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HomeMy WebLinkAboutThe Brussels Post, 1888-9-14, Page 3SEPT, 7, 1888, TH,E BRUSSELS POST, u"wsrr uesrnaorry '5I'BUSH." "ROUGHING IT IN THE UUSH," CHAPTER VL OLD SATAN AND TOM WiLBOfi'8 1\0I4I 4 no kine alit Ours mother Nature, yr lbh ail bar weeks, no'or forintrl thin lentis, Yana were nano, nu try and trade it, And suer the gads had Neve, made I1. After reducing the log cabin into some sort of order, we contrived, with the aid of e few boards, to maks a boll el•iset for poor Tom Wilson, who outlined to shako every day with the pitiless ague. There was no way of admitting light end air into this do• mioilo, which opened into the general apart - meet, bub through a equare hole cut in one of the planks, just wide enough to admit a man's head thruugh the aperture, Here we made Tom n comfortable bed on the floor, and did the beet we could to nurse him through his sioknoss. His long thin face, emaciated with disease, and surrounded by huge black whiskers, and a beard of a week's growth, looked perfectly unearthly, He had only to stare at the baby to frighten her almost out of her wits. ghee us is uneatable,'' eaid Willson to mo, in moat imploring acconte. r"Most willing, But 1: have no yeast; end I never baked in one of those :orange Mettles fn my life," " I'll go to old Joe's wife and borrow some," eaid he ; " they are always borrow- ing of you," Away he went ammo the field, but Soon returned, I looked into his jug -ib was empty, " No leek," Paid ho ; " those stingy wretches had just baked a fine batch of bread, and they would neither lend nor 011 a loaf ; but they told mo bow to make their milk emptyings." "Well; dlsouea the Dame;" but I much doubted if he could remember the recipe, "You aro to take an old tin pan," said ho, eittles down on the stool, and poking the fare with a stink. " Must it be an old ono ?" eaid I, laugh. ing, Of course ; they said so," " And what am I bo put into it ?" the wubehed pot gave no signs of vitality, Tom eighth deeply when we sot down, to tea with the old faro, "Never mind," said he, "we shall get acme good bread in the morning; it must gat up by that time, I will wait till then. I could almost starve before 1 could touch these leaden cakes." The tea -things wore removed, Torn took up his flute, and commenced is series of the wildcet voluntary airs that ever were breathed forth by humin lungs. Mad jigs, to which the graveab of mankind might have Dub scoentrio oapere. We were all con. viand with laughter, In the midst of one of therm droll movements, Tom suddenly hopped like a kangaroo (which feat ho per- formed by raising himself upon tiptoes, then flinging himself forward wish a stoop- ing jerk), towards the hearth, and squinting down into the ooffeo•pot in the most qulzzi• cal manner, exclaimed, "Miserable ohuff 1 If that does not make you rise nothing will." I left the bran all night by the tire. Early in the morning I had the sabiafaction of finding that it had risen high above the rim of the pot, and was surrounded by a fine crown of bubbles. " Patience ; let me begin at bhe beginning, "Beater late than never," thought I, an I G emptied the empbyings into my flour. Tom is not up yet. i will make him so happy with a loaf of new bread, nice home - baked bread, for his breakfast." It was my first Canadian loaf. I feltquite proud of it, an I placed it in the odd machine in which it was to be baked. I did not understand " the method of bakingin these ovens; or He wont. Would I had been there to that my bread should have remained in the hear the colloquy netween him and Mrs. kettle for half an hour, until It had risen bio second time, before I applied the fire to ib, in order that the bread should be light. it not only required experience to know when it was in a fit state for baking, but the oven should have been brought to a proper temperature to receive the bread. Ignorant of all this, I put my unrisen loaf into a cold kettle, and heaped a large quan- tity of hot ashes above and below it. The first intimation I had of the result of my 0f me I guess somebody ae wise as your. experiment Was the don.gree iabl° odour of f, 11 ' burning bread tilling the house. "What L this horrid smell 2'1 tried Tom, issuing from his domiolle, in his shirt sleeves, " Do open the door, Bell (to the maid) ; I feel quite sick." "It is the bread," eaid I, taking off the id of the oven with the tongs. " Dear me, 6 is all burnt?" " And smells as sour at vinegar," ' The black bread of Sparta 1' " Alas 1 for my maiden loaf 1 With a rue• fel face I placed ib on the breakfast table. "I hoped to have given you a treat, but I fear you will find it worse than the cakes in the pan ""You may be sure of that," said Tom, as be stuck his knife into the loaf, and drew it forth covered with raw dough. " Oh, Mrs. Moodie, I hope yon make better books than bread." We were all sadly disappointed. The others submitted to my failure good-natured• ly, and made it the subject of many