The Philadelphia Times from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania • Page 19

THE TIMES SUNDAY SPECIAL SUNDAY -MORNING. FEBRUARY 10, 1895. 19 Highest of all in Leavening Power. Latest U. S.

Gov't Report JOVbpASTEBOARDS VISITING CARDS OF EUROPEAN MONARCHS ETIQUETTE OF VISITING CARDS HOW IT HAS BEEN FIXED. patrons who were unable or nnwilling to receive him. The custom was at once lollowed and spread all over Europe. As already intimated the English observe a curious visiting card etiqoette. A lady of title, for instance, prints it and ber Christian and married name in full, nut when Mr.

Gladstone was Prime Minister his visiting card read simply Mr. Gladstoue." while his wife's read "Mrs. William Gladstone." If a man named George Kane is burdened by tho awfnl responsibility of being the bead of the family, bo may be "George" to all bis friends, or even to his superiors in business SOUTHERN HEGROES' SUPERSTITIONS CURIOUS THINGS WHICH WILL DELIGHT STUDENTS OF FOLK LORE. MYTHS CONCERNING THE HARE Beliefs Which Were the Same in Britain is milk-white When one's hair is eat he should gather an and burn every particle of it, els witrhes will find it and do bim an injury or birds will build nests of it and cause headache- Hossare supposed to fatten more readily if their tail are rot ofl. When peas, beans and pinders (peanut) are planted the hulls should be placed in the road, and when seed corn is shelled the rob should be scattered in tbe field.

Burning the cobs and bulls, it is thought, would cause a severe drought For 6b h-bonks and lines, flower cuttings, plants or any live animal, received as a present, no thanks should le returned, or bad lnck will be sure to follow the gift, Carrying an axe, hoe. can or spade on the shoulder through a house iw unlucky. So is mid plaything is the more surprising, as it was almost impossible to write on one of the glossy cards except with pencil, and that, too. could only be accomplished nnder great difficulties. Lithography gave way to copper plate engraving with tho arrival of the Empress En-gi-nie.

Of course a great many people of quality used cards printed from copper plate long before tho blonde beauty was ever thought of as fashion's dictator, bat tho custom was not generally adopted, numerous persons preferring to write their own cards, or having them inscribed by some noted cali-graphist. Legitimate royalty, at that period, was still so Olympian in its relations to mankind generally as to think itself above the usages of polite society. Its members received calls without repaying them the acknowledgment of duties of courtesy was left entirely to thoir menials. The rising stars in Paris changed all that; little by little the third Napoleon's semi-democratic ways, Eugenie's grace and charming manners were recognized and followed, and when the King of Prussia ordered visiting cards for himself in the French capital all his big brothers and sisters and cousins and smllinc salt, breaking a lonkuiEirlasti. sewinz a button on a garment while the owner wears k'lline toads and crickets, and beginning an important undertaking on Friday.

Eac- co0 opowom naniew are mro irage. ny an owl cry heard on the left-band side ot their path bat if an owl hoots on thcirright hand or if the dogs lie down and roll tho bunt will be successful. Many fishermen will make long detours to avoid meeting a woman when on their way to tho water, and. if such a meeting is unavoidable, some will even return home and skirt again. Turning bark is also regarded as unlucky, but this form of tbo dilemma is avoided by spitting in a cross mark made in the road with tbe forefinger.

Left-handel persons arc said to owe a day's work to the devil. One who has pronounced moles on his neck will probably be banged. Hare-lip is thought to result from the sight of a rabbit by the mother before her child is born. The writer has met two persons a little white boy and an old negro man who share, nnknown to each other, tho curious belief that a man's head, cutoff and placed ou a wagon, would make a greater load than the strongest team of mules could draw. Here, as elsewhere, many superstitious beliefs cluster around the nwlul mystery of death.

The number of stars within a lunar halo represents so many of the observer's friends who will die soon. Seme are warned of coming dissolution by mysterious rappings on tbe floor, or at the head of the bed; to others is given the power of seeing in dreams the facesof those about to die. The banshee's wail is not unknown, and there are those to whom the howling of dogs is an omen of terrible import. That dogs do sometimes howl when there is a death in the neighborhood is a fact which cannot be gainsaid. Tbe reason for it is, perhaps, more obvions here than elsewhere.

Among the negroes and some of the whito people it is customary, when a death occurs, for tbe assembled friends to set np a loud wailing worthy of a typical Irish wake, or of an Indian woman, mourning her brave. These weird ululations reach tbe keen cars of dogs at distances which render them inaudible to human hearing, and, like any other doleful, mysterious sounds, induce them to howl. Sitting np with the corpse Is almost universally practiced. On such occasions negroes usually sing all night. In some places it is cusVomary among them to put a saucer of salt on the breast of the dead person, and this, perhaps, originally a disinfectant, has curi- NOT IN 'sijff fftm i Kjiij iu fremiti ty -fit VISITING CARDS OF ROYALTY AND NOBILITY.

