THE Enterprise, a negro organ of New York city, thinks that Cleveland and Fred. Douglass would make a strong ticket for 1888. The Democratic kite is a sturdy, well-braced affair and capable of carrying many incongruous appendages, but it is not equal to floating such a variegated tail as Fred. Douglass.-Richmond Whig (Dem.).

IF Mr. Blaine fails to secure a rousing Republican majority in Maine next September, his campaign for 1888 will be seriously impeded. The conditions are not at all favorable now to a grand overture, but perhaps the old Republican soldiers will be whipped into line, as they have frequently been heretofore.-New York World (Dem.).

We have thought sometimes that there might be good Presidential timber in Mr. Randall; but no man can expect to reach that high office who manifests a disposition to disregard laws and make his own will superior to established regulations. We are sorry for Mr. Randall.-New York Herald (Ind.).

Ir is noticeable that the papers which are insisting so strenuously that Mr. Blaine is "in the ring" for 1888 are all of the Democratic persuasion. Republican newspapers have more sense than to make candidates two years before they will be needed.-Chicago Journal (Rep.).

THE second term movement has been fairly launched, and you will see the large part that Mrs. Cleveland is to play in it. Here is a great opportunity, and, mark my words, she will make the most of it.—Wash. Corr. New York Herald (Ind.). BODWELL is nominated for Governor of Maine because he is rich, and because Blaine is seeking to enlist such men in his support in order to be supplied with the sinews of war which they can furnish.—New York Times (Ind.).

IF Mr. Blaine is not putting himself in the way of a Presidential lightning stroke in 1888, he is doing a wonderfully large amount of talking on a suggestive class of subjects for a mere private citizen.—Terre Haute Mail (Ind.).

WOULDN'T it be odd if Blaine and Cleveland should both be nominated again in 1888 ? Stranger things may have happened, but just such a thing never happened, except, perhaps, in 1840.- Washington Post (Dem.).

MR. BLAINE very wisely avoids infringing upon General Logan's Patent Soldier Coddler. This is why he didn't help veteran Hamlin get the nomination for governor of Maine.-Newark News (Dem.).

THE Republicans of Chicago are discussing the question of organizing a Blaine parade on the Fourth of July. John A. Logan will probably be invited to address the demonstration.—Brooklyn Times (Rep.).

"ОHIο Republicans will never get through voting for Blaine," says ex-Governor Foster. Yes, they will; two terms will be enough, even for the Nation's foremost statesman. Minneapolis Tribune (Rep.).

WHATEVER boom Mr. Blaine may have expected from his Portland speech is likely to disappear without leaving any substantial results in favor of James G. Blaine.-Nashville American (Dem.).

THE Milwaukee Sentinel advises the Republicans "to find a man whose nomination will unite the party." How would Rutherford B. Hayes do?—Buffalo Courier (Dem.).

GOVERNOR HILL professes great fondness for base ball. He is not going to let Blaine get ahead of him in the first principles of popularity.—Philadelphia Times (Ind.).

NOBODY is offering odds that Mr. Cleveland will be re-elected, but it is generally conceded that he is annexed President.-Philadelphia Press (Rep.). THE Robert E. Pattison boom for President is young and tender, but time will harden it, if, indeed, it does not petrify it.-Philadelphia Press (Rep.).

LEONINE LOGAN looks with increasing horror on the man who takes every opportunity to boom himself.-Philadelphia Times (Ind.).

WILL Blaine take the nomination for President again if it is offered to him on a silver salver?-Louisville Commercial (Rep.).

IN case Mr. Blaine is nominated for the Presidency in 1888 he will not get the English vote.-Omaha Bee (Rep.).

MR. POWDERLY is opposed to Mr. Blaine. So are seven-eighths of the Negroes. Washington Bee (Colored).

MR. BLAINE is thrifty in the provision of numerous strings for his bow.--St. Paul Press (Rep.).

MISCELLANEOUS.

PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS OF QUEEN VICTORIA.—Her Majesty inherits a strong constitution, and is well-balanced in mind and body. The mental, motive and vital temperaments are well-blended, giving her mental activity, clearness of thought, penetration, intuition and common sense, to act, to live and to plan. The back part of her head is well-developed, showing the great social characteristics she possesses. There could not be a more favorably-formed domestic brain than that of Her Majesty. She is a real woman of the old-fashioned type in every sense of the word, and could not be otherwise than a woman-a character very rare, and in these days quite unappreciated by the world of fashion and folly. Her love for companionship is great, and nothing could have been a heavier and more disastrious blow to our widowed Queen than the loss of her consort. Happily the children of our gracious sovereign have been a great consolation and comfort to her, and were it not for the goodness and tender love shown by her children and loyal subjects, she must have sunk under her great loss of him in whom her whole soul and all her love and affection were centered. Well might the dying words of her dearly beloved consort be "Gutes Frauchen," a title very seldom used between husband and wife, but which was used here in the right spirit of a true, faithful and happy marriage. The Queen fully deserved that endearing title, especially when those words were uttered in the last moments on a dying bed. Her love of children is remarkable. She would never be happy without them. No trouble would appear too great for her if it was for the welfare of her own or those of others. She is a true and thorough mother, and, if compelled, could teach children well herself, and more sensibly, and with more practical results than some learned, but very unwise and self-sufficient governesses. Our Queen is a true mother, and she would train up children in the right way. Not only does our Queen take a great interest in children of her own and others, but also in pets. She is kind toward them, becomes attached to them, and would be very reluctant to part with them. She could not bear cruelty toward animals. Pets would have a good time of it while their royal mistress was anywhere near, because they would not be neglected. Her friendship is without limit. She must have friends around her, not formal ones, but real, good, sound, old friends. She would appreciate, cling to and do anything for them. There is no one more grateful for anything done than Her Gracious Majesty. She will never forget the slightest act of kindness, whether in words or deeds, and whether coming from amongst the rich or the poor. Her friendship, combined with her benevolence, gives her great sympathy toward those who suffer, and she would be the first to help or relieve their sufferings. She is a woman of peace and godliness, and if the state of her dominions depended on her own inclinations we would have no strife for many years to Her love of home is fully brought out, and that gives her a great attachment toward home and old associations. Although she may change her abode it would not be from a want of the love of home, but for a change of air and health's sake. She becomes attached to certain rooms, certain chairs and prefers to have a certain place, and to sit there regularly. Changes of every description in the royal household are objectionable to her. She can not do with new servants, new faces or new attendants; she prefers to put up with a few faults in the old ones, which she easily detects, and with which she sympathises, rather than to have new people around her. Only those who are prompt, punctual, tidy, regular, precise, and practical can gain her confidence. She is most forgiving, and expects the same spirit of love shown toward herself. Her concentration or continuity must have been well developed from childhood, and that enables her to apply herself to one thing at a time and finish it before commencing any other work. If she had the care of children she would teach them the same lessons, so that they would not have too many irons in the fire at once, which, in reality, has been a great help to all the children of our royal family, and which can only emanate from a woman of sound sense and practical wisdom, strongly endued with a mother's love. With her love of and tenacity to life, and resistance to disease, she would cling with great hold to the former, and resist with great determination the latter, and therefore would not die before her time. This faculty, combined with hope, has carried our good Queen over many a flood of sorrow and grief, beneath which she would have sunk overwhelmed had it not been for her sound reason, clear judgment, common sense, business-like nature and lasting constitution. Now we come to another set of faculties which prominently distinguish her both in public and private life. Her force of character, determination of purpose, bravery in times of difficulty, and, when opposed, are most conspicuous, and it is in the hour of danger and opposition that she shows her brilliant traits of character and talents. She is very good humored, kind, genial, agreeable, pleasant, and friendly, but when roused or directly opposed she becomes very firm, resolute, decided, independent, bold, indignant and forcible in all she says and does without losing her balance of temper, because guided by a large sense of honesty, justice to all her subjects, and a great and sincere desire to do well for the nation. There are no two ways in her character. She is frank, outspoken, and straightforward in her dealings with people around her, whether they are public officials or private individuals. She is very cautious, slow, careful, and considerate in all her plans, but once decided, is very prompt in carrying them out with

come.

out hindrance, and must be entirely mistress of her own position. Yet she is most easily influenced by kindness from those who care for and love her. If there is a fault in her character it is in her being too sensitive, too intense in feeling, too anxious about every one around her, especially in time of sickness or distress. She has such strong feelings of benevolence that she suffers keenly when hearing of any calamity or accident. She cannot easily forget, and is liable to dwell upon all the details too much, and would be better, therefore, if she could restrain these feelings for her own health's sake. Her observing faculties are well-developed through actual hard work from her childhood. Their prominence shows that she must have had a strictly phrenological training and education by having her physical frame built up, as well as the observing faculties brought out by practical lessons from nature and objects around her. That gives her great penetration into human nature, and an insight into character generally. Very few things escape her eyes, and she can therefore not easily be deceived by flatterers, panderers or actors. She knows the real from the counterfeit, and can soon see through people's motives. We have been greatly blessed in having a Queen to rule us with such constant love, justice and religious feelings. With her large spirituality and faith in God, it would be almost impossible for Her Majesty to be otherwise than a Christian. She is full of faith, hope and charity.-Practical Christian.

