North Carolina Newspapers

Salisonry PUBLISHED ETEJIT THUBtL AT BT , I. J. STEWART, Editor and Proprietor. SALISBURY, N. C. PRICK OF SUBSCRIPTION i ne Year ..$1 50 'ix' Months 1 00 Three Months. . . 50 iSAdvertiaing Rates by Contract. teaonable. .- Entered in the Post-Office at Salisbury s secoad-olass matter. The tendency in pun construction now is for medium bore, greater weight, better, material. here 13 i notable increase in the nuna of distributing centres in the West, the', custom i gaining- ground of ichant3 carrying larger stocks of goods retail r . lirements than, they now This h i healthy sign, declare irden and For r ?3t thinks o highly nLnnel Pane's National movement ood roads as to believe that if there V good road bet.v'ie'n Bo3tn and Vo there would he. thousands' of ,ts who would make the entire jour y bicycle net!; tear, faad of course I would be thoiis-riJs more who i start from interven; ig places. If !te for thw, s J3 the Iloston. Traa-,:the-whcc!mtta at 1 itj oughtto once to agitate L. a road be jNew York tiz$ Pail Uiphia, ?6r ,;n Ke.v Y ;r!: ud JBostca, built in j 1 t i. -red way aad '.kept in ab-, ':r from tnd t cad. J J i cathuiiastic a..l vig that hur.:Mo impleaisnt, tlr; '. t a! . ly . conduc;iv'i to thj ry t u co:id;lr. .i?. '. it may even tr health. 'A, ,e New.York :, a savant' of tl;'; dust of ,010 microbe 3 than dust, , of course,' ' : 1 uierobes air to work :d throats of 1.3 t " f ..i the :U- ' "The I ... :, "should t Ira t j i::ca, r f L cr Jer, and to ., ded the care of removi uch covers the streets." ny has been "formed in ;tht Washington for the pur -ng ths resources of the n'; :a &v Alaska generally. A j tu: out DVtuis comrv . - r Alaska on a steamer which car e framed ';' timbers,' flanking ry, etc., for the contraction of teamboat that U to hi- used for g the Yukon." The. i tpeiition vvjer'a cargo consisted of such . tcrchaudisej as '. is in demand at 9. ' It is proposed to build the stealer at StV.lIicbael's,: on ound, about thirty miles nor'S .ukon, aad when complete 1 f jconstrnctiou will take abo-. iiv Jahe will ste&m. up 'the river to ile Cr.ct, 1S00 miles' distant.' jioiat the explorers -will go into uarters. ITicir plans for nexl tve not been outlined, - A. V. The recent ' TNhave given th u tor inctir Ss men an , sensible ' talc by Jt i-ears od4 ralaiii; d;. ' not .a a period of tWVve 4he past six or ser .eea excctioaally dry; of'lSD) was needed to rage.- . most proY z classes of 'at i v.- i aaaong -!i .l to-day, .-tic a, :-va Tom itcs the Atlauta tJoa!; llann, Beat' Tilletj a-1 Jo'aa Barns. i iBaros'a addresses are t-ricl by a bril , liant audacity and eai; : j i . .r :i, in cluding some most sta ..a ' . loxes. Et ;sman; by its .a ' :.teraa : as aa t snot C ij as oliUcs, -t for les as .illetis 5 power iture of a one oc- Tom, .Maun is a jra:.'. everything with him ij feasibility. With rgar " O "V .-1 ittv Short 'With'. In-' 7'.8,e "Sjcoayyltniea or epiad away, 7 tystnii i0f tne comprehdnsive Pl Som. la . V V" J " -r idei to be worked to war' h .: t - : J : . . . . . . .Wituin the - rcn;,e of ' rt - ..though he ur;;je3 aa e;j , overnment employes a" i ay express 'desire for it. ever the moral and emot" his audieace h wonderfc' ft? Tadd.-" ,jung man. inly ntfs al laboi the class of Ji to the plat-! -ausly svad ; even the " privilege of .va ilr. Tillet There- maaual form, and l reverently shaking hv: uest was' granted, and he went away rejoicing. ' Hew York has fewer alleys and Boston bore in proportion to population than, ny other large city in the world. The proposal to sell eggs by weight bstead of 'by count, as has been the practice heretofore, is finding great favor in the South, and especially in St. Oouis, Io. ", , . A Sumatra newspaper tells of experi aaent: made there but month Jto test the ralue of a local petroleum a? compared with American and Russian oils, and says the experiment "proved conclusively that it 19 superior in brillancy, in permanence and in absence of smoke, color and smell to either American or Russian oil." With the cost of freight deducted it is said that this Sumatra oil promises to be a formidable competitor with the Ameri-j can products in Japan, China and the far eastern markets generally. Dr. Arthur MacDonald, specialist in education as related to criminal and ab normal classes. United States Bureau of education, W-nhingtoa, D. C, has been attainted official representative of tha United Stiite3 to attecd the international congress for experiaeatal psychology at London, and also the international cob zress upon criminology at Brussels. -Dr. ilacDooald, after risking tliese c a gresscs, will visit and study a lew of the priiicijial prisrms and c'.i:iritable institu tions in Holland, Fr;:uce, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria aad Italy. Some i'lea (A the