text: RUTK Ik* st o<x] breast high among the corn. Clasp'd by the golden light of morn. Like the sweetheart of the sun. Who many a slowing kiss had won. On her cheek an autumn flush Deeply ripened—such a blush In the midst of brown was born. Like red poppies grown with corn. Round her eyes her tresses fell. Which were the blackest none could tell. But long lashes coded a light That had else been all too bright. And her hat, with shady brim. Made her tressesy forehead dim—a Thus she stood amid the stooks. Draisine God with sweetest looks. Rare, I said, I heard did not mean Where I reap thou shouldst but glean; Lay thy sheaf down and come Share my harvest and my home! —Thomas Moore. THE RUBY HEART. ENT JESSICA had been round the world more than once. She had been what is vulgarly pulled a "glotte trotter." In her day all" had collected many rare and curious and beautiful things; but now she was an old woman, and her time was come to die in the great silent house, filled with the furniture that had belonged to Aunt Jessi ca'*' forbears many score years ago, and enriched by the simple of many lands, brought home by the energetic hands of Aunt Jessica herself. There was one treasure above all that loved, and that I would have sold my soul to have had for my own—my cousin. In Edith. As for the money—well, I am not more disinterested than most people; that I would rather have Edith without a penny than all Aunt Jessica's money without Edith. William and Bertram and I were sitting in the dining room. Edith was helping poor aunt in the hard work of dying. Three men came on the floor. We knew they were a signal that we were to go up, and that aunt had asked for us; and up we went. "I have left everything divided among you four," she said; "and the merry heart is to go to whichever of you three boys can find it." She spoke slowly and with difficulty. I remember the joy of the old days when she used to come and see us at school and tip us, and I wished that death and time could have been more merciful. She went on. "You know it has a charm to make you happy in your love. It would have made me happy, but he died, and it hadn't a chance to do its work; and how my time's come—it has been weary waiting." And with that—the first and last hint we ever had of a romance in my aunt's life—she turned her wrinkled old face to the pillow with a sigh like a tired child's, and there were only four of us left in the room. After the funeral and the reading of the will, we three men set to work to find the charm. "I shall take the library and aunt's feed-room. A ret," said Bertram. As these were the rooms she had most needed, I imagine he had made the best choice. "You other fellow can arrange as you like!" William chose the drawing-room and the guest chamber, and they took the whole day searching systematically in each by inch for the ruby heart. I began to look in the dining room, but with faith came in. "Do you care so very much for the ruby heart?" said she. "I confess I should like to find it," I answered. "Shall I help you to look?" She pulled out a book or two from the shelves in an aimless, desultory way, and then said: "It's very sunny out of doors, don't you think?" "Go we went on the river." The next day I began to look for the heart again. Edith sent her duenna companion (who had once been her governess) to ask me if I did not think it would be nice to drive. Of course, said I thought it would, and off we went. That evening she asked Bertram and William if they would like to come out next day to see some ruin. "Thanks," said Bertram, "but I think my aunt's duty to my poor aunt's memory is to find that heart." "Besides," said William, who never had much sentiment, like Bertram, "it's worth thousands of pounds, I believe. "To say nothing of the charm," added. "But you'll Come, Wilfrid?" she said, looking at me with a soft gray eyes. "Of course." I answered. Bertram and William scowled at me They would have given their ears, their lives, anything. In short, but their chances of a ruby heart worth thousands of dollars for the privilege that was to be mine tomorrow. To be in love with cousin Edith was a mode, a fashion, among us. Besides, Edith was now an heiress. "As soon as I have fulfilled dear aunt's law wishes," said Bertram talked, the silly fool, as if aunt had wished him to find the heart—"I shall be only too glad to accompany my cousin Edith on any excursion she may propose." "So shall I," said William. So Edith and I went to the rains alone together. "I hope it does not seem like disrespect to poor aunt's memory," she said, "as we drove angrily back in the dog cart evening, "our going out like this. But I couldn't bear to stay in the old house alone where she was so kind to me. It's better to go out, and I'm sure she would have wished it." I felt that it was