Evening Star Newspaper, December 19, 1896, Page 16

ie ei Cn THE EVENING sta SATURDAY, DECEMBER 19, 1896-28 ‘PAGES. Christmas eens to be sold in the | le gro" nd, care being taken to proper- xt week." said a colored auntie jes over a market stand, “have gathered during the past week and{ F being Je up in the var‘ous| shapes tnat find so many purchasers dur- } ing Christmas times. There will be crosses | and crowrs, wreaths and shields and any | number of other forms. As fast as we get { t made up they are carefully buri | | | i ly protect them, so that the air shall not reach them. In this wa: are kept | fresh. As a rule they are brought to the market two or three days before Chris mas. The Christmas trees, howeve ot be cut until the last thing, for the eason that there is no way to keep them fresh. Much of the work of pulling off ihe crowsfoot, the cedar twigs and gather- ing the red berries and n is is done by our children, though the old folks have to make up the cros: crowns and wreaths, in whic rel and holly are extensively used. The holly is getting scarcer and scarcer every year, and some of us had travel fifteen and twenty miles—way | to the country—to get it at all.” ke K KOK | practice of writing letters on Sun- | »rmously on the increase in this | remarked a letter gatherer. “We evidence of it in collecting from | t boxes on our rounds on Sunday ordinarily the down town boxes, | those in the business centers, have three times many letters in them as do the the other sections of the cits On Sunday nights all this is changed, as re is then but little mail matter in the down town boxes, while the boxes in the other parts are well filled. The approach- ing holiday season has, of course, a great cal to do with the thousands of letters rat row being written, but I nave d for the past five or six years that y letter writing business is con- on the increase. You would be to know the number of Satur- which after being read on Sun- mailed. The substations through- city now sell nearly double as many stamps on Sunday as they did even three years ago.” * the ve > st nights as ho: s in stantly surprised es «les and eye glasses are as much a bath now-and then as peo- | | remarked a well-known optician. | | i i j t is strange how many people there are wh think that their glasses only need occasional wiping. Now, the fact is | xlasses require actual baths as frequently as does the ordinary person. The process as you may want to make it. plar, however, is to take the glasses wash bowl and give them a good soaking in warm water. Then apply and rub it®off by the use of ail brush. After that give them a polish with any of the usual tooth pow- ers, and then clean them with tissue pa- per. Which is much better for that purpose than chamois skin, or anything else that I knew of. “Th. ordixary cleansing is all right as far as it gces, but it fs not sufficient. Many a person, has done great injury to their by neglecting to properly clean th lasses. 1 Have had a number of patien ecme to me with complaints about wh: they called a gradual dimunition of their sight. An examiration revealed the fact that it was wonderful that they could see at all, for their glasses were gummed over 2 hed been fearfully neglected. A little | ‘oap and water, to which a few drons of | ammonia was added, did the business. Some | time ago a friend of mine, a surgeon, who | | is as simple My makes # specialiy of the ear, told me that there were more ear troubles in conse- of dirt in the ear than from all sses combined.” x * * KK ft may sound Ike nonsense, but it is true all the same,” said a coal dealer, “that coe! over which has been sprinkled a =treng solution of salt, will last much long- er than it otherwise will—what will be saved in coal will more than doubly pay the salt and the trouble. Some of my custemers tell me they use a pound of salt in each two quarts of water. Hot water dissolves the salt more readily than cold, thor ither will do. The salt in some way adds a lasting ingredient to the coal. Salt was the main constituent of the va- | rtov palines so extensively advertised a few years ago, and by which so much mouey was made. Any one’ can try the expe in a small way. First see exact- jy how long one scuttle full of coal will Jast. Next try the same amount of coal, | which the solution of salt has been sprinkled.” ee eR “The freezing of the various articles of food used does not do them the harm that ! is generally supposed,” said a scientist who | has conducted a series of extensive experi ments ander the direction of the War De- partment. “Last winter, out in Minnesota, we allowed to freeze and stay frozen for over two weeks a large assortment of | canned goods. After they thawed out we | were but slightly, if at all dam- y red We found that corned beef and | SS pork were benefited by the freezing | in that it made them more tender.” ek Ae * More m than benefit is done the xrass,” said an expertenced gardener. “by the so. Hed soil which some fake garden- daily spreading on the lawns = throughout the city. Much of the t which is being used is made up o char athered on the burned on the river ‘This leaf char- i to darken its color and give it an of richness. I have w sed that there is considerabie oal ashes mixed in it. A compost of this character decided injury, and the grass will do much better next spring if it ts left # course there Is a gr deal of compost used by reliable et this in proper shape it 4 had « very amusing experience pat my sumrier house in New York state,” said Mr tevens, president of the West End tional Bank and owner of the famous Maplewood hackney stud, in conversation with some friends recently. “We have a large number of chickens at Maplewood, and they are so wikl that when they are needed for the table tt has my custom to shoot them with a One morning I was going away for end told my man of all work to shoot four chickens and to be sure to shoot "em through the head. When I returned about dinner time I was told that Cari had not been seen since morning and no chickens had been brought in. Upon in- vestigating I discovered Carl down back of the barn yard carefully leveling my rifle and then taking It down again. After watching him awhile I asked him what he was doing. oo he exclaimed, ‘I dry to zhoot de chickie in de het, bud he dond keep de het sdiil.’ “Locking ahead of him I saw four chickens ted by as many strings to a fest, fluttering and jumping about. The poor fellow had caught them after a hard effort, and in order to carry out my. di- rections to the letter was patiently at- tempting to shoot ‘em through the heads.” se * & * “One of the richest, if not the richest, veins of gold in the world ts near my town,” said P. D. Warren of Spearfish, | governm | for that I wouldn't stand it | planation, and a simple ‘yes S.D., at the Raleign. ton. The vein is only eight and is probably not a true “It runs $18,000 to the inches wide, ssure, but a is not as yet pecket vein, although this definitely knoyn. But while it is a small vein, it will make its owner a rich man, and he beught it for $s" An Irishman former ow qu d the property, and used it as a ston rry. The present owner con- tracted with the Irishman fer enough roc! to build a foundation. slowly that t ing, and final! man became tired of wai asked the Irishman w would take for the quarry. Three hun- red dollars wa: the price, and this was Taid. A few days later the found the vein of gold, ms take a quarter of a million to buy it. THE POINT OF VIEW. A Sensible Wife Who “Gives Tips to Her Husband. Several Gays ago a Capitol Hill man con- cluded that he would do some work as an agent in the disposal to merchants of an article useful to them. This was done at the suggestion of his wife, his work as a t hireling allowing him two hours or more each day between 4 o'clock and time for supper, and the lady feeling the necessity of a few doliars extra to make Christmas a more glittering suc 2 Last Monday he began the work, and after an irs meandering among the mercantile meadows he came home much depressed, and without a single ray of hope in the shape of an order. The next day it was the same. Df co! said his hopeful spouse, don’t expect to jump right in up to your neck in orders and make a million of dol- lars a minute. Perseverance and elbow grease will bring you around all right. ell.” he responded, “so far. while T have not met with any success, I have been at least treated with courtesy in the places where I have called. if it wasn't a minute, and I want to say to you, my love, that the first man who insults me in this darn Chris@mas job you have saddled onto me Ml quit it if this family never sees hide nor hair of Santa Claus in a thousand years. Mind that, will you?” She smiled serenely and the next day he pean out again at 4:30, and by 5 o'clock he w What's matter, dear?” she asked, as he came in and chucked the sample down so hard that it cracked “Didn't [ tell you yesterday that if I got insulted I'd quit? Well, a man insulted me awhile ago, and I'm done. If you want a Christmas fund extra you'li have to go out nd work it up yourself. I'm off for good.” How did the man insult you?” she asked, sympathetically. nswered me in a manner no gentle- man should. and I was as polite as a gen- tleman could be. He was standing in his sol-darned old store and I stepped in, and, bowing politely, I says to him: ‘Do you run ee store, and what do you think he inquired his wife. he grew rathy at the ‘why, Mary. by thunder, he That's my business.” Now, was that ay to answer a civil question? He needn't to have gone into any elaborate ex- or ‘no’ would have done, but to have turned me down by saying that it was none of my business is just a little too much.” His wife began to smile. “But he didn’t say that, dear,” she-said, soothingly ~“He did, the same th was his business.” “Well, wasn't it, sroprietor?” She was so easy, so gent that he couldn't say a wor his sample. He said that dear? Wasn't he the He picked up went out again, and when he came back from the place where he though he had been insulted he had an order that would net a turkey and trim- mings on the commissions LACK OF SQUIRRELS And the Effect on the Go Question in One Locality. “I was driving along a fairly good moun- tain road in east Tennessee when I came to a place where for two miles tt was the worst stretch of road I ever saw,” said a traveling salesman to a Star reporter. “I had to get out and lead my horse and Mft the buggy wheels around the rocks, taking nearly two hours to go the two miles. “At the first stopping plac Why don’t they fix this road? “They do. Law makes ‘em was the reply. t two miles are the worst I ever dlied. Yo" see, they don't never wu'k thi m two miles.” I inquired: wu'k it,” Yo" see, when we go ‘er wu'k ther roads we allus takes our rifles erlong ter git squirrels. Thar’s a heap o' :quir- rels all erlong that road, ‘ceptin’ Jess them two imiles, so In cose we don’ wu'k them.’ ” = ee HOW TO DO UP GIFTS. Can Be Made to Look More Attrac With Pretty Wrappings. it makes more difference than people generally suppose whether or not a Christ- mas present is done up In attractive shape. e | A pretty box or a plece of fancy paper tied with a narrow ribbon adds a charm to the most unpretentious gift. It pays to lay in a stock of fine tissue paper for use on Christmas eve, and ff one cannot afford ribbon, pink or blue string. or smaller rub- ber bands serve the purpose. Jewelers al- Ways put their silver novelties in nests of Jewelers’ cotton in boxes to fit, if the pur- € er requests it. A twenty-fi¥e-cent steel nail file looks better in a box than out, and, by the way, is much better than a fifty- cent silver one. When a box is not used wrap the present first in tissue paper, and afterward in white druggist’s paper, or fine, ight brown will serve, if the white annoi be had. Japanese, crinkled tissue is very attract- ve and slps to decorate the Christmas ree, if there is one. It comes in all colors snd has an “air” about it that is prettier than the ordinary, soft ©. A pretty and tasteful wrapping shows care and fore- ught which is far more important to ne recipient than the intrinsic value of the gitt —-- Settling. Dispateh. ely). ‘Tommy Smith, come here. Why haven't you learned your geog- raphy lesson?" Tummy— "Cause the papers say there's going to be a change in the map of Eu- rope.” e+ A Ha-Ha