Evening Star Newspaper, May 19, 1894, Page 19

FOR THE LITTLE BOY Some Suggestions to Mothers About Their Everyday Costumes. SOME SUITS FOR WARM WEATRER Designs for Cool Frocks to Be Worn in Summe EASILY MADE AND CHEAP Fritten Exclusively for The Evening Star. LL THE LITTLE (folks are glad that the warm weather has come, so that they may run out of doors without wraps. (he girls have had of designs for cool frocks represented in (he Star, but the boys have not fared 80 well, so this article they will have entire- ly to themselves. Fond mammas will be able, with a little careful study and energy to construct from the following slothes for the future Presidents A Morning Costume. fhe child in cut number one wears a sim- ple morning dress of percale. It is cut long waisted and has a short gathered skirt ‘which is sewed to the waist, the whole but- toning down the back. The front of the is tucked, and the waist is encircled & wide belt. This belt, the collar (which @ very big one) and cuffs are edged with ruffies of embroidered edging. Gather- skirts are, of course, much easier to than kilted ones, and look very well Effective in Gingham. A Hittle suit of several shades of gingham darker shade than the dress. The vest is without fullness and has a point at the lower edge. The bretelles are sewed to this out toward the shoulders. The juare pieces put on to imitate pock- at the seam, where the skirt in are sewed together, For Traveling. A stylish little traveling costume for an- other little boy is shown in the third picture. ‘This is made of buff gray linen, and 1s trimmed in black braid and smoked peart buttons. The waist is long and tight fitting, buttoning in the back. Waist and skirt are sewed together, the latter having a box Pleat in the middle of front and plain pleats all around. The neck Is finished off by a small turnover collar, to be worn with a lack scarf. The black braid is put on to imitate a jacket and also trims the wrists. A linen sailor cap and long linen leggins the costume. A Plaid Gingham. AB easily made and pretty little suit ts shown in the fourth illustration. The gath- ered skirt is maid of plaid gingham of a red and blue pattern, and the full blouse waist, which is cut double breasted, ts of either shade. The blouse has a deuble row of white pearl buttons and the neck and wrists are finished off by white open-work collars and cuffs. The little skirt should be @ewed to a straight low-necked waist to insure its setting well. A pique suit is next shown and this is eiso made in two pieces, the kilted skirt being sewed to a waist the same as the foregoing one. The long body comes con- siderably beloW the waist and has a straight piece of embroidery about its lower edge. The waist opens in front with pearl but- tons, and has wide revers and cuffs, which also have the wide embroidery trimming. more than their share descriptions some suitable A wide belt is worn with this. It is cut in the usual circular way, and fastens at the side of the front. For Cool Days. A Gress for cool days is pictured in num- ber six. It is a little Eton suit of gray blue challi. The little open jacket and kilted skirt are of this and there is a wide collar and big pointed cuffs of a darker shade of the same color. It is to be worn with white muslin blouses, and a silk one for best will also be found convenient. Of Waite Duck. A little dress of white linen duck is shown in illustration number seven. It has a sail- or waist that is made with a straight yoke, being cut in a V in the front. It ts gathef- ed quite full to this yoke in back and front and turned under with a shirring string in the usual sailor fashion. The sleeves are full and have wide turn-back cuffs. For trinfiming have a conventional pattern stamped on the back of the sailor collar and on cuffs and front pieces of the yoke and braid it with narrow white cotton braid. A Pretty Dress. The next young gentleman is somewhat younger than the others, but claims his share of pretty gowns, too. His little dress is of white goods, and is made all in one, with a tucked straight waist and full skirt. A pointed collar, cut as shown in the illus- tration, is of pink material, and has cuffs to match. Around the waist are two straps of pink. They are about an inch wide and are pldced an inch apart. They are pointed at e end, and this fastens over at the sidé of the front, being caught each by a smail pearl button. This dress fastens in the back. A Blouse Wats ‘The last 1s a blouse waist, having a big box pleat down the front, the two edges of which have narrow embroidery for trim- ming. A wide circular collar is the main feature of this dress. It is cut in two pieces an@ the edges of each are outlined with embroidery. The dress fastens in front, but the collar is made to cross over and button to the back piece at the shoulder. Both shoulders are made in the same way and have four small pearl buttons. The skirt is a box pleated one and is made quite short. ——_+-e-+____ Descendants of Queen Victoria. From the Philadelphia Inquirer. Queen Victoria has provided the world with a stock of sovereigns and dignitaries of lower rank which will suply the world for a long time to come. She has now fifty- seyen descendants. Her oldest child mdr- tied the late Emperor Frederick of Ger- many, whose son Is now emperor. Her sec- ond son is Prince Saxe-Coburg Gotha, and Princess Alice married the Grand Duke of Hesse, whose son married his first