droll, but not unkindly, witticisms. For myself, I could have borne the severest infliction from the pen of the most formidable otitic with more fortitude than I bore the cutting up of my first loaf of bread. After breakfast, Moodie and Wilson rode into the town ; and when they returned at night, brought several long letters for me. Ah 1 those first kind letters from home ! Never shall I forget the rapture with whioh I grasped bhe:e-the elger, trembling haste with whioh I tore them open, while the blinding tears whioh filled my eyes hinder- ed me for some minutes from reading a word which they contained. Sixteen years have slowly passed away -ib appears half a cen- tury -but never, never can home lettere give me the intense joy those lettere did. After seven yeare'extle, the hope of return grows feeble, the means are still less in our power, and our friends give up all hope of our return; their letters grow fewer and colder, their expressions of attachment are lase vivid ; the heart has formed new ties, and the poor emigrant is nearly forgotten, Double thoee years, and it is as if the grave had closed over you, and the hearts that once knew and loved you know you no more. Tom, too, had a large packet of letters, whioh he read with great glee. After re perusing them, he declared hie intention of setting off on hie return home the next day. We tried to persuade him to stay until the following spring, and make a fair trial of the country. Arguments were thrown away upon him ; the next morning our eccentric friend was ready to start. "Good-bye 1' quoth he, ahakine me by the hand ae if he meant to never it from the wrist. " When next we meet it will be in New South Wales, and I hope by that time you will know how to make better bread." And thus ended Tom Wilaon'e emigration bo Canada. He brought out three hundred pounds, British currency, he remained in the country jueb four months, and returned to England with barely enough to pay his passage home. (TO BB 00NTINUBD, ) "How fond that young one is of me, ' he Some flour and some milk -but, by aorgey world say ; "she Dries for joy at the sight of I've forgot all about it. I was woudering me." as 1 came across the field why they called .Among his curiosities, and he had many, the yeast milk•omptyings, and that put the he held in great eatoem a huge nose, made way to make it quite Ont of my bead. But hollow to fit his nose, which his father, a never mind ; it is only ton o'clock bymy being almost as eccentric as himself, had weteh, I have nothing to do ; I will go carved oub of boxwood, When he slipped again this nose over his own (which was no beau. tiful olassioal speoimen of a nasal organ), it made a moot perfect and hideous disgniee, Joe ; he described it something to Chia The mother who bore him never would re- effect cognized her aocompliehed son. "Mrs. Joe : " Well stranger, what do Numberless were the tricks ho played off you want now 7" with tide nose. Once he walked through Tom : " I have forgotten the way you the etreete of -, with this proboscis at told mo how to make the bread," Cached to his faoo. " What a nose 1 Look "Mre. Joe : "I never told you how to at the man with the nose 1" cried all the make bread, I guess you are a fool. boys in the street. A party of Irish ami. keople have to raise bread before they ran grants pealed at the moment. Tho men, bake it. Pray who sent you to make game with the courtesy natural tq their nation, forbore to luugle Iii the gentleman's Isee ; blit after they had peeped, Tom lookedbnok, and saw them bent half double in convul. Pions of mirth, Tom made the party a low bow, gravely took off his nose, and put it in his pocket, The day after this frolic, he had a very severe fit of ague, and looked so ill that I really entertained fears for his life. Tho hot tit had just left him, and he lay upon his bad bedewed with is oold perspiration, in a state of complete exhaustion. "Poor Tom," said 1, "be bas passed a horrible day, but the worst hi over, and I will make him a cup of coffee." While pre- paring it, Old Satan same in and began to talk to my husband. He happened to sit directly opposite the aperture which gave light and air to Tom's berth. This men was disgustingly ugly. He had lost one eye in a quarrel. It had been gouged out in a free fight, and the side of his face presented a succession of horrible soars inflicted by the teeth of his savage adversary. The nick- name he had acquired through the county sufficiently testified to the respectability of his character and dreadful tales were told of him in the neighborhood, where he was alike feared and hated. The rude fellow, with his accustomed in- eolenee. bmganabusing the o.d country folks. The English were great bullies, he said ; they thought no one could fight but them- selves ; but tho Yankees had whipped them, and would whip them again. He was not afoar'd of them, he never was afear'd in his life. Scarcely were the words out of iia mouth, when a horrible aspiration presented Muff to