' 4. ".
Harvals of ItruMel
, The finest of all lace is Brnssels. Bel
gium is the lacemakors' chosen home.
One-fortieth of the whole population
Is engaged in it. The government
tnpporta 900 lace schools, to which
children are sent as young ae five years.
By the time thoy ure ten they are self
mpporting. Brussels is a pillow lace,
Indeed, Barbara Littman, the inventor
If pillow lace, lived and died there.
The pattern, drawn upon parchment, ia
fixed hrmly to the pillow, pins are stnek
tdong the outlines, and to them the lace
In woven by crossing and twisting the
threads, each of which ends in a bobbin.
Lace two inches wide requires 800 or
100 bobbins. A piece six inches has
tometimes as many as a thousand. The
thread is hand spnn from the best Bra
bant Sax, in damp, dark cellars, whose
one ray of light falls on the spinner's
band.
Naturally spinning is very unhealthy,
and experts get high wages. The best
yarn from a single pound of flax fetches
over $3,000. For filling flowers and leaves
fine soft cotton is used. Grounds, too,
are often made of it. Elaborate patterns
are made in sections, and joined together
by the most skillful workers of all As
the lace ib never washed before it is sold,
the most exquisite neatness is requisite
in everything connected with it
Still, as months are consumed in mak
ing very handsome pieces, the work
turns dingy in spite of the lace worker's
best efforts. To remedy that it is some
times dusted with white lead in powder,
ami turns dark at contact with gas or
sulphur in a way to exasperate the
wearer. New York Herald.
Why the Mafia Exists In Italy.
The origin of the Camorra and Mafia
murder leagues ceases to puzzle travel
ers who have visited the rural districts
of southern Sicily. Nearly all the real
estate of the coast plain from Syracuse
to Cape Bianco is in the hands of a few
aristocrats, who have deprived their ten
ants of their panes as well as of their
cireenses, of the right to hunt, to fish, to
tram fighting cocks, without a special
license, as well as of the more urgent
necessities of life. The streets of the in
land villages generally resemble the gul
lies of a parched out mountain river, and
the houses are mere mud piles, roofed
with flat stones and wattles of broom
corn, and surrounded by rubbish heaps,
where mangy curs and sore eyed chil
dren compete for scraps of animal re
fuse. laborers, returning from a day's hard
work, sit down to a meal of maize paste
and salad, washed down with the water
of the slimy village cistern. The profits
of bttle truck farms barely satisfy the
demunds of the tithe collector, and in
dignation meetings are promptly sup
pressed, but midnight conventicles are
less easy to prevent, and the starving
villager would as soon defile the statue
of Garibaldi as to betray a Capo Mafioso
who has befriended him at the expense
of an oppressive landlord. Felix L. Os
wald in Philadelphia Times.
A Mew tJa for Matches.
I watched a train hand stagger through
the coach with eyes closed and a tearful
face a case of cinder. He met a com
panion, who instantly felt in his vest
pocket, poised himself, made one motion,
and the suffering brakeman at once went
back to his post relieved. "How did
you remove that cinder?" I asked. "With
a match," he replied. Producing one, he
split it to a point with his thumb nail.
"This look i like a harsh way to treat so
tender an organ," said he, "but it is en
tirely safe. Turning back the eyelid,
the speck only needs to be touched by
some dry substance in this case the
match to adhere to it We have to help
one another so a dozen times a day."
'But why not wait until stopping?" I
inquired. "Too busy then. Besides,
there is no need. It was easy on a train
in motion as on the ground when one is
accustomed to it. After raising the arm
for the operation, one needs to get the
swing of the train. This car runs
smoothly, bo I did quick work." Spring
field Homestead. '
Parisian Bouquets.