foolish of me not. To make an effort to find the ruby heart. So next morning I got up very early and came down before the servants were about. I had pulled out half the drawers of the Chinese cabinet and looked into them, when my heart leapt into my mouth at the touch of a hand on my shoulder—Edith's! "Still after that wretched ruby!" she said. "How you waste your time!" "Why? Don't you think I shall find it?" "I don't know," she said, looking at me with her eyes wide open, "but I don't think you will find it there, because Bertram has been through that three times already. Did you ever eat strawberries before breakfast and gather them yourself." So we went into the kitchen garden and ate strawberries till the gong rang for breakfast. Bertram and William were getting quite sulky and savage from the non-success of their search, and the little time I had devoted to it annoyed them. "I believe," said Bertram, with an air of gaiety, a little overdone, "that Wilfrid thinks he knows where the heart is, and that he can put his hand on it at any moment." "I wish I could," said Edith, almost in the same breath. "So do I," said Edith, almost in the same breath. "You wish Wilfrid to find the heart!" said William. "Why?" "Oh, no. I don't mean Wilfrid; I mean—at least—well, we shall all be glad when it's settled one way or The other, shan't we?" I had never told Edith I loved her, because I didn't know how my aunt was to leave her money, and if Edith was to be heiress of the whole—but anyone will understand my reasons. It was a week after aunt's funeral that I went into the rose garden, where Edith was snipping roses into a basket. "I've been looking for the heart again," I said, "but I haven't found it." "No," she answered, "and I don't suppose you will. Would a Gloire de Dijon be any compensation?" She began to stick one in my coat as she spoke. Her slender waist, in its black gown, was very near my left arm, where she stood. "I will take the bud," I said, "but not as compensation for the heart." "Don't you think," she asked me, "that it might be possible to live happily without a charm to help you?" "No," I said, "not without a charm to help you. But ruby hearts are not the only charms in the world." My arm fell on her waist. "Let them and their ruby heart! Let them chop it into pieces and divide it between them and sell the bla." And you are content with what you have?" she asked. "I am content with what I have," I answered, and my other arm went round her. "They never found that ruby heart, though the poor old house was tapped and tested from top to bottom. At last, wearied out, they took the portion of goods that fell unto them and went, fortunately for us. Into a far country. And Edith and I were married. We didn't go on a wedding tour, but came straight back to the dear old house. On the evening of our wedding day, we walked in the moonlight through the rose garden to listen to the nightingales. I stopped to hold her in my arms on the very spot where I had first kissed her, and the light shawl she wore round her head and shoulders fell back. "What's that you have around your neck?" I said, for something darkeled and the white laces on her breast. She did not answer. I put up my hand, touched with a thrill the white laces of her neck, and found in my fingers the ruby heart! Then she gave it to you," I said; "It is yours?" She gave it into my keeping," answered Edith, dropping her chin till her lips rested on my hand; "but she left it to the man who should find it." And I have found it—here!"—The Argosy. Once Wasted. Modern man is gradually waking up to the fact that he can utilize everything. Coal is not only a source of heat and light, but a storehouse of color, tastes, medicines, perfumes, and explosives. From 140 pounds of gas tar in a ton of coal over 2,000 districts, shades of aniline dye are made. The same substance furnishes quinine, antipyrine, morphine, and a host of other drugs. Of perfumes, there can be obtained here, chocolate, clove, queen of the meadow, cinnamon, and bitter almonds, camphor and winter-green. It gives to us bellite and pleurisy, Two powerful explosives, and supplies flavoring extracts which cannot be used from currant, raspberry, pepper, and tan. Scientists also get from the coal tat, benzine, and naphtha and the photographer gets from it his bydroquinine and llkonoger. It gives forth paraffin, pitch, and creosote. Material for artificial paving, saccharin which is 300 times sweeter than sugar: lampblack, material for red ink, oils, varnish, rosin, and a great supply of ammonia. Mr. Holiday—"So you think that you would like to take the position of superintendent of the works? Don't you think it better for you to seek a more humble place at Amt?" Ratio—"Why, sir, you have told me that there is always plenty of room at the top. Rarely, you would not have me crowd the worthy men who are lower down."