Loading...
HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Fordwich Record, 1901-08-29, Page 6The —.mu& The 4 • Wooing Red Witch • Constantin. tk•***444NE**4444www.E•***403E4*******•• rete.W.W.*******W0NeeelEONWei.ei.4W4il iteleCtleleE0W4IR Or N-F04;710 GOMM SYNOPSIS OF PRECEEDING CHAPTERS.— Constantia's cousin, Donna, after travelling abroad, re- turns home as -Mrs. Dundee and finds that during her absence Lord Varley, one of -her old flames, has married. CHAPTER IL—Continued. She came in with a half smile.upon her lips and a kindly light in her eyes. A slender, graceful girl, very cold, very self-contained with a sub- dued haughtiness that was born with her, and was no spurious offspring of her marriage, yet full- of a sweet gra- ciousness that sat most perfectly up- on her. She looked only a girl, in spite of her three years of wedded life and her motherhood. Her face was singularly devoid of color, being a clear ivory; her Bps were pure; her eyes rather deeply set and very ear- nest; beneath them great purple shadows lay—shadows that added to their gravity, but had nothing to do with delicacy. Her dark hair was coiled in a loose knot at the back of her head. Donna rose and went towards her.• Involuntarily she looked past her to the door, but no one else came in. She received her visitor with- a deli- cious• little touch of friendliness; be- teg; perhaps, freer to do this In that the kindly door had admitted no one but her. Lady Varley seemed struck by her and pleased. "So more than good of you to come so soon," said Donna, prettily, when Lady Varley had greeted Con- stantia affectionately, and Mr. Dun- das with the courtesy that belonged to her. By this time Donna had re- covered any little embarrassment she might have known. if not better dressed, her gown was, at all events, more striking than her visitor's, and there could be no doubt as to which woman had the greater claim to beauty. Lady Varley might not please the many. Her face was too pale, her mouth not prone enough to laughter. Sometimes a glance from the earnest eyes had power to check unkindly mirth in others. Of the soul shining through, those eyes few cared to 'know. Society likes to laugh. "I am so glad to find you at home —to make your acquaintance really," said Lady Varley, in her low, dis- tinct voice. "One may go on for ever leaving cards without knowing anyone. - And I half feared this lovely day might have tempted you to -go out." . -- "When one has only just come to a new peace there are so many little things one must see to oneself, if one is to live, e answered . Donna, who never did-anything.. She put on quite a little housewifely air, that sat charmingly on, her and would have been perfect on a mimic stage. Lady Varley smiled in quick appreci- ation, and Mr., Dundas told himself lie had married an angel. Constan- tia looked down and frowned. "But I am glad I could not go out," went on Mrs. Dundee, with one of her bril- liant smiles, "as my staying in has enabled me to gee you.". Then quite suddenly: "Lord Varley did not come with-you?" She changed her position and fixed her eyes full upon her vis- itor as she asked this. "No.. unfortunately. On Monday we heard of your arrival. On Tues- day Lord Varley was obliged to go to Dublin. Business will, I am afraid, keep hint there for a week or ten days. On his return," she look- ed at Mr. Dundas here and smiled sweetly. "he hopes to call upon you. Mis. Dundas and he are, I know, quite old friends." Her manner was simple, and very cordial. "She knows nothing," thought Donna, watching her closely. Satis- fied on this point she removed her, gaze, and a faint sigh of,.relief es- caped her. = "I ad/ giving a dance on the seven- teenth," said Lady Varley. 'The invitations have been out some little time, but•I hope you will naive ceremony and come to me." She flushed slightly. She was still at heart a girl, and a touch of shy- ness now and then shone through.the calm that was natural to her. "That will be delicious," cried Mrs. Dundas, gayly. "What a charming chance you offer me of seeing all my neighbors at once, instead of wast- ing a month or two over it! Are they pleasant, these neighbors?" "They are very much like all other neighbors, I suppose. Some are just as one would have them, some are —" she paused and smiled expressive- ly. The smile impreseed Mrs. .Dundas: "Constantia's saint can be severe at times," she said to herself, "I won- der, when a month or two has gone over our heads, in which category I shall find myself?" CHAPTER III. "Divil a bit!" said Mrs. Mulcahy. As she gave way to this powerful remark, she placed her arms akimbo. "Moderate