Please to heed what an autocrat direct
from the salons of Paris has to say on
the subject of bouquets. No more "com
posed bunches of flowers" are carried by
the fashionable women in that dizzy
capital. A beribboned bouquet is re
garded as "bad form," only the Parisian
has another phrase for bad form, and a
dame of the haut monde now enters a
salon carrying a spray or branch of
some flowers in season, such as lilac or
miiuoea. In this land of extravagance,
where all the flowers are always in
bloom, she might hold a spray of orchids
orabnnch of roses, but the arranged
bouquet, jamais! The idea is to resem
ble the young martyrs in the pictures,
theBe said martyrs generally holding in
one hand a palm branch. Perhaps our
florals will catch on to this new wrinkle
asd have some extraordinarily lovely
blooms prepared for their fair customers.
Boston Herald.
Cheap Transportation.
DnmpBoj--Hello, BlobsonI Going over tc
Winixiski this morning)
Blotam-Yes, I've an errand that will
carry nte there.
Bmnpsey-You'ree lucky dogl I've gotta
go aloot Burlington Free Pre,
Be beaerred Her.
''Why, Mr. Banks, since when have yon
wen wearing eyeglaasesF'-
' W nil, 51 w rjhth, the truth It yon always
trnmsA so distant to me that I thought glasset
inisui Drug you a lutio nearer." New York
IWHlli.
STORIES ABOUT MEN.
Bow Andrew Carnegie ltuttled Off Bll
Own Aleuugi!.
A short man, with gmy heard neatly
trimmed and clear eyes that look directly at
you as if they were exiuniuiug tho insid of
your head, stepped briskly up to the iron t
railing nrouml the government telegraph
tuhle in the house corridor the other day and
asked if he could semi a message. The op-.
erutor politely told him that general business
was handled at the Western Union up stairs,
next to the press gallery. "But this is to the '
secretary of war," suggested the would becus- ;
toraer. "Very well, then, 1 will send it as
soon as I finish this message," said tho op
erator. "If you are busy I can send it my
self," continued the man with the brisk step
and the bright eyes, "if it isnt against tho
rules to let me inside the railing. I ant an
old telegraph operator myself; I believe I
was one of the first that ever took messages
by sound." The operator thought be hod
better work the key himself, hut ho glanced
at the signature of tho dispatch to see who
his pleasuut spoken customer was. j
The name was "Andrew Carnegie," and he
was allowed to send his own dispatch.
nasniugton Letter In r biladelphia frees.
Ben Butler and the Page.
One of tho pages in the house of repre
sentatives had a faculty for drawing, ilia
sketches of the members were fairly good
caricatures. The easiest mark for his pencil
was the statesman from Massachusetts, and
the caricatures of Ben began to float around
the house pretty promiscuously. Thematter
coming to the attention of Mr. Butler, com
plaint was made to the dnorkeepor, who bad
charge of the pages. The offending boy was
kept after adjuuromeut to be reprimanded.
He was taken before the statesman, who had
waited to hold court on the little criminal.
"Bo you are the boy that has been making
these pictures?"
"Yes.sir."
"Hum! How old are jaat
"Twelve, sir."
"Well, go to the cloak room and tret tnv
hat." ,
The boy scampered off on tho errand, glad
even for the momentary respite, but evolv- 1
tog in his mind the possible character of the :
impending punishment, which was such Hint ,
the judge needed his hat before going to the
place of execution. When tho youngster had
returned and tremblingly yielded up the tile,
w gmrciu, niw uus au enurmous oeou,
threw the hat like a candle snuffer down over
the tow head and naming face of the boy.
It covered him like a second mortgage.
"My sou," said the hero of New Orleans,
"when you can fill that hot you may carica
ture Benjamin F. Butler. Now go." Chi
cago Herald.
Eighteen Months Was Nothing.
Judge Gary has probably made more witty
and quaint remarks on the bench than any
other judge in Chicago.
On one occasion, when he was sitting in
the criminal court, he appointed a young
attorney to defend a young criminal who was
brought to trial and who bad no lawyer.
The young man had just been admitted to
the bar and was consequently ambitious to
make a reputation, but despite his utmost
endeavors his client was "sent up" for eighteen
months.