THE SAGACITY OF PLANTS.-The minute attention which is being paid to the physical world has in many ways been rewarded with well-deserved success. We have deepened and extended our knowledge of Nature's laws and processes, even though we have to hand on. still unsolved many of the undetermined problems bequeathed to us by our predecessors. Perhaps botany has benefited by modern research as much as any sister science. Plants, plant life, plant forms, the internal structure and the external relations of plants, has been made the subject of skilful and patient observation. The microscope has laid bare to us much of the physical constitution of plants, and has let us see those primitive cells in which we find the simplest and the, earliest indications of that life-action, which nevertheless still hides itself from us behind its own manifestations. It is impossible to consider the marvellous adaptation of means to ends, the methods by which the continuation of plant life is secured and the dissemination of species`brought about, without recognizing the presence of some overruling Intelligence. Here, as in so many other instances, in unraveling one mystery we light upon many others, and if the wonderful organization of individual plants, of the whole botanical kingdom, reveals to us the existence of a directing Intelligence, the further question arises: But where is this directing intelligence? In a book published lately there is a zealous, even though somewhat shy, attempt made to popularize the notion that this intelligence resides within the plants themselves. In his book on the "Sagacity and Morality of Plants," Mr. Taylor endeavors to make out a case in favor of the supposition that vegetables of high and low degree are capable of moral and intellectual action. It is true that he insinuates this conclusion rather than puts it forward like a man who has the courage of his convictions. One thing is most evident; no useful scientific purpose can be gained by the wholesale application to plants of terms and phrases which connote intelligent action. Not figurative application, but literal. We are seriously asked to ignore the figure, and to look upon plants as entities capable of conscious action, action equally conscious in kind to animal consciousness, only perhaps somewhat lower in degree. Mr. Taylor, of course, expects a protest, and this is the way he meets it: "I shall be met at the outset with the remark that the term morality can only be rightly applied to conscious agents, and that plants cannot be classed among that number. Has this commonly adopted opinion been proved, or do we accept it as a traditional conclusion which to most people seems self-evident? Wordsworth did not think so. He said:

"It is my faith that every flower which blows

Enjoys the air it breathes.'"

be called a new belief. We ought to face possible results, before embarking with a light heart upon an unknown sea. If plants really can gain practical experience, as our teachers require us to believe they can, they must have some power of noting and distinguishing between antecedent and resultant, they must have some power of storing up such knowledge and of communicating it, and their using this knowledge in the right way and at the right moment demonstrates the high quality of their intelligence. Most certainly, if all the beneficial modifications of plants come wholly from the innate power of the plant itself, then we must agree with Mr. Taylor and his school, we must admit that plants have intelligence. They must have intelligence of a high order, for they have found out more of the laws of nature than the united intelligence of all mankind has been able to discover hitherto. They know how to manufacture breadstuffs from the noxious gases and poisonous minerals, never erring in combining the various constituents in their exact proportions. We cannot manufacture a blade of grass, much less a bunch of grapes. If all the chemical and physical processes which go on in plants are performed in virtue of internal consciousness, they point out an intelligence of such high order so far above our own that we should be only reasonable in imitating the ancient Egyptians and recognizing gods in our vegetables.—W. D. Stiafpin, in London Paper.

THE GENTLEMAN.—

"When Adam delved and Eve span,

Where was then the gentleman ?"

