cover, that should all be trimmed with a three inch wide coarse cream net luce, at eight cents a yard. Drape the curtains as shown iu the picture over a big brass hook screwed iu the wall. This lai costs thirty ceuU and then two yards of given ribbon, at twelve cents a yard, completes all the decoration for the dainty piece of furniture.

Every stitch and tack for tuis dressing table can be put in by a girl's own hands and the result will be something every one. will aumirc and she will feel the greatest comfort and pride in. The items of expense lire given for the benefit of the girl who must build her dressing table from the ground up, ailontof her own pocket. Lut there tiro girls who, with the co operation of their mother or elder sister, can find odds and ends about the bouse to serve the purpose of drapery. Old chinty curtains well Wished and of pretty figuring are sylendid far the flounce and cover.

There is luce maybe ripped from some long discarded evening dress a generous sifter donates und for very little tue dressing table is built by clever, patient bauds. One thing to remember is that all its decorations ought to be of washable stuff; and now what to put on the tnblB. For a girl white toilet articles are nicest. Once one has a dressing table friends relatives on birthdays and Christmases help to supply its needed furniture, homebody will uiuko the cushion all white muslin flounces over greeu silk, and then comes a white celluloid backed comb and brush and the other articles, the hand glusa, pin tray, powder box and cologne bottles are charming if one chooses white china painted by a skiiltul friend in green and yeilow to match tho room. China is very smart and popular for any toilet table and vastly better for a young girl who should want everything sweet und appropriate about her.

ROWING FOR GIRLS. How to Learn Rowing as a beneficial Exercise. If there is one sort of summer sport more beneficial than all others for a girl or girls, next after swimming, it is rowing. They really can't get too much of it and tho longer they practico at the oars, tho more expert they become so, just in proportion do they grow stroDg ww and rosy and more ardently enthusiastic boats women. By a river side, great or smll, on lake shore, or quiet coast of a placid inlet, there is never lacking a boat somewhere, that an enterprising girl can beg, borrow or if need be, lire, and take her first lessons in.

It ought to be a light skiff with a broad rounded bottom or as near that shape as can be procured and if she bus the good fortune to Lave a nice boat at her commaod all summer intending to devote good deal of time to it, a boating suit is very necessary. Tho young ladies of Staten Island who have a rowiui: club 01 their own, luuna after long trying that a dark blue serge skirt, made plain and full and ankle short, worn with a sailor blouse waist of white duck, was about the nicest of suits to use when at the oars. They said the serge bore frequent wetting without staining and that the aucs Diouses were cool and loose. So very clover an oarswoman andcano ist as Miss Florence Bayard, the daughter of our ambassador to England, wears a skirt made of Mackintosh cloth that defies the damp and a dark blue or red woolen sweater very like those men wear. A cheviot shirt waist, sailor bat and short woolen skirt is after all quite a nice outfit for any girl who really is more anxious about what she must do when once in her boat than what she need wear.

First of all, she learns how to get into a boat properly. She has some one draw the skiff up alongside the dock, wharf or Coat and hold it steady at the bow end. Then she puts ber foot directly ia the bottom and centre, holds her balance quietly and drops to the middle seat with her face toward the stern. Picking up an oar, she lightly leans its blade against the dock 6ide, gives a little push and finds herself gliding clear of obstacles into deep water. Here she fits her oars in the row locks and bsgins.

15 is far better to make this first venture with somebody who knows how to row, who will occupy half the middle seat and use one of the oars while she uae9 the other. That person will show her how to lean forward, pushing the handle of tbe oar straight out from heron a level with her waist line. This sends the oar's blade out over the watei behind her, when she must permit it to sink a few inches below tbe surface and then take tbe second position, which is drawing the oar handle steadily toward her. This brings tbe blade through the water a few feot until tbe oar assumes a horizontal position and tbe first stroke Is made. At first, both hands at one oar is sufficient labor for a beginner who is apt to put an enormous amount of energy into her rowing, far more than is needed and ouly wastes her time trying to manage two.