growth of tiie coun try may be gained incid jntatly fro.n a study of the census bulletin on the op eration of telephone companies. It ap pears that the total investment. in fcater I rises of this kind increased from $14, J03,787 in ISS'J to 72,311,73 in 139 J. The number of subscribers in 1S30 was 1S,U and in 1S0J there were 227,357,. wwile the number of conversations over the wires in the latter yeir was 453, 200,000. In 18S0 the mileage of wire was -34,305, in 1890 it had increased to 210,412 miles. There were 467,35o telephones and transmitters in use la 1S90, or more than double the number in 1880. A recjrd of this kind shows a development which cannot be matched by any other country uu the slobe. The New York Sun furnishes some in teresting facts about steamers and their owners.; The line having the greatest number of. BteaWrs is said to .be 'the BntUb!-ljiian Steam Navigation Com p;m, which runiOO vess'els ; the North Gerniaa jpioyds ind the Autv-ian L'.oyds rua each sevenfty-Sve f vess'els. The Frenclf 1 3Iesiageries' Maritrae3, runs sixty-ft ve steamersand the British line, Peninsula and Oriental Steamship Com pany runs fifty steamers. Ndne of the big Jliues shows its size by the rumber of "fimers running irom iiiis country. Tb1 largest steamer in us isUhe Furst lUmarck of the Ham1 -American nnfc; its tonnage is 12,0C j, but it is sur passed in length by sevc , vessels. The I utomc and the Ma tie are 5S2 feel l-.ig, and the latter hi a tonnage of making it the.econd largest ves- se afloat. The bicyclers," muses Once-A -Week, ontinue to be the' most eff ective ad vo- aies of ' the , iiuprovcment of roads th-oughout the . United States, and it sKiows how startlinorlv srreat the need or improvement is. The several great rides which have leen made during the piast, few weeks Lrfe shown that even in ta.e older and mo thickly -settled States it is almost lmpos iblc for men, carrying little more than their own weight, to get through; during j ; wet season, the be3t rpadjAthat can 1 '.w selected for them. The most forcible papers that have been written on the su ject are from the pens of practical 'cy lists, and in each of these are fit ate r nts which cannot be and nearly all ans for road im- wheemen.v Bicycling has heretofore been regarded only as an amusement, but now it deems probable that the wheelmen will be if more use to the farming comm inity, which sutlers most from bad road?, than all legislators, su pervisors and town ; committees com bined." Desertions from the navy at Boston recently have aroused discussion on the subject of the standing of Jack aboard ship, and the rigid discipline under vwhich he lives. Is it so severe as to en- gender an aversion to the service amonz the men? A ''Coal Heaver. United States Steamer Concord," writes a bitter letter of complaint to the Boston Herald. His style is not grammatical, but it i evidently that of a man laboring under a sense of injury. He says in part: '-In joining the service you do such as a vol unteer, believing that you ought to be treated as sucb, but the very reverse is the case. You are not forty-eight hours on aa active ship, in my estima tion, until you get to be a serf at least to ibout two-thirds of the officers that 1 have had any acquaintance of. Here is the principal grievances of blue jackets. Stoppage of money. No liberty. And last and worst the unbearable contempt which some officers hold to blue jack ets." The writer asserts that during a year of service as a 4'Srst-class man,' he has had but one liberty," and that was in a foreign port. When we do go ashore, very likely once in every three months," he says, "we do appear more like caged animals let loose than like civilized free men from our long impris onment aboard.' YESTERDAY. There wera blossoming roses and cloudless skies. The freshness an! fragrance of, summer Love unspoken in tender eyes. Tears and parting and bitter pain. There were frost and tempest and flying mist,' Shorn fields buried beneath the snow, Lips in longing and anguish kissed, A dream the sweetest that life may know. To-day what matters the dull to-day, Morning or noon or its eventide Through the hours in their passing the heart al way Shall cherish ojply what F&te denied. ilary L Kront, in Home Maker. SEVERN'S TEMPTATION. RTHUR SEVERN raised his head from the book which he had been poring over the greater part of the afternoon and gazed espondently at the dingy walls of the room. Finally he rose, and going to the win dow peered out through the cracked and grimy panes of glass, now streaked with rain, which was driving violently from the east. From early morning the rain had been falling incessantly, and as darkness be gan to close around the village the wind blew more violently than ever and the rain fell in heavier torrents. A large brown patch appeared