At our church social last week I overheard two ladies discussing a Mr. Smith, who had lately come among us. He appears to be a man of leisure and manners. He dresses in the height of fashion, and sports an enormous diamond ring. It is whispered around that he is a gambler, and that some of our fast young men have found out to their cost how he gets his money. One of these ladies was remonstrating with the other for riding and walking with this equivocal stranger. And she replied: "I don't care what you say about Mr. Smith, I know that he is a gentleman, for see how soft and white his hands are." That was her ideal. I looked at my hands, embrowned and hardened by honest toil, and began to wonder if I had any right to go even to a church sociable. One of the lady correspondents of a newspaper wrote of Edwin Booth, the actor: "He is a perfect gentleman. I know he is, for I have seen him eat. Only a born gentleman could handle a fork as he does." So here is another test. Vulgar people use their knives too much. But those who are thoroughly genteel can manage that table implement, which the Hoosier called a "split spoon," as skillfully as the Chinaman handles his chopsticks. Two young ladies were discussing their beaux. "I would not let John Jones wait on me," said one, "for he is only a mechanic. Peter Prim, my beau, is a gentleman." Well," said the other, "I don't see where the great difference is. One sits on a bench and makes the shoes, while the other stands behind the counter and sells them. Why is it more genteel to sell a thing than to make it ?" That was a poser, but young lady No. 1, though silenced, was not convinced. She regarded Peter Prim as a merchant, and, of course, a gentleman; while John Jones was only a workingman. A owns one of the best farms in this region. He has a fine orchard on it. He cultivates his trees with his own hands. He brings in loads of fruit when ripe for B to sell. B don't own anything but a suit of "store clothes," which he wears every day, and a breastpin. He rents a room ten feet square, and there he disposes of A's fruit by the box or the pound. In the estimation of a good many people, A is a rustic, a countryman, a clodhopper; while B is a gentleman. Young ladies brought up to be mere parlor ornaments despise the man who raises the fruit, and smile upon the man who sells it. I stumbled upon an English book of etiquette the other day. In it I found this curious statement: "A gentleman may carry a book through the streets if it is not wrapped, but if it is done up in wrapping paper it becomes a parcel, and must be carried by a servant." The wrapping paper makes a wonderful difference. And so absurd are the fashionable ideas of refinement and gentility. The story about Chief Justice Marshall has been told a good many times, but will bear telling again. As he was taking a morning walk, plainly dressed, he encountered a young man who was standing at a market stall, evidently in great perplexity. A basket of moderate size was before him, and he was saying to the market man: "I wonder where all the niggers are this morning. I can't find any to carry my basket home." The Chief Justice said: "Where do you live?" "No. 200 Avenue A," was the reply. Well," he said, "as I am going your way, I will carry your basket for you." They started, the Judge carrying the basket. The young man noticed that the people they met all bowed very politely to his volunteer porter, and wondered who he could be. The basket was deposited at the door. Pay was offered, but refused. What did it mean? Next day, while walking with a friend, this young man saw his volunteer porter in a group of lawyers. He asked: "Who is that plain old fellow that they are all listening to?" John Marshall, Chief Justice of the United States." He carried my market basket home for me yesterday. Why do you think he did it?” "To teach you the difference between a real gentleman and a snob," was the caustic reply. If some of these modern aristocrats who consider labor degrading had gone into the carpenter shop of Joseph about A. D. 28 or 29, and seen a young man named Jesus at work there, they would have decided at once that he was no gentleman. If they had gone into the rooms of Aquilla, at Corinth, a few years later, and seen Paul sewing on tents ("for he abode with them and wrough," Acts xvii, 3), they would have despised him because his hands ministered to his necessities. They would not have gone to the synagogue next Sabbath to hear that tent-maker preach. No, indeed! Now, can a standard of gentility that excludes Hon. John Marshall, Apostle Paul, and our adorable Savior, be a true one?-Obadiah Oldschool, in the Interior, June 10.

SOME SMALL THINGS.-We often wonder how many of us are conscious of our advantages in living at this stage of humanity's achievements rather than at an earlier one. How much more cleanly and convenient is life now that we eat by the help of forks than it was two hundred and fifty years ago, when forks were unknown, and fingers were daubed with whatever there was with which to dayb

