The Steeds of Sm.
Hide not the steed of sin, my boy,
The wildly steeds of sin
lu some abyss of darkness lone
They're sure to plunge you in.
Their tramping hoofs move swiftly on;
Theirs is a liery breath
They'll bear thee downward to despair;
The destiny is death.
Intemperance, with gory eyes
Is speeding o'er the earth;
A. death in all his pathway lies
He's of a fiendish birth.
Hide not this fleet and foaming steed,
The victory he shall win;
"What rein or bit can stay his speed
To doom of deadly sin.
Oh, there are other dreadful steeds
That man oft dares to ride;
'That work upon this beauteous earth,
Invasion dark and wide;
Ride not the steeds of sin, my boy,
Of their swift hoofs beware!
They have a hot consuming breath,
And poisoned with despair.
V. 0. Bemis.
The Largest Volcano in the World.
"How we worked that passage! up hill
and down hill, over hard pointed lava
that cut through our shoe- like knife
blades; over light, crumbled lava, into
"which we sank up to our knees; over hills
-of lava that were themselves covered with
smaller hills; into ravines,aud over steam
cracks, some of which we could jump
with the aid of our long poles, and some
of which we had to find our way around ;
steam-cracks whose depth we could not
sec, and into which we thrust our walk-iug-stick,
drawing them out charred
black or aflame; over lava so hot that we
ran as rapidly and lightly as possible, to
prevent our shoes being scorched. Three
hours of this kind of work for the three
miles, and Hale-mau-mau, or 'House of
Everlasting Fire,1 lay spitting and moan
ing at our feet!
"A lake of boiling bva is what the
column of smoke marked out to us a
pit within a pit a lake of raging lava
fatty leet below us, ot which SL Nicholas
.gives you a picture taken 'from life.'
"It was so hot and suffocating on the
brink of this lake that we cut eye-holes
in our handkerchiefs, which we wore as
nasks. Even then we ha J to run back
every few moments fir a breath of fresher
air, though we were on the windward
side of the lake. The gases on the lee
ward side would suffocate one instantly.
Oh, the glory! This Hale-mau-mau,
whose fiie never goes out, is a huge lake
of l:quid lava, heaving with groans and
thmderins that cannot be described.
Around rs edge, as yon see in the pic
ture, the led lava was spouting fu
riously. Now and then the cen
ter of the lake cooled over, form
ing a thin crust of black lava, which,
suddenly cracking in a hundred direc
tion 3, let the blood-red fluid ooze up
through the seam, looking like liery
snakes.
"For three hours we gazed, spell
bound, though it seemed but a few mo
ments; we were chained to the spot, as U
every one else who visits Kilauea.
"The wind, as the jets rose in the air,
spun the molten drops of lava into fine
threads, which the natives call Pe.6's
hair, and veiy like hair it is.
"All this time, under our feet, were
rumblings and explosions that made us
start and run now and then, for fear of
Tjeiug blown up; coming back after each
fright, unwilling to leave the spot.
"Occasionally the embankment of the
lake cracked off and fell in, being imme
diately devoured by the hungry flood.
"Terrible as is old Pete, the volcano's
tutelar deity, she is an excellent cook.
She keeps a great many ovens heated for
the use of her guests, and no two at the
same temperature, so that you may select
one of any heat you wish. In these ovens
steani-cracks) she boils tea, coffee and
eggs; or cooks omelets and meats. You
wrap the beef or chicken, or whatever
meat you may wish to cook, in leaves,
and lav it in the steam-crack. Soon it is
thoroughly cooked, and deliciously, too.
"She also keeps a tub uf w ai in water
ready for bathers.
"She doesn't mean to be laughed at,
though, for doine this kind of work, and
ioing it in an original kind of way. Af
ter she has given you one or two round
shakings, which she generally does,you'll
have great respect for the old lady, and
feel quite like taking off your hat to her.
With the shakings and the thunderings
under-foot, and now and then the open
ing of a long steam-crack, she keeps her
visitors quite in awe of her powers,though
she is probably several hundred years old.