After court adjourned the yonng man
walked over town with the judge and took
occasion to say:
"That was pretty bard on me, judge."
"What was hard?' asked the judge in his
absent minded way.
"Why, my first case. I wanted to get a
little start, and here my cheat gets eighteen
months." .
"That's nothing," returned the judge, sen
tentiously. "My first client got eight ?
Chicago Tribune.
All Out of Constitutions.
Senator Btoclrbridge, of Michigan, is some
thing of a wag. He was sitting in his com
mittee room the other day when one of those
fellows who are always demanding docu
ments came in. The caller hod secured
almost every book, pamphlet and bill which
the government magnanimously prints and
gives away. But ho still longed for more.
"I am verynnxious," said he, "to secure a
copy of the Constitution of the United
States. Could I enlist your help, senator!"
"Why. certainly; but it would be useless,
The effort will be futile."
"Indeed; and why?'
"Well, you see, there were so many de
mands from people like yourself for copies
of this good work that the supply nearly ran
out There was only one copy left, and the
president bos just sent that to the pope."
New York Tribune.
Taller When Be lay Down.
Governor Fitz Hugh Lee, of Virginia, who
is very stout, recently amused some friends
by telling the following story; "A few
months ago a friend and I went sailing on a
lake for the purpose of catching a few fish.
While we were trying to get a bite a squall
came up, overturned the boat, and we were
both thrown into the water. I attempted to
save my friend, but he sunk from sight and
was drowned. Being a good swimmer, I
thought of my life and what Virginia might
suffer if I were drowned, so I mode for. the
shore. While making lusty strokes my
stomach touched the bottom, and, thinking I
had reached shore, I turned on my feet, and
to my surprise I found I was still over my
head, I got to shore all right and the coun
try was saved." Chicago News.
All Out of Locks.
Gen, Sherman has received so many re
quests lately for autographs and locks of hair
that be has had a reply printed that reads
like this; "It is impossible for me to comply
with all the requests for autographs, and I
cannot send any more locks of hair because I
have discharged my secretary, whose hair
bad entirely disappeared under constant ap-
pucation or. tue scissors, and the orderly who
now serves me is entirely bald." Boston
Transcript -
Like Mr. (iulluguer
Grandmamma has been explaining to
the little girl how our earth is kept from
Hying oil into infinite space by the at
traction of the sun, which is constantly
trying to draw the earth toward itself,
while the latter always keeps its dis
tance. "Grandmamma," said the little
girl, "I should think the sup would get
discouraged Bfter a while and, like Mr.
Gallagher, 'let her go,'" Providence
Journal.
Vhe Coronation Stones of England. :.
The most Interesting object In the
whole of Great Britain is, poi'liapa, the
famous "Stone of Scone," which forms
the seat of the English coronation ohalr. '
This extraordinary Btone was brought
to London by Edward I from Scotland
as one of the spoils of the campaign
after his defeat of the Scotch. It had
been used In Scotland for centuries as a
throne, on which the Scottish kings
were crowned. Indeed, legend carries
Its antiquity back to the days of the old
patriarchs, and asserts it to have been
the identical Btone en which Jacob
slept at Bethel.
Curious to say, It was predicted as
early as the Fourteenth century that the
Scottish kings, if they kept this snored
stone from being profaned, would in
time have their revenge by becoming
kings of England, a prophecy which
was literally fulfilled In the beginning
of the Seventeenth century, when James
VI of Scotland became JaineB I of Eng
land. Edward I had a wooden chair
made, in which he inclosed the Btone of
Scone, this choir being the one still to
be seen In the Abbey of Westminster,
Every subsequent monarch of Great
Britain down to Queen Victoria has
been crowned while sitting on this his
trionic stone. Geologists who have
given the stone a professional examina
tion doubt the legend connecting It
with Jacob's dream and the Holy Land,
declaring It to be composed of the com
mon red sandstone so Well known on
the coast of Scotland. St Louis Re
public. .
Identifying Handwriting.