cousin yesterday. Nine of her descendants are heirs apparent or consorts of heirs appar- ent. These include the Prince of Wales, the Duke of York, the German crown prince, Prince Alfred of Saxe-Coburg Gotha, Prince Georgius of Greece and several of minor importance. Her family is closely allied by marriage ties to Russia, so that by fam- ily ties.or diplomacy she is closely allied with every power in Europe except repub- ican France and decayed Spain. History records no equal successful sovereign in this respect. At seventy-five years she can sur- vey the situation with great satisfaction. Though not in the best of health, there is ro apparent reason why she should not reign ten years longer, by which time she can have secured some more eligible places for her descendants. As a matchmaker she is the best on record. -oo— A Thought Ahead. From Harper's Bazar. “I don’t see why you always let your children romp and shout so in the house,” conmplained one sister to another, ad she came in and found all her small nephews and nieces engaged in some jolly game. The mother laughed. “I suppose I do spoil them,” she said; “but whenever I hear them laugh and shout I think to my- self, ‘Poor things, they've got so much time to be old!’ It is such a little while, Louise, before the liveliest of them will settle down into a sober, careworn man or woman. I don’t want them to get rude, of course. I | watch enough that it doesn't go too far. But sometimes it seems as if we had hardly finished complaining of the frivolity and high spirits of our children before the shad- ows of life began to close about them, and we sigh to remember the days when we might have laughed with them, instead of forcing them to be old with us. “Perhaps,” she ended, “a woman with nerves couldn't be so philosophical, but I've trained mine to put.up with it, until some times I think I haven't any nerves at all.” . seo ‘Thin Skating for Bachelor Flirts. From the Boston Post. The declaration of marriage in Siam is simpler even than it used to be in Scotland. You ask a lady to marry you by merely offering her a flower, or taking a light from a cigarette if it happens to be in her mouth; and your family and the bride's family have to put up at least $200 apiece for a dowry. The principal impediment in the way of marriage is that each year 13 named after an animal, and only certain animals are allowed to intermarry; for in- stance, a person born in the year of the cat cannot marry with a person born in the year of the dog, or a person born in the year of the cow with a person born in the year of the tiger; and there are similar embargos about months and days, akin, perhaps, to the old superstition in this country that a marriage will be unlucky if the birth months of the bride and groom are far apart. April should not wed with November, nor January with June. ON VARNISHING DAY A Pen Picture of “Vernissage” at the Paris Salon. CELEBRITIES OF THE GREAT WORLD The Annual Art Exhibition One of the Events of the Year. THE ARTISTS AND NOTABLES Special Correspondence of The Evening Star. " PARIS, May 1, 1804. ARIS HAS NOW and again each year its days, Its events, its sights, so brilliant and unapproachable that even the empti- est tourist stops his discouraging com- plaints and holds his breath, The day of the Grand Prix Is one, Christmas night is one, and Varnish- ing day at the one and only Saion is an- other. The Salon Js tic annual art exposi- tion, vatrenized by the French government and ali the worfi. Its Vernissage Is Its first day. All the celebrities of the great world of art and literature and the theater, and of the press, meet in a festival of mutal ad- miration, wherein the paintings and the statues are but a stage setting for the greater spectacle of living beauty and dis- tinction. Here the ladies of high life scru- tinize the tollettes printanieres and artists’ wives show pale and dowdy in the glamour. Poor artists’ wives, they linger near their husbands’ masterpieces, fiercely attentive to each scrap of praise that they may spread it before their lord and master in the evening. He is bowing, scraping, toadying all the afternoon to wealth and fashion. How the Press Treats It. “Our most celebrated artists guided our most charming mondaines in their prome- In the Painting Galleries. nade, conducting them to the works which they should see and admire.” The journalists and critics make their rounds without their pencils, nor do they patronize the special room provided for them. The work of real importance ts to recognize the presence of great folk, to bow, to feel the swooning thrill of being noticed. And the great folk have their need to be recorded in the Paris journals. “Behold Madame Gauthereau, the Comte and Comtesse de Montjau, the Baronne Gustave de Rothschild and her daughter— “One must signalize the costume of Madame Ayer, la richissime Ame-icaine. It Was a ravishing costume of taffeta, in changing hues from clear to clouded blue Pompadour. The very ample skirt was or- namented in the lower part by little squares of cream-colored guipure lace, placed en grecque with flounces of blue mousseline de sofe. The sleeves, also very ample, were in plaited mousseline de sole, fastened by three huge rosettes of blue velvet. A small hat of yellow straw was adorned with a great bunch of blue corn-flowers. * * So go the Paris journals of this morning. “Oh! isn't it heavenly,” murmured an American girl in Paris, thinking