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torn away from her shoulders, the diamonds sparkling like scattered dew all over the floor, and her lovely yellow hair tangled and disheveled.

Agnes, are you ill?” Mrs. Vining sat up, ghastly pale, with a wild, hysterical laugh.

Look here!" she cried, holding up a sheet of crumpled paper. Oh, Barbarine, you are avenged at last!"

Yes, she was avenged. Albert Vining had stricken her down to the very ground with the same cruel blow he had dealt

poor Barbarine years ago, only keener and more sharp in that he was her hus

band.

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HOW FAR DOES THE GROUND FREEZE.

The greatest thickness of ground ice ever actually measured in America was by Sir J. H. Lefroy, who in June, 1844, on the banks of the Mackenzie river, in latitude 64 degrees north, saw a perpendicular cliff broken off by a landslip, in which the earth was solidly frozen for a distance of forty-five feet below the surface. Half a century ago, a Russian merchant at Yakutsk, in Siberia, which is situated in latitude 62 degrees north, had to dig 382 feet before he could get through the ground ice. The average temperature at Yakutsk is only 14 degrees Fahrenheit, and the town is very near the Siberian pole of greatest cold. Sir J. H. Lefroy thinks there is good reason to believe that the ground ice within the arctic circle in America is much thicker than the maximum in Siberia, and even suggests that it may extend to 1,300 feet.

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"Yes.

Vhell, I buys him und feels proud. I goes down mit der Central depot to see if my brudder-law comes in from Bay City, und a policeman looks me all oafer und says:

You doan't get in some work around here mit a shtring game! If you do up you go!'

'He shpoke like dot to me-Carl Dunder-a citizen who pays taxes in two wards und vhas as innocent as a child.” Did, eh?"

"Dot oopsets me, und I vhalk oudt doors to cool off. Some stranger come aroundt, und pooty soon he vhispers:

"What vhas your lay, partner?'

"I doan't know what dot means, und he says:

Vhas it der bunco or der confidence peesness? Maybe you like a capper?'

Shust think of shpeaking like dot to somepody who vhas headquarters for a Blaine club, und who pays his liquor tax like clocks?"

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HOW TO TAKE LEAVE.

Not all have learned the fine art of leave-taking in an appropriate manner. When you are about to depart, do so at once, gracefully and politely, with no dallying. Don't say, "It is about time I was going," and then begin again and talk on aimlessly for another ten minutes. Some people have just such a tiresome habit. They will even rise and stand around the room in various attitudes, keeping their hosts also standing, and then by an effort succeed in getting as far as the hall, when a new thought strikes. them. They brighten up visibly and stand for some minutes longer, saying nothing of importance, but keeping every one in a restless state. After the door is opened the prolonged leave-taking begins,. and everybody in general and particular is invited to call. Very likely a last thought strikes the departing visitor, and. his friend must risk a cold in order to hear it to the end. There is no need of being offensively abrupt; but when you are ready to go, go, and be gone.

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JUST FOR THE PRINCIPLE..

A man in Copiah county, Miss., cameout of his cotton field one day at noon and turned his plow mule in the yard and threw her a bundle of fodder and then entered the house to eat his own dinner. A mangy, half-starved calf, that was grazing in the yard, wandered over to the mule and fodder and began eating. The mule backed her ears and heels and kicked the calf so severely that it fell to the

A gentleman once boasted to a friend that he could introduce to him an engineer of more wonderful skill than Robert Stephenson. In fulfillment of the boast, he brought out a glass tumbler containing a little scarlet-colored spider, whose beauty, with its bright yellow nest on a sprig of laurustinus, had induced a young lady to pluck the sprig from the bush where it was growing. When brought into the house it was placed on the mantelpiece, and secured by placing a glass over it. In a very short time this wonderful little engineer contrived to ac-ground and died. complish the herculean task of raising the sprig of laurustinus, a weight several hundred times greater than himself, to the upper part of the glass, and attached it there so firmly that it remained suspended for many years where it was hung by the spider.

A new French experiment consists in placing two similar black paper figurestwo crosses, for example--quite closely together, at about three inches from the eyes. When so held before a sheet of white paper three separate crosses will be seen. The phenomenon, illustrating the principle of the stereoscope, is explained by the simultaneous vision of the two eyes. If figures of complementary colors, as red and green, are used upon a dark background, a white figure will appear in the middle.

The children called to their father: "Oh, papa! Old Bet's done killed Billy."

The father immediately seized his gun and rushed out into the yard, and seeing what the mule had done, in his rage discharged both barrels of the gun at the mule, killing her almost instantly. A neighbor passing along about that time inquired:

Jones, don't you think it mighty poor business to kill a hundred dollar mule all about a two dollar calf?"

"Hundred dollar mule! Thunder, it's not a money matter with me. It is the principle of the thing.

exchange asks "what shall bridle the growing spirit of Neither a bridle nor a curb good. The only good plan.

A Texas
be done to
murder?"
will do any
is to use a halter.