on the ceiling above and the water began to drip down and form little puddles on the uncarpeted floor. It was a melancholy day, and Severn felt that it accorded well with his own evil fortune. He occupied the only habitable room in a large, old, tumble down house that stood oSon one side of the village near the river and had been falling to decay for years. Severn was striving to make his way through colleger and when the landlord's agent suggested his taking a room in the "old Holloway House"' at a much lower figure than he could obtain lodging for elsewfiere, he felt constrained on account of his poverty to accept the offer. His parents were poor, and, moreover, averse tq his taking a college course, so that he was unable to receive any aid from them. For some time past he had found himself inextricably involved in financial embar rassment, and he had often been on the point of giving up the whole thing, but the letters which came from Mary Eld ridge, full of encouragement and loving sympathy, always induced him to take a brighter vie w of the circimstances. He had met Mary at the academy at Melville and a mutual admiration for each other's scholarly attainments had been the first step in the formation of a friendship that ripened into love. Mary had gone to Wellesley to complete her education and Severn was in his soph more year in college. Miss Eldridj-e came of wealthy parents and had always been surrounded with the comforts of a well ordered home. Severn knew that her unselfish disposition would exert no conditions to their engagement, but he was fully determined never to let her share his lot until he had completed his education "and secured a competent in come. During the last year a series of mis fortunes had overtaken him. A friend, to whom he had loaned the money with which he expected to meet the bulk of his expenses, suddenly died, leaving the debts wholly unliquidated. Severn him self had undergone a severe illness dur ing the fall, and to satisfy his numerous obligations he secured a few hundred dollars from Mr. Holloway, who was always ready to make loans at usurious interest but remorseless in exacting his claims. Finally he began to receive let ters from home urging him to return to the farm. . "Unless he could give some aid they would lose the old place," his mother wrote. If duty called him home he would go, but he felt that if he did his prospects were gone. An idea struck him. If he could induce Mr. Holloway to give him time on his loan and trust him for his reut until he could get to earning some thing, he would send . the money home which he had been accumulating for the payment of the debt. He went to see Mr. Holloway, but the response was so chilly that he felt almost guilty of some heinous crime. 4,It is not business," said Mr. Hol loway, "not business. Would like to oblige you, but must have some method." A dunning letter from the agent, fol lowing conspicuously close upon his visit to Mr. Holloway, tilled his soul with bit terness. "The way out of his difficulties seemed as dark as the day on which we find him brooding over his evil fortune in the "old Holloway house." The water fell in torrents and the river in the rear' was so .swollen by the' rain that it had overflowed its banks and was washing the foundation stones of the shaky old structure. The room was chilly and wet, but he built no fire, aud though darkness came on early he hardly observed the change, but sat pondering over the hope less outlook without even the ghostly light from the seams in the rickety stove to reveal the outlines of the room. The wind continued to rise and the rain to fall faster, until the old shell quivered and quaked, but Severn paid no atten tion, ills soul was shaken by storm also. There was as much darkness within as without. He knew his own disposition too well to attempt to study until he could quiet his nerves, so he sat in the darkness until long after midnight listen ing to the howling wind and the roar of the swollen river. Suddenly there came a crash; there was a heavy fall of plastering, and for a minute Severn thought that the old house was about to give way. To have its walls fall upon him he knew would almost certain death, but with a thrill cf melancholy pleasure he hoped for a mo ment that it might happen. The old building creaked and strained, bat there came a lull in the storm, and it finally settled back to its normal condition. Severn lighted the lamp to see if Lis books had been damaged and to investi gate, the injury to the room. A large patch of plastering had fallen from the wall and lay scattered over the floor. After the iuvestigation he felt calmer and went to bed lor the night. The next morning, contrary to his usual neatness, he left the broom in its corner and the room continued to present a very dilapidated