— Boston Transcript CLOCK'S PART IN A TRAGEDY. Aneient Kentucky Timepiece with Which Goes a Gruesome Story, Seven miles east of Bardstown, Ky. In what is known as the Beech Grove neighborhood, dwells Nathan Colerain, a widower of advanced years, and his maiden sister, who is now past middle life. The Colerain residence is an old-fashioned, unpretentious farmhouse. Miss Patsy Colerain, or "Aunt Patsy," as she is familiarly known to her neighbors and friends, is a woman of refinement, bearing traces of youthful beauty. She is quiet and unobtrusive, with a clock, traverse, and has not gone beyond the pale of her own yard for over thirty years. There is a tragic history connected with her strangement from the world. In the spacious hall of the Colerain homestead stands a clock, an old-fashioned affair of the "grandfather" species. This timepiece is over a century old and is a quaint-looking object. The pendulum has been motionless and the elaborately carved brass hands have the "debatable land" to visit her. It was a rainy night and while the lovers were together a band of guerillas, headed by the notorious Munday, came up and surrounded the house. At the door, never moved since a fateful night in the year 1804. Miss Colerain was engaged to Reuben Morehead, a young Kentuckian who in April, 1804, wore the blue uniform. Being in the vicinity of his sweetheart's house, Morehead stole across the first alarm, Morehead opened the door of the clock case and squeezed in. But he left his hat and gloves in the room and these tell tales were seen. The guerrillas hunted high and low. Finally, one of them opened the clock door and Morehead was discovered. They shot him to death. Since then, the clock has marked the hour of his murder. OLD PUT'S BIRTHPLACE. Bronze Tablet Affixed to the Historic House at Dover, Me., to remember Israel Putnam a bronze tablet has been placed on a corner of the house in which he was born in Danvers, Mass., the dedication exercises having been held by General Putnam Chapter, D.A.R., under whose auspices the monument was erected. Directed by the tablet, the tablet was put in place. Owing to the season, the outdoor exercises were as brief as possible, but those held in the town were most elaborate. The members of the local chapter of the D.A.R. were assisted by a number of prominent members of the order from other cities, among whom was Mrs. Douald Me Lean, of New York. The inscription on the tables is in large raised letters, the whole surrounded by a heavy border. It reads: "Here Was Born GEN. ISRAEL PUTNAM, Jan. 7, 1718. Erected by the Gen. Israel Putnam Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution, 1897. General Putnam was born in Danvers, Jan. 7, 1718, in the house now standing, which has been enlarged several times, and is still in an excellent state of preservation. The original structure was erected in 1641, and it was in a chamber of this section that Putnam was born. The first proprietor of the house was Thomas Putnam, grandfather of Gen. Israel Putnam. Thomas Putnam's second wife was Mary Yeren, widow of Nathaniel Yeren, a wealthy merchant of Salem. Their only child was Joseph, who inherited the homestead. Joseph married Elisabeth Porter, daughter of Israel and Elizabeth Tallman Porter. From this marriage sprang the famous soldier. Sea Water. On a bright, sunny day, visitors are often pumxled at the numerous colors visible on the surface of the sea. There will, perhaps, be some four or five streaks of green, blue, yellow, black, and so forth, making the water appear as though it were painted in color stripes of mathematical precision. To the Initiated, these several stripes have their meaning. They are nearly all produced by the character of the ocean bed, and, as a rule, are only seen in proximity to land. If you see a deep blue or green patch, you may label it deep water, the blue usually being deeper than the yellowish tint signifying a sandy bottom, and, if it is very pronounced, indicates a shallow or sandstorm. Black indicates rocks, although sea-weeds or cloud shadows will sometimes produce a similar effect. On the east coast, it is no uncommon thing to see a much of bright red on the sun, the sun has reflected the color of the deep brown sand on the surface. Where the bottom is muddy, as on the Essex coast, a streak of bright silver-gray is often seen. Many people who cannot claim intimacy with the sea imagine these colors are in the sea water itself, whereas its intrinsic tint is bluish green. Answers. STEAMER STRUCK BY A WHALE. Hen Monster Frightens the Charmer's Crew Off Vancouver. The passengers on the little steamer charmer, running between Vancouver and Victoria, had a fright and a novel experience which they will not forget. F. P. Stinson, a