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TlfE HKE Circle.
In the Spelling-Class.
Bi John O. Wbtztixb.
'I'm sorry that I ipelt the word;
I bate to go above you,
Because" the brown eyea lower fell
"Because, you aee, I lore you I"
Still memory to a gray-haired man
That sweet child-face Is allowing;
Sear girl, the grasses on her grave
Have forty years been growing.
lie lives to learn In life's hard school
How few who pass above him
Lament the triumph and his loss
Like her because they love him.
The Boys' Room.
Too little attention is paid, buying or bnlld
ing a house, to the future requirements of the
babies still in tbeir cribs. The time paBg.es
more quickly than they thought. Bob and Joe
and Tom are soon big burly lads, apt to shoul
der and kick each other if brought into too
close contact ; and Nelly and Bess, young
ladies, each with her array of bosom friends,
books, love-letters and crimping-irons ; end
for them all there are bat two small chambers,
one of which has often to be vacated when a
guest arrives. The boys iu most cases fare
worse than any other members of the family.
Their sisters' chamber is dainty and prettily
furnished, while they arc huddled into the gar
ret or whatever other uncomfortable cubby
hole offers itself in which they can "rough it."
In the case of farmer's hous this apartment is
often the loft of the carriage-house.
Now, it a boy's tendency is stronger than a
girl's to be disorderly, untidy in his habits, and
lacking in personal reserve or a love for the
beautiful, it is the more necessary that he
should bo taught these things from his earliest
childhood. Much of the want of refinement,
the nervous debility and other evils of both
body and mind which adhere to Americans, are
caused by the habit of crowding boys together
into ill-ventilated, ugly, meagcrly furnished
chambers. No weak, nervous child can sleep
with one of stronger physique without suffer
ing a loss of ntrvouB vitality and power.
Each child in a family should have its own
bed, and at tho proper age its own chamber;
beds and chambers to be clean, ordorly, and as
prettily furnished as the parents' means will
allow. Especially is this a necessity with the
daughters of a houso.
Even' mother will remember how dear to
herself, in her girlish days, was the chance of
seclusion the chest of drawers where sue
could stow uway her laces, ribbons, and other
dearer trifles; the locked desk with the diary
inside; the white chamber with its snowy cur
tainB, where she could hang her dried ferns
aud photographs, and sit alone to ponder over
her compositions, or read her Bible. A boy
lias his fancies, tastes, hobbies as noil as a
girl. Ho may not want seclusion, but he does
want elbow-room, and ho ought to havo it.
Bob is a mighty fisherman, and clutters up one
closet with poles aud lines, book?, and books
of flies. Jim has reached the autograph stage,
and must have a desk und quires of paper
with which to assault everybody mentioned in
the newspapers, from Longfellow to Buffalo
Bill. Tom has a mass of old rubbish collected
at junk-shops, having caught the curiopbobia
from his mother; and Bill heaps on top of all,
his balls, bats , old shoes, and half-eaten
apples.
Of course it is expensive to give to each boy
room for his hobbles and belongings, but, after
all, it will not cost half as much as to refurnish
the drawing-room with Turkish rugs and furni
ture from Sypher's. And do we owe most to
our neighbors, or our boys? Whoso tastes,
habits of order, cleanliness, delicacy, ought we
to cultivate?
We wish, however, especially to urge upon ,
mothers the propriety of giving up to the boys,
as soon as they reach tho age of twelve or four-1
teen, one room (not a bed-ohamber), for whose .
(reasonably) good order they shall be responsi
ble, and which they shall consider wholly their I
own. The floor should be unvarpeted, of oiled
wood ; tho furniluro of the Banio material. Let it .
be paperodand decorated according to the boys'
own fanoy; if the taste is bad they will be in
terested after a while in correcting it. Thero
should be plain book-cases, n big solid table iu ,
the center, by all means un open fire, aud room
after that for Joe's ptiutiugpress, or Charley's
box of tools, or Ham's cabinet of minerals; fori
chess and checker-boards, or any other game I
that is deemed proper. To this room the boys '
should be allowed to invite their friends, and'
learn now to be hospitable hosts even to the
extent of an Inuooent little feast, now and then.