But rowing is unlike most sports in that a girl of the smallest intelligence and any muscle whatsoever begins to get ahead from tbe very first lesson and in two ot three days she should easily be able to use her oar in gracef ul harmony with that of her companion. However another tug of war comes when, having mastered the use of one oar, she decides to try and use two. It is then that her progress is very much hastened if the person who has helped her over the first trials, will take a pair of oars too, and, sit'ing in the boat with her back toward tbe beginner, row with a slow steady motion. It is then by watching and trying to imitate as nearly us possible that the beginner catches the trick, for a little trick it is, that of getting both oars neatly in the water at the sume time and pulling a stroke on them. Some girls will catch tbe trick iu one afternoon, if they are observant and others after floundering about for a day or two, will suddenly find they can do it too and laugh over the simplicity of it.

After that it is all a matter of practico whether a girl learns to row well or not and here are three rules to follow and keep well in mind until almost perfection bus been reachtd. First Give a full far reach out over tbe toes until the arms stand straight out from th 3 body that must bend gracefully at the waist. Second Take a square hold on the water by letting tbe oar blades sink three inches beneath the surface. Third Draw a long straight stroke slowly ht bending all strength on the oars the instant they enter the water. Fourth Bring the oars out, giving them a slight turn, and lift the blades nearly flat side up and the oars into horizontal position with tho body.

A fifth movement is but a repetition of tbe first and in going through these motions it is helpful to count slowly one, two, three, fcur, making the strokes on the count und so keeping all motions of the body steady and even. The prime reason why I advocate rowing for girls is because no other exercise helps to such fine development of the upper half of the body. O.irsmea have always straight backs, level shoulders, deep chests and a fine carriage of tbe head, for rowing springs the shoulders into good position, exercises the luugs splendidly and develops not ouly the muscles of the arms, but those of the ehouldeis, buck and stomach as well. Lock. Ia a curious old work entitled "The Cu riosities of London" we find the following particulars concerning a miniature pad lock: "In the twentieth year ot the reign of Queen Elizabeth, Mark Son rliot, a blacksmith, made a lock consulting of elevcr, pieces of iron, steel and brass, all of which together with the key, weighed but om grain.

He aho ruado a chain of gold, con sisting of forty three links, which, aftc: fastening it to tho lock and key above men tioncd, bo put about the neck of a com mon flea, tho whole being so minute thai the little insect could draw them over silver plate with perfect ease. All of thest together, lock and key, chain and flea weighed a fraction leas than one groin and a half." im mm i A BOY'S FISHING OUTFIT. IT, IS GOOD ENOUGH FOR ANY FISHERMAN. How a Clever Boy Can Make His Own Rod, Reel, Flies, Net, and Gain a Great Deal of Pleasure at Very Small Expense. Written for The Republican.

RODS. In making rods, the best wood to uso is hazel or birch, but two or three pieces, each section tapering to a point, and if you can not find a piece sufficiently slender for the rod tips, whittle it out of hickory with your knife. Sandpaper the pieces and, if convenient, lay on a coat of shellac. Secure a piece of tin, three inches wide; roll it and solder it so as to make a ferrule threo inches long; or better still, is brass tubing cut into sections in. long.

Fit one of tbe sections to the small end of tbe heaviest joint and drive a wire nail or a pin through the brass to fasten it to the wood. Fit your next joint into the brass and put a ferrule on tho. end of the second joint; then fit your Where the fun cornea in. Up into it and you have a rod which you can disjoint to put in your trunk or carry under your nrm. Another good way for a boy to make a rod is to tae three Dieces of birch, cut them each 3 ft.

long, and have them taper from butt to tip. Cut tho butt piece, at one end in the shape of diagram 1 cut the centerpiece the shape of dfa gram tbe last the shape of the third diagram. Lash these pieces together with waxed shoe thread or heavy linen cord and you have a tough rod. GUIDES FOR BODS, Covered wire is best for these. Loop it around a pencil and twist it as itf diagram 4.