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Then she chawed and chawed:

"It isn't a foreign letter, you know.” "No'm."

"Going to Cleveland, you see?”
"Yes'm."

"If you were meThe crowd surged up and swept her ten feet away. She held the letter in one She held the letter in one hand and the stamp in the other and gazed her indignation. Her anger seemed to center on one man-one who had elbowed her the hardest. He seemed to He seemed to feel it, and 'he turned and bowed and whispered:

"Scuse me, ma'am, but this is no idiot asylum!"

Then she chawed and chawed, and went out without posting her letter.

ONE WAY.

A young editor, bright, poor and punsterious, had won the affections of a rich man's daughter, and they fixed a day for him to call on the father, and on that day he was promptly in the old gentleman's office.

"Good morning, sir," he said, confident, but ready to run, "I have called on you on a matter of

"We don't want any advertising today," interrupted the old gentleman, looking up over his glasses.

"I am not on that business, sir. I came to ask for your daughter. "What do you want with her?” Marry her."

"What for?”

"For better or worse. "What does the girl say?" "She says she will be my wife.” Ugh! You haven't got a cent in the world, have you?”

"Yes, sir. She gave assent, and if you will do the same, that will make two, and we can buy a postage stamp and write to you for the balance of our salary.

It was a wretched attempt, but he got the girl.

A PREFERENCE ON THE GALLOWS.

A funny anecdote connected with the Hon. Joe Blackburn's first race for Congress is told. Joe happened to be passing through Owento, the county seat of Owen County, on the occasion of the hanging of a noted criminal. As a hanging is rather an exceptional episode in the State of Kentucky, the honorable Joe concluded he would stop over a few hours and witness the event. The gallows was erected in the public square, so that no citizen, however humble, should lose the opportunity of witnessing the unusual spectacle. It was, in fact, a gala day such as the history of Owento has seldom recorded. The Sheriff, with true Kentucky hospitality, invited Black burn, as one of the distinguished guests present, to occupy a seat on the gallows. Blackburn did so. aries had been arranged, the Sheriff conAfter the preliminsulted his watch and discovered that it was not quite twelve o'clock, the hour fixed for the execution. Turning to the prisoner, he said:

"You have ten minutes yet to live, Is there anything you desire to say in the mean time?"

The prisoner sullenly replied there was not.

At this instant Blackburn sprung from his seat, and, advancing to the edge of the scaffold, said:

"If the gentleman will allow me his remaining ten minutes I will be glad to announce myself as a candidate for your suffrages. If elected to Congress

At this point the prisoner interjected: "Say, you. Is your name Joe Blackburn?”

"Yes, sir," responded Blackburn, po

litely.

Turning to the Sheriff, the prisoner said:

"We won't stand on a few minutes,

more or less, when the alternative is presented of death on one hand or listening to one of Joe Blackburn's long-winded speeches on the other. Spring the trap and let me go."

The good-natured Sheriff obligingly "sprung the trap," and the next instant the desperado swung into eternity, while Blackburn clambered down the gallows, exclaiming, as he went, that he had lost the greatest opportunity of his life.

A BAD BREAK.

A SPLENDID RAILROAD MAN. Said Solomon, the clothing man, to Ike, his assistant, the other day, while talking of a certain railroad scheme which was agitating the speculative community: "My cousin Lowenstein was a splendid railroad man but he was unlucky. Vonce he made ofer five dousand dollars out uf de railroad pusiness. He haf a blace on de railroad and gets some Jersey cows, und den he gets an old cowhide und stuffs it mit straw, und efery night he puts de straw cow on de railroad vere dere vas a

steep grade, and the passenger train gums along und knocks it off, und Lowenstein sends in a pill to de company and gets de money on a compromise. Von night. Lowenstein puts de straw cow on de track at de wrong time, you know, und a freight train comes up de grade very slow, und de engineer sees de cow und vistles, but she dond get up, und he stops de train, bicks up de cow, and puts it in de caboose, und dree veeks after dot Lowenstein goes to de penitentiary for a couple of years. He vas a good railroad man, Ike, but he vas unlucky." And Solomon. mopped the perspiration from his brow, and glanced up and down the street in hopes that a customer would come along in search of a pair of all-wool pants.

It was on a Pittsburgh & Lake Erie train coming down from Youngstown, says the Pittsburgh Dispatch. A Cleve land drummer, with a long mustache and a grip-sack, sauntered through the car chewing a tooth-pick and looking, as though he owned the earth. After winking at an old maid until she blushed a pale greenish yellow, and ogling a pretty girl until she turned and looked out a window, he sat down in two seats and proceeded to take things easy. Pretty soon he spied an ancient Bible in one of the dusty racks a memento of the prehistoric days when railroads were run by Christians. He looked at it curiously for a minute or two, took it down and commenced thumbing its pages. After a bit he struck some statement in Genesis that seemed to interest him, and he commenced reading. He was evidently in- The sun is about 92,500,000 miles from terested, for he hardly looked up for half the earth, not 95,000,000 as was popularly an hour. Then he whistled for a train-supposed ten years ago. Computations made at the last transit of Venus across Say, boy," he said, "do you carry the sun's disc had established the latter this book? It's blanked interesting, and figure, though not exactly. A sun spot I want a copy. measuring one second of distance is 450 Dunno," said the boy. Let's see miles in size. No telescope can deal with

boy.

it."

