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.