STRANGE FREAK Or NATURE Hofl a Caterpillar's Body Becomes the ; the llopt of a Bulrush From some of the newer countries, so-called on account of the lack oi definite knowledge regarding them, reports of strange freaks and curiosi ties constantly appear, and, as a rule, they are laughed at, hut once in a while they 'turn out to be the truth. It is this way with the strange freak of nature called the bulrush cater pillar, which is indigenous to Now Zealand. This report, which stated that, al certain seasons a large black caterpillar ' would bury itself in the" ground, and be converted into 'the. root of a bulrush,! war-. "laughed at, like the rest, but now- ;ni English scientist,, who . recently gavo ah . exhaustive in vestigation .of the strange phenotnKcn, "st:it."d that 'in many rejects' the state-. nu::t:; a re-, stricter.' true. I'-rom this re port it lias been learned - that the cater pillar grows jto about tli;ve and one half." inches lung and when ' about . to assume -the chrysalis state buries ft self in the ground, and. in doing so it is 1'reor.ently infected by the snored of some fungus,' which becomes involved in the scales in-its neck. These the larvae is unable to expel, and the vege tation thus . set up rapidly ".exten 13 throughout the entire body, reilaei": 'i-i.eh animal cell thus destroyed by vegetable matter, and finally convert ing it into a comparatively dense vege table struct lire, .which: retains every detail of the body, even to the " legs, mandibles . and minutest claw. From the neck, the portion- tirst infected, there then shoots up a single stem, which -grows to the height of eight or ten inches, resembling very closely the clubheaded bulrush ia, miniature. It has no leaves, and i- the tirst stein be broken oft' another rises in its place, though two steins never grow simul taneously from the same "caterpillar.". BETTER DAYSi Better to smell the violets cool than to sip the glowing wine. Better to hark a hidden brook than to watch a diamond shine. Bettor the love of " gentle ' hearts than beauty's favors proud; Better the roses' living seed than roses in-a crowdi Better to lofc in loneliness than basic in love all day; Better the feuntain in the heart than the fountain by the way. ! -" ' ' Better Ik? fed by mother's hand than eat alone at will; , ..Better to trust in (-led than fay. My goods my storehouse fill. Better to be a little wise "knowledge to abound; Better to teach a child to dove than fill perfectkn's round. Better sit at a master's feet than thrill a listening state: suspect that thou art proud than be sure that thou art great. WELDON PA 24-th Better i i Better to walk in the realm ..unseen than watch the hour's event; Better the "Well done" at than the air with shouting rent Better to have a quiet prrief than hurrying delight: Better the. twilight 'of the .dawn than the noonday burning bright Better a- death when work is than earth's - most favored birth; Better a child in God's crreat house than a king of all the earth. George Macdonald. INFLUENCE OF THE BIBLE. mtKr.,r.m,-?.'-a- . j UAL i - Mr -r - in' Ti'rrf- . - . . . . . !,) ..). ii ry'TpT-'H than in SI. lf'1ifepvS&-tH2'yA--s-&-v-"tV.,l?r , iiii tivt- J ,,.'?.. Y,..r - tier r-fti E- i?: ,t'',V fv' j ' " "-win-' J-1 Vh i A i-? v -v -'A'i-"-, fv v ' c-t 4 the last I Vii '-,V - - A -r A Queer torj-. The Wetternsee, in Sweden, like sc many other lakes, has long enjoyed the local reputation of being a bottomless pit. The Swedish scientists have now destroyed the venerable legend, for in the measurements taken a few days ago they have successfully demon strated that the greatest depth of the lake is onljj- 119 meters. There stil re mains, however, a series of mysteries which science must be content to leave unsolved at least, for a time. It is not only a legendary belief, but there is a quasi-scientific ground for the queer supposition that living creatures, animal and vegetable, can and do make Sins.1 Passusres That Have Transformed Men's Ililves artl Nde History. As Geikie wisely observes, the story of separate chapters of the Bible, or even verses, if it could be known, would be a record of surpassing inter est. In the experience of everyone some texts shine like stars, as we think of personal trials they brightened, or death-beds of friends they -cheered. Every religious life borrows thus its own secret illumination from year to year, its own galaxies and bright par ticular stars, which have soothed dis appointments, tempered calamities, and filled the mind with a calm and steadfast serenity In the darkest mo ments. Human compositions catch its power as they embody its spirit and repeat its words. .Kings and peas ants, philosophers and the illiterate, j A .i i j 1. 