"Not far from the little hut where we
sleep, close to the precipice, is Pe'e's
gi eat laboratory where she makes sul
phur. We wear our straw hats to the
sulphur banks, and she bleaches them
for us.
"Well, this a strange, strange land, old
many Pele being one of its curiosities.
"I only hope you may see the active
old goddess before she dies. She hasn't
finished her work yet. Once in a while
she runs down to the shore to bathe and
.look at the Pacific Ocean, and when
there she generally gives a new cape to
Hawaii by running out into the sea."
Majestic old Pele! Long may she live!
Sarah Goan in St. Nicholas.
To cure vertigo or dizziness, arising
from dyspepsia, eat food that is easily di
gested, avoiding pastry and fat meat.
Sometimes it is occasioned by costive
mess, and in this case the remedy is to
&eep the bowels open with gentle physic.
Avoid coffee, ardent spirits, late suppers,
and go to bed and rise early. Take plenty
f outdoor exercise.
"Hard.
In the country town6 and villages in
New England, in the good old times
even within the memory of the writer
young girls, of parentage, often hired out
to do housework, as did the young men
hire out to work on the farm, that they
might learn the life lesson of self-sup-pocting
labor, and earn the wherewith to
commence life on their own account.
Very many ot" the best and most capable
female servants in our city homes, in
those times, were of country families,
and were treated, in many cases, like
other members of the family.
But there has been a change. Society,
in the business centres, is not as it used
to be; and in the change tbere'has cropped
ou a certain class of aristocracy which
make3 itself ridiculous. I witnessed a
case not long tince, aud heard a reproof
administered that was one of the hardest
hits I ever saw given.
Mrs. Giitterly (we will call her) had
been married four or five years, aud dur
ing that time had Tesided ii the city,
where she had become very fashionable
and fastidious something of the Flora
McFiimsey order. She was on a vwt to
her old friends in the town of her nativ
ity, and was spending the evening with
Mrs. Goodhue, who had given quite a
party in her honor.
At the well-ordered tea table (supper
table, Mrs. G. always called it), a goodly
company were assembled, and the girl
the girl who worked in the kitchen with
a neighbor's daughter who had been em
ployed for the occasion, sat down to the
meal with the re&t.
Mrs. Giitterly beheld, and was amazed.
Later in the evening, when the work in
the kitchen had all been done, and affairs
in the big buttery attended to, the hired
girl came in, dressed in a new calico, aud
set herself down to the work of social
enjoyment. She was a bright-faced,
pretty girl, aud knew how to behave .
This seemed to be too much for Mrs.
Giitterly, and when she saw that the
hired help was really admitted to a party
given especially in her honor, her pride
rebelled. Turning to her hostess, she
said, in tones loud enough to be heard
over the room .
"My dear Mrs. Goodlme, how can you
bear to allow7 your servants to stand on a
social equality with yourself? I think
servants should be taught to know their
places."
"Really, Betsey,'' (Mrs. Giitterly had
fashioned her Christian name into Lizzie),
said the hostess, speaking with distinct
ness and kindly frankness, "I think I en
joy it best to keep up the old custom.
I always did it. iou remember when
you worked for me in the kitchen, I al
ways treated you just "
A sharp cry of alarm from Mrs. Lizzie
Giitterly arrested the good woman's
speech. It seemed as though the atmos
phere of the room had suddenly become
stifling. She arose and went to the win
dow, where she could get a breath of
fresh air, and where she could conceal
the flaming of her cheeks, which rouge
and pearl paint could not hide.
The Color of Mars.
Several hypotheses have been advanced
to explain the reddish color which char
acterizes the bright part of the planet's
disk. Mr. Huggins comes to the conclu
sion that this peculiarity is not due to
the planet's atmosphere. Indeed, Arago
has called attention to the fact that upon
this hypothesis the redness should be
m re decided at the borders of the planet
than in the central portions, since the lu
minous rays traverse a greater thickness
of atmosphere, and traverse it more ob
liquely, in the regions near the limb,
when the contrary effect is observed. It
has also been remarked that this hypoth
esis does not explain why the red tint is
not general. Mr. Lockyer has suggested
that the color may depend upon the
cloudy state of the planet, and the spec
troscope gives considerable support to
this hypothesis. In 18G2 the planet was
clearer of clouds and more ruddy than
in 1SG4. The explanation of this is that
when Mars is clouded the light
reflected by the clouds undergoes
less absorption than that reflect
ed by the planet itself. The spec
troscope indicated this increased absorp
tion on one occasion by showing that the
reflected sunlight was without a large
portion of the blue rays.