Father, mother aud sisters should refrain from
entering it except as guests; and our word for
it, they will be doubly honored and welcomed
when they do come.
eonieuody win imk, no doubt, wnat is mouse
of pampering boys in this way or of catering to .
IUCUJ WHU UlUVIl aim L'UUIJIUUJ' i oiujpij utj-
causo they will have the amusement, the games
and company somehow aud somewhere, and if
not under their father's roof with suoh quiet
Burrouudings as befit those who are to bo bred
as gentlemen, the ganios may be gambling, and
the company and suppers those which the
nearest taveru affords. As for the cost, no
money is ill-Bpeut which develops iu a right
direction a boy's healthy character or idiosyn
crasies at the most perilous period of his life,
or which helps to soften or humanize him, and
to make more dear aud attractive his home and
family. If it can be ill-spared, let it be with
drawn for this purpose from dress, household
luxury, the sum laid by for a "raiuy day"
oven from other charities and duties. Wo do '
not wish to help the lad sow his wild oats, but I
to take care that the oaU are not wild aud aro ,
thoroughly well sown. Scrihntr'sforXov. '
Manners are of moro importance than laws.
In a great measure law depends on them. The
law touches us but here and thero, aud now
aud then, Maimers are what vex or soothe,
-corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or
refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform insen-
isible operation, like that of the air we breathe.
'They give their whole color to our lives.
According to their quality, they aid morals,
they supply them or they totally destroy them,
llurkt.
A man rushed breathlessly into a lawyer's
ofllct) in St. Paul, aud, approaching the legal
luuiiuary, excitedly remarked, "A man has tied
a hoop to my horse's taiL Can I do auy
thing?" "Yea," replied the attorney, "go aud
untie it."
"Wuat brauohei of learning have you been
pursuing at sobool to-day I" said a father to his
sou. "None, in particular, sir; but a birch
branch his been pursuing me."
Tsacuino CooKKBr. The Sobool Hoard of
London has arrauged that .300 selected girls
shall b taught cookery by tho teachers of the
National School for Cookury.
"YViikbic do people go who
have deceived
li(r
fellow-meu?" asked
a Sunday-school
Europe," was the
teach' r of a pupil
prompt reply.
"To
. Learning Infants to Walk.
Provided we do not stimulate the infant to
premature efforts, we may safely trust it to
itself. After a child has acquired a certain de
gree of vigor and command over its muscles, by
crawling about, it will begin of its own accord
to try to stand and walk, by laying hold of
chairs, or seeking a little support from the
nurse. Bat we should be careful not to accus
tom it to rely too much on the guidance and
assistance of others. If we entice it to walk
before the bones and muscles are adequate to
the exertion, the consequences cannot fail to
be bad. When support is given by leading
strings, it is at the risk of compressing and de
forming the chest; when, on the other hand,
the child is upheld by one arm, the immediate
effect is to twist the spine and trunk of the
body; while, in both cases, the lower limbs are
apt to bend, and the child, by constantly trust
ing to its conductor's guidance and protection,
acquires a heedlessness in its exertions, which
is prejudicial alike to body and mind. The
strong effort of tho will required to execute
l every movement gracefully and successfully is
l withdrawn, and gives place to an indifference
. which is fatal to unity of action in the delicate
muscles.