them? How much more agreeable is life now that the newspaper is the common visitor of the poorest house? What was it that our fathers and mothers suffered when the tallow dip and the whale-oil lamp, whose failing wick had to be picked up every now and then with a pin, made darkness visible rather than dispelled it! One marvels in remembering it not only that they did not become blind themselves, but that we also were not all born blind. What tedium was that which these same fathers and mothers, and all their ancestors before them for many years, endured in the long journeys when the hardships of the saddle and bridle path were succeeded by the passing luxury of the stage coach, in which, jammed in together and with no matter whom, the day and night's journey lumbered along in a misery of which nobody dreamed of naming the positive extent till the railway car replaced it! And what suspense and anxiety and grief, dying a thousand deaths in one, did they not have to encounter before the telegraph arrived to make conversation as swift and easy as thought! Moreover, what avenues of culture, what possibilities of excellence and eminence, are open now to the average woman since the cotton mill has taken out of her hands the necessity of passing her days as a slave at the spinning-wheel, and bending her back at the loom, so that there was hardly time in her life for spelling out a chapter in her Bible! But these affairs bring us upon the great things of life; and to return to the smaller things of which we began to speak, can any of us imagine how in the world we got along before needles were as common as grass spires, and pins put careless sewing at a premium, and when thorns were in domestic demand for fasteners of slight material? How did our young aunts make themselves look pretty when calico prints were sold at eighty cents a yard instead of at six and four cents as they are to-day? And how did they dare meet an admirer in the muddy street when the hideous, shapeless India-rubber overshoe was worn in place of our delicate and well-shaped gossamer sandal? Perhaps we were just as well off before tee was added to our diet, although then we drank beer, that fruitful mother of many diseases; perhaps honey was as healthy for our use as sugar is; perhaps we are no better for the potato, that takes its revenge for being robbed of its wildness by producing various maladies of indigestion; surely, many of us would almost be glad if America had never been found, if so tobacco could also have remained undiscovered; perhaps we were better off before gunpowder added its disintegrating power to the universe. But who of us all could do without matches, now that we know of them? Years ago, when the chemist or the physician kept his phosphorus shut up in a bottle that it might lend him light on swift occasion, when everybody had the tinder-box, with its burnt rags and its bits of flint, on the kitchen mantel, when nobody thought any more of letting the fire on the hearth go out than the vestal would have suffered her lamp's flame to die, but raked it up and covered it with ashes, to be scattered and reveal the live coal in the morning; when, if the shocking catastrophe did take place, an iron skillet full of coals or else a burning brand had to be run for and borrowed of a neighbor, and run back with in a mighty hurry; when lamp-lighters bristled on the shelf, and one lighted pipe or candle, oftener than any other way, by blowing on the red coals, held in a pair of tongs, till the fire flashed up fitfully for the necessary second of time. Years ago, when all this had to take place, and under the stress, too, of inexhaustible patience, would not people have looked on our little lucifer match and all its congeners as emanating from Lucifer himself, and have pursued, as witch and warlock were pursued, the man who carried the savage's fashion of rubbing two pieces of wood together until friction made fire to its highest power by first dipping the pieces of wood into explo sive and inflammable material, so that fire was always in the house slumbering in the disguise of these tiny chips? What there is left for coming generations to discover in order still further to alleviate life and make home happier is past conjecture. Electricity has its treasures in store, to be sure, and doubtless by its means. or some other our successors will be looking back on us with pity for all we are now deprived of, and thinking how hard was our lot that we could not make morning calls among the planets, nor harness a comet to our phaetons for an afternoon's sweeping among the fixed stars.—Harper's Bazar.

ARCHEOLOGICAL Discoveries at AsSUAN.-Intelligence has been lately received of an important series of finds at Assuan. The successful explorer is General Grenfell, who has had the good fortune to discover an ancient Egyptian necropolis in the Lybian or western desert, opposite Assuan, on the left bank of the Nile. Among the tombs already opened are several which date apparently from the twelfth dynasty (about B. C. 3,000), and are constructed in the style of the great Lycopolitan sepulchers in the mountain above Suit. They consist of two or more halls or chambers, connected by corridors, the roof being supported by columns, and the walls decorated with colored bas-reliefs in brilliant preservation, Several of these tombs appear to belong to members of a noble, if not a royally-connected, family, the heads of which were probably governors of the province. The largest is described as a truly magnificent sepulcher, measuring 140 feet in depth by 40 feet in breadth, and containing 30 columns, some square, some round. It purports to be the tomb of a certain prince of Upper and Lower Egypt, who lived in the reign of one Neferkara, and who is represented in one of the wall-paintings as a lame man, leaning on a crutch. A fine "shrine" (?) and an altar (more correctly, perhaps, a table for funerary offerings) occupy their original position in the innermost chamber, and are in perfect condition. The sculptures are very curious, and the aspect of the whole tomb is reported as extremely archaic. From the second to the end of the eleventh dynasty there were, however, many kings named Neferkara; and until the inscriptions are fully deciphered it is, of course, impossible to say under which ruler this lame functionary flourished. The tomb is attributed by those on the spot to the third dynasty; but it seems for many reasons more likely to date from the time that Neferkara who succeeded Merenra in the sixth dynasty. The founder of this line, Ati, was a native of the island of Elephantine, opposite Assuan, and the place first rose to importance under his successor. It was during the reign of Merenra that Una, a famous general and prime minister, quarried the granite of Assuan for the sepulcher and sarcophagus of his sovereign, and built a fleet of thirteen vessels at Elephantine for the transport of the same. Pending further details, we should therefore be inclined to ascribe the large tomb to a nobleman of that period, especially if the neighboring twelfth dynasty tombs are those

of his descendants. In one of these latter there are found a series of Osiride statues, representing the deceased in mummied form done in baked clay or terracotta, and placed in recesses along the corridor. This, at all events, is an entire novelty in tomb decoration. The cemetery will probably prove to be of great extent, as there is evidence of its having been in use down to a late period. The large tomb, usurped by later comers, was found piled to the ceiling with mummies, mummy cases and funerary furniture of Roman times, including upward of sixty memorial stela. General Grenfell is actively pursuing his work of discovery by the help of the English soldiers, who continue to open and clear out tomb after tomb.-London Times.