Book. From Life. It was gotten out so | A PRETTY. WIDOW’S STORY The Widow. was not wearing weeds, neither was she plunged fn a gulf of dark despair, nor did she show any signs of those othér drea@fullywoe-begone condi- tions which are sometimes attributed to the state af widowhood, not only in Amer- ica and its environs, but pretty generally over the entire earth's surface. On the contrary, she was as bright and vivacious as a summer girl, and she was talking to the major in seventeen languages all at once. At least, it so seemed to him, for he hadn't the slightest opportunity of introducing a word into the conversation sidew! vea much less introducing it, ac cording to the ordinary rulcs of colloau: “Do you know, major,” she was saying as f as she could, and with little gasps for th between, as women do when their tional locomotive begins to “run that I had a perfectly dreadful ex- perience once in my life?” The major wanted to say that he could not understand how such a charming wo- man could have any kind of an experience that was not as lovely as she was, but he wasn’t quick enough. “Weil, I did,” she rattled away, “and, you know, it was during dear George's life time, and it was perfectly awful. my this with a half sigh, “you wouldn't think I had been a widow ten years, would you The major was on the point of saying that she seemed to him more like a radiant sunbeam, or something like that, for the major has a flattering tongue; but before he could carry his wish into execution th> slow was five lengths ahead. — “Very few people do,” she twittered. “Do you think I look very old?” and she canted her head to one side, and locked at the ma- jor as a bird looks at a bug it wants for dinner. The major was about to say that he thought she was a summer girl before some one told him she was a widow, but, as be- fore, he was left at the post. “But, as I was saying,” she continucd, “Lt had this perfectly awful experience. You know that dear George, during the last two years of his life, was suffering with some peculiar brain trouble that quite changed him, Hts hallucination was that he was some other person, aud that while [ was his wife, I was not the same wife he had known in his sanity. This seemed to be the only peculiarity of his madness, for on all other points he was quite sane enough to deceive even experts. Of course, I had to watch him all the time, for the physician said his disorder might develop at any moment, and he might do something desperate, though it was not probable that it would take such a turn. “One morning he slipped away from his attendant and escaped to a train that was just leaving the station. The man had grown eareless, because George was so rational all the time, but when he lost him he realized that he had been neglectful, and at once came after me to know what to do. I was not at home, and did not come in for two hours, and the man was 50 silly, or something, that he didn’t go to the physician, but just waited for me. When he told me of George's escape I sent for .the physician and a private detective, and as possible the detective followed my husband. The physician encouraged me greatly by saying that George was per- able to take care of himself, that he had no suicidal tendency, and that he would very probably find him at some of the near-by resorts, as it was summer, and the hotels were all open, if he did not re- turn of his own free will in a few days. “He had quite a snug sum of money with him, and I felt easy on that score, for he cculd meet all his expenses, and knew very well how to handle money. Still, I was dreadfully nervous, and excited, and, as I could not sit at home, I used to go out on short trips looking for him. The detective was also out constantly, but he had met with no success in his search and at the end of two weeks I determined to sound a general alarm, so to speak, and give the story to the newspapers, when, on one of my expeditions, I unexpectedly found him in a remote Ittle town, where there were very few summer visitors. He had been there since his departure from home, and I soon discovered that he was on excellent terms with everybody. He was very glad to see me at first, and took me around to eet his new friends. Of course, it wasn’t customary for a lady to call first, but I was thinking about George, and not social usage, and would have done anything he asked me. The townspeople were extremely fond ‘of him, and he had been so generous fn his charities that he was looked upon as a public benefactor. To have told them that George was a lunatic, however mild, would have resulted in my being thought one, and during the afternoon of my arrival I kept my own counsel and telegraphed at once for the physician and the attendant. No train was due until next morning, and all I could do was to wait and keep quiet. There was no trouble with George until just after we had taken our supper at the little hotel where he stopped, and had gone to his room. There something I said must have indicated to him in some way that I had some designs against his liberty, or scmething, I don’t know what, and he be- gan to act queerly and show that he was picious of me. ‘1 had been under such a dreadful strain for so long that I was completely unnerved, apd now that I had found him I felt my- self relaxing and verging upon hysterics. I tried to control myself and get him to thinking about something else, but sudden- ly and without any warning, he caught me and began to choke me. Of course, [ screamed, and screamed with all my might, and in a minute or two people came rush- ing to the room, inquiring what was the matter. As they came in George held me struggling in his arms, but he was cooler than any one in the party, and was talking to me like a mother to a fretful or fright- ened child, and doing all he could to soothe me. But by this time I was so wrought up that I could not keep still, and when George very quietly told them that I was demented, and became extremely violent at times, lasting for months, they believed him and asked what could be done. “He asked that a physician and a police- man be sent for, and a messeuger went fly- ing, and soon came back with them. They held