appearance. . In the afternoon after returning from class he seated himself in his chair and gazed listlessly at the heap of rubbish on the floor. Stooping forward he took up a bit of broken plastering and slowly picked it to pieces, thinking of Mary and wonderiag if the days would ever brighten. He had been pursuing "this aimless oc cupation for some time, when suddenly he observed that the face of the piece which he held in bis hand was less dis colored than that which surrounded the edge of the broken patch. He drew his chair closer to the wall, and in examin ing found that a hole had once been made through the lathing about a foot square. The pieces bad afterward been spliced and a new coat of plastering overlaid. His cariosity was now exited to kaow the object of the opening, and so he brought a hammer from a chest and proceeded to draw the nails. After removing the pieces he reached in and began to explore. There was nothing to be found, however, so he washed his hands and began to clear away the deb ris. As he was about to replaee the pieces of lath he thought he saw a string hang ing down into the cavity. He reached his hand again into the opening, took hold of the filament and pulled, but it promptly broke. He examined the fibers and discovered that it was an old piece of silk cord, now extremely rotten and discolored. He became more curious and resolved to trace the mystery to its source. He reached his hand into the cavity as far as he could, following the cord. Again he pulled, and this, time it resisted and he felt something at the other end move slightly. He gave a stronger pull, but the cord broke, this time at its point of attachment. He impovished a hook by driving a nail in the end of -i piece of board, and with this succeeded in drawing some thing toward him. Finally he was able to reach the object. He drew it in front of the opening, and with both hands lifted an old mahogany box out upon the floor. For some time he sat staring at it in curious suspense. "Well, you are a queer fish in queer waters," said Severn to himself with sur pressed excitement. "I guess you mu3t have lost your bearings or you would never have been swallowed by this shark of a wall. I'll find out what's in side of you at any rate." and taking up a hammer he struck the old lock a heavy blow. ne struck it again and again, but llually it broke and the lid flew open. Severn drew back in astonishment and wonder, for his eyes rested upon a large leathern bag and beside it were two bars of gold. With trembling hands he loos ened the strings of the sack and opened it, to find it full of gold coins. There were several compartments in the chest. In one he found a sparkling row of ring! and as he held them up to the light he sa? by their brilliancy tliat they were dia monds of rare value. He found some papers that purported possesion of s laige amount of English property in on Cyrus Holloway, great-grandfather ol his present landlord. There was an in ventory of the contents of the box and the amount counted up into the hun dreds of thousands. He was overwhelmed by the discovery and sat down to collect his thought. He remembered now of having once heard that Mr. Holloway had come of wealthy ancestry, but that during the revolutionary war the largest part of the property had been lost, and that the fortune of the present Mr. Holloway was mostly of his own acquisition. There could be no doubt that the box belonged by right to his landlord, but the tempta tion was terrible. There wa3 no chance of discovery if he kept it himself, and besides it could add no material happi ness to the legitimate owner, for he al ready had a sufficiency. To Severn it represented all the com forts of life. He could pay all his de bt3. free hia lather's farm from the mortgage, complete his education and after wardi provide a home for Mary. The perspiration stood in beads on his forehead as he struggled against the tempter. Finally ho arose and with com pressed lips donned his hat, and locking the door behind him he turned his steps toward Mr. Holloway's. "Of course it's mine, every cent of it," said Mr. Holloway, when an hour later he stood before the opened box. His eyes gleamed with satisfaction as he beheld the contents. He tucked the box under his coat and left the house, with an admonition to Severn to keep quiet for a lew weeks. Seven felt intensely relieved. "I have been saved from a worse fate than pov erty," he thought, as he sat down to hii books. That evening Mr. Holloway's agent called to announce that Severn would be allowed time on his loan, and that he might have a much better room in one of his new houses, with unlimited time for the payment of rent. Severn was overjoyed; he sent the money to his mother, moved into his new quarters and afterward, by mys terious good luck, secured