of the gorgeous panorama, rather than of the special costume of the lady of the patent medicine, the almanac and testimonials of sufferers. “Oh! it is heavenly. You must be in time to order your lunch table.” “There goes Emile Zola——" ‘“Monsiet to a sculptor), your dogs are charming—— Sculpture. “That girl is more artistically varnished than the paintings——" ‘See, there is Sibyl Sanderson of the ra——"’ You catch a phrase, a word, and that fs all. “Oh! that is beautiful——Quelle horreur—TI find that in bad taste——" But the ladies speak of a @own, whose beauty perishes, and not of the immortal! paintings. The Palais de l'Industrie. Undoubtedly the Salon, the Vernissage, remains that of the old, reliable Champs- Elysees. This year it was the last day of April. The seceding Salon of the Champ de Mars had opened a week before. The situation of the Palais de I'Industrie, which contains the old Salon, is in the full heart of brilliant Pafis, on the great promenading avenue, midway between the obelisk of the Place de la Concorde and the Arc de Tri- omphe. The fresh greenery of the lawns and trees, the glorious flower beds, the lace-like fountain sprays, the fallen chest- nut blossoms, the gilding and the varnish of the flitting carriages, the rattle of silver chains on sleek and shining thoroughbreds, the rich and joyous promenade—all these unite to make a setting for the great spring function, which the barn-like, far-off E: Position buildl: of the rebel Salon of the Champ de Mars cannot attempt to rival. In the Great Court. Picture to yourself the immense interior court of this stone Palais de I’Industrie, Notable Figure: which has its full front on the splendors of the avenue. In the court they race their horses at the Concours Hippique; and there on the morrow of Varnishing day 3,000 sol- diers are garrisoned in readiness to dart out on the unsprinkled dust of the Paris streets of Labor day, if it be necessary. This year they are bivouacked among the stat- ues in the great court, roofed with glass. : : a They scarcely seem to occupy it, for even the cherry-colored breeches of the 3,000 can- not light up those pale marbles as did the new frocks of 15,000 ladies, more or less, at the Vernissage of yesterday. Apart from the sculpture which tenants the court with tts marbles, it has chairs and benches scattered about on the” graveled ground. Around it, on the second floor, there is an open gallery, from which thou- sands locked down yesterday. On this floor, opening out from the gallery, are the endtess rooms for the exposition of the paintings. The light comes from the cell- ing, and is slided off to each side, to assist the pictures, by tent-like strips of white muslin running the full length of each hall like a canopy. Here the splendid crowd of Varnishing day most surges, hiding the paintings behind a forest of silk hats and tropical flower thicket of puffed sleev: mauve, yellow, blue, green and orange. The perfume of this jungle of femininity is of conflicting extracts, heavy, overpowering, heliotrope,acacia, cherry blosom, new mown hay, and all the line of scents which have their basis in the sensual and provoking, hypnotizing musk. You float in the color, swim in the perfume and sink beneath the billows of this bath of womanhood. These changing centers of pressure and intoxic: tion follow in the train of great celebrities. Known und Unknown, Sarah Bernhardt only came at 4 o'clock. She stayed an hour and she was never free. Whenever she would stop before a picture then the room became impassabie. When she stood before the great canvas of Eugene Chigot, representing the reception of the Russian fleet at Toulon, there was a quar- ter of an hour she could not budge, when those who surged around her the most in- timately, the most uncomfortably, could not relieve her of their presence. It is not necessary even to be known to draw the curiosity of such a crowd. One lady, who is still a mystery, arrived at 5 and, though late, created a new furore wherever she took her steps. She was tall, massive, and ro longer in her first youth. On her head she wore an enormous black hat, crowned with Waving black plumes. From beneath it flowed in long, abundant ringicts, her Salmon Trout, Asparagus and Straw- berries. kair, of the richest strawberry-blonde. Her rich black dress set off her size to ad- vantage, and in one hand she carried a high black ebouy cane topped with a mas- sive golden apple. A young man accompa- nied her, and a demure little lady followed respectfully behind. Everyone asked in wonder: “Who is the massive blonde?” Some thought she was a Russion princess newly come to town, but a wag spread the report that she was the Grand Duchess of Geroistein in person. Artists and Their Wives. The morning of the vernissage is for the artists and their wives and for such as are really interested to see the pictures on the first day. The gates are open and all may come—who have their tickets or will pay two dollars. But the great crowd waits unti! the afternoon. The morning is the artists’ fete. Despite the brilliant places won by some Americans and other foreign- ers (their number is considerable), the mass of the artists are, naturally, Frenchmen, elther pale and thin and hairy, or, oftener, fine, burly men, with cheeks and noses round and red, and with rolis of restaurant fat above their collars. They wear their universal black frock coats tightly buttoned over their capacious