, A child trained to walk independently, may,
J no doubt, get a few falls; but on the supposi
I tion that all hard bodies have been removed
out of its way, and that it is practicing ona
I carpet or a lawn, under the superintendence of
I a watchful nurse, it runs far less risk of sus
taining injury from its falls than it is certain
to do if leading-strings and other artificial
supports are substituted, which tempt it into
fallacious estimates of its strength, and expose
I it to worse dangers from the carelessness of its
attendant. It is a great error to be so anxious
! about our infant's safety, as to natch its every
movement, and ne ready to sound the alarm at
every trilling risk. The personalexperience of
a fall teaches a child much more effectually
how to avoid future accidents than a thousand
exclamations of caution from its nurse, which
are calculated to foster timidity and irresolu
tion far more than reasonable prudence and
presence of mind.
In infancy, as in later life, the grand princi
ple of education ought to be to promote self-
regulated action, whether of body or mind, and
to guido iuexperience to the mode in which
Nature intends the action to be performed. So
long as we continue to be machines moved by
the will and defended by the prudenco of others,
we cannot acquire that strength of body or that
degree of mental endowment of which our con
stitution is naturally, susceptible; even from
early infancy this principle holds good. In onr
own country we sometimes see poor children
but two or three years old acting as guardians
to infants little younger than themselves, and
displaying in that capacity a degree of intelli
gence, steadiness nud presence of mind, hardly
to be expeoted at eo early an age. Combe.
At Forty Years of Age.
The ace of fifteen has been celebrated in
song as life's rosy period, und it has been al
lowed to bloom up to twenty, ay, even up to
twenty-live; the age ot sixty or seventy has
been honored as being the age of wisdom and
of mature virtues. I will sing the praise of
the age of forty the present century's and my
own age. I know a lady who. when twenty-
eight years old, gave herself out to be thirty
"for, said she, "what is the use of sticking
to those two years?" Perhaps I also follow n
little in her footsteps, for I think with her:
thirty-eight, thirty-nine, forty why, it comes
to almost the same thing. The wisdom teeth
and the wrinkles have already come. Forty
years! Do you not feel something "set" in
those words? At forty one hae generally settled
down in life. This is why one can quietly walk
about and contemplate in this world. Our cen
tury has also settled down, but it has settled
down in Parliament and meditates upon the
State, and therefore it looks neither merry nor
uneasy, but thoughtful. So, also, is woman at
forty. The heart does not then any longer
beat uneasily before a party, more uneasily after
one; nor do we then stand here in life as a
candidate for anything, a prey to wishes, hopes,
uncertainties, happiness, and misery. Neither
does the framo of our mind, like a chameleon,
take tho impression of every new object, chang
ing from roso color to black, from green to
gray, in the course of a few hours; nor do you
see in every one whom you meet somo im
portant personage in the romance of your life;
nor in every uttered nonsense a monster which
you are to rush upon and attack, like Don
Quixote battliug with the windmill; you need
not then dance wheu you want to sit still, nor
walk according to the will of others, when you
have your will in a word, you are above a
great deal of anxiety and trouble. Many a
rosy light has, it is true perchance waued, but
also many mists have rolled away and bright
ened. You see your way clearer, you walk
along more steadily; not swayed hither and
thither by the wind, at iu youth; not leaning
with faltering step upon the faltering crutches
of old age; you walk Bturdily on your own
legs, and look around in the world without
coming to fisticuffs with it. Forty years is the
age of contemplation, of practical thought.
Long life to them I Fredrlka Iiremer.
Tberk's Koou Auove. Tho advice to the
law student that "there's plenty of room
above," contains a truth of very wide applica
tion. "There's plenty of room above" in every
profession and avocation. The difficulty is,
not to find the higher positions, but to find
men competent to fill them. A manager of a
business establishment remarked to me, the
other day, that they ought to have a good man
in a certain position. "Why dou't you get
oue?"Isaid. "That's the difficulty," he re
plied. "If I knew where to get the right man,
I would discharge the one I have immediately."
This is the general difficulty. Every avocation
is looking after the right kind of mtn, and they
are bard to find. Let young men remember
this, and make themselves masters of their
busiuess, and they will Hud no difficulty iu se
curing first-class positions.
