THEN AND NOW.
We laughed, to fee llm whlrllnv mow
And hear tlio nix nir leuiKtil blowj
We n-i'kril not m ihtt Icy hliist,
' Mur liuw 'li Htorm came wild and fast
Our li'urta bud sunny weather:
Nnr miiiw. nor liu.l. nor wll'l wind moan.
Could ('hill tlio (flow around theui thrown,
rortliim we wore twiner.
I), aweuleat word U(jotuor!
I trend, In golden summer hour,
A pal.iwav throiiKh land of flowers,
Ilcm-atli Hid I'liio of pi-iu-eful skies.
With weary fuel and war d in mod eyoi;
I rare no louver whether
The dav he briirht or dark, nor how
The lonely time goes hy. for now
We walk no;niiro together,
Ah. uitvoriuorB toirether.
Ann K. Uoiciter, n Current
CLIMBING A VOLCANO.
One of the Five Aotive Craters in
Costa Rloa.
A Graphic Description of Perilous Ad
vent uie A Crater Never Kiainlned
by Scientists Incident aud
Accldeuta.
There are five active volcanoc? In
Costa Rica, according to thermography;
lrazu, which is 11,500 feet h'gh; Tiir
rialba, which is 10,350; Poas, HeBarba,
and Mirravalees. which have not been
measured, and several smaller ones
whose craters have shown evidence of
former- activity, but have emitted
nothing since the memory of nian. To
be considered active a volcano does not
have to keep belching out tiro and smoke
all the time, for they must have vaca
tions I ke the rest of us; but an extinct
one is that whoso crater has been per
mitted to till up with debris and never
hows signs of lifo.
Not having had tho advantage of vol
canlc acquaintance, and being ambi
tious to look into the crater's mouth, I
determined to explore lrazu, nnd in
company with Mr. 11. Rcnisnn Wh'te-
house. Secretary of the United Slate
Legation in Central America, I tuitdu
the ascent
It was an experienco which will never
be forgotten, but wlncli one would not
care to rejteat. You can not go to the
sum ui it ol lrazu in a ra Iway par 1 ke
Vesuvius, and no one has ever taken
tho trouble to build a carriage road,
' therefore tho journey Is not rcoom
mended to ladies, invalids, or timid
men; and one such trip will do the most
jierveful for a lifetime.
We followed up a cart road, thick
with dust for a few miles, then entered
the cornfields and rode through them
for several hours, stopping at tho cabin
of a native to get com for our horses
and a cup of colleo for ourselves,
This was the last house on tlio moun
r tain, ana leaving it wo went through a
pasture and struck Into a forest as dense
as a forest can bo. I hero was a good
moon and it lit up the tree tops with a
weird and fantastiu light, while tho
great festoons of moss which hung from
the branches and almost obscured our
way were almost livid whore the rays of
moonlight struck them. The trunk,
and limbs of tho trees were covered
with thick, yellow lichens, which were
as tine as hair, and hung liko tho beard
of a patriarch. Tho trees, too, were
loaded with orchids, that rare plant so
much prized by botanists, and sought
hero by collectors from all over tho
world. Dead trunks covered with moss
that seemed almost phosphorescent
a two liko phantoms in our wav. Huge,
thorny cacti, like tho candelabra of
giants, wero on every sido. while tint
dense growth of underbrush made it
almost impossible for the homes to push
inrougu.
Through this we kept climbing until
the horses were exhausted and tho moon
went down. For some inscrutnblo
reason, but really for no reason
whatever. It is considered best to
make tho climb in the night, but wo
couldn't go any further, so a tiro was
built, tho animals wero unsaddled aud
given their supcr; we swung our ham
mocks in the trees and wrapping our
selves in blankets lay down to pleasant
u reams,
The blazing fire frightened the ant
mals of the forest, and all around us
wo could hear tho protests of tho tiger,
whose cry Is liko that of a child. Now
and then tho deeper tones of the nioun
tain lion could be distinguished, but
they were more frightened than wo, for
tho lire was a terror to them, as It was
a comfort to us, the altitude being some
thing iiioro than H.IHKI feet and the tern
peraturo forty Farenheit. Tho birds
chattered and gossiped, being awnk'
ncd by the unusual light and. disturb,
itnce in their solitude. There was little
sleep for any of us, as tho situat on was
ao weird, ami the noises our advent
awakoned so strango to our ears. At
3:30 we were to be called aud continue
the ascent so as to reauh the top of tho
mountain by sunrise. We were all
awake long before the time, and
leaving tho hammocks hanging, and
stripping ourselves of every possible
-encumbcrance except overcoat and
food, we were in the saddle
promptly and followed the guide as ho
plunged into a darkness that could be
ut with a knife. There is darkness
and darkness, but that wo encountered
in that tropical forest was double-dvod.