your language; Mul- cahy," said Miss McGillicuddy. This was not Constantia, it was her aunt -'-a- spinster of some fifty summers, who ruled with a brazen aria over the five luckless orphans whom an alewife' father had left, when dying, to her tender mercies. Poor soul! There was very little Money in her household; and poverty embitters! All her long life she had struggled with it; and when the children came to her, they brought with them but a scanty pittance that barely paid for their board and the somewhat erratic education they had received, and were still receiving. Constantia had been educated by a distant connection; Phil, the eldest brother, was now going through Trinity, helped by the same kind but cold hand. After- Phil came a girl— eforah, a thin angular little creature with a shy, expressive face—who un- derwent an awful tuition under her aunt. Constantia taught- her music. but Miss McGillicuddy insisted upon keeping the English in her own hands. It was a struggling household; Miss McGillicuddy spent her life trying to make both ends meet—a sad employ- ment. One luxury she allowed her- self; that was the power of changing. her religious opinions as often as she chose. To-day she was High Church and worshipped with vestments and candlesticks; to-morrow Low Church with a virtuous horror of the ritual. She had supported the Presbyterian minister, who held his chapel in the lower end of the town, and after a bit had openly deserted 'him, and given her countenance to the Meth- ody parson who spoke to his follow- ers at the upper end. Just now she was pleased with the vicar bemuse he had given her excellent cabbage plants /or the vegetable garden and so was pretty orthodox in her views; but one could .not be sure whither the next wind would blow her. She was very likely to hold with the tenets of the Church for some time to come because her mind was fully occupied with a mission. She adored mis- sions. She had within the past month enrolled herself as a member of -the-Blue-.Ribbon Army, and-.was now occupying herself making con- verts right and left. She entered with zest into the new crusade. It suited her admirably. It gave her the power of wounding any amount of respectable people; it made her feel more righteous than those who still clung to the pernicious glass of sherry. These slee' called wine-bib- bees, and read them long lectures, in which the Rechabites largely figur- ed. She arrayed herself in blue rib- bons. It was an excellent mission, and an economical one; it put a full stop to the wine merchant's bill. Just now she was bent on the con- version of Mrs. Mulcahy, the cook, who now and then used to take "just a thimbleful nate" for the good of her "stomick,'.' she said. To convert her—to show her the error of her ways, and induce her to orna- ment her person with a square inch of blue ribbon—that was Miss McGil- licuddy's dream! "Do you remember Thursday fort- night, Mulcahy?" she asked now in a sombre tone. On Thursday fortnight the thimble had last been put in re- quisition. "That was the day -Miss Norah broke your chair; cup,". said Mrs. Mulcahy, who, however, understood her perfectly. "I was not alluding to that cup; I was reminding you of a cup that should not cheer, and does inebriate. You know well to what I allude, Mul- cahy. You should learn to resist that Cup." "I niver was much of a hand at larnin' anything," said Mrs. Mul- cahy, doggedly; "are I'm ould now, anyway, to begin. As to the cup ye spake of, I niver take anything out of a cup, save it might be me tay, and shure ye wouldn't they to deprive a poor ould woman of that. Onions! I remember well in yer, fa- ther's time, whin—" "Never mind-about that interrupt-. ed Miss McGillicuddy, hastily. Mrs. Mulcahy noticed the haste, and her small eyes twinkled. She was a large stout, comfortable woman, and always wore a huge mob cap, as white as snow,. with no less than four lace borders in it. She nodded this cap now sapiently. "Keep to the point," said Miss- McGillicuddy sternly. "Your habits of intemper- ance are growing on you, and I would have you check them before it is too late." "Faix, there's one thing, sure," returned Mrs. Mulcahy briskly—that the dinner will be too late, unless-ye mane it for to-morrow, if ye keep me here idling much longer." eDo not call such earnest.pleading idling!" cried-her mistress vehement,- ly. "Do you mean eto tell me you have no desire to save yourself—to draw back -from the brink—to join yourself to volunteers who glory in the blue ribbon and cold water?" "Divil a bit!" said Mrs. Mulcahy again, even more strongly than be- fore. "You've come here to insult a poor lone