bis view. Slowly rising from hie bed, and putting on the fictitioua nose, while he drew his white nigbt•oap over his ghastly and livid brow, Tom thrust hie facie through the aperature, and uttered a diabolical ory ; then sank down upon his unseen couch as noiselessly as he had mien. The ory was like nothing human, and it was echoed by an involuntary scream from the lips of our maidservant and myself, " Good God 1 what's that?" cried Satan, falling back in his chair, and pointing to the vacant aperture. "Did you hoar it did you see it? It beats the univeree. I never caw a ghost or a devil before 1" Moodie, who had recognized hbe ghost, and greatly enjoyed the fun, pretended profound ignorance, and coolly insinuated that Old Satan hal lost his senses. The man was bewildered ; he stared at the va• cant aperture, then at us in turn, as if he doubted the accuracy of his own vision. "'Tie tarnation odd," he Reid ; " but the women heard it too." "I heard a sound," I said, " a dreadful sound, but I sew no ghost." " Sure an' twas himeel'," eaid my Lowland Scotch girl, who now perceived rho joke ; " he was a seekin' to gm us puir bodies a wee frioht." " How long have you been subject to these sort of fits?' said 1. "You had better speak to the doctor about them. Such fan• oies, if they are not attended to, often end in madness." "Mad 1" (very indignantly) "I guess I'm not mad, bub as wide awake as you are. Did I not see it with my own eyes ? And then the noise -.1 could not make eaoh a tarnation outcry to save my life. But be it man or devil, I don't care, I'm not afcer'd," doubling his fist very undeoidedly at the hole. Again the ghastly head was protrud- ed -the dreadful eyes rolled wildly in their hollow aookete, and a yell more appalling than the former rang through the room. The man sprang from hie chair, whioh he overturned in his fright, and stood for an ih• etant with his one eyeball starting from his head, and glaring upon the epeotre; his cheeks deadly pole ; the cold perspiration streaming from his face ; his lips diesever• ed, and his teeth chatteriug in hie head. "There -there -there. Look -look, it Domes again -the devil 1 -the devil!" ,Here Tom, who still kept his oyes fixed upon his victim, gave a knowing wink and thrust his tongue out of his month. " He is coming 1 --he is Doming 1" cried the affrighted wretch; and clearing the open doorway with the leap, he fled morose the field at full speed. The stream intercepted his path -he peened it at a bound, plunged into the forint, and was out of eight. " Ha, ha, ha 1" ohuokled poor Tom, sink- ing down exhausted on his bed. " Oh that I had etrength to follow up my advantage, 1 would lead old Satan auch orate that be should think his namesake was in truth be. fore him," During the six weeks that wo inhabited that wretched cabin, we never were troubled by Old Satan again. Air Torn slowly recovered, and began to regain his appetite, hie soul eiolioned over the aisle beef and pork, whioh owing to our distance from -, fotmed our principal fare. Ito positively refuoed to tough the sad bread, as my Yankee neighbours very appropriately teethed the unleavened eakee In the pan; and it was no easy matter to send a man on horeobaok eight mine to fetch e loaf of bread, "Do, my dear Mrs. Moodie, like a geed Christian as yon are, give Mb a moreel of the baby's bisouit, end try and make ns omo decent bread, The ether your servant �uT13m : "The lady at whose house I am staying." Mrs. Joe; "Lady! I can tell you that we have no ladles hero. So the woman who lives in the old log shanty in the hollow don't know how to make bread. A clever wife that 1 Are you her husband?" (Tom shakes his head.) -"Her brother ?"-(dn• other shale.) -"Her son? Do you hear? or aro you deaf ?" (going guile close 1112 to him.) Tom (moving back: "Mistress, I'm not deaf ; and who or what 1 am ie nothing to you. Will you oblige me by telling me how to make the mill•ertptyingd; and this time I'll put it down in my pocket -book." Mrs. Joe (with a.strong sneer) : "Mill- emptyings ! Milk, I told you. So you ex - peat me to answer your questions, and give back nothing in return. Get you gone ; I'll tell you no more about it." Tom (bowing very /ow): "Thank you for your civility. le the old woman who lives in the little shanty near the apple•trees more obliging ?" Mrs, Joe : " That's my husband's mother. You may try. I gueee she'll give you an answer.' (Exit, slamming the door 111 hie face.) And what did you do then ?" said I. "Oh, went of course. The door was open, and I reconnoitered the premises before I ventured in. I liked the phiz of the old woman a deal better than that of her daugh• ter -in-law, although it was cunning and in- quiaitive, and as sharp as a needle. She was busy shelling cobs of Indian cors into a barrel, I rapped at the door. She told me to come in, and in I stepped. She asked me if wanted her. I told her my errand, at which she laughed heartily." Old woman : " Yen are from the old country, I guess, or