Succrss ik Society. The secret of success
iu society is a certaiu heartiness and sympathy.
A man who is not happy iu compauy cannot
find any word iu his memory that will fit' the
occasion; all his information is a Utile imper
tiuent. A man who is happy there finds in
every turn of the conversation, equally luoky
occasions for the Introduction of what he has
to say. The favorites of society, aud what it
calls "whole souls," aro able men, and of more
Bpirit than wit, -who hava.no uucomfortable
egotism, but who exactly fill the hour and the
compauy, contented nud contenting. U, 11',
i'mfrsoii.
Ridicule. Itemember, little ones, that the
Uleut of turning peoplo iuto ridicule, and ex
posing to laughter those one converses with, is
the gratification of small minds aud ungenerous
tempers. A youus pmon with this cast of
mind cuts himself otf from all manuer of Im
provement. So said Addison, long ago, aud
it is as true to-day as ever.
Tiixbk is a time wheu a boy hat an idea of re
forming and becoming good, and that is when
he is treed among the cherries by a lank farmer
aud a couple of mastiffs,
WILLAMETTE FARMER.
How to Put Nervous Babies to Sleep.
A baby is a very tender thing, people say; but
most of them are very far from knowing how
tender. Imagine how nervous you are in cer
tain states when recovering from illness, say,
when the fall of a book or the slam of a door
makes yen quiver and feel faint, as if some one
gave you a blow. That is the way a young baby
feels at its best. A puff of wind will set it
gasping, its little breath blown quite away. A
noise makes it shiver, a change of summer air
makes it turn death-cold. A baby is the most
nervous of beings, and the tortures it suffers in
going to sleep and being awakened by careless
sounds when just "dropping off "are only com
parable to the same experience of an older per
son during an acute nervous headache. Young
babies ought to pass the first months of their
lives in the country, for its stillness no less
than its fresh air. But where silence is not to
be commanded a baby may be soothed by fold
ing a soft napkin, wet in warmish water, light
ly over the top of its head, its eyes and ears.
It is the best way to put nervous babies to sleep.
I have triedita hundred of times for a child so
irritable that paregoric and soothing syrup only
make it wide-awake. A fine towel would be
wet and laid over its head; the ends twisted a
little till it made a sort of skull cap, and though
baby sometimes fought against being blindfold
ed this way, five minutes usually sent him off
into deep and blissful slumber. The compress
cooled the little feverish brain, deadened sounds
in his ears, and shut out everything that took
his attention, so that sleep took him unaware.
Teething babies find this very comfortable, for
their heads are always tot, and there is a fe
vered beating in the arteries on each side.
The Law of the Rail.
Some one who has taken the trouble to post
himself on the law governing railroad passen
ger travel says that extra charges for failure to
buy tickets are universally sustained by the
courts, but there mustie a full opportunity to
buy afforded by the ticket seller. Passengers
must show tickets when asked for. As to stop
ping off, there is only bne decision, which is
that a passenger cannot stop off and resume his
journey without the previous assent of the com
pany. As to the obligation of the road to
furnish a seat to a passenger, a decision says:
" A passenger who exhibits his tioket need not
surrender it until he has been furnished with a
seat." A railroad is not liable for things stolen
out of a passenger's seat, there being no pre
vious delivery to the company's servants; for
the same reason the company is not liable for
baggage in the passengers own care. Passen
gers who negleot to look after their own bag
gage on arrival at their destination cannot re
cover it if it is lost without fault of the carrier.
Baggage left in station house for the passenger's
convenience, after it has reached its destina
tion, comes under a new class of rights and
duties, the baggage master assuming the posi
tion of a gratuitous bailee, who only becomes
liable in cases of gross negligence. The obli
gation of the railroad as carrier ceases when it
nas delivered it to us owner at tne piace 01
debtination, or when he has had reasonable op
portunity of receiving and removing it. It will
interest sportsmen to know that they may re
cover for the value of dogs when they entrust
them to baggage masters for hire because of
their exclusion from the passenger cars.