We might as well have been blindfolded
in a coilin at the bottom of a grave.
There was a path, a trail among the
trees, but the guide couldn't follow it
on horseback, so he dismounted and
felt for it with his feet. They failed
and he crept along on his hands and
knees, and that method of locomotion
being rather unsatisfactory, he lit a
candle he had in his pocket and plodded
along.
The path went ilgzag up tho moun
tain siuo, like the trail of a goat. It ran
a few hundred feet on the bias at a
grade of about forty-live degrees, and
then reversing ran lip about the same
grade ami distance in the other diivo
tion, presenting a series of acute angles
like an enormous rail-fence.( Just as
Mr. Whitehouse was turning one of
these corners, where the slope of the
mountain sido was almost perpendicu
lar, his horse stepixnl upon a rotten log.
which concluded to roll down the preci
pice, and be and iiis horse went too.
Nobody saw this decidedly novel acro
batic adventure. It was too dark to sea
your hand before your face; we were
creeping along, feeling our wa itep bj
step, with arms outstretched to pro.e..t
contact between the trees and our
heads.
Aft.;r making what may bo called a
cursory examination of the surround
ings, Mr. Whitehouse clambered up the
bank, where a council of war was held.
and it was determined to postpone fur
ther operations on that line unt 1 day
light So we sat down around a lire
and discussed things until tho l'ght
began to filter through tho forest. The
the climb was resumed and we got out
of tho woods just in time to see the sun
rise out of what looked liko a world full
of soapsuds. The mountain rose like
an island in a shoreless sea of clouds
rrent banks of foamv vapor rolling' and
plunging in the wind that always rises
with the dawn, as the surf does on the
shoals. It was a picture one does not
often see, and there are no words in my
vocabulary that will convey an adequate
idea of its appearance. JI one could
fill tho world with foam like that which
hovers over the foot of Niagara Falls it
would look something liko it
The wind was b tter cold, and it
swept over tho volcano with a fierceness
that penetrated our very bones, but tne
sun s ravs were hot and p ercing. and
soon burned out the clouds, in which
tho wind assisted, and the picture
turned into a scenic panorama which
has few equals in tho world, Bolow us
was spread out all Costa Rica, a'nd tho
surf fringed shore of two oceans. Sky,
sea and lands were one vast rainbow.
mingling tints of blue and green, and
and tho most unpoetio eyes could not
behold it without awe and wonder.