Lay this at the proper point on your rod and wind each end with a piece of silk or thread. Silk is stronger. Wax tbe ends or shellac them. It you prefer, twist the wire as in Fig. 5, and slip It over tbe rod.

For your ring top or point of your rod, wrap the wire twice around a pencil and bend the ends down as in Fig. 'put that on the point of tbe rod and wrap it with silk or thread: and wax It, or put shellac over it. This makes a good rod for trout and bass. KEELS. Cut a piece of wood 6 inches long and about as thick as a pencil.

Bore a hole through the butt of the rod where the "reel should come, and drive the wood in, so it will expose 2J inches on each side, as in Fig. 7. Now wrap your line on it, over and under, as boys do ia handling the strings of their kites. This was the device in general use before the introduction of reels. LINKS.

If you can not afford a good linen or silk line, buy a ball of shoemaker's thread, twist it and wax it and you have a strong line or if your grandmother has a spinning wheel, ask her to spin and twist a flax line for you, the best in tho world for any fisherman. FLOATS. Take a cork about long and 1 inch thick. Taper it at both ends. Cut half way through its centre, lengthwise.

Put your line into the cut; then drive a pin through the cork and with your thumb and finger, bend tbe pin around the cork so as to hold the line seoure. See Fig. 8. A SKELL. Take three horsehairs; tie a loop on the end of them so as to attach them to your line.

With your thumb and finger, twist the three hairs together. Then tie the other end into a ringed hook and your snell is completed. HOW TO MAKE A A bright colored feather, from any game bird will do. Strip it on one side. Double the two ends of tho fibre together and tie them with a little silk or red wool, on tbe upper part of asproat hook.

Pinch it to nearly resemble a fly, for the fish will bite it very freely. MINXOW SEISES. A 6eine 12 foot long and 4 feet deep, can be made of a niece of mosquito netting 18 feet by 4 feet. Tie inch rope as iu figure 9. making the sides 12 foet and the ends 4 feet in length.

Tbe coraers are single loops wrapped with u. small cord. Fasten the ends of the rope by wrapping them on oue of the shorter sides. or floats, cut a broom handle into pieces three inches long. Bore a hole through the centre of each section and string these pieces on the upper rope 13 inches apart For sinkers, narrow strips of sheet lead will do, folding them over the lower rope.

Gather the netting to tho four sides or the rope frame, fulling it on tho long sides, and put your long ropo tnrougti tne side loops as in Figure 10. FOR REPAIRISO THE OUTFIT. Three dozen small sproat hooks, No. 6 to win answer fishing purpose. Bo sure to get them with marked or tapered ends.

They cost about 5 cents per dozer. The marked are used to fasten on snells; the tapered, for making flies. Then buy a small spool of red cotton or silk, very fine, which will cost 5 cents; a small piece of beeswax or shoemaker's wax, costing two cents; this with about 25 long horse hairs will complete a very good reserve for the fore going outfit, should it at any time need mending. 4.1 A NEW METAL What metal is four times lighter in weight than silver, but very nearly as brilliant, possessing indeed so little weight that it will almost float on tho water, so abundant that it is found in common clay. So sonorous that when a bar of it is struck, it rings liko a bell, so malleable and ductile that it may be roll ed into tbe thinnest shoets or drawn to fine wire and so tenacious that when beaten in tbe cold, it becomes nearly as hard nnd strong as iron? It conducts heat and electricity as well as silver but unlike silver is slow to tarnish or corrode and neither nitric or muriatic acid will affect it Aluminum or aluminium is the name of this wonderful new metal, that has long been known to exist and possess all the valuable properties mentioned above but that no one could make use of, owing to the expense of cxttactiug it from the clay.

A German, Woehler, as long ago us 1827 used to procure aluminum from clay in the form of powder by a chemical process and twenty eight years later a Frenchman learned how to procure it in larger quantities but tbe cost of extracting it was ninety dollars a pound much too expensive to be of any use to any ope. Recently, however, by the means of electricity it has been discovered that aluminum can be readily and inexpensively taken from clay and now in this country and in Europe all manner of use. ful and ornamental objects are being made of it. Pots, pans, scarf pins, picture frames, thimbles, tea services, dishes and even yacht keels are manufactured of the wonderful aluminum, that for lis light weight and the fact that it does not tarnish proves it in many instances vastly more useful than steel, tin or silver. Because it is so abundant it will become in time the cheapest of metals.