a council over me, and upon George's suggestion that I be put in a safe place for the night, I was taken to the woman's cell in the town prison and locked up in charge of a woman nurse, who had volunteered her services, as she had had experience with lunatics. Wasn't that perfectly aw- ful? I, a sane woman, to be locked up ona charge of lunacy, brought by a lunatic?” The major was anxious to say that he had never heard of such an outrage per- petrated in a civilized land, but the widow ran over him and went on. “Well, it was awful, and the more I tried to convince the avoman that it was my hus- band who was crazy, the more she shook her head kindly and told me she knew it, and that I was put in tnere only to protect me from him. That made me worse, and I would go off into hysterics again, and I never slept a wink all night. When morn- ing caine I was more nearly a raving mani- the real lunatic was, and when came in to see me his emotions were pa‘nful to see. and he cried like a baby over me, the nurse all the time trying to heer him up by telling him that I had en quiet most of the night, and would scon recover from the fit. “He shook his head sadly and went away to return in an hour with the physician. They talked over me as if I could not un- derstand anything they were saying, and on. George's earnest recommendation the physician agreed that the best thing to be dcne was to commit me to an asylum until it was thought safe to release me. There was a private asylum not far away, and it was decided to take me there at once. It was now 9 o'clock, and George’s physiciarf and attendant would not reach the town until 10, by which time I would be on my way to the asylum, if not on my way to permanent lunacy, for the strain was then all I could bear. I told the phy- sician to wait, and tried to explain to him the situation, and all he did was to say he understood perfectly, and that we were only going for a drive into the country to visit some cf George’s friends who were anxious to entertain us for a few days. All this time, the nurse was getting me ready for my trip and I was doing all I could to gain a delay of an hour until the train should come, and I prayed that it would not be late. “Despite all my efforts to the contrary, the nurse reported me ready for the car- riage which was in waiting at the prison dcor, and they picked me up and carried me out to it. There was quite a crowd around the place, all curious, of course, ard it had a good effect upon me, for in- stead of creating any disturbance, I sub- mitted quietly in order not to make a scene. The physician, George and the nurse got into the carriage after me, and we started away for the horrid asylum, 5 composed myself for whatever might come now, and sat silent, gazing out of the car- “riage window, when, as we turned into the open space at the railroad station, which we had to pass, I saw my own physician and George's at i In @ second I had smashed the carriage window, and thrust- ig out my head scgeamed for help, calling the doctor by name. They were only the width of a street away, and as the driver of the carriage fd not know anything about what was goipg on, he stopped to see what was wrong, and the next minute ¥ was out of the carriage and had fainted in the physician's artis,” The major was shout to remark that the one regret of his life was that he was not that physician, but.the widow had her mind and her tongue on her story, and once more flew away from the major. “Of course, explanations were in order, and it was not lonigfbefore the true state of the case was made,known, greatly to the astonishment of everybody except George. He took it as a matter of course, and laughed over t asa great joke, without ap- parently understanding what he had done, and he went back to town with us as sub- missively as could; be, never losing his temper in the slightest degree. Within a couple of months after that he grew rapidly Worse, and death goon brought him a blessed relief.” Here the widow hesitated and sighed. “And, I may say, a blessed relief to me as well, for I would have lost my mind, I am sur At this point the widow stopped long enough to give the major an opportunity to make a few remarks, which he did ad- visedly, seeing that the major, on general principles, regards widows pretty much as id the father of the late Sam Weller. “W. J. LAMPTON, Seria é COMPLETELY FOOLED, How Mike Walsh Played a Joke the Botanint. Mike Walsh of New York was an ante- bellum representative “of a district in that city, and from portrayals of his character by the daily press of that time appears to have been a man of jest. A bit of comedy in which Daniel Webster became involved Boes to show the quality of Mr. Walsir’'s humor. The Botanical Garden, north. of the Cap- {tol, was then in existence, though not what it is at present, and Representative Walsh while walktug past it one day with several companions chenced to speak of it. His friends were admirers of the garden and of the skill and learning of an old Frenchman in charge of it. Mike, from a natural spirit of, contradiction, combated every point brought out in its favor by his friends and said that a Bowery boy could make the botanist believe that wheat was cats. They had reached Mike's lodgings dur- ing the course of the conversation and to clinch his argument he said that he would himself hoodwink the professor and would gather the materials for the hoax on the spot. So from a pile of rubbish rear a fence he selected a sound flower pot and then searched for scmething to put in it. This proved to be a dead rat. Mike placed it in the pot and carefnliy covered it over with earth, leaving the tall above ground, Then taking a splinter from an old green shutter he stack it in the pot and tisd the rodent’s tail to it per- pendicularly with a piece of cord. The outfit was complete and Mike journeyed back to the garden with his queer plant, which he informed the professor was’ a specimen of the “rat-tailed cactus.” Hoodwinking the Gardener. A friend of his, a lieutenant in the navy, had, he said, returned from the then lit- tle Known land of Japan, and ‘brought with him this specimen. of a rare vege- table. The professor