From a Corrwpondeot of Tat Tim I'akir. Jannsry 28. Sixty Billiards (60,000.000.000) Timing cards are jDnuallr pot nt0 circulation hy the people of the civilized world, according to tbo ctntcment of an cnterpriing statistician, who claims to have figured it out to a nicety and. adds this authority. the greatest percentace of the entire- sum.

reckoned pro rata, of the number of individuals included in this estimate, is used by crowned heads and royalty generally." This is a poser: The ordinary mortal has certainly the idea that princes travel about with so ranch eclat and circumstantiality as to preclude the necessity of carryine printed pasteboards. Yet, as they arc likewise better customers to photographers than the wickedest sort of skirt dancer or prima donna and I am not conntine general sales alone, but in addition, the individual purchases of the pictured persons we may judjo tho correctness of the one statement by the surprising fact of the other. Besides, our tabulatory friend de rives his wisdom from the very best sources royalty's copper plate printers. Paris has had the monopoly of supplying the monarchs of the world with visiting cards ever since the latter became a necossary adjunct to fashion under tbo second Empire, and snch is the force of habit that neither political chances nor the progress of art, its generalization, havo interfered with tho ex-clusivcness of the privilege. Of tho bunch of visiting cards of royal aud aristocratic personages given in facsimile with this paper, all, with the exception of that bearing the Kaiser's name and office, are chefs d'teuvre of a great Paris house.

Wilhelm's unwieldy pasteboard is a Berlin production, done by lithography, and about fifty years belling the times in all but the paper used. Lithography," said one of our chief stationers to-day. was first employed in the making of visiting cards when, after the coup d'etat, Napoleon III. ordered pasteboards for himself, which contained his Christian name only. Things were all in a rush then, and his newly baked majesty refused to wait for the slow engraving process.

When afterwards it leaked out that the head of the State, the most talkcd-of man in ha-rope, used lithographed cards, that thing he-came tho vogue, and as the cost was small persons who heretofore had nevor thought of ordering visiting cards began to look upon snch as part of a lady's or gentleman's equipment. Thus the creation and rise of an industry that has assumed enormous proportions was indirectly due to a clever man intentnessto seo himself in print royal style, without any appellation as to rank plain "Napoleon," neither more nor less." Tho uso of the Christian name only is a prerogative which Kingsaud Emperors share with servants. Tho othor day a Koyalist showed mo a visiting card, inscribed, "Philippe," under a crown. Ten thousand of that sort were ordered by tho Duke of Orleans before his father's body was cold. It is regarded an excellent means of agitation and popularization.

The candidate for the throne, while prohibited by "a cruel law" to mingle with his" people, appeals to his supporters, or those whom ho would like to win over to the cause of the lily hannor. by mailing them bis visiting card. Many a wavering Republican, it is said, has been made Philippe's friend by this simple and cheap method of campaigning. With the Orleans cheapness has always counted, has even been allowed to supercede qther important considerations, but in the case under discussion it loses its unpleasant flavor. No wonder the Duko of Orleans re-discs to adopt his father's title Comte de Paris;" it not only smacks of failure, the real royal ring is missing, too.

The Emperors of Germany and Austria, who, on their visiting cards, following a German custom, enumerate part of their title, by this act. not only cut loose from a legitimate custom, but invite the criticism of the polito world. According to fashion's dictum their visiting cards should either read Wilhelm and Krnr.z Joseph" respectively, or "Deut-cher Kaiser" s.nd "Kaiser von Oetcrreich." The Prince of Wales, always most correct in matters of etiquette, has two sortsof cards, one reading, "Albert Edward;" the other, Lo Prince de Galles," which is the French for Wales" and a term more often used in roval circles than the original. As tho heir to the British crown is sovereign lord of the principality, ha has tho right to be known either by his Christian Dame alone or as "The Prince of Wales." The English, by the way, never spoak of him otherwise than "The Prince." and to his future subjects he is always plain Albert Edward, as a visitor or letter writer as well. French being the universal languago of royalty, all monarchs havo their visiting cards for general use inscribed in the Gallic tongue, borne Princes use cards, giving their name and titlo in the native language, at home, hut in most cases that is done lor a purpose.

It reminds the writer of a story published shortly after William's ascension to the throne: "He will drink only German champagne." cried tho Berlin press enthusiastically. Later on it leaked out that his Majesty partakes of the Teutonic effervescent oui'y with his 6oup, aud, if tbo truth be known. I wager he uses it pour chasser la soupe (to get rid of the tasto of the soup), i "The" in front of a royal or princely title denotes that tho person is a sovereign, or at least the head of his family. In England it is employed in addressing a peer, being in that case an abbreviation of the terra Eight Honorable." In tho lot of thousands of individual cards bearing royal names, or those of members of the high aristocracy of Europe, which I have belore me, only one Englishman of non-royal rank makes bold to use the prefix "The" on his visiting card, "The Duko of Argyle." His son and daughter-in-law's card, on the other hand, reads Marquis of Lome and The Princess Louise." There was always a suspicion that in the Lome menage, her Koyal Highness wore the trousers. The extraordinary consumption of visiting cards by royalty is occasioned by its kinship to huudreds and thousands of persons, many of whom their big brothers and sisters would not know even byname save forthe Almanac )e Gotha.