lucrative work, by means ot which he completed his course in college very comfortably. On the day of graduation Mr. Holloway met him at the door of the church, and, after grunting a congratulation, invited him to call the next moraing at his of fice. , At the appointed time he was on hand. "I need an honest man to attend to my business, and if you wish to take the position I offer you will be able to pay what you owe me," said Mr. Holloway. A year later Severn went away for a few weeks, and- when he returned 31ary came with hira Mr. Holloway proved a good friend in his way, and when he died a goodly share of the proceeds ol the old chest passed as a legacy to Mr. Arthur Severn. Chicago News. A Strange Story or a Wound. 'The war was responsible for many queer things," said Dr. Eugene Hard castle, a St, Paul surgeon, now at the Southern. 4lUp in Northern Minnesota lives a man who entered the service in 1SS1. He was a very dull fellow, almost a fool. During one of the sortie; made by the Confederates at Donelson he re ceived a buckshot in the head. Thi surgeon could not find it and the wound healed. He returned to duty one of th brightest mec in his company, and is time became second lieutenant. At thi close of the war he returned home, mar ried a superior women, prospered is business and was elected Sheriif in his county. Three years ago his head began to give him a great deal of trouble. He came to St. Pa&land I located the buck shot and removed it. He Is now at healthy as ever, but is the same stupid dolt that he was before the fight at Fori ! Doaelsoa." -St. Louis Globe-Democrat. CUEIOUS FACTS. A pig that climbi trees is the latest story from Australia A railway in the Argentine Republic has one stretch of 211 miles without a curve or bridge. - In China they tie a red cord around a baby's wrist, so that it may grow up quiet and obedient. W. C. Scupham, a Philadelphia drugcist, has two boys born on succeed ing Fourths of July. A resident of Manchester, England, has a Bible 200 years old, which is two feet long and about the same in width. The corn cob pipe which the manu factory at Washington, Missouri, sends all over the world is called the ''Missouri meerschaum." Jewelers are coining money out of a recent fad of the fashionables by reduc ing photographs and copying them on watch crystals. On a small twig recently broken from an apple tree near Gainesville, Ga., there were twenty-six apples the size of a large hickory nut. A Chinese father is allowed to kill a child for disobedience, and he often does so, and no law ever convicts him, while custom honors him. A camellia tree near Dresden,1 Ger many, has an annual average of 40,000 blossoms. It is about fifty feet tall and was brought from Japan about 150 years ago ' " ' The largest bell in the world, the famous "Giant oi Giants" at Moscow Russia, has a circumference of sixty eight feet, is twenty-one leet high and weighs 443,772 pounds. A match-cutting machine is an auto matic curiosity. It cuts 10,000,000 sticks a day, and then arranges them over a vat, where the heads are put oa at a surprising rate of speed. Marshall P. Wilder, v the humorist, says that one of the strangest experiences of his entertainment business ia Ceghnd is the custom prevailing among r asers of paying him in advance. White tar is one of the latest inven tions or discoveries. . It wi!l net be come soft under the sun's rays ia & ay climate, and is expectel to be u:ei largely in caulking the deck seams cf line yachts. Some ordinary house Ci:3 whlca Ltd. been imprisoned in the sh ift of a n;i :3 at Bangor, CaL, for a L" ; j cr'o i by the closing of a light well were found", when the shaft was reopened, to hare turned to a clear white. A bicycle relay run , between ' I apolis, Ind., and Coiu.:.'us, C a distance of a little less tb ia 200 i.,:s, was made at an average t cl frora stirt to finish of a mile in thTej minutes 27 seconds, or 17.35 miles .: Lour. A shad twenty-six inc'... ' long, three and a half inches thick and weighing nine pounds three and a half ounces was caught in the Hudson River recently at Esopus,'N. Y. It'is cpasiderci to be the largest shad ever taken from the river. ; , About 18S7 a horseshoe was : fouad under the ice of the glacier Theodul, in Switzerland, which le geologists to tho idea that this pass, U322 metres high, was formerly not embedded in ice. Till has been further confirmed by a ree'er find of coins bearing the likenesses Xi Augustus and Diocletian. ' r . The Sand Blast., By use of the "sadd blast? tr . : - -and etching on glass is a matter of o:i?y performance. The mode cooperation is as follows: The vessel or plate of glass is covered with wax, and through this designs are cut down to '.the surf.ice, which is left exposed to a stream of line sand thrown from the blast." Th( friction soon wears away the Lard glass surface, but does not aCect the wax protection in the least. When th lace work, flowers, leaves or whatever the design may be ha been finished, the wax is removed from the polished parts and the aiticle is ready for use. 