When the experto iu handwriting
meet on the witness stand and swear
hard against one another the jury has
a difficult task. Nevertheless, there
have beeu remarkable oases of identifi
cation of handwriting.
An English gentleman offered a large
sum of money for the discovery of a
marriage register, the production of
which was necessary in an important
lawsuit An officer iu a country ohurch
wrote him that the missing register had
turned up in the vestry box of his own
parish. A lawyer and an expert in
handwriting were sent to examine the
document.
The man showed them the marriage
register, and after a careful examination
they went to lunch.
At the table the expert expressed an
opinion unfavorable to the genuineness
of the register. It was modem hand
writing, uud did not therefore possess
the antiquity claimed for it.
"Then how in the world did It get
there?" asked the church officer.
"Why, you forged it yourself," quietly
replied the expert, who had studied the
handwriting in the note sent the gentle
man. The man, being threatened with
prosecution, fled the country, and thus
confessed his crime. Youth's Compan
ion. The Myriad Ways of Eating.
Did you ever watch the myriad ways
of eating? There is the aggressive eat
er, who bites his bread as though tie
owed it a grudge, and drinks bis coffee
with eyes that fairly glare over the
brim of his cup with unappeasable
wrath; the timid eater, who nips his
food apologetically; the preoccupied
eater, who doesn't seem to know salt
from sugar; the hungry eater, who eats
as men have championed a lost cause.
I never watch a company of eaters but
I feel that the line of demarcation be
tween the human family and the brute
grows very faint and dim as it ap
proaches this common center.
I have often wondered if the race as
it advances will not one day escape the
bondage of the appetite. Relief can
only come through methods of simpli
fication. When science shall condense
a whole beef bito a lozenge and the
nutriment of a week's baking into a
pastil we shall lose much of our present
kinship with the brutes that perish,
Chicago Herald.
Br. Feabody's Contribution to Holmes.
One of the lew failings that accom
company Dr. Peabody's serene old age
is his occasional absent-mindedness. It
Is told of him that one summer day,
coming in from Cambridge, after hav
ing alighted from the car at Bowdoin
square he turned a sharp corner and
collided with an elderly gentleman who
was standing with his hat off, wiping
the perspiration from bin forehead, but
who held his hat in such a way as to
give the appearance of begging. Dr.
Peabody, seeing the hat, dropped a
quarter into it with his customary kind
remark. Dr. Oliver Wendell Holmes,
who was holding the hat, put the
money in his pocket, solemnly thanked
his old friend, the giver, and passed on.
Boston Herald.
A Bpeeulatton.
"Chollie is in great glee today."
"Why?"
"He owed bis tailor 1505 for Ave years,
and the tailor got mad and put the ac
count up at public auction."
"I should think that would make Chol
lie mai." 5
"Oh, no. He went to the sale and
bought it for eightvve cents." Hor
ner's Bazar, ,
A Oush of tteneroetty.
One of our clergymen married a raw young
fellow from the country the otlnuf. day, and
after tbeceremony the youth hnjuM oii: ' v
uWoll, mister, how muuli for tlie juhj"
The clergyman laughingly replied. "Oh, it
Is customary to leave that to the bridegroom,"1!
"Well, I'll tell ye, Mr. Minister," said the
youth, coiilhloutlally,. -"I've got just a dollur
In my pocket. The hnckmun'e got to have
tlftv cents of It, ami If ynn want the otiier
fifty, b'gosh you cuu have itl" Burlington
Free Press.
A Scare At the Quarters.
Mrs, Alllbone Ruu git do gun. Hufim! I
kiiuAud I'U Hud a man umlub d' buiii uiie r
dew day, Judge.
nartlett PoiiMiltttnry Thouelit.
Misti Waller Oh, Mr. Bartlett, whenever I
hear tho strains of Waldteufefs waltzes, aud
see the couples gliding over the floor like
this, 1 do so much regret never having
learned to dance I Can't you offer me twine
consolatory thought
Mr. Bartlett Plenty of them, my dear
Miss Waller. Why, if you had learned, you
wouldn't have a good excuse for uot being
taken out Harper's Bexar.