1 northern lake of Wetten and the ! by lts wondfous words. It has crea ted the loftiest poetry and the snb limest art the world ever knew .and a literature unique fn its power and dig nity. ; There Is hardly a chapter that has not, perhaps, in some of its verses kin dled sentiments unknown to antiquity. There is a transcendent vigor and life in every page. A single verse made Anthony sell all that he had, and in- South German lake of Constance. This bold conclusion has been partly justified by the appearance of exactly the- same fauna and even the same animal life in the Swedish and the Swabian inland seas. It is even as serted that whenever there is a storm on the Lake of Constance the Lake of Wettern begins sympathetically to roll and swell, an- that the southern lake is similarly moved by any agitation in the distant northern lake. The Kleine ! troduced through his doing so, a new Zeitung soberl declares this sympa- tnetic phenomenon to be a known fact, but considerately adds that we have to wait some time for the rational ex planation of It. A Coininuntiy of Marksmen. The little commune of Attinghausen, in Canton Uri.' has been' made famous throughout the world by the pen of Schiller in his "William Tell. The commune at present has a population of about 500 souls, including the ba bies. Like all its neighbor communes, it holds its yearly "Schutzenfest." It appears from5 the report of the con test in the! Urner Zeitunz mat no fewer than 184 out o- its 500 inhabitants are capable markesrren or markeswomen, for out of the 184 who took part in the contest at the communal butts 43 were women. Not only did some of the women prove to be better shots than their husbands, to the great de light of the sex, but the highest honors of this year's festival were won y fe male hands. Tne Jungfrau Katharina Wirsch, who is only in her fifteenth year, made 50 points at the "Zweck schuss," and so carried off the first prize. She is the daughter of Matthias Wirsch, who, with seven of his sons and three of his daughters, appeared at the Attinghausen schutzenfest, and the whole family were so dexterous with their rifles that they gained nine prizes dtfring the day. THE NEXT ANNUAL FAIR OF THE T A TIT A 17 Tv 0 P- f, V U w V Villi H At U Ul i m n . -y tx I-nti iuf iiii WILL BE WEL OCT: N AiniljU 1 ! TV IT T A T 3 HELD AT DON 31. ov I I, N 9, and BflmBiP 4 w nzi Goes it ao it makes the hair soic ana glossy, , precisely as nature intended. It cleanses the . scalp from dandruff and thu3 removes one of the great causes of baldness. It makes a better circulation in the scalp and stops the hair from coming out. And it re stores color to gray or white hair. $1.00 a bottle Sold by all druggists. i " - . ... ii PrevBfte s$nd it v Gures BsSdstess If yon do not obtain all the benefits Y9 expected from the use of the Vigor, wzlta the Doctor about It. ' Lowell, Mass, era in ecclesiastical history. At-a-sin gle warning of the epistles, Augus tine's hard heart was melted under the fig-tree at Milan. A single chapter of Isaiah made a penitent belieyer of the profligate Rochester. A word to St Paul lias become the stronghold of Luther. . . Cromwell charged at Dunbar, to the cry, "Arise. O God ,and let thine ene mies be scattered r And Anthony drove away his temptations by the same appeal. Thomas Arnold mur mured in dying: "If ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partak ers, then are ye bastards and not sons," and "Blessed are they who have not seen, and yet have believed." Se lina. Countess of Huntingdon, died quoting Christ's words, "I go to my ! Father." Lady Jane Grey wrote in the book of the Lieutenant of the Tower before her execution: "The day of death is better than the day of birth." Latimer, at the stake, roused his soul by the remembrance that "God Is faithful, and will not suffer us to be tempted above what we are able." Luther died crying ' 'Into thy hands I commit my spirit." The Psalter alone, by its manifold applications, and uses in after times Is a vast palimpsest written over and over again, illuminated, illustrated by every conceivable Incident and emo tion of men and of nations :battles, wanderings, escapes, death-beds, ob sequies of many ages and countries, rise, or may rise, to our view, as we read it. What shall we say of a book so many-tongued, so Intensely human, so authoritatively divine"? Let critics and theorists stumble at words or phrases; let some things remain to the end "hard to be understood:" whose voice can it be but God's, which rises still and holy over the turmoil of life, In a thousand persuasions, commands and promises, to warn us of danger, to guide us aright, and to soothe our Infinite cares and sorrows? It is a no ble passage in which Augustine con trasts antiquity and Scripture, and gives his fealty as a Christian man must: "In Cicero and in Plato, and such writers I meet many things fine ly said, .'things' that move the spirit; but in none of them do I find these words: "Come unto me all ye that la bor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.' " Christian Herald. Times Had Improved- Said an exasperated father at the dinner table: "You (ildreji turn up your noses at everything on the table. When I was a boy, I was glad to get enough ary bread to eatT - "I say, pa, you are having a much better time of it now you are living wKh us, ain't ywrJ jarksd little Tommy. f-w-v-'r - Tommy Grandpa, are kings and queens always good? uranopa Not arways, my boy; not when there are acrs oscrt against them. . iwiih m. iii.il I in ,i hi . .. , .. - ..--inL--!giriTHrr!r-gaCTM . BsnmKMiCTteeMaaa Fine Races. Many Attractions S LIBERAL PREMIUMS For particulars and Premium Lists address rj. J. DANIEL, Treasurer. 4 H i A 8oo. T X jsrooKtyn wre.

Page Text

This is the computer-generated OCR text representation of this newspaper page. It may be empty, if no text could be automatically recognized. This data is also available in Plain Text and XML formats.

Return to page view