Even now one can buy for ten cents a pretty aluminum thimble that does not tarnish and will ast as long as any one needs it. Au aluminum kettle, big enough to boil a bam in, can be lifted on and off a store as lightly as a tin pan. an aluminum tea pot never needs polishing. Wonderful, is it not and to think that a hundred years ago very few persons could have believed such a remarkablo substance lay in the common clay under their feet. A.

Cure Yop Seasickness. Many people hold the opinion that sea sickness as well as dizziness on land ii caused by the sight first. This idea has evidently obtained favor in Vienna, when a learned German has invented a pair ol glasses which he thinks will obviate thes troubles. 1 According to the description recently given of them in a German paper they resemble opera glasses in appearance, but an to be made of papier mache or some verj light substance, and bonnd about the beac of the victim to nausea or dizziness witt an elastic strap. The under side of these glasses is mud longer than the upper, and they are dark ened in such a way that no disturbing rayi can reach the wearer's vision.

The inventor does not claim for thes articles that they are beautiful, and indeec it seems doubtful whether the sight them worn by a number of fellow passengers would not have a most depressing ef feet on such unfortunates as did not poa setss them. Mineral India Rubber Asphalt. According to The Practical Mechanical Electrician another article, formerly considered worthless, has been added to th useful products, and is known as mineral India rubber asphalt. It is produced dur ing the process of refining tar by sulphuric acid, and forms a black material very much like ordinary asphalt andelastic India rub ber. When heated so that the slimy mat ter is reduced to about 60 per cent, of th former size, a hard substance is produced resembling ebony.

It can be dissolved in naphtha, and is at excellent non conductor of electricity, nnd therefore valuable for covering telgraph wires and for other purposes where a nonconducting substance is needed. Dissolved, the mineral India rubber produces a good waterproof varnish. The manufacture ol the material is said to be very profltabl and to pay the inventor 400 to 500 per cent. What to Do with Old Brocades. If you have any treasured short length! of old brocade you may produce them now, and make tbe fronts of one of the long Louis Seize waistcoats of them.

And il you are happy enough to possess old lace: you can make them up en jabot to weal with the same. It is easy to mount the lace on bands of muslin, keeping tho fold quite soft and using as few stitches as pos sible. In this way the tender susceptibili ties of tbe fabric are spared, and when tht jabot fashion is over and done with the lace remains to be used in some other way. London Truth. Instructions to a Postmaster.

A matter of fact in a small town in Arkansas wrototo the postofflci department stating that one of the citizent hod recently entered the office armed wit a Winchester rifle and had pointed it at the postmaster in a threatening manner. 0o closed his telegram with the words "Send instructions." Col. Whitfield, th first assistant, replied by quoting the words of well known retrain, "Johnny, get oaTfWU" Washington Star BUMMER AND LAZARUS. THE STORY OF A GENEROUS DOG. Supporting a Half Starved Tramp Canine Tbe New Friend Eventu ally Dies and Bummer's Death Came Shortly After from Grief and Starvation.

Written for The Republican. A homeless dog strayed into a San Francisco engine house, and was mado welcome by the jolly firemen. Ihougn they named him Bummer, they treated him kindly, fed him, made him a bed. and gave mm the freedom of the bouse, Bummer repaid their kindness by devoting himself to his new friends. He ran with the engine to every fire, marched with it proudly on parade, koot other dogs out of its way, and guarded the men if they needed his care.

Ho was seldom oil duty unless hunger prompted a visit to a neighboring restaurant, where a incnd of his eogine kindiy ted bio. One day, after eating a hearty meal there, he crammed his mouth with meat and bones and trotted off. He did the same the next day, and the next. Then bo was followed. Going through several streets, be entered a small, dark, dirty alley and, at its farther end, laid down the tood before a half starved dog; then, wagging his tail in satisfaction, he kept guard while the old creature ate.