As it is, their Majestys' and Highnesses' secretaries are busy year in and vear out mailing cards all over the civilized world with mystic letters in one corner denoting "regrets," "congratulations" or "leave-taking." The adjutants and ladies-in-waiting respectively also use up a large stock of cards weekly "repaying visits" by distinguished foreigners to their masters and mistresses. They drive up to the hotel of the party to be honored, jump out. deposit tho pasteboard with an attendant and continue on their tour. Napoleon's visiting card, that gavo the impetus to the universal custom, was two and a third inches long aud half as broad. The ex-printer to the Tuilerios still has a sample, which he intends to present to the National Museum.

It retains up to this day its white and glossy coat, which was due to a reckless tincture with arsenic It could noc be ascertained by the writer whether the Emperor started the custom of bending one corner of the card on making a personal call without finding one's host at home, hut tho fact that by this habit maDy persons suffered in health is tho better known to old society people. The bending was always accompanied by a breakage of the glojey surface, which act caused the arsenic to rise in the air and get into people's lungs. Physicians and chemists discovered this soon enough, but fashion laughed at their anathemas. The arsenic-impregnated card continued in vogue through the sixties, only that its corners wore clipped, thus giving it an oval shape. The tenacity with which society clung to the dangerous or office, but on his visiting cards ho figures as "Mr.

Kane." Again we may find the names of two sisters nearest of kin. not mere sisters by marriage on one and the same cant, the one (the oldest) being designated as "Miss Kane," the other as "Miss Mary Kane." Onlydowagcrpeeresscsand dowager baronesses place their Christian names on their visiting cards. Thus among the cards of callers may be found ono reading: "Con-suela. Duchess of Manchester." and another "Duchess of referring to mother and daughter-in-law respectively. English visiting cards are always printed from copper plate, a process remarkably cheap in Great Britain, and while fasbion every year decrees certain deviations in size and lettering, the one principle is always observed A woman's card is larger than that of a man.

In Berlin the opposite holds good, and, strange to say, card printing from copper plate is entirely unknown there, the lithographer having a monopoly of that sort of work. A curious hit of visiting-card etiquette in England is that of leaving cards on tbo graves of dead friends or distinguished persons. The French and the Chiuese have this custom in common. The Celestials, by the wffy, claim they used visiting cards as far hack as during the porlnd of Coufucius. If that be true, it is astonishing that their cards should not have developed into something more artistic than the pasteboard they nse to-day a pink sheet of stiff paper which must be borne in the band.

Under no circumstances is auyhody allowed to carry it in a pocket. In Corea visiting cards are a square foot large, and etiquette wills it that they should be presented by a special envoy of tho person named thereon. A French marine officer tells me tlut the sa vases of Dahomey announce their visits to each other by a wooden board or the branch or a tree artistically carved. This is sent ahead, and the visitor on taking leave pockets his card, which probably serves him many years. Tbo natives of Sumatra also havo a visiting card, consisting of a piece of wood about a foot long and decorated with a bunch of straw and a knife.

It is generally smuggled into an enemy's hut at nicht time and means ns much as Prepare for my not-tural visit in tbe near future" a custom not devoid of an element of chivalry and strangely remindful of the exchange of cards, sometimes one-sided only, by "civilized" duellers, or as tho preliminary of a challenge. Ben Akiba was right. There is nothing new under the sun. Our forefathers throw thoir gloves into each other's faces. French Deputies and journalists bombard each other with visiting cards and the blacks prepare their enemy for a fieht by sending him tbe symbol of native weapons.

The police in Paris, Berlin, Vienna and other cities regard a visiting card as a legal means of identification and legitimation. A gentleman rendering his card and promising to appear in court at a certain time is not placed under arrest for a misdemeanor. Of course if he undertakes to deceive the officer by giving him the card of a stranger he is properly punished wheu caught. A Lake With a Lead Bottom. From tbe St.

Louis Republic Dubuque county, Iowa, boasts the possession of tbe most uniquo subterranean lake in the world an underground body of water with a bottom formed throughout of pure crystal of lead. The farm upon, or rather under, which this curious lake is situated is near the city of Dubuque, in the heart oi the lead regions which marie that portion of the Northwest Territory famous before the opening of the present century. The prospectors who discovered the cavern in which tins lead-bottomed lake is situated hud sunk shaft 2(H) feet before striking it. They attempted to drum the lake, or pump it dry, so an to get at tho lead, but were disappointed to find il connected with tile Mississippi river. THE SERENADE St Valenne! St.