SOME FACTS ABOUT BELLS.-The nature of the country has much to do with the sound of bells. In a hilly locality a bell will not be heard half so far as if the land were level or nearly so. A bell will be heard a great deal further lengthwise of a valley than over the hills at the sides. Where bell-rooms are lower than the surrounding buildings and trees, these obstructions break the sound and prevent its free passage to a distance. Towers having small windows or openings, with the lower boards close together, often box up the sound. In cities, the noise of steam and horse cars, manufacturing establishments, carriages and carts rattling over the pavements, etc., is so great that bells are not expected to be heard at any considerable distance, and this is the reason why, in all cities, several bells are used for fire alarm purposes, it being impossible for one bell, no matter how large it may be, to be heard above the thousand and one noises incident to every large place. It is said that the largest bell ever made in this country weighed 22,000 pounds, and before it was fractured hung on the City Hall, in New York. On one or two occasions this bell was heard up the Hudson river thirteen miles, in the night, when the city was comparatively quiet. It is a great mistake to suppose that bells can be heard in proportion to their weight-that is, a bell of 2,000 pounds will be heard twice as far as one of 1,000 pounds. This is not so, for the reason that the larger bell does not possess anything like twice the resonant surface of the smaller What is gained and admired in the larger bell is its deep, majestic and dignified tone, which it is impossible to secure in the smaller one, the weight of a bell invariably governing its tone. A bell of 100 or 200 pounds, in an open belfry, on an engine house, a school house or a factory in the country, is frequently heard at a long distance, out of proportion, apparently, to one of 1,000 pounds in a church'tower near by; and instances of this kind frequently cause no little comment in the way of comparison. One reason for this is that the small bell has a sharp, shrill, penetrating sound, that must, of necessity, be heard a great deal further, in proportion to its weight, than the low, mellow "church-going" sound of the church bell. The same principle applies to the whistle of a locomotive, and it is heard a long distance, simply because its tone is shrill and penetrating. When hung stationary, and struck or tolled, bells will not be heard, as a rule, half as far as when swung. The swinging motion throws up the mouth of the bell, and not only carries the sound off, but imparts to it a richness that is always absent when the bell is at rest and struck. A great deal is to be gained by ringing a bell properly, throwing the mouth well up, and not lazily jingling it. It is not physical strength that is required in ringing a bell so much as " getting the nack" of catching the rope just right, particularly on the second "down pull." The windows in the tower should be as open as possible, and the tower ceiled just above the windows.-The Fireman's Standard.

one.

THE MULE AND THE POET.—It is about time to say something in favor of the mule. The cruel and persistent manner in which the noble animal is being ridiculed in the newspapers is causing a feeling of sickening sadness to creep over all fair-minded persons, and they desire to see an end put to the senseless attacks made upon him. The mule is an improvement on the horse. He is the pioneer of civilization, and wherever the wheels of progress move he is found just a few feet ahead of them with the same resigned look in his quiet eyes. He has made the cotton fields of the South and the corn fields of the West blossom like unto a rose of Sharon. In the service of man he has packed upon his sturdy back across the rugged Rockies loads of glittering silver and gold. He toils in the bowels of the mines from year to year without uttering one word of complaint or a sigh for the green pastures above. Without him industry would peter slowly out, our great institutions would decay, and chaos would come again. It is not our purpose, however, to eulogize the mule or sing of his noble deeds, but to put him on his merits against the poets, and allow the world to see how sublimely grand he soars above them all. The pensive attitude of the poet pales beside the retrospective look of a mule like a lightning bug before the rays of a burning tar barrel. The poet clings to the ideal and the romantic, and the mule to the real and the substantial. The poet moans about the cares of life and seldom pays for his board, but the mule works and sweats and keeps his troubles to himself. While the poet is squatted in the shade writing an ode to the ripening fields, the mule is out in the sun pulling a plow and making a crop. The mule is sober, steady, and industrious, but the poet is erratic, unreliable, and lazy. This is a picture showing how the poet looks when brought face to face with the mule, and if we are not badly mistaken the poet will, under the cold and critical gaze of sensible people, shrivel into a small knot. The time is coming when the greatness and usefulness of the mule will be recognized and appreciated by mankind, and when his honest and far-reaching bray will be admired a thousand per cent. more than the song of the poet, and after all it will only be doing justice to the mule.-New Orleans State,