Learning that Bummer was (UDDOrtiog a friend, the firemen went to see what attractions there were about tbe old dog. They found a miserable dirty skeleton with a broken leg. Much of his hair was gone, ana his body marked with sores nnd scars, telling of recent and tarlier battles. 1 hough thev saw nothing desir able in the old fellow Bummer's kindness and wistful look cona tiered. The old creature was taken to tbe engine bouse, his leg put in splints, an addition made to Bummer bed, and tbe new comer given a share in the other's rights, lo the dog with sores the firemen gave the name of Lazarus.

Kind treatment and good food showed their effect on Lazarus, but could not mase him young again. He regained strength, recovered the use of his leg, and was able to walk about, but never to run far with tho engine. His duty seemed to be to guard the house, while his younger tnend attended to the engine in the Streets. The old fellow appeared to be the butt of every cur in the ward. The meanest and most cowardly canine of tbe street need only see Lazarus away from his busi ness, and there followed a fight, with the old fellow invariably the under dog.

Too old and weak to battle successfully, yet he seemed to know nothlug about vie tory. He was a dog of peace when ho had his way; of defeat, when the other had a chance. After a few battles, Lazarus was let alone when Bummer was near; but never, if his champion was out of hearing. The strong dog need but hear tho faint yelp for aid of his venerable friend, and there came, like a black flash through tbe streets, something that sent the aggressor tumbling over and over witbout knowing what had struck him If the scamp dared to fight, be must meet Bummer's strength and prowess; the battle ended with the champion a nrst charge. Though kindness and care prolonged tbe lite ot Lazarus, they could not stop the later approach of death.

It came slowly but surely. The old dog ceased to eat, nor would he try the nicest dam ties. Bummer's watching and the atten tion of the firemen, appreciated by tbe old tellow, made bis ona easy. the men made a box, placed tbe body of the dead dog in it, and, followed by Bummer, carried it out to a vacant lot and gave it decent burial. A change came over Bummer after his friend's death.

He lost riskiness, refused to follow the engine, declined food, would r'f entered a small dark, dirty alley. not take medicine, and seemed to be grieving himself to death. Though he received the attention of the firemen kindly, he showed no interest in them nor anything they did. Sitting at the door of the engine room, or lying in his bed, he allowed time to pass as though he had lost all interest in life. Thus he gradually wasted away, died from grief and starvation.

A few weeks after the death of Lazarus, Bummer's dead boy lay In the same bed. The firemen made a neat box for a coffin, and carried their friend to a pleasant er vacant lot than had been used for the other and, while some dug a grave for Bummer, others dug up the other dog; und in the new grave they laid le friends side by side. Over tho mound they raised a stone, on which they had the names of tho faithful friends inscribed; and, unless that stone has been removed recently, it yet marks in that vacant lot the last resting place of Bummer and Lazarus. Duel Between Dear and Steer. A correspondent of a Russian paper do scribes a duel between a she bear and steer.

A young herdsman was tending hli cattle in the meadow lands of a village near Kieff, when he was attacked from behind by a she bear, accompanied by two cubs. The herdsman, who was armed on! with a whip, had not observed the ap proach of the bear until the moment of at tack. After a short struggle the herds man was thrown face downward, and th bear had already lacerated his scalp and back when a young steer from the drovi came to the rescue, butting the bear witt violence in the rear. The bear now turned upon its assailant but the wonderful dexterity and agflfty ol tbe steer in avoiding the embraces of the bear, and the vigorous onslaughts it made whenever the bear gave an unguarded chance, soon decided the contest. Tbebeai beat a retreat to the neighboring wood, followed by her two cubs.

The steer looked for a few cnomente, somewhat astonished at his antagonist's retreat, andtbensprang off in pursuit. Before the second cob had reached the cover of the wood It was bat ted.nl.trnall. to deajth bx tiuLsteer. zr 1 WuTen Tnonquwtly tttttteCotr to rejom tn drove. The herdsman's Injuries were serious.