Valentine! Be thou my friend this night. 1 serenade a dainty mnid, That is my heart's delight. Ob pray she be not cold to me as arc tbe frosty skies, That 1 may see her turn on me One sweet glance from her eyes. Beneath her window here I stay as still the moments go, Till I divine by some slight sign She hears my voice below. St.

Valentine! St. Valentine! She does not hear me yet What's this I see? a sign, dear me! "THIS HOUSE TO LET!" Hoy L. McCardclt. HSR POVERTY IN NEW YORK A Sad Ficture of the Misery to be Seen in the Great City. From the Century Magazine Do you know that among tho 135.395 families not persona registered by tbe Charity Organi-znlion Society as asking for help during a recent period of eight years, more than tlfty per cent, were honestly seeking work and finding none? Do yon grasp tbe real meaning of no work In families where a day's wage can but pay for a day's bard fare, and leave no penny over? 'an yon appreciate the unspeakable danger, moral as well as physical, involved in the fact that among 15O.O0U women who, iu our town, earn their living, and often the living of men and children, too, the average wage not the lowest, but the average where some are paid pretty well is only sixty cents a day? Have you tried to understand the tenor of lives Hkethoneof seamstresses who get from twenty to thirty-five cents a dozen for making flannel hirt.

and a dozen for calico wrupiicrs? Or to fancy how it must feci to labor for Htx-h pittances in cold and semi-durknew from 4 in ttie Miorniiie until 11 at Or to estimate their purchasing power when coal must be bought by the bucket at the rate of a ton, and rent in the vilest purlieus must be paid at a higher ratio upon the invested capital than in anked on Fifth avenue? If you and every other man and woman in New York could be brought to renlize thens things, and to ponder them a little, would they uot'ceac to be? Murely it must be our ignorance, not our hardheartedneHtt.which permits tuein now. But is our ignorance yours and mine and that of all the rich and the well-to-do as readily excusable as that of the very imor themselves. Where lies the real responsibility for the wretchedness of Nether New York EE WHIPPED DR. HOLMES A Schoolmaster Did it and Afterwards Apologized For It. From the Century Magazine.

Any record of Dr. Holmes' life would be imperfect which contained no mention of the pride and pleasure he felt in the Club. Throughout the forty years of its prime he was not only the most brilliant talker of that is tinguished company, but he was also the most faithful attendant. He was seldom absent from the monthly dinners either in summer or in winter, and be lived to find himself at the head of the table where Agassiz, Longfellow, Emerson and Lowell had in turn preceded bim. Could a shorthand writer have been secretly present at those dinners, what a delightful book of wise talk and witty sayings would now lie open before us! Fragments of the good things were sometimes brought away, as loving parents bring HIS LINE sugar plums from a feast to the children at home; but they are only fragments, and bear out but inefficiently tbe report that has run before them.

The following pathetic incident, related on one of these occasions by Dr. Holmes, need not, however, be omitted Just forty years ago," he said one day, I was whipped ut school for a slight offense-whipped with a ferule right across my hands, so that I went home with a blue mark where the blood hnd settled, and for a fortnight my hands were stiff and swollen from the blows. The other day an old man called at my house and inquired lor me. Me was nent ana coin a just creep along. When he came in he said How do you do, sir; do you recollect your old teacher, Mr.

I did, perfectly! He sat and talked a while about in-d ille rent subjects, but I saw something rising in his throat, and I knew it was that whipping. After awhile be said, 'I came to ask your forgiveness for whipping you once when I was in anger; perhaps you have forgotten it, but I have not' It had weighed upon his mind all these years! He must be rid of it before lying down to sleep peacefully." Extracting Teeth by Electricity. From Nature. Trials have been made at London with a new apparatus fur the extraction of teeth by electricity. In consists of an induction cell of extremely fine wire, having an interrupter that can vibrate at tho rate of 450 times a second.

The patient, sits in the traditional armchair, and takes the negative electrode in his left hand and the positive in the right. At this moment the operator turns on a current whose intensity is gradually increased till it has attained the utmost limit the patient can support. The extractor is then put in circuit and fastened on the tooth, which, under tbe action of the vibration, is loosened at once. The operation is performed very quickly, una" tbe patient feels no other sensation than the pricking produced in tbe hands and forearms by the current. A Little Fellow.

Little hit of a fellow; Couldn't get him to sleep, And the mother sighed As he tossed and cried He's Biich a trouble to keep Little bit of a fellow Couldn't get him to sleep. Little bit of a fellow! But the eyes of the mother weep; For one and night That was lost to light God smiled and kissed him to sleep, Little bit of fellow-He was never a trouble to keep Atlanta Constitution ALL THE LATEST NOVELTIES IN HAIR GOODS Best French Hair Banati. Warranted to retain the curl (In ordinary colors), from 1 up. Drab from 81.50 up. Kittiiral tsruy from $1 up.