Mountains seemed to hang In the air
as the clouds surrounded them, long
lines of unbroken forests stretched
away into a mirage which seemed to
show the earth inverted, the fields of
sugar-cane, a brilliant livid green
looked like strings of gigantic emeralds
on the earth's bosom, while tho yellow
fields of corn, half harvested, resembled
sand hills, rolling and weltering under
the tropio sun. Here and there wore
clusters of houses, with white churches
rising in their midst, and streams link
ing them together like silver bands,
Far oil' on the horizon, which sur
rounded the picture like a circular
frame, it was dillieult to tell whore the
sky and the ocean met their colors
blending Imperceptibly. We would not
have known the two seas wero there
had not the expectation of a view of both
the Atlantio and the Pacific from the
same point been one of the objects of
tho climb, this being tho only spot in
the world from which both oceans are
visible The guide said ho could lis
tinguish tho sky from tho water, but I
could not and only knew that tho seas
wero there because tho lines where the
dark green forests ended and the blue
began were broken and irregular,
Following the crest of a ridga of
pumice stone and ashes, which had
been thrown out in ages past, and were
as regularly piled as if the hands of men
had dumped them there, we looked
down on one sido into a gorgo three
thousand feet deep, to the foot of which
a stone would roll without moeting an
Impediment; and on tho other into a
basin formed bv tho mountain side, and
tho heaps of ashes that lay in a regular
wlnrow around it a basin about hvo
hundred feet deep and quarter of a mile
across from the top of one bank to the
top or the other, lho bottom was
honey-combed with craters, where it
looked as 4 the earth had broken through
in irregular circles. There woro seven
or oiglit of these craters, some of them
centuries old. the last and largest having
opened within the memory of living
men. 1 ho older ones wore black and
half lilted with ashes cast from those of
later origin, while "tho new ono" as it
is called perhaps a quarter of a centu
ry old was bottomless as far as we
could see, and its walls wero yellow with
sulphur and white with half-burned
limestone. It was dangerous to go near
the edgo for the banks are concave,
and thin crusts of earth reach over
them; but we cast huge stones over and
heard them strike the sides of the crater
as they went down into an abyss which
man has never' measured, flow long
they were in reaching the bottom and
what, they found when they got there
would bo interesting to know, but this
volcano has never been scientifically ex
amined, and very few people have ever
been to tho crater's edge.
Wo wero glad wo went while wo were
down there, but wore sorry when we
tried to go back, for tho walls at the
basin arc loose ashes, light nnd llintv,
and our feet sunk into them almost ij
tho knees. It was fun coming down.
sliding aud leaping into the sift sub
stance, but going up it was a task tin'
at times seemed to be beyond endu,
anee. Tlio ashes wero fresh and ers;.
and there was no sign of vegetation for
a distance of a thousand feet or more
dowu tlio outside bank, against which
the wind was constantly blowing.
and where one would thiuk it would
lodge dust and seeds from tho
forests so near and so numerous. The
wall of ashes aroso at least 5(H), nnd in
some places 000 feet around the crater.
e noticed a very marked odor of sul
phur in tho crater while we were there.
and our guide, who crawled close to
the edge, reported vapor coming from
tho bottom, but the rest of us could not
perceive it There were many evidences
of recent discharges, however, one of
the most pronounced being the pres
ence of flakes of sulphur on the ground.
which must have been deposited there
since the last rainfall.
It is the prevailing theory anion?
local amateur scientists that the Gve act
ive volcanoes of Costa Rica are con
nected by underground passages, and
are all chimneys of the same terrestrial
furnace; that more than one is seldom
active, but that at least one is always in
a state of eruption, as an escae for gas
and vapors from the subterranean fires,
that it is universally tho rule for earth
quakes of great force to follow a sup
pression of activity in all of them, and a
sense of relief always prevails when the
discharges are heavy and frequent But
while tlio interruption of activity is im
mediately succeeded by upheavals clse-
where, earthquakes are frequently felt.
though not in such force, while the vol
canoes are active, I his is accounted
for by the fact that gas Is not emitted as
fast as it accumulates, and that when it
gathers in quantities sullicient to reach
the sparks from the subterranean tires;
it explodes in the caverns and causes an
oscillation of the earth above. These
explanations are very plausible and gen
erally accepted as true, although, as I
iiave said, tlie phenomenon has never
been stured.by men of scient lie r'i
tation, who m ght tiud here an interest
Ing and prolific field for research.
lurlu, tn Ihiciujo inter Ocean.
VALUABLE INFORMATION.
Mlatent Letters Tan be ItPtnalled Without
. Additional Expmine.
Two men stood near a letter-box In
Broadway disputing about a sealed lot'
ter which ono ot them ht-ld in his hand,
Tho lettor had been posted at an office
In Virginia aDd a carrier had delivered
it at an up-town add rest. In the mean
time the person to whom the letter was
addresed had left the city. The origi
nal address had been erased and ono in
a distant town had been written below it
"lou will have to put another stamp
on it. said the stouter of the two men
to the one who held tho letter.
"That's possible, but my wifo told
mo 1 only needed to drop it into a box,
She ought to know about such things,
because she re-ma Is lots of letters that
come to the house."