widdy, who has sarved you an' yours faithfully for forty year, -an' I tell ye plainly, Miss MoGilli- caddy, that luck won't come of it. What ails ye at all, Miss, to be pul- lin' an' dhraggin' wid them mane- spirited cratures who would destroy half the thrade in the counthry?" "Publicans and sinners," said Miss McGillicuddy, in a solemn voice; "they are bracketed. Down with them! is the cry I would hear echo- ing through the land." " 'Twould echo a long time before ye got rid of the sinners, at all events," said Mrs. Mulcahy. "They'll last our time, I'm thinking, ma'am." "Let us keep to the point," ex- claimed her mistress, who delighted in this phrase because she was al- ways wandering- from it. "Can you say honestly that you see anything to object to in this temperance move- ment?" "Nol—no," confessed other cau- tiously.. " 'Tis shape." "What do you mean, .Muleaer" " 'Tis chipe, I said. Divil a doubt of that! Yer friends won't cost ye much, anyhow. Tay in the morning, •an'e tay in- the afthernoon, an' tay before ye go to bed, an' ne'er a. dhrop of wine to warm the heart. Bad cess to such movings, say I. Arrahl in the ould man's time what a difference there wa.s! Poor ould masther, he'd be the last to—" A. merciful fate at this moment caused one of the junior members of the household to slip off the inverted tub in the scullery on which he was standing on tiptoe, with a view to looking through a crack in the wood- work at the scene taking place in the kitchen. His heart was warm with a sacred joy as he listened to the promising skirmish within. He had beeu -backipg Mrs. Mulcahy. so evegore ously in spirit, that his body got in- fected eleth the enthusiasm, and he kicked out. It was a disastrous kick. It land- ed• him in an earthenware crock full of buttermilk, and the splash, the crash, the loud shriek that would not be suppressed, all produced a sensation that reduced the belliger- ents in the kitchen to silence. For a moment only. Then simul- taneously they cried "scat" at the top of their lungs, and went for the scullery door. The little McGillicud- dy—Jimmy was his name—thought, as he still floundered in the butter- milk, that his last hour was come; but as vengeance sure and swift was descending upon him, a loud knock at the hall-door reverberated through the house. Miss McGillicuddy came to a stand- still and so did the cook. "Who's that?" said Miss. McGilli- cuddy, addressing no one in particu- lar, yet evidently desirous of an an- swer. "Who would it be but Misther Bar- ry?" replied cook. There is scorn tin her accent. On one point, at least, she and her mistress were as one. They both objected to Garrett Barry as a husband for Constantia, though he was a young man of fair means and good family, though in one sense of no family, as he hadn't et soul belonging to him alive, at least no one nearer than a cousin. The young man's visits of late were of such frequency as to suggest the idea that he found a difficulty in living through -twenty-four hours without seeing the younger Miss McGilli- cuddy. His knock was loud and buoyant, something like himself. It aggravated, cook and her mistress to the last degree, but it saved the shiv- ering Jimmy, standing in the scullery dripping buttermilk as hard as he could. Miss McGillicuddy sailed up- stairs eager for the fray, and bent on stopping the irresistible Barry in the hall; but fate, and Minnie, the parlor-maid were too much for her. Mr. Barry—as she entered the drawing-room feeling somewhat baf - fled—she discovered sitting there, -beaming upon Constantia—Who, in- deed, was beaming back at him in what her aunt called a most un- maidenly way. ,Just now she was smiling delicious- ly, and it Was evident that the young man sitting near her was in the very paradise of contentment. Constant- is was charming. She had the pro- verbial Irish eyes—blue-gray, rubbed in by the proverbial dirty finger. Lovely eyes they were; coy, coquet-' tish, alluring, repelling, as the owner willed. Her mouth was a firm little member, her nese saucy. She looked always as good and true as she was. Her figure was as lissome and pliable as a willow wand; and when she stood erect, with her lips laughing, and her eyes gleaming at you from under their long lashes, I can tell you she was a thing to dream of. She evrase andoefed, a thing who.. many dreamt "Ah, how d'ye do, Miss McGillicud- dy?" said Barry, rising to his feet and advancing towards that gaunt spinster, with an absolute effusion of manner. He was a tall, large-boned, sunny-tepmered young man, with a, mouth that was always making an effort to get at his ease; this rroba- bly came 'of much laughter. He