you would know how to make nettk•emptyings. Now, I always prefer bran-emptytngs. , They make the best bread. The milk. 1 opine gives it a sourish taste, and the bran is the least trouble." Tom : " Then let us have the bran, by all means. How do you make it?" Old woman : " I put is double handful of bran into a small pot, or kettle, but a jug will do, and a teaspoonful of salt; but mind you don't kill it with Balt, for if you do, it won't rise. I then add as muoh warm water, at blaod•heab, as will mix it into a stiff bat- ter. I then put the jug into a pan of warm water, and eat it on the hearth near the fire, and keep it at the same heat until le rises, whioh it generally will do if you at• tend to it in two or three honne' time. When the bran cracks at the top, and you see white bubbles rising through it, you may etrain it into your flour, and lay your bread. It makee good bread. Tom : My good woman, I am greatly obliged to you. We have no bran ; can you give me a small quantity?" Old woman : " I never give anything, You Eoglishcre who some out here with stacks of money can afford to buy." Tom: " Sell me a small quantity." Old woman : " I guise 1 will." (Edging guita edeas and fixing her sharp eyes on hint.) You must be very rich to buy bran." Tom (quizzically): "OM very rich." Old woman : "How do you get your money 7" Tom (sarcastically): "I don't steal it." Old woman t "P rays not. I guess you'll soon lot others do that for you, if you don'b take Dare. Are the people you live with re• lated to you 1' Tom (hardly able to keep his gravity : " On Eve's side. They are my friends," Old woman (irt surprise): "And do they keep you for nothing or do you work for your meat?" Tom (impatiently) : "Is that bran ready?" (The old woman goes to the bine and nteasmra out a quart of bran) "What am 1 to pay you ?" Old woman : "A York shilling." Tom (witting to test her honesty) : "Is there any difference between a York ehilling and a shilling of British currency 9" Old woman (evasively): "I guess not. Ie there not a plane in England called York?" (Looking lap and leering knowingly in his face.) Tom (laughing) : "You are not going to come York over me in that way, or Yankee either. There is threepence for your pound of bran ; you are are enormously paid." Old woman (calling after him) : "But the recipe; do you allow nothing for the recipe 7 Tom : " It is included in the prion of the bran." "And Ro," eaid he, "1 oamo away laugh' i0g, rejoicing in my sleeve that I had dis• appointed the avaricious old cheat,' The next thing to be done was to set tho bran tieing. Be the help of Toms recipe, it was duly mixed in the coffee-pot, and placed within a tin pan, full of hot water, by the Dido of the fire. I have often hoard it said that a watched pot never bolls ; and there certainly was no )aok of watchers in this case. Tom eat for )inure togarding it with Me large heavy eyes, the maid Wiped - ed 10 from bine to time, and acaroo ten minutes wore suffered to elapse without my testing the !teat of the water, and tyre stato Of the omptyiugs; but rho day slipped slowly away, and night dtew 60, aid- yet Night Among the Rills. So stint So still 1 The night comes down on vale and hill I 8o aerasgety 01111, I can not close My eyes in sleep -I No watchman goes About the little town to keep All safe at night. I can not Bleep I So dark 1 So dark 1 Savo hors and there n flittering spark, The firefly's tiny lamp, that makes Tho dark more dense, 51y spirit quakes With terrors vague and undefined 1 I see the bills loom up behind. So tear I So near I Those solemn mountains, grand and dram.. Their rooky summits I Do they stand Like sentinels to guard the land? Or jailers, fierce nod grim and stern, To shut us ln till day return 1 1 hear m Bound, A ohtrptng, taint, low on tho ground : A sparrow's nest is there, 1 know The birdling({ee flew three days ago Ynbettll return each nigh( to rest And sleep in the forsaken nob. No fear I No tear I Sleep, timid heart! Sioep safely here 1 A million helless oreaburoe rest Securely' on Lrurbt's 10;10, breast while Night hoe solemn silence keeps, Ido wakes to watch who never sleeps. Guest -Here, waiter, Take this away. I ordered a ring chicken, and this is a laying hen. Waiter -'bead 'taint, bole. Dat's. epring ohioken, site. Guest -Not this spring, Waiter (ingeniously) --No, eah ; not dis epring'e, but last spring's. Hit's a little Boon yit, boas, fo' die yet a spring ohiukens, Mother (to daughter)-" I was surprised and shocked, Clara, that you should show so little emotion at the funeral of your Uncle James, And he leaves you in lige will 310,000, too." Daughter-" Yes, mamma ; but when the funeral took place I had no idea that dear Uncle James h.,d remembered me so generously." Inspiration by its own resultant action may amount to revelation. Love has a way of oorrforring wisdom ; oon0i0000, quiokoned and educated, reflects light] upon the judge meat, But wo should say that revelation is the increased siccing ability of mind whioh