"Why didn't she look after this one
then?"
Became she wanted it sent from
down town so that it would got out
quicker.
"Well, if vou post it without" another
stamp it will not go at all. Women
4in't. lrnnw ahnnt utiph thinr 11
A letter-carrier approached the box
at that moment and an appeal was made
to him. lie glanced at the envelope and
said: "That needs another stamp bo
cause it is not a city letter. If It wen1
going to another purt of the city flie old
stamp would carry it.
"Do vou mean to efuy that this letter
would be detained at the office for post
age!1
"Well, perhaps they would semi it
and charge the extra postage at the
other end of the line. You had better
see the station agent about it."
"There." said the stout man after the
carrier had walked away, "you see how
much your wife knew about it.
"Come on to the station and if she is
wrong I will pay for two cigars."
They went to Station A and the letter
was shown to the agent there. "That's
all right" was his curt comment. .
"But a earrier has told mo it would
need another, stamp becauso it .was
going out of tho city again.
' "Tho law nscd to bo that wav," the
agent said, "but it has been changed
and every carr'er ought to know it. Now
a letter cau bo remailod as often a
necessary within the United States to get
it to the owner without extra postage,
The only limit is the number of change
that can be made in addresses on the
face of the envelooo." i-A". Y. Tribune.
CUPPING.
An Old AH In Modern llarber'shnp
Seldom Keiorted to la Thli Country,
A novel sight was presented in a
bathroom at Phil. Balzer's yesterday
afternoon, and was exhibited to a num
ber of interested customers of the shop.
An old German barbar who keeps a
chair in tho south end was "cupping" a
Imtient. The process had. of course,
ieen often heard of, but never seen by
any present. Tlio man upon whom the
art was being practiced was sitting in a
bathtub, and attached to his skin were
no less than twenty-eight small glass
cups, which had been applied to all
parts of his body by the doctor barber.
The skin had been cut or scarified un
der each, and the blood was slowly
ooz ng out into the cups, lho applica
tions wero made by expelling tho air
from the cups bv means of heat, and
quickly pressing them upon tho man's
person, lho flesh was drawn up into
tho cup by tho pressure of the o r. and
the blood extracted by a sort of sue
tion.
"Cupping" was formerly p.irt of the
profession of every barber in Germany,
and from it came the s;gn of the red, blue
and whito polo, tho colors being sup
posed to represent arterial and veinous
blood, and pure health, respectively. It
was approved by reputable physie'ans,
though not when done to such an ex
tent as in tlio case of yesterday. It was
used mostly for local' troubles, and uot
for wholesale blood let ting. It is now
seldom done in this country, though
English doctors sometimes prescribe it.
Columbus (U.I Stale Journal.
The Invention of Paper.
How, when, or by whom paper was
first invented will never be known.
According to Ilallam, documents on
paper are found as early as tho tenth
century, and it camo into use not long
after this era, and completely supplant
ed ail other materials which were
formerly employed for tho purposes for
which it is now used. It will be observed
that the invention of paper of some
kind was an absolute necessity before
there could be printing, as parchment
was far to expensive to use for the pur
pose, even were it otherwise perfectly
adapted to this use. The use of paper
in Western Europo dates from the
time mentioned, but it was known to the
Chinese lony before the Christian era,
and it is believed that they used the
bark of various trees, the soft part of
tho bamboo stems, cotton and several
other kinds of vegetable fibers. From
the Chinese it is supposed to have spread
to India, thence to Arabia, aiM the manu
facture was introduced into Europe by
the Moors of Spain, but about this there
is. no certainty. The rice paper of the
Chinese is made in the same general
way as the papyrus of the ancient
Egyptians, by placing in proper order
layers of libers and cementing them
with sizing or rlue. The first patent
for paper making was taken out in
England in 1GC5. but it was "for making
blue paper, such as is used by bakers.
The next, for making writing papers,
was in 1675, and covered writing and
printing papers. St. Louis Ulobe-Dem-ocrat.