Which Shall Bole Nine-Tenths ob One
Teniu. About one-balf of our population be
longs to the farming class. About one-quarter
ot our population belongs to the mechanic plass.
And about fifteen per ,cent. of our population
are laborers who make their living by their
muscle. Has any one ever asked himself how
much legislation is done by this ninety per cent,
of our population? It is not a patent fact that
they have scarcely any influence in our national
legislation? Tho truth is, the legislation of the
country is shaped and controlled by less than
one-tenth of the population. It is made in in
terest of capital, instead of the interest of the
people. And this is the reason there is so much
suffering among the industrial classes to-day.
There has never been such a concentration of
capital going on as within the past few years,
anu a concentration ot capital brings a concen
tration of political and law-making power.
Capital has got the people within its toils. Can
they release themselves? This is an important
question. This must form a great political is
sue. If one-tenth of the people are to govern
nine-tenths, and make them subservient to their
peculiar interests, it is time we were awakening
to that fact. It can do no harm to bestow a little
thought upon this matter. Rural World.
Pablob Maoic The following beautiful ex
periment in instantaneous crystallization is
given by Peligot in La Nature: Dissolve 150
parts, by weight, of hyposulphite of soda in 15
parts boiling water, and gently pour it into a
tall test glass so as to half fill it, keeping the
solution warm by placing the glass in hot
water. Dissolve 100 parts by weight sodio
acetate in 15 parts hot water, and carefully
pour it iuto the same glass; the latter will form
an overlying layer on the surface of the former,
and will not mix with it. When cool there will
be two supersaturated solutions. It a crystal
of sodio hyposulphite be attaohed to a thread
and carefully passed into the glass, it win
traverse the acetate solution without disturbing
it, but, on reaching the hyposulphite solution,
will cause the latter to orystallize instantane
ously in large rhomboids! prisms with oblique
terminal faces. Wheu the lower solution is
completely crystallized, a crystal of sodio
acetate, similarly lowered into 'the upper solu
tion, will cause It to crystallize in oblique
rhombio prisms. The appearance of the
two different kinds of crystals will not fail
to astonish those not acquainted with this class
oi experiments.
A New England newspaper shows its appre
ciation of the trials of the woman who "does her
own housework " in the following paragraph:
"The loug-snfferiug house-wife hears the door
bell ring, washes the dough from her bands,
pulls down her sleeves, removes an old calico
apron, and with a hasty look in the mirror goes
out in the hall to find a patent medicine bill on
the floor. A woman who can go through this
experience, aud resume her work without mak
ing a few casual remarks concerning Job and
bis patience, deserves a niche iu the temple ot
Fame."
He said the pastry was ever so much better
made by her dear hands. This delighted her.
But when she wanted the coal scuttle at the
other end of the room, and he suggested that
she should get it, as the fire would feel so
much belter if the coaUwas brought by her dear
bauds, she was disgusted. Women are so
changeable. -. -
Wondxb is a pause of reaaon, a sudden cessa
tion of mental progress, whioh latts only while
the understanding is fixed non some stasia
idea, and is at the end when tt recovers force
enough to divide the objects into its parts, or
mark the intermediate gradations from the
first agent to the last consequence. Johnson,
Old Soap. A lady living near Troy has a
piece of soap supposed to be a hundred years
old. Isn't it aitouishing how long some people
can keep soap in the house and never feel the
slightest temptation to use it?
A New Light.
Becent discoveries in medical science have
demonstrated that much of what has hitherto
been deemed ill temper.egotism and coarse dis
regard of the feelings of others or the proprie
ties of life, are nothing else than disease of the
nervous system, and the individual afflicted by
it, Instead of being an object of dislike, and
even hatred, as hitherto, is more properly en
titled to our commiseration and sympathy.