Oomee from purified and ud atrengthenod erne - don, not a direct oomfnunioation t0 the in• toiled,° STATLSTIOS. The population of home grows at the rated 18,009 to 21000 a year, At the olese of 1887 it was 382,973. "In P)igland the proper ratio of doctors to population le said to be one to 3,200, but by this rule there are 1,043 too many dootots in London , and while 000 die ever year 1,803 now ones ere turned out. Competition le so great that in some parts of the pity deo. tote will see as patient, prescribe, and supply medicine for sixpeneo a vielt." Aoeording to the new Domesday Book of England, about two•thirds of the land of England end Wales is held by 10,207 own- ers, of whom 18 proprietors eutaide of Lon. don were returned in 1873 ae either holding more than 50,010 acres, or having estimated rentals of over 3600,000 a year. They were : Aures. Rental. Duke of Northumberland' 181,616 3809,370 Deka of Devonshire 126904 038,160 Sir W. W. Wynn 87,263 214,410 Duke of Cleveland 71,441 309.220 Earl of Csrliele 75,540 24$,006 Duke of Bedford 74 996 638,265 Earl of Londedale 67,457 349,796 Earl of Powis 60,531 313.470 Duke of Rutland 57,082 354,990 Berl of Derby 56,471 816,075 Earl of Yarborough 55 272 381,130 Lord Leconfield 54,015 259,700 Marquis of Ailesbury..., 53,382 290,160 Earl Cawdor 51,517 174,4135 Sir Lawrence Palk 10,100 546,375 Sir J, W. Remission 8,589 838,005 This table is for England and Wales alone, and it leaves oub the lleke of Westminster as being a great landed proprietor of Lon. den. How far the rental of tbo estates has kept up einoe 1873, under the general agri- cultural depression, we cannot estimate. The number of owners or land in Groat Britain and Ireland, exolusive of London, woe offloially returned in 1878 as : Less More than than one eon. one eon. Total, England and Wales,,.. 103,980 269,547 972,836 Scotland.... 113 005 19,225 132,230 Ireland 36,114 32,614 88,728 Total.,852,408 321,388 1,173,794 The total number of acres accounted for in the returns is 72,110,882. In England and Wales 874 owners held 9,307,031 acres, or more than one-fourth of the country. Less than 4 per cent. of the population of Scotland, about 6 per cent. in England, and lees than 2 per oent, in Ireland have a share in the ownership of the soil. The 12 largest owners in England hold an aggregate of 1,058,883 acres ; the 12 in Scotland, 4,- 389,722 ; and the 12 in Ireland, 1,297,888. In England 1, in Ireland 3, and in Scotland 24 individuals hold more than 100,000 acres each. We might go on with these statistics at great length, but have given all that are intellectually dieestibte at this time. They show that of the total population of the United Kingdom, or about 35,000,000, lees than 1,200,000 bold any land at all, and of those more than two-thirds own lees than an acre, while about 10,000 individuate hold more than two-thirds of the whole area, and 30 persona snout one-tenth of it. Tae winnipeg Sun says: -A Sam represen- tative, in making the usual daily visit to the rooms of the Civic Colonization Com• mittee this morning, found Mr. 0. N. Bell, secretary of the committee, busily engaged imparting information to a well-to-do On. team farmer, who contemplates removing to Manitoba next spring, Mr. Bell gave come picture Lessons of faote connected with the size and value of last season's wheat crop. He kindly consented to their publica- tion, and they were token by the reporter ae follows :- The estimate is made on the baste of last year's wheat crcp, which was 14,000.000 bushels. A few years ago, when Red River carts were the only mode of conveyance, an average load was estimated at between eight and nine hundred pounds. if we were dependent on this conveyance today, it would take one million carte to carry out the crop of wheat. They would extend in a straight line five mil- lions of yards, or 2,841 miles, which Is practically the distance of the O.P.R. from Vancouver to Montreal. The wheat would make 5550,000,000 pounds of flour, and would weigh about 840,000,000 pounds. Transporting it in carloads of 660 busbele, weighing .39 000 pounds eaoh, it would require 21,638 cars, making up a train 796,906 feet, 265,635 yards, or 151 miles in length, or it would load 466 vessels with 30,000 bushels each. Supposing a farmer's sleigh or waggon load to he one and a half ton, it would require 233,333 waggons to carry the wheat. Supposing the average distance of the farmers from market to be eight miles, in going and Dom• ing re deliver the wheat of the province our farmers would travel 3,733,328 milee. This, wheat would feed, according to the adopted amount laid down per head of popu- lation, 2,80/000 people for one year, and would feed the present population of Man itobafor 21e years, it would seed 7,000,000 acres at two bushels to the acre, or 10,937 square miles. It would seed a mile in de,,th along the Grand Trunk railway from Toronto to Montreal 33 times over, or a strip two-thirds of a mile wide around the world in this