passenger who was on board, says: "We were fishing merrily along between the Sami heads and Plumper pass at a good rate, and everyone was on deck enjoying the fish." Weather. St Adenly someone call out. See the whale! And sure enough, a good-sized one was discerned on the port bow a short distance off. He enjoyed himself immensely, rolling sportively in and out, squinting and diving to his heart's content, suddenly he disappeared and was out of sight so long that we lost interest in him and gave up looking for him. A few minutes later, we felt a sharp shock which shook the entire ship and threw several passengers to the dock. Someone cried out that we had struck. Others exclaimed that she had sprung a leak, and the greatest excitement followed. Women fainted, and men ran this way and that. The engineer stopped his engines, and this seemed to confirm the story that we had struck a hidden ledge. At the same time, we felt an ominous grating under the keel. I was on a boat going to Alaska nine years ago which went on a rock, and the sound was met with what I heard this time. I was sure that a rock had been grazed—a thought hardly consistent with the fact that the old veteran skipper, Captain Hull, was on board. Finally, the passengers became calm, and the ship's pet was begun an investigation. There was no rock in the vicinity. They knew every foot of the water there. The signal to start was given and we moved off again. Those on deck watched attentively the wake of the ship, until astern of the vessel the Yock loomed up in the form of the big sea monster, who lay on the surface as if stunned by the blow. He struck, in rising from one of his dives, almost under the wheelhouse, and then had allowed the steamer to drag almost its whole length over him."—Chicago Chronicle. HORSE OF THE PRAIRIE. How the Patient Animal is Utilized in Lonel Places. Of the more or less native horse of the prairie, the horse of the fields, the patient creature with its foal, tender and even compassionate, and the modern horse of civilization, one of the best records is to be found in the collection of drawings by Frederic Remington. THE SUGAR HOUSE. Away in the midst of Arizona or Idaho or Wyoming, Remington carried the pencil of a magician, and brought back records of the keenest personal value. To turn his pages is to live a life amid the immense solitudes of the prairies, where the horse, in all his sturdiness, his muscular strength, and his elasticity of step, seems to be something of an aboriginal. The picture. Of a "squaw horse" accompanying this article is a copy of one of the Remington masterpieces, and needs no verbal explanation. Kafling for Them. So long ago as 1625 a sporting parson existed, and one who thought that re- j liglon could be ma»le more popular by : a little excitement; to this end he ea- I tabllebed a raffle for six Bible« each ! year. The clergyman who was so fat : eccentric, left ln hl« will a sufficient sum of money for the yearly purchase of Testaments to be won by dire. Only a few days ago the ancient ceremony was carried through, aud twelve chil dren threw dire, six of whom ran the chance of winning a Bible. A vicar, a curate and two church wardens watch- ; ed over the proc eeding s. ; Long and abort. Birds with long legs always have short tails. Writers on the flight of birds have shown that the only use of n bird's tall Is to serve as a rudder dur ing the act of eight. When birds are provided with long legs, these are stretched directly behind when the bird is flying and so act as a sort of rudder. Koran's Arabic. The Arabic used in the Koran differs as much from the Arabic used lu onlln ary conversation In the east as the Latin différa from the Italian. The Koran Arabic is that of the literary cUases, tbe colloquial Arabic that of the com mon people. The beauty of tbe winter girl may be only sealskin deep. | lug !u India the trade, is a larger l has within tin' st riet or. Be! mantis from tl CATCHING SNAKES IN INDIA. Queer but Effective Method of Capt uring Great Serpents. Menageries are always in need of snakes, and as India abounds in these reptiles, perhaps to a greater extent than any other country in India, go the managers when their snakes begin to run low. Snake hunt unless one understands it is a perilous business, for the sake of the Indian serpents are poisonous than in any other part of the globe, and even a Hindu desire to die of snake bite, not crushing folds of a conical head, however, the tribe be menageries, the Indian government pays a bounty on snake heads, so there is a double incentive to Indian snake hunters, and when there are sufficient orders on hand from the menageries, a hunt is organized on a grand scale. Preparations are made by ascertaining from the natives a promising snake district, which is usually a tract