♦ ♦ ♦ Hi’ • P ♦ topics or ♦ the Times Practical jokes usually come nomt to foost. Men who claim to own the air above their premises will have to fight it out with the comets. The question is how did the Pope discover that Fairbanks had been Vice President of the United States? A southern man wants a divorce because his wife threw a glass of jelly at him. Reports do not say she hit him. “Let children.eat what they want/’ says one of the medical experts. Per­ haps he is interested in the sugar trust. Members of the Black Hand are in the penitentiary, where they belong. They are no better than defaulting bankers. Statements as to the size of King Leopold’s fortune do not agree. But however large it was he didn’t take any of it with him. When Nordica told a Havana audi­ ence that Cuba is God’s country, she probably meant that- it needed more than merely human help. “I crave not gold in yellow heaps," says one of the bards. Perhaps he is too busy yearning for a pound or two of bacon to have time for the lust of gold. ____________ Carrie Nation recently received an offer of marriage, but ex-Queen Lil has not been able to find anyone who seems to wish to talk to her privately in the front parlor. Mrs. Peary has just exchanged two nice Arctic meteorites for $50,000. They leave a vacant place on the par­ lor what-not, but $50,000 will help a lot with the new spring hat to buy. It is reported that a Pennsylvania clergyman has refused to marry a lov­ ing couple because the young man’s income is less than $2,000 a year. Where is the evil of the high cost of living to end? An advance of 20 per cent in the price of Bibles is announced for March 1. There is, however, no threat .of an additional advance of 10 per cent a month after that. Evidently George F. Baer is not behind the Bible busi­ ness. The czar’s brother has caused trou­ ble by marrying a lady who has a string of divorces. His mother refuses to speak to him, and Nicholas is re­ ported to be furious. Well, it was time for a grand duke to do something to dispel the idea that the tribe had gone out of existence. According to statistics there are 40,- 000 more married men in this country than there are married women. But there is no occasion for gossip. The discrepancy is accounted for by the explanation that many married immi­ grants leave their wives at home when they come to this land of the free. One of the* most wholesome effects of the present discussion of the high cost of living will be the consideration of the advantages of economy and the conservation of the family resources. Many American families remain poor because they waste more than would maintain a thrifty French family in comfort. Caught in the swirl of political econ­ omy, brayed between the upper mill­ stone of supply and demand’s nether stone, necessaries have become arro­ gant luxuries and the former luxuries have become specimens to be treas­ ured in museums. We have learned to do without; we have been accumulat­ ing stores of merit by controlling ap­ petite; a moral exercise. There is no class of people so apt to do foolish and imprudent things as the girls who have nothing to occupy their minds. The girl that has to work for a living is really safer than the one who is under no such compul­ sion. Where a girl has no serious in­ terests her future is largely dependent upon the discretion and discernment of her parents or guardians. The Philadelphia girl that ran away with a hotel waiter, according to reports, has , been forgiven. From what is known to the public concerning this case, she should have been. But has she forgiven her guardians? She is not as much to blame as those who neglected to take care of her. If her life had been, normal she would not have been seized by the notions that have drawn a cloud over her. Modern school and college nre is dif­ ferent in many respects from that which the boys of antiquity knew, but in other respects there is a remarkable similarity. A writer who has made a thorough study of the universities of ancient Greece tells us that the “freshy” was put through “stunts” which have changed but little in twen­ ty centuries. He was pulled this way and that by various groups and by the partisans of certain teachers, just as he is now “rushed” by fraternities. The Grecian student decked himself out in crimson, purple and other “loud” hues. He had nicknames for his teachers, in­ dulged in college politics, occasionally precipitated a small riot on the street or in the theater, got wildly excited over athletic contests, and not infre- .quentiy misspent his money. Educar tional methods and standards change, but boys are always boys. In these days of domestic disturb­ ance and discomfiture, when house­ holds bid fair to stand still for lack I of skilful hands to keep them mov ing, and all sorts of schemes for com munal living are offered as a solution. of the problem, one is eager to grasp at the veriest straw of suggestion. Now regulated hours and higher train­ ing, or the united larger family scheme, where each one must bear his individual and accepted burden of daily duties, may go far to relieve the tension of material things,, if not to save intact the threatened home it­ self. But a more direct help in this best of works would be a changing point of view, a shifting of one’s men­ tal values. Fashion, did the capricious lady so incline, might become the tenth muse, the votive goddess of do­ mestic science. Nor would any of her worshipers be the worse, for