A Birthday Greeting.
What shall I wish thee for the coming year ?
Twlre months of dreamlike ease T No care ?
No pain?
Bright spring calm summer autumn without
rain '
Of bitter tears? Would'st have it thus, my
friend?
Vhat lesson, then, were learnt at the year's
end? y
'"'
Y hat shall I wish thee, then ? God knoweth
well
If I could have my way, no shade of woe
Should ever dim thy sunshine but I know
Strong courage is not learnt in happy sleep,
Nor patience sweet by eyes that never weep.
Ah, would my wishes were of move avail
To keep fromthee the many jars of life!
Stilf let me wish thee courage-for the strife
The happiness that comes of w rk well done
And afterwirds the peace of victory won!
UNDER THE WEATHER.
"Six of us!" said Fenella Greyton,
'an I nothing to live upon!"
She looked around upon the rest
oj the Greyton family with the tragic
air of a modern Medea.
The Grey tons lived in a pretty, old
manor house, on the Bloomingdale
road, just a pleasant drive out of town.
They liked pretty draperies, and cul
tivated rare roses, and painted lovely
little amateur pictures, and basked, in
a sort of unthinking way, in life's sun
shine. They didn't know quite how much
income they had, nor exactly where it
came from. They only knew that
everything was in the hands of "poor
papa's" lawyer a darling, white-haired
old philanthropist, who was devot
ed to the heathen, and who officiated
as secretary to half a dozen foreign
mission associations. And whenever
they wanted money they went to him
for it
And one day, when Mrs. Greyton
and her daughter Lilla went to the"
city office, with a bundle of unpaid
bills, to get Mr. Framingham to write
a checque for them, the door was pad
locked, and a little notice "To Let!"
was tacked up on it.
"Where had Mr. Framingham gone?
Nobody knew.
When would he return ? The public
was densely ignorant on that subject.
"Why had he gone ? And in answer
to this question there was a very uni
versal shrugging of shoulders, and a
whisper about a general "sraash-upr
Poor Mrs. Greyton! She and Lilla
were both as ignorant and inexperi
enced of the world as a pair of white
kittens, and it was some time before
she could comprehend that Mr. Fra
mingham was a thorough-faced villian.
and that she and her little flock were
penniless.
"What shall we do?" murmured
Mrs. Greyton, after she had wept
through her whole supply of pocket
handkerchiefs. "Couldn't we sell our hand-painted
china?" said Clarice, a swarthy-browed
girl of eighteen. "I designed every
piece myself. And Mr. Favalli said "
"Pshaw!" curtly interrupted Fenella,
"Just look at the china-store, crowded
full of far finer work. Poor Clarie!
they wouldn't pay you the price of the
mineral paint it took to do them, for
your placques and vases."
"I can do art-embroidery very nfte
ly," suggested Mona, a tall, shy girl,
with liquid black eyes, and jetty hair
growing low on hejf forehead.
"The embroidery market is overfull,''
said Fenella, who was the incarnation
of common sense for the family. "If
j ou could do housework now, Mona "
Mona looked down at her slim, white
hands, all sparkling with rings, and
shuddered.
But Bess, the youngest, came brave
ly to the rescue.
"The first thing," said she, "is to
send all the servants off, except Ann.
We can't afford to pay four girls and a
man any longer."
. "But who is to keep the garden in
order," cried Clarice, "if Ave discharge
the man?",
"It must go without being kept in
Drder," said Bess, "or else we must do it
ourselves."
"My poor roses '"sighed Mrs. Greyton.
"Mamma's roses shall not suffer,"
said Lilla. "I will lpok after them
myself."
"And old Mrs. Playford, who spends
month with us every summer?" said
Mona. "And the Bidgood girls, who
always invite their friends here to the
midsummer picnics and all the people
ivho drive out from the city to lunches
tad teas" ,
""We must make a clearance of the
ivhole of 'em!" said Fenella, crisply
"unless, indeed,they would like to make
a business matter of it and pay their
board."
"Oh, Fenella!" cried Mrs. Greyton.
""Well, why not, mamma? So far as
I can see, we haven't got money
enough to buy our own bread and but
terso how can we afford to order ices,
and frozen puddings, and pates de foie
gras for other people? But if we had
a regular income. I am almost' sure,
with Ann's help, that we could set a
very nice table for boarders."
Lilla looked terrified.
"Mamma," said she, "has it come to
this?"
Bess frowned savagely.
"Lilla," said she, "don't be a fool!
unless you think you would like to
starve."
And while the family were still in
committee-of-the-whole, old Mrs. Play,
ford's huge, old-fashioned barouche
rumbled up to the door, with a Leaning
Tower of Pisa strapped on behind in
the shape of trunks!