was most eager to become possessed. df the specimen, but Mike was reluctant to part with it. To be sure, he said, he ‘might keep it for years and never ‘have #isitor who knew any- thing about it. "fo”this the professor re- plied that the pulii“garden was the place for it, then evef¥ +e could see it. Mike disliked to part Withta gift from a friend, but finally yielded ’to the professor's en- treaties. sails The botanist eXatfned the growth crit- ically and then pypached a slip of paper’ on which was writtén a name composed of two words, whith Mike sald averaged. six- teen letters each.. Then it was placed in a warm corner wHere- the temperature was supposed most t; “rezemble that of an ‘ori- ental country, #fq Was each day sprinkled with water heated “to 7} degrees. Much attention was attracttd to the growth, and pe papers printél ait atticle deseribing it. SmgHedk 0 Rat. 1 Daniel. Webster) Who “occasionally yisited the garden, hud’#“4oug conference with the professor abgut the plant, and the hotanist promised: stha statesman one’ of the first slips to: set cut™at Marshfield, Mr. Webster's home, “The cactus was Closely Hwatched day by day, and when 4ts.tip,.as a result of time aud high temperature, be- came slightly excoriated, she. professor's delight knew no bounds; “it was about to bear blossoms. The foke, however, Mike said, wi good to keep, “especially in a hot and 80 before long they began to smell a rat." The botanist was. overcome , with chagrin and shame, but this was as noth- ing compared with the wrath of Webster, who chiefly blamed the professor for hav- ing taken him in and whom he styled, with an oath, “a frog-eating Frenchman.” ee EN, It's One ‘or the Other. From the Beltimore News. Blynkins—“A girl who can sing just as scon as she gets up in. the morning must have a sweet disposition. Wynkins—“Not “necessarily. She may have a grudge against somebody in the neighborhcod.” on tee It Looked Better, From th Cleveland Plain Dealer. Maud—“Who is that deformed young fel- low talking to May Smiley?” Ethel—“Why, that’s Mr. Dawkins, the famous full back, He had his shoulder twisted in the last big match.” Maud—‘What a lovely deformity! iIntro- duce me, dear. ————— see The New Guest and Hix Patented Fur- miture, From Fliegende Blatter: ‘A CAMPAIGN EXPERIENCE Varied end unique are some of the ex- periences of campaign orators in the west. Representative Pickler of South Dakota was relating one the other day. By direc- tion of the state central republican com- mittee he was sent a long distance out among the hills to talk to the Indians at Fort Sisseton, who hold their lands in sev- eralty and are voters, though what they do not know about the English language would fill a large book. It was the day before election, and Mr. Pickler left the railroad station at noon in a driving snow storm, with the snow lying fifteen inches deep on the level, with many bad drifts already formed. His first stopping place was to be at the home of cne of the chiefs of the tribe. A mile and a half out from the rail- y, a single horseman was seen coming t gallop out of the storm toward the conveyance. ‘The Indians have sent a scout to meet 4 observed the driver cheerfully; “they were afraid you would Set lost in the storm.” And the driver's surmise was correct. “The fellow couldn't talk English a little bit,” said Mr. Pickler, “but he could make signs like an artist. and managed to im- .part the information that if we would fol- low his trail about a mile and a half he would locate my audience. We drove up to a good-sized hovse for that region of country, and on entering I found, a novel scene. Along the walls on benches sat a number of the otder men of the tribe; then came a jot cf their women, sitting on the floor and standing, babies strapped on the vacks of many; then a row of men sitting on the floor. ‘In ore corner a small Indian baby was strapped in its board cradle, which was propped up against the wall. In another corner stood a number of the younger Indian voters, and in a third cor- ner was a your g Indian propped up in bed, in the last stages of consumption. The election was to be held in that room on the following day, and he hoped to be able to vote. “I shook hands with each person present, as is the unvarying custom of the Indians in greeting visitors, and then looked around for a place to stand while speaking. ‘Stand in the n.iddle of the room,’ said the inter- preter, ‘that is there custom,’ and 1 obeyed instructions. For three-quarters of an hour I talked to them on sound money, tariff, and of their local interests, with which I was thoroughly acquainted. I spoke in English, and my words were immediately translated into Sissetqg by the interpreter. I was often interruptet by applause—given the interpreter, understand—and it’s the funniest kind of applause on earth. They all say “Ugh! Ugh!” at once when the’ are pleased, and the effect is laughable. When I finished, the handshaking was again gone through with, and I went twelve miles to address another band of Indians the same afternoon.” Incidentally, Mr. Pickler stated that the republicans carried that county by a large majority. A MONOPOLIST. It Seemed to the Girl to Be Entirely Natural Men may come and men may go, but the Washington girl continues to be the finest specimen of her race on earth. That is to say she is when she is a speci- men. Some of them are not specimens. They are simply girls and don’t amount to anything more than thousands of girls all over the country. It isn’t of taat kind this article deals, but of the kind who is a joy and a delight and krews better how to take care of her- self than anybody can take care of her. This particular one lives on Massachu- setts avenue between Greene's statue and Rock creek,-and she has a great deal of attel.tion from all the eligible men, and some from men who are not so eligible, seeing that she is rather eligible herself, and some of our Washington men are not unwillitg to considera young woman when she has endygh of this world’s goods to comménce housekeeping on in a good neighborhood. Among the men who have been worship- ing at her shrine less than the others, not because he 1s lesg devoted, but because