Lambert has attempted to explain the
ruddy color of the spots, and their disap
pearance or indistinctness during the
Martial winter, by the hypothesis that
the vegetation on the planet is red in
stead of green. Hence, in the Martial
summer the surface has a ruddy
appearance, which disappears in
winter. As Mr. Proctor remarks,
if this hypothesis were true, the rapid
changes of color, which have been noted
by many observers, would indicate the
sudden blooming forth of Martial vegeta
tion, over hundreds of square miles of the
planet's surface. Finally, we have the
hypothesis, first advanced, we believe,
by Herschel and still accepted as the
best explanation of the phenomenon by
many astronomers that the red color is
due to the character of the planet's soil.
Ghas. W. Raymond, in the Galaxy.
A Danbury man, who went to a drug
store to have a prescription prepared,
seeing nobody but a clerk present, said :
"Young man, are you holding company
with a girl?" "Yes, sir," answered the
clerk with a blush. "Do you think all
the world of her?" "I do," said the clerk,
firmly, although blushing considerably.
"Is she in town?" pursued the customer,
anxiously. "No, sir, she is away on a
visit." "That will do," said the man,
"you can't fool around any prescription
for me." And he went away.
"Blood will tell." Vein thought.
Duck-Shooting in Maryland.
There are various ways of shooting
the ducks of the Chesapeake and its
broad affluent, the Susquehanna. Gen
tlemen for the most part shoot from
"blinds" and use decoys; while market
gunners ue the "sink-boat" or the "night
reflector." "Blinds" are any sort of ar
tificial concealment placed at an advan
tageous point upon the shore. They
generally consist of a seat in a sort of
box or shelter some tour leet deep, and
capable of containing three or four per
sons and a couple of dogs. They are
thoroughly covered up with pine branches
and young pine-tree:?, and communicate
with the sh're by a path similarly
sheltered. The water in front is com
paratively shallow, and, if it contain
beds of wild celery on the bottom, is
sure to be a feeding ground for the ducks.
About thirty yards from the "blind" a-e
anchored a fleet of perhaps a hundred
and fifty decoys. They are wooden
ducks roughly carved and painted, but
devised with a strict regard for variety
and sex. At a little distance they are
calculated t deceive any eye, and they
certainly have a great deal of weight in
determining the action of a passing
flock or "bunch" ot ducks. The sink
bortt is in reality a floating blind. It is
nothing aore than an anchored box or
coffin with hinged fl.ips to keep the wa
ter from invading it. The gunner lies
on his back in it, completely out of sight,
and around it are placed the decoys. It
is extremely tiresome work, but very de
structive to the birds. They float down
the stream when shot and are picked up
from a boat stationed below. It is a
wholesale murdering sort of thing and
has little "tport" about it. The "night
reflector" is quite as ban. It consists of
a la-ge reflector behind a common naph
tha lamp and mouuted upon the bow of
a boat. The lat'er ia rowed out into the
stre.un where the ducks are "bedded"
for tho night, and the biros, fascinated
by the light, swim to it from every, side
and btb aguinst the boat in helpless con
fusion. The number of birds secured de
pends only on the caliber of the gun.
From twenty to thirty ducks to each
shot fired is a common experience. The
h-inter who uses one of these reflectors
may succeed in getting into half a dozen
"beds" in a night. Another thins: he
sometimes succeeds in is getting a charge
of shot in his body from some in
dignant sportsman on shore. If a rifle
is handy and any one chances to be up
and about at the hour, no hesitation i
felt at having a crnck at the "pot-hunter's"
nefarious light. From ''Canvas
back and Terrapin ;" Scribner.