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best workmanship, Hi Beck's Uoulen Hair Wuah, 6 ox. botSies. l. Beck's A 1 Sue Bcck'f Hiilr Mwtorer. 80a Liingwtech's Gt-rnmn Fuca Powder, 35c.

French Curl-Ing Irons, 15c. Hangs cut and curled '-3c, Ludies Halt Dressing and Shampooing. BECK'S HAIR STORE 30 NOKTII ESftHTH STREET (Between Arch uud Filbert). Superfluous DESTROYED FOREVER electric needle Cesar's Time The Pig, the Alligator, the Owl i and tbe Bloc Jay in Folk Lore Customs-Traces of Witchcraft. An interesting fact to students of folk-lore is tbe prevalence in many parts of the South of views in regard to the hare, or rabbit, almost identical with those noted by Cicsar, in Britain, two thousand years ago.

As an article of food this creature is to not a few an object of aversion the traveler deems it unlucky to see ono hopping across his pathway and the unaccountable manner ic which it sometimes bewilders the banter's pack a manner worthy of reynard himself has caused it to be looked upon as one of the favorite animal forms assumed by ghosts and witches. Cats, too, are by some considered nucauny. They will maliciously nibble the exposed parts of corpses, and suck the breath of sleeping infants. A doc may be prevented from straying by placing under the front door step a bit of hair cat from the end of its tail. Dogs sharo with horses and hoes the power of seeing supernatural beings which are invisible to men.

Old Africans assert that dogs. see spirits because they have putty in their eyes. Byron's line in Don Juan "Ask the who sees the wind "needs no commentary here, where hogs and horses alike possess this peculiar gift. "Hogs see the wind," an old negro informed me, "and it is red like fire." Some negroes believe that if ono cats the "cars," or small lobes, from the heart of a beef or a hog it will make him garrulous. Others think the penalty will be deafness.

Southern children believe that a coacb-whip snake is able to roll rapidly along on the ground in tbe form of a hoop and that in this manner it will pursue a defensclcsschild and whip it to death. While the whipping is in progress the snake is said to pause occasionally to insert its tail in the nose of its victim. If it feels ibe child's breath it will resume tho attack, but if respiration be suspended it will loosen its bold and glide away. A very common snake iu lower South Carolina is the "rattlesnake pilot," which derives its popular name from the notion that its movements mark the exact path to be followed by a rattlesnake within twenty-four hours. When a snake is killed its tail does die uutil sunset, and unless tlto head is cu off or the body cu in two snake doctors" are likely to bring the reptile back to life, particularly if it is left near a pool or stream of water.

Dead snakes arc turned on their backs or stretched across the top rail of a ferfce to bring rain in a dry season. Tho familiar glass snake superstition prevails here to some extent. Alligator flesh is considered a great delicacy by most of the low-country negroes, but there are portions of it about the forelegs and head which some think are poisonous. The harmless little brown and green lizards, which are among the most common reptiles of this region, are generally regarded as venomous. The man who kills a toad will lose his cow and calf.

Children believe that when, an angry tortoise closes its mandibles upon any object it will not let go until it hears thunder. They also think that a decapitated tortoise will come hack to life if even the smallest shred of skin is left to connect the bead and neck. A parallel to some of the curious old English beliefs, chronicled by Izaak Wultor, in regard to the generation of fishes, is found here in tbe notion that tho common cattish is a hybrid, beins a cross between tbe eel and the tortoise. The sense of smell is popularly attributed to fishes, and asalVrtiria and other odorous substances are used to render tho angler's bait attractive. If a maid or a widow coes fishing and catches an eel it is a sign that she will nrnrry a widower.

Blue jays all go to hell every Friday to carry sticks for the devil. The nee roes say that the man who kills a reliig (a small yellow bird which I havo been unahlo to see and identify), will soon meet with an accident, breaking an arm or leg. Jt is not strange that the curious insect known as the devil's hone is a favorite subject of popular superstition wherever it occurs. The name itself bears witness to tho fact that it is looked upon as something supernatural. In riouth Carolina tbe mantis is said to pray for its daily food, and to return thanks after eating, though in a hypocritical way, being an agent of the devil.

Field bands frequently meet with it on cotton stalks in the picking season, and they are always careful to give it a wido berth, for if it spits in one's eyes he will go blind. Its bite also is regarded as venomons. Another object of fear is the "cow-killer," a large hymcnopterous insect of a brilliant scarlet color. Its sting, as indicated by the name is supposed to prove fatal to cuttle. A common belief among the negroes isthat if one wantonly killsants their companions will revenge themselves by covering his body just previous to burial.