The building in which the nostofllce
Is located at Bristol, Pa., was an even
hundred years old recently. The
timbers were all bewn out of oak in
Penn's Manor. Bucks County, and
rafted down the Delaware, I'it'tsburgh
Post.
m m
Three-fourths of the children born
in Calaveras County, Col., in the past
two years are girls.
PARASITICAL.
Tilt Potion Wlilcli.lt l'n nt -in Uaitar
of Minima Health.
It Is a singular thing to tiioso of on?
number who think knowledge begins
with us to find that the germ theory, as
it is styled, was propounded and Ate
disced more than tiro hundred years
ago as one of the hypotheses accounting
for the plague, that otherwise unac
countable visitation, and that in the en
suing century Reaumur, Linnicus, aud
other scientific peopjo quite fully ac
cepted It, so far as its progress was then
apparent
The existence of microscopic life Is
something that was revealed tons in the
first days of the microscope's fit and
proper use, and it is not impossible thai
discovery will yet go very much fanner
in that direction. When we find that
minute organisms, hardly more than
infinitesimal bright points under the
strongest lens, exist in the centre of a
lump of chalk reut from th very mid
dle of some great mass. f' of vitality.
and capable of producing important
fermentative changes in substances with
which they come in contact we can
form somo approach to a conception of
the universality of life, and of the dim
culty, if not the impossibility, of escap
ing its most disastrous forms. I hat
much of this life is serviceable and ben
Lehclal Is apparent and that much Is also
inlurmus and poisonous is equally ap
parent It seems almost like an asser
tion of positiye malevolent force in tho
world, this poisonous microscopic life.
when viewed with reference to its pos
sibilities, in the multitude of deathly
diseases thus created, and in the fact
that just before death, and not just after.
thejnitrefactive poison is often found to
have begun its malignant work: nut as
nobody seriously doubts that good is to
overcome evil in the whole cosmos, so
the extermination of these poisonous
powers is something to be looked for.
and to be worked for, by the docmno
of exclusion, by tho elision of favorable
circumstances of development,) tho
elimination of the malevolent genii
from among created things by the de
struction of the conditions which nur
ture it and favor its continuance aud
propagation, till the disease-producing
germ snail one day become as extinct as
the dodo.
Every physician knows that bacteria
are to be found swimming along their
fatal way in the veius of patients in ty
phoid, scarlet puerperal and other fe
vers, to say noiuiug 01 smau-pox, nipn
then a, measles, septicaemia, and tho
rest, that they are of material substance,
and that they propagate each after its
kind and not after another, showing ac
tive force and individual existence,
This individual existence and continu
Ing active force, in fact is seen to exi-tt
in the earliest and most minute form of
life, in the Initial atom of bioplasm, as
one may say. 1 he old distich in rela
tion to the great fleas that have little
fleas "to worry and to bite 'em. while
little fleas have lesser fleas, and so nd
infinitum" If possibly vulgar, is cer
tainly true, and shows that tire idea of
the animal parasite is not at .ll a novel
one. Even the little fly has its parasite,
that may be observed when he dies on
the window-pane, and hangs glued there
in a tiny, fuzzy mould.
Ihe capabilty for evil, not alone in
matters of human health, but even in
the financial affairs of the world, which
these infinitesimal atoms of life exert, is
to be understood from the circumstances
that the muscadine, the parasite of the
silk-worm, has cut down productiou of
silk in France from an annual amount
of a hundred and thirty million francs
to thirty millions only. The oidiura
meanwhile some time since as good as
exterminated the vine in Maderia. many
of the vineyards there having been re
planted with the snpposably yet unin
fected vines of California; and the smut
in wheat and the nist in cotton are para
sitical concerns that every year do their
own damage.