"Pm a little earlier than usual, my
sweet girls," said she, with a smile
that revealed the golden hinges of her
false teeth after a most ghastly fashion.
"But the season is intolerably hot, and
my doctor declares it would be suicide
for me to remain longer in town. And
I know, darlings, I'm always sure of a
welcome here!"
Mrs. Greyton was about to reply
when Fenella stepped forward.
"Then you haven't heard of it?"said
she. "We are ruined, Mrs. Playford.
Old Mr. Framingham has spent all our
money and gone to Australia. We
can't entertain company any" longer.
But if youould like to board here, at
a reasonable compensation, we shall be
glad to receive you, and give you all
the comforts of a home."
Mrs. Playford's jaw dropped; she
tuired a sickly, putty color.
"ochn, John!" she cried, to the man;
"you needn't unstrap those trunks. I
have so many friends who are anxious
for my society, that really I am not at
liberty to accept your very singular
proposition" (to Fenella). "Of course,
(to Mrs. Greyton) "I sympathize
deeply with you, but we all know that
riches have wings, and I never did put
any confidence in Mr. Framingham as
a business man. So sorry that things
should have come to such an awkward
complication!"
"There she goes the old harridan!"
said Mona, as the withered hand waved
itself from the carriage-window, half
way down the drive. "She has lived
upon us for six summers, and now she
wouldn't fling one of us a penny if we
were staiving!"
Old Mrs. Playford was better than an
advertisement in the newspaper. The
Bidgood girls came no more; the city
people kept sublimely away. The old
adage concerning the flight of rats
from a falling house, came strictly true-
"Rosa Bidgood hasn't even come
after that conserve of rose-leaves I
promised her," said Mona, sadly.
"And I gave five dollars for the spices
and essential-oils, and I dried the
jacqueminot and niel-leaves so careful
ly and Clarie painted such a beautiful
butter-fly jar for it!"
"Can I have the pot-pourri, Mona?'
asked Bess, suddenly.
"Yes,if you want it,"answered Mona,
with a shrug of her shoulders. "We
can't eat nor drink dried rose-leaves."
"Perhaps we can," said Bess to her
self. And she rumaged out divers and
sundry rare old porcelain jars and vases
from the family store, filled them with
the sweet, strangely-scented mass that
Mona had concocted, and carried them
quietly to town.
"It smells exactly like Mrs. Grey ton's
drawing-room at the manor house
hero!" exclaimed Ferdinand Houghton,
as he entered the studio of Miss Mal
vina Morris, a fair feminine sculptor
who had some very original ideas of
her own, and was on "hail-fellow-well-met"
terms with all the other artists of
both sexes.
She was neither young nor pretty,
yet every one liked Miss Morris.
"Well, I should think it might," said
she. "Do you see those wine-jars on
the shelf?"
"Of course I do. What are they?"
"They are filled with conserved rose
leaves. Mona Greyton made them.
Bess, the second sister, wants me to
sell them for her. Real old porcelain;
leaves full of the subtlest scents of
Bendemeer. Will you take one at ten
dollars, Ferdy?"
"Then it's true?" said Houghton.
"About their financial troubles?
Unfortunately, yes," said Miss Malvina,
"I only wish I could help them. Come,
buy the pot-pourri there's a good f elT
low!"
"It's my last ten-dollar bill," said
Ferdinand, "but here goes! Mona
Greyton is an angel.1 Do you supposef
Miss Mally, she would accept a poor
artist like me, with no particular in
come and nothing fb live on?"
"Try it and see," said Miss Morris.
"But I'm not half good enough for
her."
"Possibly," acceded Miss Malvina.
"But there are five girls, you know.and
nothing to live on."
So Ferdinand bought the pot-pourri,
and rode out at once to the manor
house.
"Your uncle, sir, wants to see you up
at the house," said the groom who led
out his little gray nag.
"I can't stay this morning," said
Houghton. "I am in a hurry."
"But it is some very particular busi
ness," said the man, running down the
pavement after him.
"Oh, hang business!" said Houghton;
and off he rode.
Mona was in the garden, with a bas
ket, gathering more rose-leaves. She
thought the pot-pourri question prom
ised favorably.
Clarice was painting desperately
away at old India ginger-jars, up stairs.
Fenella was writing an advertise
ment, "Boarders Wanted," for' the
paper. x
"The house is as big as a hoteL"said
she. "Why shouldn't we make some
use of it?"
Mona Greyton listened with smiles
and tears to Ferdinand Houghton's
vehement proposal.
"But what could we live upon ?"said
she.
"Why, I could paint pictures!" said
this sanguine young wooer. "I'm sure
to sell them at a tearing big prjee, as
soon as my name becomes a little better
known; and I'll have your mother and
all the girls to live with us."
"Oh, Ferdinand!" said Mona, half
laughing, half crying. "
And then the young artist knew that
he had not pleaded in vain.