The Laocoon. The Latin poet Virgil
has drawn a vivid picture of one of the
cenes which hastened the fall of ancient
Troy. The noble Trojan priest, Laoccon,
denounced the infatuation of his coun
trymen, when they determined to receive
the monstrous wooden horse, stuffed with
Greek troops and princes, into the city.
He tried every means to rouse his coun
trymen to a sense of their peril, and at
last hurled his spear against the hollow
fraud. But lest his passion might be ef
fective, the hostile gods that helped the
Greeks sent two snakes over the sea from
Tenedos, with crests dropping blood and
quivering tongues that licked their hissing
mouths. They made their way in the
city at once to Laocoon and his sons,
wound themselves in frightful festoons
round their limbs,bound them in a group of
agony which sculpture has made immor
tal, crushed and choked them, and reared
their crests and poisonous tongues over
the brow of the patriotic priest, whose
chaplet wTas black with their poison and
red with his own death. Thus the Church
of Troy was silenced; the serpents nestled
safe under the buckler of the goddess in
the sanctuary; the wooden horse was ad
mitted,and that night Troy was in flames.
Starr King.
The India Famine and American Cot
ton. The long continued and disastrous
drouth in the Madras districts of India
will result in the shipment of only about
100,000 bales of cotton from that coun
try to Great Britain during the present
year. This is a shrinkage of C7,000 bales
from the shipments made to England in
187G and about 150,000 bales from the
average yield. The failure of the Indian
crops will thus create a demand for
American cotton in the markets of Great
Britain larger than there has been for
years. Of course the drouth has not
wholly destroyed the Madras production
but only curtailed it, so that the supply
will be entirely inadequate to the de
mand usually made for it.
Reports indicate that our crops will be
better than the average in Georgia, Ala
bama, Mississippi, Texas and other re
gions. Rains have fallen at near inter
vals and in such quantity as to make the
prospects for a good crop all through the
South most excellent. Considering these
points we may expect to export at least
200,000 bales more cotton than usual this
year, at fair pces. Chicago Journal of
Uommerce.
A literary gentleman, wishing to be
undisturbed one day, instructed his Irish
servant to admit no one, and, if any one
should inquire for him, to give an equiv
ocal answer. Night came, and the gen
tleman proceeded to interrogate Pat as
to his visiters:
"Did any one call?"
"Yes, sir ! wan gintleman."
"What did he say?"
"He axed were;yer honor in?"
"Well! what did you tell him?"
"Sure ! I gave him a quivikle answer,
jisr."
"How was that?"
"I axed him was his grandmother a
monkey !"
To confess a fault is to lighten it.
The War.
The talk among the European powers
about interfering before long with the
combatants in the East and so preventing
their carrying the war over into another
year, is too loud aud open to be passed
by ai of no special significance. It is
becoming more evident that the powers
are restive under a continuance of hostili
ties and would be glad to bring them to
an end. This they seem to think they
can do without passing judgment on
either party, simply calliug it a drawn
battle. No doubt Turkey would accede
to terms of peace, offered on such a basis,
provided they involved nothing like hu
miliation ; but what Russia might incline
to do, or how far it would feel disposed
to favor the proposition of the powers, is
somewhat problematical. For although
the Russian army has secured a foothold
in Bulgaria from which to launch the
campaign of next year, it might be will
ing to regard this aa triumph enough
under the circumstances, and to forego
its design of advancing upon Adriano
ple and beyond. But the fact that the
proj 'Ct is openly talked of is enough to
show that it is not without a greater de
gree of support in the cabinet than
might be generally suspected. It is mani
fested by this time that the war tells ma
terially on the general prosperity of Eu
rope by renderiag all the foundations of
peace so uncertain. There is the spot
where it hurts so sorely, and this is the
reason why interference is now openly
broached in quarters that speak with
something like authority.