Parasitical growth must needs alwavs
be an unhealthy growth, since it is diffi
cult to believe that any created thin?
has more life than it needs for its own
uses, and consequently has none to givo
away and supply the wants and uses of
the parasite. To avoid' this parasitical
growth, or to destroy it, then, demands
our best efforts, let us find it where we
mav; and regarding it as a malevolent
and malignant enemy, it is something
curious to see that the cleanliness which
is next to goodliness is its only extermi
nator. Plenty of water, then plenty of
sunshine, plentyof air the great cleans
ing processes of nature will be our
safeguards against our general enemies,
the especial enemy needing still more
special measures. People who see par
ticular visitations of an angry Provi
dence in the mortal diseases that rob
their homes of their chiefest treasures
should look to it first and make sure
that they themselves are not the angry
providence, wun choked drains, foul
closets, decaying vegetable heaps in un
used and unaired cellar or with un-
cieansea reingerators, the gathered
moisture on whose interior walls par
takes of the nature of slime and poisons
the milk the children drink. If we can
not escape the cruel enemy altogether.
we can yet by vigorous concerted effort
make his approaches so difficult as to
thin his numbers for want of food, and
secure perhaps some portion of indem
nity for the future, if not for our more
immediate selves, for those that are yet
to come. Uarptis Bator.
The golden number is so called be
cause it was formerly written on the
calendar in letters of gold. It is the
number reckoned from one to nineteen,
showing what year in the lunar or me
tonio cycle any given year is. The
epact is the excess of the solar above
the lunar year, the former consisting of
365 days and the latter 354. The enact
of any year is the number of days from
the last new moon of the old year
to the first day of the following Janu
ary. The dominical letters are those
which denote the Sundays, or dies
dominico. Chicago llerold.
A sight to be seen in Uncle Sam's
museum at Washington is the blue
uniform worn by General Jackson when
he thrashed Pakenham and his red
coats at New Orleans. The uniform is
ia a case of glass,, but the dust on the
shoulder makes golden straps to tha
sunsLina. Washington fesL
MODERN WALL DECORATIONS.
They Sometime .ot Moro than the
Iloturt-lllgh Art at a Dleeount.
Within the last five years wall decora
tion has advanced with rapid strides,
nnd enormous prices are now paid for
the interior decoration of houses. In
fact, the Interior decoration of a mod
ern house sometimes exceeds in cost
the building and material of tho house
itself.
A gentleman who has one of tho
finest houses In Jersey City went to a
first-class Interior decoration house in
this city a short time ao. His house
was a new ono, and ho dosired to have
the walls and ceilings treated in the
latest styles. IIo was shown into a
handsomely furnished room, and re
quested to seat himself on an em
broidered plush upholstered chair made
of antique or bog oak, and valued at
six hundred dollars. After a few ques
tions concerning the house, tho size of
the rooms, the light and so on, the
gentlemanly clerk said ho would show
him a few styles of parlor decorations,
carefully adjusting a rack meantime,
in order that tho right amount of light
should fall on it. A delicate paper, in
which the pattern, wrought in har
monious colors, stood on a background
faintly threaded with gilt was placed
on the rack. Another roll of tho same
pattern was placed beside it, in order
to givo a larger surface. A frie.e to
match and a deep gilt molding bo
tween tho frieze and paper, to break the
monotonv, completed the wall decora
tion. Then camo a colored wood mold
ing above the frieze, to show in what
color the base of the coruice was to be
painted.
"The other parU of the cornico will
have to bo treated dilferently, so as to
tone with tho ceiling decorations," said
the clerk. Now 1 will show you some
styles of frescoed ' ceilings to go with
this sido-wall decoration.
Several cards, with elaborate and
beautiful pamt.ngs of ceilings, were
now shown.
"That is a very pretty ono," said tho
customer, selecting ono.
"Yes, it will harmonize well with tho
paper, also.
"it seems to me tho whole thing is
perfect," said tho Jerseyman, delighted
at his sueces in finding what lie wanted,
and certain that his parlors would be
the envv of his friends.
"Well. I am glad you liko It," re
sponded the clerk. 'As I have now an
idea of your taste. I can easily fix tho
other rooms. Perhaps, however, before
we go any further, we had better say
how much you are willing to spcud on
tho house. V hen I know that 1 will ,o
ovor and seo your house and nuke
measurements, and will then show you
tho styles for each room that we can
iv.i you at your price."
"I have two paper-hangers over in
Jersey City whom 1 had thought of let
ting do tho work, began the gentlO'
man, doubtingly.