'V''' Formerly the v fumes of hydrofluoic acid was used for tracing designs on glass and other hard substances, but ow ing to the unevenness of the result, and the uncertainty as to when the exposure had reached the proper point, that method has been all but entirely super seded by the "sand blast." The idea of cutting designs on glass by forcing sand against the surface of plates and vessels of that material was first suggested by one of nature's freaks,5 just as hundreds of, , other invention? have been. An observing youug man who was summering on the coast of New England noticed, that the' windstorms in that secticn frequently gathered up large loads of sand and hurled it with much force against! exposed Window? frame?, and that these, within a' very short time, were worn through and had to , be - re placed. In places where they were pro. tectedi by leaves, vines, mosquito netting, etc., the glistening surface was left in tact. He set about utilizing old'nature hint at once, the result being a machine which does work that cannot even be imitated in any other way. St. Louis Republic. i ' ' Detectia? Light Coius Electrically There is not a little spice of humor in the way in which both sharpers and those whose business it is to circumvent them have recourse tj electrical methods for the attaining of their ends. A large consignment in gold eagles was sent to a New York b3ak from California, which on examination was found to contain twenty liaht-weight coins, bearing the date of 1S91. These were apparently new and bright, but'tbey were rejected on "being pased into the electric light coin detector. On being examined with a lens their surface were found "to. be covered with infinitesimal pores. About 5fl worth of gold had been extracted lrom each eae by efectro'.ysis, which h a process now in hig favor among pro fessional coin "s wearers," of whom tho American Chinaman haSL the reputation of being by far tue most .adroit and d'U gent. In the coia deieefor the coins are pushed iq, sacctssioa frm' the balance pan on to a knife edge, and accorJia a 'this, knife edge is at :he right hand limit of its raasre or tne left t hand limit the it, MtJtff to the he ",'uir weitrht" coin, when pushed on dignt channel or tee channel, as the case may be. The right or left position of this shifting knife cdi;e is determined by an electric contact made by the balance beam, and thus aa electro magnet is brought into action. The coins run through tfce machine at the rate of about sixty per fivinute by the turning of a handle. Xstf York Com mercial Advertiier IN FLOOD LANDS; WHERE A DELUGE IS A YEARLY OCCURRENCE. Most Severe in the Amazon Val leyAn Immense' Territory Inun dated Yearly A Paradise ot " Swamp-Loving Brutes. OLD California!) writes Dr. Felix H. Oswald, in the San Francisco Chronicle, still re member the flood of 1S62, when forty inches of rain fell in San Francisco in less than three months and the shower in the uplands never ceased. No tide could prevail against the deluge of fluid mud that poured through the Golden Gate. The entire Sacramento basin, from the State capital to the head of Suisun Bay, was turned into a continu ous lake, and the settlers of the inunda ted districts must have pitied the low land regions of the Mississippi valley, where such floods occur every three or four years. But the worst inundations of Louisiana and Eastern Arkansas are mere spring freshets compared with the monster floods that visit the Amazon valley every year with a regularity equaled only by astronomical events and tax collections. The rainfall of Northern Brazil is about three times that of the webfootiest coun ties of Oregon, and in midsummer the thunder showers that drench the woods every afternoon resemble a daily cloud burst. On the Northern Pacidc no other word would be applied to an atmos pheric waterfall, darkening the air like a London winter fog for hours together, aad swamping a house, if the roof should leaky; through an aperture of a few square inches. : - Rains of that sort are apt to occur day after day for a series of weeks, and their e;Icct on the lowlands can be only- im perfectly indicated by the fact that the Amazon River drains an area of more than two million square miie3. The Tlississippi, too, drains half the eastern slope of a country larger than Brazil, but it3 largest affluents are dwarfed by the third-class tributaries of the South Amer ican father of waters. , Not such flowing lakes only as the" Rio Negro and the Madera, but the Purus, the Yavari, the Q irua, the Hingo, the Papajos and doz ea3 of other