or jungle with a thick bamboo or grass undergrowth. In such lands, snakes are found by thousands, and after a promising patch is discovered, a beginning is made by clearing or burning the undergrowth from a strip entirely on the undergrowth from a strip entirely on the ground. The snake trap, a netting extended for 200 or 300 yards on each side of the cleared tract. Its wings gradually contracting to lead the reptiles into a cul de sac, from which there is no escape. Several hundred natives are assembled, and on a day when the wind is from the right quarter they surround the district selected, and at a given signal, set fire to the jungle. After the fire has fairly started, the natives are called behind the netting, as there is no need of their services on the other sides, for every snake tenant of the brush fires in the same direction toward the fatal netting. Behind it stand rows of men, armed with clubs and sticks, ready to give their snake-shins a lively reception. As the fire approaches the netting, the snakes come in crowds, by hundreds, sometimes by thousands. At the wings, the men are concentrated with their clubs ready to kill those attempting to escape, and as the main laxly of the reptiles approaches the netting, the wings are pushed forward toward each other, the stakes supporting the netting are driven firmly into the ground and the snakes are enclosed. But snakes can climb almost as well as monkeys and so the men at the wings are kept busy killing those that endeavor to escape over the ropes. At the cul de sac, the netting extends above as well as on the sides, and the larger portion of the reptiles are actually concentrated within this enclosure. There are scenes is one of lively animation, for the snakes are of all sizes, some of the venomous reptiles of India not being more than 6 or 8 inches in length, and, as their movements are very quick, the barefooted beasts are kept dodging about in a manner at once grotesque and amusing, their anxiety to escape the small reptiles that go through the netting like a bush being even greater than their eagerness to kill as many snakes as possible and thus receive a larger share of the government bounty. No snake is permitted to escape, and after all the smaller reptiles which can work their way through the meshes of the net have been killed, attention is turned to the larger which remain. In various parts of the netting there are loops which can be untied and then refastened, and after the slaughter of the little snakes has been finished the work of capturing the most promising specimens begins. The superintendent points out an anaconda that will bring a good price, and as the animal thrusts its head against the netting in fruitless efforts to escape a stick with a wire loop at the end is introduced, the snake is lassoed immediately behind the head, the wire is tightened and the future occupant of a menagerie cage, his big and writhing, is dragged through and seized by a dozen natives at once. Bundles of bamboo, cut into proper lengths, have already been prepared, three or four men straighten the snake and lay him on a bamboo, sometimes placing three or four smaller splints around him, and then lashing him securely down with bamboo wits every inch of his length. Generally, the lash is found to be sufficient, and only when the serpent is very large and powerful are the extra bamboo tied around him for fear he might break the stick to which he is fastened. This operation is not carried on without an immense amount of protest from the snake, which hisses in the most terrifying manner and wriggles wildly in an effort to escape. But hissing and wriggling are all in vain; the Hindoos lash him down, finishing the operation by forcing his upper jaw upon the lower and tying the two together to the stick in such a way that he cannot even his. After all the best specimens have been selected and tied, the remainder of the herd is killed. Heheaded and the heads sent to the nearest government station for the immunity, and the captives are loaded into carts for transportation to Bombay, where they are disposed of to the European agents. Finite a string of precedents took place to the course the criminal was probably pursued. One case was that helped me immensely in the business, was a forgetfulness. The man had disappeared, and left no clue whatsoever behind. I obtained access to its rooms, and that he had developed a thief. Thieves not so clever. "The cleverness of criminals is very much overrated," said a detective recently. "It is originality in their methods. Once, when the detective sets out, he has, in many instances, partiality for cutting scraps from news papers. Among these scraps, one that described how a forger escaped in woman's attire, on the theory that my bird had taken this manner, and follows