he hasn't been in town more than a mor.th, is an elderly fellow from the west But the course of true love never did ran smcoth, and the girl's mother, observ- ing, how things were going, became ner- vous and fidgety and more than once in- timated that she didn't quite approve of the association of her dauchter with that kind of a man. She thought he was an adventurer, perhaps, or a western stock man in search of eastern capital to invest in ranches, or a miner looking for a grub- Stake, or something she didn’t exactly know what, just as mothers always do, even if they live to be a thousand and have unmarried daughters of nine hundred and seventy-five. So one day last week the mother thought she would sound her daughter on the situ- ation. “Don’t yqu think, my dear,” she said rather indifferently than otherwise, ‘that Mr. Blank is rather monopolizing you?” The girl laughed. “Of course, he is,” she sald, “but can’t help it. The mother looked her perplexity without speaking. “Oh, that’s perfectly prop momma, she explained; “you see, that’s what he is— a morcpolist of the deepest dye. He owns the town where he lives and runs it pretty much as he pleases, and ine says if he has any luck he will own ihe stat2 legisiature in another year and then he won't have any opposition at all. Monopolize me, mamma? Why, dear, if he didn’t he wouldn't seem’ natural.” The mother was so shocked that she was speechless then, but later she had a talk with her husband and somehow the man didn’t think about the situation at all as the woman did. Men and women differ sometimes in mat- ters of opiniot he —_—.___ A COURTEOUS REQUEST Made by a Dinner Host, Which Struck His Guests as New. There was a slight discussion in progress as to manners and customs all over the country from Washington to Wahoo, the drummers in the party, of course, having more to say than anybody else, because drummers know more than anybody else about the varying manners and customs of this broad land of freedom. The fact is, drummers are the commercial diplomats of the governmert, for among them there ’s not a custom in the entire country that they don’t know all about, and can meet at any time on terms of perfect equality. “Speaking of manners at meals,” said a beautifully attired object of the tailor’s art, traveling for a New York firm, and sup- posed to be a star boarder at a fashionable hotel in that city, “I had an odd experience not a great while ago down in Tennessee. Not that I strike many towns in that state,” he explained, when he observed that one of his listeners seemed shocked to think that so great a man got out of me- tropolitan circles, ‘but now and then I go out from Nashville or Memphis on small excursions to the country. “It was on one of these, in company with half a dozen other travelers, that we’ took dinner one Sunday at the house cf a well- to-do farmer up the Cumberland river, who is noted for his good dinners and his frank style of manners. We had sent him word we would be there, and when we urrive:l, about 12, the dinner was filling the air with the music of its fragrance, and we began to grow impatient. But that mate no differ. enee to our host. It was a case of man heing made for dinner, and we were com- pelied to wait until it was ready, which it Was at 1 o'clock precisely. “I remember how we almost tumbled over ourselves filing out into the dining room, for we had ridden twenty miles that morning over a hard piece of road, and we had pot begun the day with a very liberal breakfast. The table, as is the custom of th2 country, was loaded witi: its luxuries, ‘and there was a big iurkcy at one end, where the old man was, and-a lvscious botled ham at the other, where the lady of the house presided. I think it was ‘about the most appetizing dinner to the eye I ever witnessed, and it was quite impossible for us to possess our souls in patience while | the host carved the turkey in his slow and deliberate way, and we begaa reaching out for little delicacies in the way of two or three kinds of fine cake, which waz cut and set temptingly near. At first no notice was taken of our small reachings out for these 0d things, but they grew raptdly, ond at it the host stopped darving and looked at-us. “‘Coarse-feed yourselves first, gentle men,’ he said, ‘coarse-feed yourselves first,’ and he to send around our plates, foaded with ham and turkey and all man- oe of what he designated as ‘coarse WASHINGTON LOTTERIES. Scheme of One Devined for Erecting Local Pablic Building. “In the year 1818 Washington had about 13,000 inhabitants scattered over its gfeat said a student of local history to a Star reporter. “Its population was less than the present population of either Alex- anéria or Georgetown, but its courts, coun- cils, schools and other locai institutions were as important and interesting to each one of its scant population as similar inst tutions ar2 now to each one of its 250,000 inhabitants, for it was a growing and busy place, with many great men among its peo- ple. The community had. before that year. looked at public morals fn a light different from that which brightens the present day. The advance en this line has been gradual. “The first charter of the city, in INW2, gave the municipal government power only to ‘restrain and prohibit cambling: the sec- ond, in 184, authorized the municipal gov- ernment ‘to prohibit lotveries and all kinds of gambling.” By the third, enacted in 1 the corporation of Washington was au ized ‘to compel ail such as keep gaming houses and gaming tabies to give security f@ their good behavior for a reasonable time, but the municipali lowed, with the approval of the President of the United States, to authorize the drawing of lotteries for the erection of bridges and effecting any nt in the city important in which the ordinary reyenue thereof will not accomplish, for the m of ten years.” This was the public view of these ques- tions at that time. One of the lottery schemes of that kind was designed to ac complish several public objects, and pr sented the following plan in advertisements and hand bills: “ ‘National Lottery Building Two Lancasterian School Houses, a Pentien- tiary and a City Hall in the ¢ ity of