their de­ votions. It is harder to swing a broom than a golf stick; and how many timid souls would worry their wits and tire their bodies to gain a doubtful eques­ trian control if it were “bad form” to ride horseback? It is not as if lotus­ eating repose, a dolce far niente exist­ ence, were a national ideal; we are strenuous, even in our pastimes. One involuntarily thinks of ’ the Chinese philosopher’s surprise at seeing white men dance, and his question, “Why don’t you let your servants do this for you?” and it becomes a serious temptation to write a companion vol­ ume to “The Pleasures of Imagina­ tion,” and frankly call it “The Imagim ation of Pleasure.” It is entirely in the point of view. After all, these per­ plexing, troublesome domestic duties are the real, the permanent things of life, and the skilful guidance of a household is in itself a wonderful ac­ complishment. If Fashion would but don an apron! “How would you like to take part In a cantata?” * “I’d jump at the chants.”—Louisville Courier-Journal. Artdst—Lt’s a good thing to hunger for fame. Model—Yes, for if you don’t get the fame you’re sure to get the hunger! Bill—Did you ever try my doctor? Jill—Oh, yes; don’t you remember when I was sick for such a long time? —Yonkers Statesman. “Can. you tell me how I can keep a maid?”, “Madame, you are in the wrong place. The embalmer’s is next door.”—Buffalo Express. “I can recommend this horse, sir,” said a dealer, “as a strong, sound ani­ mal.” “It must be,” agreed the cus­ tomer, “to have attained its present age!” “Lottie, what would you do if you work up some night and found a burg­ lar in your room?” “If he was hunt­ ing for money I’d get up and help hin hunt.”—Life. Father—You are marrying my daughter for love, you say? But she get 80,000 marks dowry. Suitor—Weil, that can’t be avoided, can it? —Flie­ gende Blatter. “Impatience,” said Uncle Eben, “is ginerally de feelin’ you has when you wants somebody else to hurry an’ make up foh de time you’s been wastin’.”— Washington Star. Father—What! You want to marry my daughter? Why, sir, you can’t suppoi' her. I can hardly do It my­ self. Suitor (blankly)—C-can’t we chip in together? WOULDN’T BE RECOGNIZED. Gentleman (hiring valet)—Then I understand you to havp some knowl­ “Foreign Types’’ Which Are Utterly edge of barbening. You’ve cut hair, off Unlike the Real Thing. on? Applicant—Off 6ir, but never “One may wander for months and on. — Boston Standard. through the streets of foreign cities Belva Lockwood, achieved fame. But already women lawyers are achieving not only fame, but fees. Last Jun® Miss Mary E. Miller, a Chicago law­ yer and suffragette, won a $30,000 fee on a $3,000,000 lawsuit over the estate of the late William Bross. She has been admitted to the bar only thirteen, years. | In Boston the women have a board of trade of their own. In New York last September the International Fed­ eration of Business Women Was organ­ ized. There is also the Professional Woman’s League and scores of other such organizations. Women are band­ ing themselves in unions. They have invaded all but seven of the many oc­ cupations enumerated in the census reports. And now they are capturing one of man’s choicest strongholds—the posi­ tion of being a self-made American millionaire.—-Bookkeeper. For Chilblains. A cure that is recommended for chil­ blains is to rub the wrists and ankles well to encourage a good circulation, and the chilblains twice or thrice a day with methylated spirits, or if prefer­ red, with mustard liniment or cam­ phorated oil, the last two being quite as good as arid less dangerous than the first, which should never be applied near a light. To Clean Furniture. By pouring a little olive oil over a soft linen cloth and gently rubbing over the surface of mahogany furni­ ture the white covering caused by dampness, also all dust, is removed and leaves the furniture a)s clear as a mirror, and saves having it polished. “Merry Widow” hats lived a long time in the hearts of those who are addicted to large hats, but they had their day and are now almost. forgot­ ten. “The Dollar Princess” turban comes to take the place of the “Merry Widow” hat, and it is most artistic. It is created of draped .velvet covered with chiffon, and the three large os­ trich tips fall forward from the cen­ ter back over the crown. Tills Is tlie Reason. Women often wonder why lace cub- tains or those of net in an open pat­ tern give better service than such ma­ terials as fine scrim, cotton voile or dotted muslin, and the reason is that ¿losely woven fabrics, being opaque, catch the sun’s rays directly and in full force. This heat in time weakens or burns the threads, while the open weaves, allowing as they do the en­ trance of the sun’s rays, filtering through, escape much of the scorching, as they do not receive the full force of the heat. Straining .Her Eyes. The maiden dropped her lovely eyes. Later she cast her eyes down thq, rocky slope of the mountainside. After she had rested them upon the top­ most branches of a near-by tree she let them fall upon the waters of a Women in Professions. placid lake. Then a visit to an oculist Women in large industrial enter­ was imperative.—Judge. prises, in real estate, in mines, in agri­ culture, in banks, in all occupations The Pulse Rate. where men make millions, are to-day The rate of the pulse of a healthy also making millions. Now the pro­ person is four times that of the res­ fessional women begins to bid fair to piration.