Supplies for One Fragile Creature. A cynical doctor, withal a man of wonderful resources and a quick mind, lives on one of the avenues on the South Side. He was in his 6tudy a few nights ago when a young man came in and began questioning him about tbe propriety of marrying. The young man foolishly raved over his sweetheart, and called her angelic and so on. He was afraid that she was too fragile for this world.

The old doctor grunted. "Fragile, eh?" he asked. "How fragile? Ever test her fragility? Let me give you some figures about her and womankind in general, showing how fragile they are. Let ns suppose that this piece of perfection lit in moderately good health. She will live to be, say 60 years old.

Women don't like to die any more than men do not as much for women never grow old, you know. Listen to me. She will eat one pound of beef, mutton or some other flesh every day. That's 365 pounds of meat in a year. "In sixty years pounds.

How's that for fragile? She will eat as much bread and much vegetables per diem, and there you have in sixty years 43,800 pounds of broad and meat. If she is not too angelic she will drink daily no less than two quarts of coffee or tea. And by the time she is ready to have a monument she will have consumed 175 hogsheads of liquids. Fragile? "Now, young man, these figures do not include the forty or flfty lambs she will worry down with mint sauce. It does not take into consideration the 2,000 spring chickens, the 500 pounds of butter, the 50,000 eggs and the four hogsheads of sugar she will consume in sixty years.

It doesn't take into consideration her ice cream, her oysters, ber clams and such. All this means about forty five tons. Fragile? Think of your affinity in connection with these figures, and then rave over her being fragile. Young man, you are a fool. Boof!" Chicago Tribune.

Oysters as a Dessert. I used to know a bon vivant who never ate oysters except after dinner. He boarded for many years at one of tbe famous hotels in this city, and during the oyster season every day, as soon as he had finished his dinner in tbe salle, he used to walk directly to the oyster counter, on the ground floor, and eat a dozen blue points on the half shell, which the watchful attendant always had selected for him. This experienced epicure scorned to begin a meal with oysters. "What!" he would say, "put cold bivalves on an empty stomach? Such a practice must ruin digestion.

"Begin your meal with warm soup, which gently stimnlates the stomach and gives it a tone. When you are through with a hearty meal, your stomach craves something cooling. It ought to be gratified. Not with a viand hurd to digest, but one which dissolves easily with the heat of the stomach, imposing no labor upon the digestive faculties. Oysters are just the thing cooling, of delicious flavor, refreshing; they settle the appetite and make the whole system feel at ease.

They are the scientific climax to a banquet, and the man that does not know it is not a finished epicure." The old gentleman proved xthat oysters after dinner were healthful anyway, fot be lived to be more than fourscore and kept up his practice to the last. New York Star. An Anecdote of Buchanan. Governor Thomas B. Jones, of Alabama, tells this incident of his boyhood, part of which period was spent in school in Virginia: "On my way home for a vacation 1 passed through the capital for the express purpose of getting a glimpse at President Buchanan.

Standing in the National hotel, I remarked to a friend that I hated to leave the city without seeing the president. An elderly gentleman, who was readinga paper near where we stood, looked up with a smile and remarked: So yon want to see the president, do you? Meet me here at 10 o'clock to morrow and we will pay him a "It is needless to say I kept the engagement. The gentleman was tin hand, and we got into a carriage, but I didn't know I was riding with the president of the United States till after we had reached the Whita House and heard him addressed by bis title. Then my modesty got tbe better cf me and I wanted to retire, but the president kept me quite awhile, and I went away thoroughly happy." Washington Post. A Host Who Provides Razors.