was born in Limerick, where his people had lived for many generations, and where they were much thought of; but an uncle's will, leaving him a 1 considerable property in the County Cork, had brought him to that coun- ty. For the past six years he had been living in England, and consider- ed_ himself specially English in many ways. He really believed he had quite an English accent, for one thing; but this was an egregious mis- take; a Limerick man never reforms, so far as accent goes—and indeed Barry had one that, to use an ex- pression of his own, "you could hang, your hat on." Even here in • Cork; they couldn't help wondering at it at times. "I am suffering from no malady, I thank you," replied bliss McGillicud- dy, regarding him with a stony stare "my health is perfect. There is net necessity for you -to make such polite inquiries." It she had hoped to disconcert Mr. Barry she was altogether mistaken. "That's capital," said he, cheer- fully; "nothing like health. -I'm just 'like you, as strong as a horse." "I'm not a horse," returned Miss McGillicuddy; "nor yet as strong as one. Your similies aro not only, wide of the mark, but—" "Quite so," interrupted he wisely. "You are looking uncommonly well, though, let me tell you; any amount better than when last I saw you." "Which was exactly twenty-four hours ago. Is it your honest opin- ion, Mr. Barry, that people change much in that short space of time?" "Hours—is it really only .hours? Faith, I thought it was years," said he. He accompanied this speech with a glance at Constantia full of ardent affection. She smiled (in spite of the trepida- tion she was feeling), through force of habit probably,. and perhaps be- cause she liked the glance, and Miss McGillicuddy saw her. "To some people," she said sternly "lies are acceptable; to one possessed of rugged virtue they are not!" She paused. Evidently, Constantia re- presented the "some people," she the ''rugged virtue." . • "It's a lovely day, isn't it?" said "Is it?" returned Miss McGillicud- dy, with an uncompromising glance. , Constantia, who was now very ner- vous, burst out laughing. "One can see that for oneself," she said.. She grew frightened when she heard her own laugh ring out—not so much of her aunt as because of her; one never knew, indeed, what she was going to say next. She was beginning to hope that the earth would open and swallow her up quickly, when again the door was thrown open and "Mr. Featherston" was announced. To be Continued. ALL ALIKE Farmer Dunk—How's your new hired man, Eery? Farmer Hornbeak—Jest like all the test, of ,.'em. Ieve -ever - hadeeso that he gits tired re-stile', UNDERLYING PRINCIPLES. The principles which underlie suo- cessful -crop growing. in Canada may, said Dr. -Saunders to the Parliamen- tary Committee on Agriculture, be thus -summarized:— Maintaining the fertility of the land, mainly by the-proper care and use of barnyard manure, and the ploughing under of green clover, thus adding fertility and humus. Adopting a judicious rotation of crops. Following the best methods ofpro- paring the land. Early sowing. Choosing the best and most pro- ductive varieties for growing. The selection of plump and well ripened seed for planting. Along these several lines many ex- periments-have been conducted. Continued efforts have been made to gain knowledge 'as to the best methods of maintaining and adding to the fertility of the land, which is so essential to the continuance of good crops. Special attention has been given to investigations to de- termine the best methods of handling barnyard manure, the universal fer- tilizer which is more or leas avail- able everywhere to the Canadian far- mer. Experiments continued for eleven years have shown that a given weight ef manure taken fresh from the barnyard is equal in crop-produc- ing power to the same weight of rot- ted manure. It has also been shown by repeated tests that fresh manure loses during the process of rotting from 50 to 60 per cent. of its weight. The effective use of the barnyard manure, so as to obtain the best results with the least waste is one of the most important prob- lems -connected with agriculture, for on this material the farmer's hopes of maintaining the fertility of his land and thus providing for a succes- sion of good crops are mainly based. During the past 'twelve years ,an- nual tests have been made to gain information as to the relative value of artificial manures used separately and in combination, On nearly all the important farm crops, and the, re- sults obtained have been published. Long continued experiments with a, tificial fertilizers used alone have given results which