streams rarely mentioned on this side of the isthmus enter the main river through a delta miles in width and deep enough for the largest river steam ers of the St. Lawrence. About the middle of summer these streams begin to rise; those irora the southwest first, those from the northwest f -1 north a few weeks later, and a fort EiLt after the arrival of the second ' supplement the valley of the Maranon, tvi " wild hog river," as the early colo nists called the Amazon, becomes a para 01:3 cf swamp-loving brutes. The tapis, tL.3 peccari, the fish otter celebrate the p'c-ij season of their summer life, and Lcrd3 of wild deer begin thetr westward exodus. Near Monte Beira, in the prov ince (now. ".State") of Matto Grosso, the W00J3 iu midsummer get full of - game, as a Lundrsd years ago the foothills of the southern Alleghanies swarmed with will pigeons when the forests of the - rtli were buried in snow. A more than usually sudden rise of l'. 2 flood cuts off many of those fugi tives, who are thus reduced to the alter ' tive of making for the highest accessi L '.3 ground, further east, till every knoll tr comes a hill of refuge, crowded with i' .id brutes whose survival depends on t '- chance of escape from the giant c and boas who may approach their .stronghold by swimming, if the water should have submerged too large a por tion of the once continuous forest. ; About two months after the beginning of the rainy season the deluge of the low lands reaches its maximum. Thousands of square miles are submerged so effectu ally that canoes can be paddled through forests apparently free from underbrush, since only the taller trees with their net work of climbing vines rise like islands above the surging waters. The swollen rivers have found new currents, and broad gurgling streams twist and eddy through the leafy wilderness, tearing off whole groups of trees with all their roots, but making amends by depositing hil locks of driftwood, which soon get cov ered with fruits of new vegetation. The presence of the surging flood against these mounds of alluvium soon becomes enormous, but the deep rooted stems of the Adansonia and the Canoho tree may resist till new deposits of drift wood consolidate a number of mounds, thus forming good sized islands, with a down stream base of perhaps half a mile, but a narrow head deflecting the current left and right, like! the wedge-shaped front of a stout bridge pier. At the time of their incipience these new islands may be tenanted only by river lizirds, but necessity is the mother of successful ex ploration, as well as of invention, and a week after its birth the driftwood hill swarms with animal refugees, hogs, deer and capylaris jostling each other in their struggles for a desirable basis of opera tions, thus often getting noisy enougn to attract the attention of prowling carni vora. . .-. In Defenes of Snakes. If insectivorous birds are deitroyed, vegetation will be overrun with insects. If the snakes are destroyed, the smaller mammals will increase indefinitely. A good deal of pains is taken to protect birds in some of the States, but none whatever to protect the harmless tnikei. These animals are the natural destroyers of the rodent, moles, etc., which are so destructive, and they inflict absolutely bo injury. Yet one can hardly open a newspaper without reading of some men or boys who have found a den of snakes, and have as a matter ot course destroyed every one of toem. This is not only a crime, but a blunder, and the grade of a man's intelligence u low who allows him self to commit it. American Naturalist. Evolution of a Letter. The small letter "P was formerly writ ten) without the dot over it. The doiv was introduced ia the fourteenth cen tury to distinguish i" from e" in nasty and indistinct writing. The letter i" was also originally roci where the is now employed; the distinction between the two having been intro duced by the Dutch writers ia compara tively modern times. The "j? . wa originally dotted, because the fi from ; which it is derive J. was written with a dot over it. New York JournaLr Hard wood in Wisconsin is being rapidly cut up to be made into chj.rc.ul for the iron furnxess ia that Suit. PARADISI OLOHIA. There Is a city bnilded by no band And unapproachable by sea or shore And unassailable by any band Of storming soldiery -forevermore. There we so longer shall divide our time By acts or pleasures doing petty thins Of work or warfare, merchandise or rhyme But we shall sit beside the silver spring That flow from God's own footstool and be hold " Sages and martyrs, ani those blessed few Who loved us once and were beloved of old. To dwell with them and walk wtth them anew. In alternations of sublime reposi? Musical motion the perpetual play Of every faculty that heaven bestows Through the bright, busy and eternal day. -Thomas William Parsons. PITH ANIH'OIXT. The buoy is father of the seamvi. Little he rex The Eing of Spain. An old fashioned chest protector A padlock. New York Observer. You can't dire neuralgia by avin in your face with a sledge hammer.. Life. 