Chief Justice Paxon, of the Pennsylvania supremo court, called. at Borncman's barber shop, in this cjiy, to get shaved. After the work had been performed he inquired of the barber as to his charges for honing razors, and the latter, naturally thinking that there would be but oue or two, stated that his price was a quarter apiece. The judge had nothing to say against this, and next day called and laid down a lot of thirty seven of the finest chin scrapers ever seen. Tbe judge explained that he was accus tomed to have large numbers of gentlemen sojourners from Philadelphia at his farm mansion in Bucks county, and from tho fact that tho nearest barber shop was nine miles distant he naturally had to be pro Tided with sharp shaving implements for their accommodation, and with a good lot of them, too, the guests being, like the judge, capable ot shaving themselves.

Al lentown Democrat. How Did the Turtle Find His Way? The rocks at the west coast of the island of St. Helena abound with sea turtles, some ot them as heavy as a man, and an English steamer once took aboard several dozen of tboso sea monsters, intending to deliver them allvo to a provision dealer in Liverpool. But before they reached English waters one of the turtles was taken sick and was flung overboard, after having been branded with the name of tho ship. Next year the same steamer came across the same tortoise on the ooajt of St.

Helena, more than 4.000 miles from the point where the homesick creature had been flung back overboard. Chicago Inter Ocean. A Wire's Philosophy. Von IIus3lor Dearest, I must leave you for a long trip by rail. Mrs.

Von H. Have you Dougnt that lot in the cemetery? Von H. Ycs. Mrs. Von If.

And made your will and paid up your life Insurance? VontL les. fra Vnn TI Than pond hv. dear. T'm going out to samplo mourning 'goods. nttsourg nromcic.

Practical Advice to Retailers. We adviseour readers who are compelled to. pay more for their stock to.be certain that their remuneration is commensurate with tho amount of capital Invested. Never mind if sales do decrease somewhat; it's better to do a small business on a paying basis than a large one on a losing basis. Merchants' Review.

In Brazil a couple may be married bv drinking brandy together. The Dyak head hunting has a religious origin. The Dyak believes that every person he kills in this world will be bis slave in the next. In Brittany every village has its witch and its attendant black cat. The cats assemble on the great heath at midnight of the full moon, when the devil elves them his orders for their respective mistresses.

XT MIOHT HAVE BEEN. 4 A CLOSE CALL FOR AN ADVENTURE ON A RAILROAD. Hysterlons Bnmplnc and JoltlnThat Both ered the Passengers A Han Hunt In the Woods The Long: Conductor and His Murderous Weapon. Thero are adventures and adventures. This one is the mildest of adventures a parlor adventure, a schoolgirl adventure, an adventure to be token at breakfast along with oatmeal and other Ingenious imitations of food.

But adventures can't be ordered like roast beef and pie at a restaurant, but mu6t bo taken as they come, like the weather. Tho train was hurrying along close to tho river, smoothly and quietly enough, with only an occasional flourish of the whistle or irruption of tho trainboy selling "John Smith, Backslider;" "Peter Brown, Creenlnndor;" ''Polly Perkins, Woman;" "Hollow Minde, Novelist, or somo other stirring work of contemporaneous fiction. No one was thinking of danger, as is always the cuso just before nn adventure indeed tho timo was ripe for an adventuro of magnitude, such as they used to have many yoars ago or still have many miles away, but it didn't come, for we live in fallen days and In an evil quarter of tho ourth. Nevertheless as wo glided along the train began to hump and jolt In an alarming manner. Then it went smoothly enough again tor a little way; then again it had a spasm of jolting and pitching about as if it wero a Fifth avenue stage or some such athletio apparatus rather than a vehicle.

'Broken rail," said one foolish man. "Off on the ties," said another weak fellow. Then all was quiet ngain, followed by more hurap9. "This seems to be the corduroy lino," said the foolish man. "There are pieces broken out of tho wheels," said tho weak fellow.

"I saw thorn when I got on. They look liko broken nosed pitchers." ''Then why doesn't it jolt all the time?" asked the foolish man, which broke up the friendship and made them enemies. But tho train went on, and for half an hour continued to have occasional paroxysms of jolting. Then it came to a Uttlo station, whloh consisted of a platform and a dog, and stopped. Three men evident scoundrels, self heralding enemies of society were seen running from tho train along a little stream toward the woods, with a half dozen of the trainmen close behind.