are disappointing considering the, large amount of available plant food they contain. One reason for this lies probably in the fact that these fertilizers con- tain no humus, and that the propor- tion of vegetable matter in the soil has been much reduced by constant Mopping. Thus the capacity of the soil for holding the moisture has been lessened to the detriment of its crop-producing power. Experiments have been conducted for several years in plowing under of given clover to enrich the land, and it has been shown that clover seed can be sown in all the eastern Provinces of Canada and in the coast climate of British Columbia to advantage with all cereal crops, without lessening the grain crop for the current year, and that after the grain is cut the clover grows luxur- iantly, acting as a catch crop dur- ing the latter part of the season. Green clover turned under is special- ly valuable to the land for the rea- son that it absorbs while growing large quantities from •the air which is stored up in its tissues. -A heavy mat of growth is produced' by the autumn, which, when plowed under, adds considerably to the available nitrogen in the soil, as well as to the store of humus. The proportion of nitrogen thus added to the land has been found equal to that obtain- ed from a dressing of ten tons of barnyard manure to the acre. Con- siderable supplies of potash, phos- phoric acid and lime are also taken up by the clover plant during its growth, a part of which-lu gathered .rem depths in the soil not reached by some other farm crops. In this way the clover practically enriches the 'soil to. some extent in theseeeth- er important elements. That the land has .been much improved by' this treatment has been shown in in- creased crops on many plots, when compared with adjoining plots on which no clover has been sown. In one series of experiments with oats, the average increase for the erst year was 28 per cent. in the weight of the grain produced and 78 per cent. in the weight of straw., In the second yea?, when the barley was sown on the same series of plots without any additional fertilizer the increase of the weight of the grain produced on the plots which had been treated with clover was 29 rer cent., and the increase in weight of the straw was 85 per cent. In a similar series of experiments conducted with pota- toes, the plots treated with. clover gave an average increase in the weight of the tubers of 28 per cent. These experiments are being contin- ued from year to year. The tests made in 1900 with oats, wheat, bar- ley and potatoes, confirm those of the •preceding years, and further es- tablish the value of this method of adding to the fertility of the soil. In preparing the land for crops, different methods are adopted in dif- ferent parts of the Dominion. In the eastern. Provinces 'the advantages arising from fall ploughing have been repeatedly shoWn. The exposure of the soil to the influence of frost, sunlight and air is beneficial. Spring work is materially advanced and the crops can be got in earlier- by the adoption of this practice. SEASONABLE TOPICS. Thresh the wheat the earliest pos- sible moment - if you had the grain moth last year, else the miller will not buy it. August sown rye makes good fall pasture. Use three pecks of rye and' fifteen pounds of crimson clover and you will have first-class fall feed. If the mower was injueed by the loose stones in the hay field, some one was negligent last spring. This is the time to make amends by ga thernag.the abstruotionseand dumping them in the guides. The weeds, briers and bushes cut from fence corners and out-of-the-way places had better be burned. If put in the pig-pen or barnyard they seed the farm with weeds, and -a portion will not rot inside of five years. Rather shallow tloughing should be practiced in the spring, but dur- ing the summer, in July and August, deeper ealture is preferable. Condi- tions being favorable at this time for nitrification the subsoil can be brought to the surface and rendered a part of the cultivated portion. Thus a deeper soil produced. Every farm should be supplied with gypsum. Scattered over manure heaps it saves the escaping ammonia to be given up to the land when ap- plied later on. Beside this, gypsum itself is a valuable fertilizer to most soils. Considering the value to the farm of a ton of gypsum it is com- paratively inexpensive. Just how to make a strong and durable whiffietree: Do not weaken it anywhere by the auger or drawing knife. Plane it smooth and have the hooks welded to a band that goes around the stick. Shrink on these bands, then drill and put through a small rivet. This