It would puzzle one more than ever to
say precisely what the war is being waged
for. If the Bulgarian atrocities stimu
lated it, these have to all intents been for
some time lost sight of. Other aims and
feelings have succeeded than such as are
implied in redressing those wrongs. Rus
sia has encountered a foe worthy of her
steel, aud in the protracted struggle she
has had occasion to think of many other
things. The religious war has been grad
ually changing into one for power, which
indeed it was in the beginning, when
stripped of its ostentatious disguises. If
Russia, however, is to become the neces
sary agent at whose hands Turkey is to
be schooled in the processes of civiliza
tion, or semi-civilization, she will not
have gone into this contest in vain, what
ever may have been her original motives.
Some such disciplinary exercise was es
sential to prepare Turkey,if she shall ever
do so, to enter the European family of na
tions. And inasmuch as Russia herself
can hardly claim full admission to that
circle, since she is Asiatic as well as Eu
ropean, it rnay be in the design of Provi
dence that one result of this prolonged
collision of herswith Turkey is to elim
inate from her system also what still re
mains of barbarism, aud by degrees
transform her as well as Turkey to the
condition in which all states must come
before they can expect to enter the circle
of civilization. Mass. Ploughman.
The Matter of Tramps.
ThecharacteristicSjhabits and tendencies
of this increasingly dangerous class of
people are more and more engaging the
attention of those w hose thoughts are
turned to the security aud welfare of so
ciety. We recently made a note of what
had been suggested as the only practical
remedy for the tramp danger and nui
sance. Mr. Elihu Burritt, in a recent
letter to the public, remarks that in com
parison with the class of foreign vagrants
the American tramp is the very worst of
his class. The tramp in England he
describes as a solitary vagabond, who is
easily managed, while in this country he
is gregarious and formidable from union
with his fellows, who move in bands
through the country, though they may
deploy as individual skirmishers, levying
contributions of food and clothing under(
a menace understood, if not expressed.
Mr. Burritt says he must have Old
World institutions to protect society
against them, and he thinks the English
w'orkhouse precisely adapted to their
case, with such improvements as we may
see fit to add. In the Northern States,
he thinks there should be one such work
house for every county, and several where
the population is dense. We could then
say to every able-bodied vagrant "There
is the workhouse within a day's walk at
farthest. There you will find plenty of
work and better food and lodging than
you can get by begging." We should
thus get at their true inwardness at once.
What really keeps this dangerous class
in condition is the mistaken good-feeling
of the people on whom they really prey.
It is a false sympathy that feeds and fur
nishes them on their unbroken line of
march. If those who are disposed to
give this gratuitous assistance to vagrants
who have not the slightest claim to it,
would only propose in every instance
that the applicant should set about some
piece of work that was kept always ready,
they would very soon be disabused of a
weakness that is really a hurt to the
community.
Look happy, if you do not feel so.
Present a cheerful exterior, though your
heart and mind be troubled. Never wear
a face which, as Sidney Smith says, "is a
breach of the peace." Dr. Johnson used
to observe that the habit of looking at the
best side of a thing was worth more to a
man than a thousand pounds a year, and
Samuel Smiles ebserves: "We possess the
power, to a great extent, of so exercising
the will as to direct the thoughts upon
subjects calculated to yield happiness
and improvement rather than their oppo
sites. In this way the habit of happy
thought may be made to spring up like
any habit. And to bring up men or wom
en with a genuine nature of this sort, a
good temper and a happy frame of mind
is perhaps of even more importance, in
many cases, than to perfect them in much
knowledge and accomplishments."
Farmers' Homes.