latitude. The acreage under wheat last year in Manitoba equals a strip of land two milds wide extending from Toronto to Montreal, THE WOOL OLID 01 1.00 WORM). The London "Live Stock Journal" says that the,Frenoh Minister of War has iucld• entally obtained, in oonneotion with an order for the manufacture of military cloth, some interesting information with regard to the production of wool. According to the report which has been submitted to him, the total produotion of wool throughout the world may be pat at 800,000 eons, value 3580,000,• 000. Australia and New Zealand pongees 76,000,000 sheep, producing 100,000 tons of wool, worth 3114,160,009, besides 16 per cent more representing the value of the annual wool clip. The Cape of Good Hope produces 15,000 bona of wool, worth $9,880,• 000, La Plata noosooses 1,00/000,000 sheep, producing 60,0000 tone of wool, worth $4,- 40,000, while the United States possesses 0,000,000 sheep, whioh do not, however, field all the wool that is required, he difference being made up by fin- arte from La Plata and Australia. crepe possesses 200000,000 sheep yielding 00,000 tons of wool, and of the various ountrleo in Europe, Russia produces the Cab wool, followed by England, Getmany and Prance, in Which letter oountry the limbo of sheep has fallen during the lash ortyyears from 35,000,000 to 22,000,000. e produotion of wool in India, Central A and Chine is valued at 150,000 tone, the 800,900 tons of wool produced throughout tho world, the greeter part of ro Australian, New Zealand, Cape end La lata wool is oxportedto London, Livorpeol avec, Manatee,Rordeanx, Dunkirk, 8 5 7 11 2 11 m Th 01 Genoa, Antwerp and Bremen, and Franco atone imports 80,000 tons of this wool, a large part of whioh ie used for military oletbiog. The Drop bulletin of the Ontario Bureau of ludnetriee, based upon 800 individual reports, has just been issued, A review shows that fall wheat is a poorer crop that it wee last year, and there has likewise been e deoreaao in the aoroage sown, so that the yield fi lee for comparedbwitia 14400003 'lain year, Spring wheat Is a good Drop, excep. in those districts where the drought bac been very severe; but there has been a large dooreaee In the acreage, and the yield w111 bo only 5.580,000 bushels as compared with 5,633,000 lamb harvest. In all, there- fore, the crop of opting and fall wheat thin year is shorter than lash year's by about 1,• 800,000 baehele ; and, as everyone knows the harvest of 1887 was nota very good one. Berlet', however, is a capital mope, the yield being larger by nearly four million bushels than last year's, and on the whole a bright, Olean ample. Date ie also a good orop. The yield will probably exceed that of last year by ten million buehele, there having been an Moreau in the aoroage of 360,000 acres, The average yield per acre this year is plat ed at 32 bushels, whereas last year the average was only 29 bushels. The average in the five years from 1862 to 1886 was 35 bushels. On the other hand, there is a Barham shortage in hay and clover, Not- withstanding a slight inorease in the acer• age, the orop this year falls below that of last year by about eleven hundred thoueand tons; in fact, it is eaid to be the poorest crop we have had in this province for twenty years. It is satisfactory to know, however, that root orope promise well. Potatoes are remarkably abundant. Fruit iB a fair crop; but ib has been injured by the drought and by pests, The great exhibition by English co-oper- ative sooietieo at the Crystal Palace, Lon- don, brings into view the fact that in some oases an least, euoceso has attended co-oper- ative efforts in manufacturing. The Nation. al Co-operative Labor Society has about one hundred branches, of whioh forty join in this exhibition. There are two or three hind- rances to the success of co-operative manu- facturing enterprises that do not beset die. tributive co•eperation. There ie, in the first place, more risk in the hueioess, whether 11 is carried on by a single capitalist or by a co- operative company. Then there le absolute necessity, for strict business management to senate economy of products of the factory to advantage. The workere do not usually appreciate this part of the business at its true value. The men who actually sake things usually start 00 operative factories, and they too often refuse to take in with them the salesmen or business managers, without whose help all their labor will go for naught. It is interesting to observe, however, that some such enterprises have succeeded in England and have grown from small beginnings into great corporations. Drinking in Russia. The Ruasian Government has just issued a volume of statistics containing Bonze inter. eating information. European Russia ap- pears to have a town population of a little over twelve millions of souls, and a rural population of close on eighty millions, or a total of just under ninety-two millions. This includes Poland and Finland. And to supply the required amount of