Then thero was a struggle among the bushes, and shocking bad language, and tho noble trainmen came back with ono of the desperadoes and put him In the baggage car with the trunks, while tho other two men ran away and disappeared in tho underbrush. But our blood was up, and we held tho train and had man bunt. The bclloord was taken out and all hands mustored, except the bnpgagb master and the porter of tho sleeping car, which latter individual 6taid at his post of duty, "suh, gua'd ing the property of me pa6sengahs, sah." Tho forces wero marshaled under the train conductor, a man whom nature hod found so ductile that she had drawn him out to such an extent that tho thought occurred that if the bellcord was lost he could bo put up in its place. So leaving those two desporato men in tbe baggage car that is, the train robber and the baggago master our foroes sot out, the conduotor. with tho bell rope over his shoulder, presenting tho exact appearance of a bamboo fishpole and line, at the head of the company.

For the next half hour thore was a dodging in and out of men among tho bushes and small trees of a 100 aore field beside tho train. At lust the men wero surrounded on a little patch of turf near the stream. Tho train hands closed in, the conductor waving like a reed at the front. Then thero was another struggle, and tho chief bent like a weeping willow, wound his arms half a dozen times around one of the men and held bim, while tho other knocked down a brakeman, kicked the engineer in the stomuchand again ran off. The moro substantial bellcord was substituted for tho arms of the oonduotor, and the prisoner was brought in and put into the baggage car with the other outlaw.

Once moro the army moved. This time the conductor had reached down and borrowed a revolver from a passenger, a little nickel plated, pocket popgun affair, Intended perhaps for defense against Jersey mosquitoes, but in no way designed for hunting that noble animal man. But ho took It up with him, and they were off. More dodging, running, deploying, shouting, and again the hardened Individual was surrounded. He seomed to have become tired of the game, and now produced a long knife.

Tho men paused and took astronomical observations ot the upper end of the conduotor. He was clearly seen to produce the pistol, and then, floating down through the still evening air, there came, ono after the other, six times, a peovlsh pop, which indicated that tho thing wn6 going off. Ho might as well have held up a nickel plated olook and allowed it to strike 6. With a derisive laugh, which was quito the proper thing, thoout law turned, flourished his knife and ran away across the open flold toward tho river. The men camo back, the passenger who owned tho revolver fastened It to his watch chain, a half dozen young lady bi cyclists who had bocn watching the proceedings flopped themselves onto their ma chinos and rolled away, the train started, nnd we, too, rolled away, taking our prisoners with us.

In a little while the conductor camo back into tho sleeper to wash off the smoke of battlo. It seems that the three men had boarded the train some timo during tho afternoon, getting on the roar of tho tender. As the observing traveler knows, there is situated here a long box in which Is kept various overgrown tools for repairs, suott as a 10 pound monkey wrench, an absurd hammer, extra coupling links and pins, somo chain with links like sausages and similar things. It appears tbot this box was not lockod, and these amiable tourists had amused themselves by dropping out these articles on tho rails, their intention evldontly being to throw the following oars off the truck. Asked as to his opinion of tho object which tho men had in view In wrecking the tra! the conductor leaned down near his questioner, while he wiped oueh finger repeatedly with a furious twisting motion, as if trying to unscrew it from tbe hand, and hissed tho one word, Plunder!" So it was not much of an adventuro, but it might have been.

New ork lrio tine. Twelvo thousand infants are annually received at a foundling asylum in Moscow. Tho boys are trained for the navy. Found Handkerchief One day two sisters were shopping In Broadway. One of them carried a band kerchief of peculiar pattern and valoe.

Sndoruyit wasn asiDg. Todook for.it in any of tho dozen shops they had visited during afternoon would been a useless waste of time, so the loser merely resigned herself tottho After awhile the two separated, each todo some.bujriag for herself, andtheister returned to one of thehops that they had vlsited in cam pany. While bciiir carried up injtaela ornce6de a.