will prevent slip- ping off if the stick ever shrinks. It often happens that a farmer is caught in a shower with his wagon full of grain, vegetables or fruit of some kind, and cannot reach shelter. At such a time a few square yards of tarpaulin or oiled cloth is worth many times its cost to him. The farmer on his way to market with his produce can laugh at the rain if his wagon is covered with a water- proof. If the ground is •properly prepared before planting the work is more than half done. The farmer 'who has starved his soil is afraid to work a seed bed enough to get it in order for fear it will run together. He keeps clods to hold it up. Soil that is filled with humus has some life about it. It will bear working to one's heart's delight. It is possible to improve land so that it is easier farmed year by' year. If the seed bed gets poor more tillage is re- quired. TOY INTO TORPEDO. Reel of Cotton Suggested the Deadly Naval Engine. Everyone must be familiar with the ingenious locomotive animals, to be bought in the London streets for a penny, miniature mice, lizards, and spiders that, on -being dropped from the hand, at once begin to run by merely slackening the string that is fastened through the creature's back. on to a bobbin. But probably very few people are aware that the simple contrivance that makes the animal move was the means of giving the War Office the Brennan Torpedo—an expensive toy indeed—as it gave Mr. Brennan £250,000. The manufacturers of locomotive animals noticed that if an ordinary reel of cotton was put upon the ground, and pulled towards the hold- er of one end of the thread—the un- wound thread being underneath the reel—the reel did not come towards the person pulling, but at once ran in an opposite direction. Conse- quently a string was wound on a wheel inside the dummy of a dimin- utive animal, with the resut that the toy mentioned above was produced. The mechanism that propels the Brennan torpedo is in the main no- thing more than a wire rope coiled round a drum in a steel case, a more elaborate version of the penny street toy. The technical working of the Bren- nan - torpedo is as follows Two wires are rapidly unwound from two reels placed in the interior of the torpedo, and connected to the two propellor shafts of the weapon. The unwinding of these two wires is ef- fected by means of a. 'winding engine placed at the starting point on shore, for the Brennan is particular- ly useful for harbor or coast do- fence, for which purpose it was prac- tically invented. The unwinding of the wires causes the two propellers to revolve at a very high rate of speed, and forces the totted° through the water. Twelve miles of steer wire are' ne- cessary for a two mile run of the torpedo, six miles being wound on each reel. The curious 'part of the Brennan lies in the apparent paradox in its method of propulsion, the harder the torpedo is pulled back the faster it will go ahead. Yet a reel of cotton will do the same. The explanation of the torpedo's vagaries is easy enough in reality. By hauling at the wires a corres- ponding rate of revolution is im- parted to the reels which are . fixed to the propeller shafts in the tor- pedo and thus to the two propellers themselves. This gives a contrary power to the propellers, a power, which, if it only. be strong enough to resist the retarding strain on the wires—as it is—must urge the tor- pedo through the water. The Brennan torpedo will travel at twenty miles an hour and has a range of two miles. It weighs, when fully "dressed" with its dead- ly explosive about twenty-five Itun- dredweight, behig twenty-five feet long. And this formidable " toy " Came from the same source as the penny crocodiles you can buy in the London streets. WEALTH'S VEXATIONS. Mrs. Newricl —.Mrs. De Smythe told ins last evening that she is troubled with ongwee. Mr. Newriche—What's that? Mrs. Newriche—Dear me ! I don't know, I've looked all through the 'O's' of three different dictionaries and can't find any such word. EXPENSIVE. Fininvbiz—Fresileigh's sweetheart has sent him word from abroad that she cannot marry him, Fidillesticks—Freshleigh must be dreadfully broken up. Funnybiz—He is; she sent word by cable, collect, and explained why. -.,:Britain's 20,000 civil-sem/ants-have an average salary of £130 apiece. OVER, THE WIDE WORLD, PEEP INTO MANY DIFFERENT COUNTRIES. Facts Gathored from the Corners of This Great Big Earth. biled:txiot nto Great Britain, Russia is „I the largest exhibitor at Glasgow Ex- Lord Kitchener is now in his 52nd year. His military service is one of BO years. Ninety-eight per cent. of the slaves main slaves Zanzibar and Pemba