intoxicating fluids for these evidently thirsty soule it appears that in Russia in Europe there ere 2,377 distilleries, of whioh 1,574 are for the production of potato spirit, the other being 677 which use grain and 126 using sugar and other substances. Rye spirit appears to be the chief beverage after potato spirit, as the amount of rye used was approximately 31} million ponds, while over 84} million poude of potatoes were consumed for the produo- tion of raw spirit. The Indian Dorn freed amounted to less than 31 million pouds, and the quantity of malt ooasumed in the dit- tilleriea was 12} million gouda. Turning to the production of spirits, measured by the strength of forty degrees, we find that over ninety million gallons were made by the distilleries in Russia in Europe, of which only about 10 million gallons were exported There were 140,000 public houses for the sale of liquors. including beer houses, and the consumption per inhabitant was nearly le gallon, or more than double the consump- tion and export per head of the United Kingdom. The total ordinary revenue of Russia for 1885 is returned at 789 million roubles. Of this 182,377,000 roubles were derived from excise duties on spirits, and a further 13,500,000 roubles for licences for the sale of spirits. Consequently about one fourbh of the revenue is derived from spirits Asiatic races under Russian rule number, eaoording to this return, an additional seventeen millions ; making a grand total of the whole of the inhabitants of the Rus - elan Empire of one hundred and nine millions. India Rubberfiorseshoes, The proposed substitution of India rubber for metal m the manufaoture of horseshoes, says rho Mechanical News, is based upon various supposed advantages, one of there being that the former enables a horse to go easily over militinds of roads and rough or slippery ground with -out slipping. The contrivance brought forward for this pur- pose is sack as to °bivate in one instance the ueoeseity of using an iron shoe whioh our bo moved momentarily when the horse is not travelling, and can also be used when the horse is shod with an iron shoe. ate - cording to this design the sheet consists of an India rubber bottom piece molded to fit over or around the frog and the hoof, with a ledge or projecting rim rising up the front and around about the level where the nails are clamped, the projection having an edg• ing under whioh a steel band or other ap. plianaa can be drawn and nipped tight to retain bhe rubber shoe. The band is con. Hooted by studs, which pem through the heel part of the hoof, this being out away Morn the inner side for the purpose, and the stud or studs may work eccentrically to ob- tain grip or fixing. If the rubber shoe is used with on iron shoe the frog portion or pad has a front plate and two side wings partially imbedded in it, the ps ejection tak- ing hold under the iron shoe to fix the tub- ber shoe in place, If the rubber shoe bo divided or made thin in the center, a swivel or other bar own be contracted from the rear to reduoe the width of the pad so that it enters eaeily and also expanded se as to tux the rubber shoe in position. Asking 000 Mud. Old lady (to druggist's bogy -What does the proprietor dos bey, .vhwr he gives arsenic for oomebhin' else ? Boy -lx ell, I dunno ; sometfnies he due one thing an' sometimee ho does another. You can't expect, ma'am, te three-dollar-a- week boy to keep track of the /nee all the MISOELLAREOIIS, Eugene Kelly, the Irish banker of Naw York, begun life as a trumping peddler of needles, thread and buttons. Now be could draw hie ohagno for $10,000,000. Corn le so tall in 10 Ansa tide year that strangers paining through on night trains looking out nu the eorniields by moonlight, talk of the dense oak and maple forests they are passing through, We should never judge a man by lids clothes. A lavender Derby may sometimes cover brains, and a warm heart often boats beneath the haughty exterior of an old•gold vest with pink polka•dott. Farmers within a radius of three miles of Perham, Minn., during fourteen days re- Centl caught and killed mix x thousand bush- els ofgrasshoppers, for which the county paid a bounty of 31 a bushel, A little 4 -year-old girl in Macon, Ga., has just got 3600 for a father who is dead, and has tae assurance of 319.50 a month from now until she ie 16 yearn old. Uncle Sam makes the payment under the Arrears of Pension law. Mrs Newyork (traveIliog)--My husband is a Well street bear, h'lrs. Boston -Ab, indeed? Mine ie a bear, too, but he ie as plain, domestic bear, You ought to see him at breakfast some morning. A beetle can draw twenty times its own weight, and in England there is a fragile little woman, weighing only 93 pounds, who recently lifted a mortgage of 2,000 pounds from her house, This beats the beeble. Boston School Teacher -Now, children, can you tell me the name of the English nobleman who did great services to human- ity and whom we all ought to remember - here in Beaten 1 Children -Marquis oh: Queensberry. Married grocer -What's that the lady. wants? Clerk -She wants me to weigh, her baby for her. " All right ; but say, tell her the youngster weighs about four pounds more than it does, or she'll swear the aoales are dootored." A wonderful landau/to which is on ex- hibition in Paris has been executed in Euro- pean and foreign insects. The desired tones for the foreground are supplied by 450,000 coleoptera, and 4,000 varieties of other in- sects make the rest of the picture. An Englishman has invented an eleotria. gun. There is a small storage battery fixed in the stock, from which a current strong enough to explode the oartridge is commun- icated. It is said that one charging of the cell will explode five thousand cartridges. In Paris a man pinks up a living bygoing about the streets playing on a olrionet hrough a oannla planed in a hole in "tie throat. after the operation oftraebeontonay. When he has finished a Little tune he takes the oaoula out and exhibits it to the audience, to show that there is no deception. An English writer declares that eke cue - tom of pairing off greets at dinner arose in the middle ages, when there was only a single plate and drinking cup for each couple, and that while the man cut up the meat the woman put thepiecea in his mouth and they both drank from the same cup. Workmen in a gravel bed on the Western Railway of Alabama recently came upon the ekeletcn of what they think was an Indian primate. On it were found a silver coronet, silver bracelets, a necklace made of silvbladeer, bookies, tied together with a silk ribbon, and a peculiar knife with a sabre A baker in Bloomsbury, England, sued a man for $12.50 for bread furnished. The man entered a counter claim for $45 for the value of a dog. The evidence was that the baker's boy leaving bread loft the gate of the customer open, and the dog ran out and was lost. The Court held that if the man could not take care of the dog himself he ought not to expect the baker's boy to do it, and judg- ment was for the baker. A blind guitar player named Manjon, from Spain, ie creating a stir in the mnioal world abroad. fie uses an instrument with eleven strings. It was seventy years ago that another Spaniard named Lor created a :mention with his guitar and made a per feat craze for the instrument, So that the piano seemed likely to be driven out of the field, This advertisement recently appeared in an Ithaca newspaper: "Bare Ball and Baptism. -A game of ball will be played at Cayuga Lake Park next Saturday afternoon between the Y. M. C. A. nine of Ithaca and the hlynderse Academy nine of Seneca Falls. At the conclusion of the game will occur the baptising in the lake of converts of the colored camp meeting." A woman in North Gainsville, Fla, saw a little bird flying in and out of a bank window of her house. She watched it, and saw 10 pass through several rooms to the front parlor, and disappeared on a " what• not" in the corner, There the housewife found a neat with four eggs in it. They were not disturbed, and at last accounts the bird was trying to hatch the little eggs, The roaring gas well back of Canonsburg, Pa, is said to have the greatest registered pressure of any in the world. The gas looks liae a solid piece of blue steel for tome distance after ib comes out of the pipe, Solid masonry twelve feet think enrrounde the well to hold the Dap on. When in drill. ing the gee was struck, tools and rope weighing 5,000 pounds were thrown out as though they were feathers, It will take 5,700 books of gold leaf to gild the dome of tho Boston State House. Each book col -Mina twenty sheets of gold leaf, eaoh sheet containing a little over 9j, square inches. The sheets are so thin that 1,000 of them laid ono on the other make 1 at an inch in thickness, The gold is with. sea caratof pure and weighs 3(<pounds Troy. Each book is worth seventy cents, so thet the gold leaf alone costs $4,032. It Will take fifteen ekilied workmen six weeks to de the job. The seventeen -months old daughter of Timothy Hartnett of Melrose, Mass., was arose, being much troubled in getting her teeth, and Timothy sought to alleviate her pain by feeding her raw whiskey Whon the physician got there the baby was in con- vulsions, and Timothy was arrested, Tho report Saye that 'owing to the prisoner's having a wife and throe smell children, the judge sentenced hum only to the House of Ciorreobion for three months." The child recovered. A desorfption of the interior of the "0ity ofNow'York" includes, of course, the lib•' ry, which is in the shape of an hour glass, hping narrowest in the middle line of the enol and widest at the aides. Le this way, o greatest amount of light is seemed Mt given apace. There aro 800 voiames in library, 250 by American authors, and very department of literature uo repreeenb. by Standard works. All the leading mag. tenon and periodicals, will be on Mein thio r5 Ve th a the ed time. 11 rAudent and moat unique of all floating btarioe in the 'Worlds