stomachs, and their short legs carry them about with an in credible rapidity. What we should call di: tinction of appearance, dress and manners in America are something 'acking in them at times; but of their urbanity, boyish good- nature, simplicity and enaive excitement there can be no doubt. Their wives, who “That's Riche Pin. are unmistakable, show, on an average, heavy, dowdy and uninteresting, good diges- tors, with high color snd an execrable taste in dress. The wives of English and Amert- can artists, on the contrary, are pale, pathetic, with great eyes, with all the marks of that high thinking which the poet associ- ated with plain living. The Tickets. Each artist who exhibits—that is, who is allowed to exhibit—receives a special card for the vernissage, with two tabs, one on each side, each like the number coupon of a theater ticket. On the strength of one of them he brings in his wife in the morning and eats lunch with her at noon. Then he leaves her inside and goes out, toward 2 o'clock, to bring in free, by virtue of the other tab, some rich gentleman or lady, some patron of the atts or patronizing ac- quaintance, who is not above Sponging on an attentive artist. The number of these free admissions dwarfs that of the paying visitors. This year out of some 20,000 entrances only a few over 2,000 paid their way. The mufict- pal council and their many friends, the deputies and senators and thelr many friends, and the long list of all who could scrape up any connection with the foreign and domestic press,complete the tale, togeth- er with the stylish actresses, singers and dancers who are needed to give a certain note to the performance. Even the number of American journalists alone in Paris is astonishing at this season. “There must be The Unknown. 250 of your confreres asking tickets,” said the secretary to me a week ago, Salmon, Trout, Asparagus and Straw- berries. The lunch is a real institution. It is served inside the building, and also at the restaurant Le Doyen underneath the trees outside. The Le Doyen restaurant, which is celebrated in its way, has almost a monopoly of these lunches of artists and of the rich bourgeois. The consecrated dishes are bisque potage, salmon trout, with green sauce; asparagus and strawberries. Even the artists buy champagne—pop, bang! we may be happy yet—for all the artists of the ‘Paris salon are not rich, nor even success- ful from 4 money point of, view. These men who fake the fete are exploited on every hand. The picture dealers have the ear of purchasers and pull those long ears to their cwn advantage. Even Roybet, now in the zenith of his fame, is known to have prac- tically sold himself to a rich dealer in a moment of discouragement and aspiration after the pleasure of money spending. He has only now worked himself free from the debts of past years by handing over pic- tures which he could now sell at five times the price he actually received. When the Grent World Comes. The great world comes at 3 o'clock, with its tollets, the crush, the dandy gentle- men, and all the happy rout of wealth and fashion, honor and dishonor. Beside the austere countess of the Faubourg Saint Germain and her meek, blue-blooded, grace- ful daughter, whose creamy cheeks have scarce a touch of pink, and whose great brown eyes look with but mild courage on the motley crowd, there appear the heavy, wrinkled,varnished jowls of such a harden- ed sinner Caroline Hasse, “the beautiful Alsatian,” of the last days of the second empire. She is towed about by two un- | great world of the demi-monde, ashamed young gentlemen, either of whom might be the grandson of this ancient boon companion of the discredited Daniel Wilson in his younger days, before he had becom the sorin-law of President Grevy. She is said to have 100,000 francs of yearly income There is scarcely a name in modern French literature and politics whose owner is pot here among the men. Each theater has Tepresentatives, each section of society, the old noblesse, the new republican aristoc- racy, the English speaking colony, the all have their groups, which merge an melt into each other as though it were the general judgment of the dead and living. The Close. Four o'clock, 5 o'clock, 6 o'clock, until the crowd of 18,000 wanes and falls away. The crowd upon the avenue before the gates increases as the glittering carriages roll to the entrance and then whisk away. Coach- men in blue and black and gold and silver, chattering beneath the trees throughout the afternoon, hold in their restless horses The nursemai fluttered at their presence, forsake their haunts with lingering steps as evening hastens on. The crowd is not yet finished crying out its numbers in the ves- tiare before the fairy lights of the Champs Elysees begin to show their yeilow points The Thrill Reing Recognized. against the pale blue eastern sky or hide themselves within the red haze of the west. Fatigued, discouraged at the sight of so much wealth and ease and luxury, the modest visitor, who does not even take a cab at 30 cents the trip, drags his tired feet up to a brasserie upon the Rue Royale and takes a botk upon the sidewalk terrace. “Send the mauve chemisette in the same package with the jacket’—he muses on the two lines of a letter which he had forgotten, retlects that it is Labor day tomorrow, and wonders whether Coxey’s army will have stormed the Capitol, STERLING HEILIG. >- A BROOM WITH EACH DRINK. The Kind of