Dr. Brown-Sequard tells of a lady at the Eog.
lish court who had to retire from it on account
of a prompt way she had of saying to any per
son, even the Queen, with whom she differed
on the smallest matters: "You are very
stupid," "What nonsense," "This is madness
in you," and such light and complimentary
phrases. Victoria could not stand it and so she
went her way. Now, anybody but a doctor
would have thought that woman was simply an
ill tempered female, with a peonliarly blunt and
disagreeable way of speaking her mind; but
medical science stepped in and showed that she
was, in reality, an angel in disposition, and
only acted so because some disease with a
polysyllabio name made a disastrous sympa
thy between her nerves of hearing and those of
speech. Dr. Brown-Sequard also tells of one
of his young patients who, by a somewhat sim
ilar affection, was impelled to startle people
from time to time, in the course of conversation,
by slowly and impressively ejaoulating, " Hool
Hool Hool " Superficial observers might have
deemed that owlish exclamation idiotio, but
medical science says, "No, it was only her
nerves."
Sunny Faces. How sweet in infancy, how
lovely in youth, how saintly in age 1 There are
a few noble natures whose very presence carries
sunshine with them wherever they go; a sun
shine which means pity for the poor, sympathy
for the suffering, help for the unfortunate, and
benignity toward all. How such a face ealivens
every other face it meets, and carries into ev
ery company, vivacity and joy and gladness.
But the scowl and frown, begotten in a selfish
heart, and manifesting itself in daily, almost
hourly fretfulness, complaining, fault-finding,
angry criticisms, spiteful comments on the mo
tives and actions of others, how they thin the
cheek, shrivel the face, sour and sadden the
countenance 1 No joy in the heart, no nobility
in the soul, no generosity in the nature; the
whole character as cold as an iceberg, as hard
as Alpine rock, as arid as the wastes of Sahara 1
Header, which of these countenances are you
cultivating? If you find yourself losing all
your confidence in human nature, youarenear
ing an old age of vinegar; of wormwood and of
gall; and not a mourner will follow your soli
tary bier, not one tear-drop shall ever fall on
your forgotten grave. Dr. Hall.
Always Lovebs. Married people should
treat each other like lovers all their lives, then
they would be happy. Bickering and quarrel
ing would soon break off. love affairs; conse
quently lovers indulge in such only to a very
limited extent. But some people men and
women both when they have once got married
think they may do just as they please and it
will make no difference. Thov make a great
mistake. It causes all the difference in the
world. Women should grow more devoted, and
men more fond after marriage, if they have the
slightest idea of being happy as wives and hus
bands. It is losing sight of this fundamental
truth which leads to hundreds of divorces. Yet
many a man will soold his wife who would
never think of breathing a harsh word to his
sweetheart; und many a wife will be glum and
morose on her husband's return, who had only
smiles and words of cheer for him when he was
her suitor. How can such people expect to
be happy? ,
Beautiful Thoughts. The following para
graph occurs in the scientific lecture delivered
by Prof. Tyndall some months since at Man
chester, England: "I have sometimes not
sometimes, but often in the spring time
watched the advance of the sprouting leaves,
and of the grass, and of the. flowers, and ob
served the general joy of opening life in nature,
and I have asked myself this question: Can it
be that there is no being or thing iu nature that
knows more about these things than I do? Do
I in my ignorance represent the highest know
ledge of these things existing in the universe?
The man who puts that question to himself, if
ne De not a snallow man, it ne De a man capa
ble of being penetrated by profound thought,
will never answer the question by professing
that creed of atheism which has been so lightly
attributed to me."
A little girl went into a neighbor's house
one day, and gome apple parings lay on a plate
on the table. After sitting awhile, she said,
"I smell apples." "Yes," the lady replied, "I
guess you smell these apple parings on the
plate." "No.no," said she, "'taint them I
smell; I smell whole apples,"
Lies are hlltless swords; they cut the hands
that wield them. iVertfice.