Underpaid fleiilua.
Poet What can 1 get on this poem, sir!
Managing Editor '(after glancing at the ef
fusion aud baggy trousers at the knees to
make sure he is speaking to a poet) Well, 1
cannot give you nil that you ought to get, for
I have rhuimntisin in both foot and am un
armed, but you can take tliat door and chase
yourself out as quiokly as you have a mind
to. New York Herald.
An Insult to New York. '
World's Fair Enthusiast I tell you, sir, in
settling this question there must be uo par
tiality shown I Chicago uud Now York mutt
be placed on on equal footing.
New Y or kw Impossible, unless
"UnlesB whatr
"Unless the Chicago girl is exterminated!' ,
Lawrence American. '
In Great Luck,
"Poor D07I Your rather disinherited you,
I hear,"
"Yes. Dear old dad, he always looked
after me."
"What do you meanf
"Why, the old mun died head over heels in
debt. All thut weut to my brothers." Har
Ir's Bazar,
Naming the Uity,
"Nice dog you have there," said one trav
eling man to another.
"Yes."
"What's hie namef1
"Grip."
"Why 'Oripf
"B. cause he was so easy to get and so hard
to get rid of." Merchant Traveler.
After the ItHllroad Aecldnnt.
Husband (extricating himself from the
wreck) timllyl Thank God you are safe!
Heavens 1 isn't this awful
Wife Dreadful! Hear the poor people
groan. Jjearexti
Husband What is It, love!
Wife Is my baton straight? Burlington
Free rresn
Not a Fallacy.
Professor Research sIiowb us that In some
countries it has been a popular fuilacy that
man was originally without teeth.
Pupil 1 don't think It a fallacy, sir.
Prof ossor And why!
Pupil All the babies I ever saw were with'
out teeth. National Weokly.
Where It Was.
Patient (to physician) I came to inquire
anouc a cancer.
Doctor Where te It locatedf
Patient Twenty three and a half degrees
norm oi tno equator, it is the tropic ox Can
cer. Lowell Citixen.
Going Higher.
Mrs. Beansoup (to Mr. Krontroomt So joa
attended the meeting of the Independent
Order of Boarders last night I
Mr. Fr oli i room laccideiitlystumbled into
the meeting.
"And you declared in burning words that
the time has come when boarders should rise
above the tyranny of the boarding house
keeper."
"I may have said something to that effect."
"Well, as you wish to rise, Pve sent your
trunk up to the fourth floor, back. Next
time you make a bad break about boarding
house tyranny, you'll room on the roof.'1
tiiua, Still Ahead. .
Ho Pre got a brother s porllceman. i
Bhs Bat's nufflu. I've got 'r bruthor s
nuugoi. bile,
A BOY iHERQ.
In hwtrthw Parti, which to f orHfm eves
tleems mstlo ot mirrors, saslUcht auilSlsplsy, .
A. suloudld hultdlnR's walls begun toflse,
. Ascending stone by stone fruin day to day.
HlRh and more hlnh tho pile wan balMed welli' '
And senree oMabertmi wore HiHst.tbure,
When suddenly s'frnglle staffing fell.
And two strong workmen swung aloft In etr,
Suspended by tholr bmids to one slight hold,
Thut bent and orouked buneath their sudden
voltthtl
One woru with tell, and growing gray and old,
Ouo a mere boy, Just reaching muu's estate.
Yet with a hero's soul. Alnne and young,
Were it uot well to yield his single life,
On which no paront leaned, no children clung, .
Aud save the other to his balie. and wUoT
He saw that ore dollvorenee could be brought
Tho frail support they grasped must suroly
break,
And In that shuddering moment's flash ot
thought
He chose to porlsh for his comrade's soke.
With bravory snob as heroes sohtom know,
" Tls right," he sutd, and loosing his strong
grip.