Whisky They Sold in Leadville in Early Days. As three men were standing in front of the bar of a Smithfield street saloon yest: day, says the Pittsburg Dispatch, one pick- ed up a glass of whisky, that was placed before him and, tasting it, rade a face that lcoked as if he had taken poison. “My, but that’s rank stuff,” said he, as he put down his glass and wiped off his mouth with his handkerchief. “That's almost as bad as the whisky we got out west during the great gold and silver excitement. I remember in Leadville there was a wag kept a saloon who did not try to disguise the quality of the liquor that passed over his bar, but 1ather made careful preparations for the ef- fects that he knew it wouid cause. “It is said that a tenderfoot once came in and asked for a whisky. He was passed a bottle and a glass. Then, to his surprise. the bartender placed a small whisk broom by the side of the bottle. Of course he was puzzled, but he poured out his drink and drank it slowly, unwilling to profess ignor- ance in the ways of the wild west, and thinking that some person might come to Tis rescue. “The door opened, and he saw a man who saved him. A big, burly fellow, bristling with revolvers and bowie knives, stepped in the door and, going up to the bar, ordered whisky in a voice that seemed to come from somewhere below the cellar. A bottle and a glass were passed to him, and, as before, a whisk broom was add@d to the layout. The tenderfoot watched the man carefully. He poured out a good-sized glassful, then, after gulping it down, quietly picked up the whisk broom, and going over to a cornér of the room, brushed away the sand from a por- ey of the floor. He then lay down and had t. “But, of course, all the whisk; out there was not as bad as that. = A Cause for Divorce. From the London Daily Telegraph. There will be some fun in Westminster one of these nights—not in the Mbuse of commons, for little amusement can be found in increased taxation, one man one vote, or we got “‘}even to Welsh disestablishment, but in the neighboritood of the tall, well-dressed lady who stepped Into the witness box of the local police court on Saturday, hugging a Uny pug dog, and said to Mr. Sheil: “Sir, will you please give me the renewal of a separation order?” “What do you mean by that?" asked the magistrate. “Well, sir, it's like this,” continued the lady, as she stroked her pet. “I g6t a separation order against my husband, but I took him back. and now I am so sorry—so awfully sorry— that I cannot tell you how sorry I am.” “I am not going to advise you,” answered Mr. Sheil, grimly. “If you don’t know when you're happy, you can’t expect me to tell you. Go to the divorce court. It’s no use coming to the. You got the separation order. Why didn’t you keep it? You ere like the rest of your sex—you throw away all the advantages you get.” The lady with the dog looked sad and sighed, bi tured to make another appeal. “Can a man," she timidly asked, “come in after midnight? Because—he—does. He comes home at 3 o'clock in the morning and goes to bed in his clothes and boots. He isn’t at ,all particular, 1 can assure you, He hasn't had them off for a month, and I don’t think it's nice.” The lady sniffed as she spoke to emphasize what she meant, and waited for the magistrate’s answer, which came not. Mr. Shiel was not to. be drawn. The lady then took a large door-key—about the same size as the dog—out of her pocket, and, tap- ping it on the witness box, said decisively: “I'll lock the front door on him, I will! I won't stand it any longer.” That lady and her husband are sure to give amusement to their neighbors soon—but it may take place at an untimely hour. ——-e2—_____ Weber Lubricated the Kitchen Fire. From the Chicago Daily Tribune. Next time Deputy Sheriff Weber wants to start the fire with kerosene he will make stre he gets hold of the right can. Weber lives in Blue Island, where the custom of lubricating fires prevails. When the serv- ant quft, a day or -so ago, Weber con- sidered it his duty to start the kitchen fire. Things went well until after the rain storm, but yesterday the fire wouldn't burn. Going down stairs Weber got the coal-oil can, poured a liberal dose on the wood, and touched it off. After he had crawled out from under the sink, and reassured the cat, he proceeded to Investigate results. The stove pipe hung on the gas jet, and the tea kettle nestled in the closet. One of the stove lids was in the front yard, keeping the frying pan company, and the canary's cage was up- side down. Weber thoughtfully stroked his Mustache, and it came off in his hand. He couldn't raise his eyebrows in surprise, be- cause they weren't there. His wife shri¢ked when he went to be pitied and wanted to know what was the matter. Weber said some one had loaded the stove, and when he poured on kerosene it exploded. Then he described the can. gu was benzine in that,” said his wife. Mr. ————_+-. The Downward Path. From Puck. Senior Partner—“Keep a close watch on De Ledger’s accounts this summer.” Junior Partner—“Eh? Is he playing the races?” Senior Partner—“Worse! He has moved to the suburbs and is going to raise his own vegetables.”” ———_-++____ “Good—Like You.” From Babyhood. When I reproved my little girl Her clear gray eyes were grieved and wet. She owned her fault, for james | amd AD ie some words I can't “It you were Mttle, just lke me, Would ever you be naughty, too? If I were ouly grown-up I could be always good—like you." She meant it! Her sweet innocence, Which sent so sharp and sure a dart, Knows nothing of the wicked moods ‘That sometimes sway her mother’s heart. Wrath, envy, folly. discontent, selfish purpose—not withstood — These things accuse me; but my child Believes that I am always good. On Sabbath days the man of God Reproves me often unaware. Asbamed, I hear his earnest voice My own unworthy deeds declare. And nobler lives rebuke my own, But none bad ever shaft so true ‘ag she whove loving faith declared, “I coul ways good—like you."