"Uh, no: that won t do. ' replied the
clerk. "It requires an artist to hang
that paper so that it won't show the
seams, and we would have to fresco the
ceiling anyhow. All the work w.ll be
t:gured in with the cost of the job. It
will only cost you tho price of the
board of the workmen extra. That
will be about three dollars per day for
each one."
Tho Jersevman's face fell a little.
But ho felt that he was in tor it, and
might as well see it through. lie had
been willing to pay frl.OOU for the sako
of eclips:ng his neighbors, lie would
double that amount now.
Well," ho said to tho clerk, who
was carelessly twirling a diamond r'uiff
on his finger, " I am willing to bo lib
eral in this matter. See what you can
do for -.',000."
Tho clerk looked dumfounded. For
a .moment he seemed paralyzed; t'ien
going to the rack he threw 'the mold-
ings on theloor, and, taking out a roll
of paper, he said, coldly:
i guess you have not got a very
good idea of the cost of decoratiou.
That ceiling you looked at would cost
vou $1,500 alone. This uaner is a
mud-made French print and is worth
812 a roll. It would tako. thirty rolls to
the ordinary-sized parlors. It would
take about '.'00 feet of tiiis molding at
75 cents a foot Without charging for
anything else, your parlors would cost
you $.',tHH) alone. Yon had better
think it over aud call again."
In former days the cost of decoiating
parlor was greater than any other
room, and often amounted to as miMi
as all the other rooms together. But a
modern dining-room is finished in the
most expensive of hard woods, and su -h
do: oration as is used is of the most
costly kind. The halls of a fine house
are decorated with marvelous hand-
painted Lincrusta-Walton or some kind
of bronzed plaster work, which is even
more expensive. Either dining-room
or nau would cost as much as the par
lor. e
The foremost Interior decoration firms
In this city vie with each other in ob
taming new and elegant effects. They
employ artists oi an kinds, at enormous
salaries, to assist them in this. With
several of these firms, where the em
ployes have hown themselves indis
pensable to the success of the business,
they have been given a partnership in
consequence. Such firms receive as high
as $50,000 for decorating a single house.
A fair price is $10,000, and they seldom
go below $5,000.
But while these firms receive small
fortunes for single jobs, the intelligent
buyer of wall paper often gets a very
pretty effect for a small price. The
sale of wall papers and of interior deco
rations bos come to be two distinct
branches of business, and it is in the
stores of wall-paper dealers and manu
facturers that the bargains are general
ly to be obtained. An odd lot of paper
and a small quantity of frieze are ofien
sold for trilling sums. Occasionally the
same bargains may be had in a tine dec
oration store. As an instance of this, a
salesman of ono of the best-known
houses in the city showed to a reporter
twenty rolls of a paper he had sold that
day.
"This paper," he jaid. "cost us $2.50
per roll We sold some of it to ex-Secretary
of State Frelinghuysen for his
private office in Washington a little
over a year ago. It cost him $4 a roll.
A gentleman came in to-day who want
ed twenty rolls, and as we had just that
amount of this on hand we sold him the
remnant for $3. It Is a French em
bossed bronzo and a Tory fino oiiice
paper."
Tlio Hoffmai House is one of the
most finely decorated hotels. in tne
country. In tho rnding-room there is
an English paper on the walls whi h
probably cost $J por rolL A short time
agj. while in a country town in Con
necticut, a reporter noticed the sumo
kind of paper pasted on the walls of a
small store.
"Hello:" he said to the
proprietor.
"where did vou get this?"
Oh. I got stuck badly on it somo
time ago. I bought about forty rolls of
it from somo feller or other for eight
cents a roll. I couldn't Bell it so I u"ed
partfcf it for this wall nnd somo I put
under my carpets. I've got ten rolis
left, which you can have for fif y cents
if ve want it"
High art wall paper, as the English ig
o'ten termed, was not appreciated in
that section of the country. The valua
blo imported papers are often found in
country towns and sold at less than
the r cost in Europe. How they get
there is a mystery. Ar. Y. Suiu
SLEEP.
Itule Upon the Proper OlnerTanee
of
Whirli One's Health Ui-penda.