Dropped llko a stone upnu the stones below,
Aud lay there dead, the smile still on his Up.
What though no laurels grow his grave above,
And o'er bis uunie uo sculptured shaft may
rise!
To the sweet spirit of unsulnsh love,
Was nut his life a glorious sueriucef
Elisabeth Akors In Harper's Voting People.
Men Are to Illume for Female Frivolity.
By the way, I think I occasionally hour
a fwble pine from a man to the effect
that the girls ure responsible for all the
tomfoolery in the world. Don't you know
that yon are the very ones who tend to
make them so you men? You follow
after aud woo and wed just that sort of
girls. You won't look at a sensiblo little
woman who can make "lovely" bread,
abjures bungs, can't dance and has uo
'style. " You laugh at and make sly
jokes at the expense of otir big hats anil
our pronounced fashions, but when you
choose your company, and often your
wives, I notice you jiuss right by the
homckeeping birds and take the pea
cocks. If you won't have her modest
and simply gowned she is willing to
make a feather handed doll and a trav
esty of herself to got you and win
heaveul You know perfectly well, you
men, that you don't care half so much
for bruins as you do for "got-up," and
the woman you honor with your choice
is solecttd i or a pretty face and form
and a becoming costume rather than for
a clever head and an honest heart.
I am not talking to old fogies who
cling to old fashioned notions, but to
yonng men who ridicule the customs of
their grandmothers, who shake their
lieudB at the salaries of two aud three
thousand a year as inadequate to snpport
wives; who rail agaiiMt woman's extrav
agance, yet do their best to maintain her
in it. When yon, my tine and dapper
gnntlomnn, begin to seek out the mod
estly appareled and the sedate girls, then
shall folly and vain show fly over seas
for want of encouragement and the
grand transformation of sawdust dolls
into women and pleasure seekers into
homekeepers take place. Cor. Chicago
Herald.
A Child's Sense of Justice.
Nothing seems to burn into the mem
ory and heart of a child as an undeserved
punishment, however trifling the mat
ter may seem to the adult inflicter. In
some children of the snnny, hopeful
type the wave of indignation and help- '
less, unspoken protest against unjust
correction passes away, and leaves ap
parently no trace. To other children,
with more sensitive natures or more re
bellions dispositions, unjust words of re
proof kindle tiros of rage, which smoul
der with sullen persistence under the
ashes of seeming forgetfulness, ready to
burst out violently and unexpectedly.. If
this seems an overdrawn picture one bas
only to think backward at one's own
cbilish days, and to recall the time when
careless treatment by an elder first
taught us to be bitter, unforgiving, re
sontful. A child's sense of justice is as keen as
bis heart is tender, and this is one of the
qualities most nucessary to a noble char
acter; a quulity that must be blended
with truth and honor and self-sacrifice
to give the right balance to dispositions
which would otherwise work harm. A
child's justice is always tempered with
mercy to those he loves, and when in the
home he is justly and tenderly dealt
with he learns little by little that higher
sense of justice toward all with whom
he comes in contact. When his owu
small rights are carelossly and continu
ally thrust aside, he, too, learns to play
the brigand, to invent devices to achieve
the might which he has learned makes
right. Harper's Bazar.
Reptile, in the Mesoiulo EpooU.
Early in the niesossoic epoch there ap-
pcared marine reptiles which, inough de
rived from land species, became more and
more aquatic through the necessity of liv
ing in water, developed on that acoouui
swimming organs, etc. Land reptiles also
began to develops in huge proportions.
Why they grew so big no one knows,
bnt it may have been because they had
no rivals in the struggle for existence;
thoy had all they wanted to eat and nat
urally increased in bulk. At all events
no creatures are kuown to have existed
in this world comparable in size to thee
reptiles of ages ago. Interview in Wash
ington Star.
The records say that there were in all
180,711 regulars aud 184,000 volunteers, .
or 804,701 soldiers in the aggregate, on
the American side in the war for inde
pendence. The figures as to the number
of sailors in that struggle vary within
wide range.