The youth looked at the book a second or two and then at the man as he blurted

out:

Course not, you blamed fool; that's the Bible."

That's what!" exclaimed the drummer as he turned to the fly-leaf.

"A Bible,” replied the boy.

Thunder!" he said in disgust, dropping the book; "I haven't seen one since I was a boy."

The train-boy poured water on him, the pretty girl looked sympathetic, and the old maid offered her fan, but he did not recover until the conductor held his private corkscrew under his nose.

Great guns! that was a bad break," was all he said.

THE SUN.

a smaller spot. The speaker had seen spots with the naked eye. A spot large enough to be seen with the naked eye must measure 250,000 square miles. How long the sun has given out heat, astronomers are not yet able to tell. It has probably been for millions of ages. We see the marks of the sun's heat in the depths of the coal mines where lay the vegetation of ages ago. The pores of the sun are something wonderful in their nature. The millions of these pores are about all of the sun's surface which can be ordinarally seen through a telescope. The chromosphere, which is a stratum of red hot hydrogen 3,000 miles in thickness, can only be seen during an eclipse. Then there is the wonderful corona which varies in size at each eclipse.

Scientific.

THE FIELD OF INVENTIONS.

man has done in this new direction is exhibited in the substance called alizarine. It is the substance which gives to madder its coloring quality. Not many years ago madder was extensively cultivated in many countries to supply the demand for the arts. Now the article is made artificially from coal-tar, and the fields where madder was cultivated have to be devoted to other purposes. Invention has taught man how to make indigo, and the artificial article is likely to supplant the natural product. Diamonds have been produced artificially. I have full faith that sugar will in time in like manner be produced artificially. Starch and oil may not unlikely be provided in the same way.

I hear people not infrequently express the belief that man will soon exhaust the field of invention. The inventions of the last century have been so numerous and wonderful that to many minds it seems most likely that man will soon reach the limit of his power, or that he will exhaust the resources of nature. But there is little reason to fear that either condition can be reached for ages, if ever. It is as little likely that man will ever reach the limit of invention as it is that he will be able to fix the bounds of the universe. Man makes inventions by combining the materials and forces of nature so as to reach new results. Let any one consider how numerous are the materials which nature presents to the observation and use of man, how varied in kind and degree are the forces which are in constant operation, and how multifarious and in-orates and spins into silk. tricate are the laws which govern their actions and relations, and then calculate, if he can, the number of possible combinations which can be made. I have seen the statement, which is no doubt true, that the fifteen blocks in the gem puzzle can be arranged in more than a million different ways. If this simple toy possesses such capabilities, what possibility is there that man can ever exhaust the field of nature? Wonderful as man's inventions are in number and character, they are at an infinite distance behind the works of nature. What a multitude of created things there are in nature, looking simply at species and varieties, and not at the individuals! How many kinds of plants and animals are to be found! What multitudes of reptiles and insects! No machine which man has invented calls into play such wonderful forces or is governed by such wonderful laws as the humblest plant on which he treads! Man is far enough yet from inventing a structure which shall build itself up from the earth, air and water, and scatter germs for its indefinite reduplication! He has succeeded in copying some of the products of nature, and he will achieve still greater results, but in doing it he has but opened a new field of invention, one which only a few years before seemed utterly beyond his reach. He has enlarged the field of invention, not exhausted it. A striking instance of what

Man now cultivates the silk worm which devours mulberry leaves and converts a large portion into a glutinous fluid which, when spun out into a fine thread, hardens and forms our silk. Man may yet learn how to extract silk directly from the leaves, and perhaps even produce the substance which the worm elab

Since the telephone has shown that man, through the agency of electricity, can talk with his fellow men hundreds of miles away, there are men daring enough to think that through the same agency man may yet see things at an equally great distance, so that you may not only talk from Boston to your friend in New York, but may actually see him as if face to face, and they claim that their attempts have been attended with some degree of success. Would you dare to say it was more unlikely that such a result may be achieved than that man should be able to transmit intelligence instantly three thousand miles through the depths of the ocean? Through long ages man remained unconscious of the presence and action of the forces of magnetism and electricity, but we now know that they are constantly present everewhere and incessantly active. What forces may still be hidden from the observation of man it is impossible to know.

There is no sign that the work of the inventor is near its end, and those who believe, as I do, that he has been the chief agent in the progress of the world, have no reason to doubt that the world will be still more deeply indebted to him as the centuries go by.

There are now in force in this country more than 250,000 patents for inventions, the fruits to a very large extent of the mental labor of those who are called the

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