The fact that small black ants in large nn tubers are often found associated with plant lice in cotton fields has given rise to a superstition that the lice are hatched from eggs laid by the ants. Last summer a lady living in South Carolina employed several negro ohildrcn to weed a flower bed. When they stopped work she went out to examine it and was surprised to find largo grassy" spot left untouched. Cyan't pull up dat grass," the children explained, 'kaze hit's kivered widsperitspit." Spirit-spit is the name given to the small Hecks of froth which conceal the of the spittle insects (Cerropidte) and tbe negroeB think that many ovil consequences would ensue if they should touch it. Much the same notion prevails in regard to the larger patches of yellow or brown froth seen frequently on stumps and rotten logs and known generally "snake-spit." Children in the South are accustomed to find out whether their sweethearts love them by breaking mullein stalks or by placing on a shruh the yard a bit of "love-viue" (dodder), a parasitical plant growing in moist places, tho love of their friends depending in both instances upon the life or death of the plants.

Stronger than these and common to persons of larser growth is faith in tho power of the divining rod. There are local traditions relating to the existence of a rich vein of lead ore in tho vicinity of Little Mountain, a singular group of hills rising near the line between Newberry and Lexington counties. In tbe search for this vein, which hwt been kopt up in a desultory way fnra hundred years, cunning DousterHWivels, aided by divining rods and mysterious jugglery, havo more thunonee found their dupes. Here and there persons may still be found who are willing, in selecting a spot for a well, to be guided by the indications of a forked twig of peach or alder in the bands of an adept. The gentlest cow in Carolina may be made to kick if a knife or a fork is put into a vessel containing her milk.

If milk is carried across running water, spilled upon the ground or thrown into tho fire the cow will go dry. The devil will follow ono who carries un-salted meat along a road or across runuing water. If a child's tooth is thrown away and a dog steps on it dog's tooth will grow in the child's mouth. Old negroes sometimes teach young children when a tooth is drawn to throw it over the hooio and say Here, rut, take tins old tooth and give me your i 1 i is WHAT A BLIZZARD IS LIKE It is Something Widely Different From the Snow Flurries ot the East. From the Chicago Times.

"A blizzard is something which the man vho has been out in one will never forget, and it impresses one with the awful power of nature, as the slow-moving, funnel-shaped cyclone does, and one who knows these dreadful winter storms would no sooner encounter them than he would cyclone. I was up on the Northern Pacific in the early days of March, IHH2. The winter had been remarkable for its openness, and the whole Northwest had been bathed in sunshine for months. Some cold weather had been experienced, but -the old tiettlers were congratulating themselves upon their comparative immunity from extreme weather, when, Friday, March 3, I think it was. just about noon, the wind swung into the north and northwest, and one of the most dreadful storms that ever swept the Western prairies came howling and shrieking down upon the unsuspecting folk.

"The wind blew a gale fully si xtvmtlcsan hour, the snow filler! the air liken fog and obscured all objects as a curtain would do, and the mercury dropped out of sight, tbe spirit thermometers registering fortv-tive degrees below zero. It was impossible to live in the storm. A voting telegraph operator had taken charge of the Northern Pacific station at Jttmfstown that very day. Intheenrly evenine he Blurted down the principal street to deliver a message to the Roman Catholic priest. A man sleppcd out on tbe street for a moment, and through the shrieking of the storm he heard a call for help.

and. following the direction ot the sound, came to the young operator frozen nearly to death in the snow, not twenty feet away. I helped restore the young fellow, but be was dreadfully frozen, and it was long before be recovered. "That was only one incident, but it illustrates bow completely at its tncri-y the blizzard holds its victims, even iu the thoroughfares of towns of considerable size. Out upon tbe prairies the effects are infinitely worse.

How many a poor devil, caught out in one of them, has traveled round and round in a circle until, overcome with exhaustion and exposure, he has sunk down in the dry snow to his death! In the storm of which I speak I recall that one mother at Hun-born, a few miles east of Jamestown, went out that day to feed the stock in the barn, taking with her a small child. The distance from the house was but a few hundred feet, but when the storm was over and the sun shone forth again mother and child were found, tbe latter clasped close in his mother's hist embrace, a few feet from the sheltering bnrn. They had wandered, perhaps for hours, with tho stinging snow iu their (aces, every (lake like a needle prick, blinding them and hiding from view the warm places of shelter so near at hand." THE FASTEST STEAMER The Minneapolis Holds the Record for Bi War Vessels. From Casster's Magazine. Speed records both of the vessels of the great Atlantic ferry and of the warships of naval powers have of late been so frequently broken that the task of keeping track of the "fastest steamer in the world" has become a somewhat confusing one.