'Well, good-by,' said the lunatic. a he started for the asylum "I'm oil." Puck. To be slow to anger is better thin to own the best kind of a seveu suojier; Itam'i Horn. i. loved a pirl of Juno-ort, But ill lticit did my tuit tnll. E ter pave lovd a jrrl that' mi rt Ami nivir tj hv IjVjJ n til . Julge. She 4Wby do you call me your pastry!' " He 4 'Because vo i're a littlo tart occasionally." Ne .v York Jouc nal. The mean man like? the nnr.zine that tells women how to ilrevi on nothing a year aud look. well. Pica yuue. There is always room at the top: but the average traveler prefer h lower berth on a sleeping-car. New Orleaas Pica yune. . It is-supposed that Americans, sro ahead qualities are due Ur tin; fact tint they have so much push while they are babies. -Texas Siftiug. She may have little of this world" pelf, But lifa still plai!iur brinH. And that'swhen sh ha a dy to herself To go oat pricing thin New York Press. "Is that a good dog?'' "I used to think so, but I have my doubt now." "Why?" "I've had him a month and nobody has tried to steal him." Wash ington Star. Learned men tell us that in Latin the word eiitor means 'to cat." In th United 'States it means to scratch around like blazes to get somcthiug to eat. Texas Sif tings. loung AUtnoress (reauing minuscript aloud) "But perhaps I weary you?' Enthusiastic Friend "Oh, no; I long to hear the end of your story." Kate Field s Washington. 4No," said Mrs. de Porque, 4,we don't mind expense when it comes to our library. Some of the books, I ant informed, are printed from diamond type." Washington Star. Now doth the giddy little fly Begin toleara to sat?, , And finds his choicest rink upon A glassy, glabrous pate. l'uck. Belle ,4 When did you first nuspect his inconstancy?"- Blanche "When 1 received his first letter." Belle "Why, was it cold?" Blanche 44 Nor it was type written." Texas Siftings. Doctor ,4The trouble with you is that you are suffering from impovished blood." Patient "I should think it would be impovished. It has already been examined by ten doctors." Detroit Free Press. ' While punching for swimming trips It wouldn't be surprising If father envied just a bit The boy that he's chastising. Washington Star. Bonis Young Ardup dosen't seem tc have any bad habits. That, at least, re dounds to his everlasting credit." ,Mr. Howell (of the firm of Gettup & Howell) "Not at this store. Thirty days is the limit with us." Chicago Tribune. What do you know of the character of this man!" was aked of a witness at a police court the other day. What do I know of his character? I know it to bo unreachable, your honor," he replied with much emphasis. New York Ob server. "That was a great eulogy of the mar riage institution that Hinckley made ia his after-dinner speech last evening, wasn't it!" "Yes, what a lovely domes tic life he must have." "Not much. Hinkley's a sworn bachelor." Chicago News-Record. Jessie "If that bull should attack us what could you do!" Tom "I could reach that fence in less than two sec onds." Jessie 4 4 Yes, but what could I do!" Tom 4Your parasol would keep his attention until I was safely over."- Texas Siftings. A father was very much annoyed by the foolish questions of his little son. 4Johnny, you are a great tource of annoyance to me." " What's the matter, pa?" 44 You ask me so many foolish questions. I wasn't a big donkey when I was pf jour age." 'No, pa, but you've grown; a heap since." Texas Siftings. You are going to build a house, are you?"?; What style!'' "I have not thought of aoy particnlar style yet, but I was counting up the number of my friends to-day and I find I have twenty nine. At soon as my intention to build s house becomes "known I shall hv twenty-nine different style frm which to choose." New York Presi. The Clematis. . The clematis was brought to E ig'and ia 1569 under Elizabeth, and the com mon name, Virgin's Bower, my liave been given in compliment to the virgia queen. The general popularity of the ciematis as a garden pliat hn bai th? growth of rather receat yean, however, and has been partly the risult of great activity amon the English and French hrbridzers, who, in a perioi of about ten years say from 1S51 to 1S71 -converted the flower from an ordinary, though graceful and charming climber, into one ot the most gorgeous ornaments of the garden. Numberless fine varie ties were brought out, following each other at time w;th jrreat rapidity, and some superb kinds like the no famous ackmanni, the gem, Otto Froebef, Henryi and others were developed, which have become known the. world orer. Boston Tranicript.