A TRUE HELPMEET.-A young woman in Michigan braided enough hats to enable her to pay the fee of the minister who married her. "A smart young woman, no doubt," remarks the Boston Transcript," but she would have been smarter had she married a man with money enough to pay the parson." Yes, "smarter," perhaps, but not wiser. The reasonable presumption is that the Michigan young

woman loved the man she married, and it was far better that she should earn the money to enable her to marry the man of her choice than that she should marry one she did not love because he had more money. "Better is a dinner of herbs where love is than a stalled ox and hatred therewith." The young couple just

married in Michigan are probably both poor and hard-working. Doubtless the maiden took joy in the thought that the work of her hands had given her the wherewithal to prove herself at the very beginning of their married life the true helpmeet of the lad to whom she had given her heart. If so, her honest pride was more commendable than that which animates the Boston young woman who rejoices in the wealth she has gained by a marriage de convenance. The Michigan girl's pride is much more akin to that with which the New England bride of the olden time viewed the goodly store of linen, spun and woven by her own hands, which she was to carry to the rude homestead of her farmer and sailor husband. It is bad enough that the children of those thrifty pioneers should have so far fallen away from their ancestors' simple habits and homely ways. It is still worse that the favorite journal of Boston womankind has nothing but sneers for those who renew in the West to-day the customs and habits of the New Englanders of two centuries ago. The Boston Transcript ought to be ashamed of itself. All honor to the brave lass at whom it foolishly sneers. May she become the mother of sturdy sons and virtuous daughters, whose children's children may never become snobs nor be ashamed to remember that their great-grandmother braided hats to earn her marriage fee. Providence Star.

DISHES OF THE ROMANS.-The Romans had almost all the vegetables we have, except the potato and tomato, and they both boiled and stewed them. Raw salads were in vogue, but, like the modern Italian, they also affected them boiled. Of sweets the Romans had numerous dishes, and among the receipts given by Apicius may be found those for custard and for omelettes and for cheese-cakes. Snails they fried and sauced in various ways; eggs they fried and boiled, and served with sauces. The differences between the Roman and the English styles of cookery are differences only of detail, not of principle. They cooked their fish, flesh, fowl and vegetables in a manner more or less identical with ours; their sweets present less similarity, but there are resemblances even in them. Their pot herbs are all in use at the present day, except laser, which has not been rejected by us, but is lost or unrecognized at the present time. But a perusal of Apicius shows that Roman cookery was intended for stomachs weakened by luxury; the rationale of the Roman sauces was to promote digestion by raising the tone of the stomach. Thus strong and warming condiments were unsparingly used, such as caraway, anise, cummin, celery seeds; also pine nuts, juniper, laurel and lentise berries. Mustard, strange to say, they used very timidly, only in boils and stews, never with roasts and broils. Pepper they used to everything-fish, flesh and fruit. It was first introduced into Rome in the time of Pliny, and its brusque and fiery taste startled the senses of the bon vivants of the city. In fact, pepper was a new sensation when first introduced into Europe, and the Romans fell in love with it. It did not supersede, however, the rue and lovage they previously used to produce similar effects. They used all three―The Christian at Work.

CHURCH BELLS.-The great bell at Moscow weighs 432,000 pounds, is 19 feet high, and 63 feet 4 inches in circumference; another in St. Ivan's Church is 288,000 pounds. The great bell at St. Peter's, Rome, recast in 1785, is 18,667 pounds avoirdupois; Christ Church bell is 17,000 pounds; St. Paul's, 8,400 pounds; Gloucester, 7,000 pounds; Exeter, 6,120 pounds; Lincoln, 9,894 pounds. At Rouen is a bell which weighs 36,000 pounds. One, 17,000 pounds weight, is placed in the tower of the Palazzo Vecchio, at Florence, and is 275 feet from the ground.

RELIGIOUS.