Wash- ington. One prize of $20,000: one prize of $20,000; two prizes of $10,000 each: three prizes of $5,000 ¢ nee drawing in June next, and completed in twelve a sent price of tickets, “ ‘Scheme—On: for prize of 320,00) dollars: one prize of 20,000 dollars; two py of 19,000 dollars; three prizes of 5.000 dollars: five prizes of 4,000 dollars: six prizes of 50) dol- lars ten prizes of 100 dollars: 100 prizes of 50 dollars; 2,000 prizes of 25 dollars; blanks; only 6,000 tickets, and not two blanks to a prize. Whole tickets each. Half tickets, $12.50 each. Quarter-tickeis, 25 each. Kighths, $3.12. “The first object of the lottery, the erec- tion of two Lancasterian schoo! houses was one of the fads-of the day. Twenty years before, Joseph Bell had originated in Madras, India, a scheme of education by which, it was then believed, the teaching power of a school could be augmented twenty-fold by employing a class of pupil- teachers, who were first instructed by the principal teacher and then each one sent to repeat the instruction to classes of ten or twenty of the other pupils, so that one teacher could carry on a school of 300 pupils. Lancaster systematized this method and the plan received his name. There were in ISIS four public schools in Wash- ington, but it was hoped to increase very greatly the free school facilities of the ¢ by the introduction of the new system. “The penitentiary house was then deemed an institution necessary, if not desirable, in Washington. Congress had, six years be- fore, in 1812, authorized the Levy Court of Washington to build one, but the cost was deemed too great for the taxpayers, and, despite the lottery, no penitentiary was be- gun until 1826, when it was erected by Con- gress on Greenleaf’s Point. “This penitentiary house was finished so as to be put into use under an act approved March 3, 1829. It served its purpose for about forty years, and, after it had become noted for the burial of Booth and the trial and punishment of the other conspirators, the central portion, containing the cells. was torn away, and the east and we: wings converted into dwelling houses. They are now a portion of the Washington bar- racks at the arsenal grounds. A portion of the proceeds of this and of other lotteries seems to have been contributed to the erec- tion of the present city hall.” —_—-—.-— CAUGHT IN THE ACT, The Tell-Tale Tracks om the Tapes- try Betrayed Him. Four or five Washington pastors were having a pleasant little meeting the other afternoon at the study of one of them, and they were having comparatively as much fun out of it as that many rounders would have had at a saloon knée deep in forty- seven varieties of tipple. They were telling Sunday school etories, as a rule, but they swung around after while to temperance. “In my youth tn Virginia,” said the host, “we had, what is rare nowadays, to wit, a lot of more or less seedy and shabby gen- teel old fellows who went about the coun- try delivering lectures on temperance and getting out of it only about so much as would clothe and feed them. Some of them were no doubt good and conscientious men. but among them were many, who, notwith- standing their professions, dearly loved to take a glass of something warming to the inner man. “Most of these tipplers were very par- ticular not to have the rumor get abroad that they ever tasted the vile stuff, and when they took their drinks they observed reat secrecy. I remember there was one whom we thought to be a most abstemious old fellow, and no one thought he ever tasted a drop. Particulariy a maiden aunt of mine who lived with my mother and was as rigid a temperance woman as ever came out of New England. My mother was much more Iberal and wanted always to entertain these workers in the good cause, but my aunt had become so suspicious of all of then except thi particular one, thai he was fhe only one who could find a night's lodging at our place. “One night, this old chap came to stay all night and he had such a severe cold that my mother prescribed a rubbing of goose grease on his feet and toasting it in by the dire, before he went to bed. Now as it hap- pened, in the room where he slept, there was a new carpet which my aunt had pre- sented to my mother as a4 birthday gift, and there was an old-fashioned sideboard in the same room with a two-gallon jug of good whisky on it, which somebody had forgotten to put inside and lock up. At 8 o'clock the black boy carried in the goose grease to our guest and left him sitting be- fore the fire. “Just what happened after that nobody knows, but after the guest had departed next morning and the servants went to straighten up the room they found tracks innumerable between the fireplace and the sideboard, and in some way it was discov- ered that the old fellow, afraid of taking cold, had greased his socks and toasted the grease into his feet through them, and while the toasting was going on he made regular and frequent trips to the jug. Of course, if the tracks on the carpet had not betrayed him no one would have ever no- ticed by. the jug that he had been drinking out of ii. He never came back again, and I don’t know whether my aunt was more pained over the ruined carpet or over the ruined idol. for she had the greatest confi- dence in the old man.” ———— egal. From the Green Bag. The Court—“What is your age, madam?” ‘The Plaintiff—“Must I answe1 The Court. You must. The Plaintiff—“Why, judge, I thought people didn't have to testify against them- selves,” -——_—_—_e: In Doubt. From Fliegende Blatter. Father (peering in at the door)—* don’t know—either I stepped upon a match or the rascal kissed my daughter. Absolutely Pure. Acream of tartar baking powder. Highost of all in leavening strength. —Lales’ United States Government Food Report, OVAL Bakr s Powver Co., New York. CARTE BLANCHE FOR DIVVER. ities Bet- rmeh, word,” remarked * to a Star you n ering py “I'm not saying fous hotel ci ‘but I've got a story able to work off rey t hun, “Well, tell it to me,” said “What the dickers good is tt so long is untold “But I'm not saying and the cons iS weather e) eans that if I want your st tinue to want it w a word, didn entious I" just hotel cler “Which I may co