* irs. GEORGE ARCHIBALD. ———_+ ee. William M. Thornton, chairman of the faculty of the University of Virginia,denies the reports that the faculty has adopted a resolution admitting women to the uni- versity. FREAK PATENTS Curious Invertions Filed for 2ro- testion by Law. CRANK IDEAS AND USEFUL DISCOVERIES Are Not Easily Distinguished in Some Applications. SOME SPECIMENS GIVZN MERICAN INVEN- tion has given birth to no end of freaks, which have been em- dalmed at the patent office in order that they may not perish. Some of the queerest of them are devices for entrapping beasts, bugs, fishes and even humen beings. ‘What; for example, could be funnier than the notion of using imitation flowers with poisoned honey to at- tract noxious insects? The artificial blos- som, ¢ach“containing a small quantity of sugary liquid properly prepared, are to be fastened to twigs. Moths of destructive species sip the deadly nectar and die. A more elaborate device of a similar descrip- tion is intended for the protection of apple trees. It is @ tin can covered as to its up- per half with luminous paint. On the out- side of the lower half apple blossoms are represented with the same sort of paint. Inside of the receptacle is a small quantity of cider. The can is to be hung on a branch of an apple tree at night. Insects attract- ed by the pictured flowers light upon the ean. The smell of the elder induces them to enter through holes provided for that purpose; they drop into the cider and are drowned. Difference Not Easily Seen. It 1s ndt always easy to distinguish be- tween a crank idea and a useful discov- ery. The poisoned counterfeits of flowers Many years ago @ man got a patent for a method of killing bugs on trees by inclos- ing the whole tree in a sort of balloon of cenvas, into which an aspifyxiating gas | was to be poured for the purpose of suf- focating the insects. Everybody thought he was a lunatic. But now that his Patent has run out the merits of the plan have suddenly obtained appreciation and ‘ts adoption ts alleged to have saved the or- ange-growing thdustry in California. Several kinds of luminous baits for fish have been patented. One of these is a minnow of hollow glass coated on the tn- side partly with a solution of gold or silver and partly with luminous paint. The re- sult is a very brilliant object in the water, calculated to attract any predacious crea ture with fins. Another interesting con- trivance is for making frog bait more se- | ductive. The jerking of the line equipped with this device causes the frog’s legs to*| move as if he were swimming. Contrivances for catching insects are more humerous than any others. One of them is a furnace for slaughtering potato bugs. To begin with, a deep and wide furrow is to be plowed all around an in- fested field. Through this trench a smooth log is dragged to make the surface bard and smooth. The bugs in migrating to other grounds are unable to scale the trench, and the furnace, which is a cylinder of tron filled with fuel, is drawn along the furrow dnd destroys them. Other odd de- vices are cartridges intended to be inserted in the mouths of the ant holes and to be fired, thus communicating stifling vapors to the subterranean chambers; also many kinds of lamps for attracting and burning up the moths of various worms in cotton fields. There is a toy pistol for insects, which sucks them in when the trigger is pulled. A To Catch the Horn Fiy. An ingenious westerner has invented a trap for catching the horn fly, which is such | an enemy to cattle in some parts ‘of the country. It consists most importantly of a sreat frame, to which brush is attached in such a manner that when the beasts walk through, eager, as they always are, to scratch themselves, the files will be scraped from their bodies by the branches. Finally the frame ts closed up by means of doors and the captured insects are destroyed. Nearly everybody has heard of the gold tapeworm trap, which the patient swallows. Bedbug traps are of several varieties, all of them being intended to afford attractive hiding places for those bloodsuckers and to be burned or scalded out afterward. Much ingenuity has been expended in rat’! traps. Some of them are so elaborate that no full-witted rat weuld go near them. One requires Mr. Rat to come in through a dogr, which drops behind him and makes him a prisoner. Seeing a bright light above, he ascends a flight of little steps and trots across a small plank that is so nicely ad- justed as to balance that his weight causes it to tip and throw him into a tank of wa- ter. Another contrivance consists of a double chamber. One chamber has a glass end, through which Mr. Rat sees two or three imitation rats having a nice time with a bit of cheese. Wishing to join them, he runs around the box, gets into the other chambers, and is caught. ‘ There are a number of devices which em- oy mirrors for the purpose