A farmer's home may be made a place
of great comfort and attraction or quite
the reverse. The fact of its being out of
the dubt and away from the din of the
city, and surrounded by pleasant land
scapes, is calculated to enhance its beauty
aud add to its comfort, but we too often
find among the farmers nothing but in
cessant toiling, a dearth of home com
forts, a conviction on the part of the
farmer that time spent in an effort to
beautify and make pleasant his home is
absolutely thrown away, and the result
is that we see every thing rough, soiled,
untidy, and the life a ceaseless round of
care and labor. Yet we find very differ
ent scenes than this, and even amon
farmers of quite limited means, but of a
more improved taate, perhaps, who make
their country life and country homes the
source of much enjoyment. It is not
unreasonable to estimate, taking all the
year round, that out of a" dozen hours of
the day two might be devoted to brush
ing up around the premises, planting
and training ornamental trees and shrub
bery, in the cultivation of flowers and
the collection of interesting objects in
natural history. Thus the home may be
made a more pleasant and atti active place
for the often overworked farmer's wife,
and a better and more suitable place in
which to bring up and develop the bet
ter tastes of the children. A?ain : the
farmer can doubtless find time enough
trom the essential labors of the farm to
take the family on many a pleasant ride
around the premises and through the
neighborhood. This time he may afiord
to take olten, even trom the lighter labors
of the farm, since in that way he may be
even "more perfectly fulfilling the pur
poses of a short life than in merely roll
ing together dollars and cents by unin
terrupted work." Civilization is gradu
ally improving the condition of the
ugiiuiLuini pcupiu. mm iue increase
of the means and facilities for cultivation
a powerful agency is ever active in the
elevation and improvement of the coun
try people themselves. The exercise of
improved methods and the use of im
proved machinery calls for the exercise
of thought, and the ornamentation of the
farmhouse and grounds develops the aes
thetic tastes, and thus the experiment
gradually goes on. The principal agen
cy which is operating to produce the de
sired result is the common school system,
and the improved methods and means of
instruction now in reach of the common
people. Many more in proportion to the
entire population, than formerly, come
up from the cornfields to attend the acad
emies, seminaries aud universities, and
returning cultivated and enlightened into
the agricultural districts, infuse an im
proved element into country life. Ash
land Oregon) Tidings.
Trim the Hoofs of Colts.
In many instances the insensible por
tion of the hoofs of colts and of young
horses will grow out so round and flat
that fragments sometimes will be broken
oil. This is more particularly the case if
colts are allowed to run at large occa
sionally on hard ground, gravelly and
stony lands and hard roads; the hoofs
will wear fast enough, as nature evident
ly intended they should. But if young
horses are kept on smooth turf, their feet
must be kept short by artificial means.
The most convenient way to trim long
hoofs is to let one person hold a block of
hard wood against the hoofs, or hold the
hoof on the square end of the wood while
an attendant cuts off small pieces with a
sharp chisel and mallet. Use an inch
finer chisel rather than a large one, as a
two-inch chisel will require heavier blows
with a mallet. A pair of sharp nippers
(sometimes vulgarly callod snips) may
often be employed for such a purpose,
when a colt is so restive that a chisel and
mallet cannot be used.
We have in mind a colt having unusu
ally long hoofs, which had in his play
stepped upon some hard substance and
broken off the front of the foot to the
quick. The accident was attended with
some bleeding and excessive lameness,
the suffering brute being unwilling to put
his foot to the ground. Ten minutes'
work would have saved the animal much
pain, and the owner might -have had the
benefit of three months' growth instead
of having it arrested for that period. But
the occasional breaking off of a part of
the hoof is a mere trifle when compared
with other mischiefs resulting from the
same cause, vvnen tne toe is too long
the strain on the fetlock joint will be
greatly increased, so that permanent in
jury to the suspensory ligament of the
foot often follows. Young horses fre
quently have wind-galls and other evi
dences of sprains before they are put to
work. In many instances such ailments
occur,when shortening of the toe has been
neglected until the hoofs have grown to
an unnatural length. Practical Farmer.
Tea Culture. While labor is high
priced and of poor quality, it is hopeless
to believe that tea can be profitably pro
duced in the United States. Hundreds
of experiments have been made in years
past with the tea-plant in various parts
of the States for the purpose of ascertain
ing if it was adapted to our soil and cli
mate; and although in many instances
they have proved successful, so far as the
growth of plants was concerned, still the
high price of labor has heretofore pre
vented extending its cultivation. Of late,
experiments in tea culture have attracted
considerable attention in California; but
the same difficulties which have attended
it elsewhere in this country prevent any
considerable progress.
m i
Genius, like the sun upon the dial,
gives to the human heart both its shadow
and its light.
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