is_gratitie: clerk The nodded “And you won't say a wo i The reporter took a lead pencil out of his pocket, sharpened it artistically and handed it to the clerk “Thanks,” responded the clerk and gan writing on a sheet of the hotel pape From which writing the reporter ® time later had evolved the following story of a statesman stopping temporar at the hotel which is fortunate in posses: so conscientious a clerk He is a statesman who has not yet w nationai recognition, but he n will be founc at the south end of the Capitol this time a next year all he can to make that He is a man of means and Lelieves that wealth produci brains are the only kind worth mentionir Inasmuch as he began business with noth ing and had a million dollars by the time he was forty, it is fair to suppose he had a barrel of brains. Two nights ago he wanted to dine a tew friends of his in regal splendor, and sus- pecting that a Washington hotel dinner, unless it is prepared for the occasion, 1s not of the regal splendor variety, he cailed on the clerk to confer with him. He told him what kind of a dinner he wanted. then he proceeded to enumerate all t tails, just as people of that kind alw mostly on the supposition that they know more than anybody else does. The clerk listened for some time to all the little de- tails and then he broke in. “My dear sir,” he said in the ins ing manner of the hotel clerk, “may have carte blanche The statesman staggered a moment “Of coure, of course,” he assented vigor- ously. “you can have anything you please if it’s fit to cat, but I'm kind of ‘fraid of some of these Frenchified fixin's. What I want is a good dinner.” And he got it. FOR CONTENTMENT. mat- ry PRIZE Something No Man or Woman F Could Absolutely Ha “Among the visitors in Washington this week,” remarked a Ternesseean to a Star reporter, “is Rush Strong —" ¢ “Is he a foot ball player?” interupted the reporter, who had been @ rush himself on more than one occasion. “No,” laughed the Tennesseean, “but that would make a great name for the business, wouldn't {t? No, as I was saying, this Rush Strong is only a plain business man of Knoxville, with a whole lot of real estate in Washington and other things that mak: him worth being polite te. In addition hi bluffed the entire state of Tennessee and won on the bluff. ‘Poker player?” queried the reporter “Never played @ game of poker in_his life, and is otherwise as reputable. What he did was to offer a prize of half the stock of goods in his great establishment as one of the prizes for any cortented person wno could prove his contentment.” “I think I saw something about that in some of the Tennessee papers: but go on with the story.” “Well, Rush made the offer as one of the features of the Knoxville, fair, and, 0: course, it created a great d&Ml of comment. The fair people thought he was making a fool of himself, and tried to show him the error of his way, but Rush Strong was his name and he lived right up io it, and the offer of this magnificent prize, worth at least $0,000, went into the fair talogue along with prizes for silk quilts and black- berry preserves. and apple jelly, and fat hogs and big pumpkins and cattle and jack- asses and mules and horses and everything, end everybody thought that Rush was out of his class and ought to be in with th jackasses for being so silly. But Rush ke ght on. Then the fair came and the prize was competed for and the judges met, and one man, noted all up and down the valley of the Tennessee, the Holston, and clean to headwaters, was. the last man in the game and the judges were taking testimony as ¢ his merits. It was slowly but surely com- ing his way, and one or two friends of Strong’s slipped out of the judges’ room and told him he could still get out of it if he wanted to, and he better had, for they were sure going to give it to the man if something miraculous didn’t happen to stop them. “But Rush held right on. “Then it got down to the last throw of the dice and Rush was called on to show cause why the applicant shouldn't claim th prize as his, or forever after hold his pea “Gentlemen,” said Rush, rising to his feet, ‘do I understand that you have found cur friend here eligible to the prize I have offered for an absolutely contented person? “ ‘Exactly,’ replied the chairman hen, tiemen,” said Rush, ith a smile, ‘before delivering the goods I'd like to know if he fs so absolutely contented what the dickens he wants with half of my goods?” “The argument was unanswerable and the entire combination gathered the stupe dous joke right to its throbbing bosom and broke cut into vociferous applause.” a ABOUT SUPERSTITIONS. Mr. A. T. Britt tives Instances Where the Rule Did Not Work. “This matter of superstition always wakes me laugh,” said Mr. A. T. Britton when some one spoke of never liking to do anything on Friday. “I made a trip of 15,000 miles last summer with a party of twelve others, making thirteen in all, and we started on a Friday and never missed 2 train or a boat, or a meal, or had an ache or a pain among us the whole time. Then he told a laughable story. “It has been the custom of the survivors of the old National Rifles to meet each year on the anniversary of our mustering into service in the war of the rebellion and enjoy a dinner and swap reminiscences near and remote. Several years ago I had the boys to my house, and had prepared the very best dinner I knew how to give. There are usually sixteen or seventeen sur- vivors at such a gathering, but this time, when we were about to enter the dining room, somebody counted noses and discoy- ered we were thirteen all told. Now, those other twelve men were brave and cour- ageous gentlemen, who had faced cannon unflinchingly and were afraid of nothing tangible, but not a single man of them was willing to enter that room. At last, after a half hour's wait, during which my dinner was rapidly approaching the spoiled stage, another man came and in we went. Now, that man, who made the fourteenth in the party and broke the unlucky spell, accord- ing to the twelve other guests, was Charlie Alexander, and before the dinner was con- cluded he had to be carried home, and in two months he was dead. All the others are living yet!