of luring Mr. Rat to his fate. He mounts on top of a bar- rel and sees a toothsome piece of cheese. As he approaches it, he beholds another ro- dent—in reality his own reflection, in a piece of looking glass—coming for the cheese from the opposite direction. He makes a dash to get there first, and a pivotted board drops him into the cask, which is half-full of water. Rats will swim for a long time. so one humanitarian has patent- ed a water trap with little sheives around the edge and just above the surface. On the shelves are placed small lead weights with fish hooks hanging from them. The captured rat, in trying to escape, grasps one of the hooks, gets it fastened in his mouth, dislodges the piece of lead and is carried to the bottom by the latter. To Catch Thieves. Sparrow traps are of many different kinds. Most ef them invite the birds to walk in through a-door which drops behind them, making them prisoners. When next seen, in the restaurants, they are reed birds on toast. Of greater interest are contrivances for catching thieves. One of them is de- signed to discourage bank sneaks. The sneak puts his hand in through the téller’s low and unintentionally actuates a mechanism which causes a slide with spikes to close suddenly upon his pew and impale it. A trap of a somewhat similar charac- ter is a steel shutter for a house window so disguised with covering and fringe as to look like an ordinary curtain. If a burglar tries to enter at night, it shuts down upon him, the spikes hidden by the fringe help- ing to hold him fast. American inventors have been fruitful of queer ideas in musical instruments. Patents have been sought for violins made of met: of earthenware, of glass, of leather, and even of glue. Plain wood, however, main- bem its omg the accepted material for P . How many people have ever hy "of the “doorophone?” It consists of « frame and sounding-board, with tuned wires and little metal balls suspended. The con- trivance is hung upon a door. When the latter is opened, the balls swing back and forth and strike harmonious chords. There is a patented device for playing the banjo by electricity. It requires no skill, the instrument being operated by a sheet of paper with perforations which control the making and breaking of a circuit. Mechan- ical fingers thus actuated pick the strings and depress them at the frets. Another in- strument is so arranged that one may play the banjo by manipulating the keys of a keyboard like that of a piano on a small scale. The same id€a is varied by a combi- nation of plano’and violin, the strings of the latter being fingered by the use of a 0-11 keyboard. Of course, that is the ifficult part of violin playing, the handling of the bow being simple enough. The bow is held in the right hand, while the fingers ofthe left hand strike the keys. ithin the last few years many musical instruments that play themselves have been invented. These ought to be a Godsend in non-musical households, not to mention the saving of money for teaching ana of dis- tress to the nerves of those who are not de- FT ing the practicing. For example, there » the piano organ, which is operatet by strips of perforased paper lixe an orguinette.. It te | either a piano or an organ,or both together, &nd it plays itself much beter than most | People wno understend the piano could play, |1& because the mechanical srrangement is Tmade with e high degree of rausical skill. The performer siziply works the bellows. But there is a contrivance with mechsaical hands which may be shoved up in icont of | 8ny piano and wiN do the playing. Contrivances for the Ptano. Another patented contrivance fur the pi- j ano furnishes the instrument with auxiliary strings, which sound in sympathy with tme cidinar? stritigs, though they are not | Struck. They are tuned in harmony with the primary strings and augment the vol- ume #f tone. There is a kind of piano that hold’ a note as long as the finger is kept oa the key; the string is kept viorating by an electro-magnet. The Janko keyboard ‘is already becoming well known. Its arrange- | ™meut enables the player to reach several octaves with a single hand, thus rendering | certain effects of execution possible which could not be obtained on en ordinary key- | board. There are several deviccs by Which | the performer is enabled to improvise oa | the piano and to have the impr visations | Tecorded with self-inking pens or otherwise. | Afterward ‘the record may be translaced | into the common notaticn. |_ Music boxes nowadays are made in all | Sorte of queer shapes. The glass water bot- tle on the dinuer table plays a tune while |the guest fills his tumbler, The cigar (holder becomes tuneful whwa a match is Struck upon it. “yilet sets have music boxes concealed in them. Fruit plates, of being placed upon the festive board, start | with jigs and waltze~ Photograph jalbums become harmcnious when opened. | Clocks, instead of striking, er.t operatic fragments every tour. Artificial | birds, ruh by clockwork with bellows ‘whistle, carol melodiously. One may buy | an imitation canary, robin or n@™tingale jim a cage. Music boxes run all a" way | from 40 cents up to $1,000 for a complete |orchestra in @ box, with reeds, bells and {rolling drums. One sort will play any fum- ber of operas, the music being fed fo the machine in the shape of a perforated strip. Queer Things From Paper. Patents have been granted for making in- |Rumerable queer thirgs