Sleep, liko any other appetite, can be
cultivated and pampered; and just as
any mouthful ot food mor- than wo
really want is waste, and something
worse, so every wink of sleep more
than we need is dead loss, and that
without the redeeming quality of over
eating and drinking, viz., pleasure. For
to be asleep is not pleasure; simply
dead loss. To sleep from 11 to 9 in
the morning is too much; from 11 till
ti should be, and is, for one averagely
healthy and normally constituted, quite
enough. The point I want to fix on
especially is those two precious hours
before breakfast How many people
only begin their day after breakfast
say about ten o'clock! I my.-elf lived
for nearly forty years without realizing
that I had thrown away about 5(1,900
hours of good working life. Of course,
the candle can not bo burned at both
ouds. You must get your sleep. I
have known more than one profes
sional man succumb to the habit of re
tiring too late and rising too early.
That wo? the beginning of my poor
fiiend tho late Baron Amplilott s col
lapse. As Q. C. he never shou'd have
gone into Parliament and when he
retired from the Hotiso on a Judgeship
the mischief was doue. He used to be
up lato with briefs, or down at the
House till 2 or 3, rise nt 6, light his
own tire and work till !. All such
over-pressure is, of courso, bai Young
men may stand it for a few years
young men can stand almost anything
for a few years but it is a vicious
princ plo. (Jive the body its dues, or
the body will revenge itself. Still to
acquire tho habit of early rising is
worth an effort. I recommend it for
health and pleasure as well as for
profit. No one knows how rad'ant and
vigorous nature looks who has not
cared to assist her at early toilet and
seen her bathing herself in crystal dew
and decking herself with opening blos
soms between four and six o'clock on a
midsummer morning. So much and
how much more for the pleasure
seeker? But the early-rising worker
all the year round is rewarded by an
increase of produce, an economy of
time and an invigoration of mind and
body. Morning literary work is usual
ly characterized by freshness, con
tinuity, grasp and vigor: night work by
fever, excitement and less condensa
tion. This I believe to bo the rule, and
with exceptions, in speaking tliu? gen
erally, it is, of course, impossible to
deal. Of one thing I am certain, that
for all headworkers, especially literary
men, the following rules will be found
golden:
To bed before twelve.
To work before seven.
As little liquid ns possible, and
no
L.
smoking before breakfast ltev. II.
Laweis.
The Safest Place on a Car.
It is a popular superstition that tho
center of the car is not only the safest
part, but is also much the easier riding.
One of the greatest trials of a Pullman
conductor's life is the fait that about
every passenger asks for a lower cen
ter berth the Urst thing, nnd is frequent
ly indignant because it can not be had.
If the t enter of a car rides any easier
than the end, then our cars, built as
solid and strong as they are, spring np
and down in tho middle precisely as
does a buckboard. If they do not, why
suould it ride easier? As for safety, if
you are in the rear of the last car on tho
train, and another train runs into the
rear, you are liable to get hurt. In all
other accidents you can conjure up as
liable to occur, it is the safest If a
head collision there is nothing back of
you to add force to the blow. If tho
car leaves the track and collides with a
bridge or auy obstruction on s do
track it will not be in yourend. If tho
train is thrown down an embankment
there is nothing to land on top of you.
Then this location is the most pleasant
From it you can watch all the move
ments of your fellow-passengers, ofien
a good way of passing the hours of a
long, tedious journey. If your eye hap
pens to catch a particularly fine view,
you can. by turning in your seat or
stepping to the door, take it all in. It
there is a safest part of a train it is in
the last seat in the last c&i.Elmira
(X. Y.) Sews.
' .
Guernsey County, Ohio, produces
some instances of the old way in rear
ing families. Three men and threo
wives in oue township, who live within
half a mile of eacii other, are the par
ents of thirty-six children. Four fam
ilies in another township have thirty
five children. Cleve and Leader.
Christianity is protected as the Stato
religion in Madagascar. The best au
thorities place the number ot Vrotest
ants there at .S50.0OOaud Roman Catho
lics 3O.UU0. Education is compulsory.
One district alone makes a return of
100,000 pupils in the schools.
e
It costs each of tho colleges, whose
crews participate in the annual boat
race on the Thames, about seven thou
tand dollars for the sport.