SOME CATHEDRALS OF EUROPE. Moscow's GREAT CATHEDRAL.-The foundations of the church are of Finnish granite, and the whole edifice is faced with marble, the door being of bronze, ornamented with Biblical subjects, and lined with oak. The principal entrance measures 30 feet high by 18 feet broad, and the two doors weigh 13 tons, the total costs of all the doors being $350,000. The building is erected in the form of a Greek cross, three of the broad ends of which form the corridors, lower and upper, surrounding three sides of, and open to, the central square, or temple proper, while the fourth end is occupied by the altar and its appurtenances. The total cost of all the marble in the building exceeded $2,000,000. Lifting one's eyes, the galleries are seen to contain 36 windows, and the cupola 16, all of which are double, with frames of bronze. Round the cupola is one row of 640 candelabra, placed there at a cost of $120,000, with a second row of 600, costing an additional $60,000. There are 4 lustres weighing 4 tons each, and the total number of candles to be lighted throughout the building is upward of 3,000. At the top of the cupola is a painting by Professor Markoff, representing in colossal proportions the first person of the blessed Trinity as an old man with the infant Jesus. The height of the figure is 49 feet, the length of the face 7 feet, and the height of the infant 21 feet. Also, below the cupola are a number of figures of apostles and fathers, each 21 feet high. Great expense has, of course, been lavished on the eastern end of the church. The cost of materials and workmanship for the altar space, apart from the icons of sacred pictures, amounted to $150,000. In this part of the church are some of its most remarkable paintings, most, if not all, by Russian artists. The structure of the altar screen is a departure from the traditional Russian type, for instead of a tall, ugly blank partition, half or two-thirds of the height of the church, hiding the eastern end, the screen of St. Saviour's is low and elegant, and throws open, except for a few feet above the floor, the whole of the sanctuary. This princely cathedral was erected at a cost of $12,000,000, and is said to be capable of accommodating 10,000 worshipers, and which from its first conception has been built in a single lifetime.-Brooklyn Magazine for June.

COLOGNE CATHEDRAL, in North Germany, stands alone in dignity and grandeur; it is certainly one of the noblest temples ever erected by man to the honor of his Creator. It was commenced in 1270-1275, and covers an area of 91,464 square feet, being 20,000 square feet larger than Amiens, making it the largest cathedral in northern Europe. By comparing Cologne Cathedral with that of Amiens, it will be found that the eastern half of the former is an exact copy of the latter, not only in general character, but also in dimensions, the only difference being a few feet of additional length at Cologne; this is more than made up by the lady chapel at Amiens. The German cathedral has an additional bay in each transept, and two extra isles in the nave, with the enormous substructure of the western towers. Its great defect is its want of length, emphasized by the height of the nave, which is 155 feet-four times the width. A regiment of cavalry riding through its nave would look like pigmies dwarfed by the 140 feet of space above them. The most striking feature is the western facade-only lately completed. The twin towers, surmounted by delicately-wrought spires, rise to a height of 510 feet. This western facade is a grand conception. It equals in magnificence those designed for Strasburg and Lorraine, while surpassing them in purity and excellence.

THE CATHEDRAL OF AMIENS (France) was commenced in the year 1220 and completed 1257. It was partially destroyed by fire in 1250, and the clere-story and all the upper portions were rebuilt. By 1272 the cathedral was complete in all its parts as we now find it. The cathedral covers an area of 71,208 square feet. Its plan is of the best type of cross cathedrals. The aisles continue round the choir. The east end is multapsidal in form and contains six small chapels with a lady chapel. On each side of the nave aisles are chapels, built in between the buttresses. In plan, this cathedral seems to give us the typical form of the noblest type of Christian architecture. The vista through its long nave is one of the most beautiful in the world. It was erected in one consecutive period, and at a time when Gothic architecture had reached its highest point of excellence. On the exterior, as seen in elevation, the effect is marred by the smallness of the western towers in proportion to the immense nave and choir. The northern tower is 228 feet in height, and the southern tower 205 feet. The roof of the nave is 208 feet, the central spire being only 422 feet. This want of proportion between the parts reduces the three spires to comparative insignificance. The interior effect is, however, one of the most beautiful in Europe.

STRASBURG CATHEDRAL takes rank next after Cologne among the GermanFrench churches. It is smaller than Amiens, covering an area of only 60,000 square feet. The plan is peculiar, the eastern end having formed part of an older basilica, built in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. The nave and the west front are, however, the glory and boast of Alsace, and possess in a remarkable degree all the beauties and defects of the border style. The nave was probably commenced in the early part of the thirteenth century, and seems to have been finished about 1275. The details are pure and beautiful and the design of singular boldness. The vaulted roof is 101 feet in height from the pavement of the nave, being in good proportion with the nave length, which is only 250 feet. The only completed spire, the north one, is 468 feet in height, and was not completed until 1439. It shows clearly gradual changes in style as it passed through the hands of successive architects. Altogether, the facade of Strasburg is imposing from its mass and fascinating from the richness of its detail.

THE CHURCH OF ST. LAWRENCE, at Rotterdam, formerly the Cathedral, is a cross church, the greater part of fourteenth century design, the details being terribly mutilated. The east end has a multangular apse. The nave has three