Wooden Rails for Heavy Traffic.
The superintendent of the Muney Creek,
Penn., railroad, says the iron Age, is about to
try the experiment of laying wooden rails on
tbat portion of the road between Hughesville
and Tivoli, or two miles beyond. With a view
to testing the feasibility of wooden rails, the
superintendent recently had seven hundred feet
of track laid on tho curve just beyond Munoy
creek, and to the surprise of all, it has been
found to answer the purpose much better than
was anticipated. The rails are of sugar maple,
seven by four inches, and about twelve feet in
length. The ties are laid down in the ordinary
way, notched, and the rails "let into them
about four inches. They are then keyed firmly
with wooden wedges driven on the sides, whioh
makes the track very solid and firm. The lo
comotive and heavy cars have passed over this
experimental track at dlnerent rates or speed,
and it has been found to work admirably, and
give every assurance of success. The cost of
laying wooden rails, manufactured out of this
hard material that becomes almost as solid as
bone when seasoned is $450 per mile. Iron
costs $1,000 per mile. No iron spikes are re
quired, as tne rails are secured with wooden
wedges, aud the cost of track laying is about
the same as putting down iron. These wooden
tracks have been tried at different places in the
country, and invariably been found to work
well.
Euotbio Light fob Locomotives. Russian
railroad managers are experimenting with the
electrio light as a headlight for locomotives.
Successful results were obtained on the line
from Moscow to Kursk. The apparatus 'con
sisted of a battery connected with the front
axle, the revolution of whioh set it in operation,
and the traok. was illuminated a distance of
1,800 feet.
Thasksoiviso. The President has issued
his proclamation designating November 25th
as a day of thanksgiving and prayer throughont
the United States.
It has been truly said that it is the character
of the newspaper itself that give iu opinions
weight with Its readers.
YoJnq Folks' CoLiIpN:.
Charles 'Dickens and the Blind Children.
Talking of the pretty school mistress re
minds me of something I heard her telling her
boys and girls one day when they were seated
about her on the willow stumps as usual. She
said:
"Do you remember General 8 1, my
dears, who onoe visited ns in this school room!' '
" O yes," cried the children.
" Well, when he took tea with me on that
afternoon he happened to say that bis boy had
just been reading tho ' Old Curiosity Shop '
with great delight.
"Now, as I knew that the General's only
son was bliud, I was not a little puzzled.
Probably General S 1 read my feelings in
my face, for he added:
" Did you never hear of Charles Dickons'
visit to the blind asylum where Benny was
taught? He talked with the children and be
came so much interested in them that he de
cided to have an edition of the ' Old Curiosity
Shop' printed in raised letters for their use.
' Bless their hearts 1 They shall find little Nell in
the dark!' he said, all aglow. And so in time
my little boy was bending over the story, as
happy a little fellow as one oould wish to see.'
" 'Did he read it easily?' I asked.
" '0 yes, quite sol' said the General, cheer
fully. ' The letters, white as the rest of the
page, are raised, and are about an eighth of an
inch long. Benny runs his finger along the
lines one bv one. and understands every word.
You would think ho had eyes in his finger tips.
The sense of feeling is very acute, you know,
wbon one's sight is gone.' "
" I like Dickens more than ever now," said
one of the boys when the school mistress bad
finished her story."
" And so do i, said tour ot tne children.
St. Nicholas.
Don't be a "Dummy."
You often notice at the front of stores and
just at the entranoe, a figure that looks like a
person, it is oiten dressed very nnely and
costly, looking as though it might be some
body oi importance, xou are almost tempted
to raise your hat a little and politely salute it.
But a little closer inspection reveals the fact
that under those fine clothes there is nothing
but a "dummy."