out of paper—such |@S cerpets, electric conduits, lead pencils, |roofing material, car wheels, boats, pails, |coffins, brushes and combs. Mattresses are |manufactured out of paper pulp and or- jdinary sponge, springs being eibedded in jthe ccmposition. A cloth paper fot bank |notes has been invented, the nétion being \t© render such money less perishable and more difficult to counterfeit. Paper is used nowadays for architectural decorations, in- jterlor and exterior. Cornices, panels and |fiezes are molded out of the pulp. Paper |collars, which used to be produced in such enormous numbers, seem to have gone out jof fashion. Only the other day a rural- jlooking person with a gripsack, after wan- jdering up and down Pennsylvania avenue for a long time, walked into the Metropol- itan Hotel, and, addressing the clerk, re- marked: * a isa = | of a town! I have,been to | fifty stores, and not one paper collar could |I get. What do you grear here—celluloid?” | One of the most siiccessful of recent in- jVentions is a process for making artificial | straws out of paper for drinking iced bever- jages. Everybody knows that real straws |are apt to be defective; but the imitations = always satisfactory and never fail to draw. After they are rolled, they are treat- jed with paraffine, to render them water- | tight and non-absorbent.’ The game Patent | covers mouthpieces for cigarettes, which |are manufactured in a similar fashion. Medals are made out of paper and colored |to imitate silver or bronze. Cigar boxes are manufactured from the same material, flavored with cedar oil to give them the customary smell. Hollow telegraph of paper pulp are a new invention. are coated with silicate of potash to pre- serve them. The making of paper bags is an enormous industry Four billions of paper bags are used in the | United States every year. Of these the Paper Bag Trust turns out sixty-five per |cent. Not long ago a process was devised, jby which 3-6 of an’ inch of material | could be saved in the cutting of each bag. On this account the trust obtained @ com- |plete new equipment of machinery at an im- mense cost, but the Saving for the first year by that ail economy of three-eighths of ‘an inch was $70,000. One machine for mak~- jing paper bags will cut and finish $0,000 |bags a day. The business of manufacturing jenvelopes is even greater. The en |are cut, prifited, gummed and folded by the same machine. For Maki aper. Many strange materials are utilized for making paper. One of these is peanut hells. Tob&cco stems are reduced to pulp nd made into paper that is stained with tobacco juice. This papér is employed for |cigarette wrappers and for wrappers and | filers of cheap cigars. | Ore of the oddest inventions recorded at | the patent office is a sort of gun intended to be fixed upon the head of a steer that is to be slaughtered. The stroke of a hammer |on a pin fires a cartridge and discharges bullet into the brain of the animal. It is | almost noiseless and Aeath is instantaneous. |There are several eas "for death alarms, to give fotice in case a person comes to \life after being buried. The trouble with most of them is that they would be apt to be set off by the decomposition of the body, the gases developed often causing a a to turn nearly over. RENE BACH | ———— Not Altogether Harmonious. From the Chicago Tribune. : The choir was singing a new arrangement |of the beautiful anthem, “Consider the | Lilies.” The pure sweet voice of the so- praho rose clearly and distinctly in the sole: They toi-oi-oll not, | They toil not, They toil not, Ny-y-y-ther do they spin. She paused and the tenor took up the strain ume Nee-ee-ee-ther do they spin, They tol-oi-oi-oil not, They toil not, They toil not, Nee-ee-ee-ther do they spin. The tenor ceased, and the basso, a Lee = | red-haired young man, wjth a somew’ | Worldly looking eye and a like a fog- jhorn, broke in: Nay-ay-ay-ayther do they spin. They toi-oi-ol-oil not, They toll not, They toil not, Nay-ay-ay-ther do they spin. ‘Then the voices of the three were lifted up in semi-chorus: Ny-y-y-ther Nee-ee-ce-ther Nay-ay-ay-ther si do they spin. They to!-oi-ol-oil not, They toil not, ‘hey toil not, Ny-y-ther Nee-ee-ee-ther Nay-ay-ay-ther do they spin. “Brethren,” said the gray-haired, old-fash- foned pastor, when the choir had finished, |“we will begin the service of the morni by singing the familiar hymn: ‘And am yet alive” ee A Sure Cure. From Harper's Bazar. It is told of Hannah Moore that she ha’ a good way of managing talebearers. If is said that whenever she was told any- thing derogatory to another her invariable reply was: “Come, we will go and ask i this be true.” The effect was sometimes | ludicrously painful. The talebearer was | take aback, stammered out a qualification, or begged that no notice might be taken of the statemeht. But the good lady was inexorable. Oft she took the scandal- monger to the scandalized to make inquiry and compare accounts. It is not likely that | anybody ever a second time ventured te . |repeat a gossipy story to Hannah Moore. One would think her method of treatment would be a sure cure for scandal. ——_ coe A Mystery Solved. “Cla it's the likes o” them wot makes 80 aorind of young ladies ole maids. The fellers gets keéred o’ the miliiners’ an’ the dressmakers’ bilis.” —— ‘Tee international congress of miners was opened in Berlin, Monday, with an attend- Lance of ninepy delecates, the ment largely preponderating.