From the best available records just now, however, it would appear that the war vessels of appreciable size, ranging up into thousands of tons of displacement, '2ti miles an hour, equivalent to a little over 2Xknotg, is the highest rate that has been attained, and belongs to tbo latest of the completed United States cruisers, tbe Minneapolis, built by Cramps, at Philadelphia. This figure was reached with triple screws and an indicated horse-power equipment of about 21,000 for tons displacement, the dimensions of tho ship being 412 feet length, 5S feet beam and T2lC, feet draught, Coming down to vessels of smuflcr size, however, the speed performance! is found considerably increased, as exempliiied in the new twin screw torpedo boat destroyer Daring, built for the British navy by Thornycroft Co. It is the boat for which tbe claim has been made of being the fastest warship afloat, backed by the remarkable run of a little over 29 knots, or nearly 'XX1- miles, an hour, recently made on the-Thames. Trbe mean of three runs was knots, or about 32.9 miles, an hour, and easily puts the vessel foremost in point of speed. The Daring is feet long, l'J feet beam aud 13 leefc deep, with a displacement of 228 tons.

Avoiding Suspicion. From the New York Weekly. Miss De Style" Horrors Why have you adopted a grocer's scale and a yard-stick as our ooat-of-arms?" Mrs. De Style1 1 wish people to now that our money was made in honest trade. Otherwise they might suspect that your father or grandfather bad, been on the police force." How He Knew.

From Good, News. Small Son (looking at piece of roast pork, with topscored)" That's Western pork, isn't it Mother (surprised)" Why, yes. How did you know Small Son" Easy'nough. Look at the marks of the barbed wire fence." The Back-Court Rivals. From Good News.

Little Miss Freckles (proudly) My new doll winds up and walks." Little Miss Mugg (airily)" If I'd a-known that kind was beiu' sold. I'd a-got one for a wait ing maid for my dollie." EXTRAORDINARY OFFERING HAIR MATTRESSES Full Size, 40 Ihs. All Hnlr. Best upholstering. Guaranteed free from vegetable fibre, tiimpieo, whalebone or any adulteration whatever.

Tbe equal of anv Hair Mattress in Philadelphia. H.D. DOUGHERTY Co. Faultless" Redrtintr. Brass and Enameled Bedsteads, Warms, No.

II NORTH ELEVENTH ST. Above Market. Factory, 331 NORTH SECOND STREET. LADIES HAVE YOUR HAIR SHAMPOOED Shampooing, wet or dry, 50 cents. IlHlr dressing, all styles, ou cents.

ii cents. Jianfi cutting. You will be pleased witli our work. MKj. R.

KAIX, 141 South ELEVENTfl Street, near Walnut. MANICURING AND CHIROPODIST PARLORS Mrs. M. Goldberg -formerly of 12lh and Chest, sts.) begs to Inform her many natrona that she has wwneii new Parlors at 1020 L'HICSTNL'T Street, having formed a partnership with -Miss Klce, who atalsted her hi tbepaac. Take elevator, first floor.

Miss Golddust. "Are you fond of water colors, Count?" Count Non-Bathskie. Naw I don't like vatcr in anyding." annts followed suit "to have the correct thing, which it was impossible to get elsewhere then. Engraved cards on other than glossy boards were first used in Paris at the beginning of the seventies, and shortly afterwards the job printers began to turn out visiting cards of a ehenp and nasty kind for enterprising clerks, students and factory girls. Bristol cardboard, which admits of the use of pen or pencil, was an achievement of the season of 1878.

A year or two later it became tho fashion to decora to one's visiting card with one's portrait, but the costliness of tho thing, and, on the other hand, its dudish aspect, militated against its becoming popular. Since I860 fashionable children and dogs have, with us, visiting cards as a matter per se. The visiting card without words, so much in uso in all circles of Parisian society, is really a card of invita'Jon. It contains the name of the host and the date for which the invitation is issued, aud if it is for dinner a gorgeously appointed table in one corner will proclaim that fact. Nymphs and nmorettes signify that informal dancing (in the country house) is to take place; a group of trees with Chinese lanterns fastened to tho branches foreshadows a garden festival, while 11 four-horse mail corcIi announces an excursion.

Invitation cards to picnics are decorated with an empty dinner basket. Dinner lottery cards, quite a new wrinkle, are plain pieces of ordinary cardboard, with the names of the guests inscribed in ink, rolled up and fast ened hyo small rubber band. Just before dinner is announced, two servants make the round among the invited people, each carrying a silver tray with the "lots," that is. the cards already mentioned. One tray contains all the gentlemen's, the other all tho ladies' names, and the guests select their partners at table by drawing the cards of the opposite sex.

Attempts to find suitable substitute for cardboard have been numerous, but none of these efforts has been crowned with lasting success. Sometime njio it was pronounced the fashionable thing to carry sheet-iron cards, which are so thin that forty of them placed one upon another make a package one millimeter in height. The letters are stamped in and enameled. The effect is charming, but still it did not take. This season it was expected that aluminum cards wo'ild be in-troduced, but either the mechanical questions were not solved in good sen son or our station- 1 ers are waiting for butter times.