"And it's all owing to the pot
pourri," said she, "the sweet, poetical
pot-pourri!"
"Every bit of it," said Ferdinand.
But his uncle listened gravely to the
tale, when the young man came home
late in the moonlight, with his heart
full of his love affairs.
"Humph!" said Uncle Barlow.
"How many pictures did you sell dur
ing the past year?"
"Two, sir!"
"At how much?".
"Seventy-five dollars each!" reluctant
ly admitted Ferdinand.
"Humph!" again grunted this re
lentless old Rhadamanthus. "And you
expect to maintain a wife and her
mother and four sisters, on a hundred
and fifty dollars a year!"
"I shall manage to maintain them in
some waj, sir," said the unabashed
nephew. "There's always the lar
West, you know!"
Uncle Barlow laughed.
"I think I can manage to do better
than that for you, you young scamp,'
said he. "If you had turned back this
morning when I sent for you, instead
of pelting off to the manor house, as if
it was a question of . life or death, you
would have learned that old Framing
ham had been overhauled in London,
en route for Van Dieman's Land,
gorged with plunder, like an old leech!"
"What, sir," shouted Ferdinand
"The Greyton's defaulting lawyer?"
"Himself, and none other," said
Uncle Barlow. "We had a cable tele
graph at eleven o'clock. Mrs. Grey
ton's money is all safe in the hands of
our London agent!"
"But, sir," gasped Ferdinand, "how
do you come to know this ?"
"Old Dorrance Greyton did me a
favor once, when I was a struggling
man," said Mr. Barlow.- "It was not
my intention to stand by and see his
widow defrauded without some slight
effort in her behalf. It seems' that I
w as just in time."
So there was an end to Greyton
troubles. They kVpt the old manor
house. Ferdinand Houghton set up
his studio there in one of the great
north-lighted rooras,and Mrs.IIoughton
makes pot-pourris every year, of rose
leaves. And a3 fast as the other girls marry
off which is by no means a slow busi
ness, for they are every one of, them
handsome she gives them each a
wedding present of a sweet conserve of
scented leaves, in an old Oriental jar.
"For pot-pourris are lucky!" she
says, with the, wisest of nods. "
TOPICS OF THE DAT.
Dr. A. Graham Bell says that out of
over 30,000 deaf mutes in the United
States, more than half are congenitally
deaf, and the proportion in the Old
World is still greater. Deafness is far
less common in. negroes than among
white people.
The Medical Record estimates that
among 1,000 doctors the annual death
rate ranges between fifteen and twenty-five,
making a yearly loss of 1,800
physicians out of our 90,000. But the
supply is such as to remove all cause
of apprehension, for the number of
medical graduates in 1882-3 was 3,879,
more than double the estimated num
ber of deaths.
A poultry farm of G,000 Plymouth
Rocks is owned and carried on by
A. C. Hawkins at Lancaster, Mass.,
says the Boston Cultivator. He calcu
lates to have about 8,000 fowls every
fall and carries over about 2,500 lay
ing hens through winter. His farm
contains twenty-five acres, and his
poultry buildings occupy an acre and
a half. They are situated on the
slope of a hill and comprise six or sev
en sheds 200 feet in length. Each
shed is divided into apartments of
12x20 feet, and about twenty-five hens
are kept in each division. A yard is
made in front of each apartment, so
that the members of each are by
themselves.
It requires a very experienced guess
er to decipher tne blind addresses of
the letters received at the Washington
dead letter office, and for that purpose
women are employed. In the presence
of a correspondent recently one of
these guessers made out that Mount
Islia meant Monticello; that Tuppke
Kance, meant Topeka, Kan,;Eyewood,
Hillinoie meant High wood, III.; Ocreg,
Alia., meant Oak Ridge, Ala. "Now
here is one of a kind that sometimes
trouble us," said the guesser, picking
up a letter. "It has the street and
number, but no city or state is given.
This is directed to 2,518 St. Mary's
avenue, corner Twenty-sixh street,'
and that is all. I look at the directo
ries and I find that several cities have
streets so designated; but these streets
cross eachother in Omaha. So St.
Mary's avenue, corner of Twenty-sixth
street, must be there." ,
It is but a few years since anything
like systematic bee culture has been
attempted in the United States, but
the business has now become an im
portant industry, more than 35,000,000
pounds of honey being yearly produc.
ed and sold. The trade is principally
carried on by large capitalists, who
often have from 2,500 to 5,000 swarms
of bees. In California the bees are
farmed out, that is apiaries of 100
swarm3 or so are placed in the ground
of farmers, generally from three to
four miles apart The farmers receive
a fixed rent or a share of the honey
for their compensation, as may be
agreed upon. On an average one acre
of ground is estimated to- support
twenty-five swarms of bees, and the
yield of a swarm is generally about
fifty pounds of honey a year.