prefer to re- aizs France has 60 cities with more than 80,000 inhabitants, and 12 of these exceed 100,000. The world has two and a quarter million acres under tobacco, which produce 850,000 tons a year. The lowest tides, where any exist at all, are at Panama, where two feet is the average rise and fall The punishment for bigamy in Hun- gary is compelling the man to live with both wives in one house. The Egyptian Soudan has 12 pro- vinces, with an area of a million square miles, and 10* million people. Patented processes have been de- vised in Germany for converting saw- dust into charcoal and other pro- ducts. Four thousand nine hundred and sixty-eight of the present population of the United Kingdom were born at sea. The Empress of Russia operates a typewriter, and assists her husband by taking down many of his letters from dictation. London uses one hundred and ten pounds of ice yearly per inhabitant, New York one thousand three hun- dred pounds a year. Germany, with one thousand and eighty-three paper mills, makes only half as much paper as England with but three hundred. Four hundred and forty-eight Brit- ish gales blew from the southwest in the last fifteen years, only ninety-six 'from the northeast. The banking power of the United Kingdom has increased from one hundred and thirty-two millions in 1840 to over one thousand millions at present. The Norwegian Parliament is called the Storthing, that of Sweden the Regsdag, of Servia the Skupshtina, ofGLen :lee:. the Boule, of Bulgaria the sob By the "Australian Naval Form Act," passed in 1887, a fleet of five fast cruisers and two torpedo gun- boats Australian seemipped for service in The Congo is one of the widest waterways in the globe, if not the finest. In some parts it is so wide that vessels may pass one another and yet be out of sight. As an initiative to secure higher- tax assessments in Cleveland, Mayor Tom Johnson asked the assessor to, increase the valuation on his home in Euclid avenue from $300 to $500 a ' foot, The letter E holds the record for frequent use. In one thousand let- ters it occurs one hundred and thirty. eight times in English, one hundred and eighty-four in French, one hun- dred and seventy-eight in German, e, and one hundred and forty-five iu Spanish. Thirty per cent. of the civilized population of the world speak Eng- lish, nineteen per cent. German, nine-' teen per cent. Russian, twelve per cent. French, ten per cent. Spanish. Mr. Gully, K. C., the speaker of the British House of Commons, went to Cambridge when he was only 17 years of age. He was the youngest under-graduate of his time in the un- iversity. Prussia holds the record for hay production, growing thirty-three hundredweight to the acre; Britain comes next with thirty hundred- weight. Thirty hundredweight of hay means four and a half tons of green grass. The Salvation Army has obtained a grant of 20,000 acres of - land in Australia as a settlement for colon- • helm The area is situated 120 miles from Perth, and a great clearance of timber must be effected before it cart be used for agriculture. A WATER CURTAIN. The public library building in Chi- cago is protected against the inva- sion of fire from the outside by e means of a so-called "water cur- tain," At the top dEthe building is a system of tubes through which wa- ter, supplied from a tank, can bo caused to flow over the outside walls - Some time bacv the e—ciency of the water curtain was tested by the oc- currence of a fire in a spice mill ad- joining the library building. The water being tinned me, the outer walls were immediately covered with a liquid sheet, which, as the temper- ature was low, became eventually a sheet of ice. • WOOL FROM TURF. Artificial' wool made from turf fibres is now employed at Dussel- dorf, Germany, for manufacturing -- cloth,' bandages, hats, rugs, and so forth. Ten years have elapsed shire the first attempts to make turf wool, and it is averred that recent improvements in the processes have ' resulted in the production of a soft fibrous material, which can be spun as readily as sheep's wool, and which, besides possessing excellent absorbent properties, is capable of being bleached and colored for use in various textile industries. WORLD'S BIGGEST TREE, What is probably the biggest tree in the world has been discovered to belong to the cypress family, and was found in Mexico. Its circumfer- once Eft. from the ground is 154ft. . 2in., and to 'see the top of it one must stand many yards away. It is near the famous ruins of Mitla, in the State of Oaxaca. It is called the "big tree of Yule," and its age is variously ostiuntted at. from,: ;WO^ to 1,000 years.