They stick to pasteboard, at any rate. As the illustration, which, by the way, contains only tho latest cards of the personages whose names are inscribed thereon, shows, all styles of lettering and sizes are the fashion this year, among Toyalty at least. The French bourgeois society has settled npon a card four and a half centimetres long and two and a half broad, for 1895 Only when both the names of monsieur and ma da rue decorate a pasteboard it may be of more pretentious dimensions. The visiting caTd of toe Emperor of Austria, which I am not at liberty to reproduce, is eight centimetres long and five centimetres broad, and is made of dull-white stiff card hoard. The inscription reads ''Framois Joseph Emppreur d'Autricbe.

Eoide Hon-grie." and is in the very worst of taste, according to English nottons, which strictly prohibit tho uso of the Christian name in connection with one's title. It may, perhaps, seem absurd for British society toset up these arbitrary rules, but when it is taken into consideration that the English havo some sort of visiting1 card lor nearly two hundred years, tbe rase assumes a different aspect. Tbe early English curds were used exclusively by tho great statesmen and pesrs as a means of notifying people of lesser quality that their visit would be acceptable. To this end the party issuing the invitation wrote his name on the top of a card and that of tbe party he desired to sen at the bottom. The caller, to announce his nresenco to tho great lord, sent in his name by handing the loot-man the card of invitation he had received.

Card writing continued in England until the coup d'etat in Paris brought about a revolution in the matter of visiting cards generally, as al'ove described. Tho earliest means of notifying a person of an unsuccessful visit paid to him was to write one's name with chalk on tbe door. This fasbion prevailed in England, as well as in other civilized coun tries, until longafter the first Napoleonic era. In the houses of the great lords a visitor's book was kept, where callers registered their names if their host was not in," but as as in those good old times chirograph? was not a gentleman's necessary accomplishment tbo thing had its disadvantages. Finally some smart old Squire conceived the idea of having his name inscribed on small sheets or paper by his clerk and leaving them at tho door of ously come to bo regarded as a means of tell ing the fate of tho soul just set free.

If the suit melts, the soul will go to hell if it remains dry, to heaven. Kut it does not depart at the moment of death. It lingers about the body until interment, riding the coffin to the grave, and afterwards biding behind the door for three davs. If a coffin is carried into a house foot foremost it must be carried out in the same manner. To reverse it on going out would be exceedingly unlucky.

Every water vessel in tbe bouse should be emptied altera funeral to prevent the dead person's spirit from lurking abont the premises. Middle-aged persons can remember when it was a common practice to move the clock and the hee-bives when any member of a household died, but this relic of the ancient custom of "telling the bees" is now quite extinct. Most of tbe negroes live in constant dread of spirits or "evils." as these supernatural beings are usually known. They hesitate before passing at night a house where a very old or a very wicked parson has died, and a house in which a conjurer or hag has died will sometimes remain tenantless for years unless torn down and rebuilt in another place. ELECTRIC LIGHTING.

The Incandescent Lamp is the Generally Useful One. From tbe Cassier agaijtne. The best, and, in fact, the only really efficient incandescent electric lamp of to-duy is characterized by a continuous glass chamber, from which the air lias been exhausted, and in which is the light-giving carbon filament, supplied with current by platinum wires, scaled in the neck of the glass bulb. This seems a simple enough contrivance, but the preparation of the materials and the putting them together involve the greatest care, and the present high state of the art has been attained only after many years of ceaseless labor and patient effort. The carbon filament has probably caused more work and worry than ail tbe rest of the lamp put together.

It is tbe essential part. Until lately the raw material for its preparation was bamboo, which was cut into thin Mrins and car bonized, but now some artificial compound of carbon is U8ed, the exact nature of which is kept secret. This substance is cut into thin strips, and carbonized by heating in a suitable furnace. These carbonized filaments are of various lengths and thicknesses, some having a diameter of only five thousandths of an inch, and arc bent into different shapes, the one most favored at present beintr the sniral. At the largest lamp works in the United States all the sixteen candle-power high voltage lamps the most common size there are now made witli spiral lUamiMita, as well as nil Inmps above sixteen candle-power.

The more laminar norse-snoe aim nuirpin nianienw, however, still have a pluce in the art, particularly in fhe smaller-sized lamps. Sixteen, twenty. twenty-four aud thirty-two candle-power fifty-volt lamps are still made in plain loojw, and probably always will be. A Great Idea. From tbe Cincinnati Tribune.

"I got a bill that will fetch 'em," said the legislator from Plunkville, in a confidential whisper. Tell us about it," asked the reporter. I'll never give it away." It's jist this: I'm goin' to make it a felony to sell cockroaches in mince pies. One of them pure food bills, you know. Why, they ain't a restertint keeper in the Htnte that won't give tip from $2 to $5 to have that bill kept from passin'.".