A Washington Territory correspon-
dent of The San Francisco Chronicle
alleges that the smuggling of China
men from British Columbia has attain
ed the proportions of a regular business
there. He says that they come from
Victoria, and are smuggled across to
Dungeness, Point Discovery, or Point
Wilson. The distance is about thirty-
five miles, "and they come over night,
in Indian canoes, accompanied by
white guides or pilots. As wages in
British Columbia are much lower than
on the Ymerican side and as it has
been found practically impossible to
watch the coast line, unless a large
force is placed there, this smuggling
bids fair to continue.
California fruit growers have dis
covered that apricots bleached with
sulphur fumes and then dried in the
sun are superior to those that are dried
in any other manner or that are
canned.- They regard this fact of very
great importance to the whole State.
It enables every fruit. culturist, how
ever limited his means, and however
small the product of his orchards, to
dry his own' fruit for market, and
makes him independent of the canning
factories. It is also stated that fruit
I can be prepared in this manner more
' cheaply than in any other, that its
weight Is better preserved, and that it
of superior flavor. Large dealers in
dried fruit say that the market for
such products of California orchards
will always be greater than the supply
can possibly be. The United States
alone will readily take all the fruit of
the kind and 'quality now being pro
duced by the sun-drying process that
California can ever raise. Many thou
sands of apricot trees have been plant-
withm a recent date in orchard
form in southern California. Sun-dried
apricots are being sold to California
dealers at double the price paid for
the best raisins.
Statistics are being collected in
France for the purpose of forming an
estimate as to whether the total num
ber of inhabitants in the country will
be greater or less than it is now at
the close of the century. Thus far
the figures tend to show that there is
likely to be a decrease rather than an
increase in the population. There are
not upon an average more than two
children now in each family in France
and, though there has always been an
increase in the population since 1806
the rate of the increase has been con
stantly declining from thirty-eight per
10,000 yearly to twenty-six per 10,000,
Returns also state that out of every
100 inhabitants of Paris only thirty
six are born in the department, fifty
seven coming from the provinces, and
seven from abroad. Moreover, while
he number of births remains nearly
stationary in France, the, rate of in
fant mortality is enormous, being as
much as twenty-seven per cent, in
Normandy and fifteen per cent, for
the whole of France.
Most of the recent converts made
by Mormon missionaries have been
settled in Colorado. One of their set
tlements, Manassa, in Conejos county,
has been visited by a correspondent of
the Cincinnati Enquirer, who furnish
es his paper with a statement bf the '
condition of affairs there, and a num
ber of interviews with individual
converts to Mormonism. These immi
grants are mostly from Georgia and
Kentucky. They were attracted by
the preaching of the missionaries who
said nothing about polygamy or blood
atonement, and forgot to mentiou the
'doctrines and covenants" and various
other peculiar features of Mormonism.
"They kept pretty close to the old
Bible." They represented that Utah
was a land of promise, where all. would
be better off in a worldly way, and
where all was good-will and brotherly
love. When they reached their settle
ment, they found the soil was capable
of one good crop in six years;: that
polygamy was' practiced; that they
were obliged to buy their supplies of
the Mormon dealers, who charged
them two or three prices; that the 'old
Bible" vanished into the background
and the doctrines and covenants of the
Mormon church came prominently for
ward; and that they were expected
and required to vote according: to the
dictation of the Mormon leaders. It
was an exercise of this last prerogative
of the church that finally goaded them
to the point of revolt. Half the- south
erners in the colony are now in Colora
do, having refused at the election last
November to vote the ticket dictated
by the Mormon priesthood..
There was a Chicago man who
found out that he was not so peculiar
ly endowed by nature as he supposed.
An inch more than usual would pro.
verbially be a great deal on a nose.'
This man had It, and in consequenc
he. verated his nasal imDortanw
Atest proved that it does not render
him thrilling to the masses. He is a
ciganaaker by trade. Whenever he
took his walks abroad he was gazed
at in amazement. "If I am to he
looked on as a curiosity, he reasoned.
"it would be better to make a lray
living with my abnormal nose." So -he
took his big feature to the manager
of a ten-cent museum. "Very wrelL"
was the offer which he received; "I'll
do just the same by you that I do
by any other new freak. We can't
tell what'll catch on with the public.
You can have a place on the platform
for a week. If you make a failure.
I'll give you five dollars. If you bit.
'em, I'll fix a, square, liberal salary."
"But how'm I to know whether I hit
'em?" the amateur curiosity asked.
"By seeing whether the folks stop to
look at you. . That's the test." The
nose was not potent What had been
novel in private life was almost disre
garded in a professional. The maa
returned to his cigar bench. .