it finally got on the track and caps the criminal. The capture was a remarkable one, but, as a result of fact, the runaway had left form an exceedingly valuable clue. Had taken the precaution to burn the sitting he might have escaped, and altogether, it was not a case of antiquity. ANTIQUITY OF THE ROSE. Over 1,000 Specimens of the Wild Flowers Known to Romans. The antiquity of the rose is great that all account of its origin has been lost. It is not mentioned in the Biblical writings earlier than the reign of mon, but the allusion to it then made is much as to indicate that the flower had already long been known, for the essence of roses was extensively used in Jerusalem and Judea during the reign of the luxurious and much tutored king. In Egypt, the rose is depicted on a number of very early monuments, believed to date from 3000 to 3000 B.C., and in the tomb of an Egyptian princess, displayed." Interred a year ago in Southern Egypt, several hermetically sealed vials were found which when opened contained genuine attar of roses, so that the modern claims for the discovery of this delicious perfume are vain. Rose water, or the essence of roses, is mentioned by Horner in the "Iliad." Homer and Solomon were nearly contemporary, both the Greeks and Hebrews probably borrowed the idea of its manufacture from the Egyptian, and these, for aught anybody can tell, may have had it from the Indians or from the Chinese, for the latter claim for each of their discoveries and inventions a most marvelous, not to say incredible, antiquity. The rose one of those flowers which by the people of every land are taken for granted us so well known as to need no description, and hardly mention, for it is a singular fact that every continent on the globe, with the solitary exception of Australia, produces wild roses. Even the frozen regions of the north, where the summer lasts but two or three months and is at best a season which may be described as very late in the fall, produce their wild roses, and travelers through Greenland, Kamchatka and northern Siberia found in the proper season an abundance of blossoms, while the crews of whaling vessels which call at Spitzbergen some off shore with bouquets of the native Spitsbergen rose. All wild roses are not of the same kind, for there are over 1,000 species of the wild rose known to Islanders, and the varieties are innumerable. A True Helpmate. Great successes often depend upon small considerations and the wife of a member of Congress, a statesman to whom his constituents are wont to point as a man of the people whom flattery cannot divert from his old customs and associations, full realizes this fact. A school friend who had not seen her since her girlhood surprised and delighted her with a visit not long since. How industrious you are! exclaimed the visitors. In what way? I don't know. I suppose it is fancy work. I know that you used to have a great aversion to plain sewing. But you must be very diligent indeed to have your work basket in the same room. Would you like to know what I am at work on? "Certainly." "You shall see for yourself. Here it is." "And she held up to view a half-knit sock of old-fashioned blue yarn. "You—you don't mean to say that your husband wears things like that. "Oh, no. He wouldn't think of wearing them. I have a whole lot that gives away to anybody, who will use them." "Do you do this for pleasure? No. It isn't all for pleasure. It's business and I never occupy myself that way except when it is absolutely necessary. But I always keep work handy and when only one of the old-fashioned rural voters of my husband's district comes to make him call—and you have no idea how many honor us with that attention—I feel out and knit away for dear life—a good deal of bother." But it's worth a good deal of thinking about. For you really can't imagine how people like them!" Staats in France and Germany A Cologne newspaper notes some remarkable difference in the German preference for certain meats. Berlin consumes 100,000,000 annually, Paris only 300,000. At 100,000 head of cattle more than Germany; while calves are much liked in France than Germany, liners eating 230,000. Parisian on 50,000 a year. Mutton is much improved in Paris, where it is predicted. Sheep (more than France) are eaten, whereas Berlin calls one-quarter that number. On her hand, Parisians eat 20,000 horses. Berlin only 4,000. As the English bee is reported in the society column, the following is a list of the English newspapers: Reports in the society column, the following is a list of the English newspapers: M. Harvey, of North Troy, a former year old, but is an enthusiastic participant in the sport as any younger man. If you are poor, you are proof of some of the faults of people who, in their own state, are not able to stand. Attorneys fee. 