No warm, generous heart overflowing with
ninnthv for the Door and sufferins is there: nn
outstretohed hand warmly to grasp yours with a
hearty shake, until the blood tingles through
your veins like a shock of electricity. No
active brain to devise wise plans and study how
best to educate the heart to love Jesus and our
fellow-men. No, it was just only a "dummy."
It was all outside show. And if those same
clothes were put on a living person, they would
no more give a good heart, an active mind and
a true character than they did to that
"dummy."
And yet so many young people seem W think
that if they can only dresB fine, wear large,
shiny jewels, and make a "fine show," that
they have all that is needed. What a mistake t
That industrious little fellow over there, who
has a worm, loving heart, and is working with
his hands to get an "education," and is truthful,
generous and christian in his conduct, is worth
a thousand "dummies," though his olothes are
poor and patched. The really good man or
woman is in the inside, the character, not the
clothes on the outside;
Whioh will you be ? A real, live, good-per
son, or a "dummy ?" Child's World.
The Story of a Little Princess.
Queen Victoria's daughters have all been
very carefully educated indeed; and as. for
Queen Victoria herself, why, when Bhe was a
little girl there seems to have been no end to
the things that were expected of
her little ladyship. It was not until
she was twelve years old that she understood
that she might come to be queen. Being only
a niece of the reigning monarch, William IV.,
who had no children, her wise mother did not
want Victoria's head elated with dreams of a
crown she might never wear. However, she
one day discovered it by what we may call an
arranged accident, for a genealogical table was
slipped into her history and there little Miss
found it. She took it up, so her old govern
ess told the story, and reading it said:
' ' 1 see that 1 am nearer the throne than I
thought. I never saw that before."
"It was never thought necessary that you
should, Princess," replied the governess.
" Now," said the child, after some moments
of thought, " many a child would boast, but
they don't know the difficulty. There is much
splendor, but there is more responsibility."
The princess lifted up the forefinger of her
right hand as she spoke, and then putting her
little hand into her teacher's said: "I will be
good. I understand now why 'you urged me
so much to learn even Latin. My cousin Au
gusta and Mary never did, but you told me
Latin is the foundation of English grammar,
and all the elegant expressions, and I learned
it, as you wished it, but I -understand it better
now. I will be good."
Smut in Grain.
Prof. W. H. Brewer, botanist to the Con
necticut State Board of Agriculture, says:
Smut is caused by a parasite fungus long
known to botanists by the name of Ustilago
ilaidis, and has frequently been desorlbed and
figured in botanioal works. Its development or
growth is also pretty well understood. The
fungus grows from very minute spores, which
are produced by millions, but exactly as to how
these spores reaot and infest the growing corn,
I can find nowhere any definite information,
nor have I seen any data relative to prevent
ives. We are left here to surmise and anal
ogize. Smut in wheat is produced by a similar fun
gus, similar in its botanical character and in
its results, and this wheat-smut fungus is much
better known. It is proved that this gains
access to the plant through the seed. The
spores are sticky, and adhere to the sound
grain at harvest or threshing, and are sown
with the seed wheat. As the new wheat plant
grows, the fungus develops with it in due time,
ripening its spores at harvest. The spores
may be killed and the crop saved by soaking
the seed wheat in strong brine, or in a weak
solution of sulphate of copper, oommonly
known as blue vitriol or bluestone. (The pro
portions used are from two to five ounces of
the crystals per bushel of wheat.) It would be
well to try the fame remedies with corn. I
have seen this recommended, but I have no
information as to the results. Corn -smut is
rarely abundant enough to affect the crop, and
is principally dreaded because it ia poisonous
to the cattle.
Oxtoin Gas, when inclosed in a thin glass
tube, will show itself under the action of a mag
net to be paramagnetio, inclining north and
south like iron: and while nitrogen, hvdrooen
and caibonio acids remain unaffected, phos
phorus, leather and wood show themselves to
be diamagnetio, and arrange themselves equa
tcrialiy from east to west.
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