Scrapbook: Anna McFarland Stabler, c. 1875- c.1812

the papers given to him. Stern truth compels histroy to admit that the part said to have neen taken by Eleanor in this affair is an invention of later writers. Edward recovered from the assault, but it was most probably owing to the skill of his physicians. Eleanor attended him with loving care and devotion furing his illnes, and he always attributed his restoration to health to her effors at this time. Perhaps from this fact arose the story of her sucking the poison from his wound.

These, then are the Fair Women who inhabit his forest and who pass in such mysterious processon through its shades. Born in different countries and under different auspices, living in widely separated periods of world's history and acting out their parts on its stage, each independent of the other, they have at last come to dwell together and think upon the deeds done by them while in flesh. Why these beautiful ones-- a unfortunate as they were beautiful--are assembled here was not told to the dreamer. The coming morn "dissolved the mystery of folded sleep, " and only the memory of his dream remained.

The Cumberland Valley.

The section of Maryland and Pennslyvania known as the Cumberland Valley is one of the finest sections of land you can find in any two States of the Union. The land is of the best quality of limestone, well adapted to wheat, corn and other small grain. elegantly watered by fine limestone springs and mountain streams of pure water, welll timbered, and health climate. This valley is traversed from one end to the other by the Cumberland Valley Railroad, one of the best managed railroads in the United States. The President, T.B. Kenedy, Esq., spares no expense for the comfort of his passengers; the conductors are competent, obliging, and attentive. Passengers from the South and West over the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad will do well to treat themselves to a ride over this road, through this great and beautiful valley of the Cymberland, to see the fine farms and beautiful villages of this Valley; which they can do by stopping at the histroical town of Martinsburg, W. Va., and there take the eats of the Cumberland Valley for the city of Harrisburg, the capital of the great Keystone state, distant 94 miles, and on the direct line to Philadelphia and New York. After leaving Martinsburg, W. Va., about 12 miles, you will cross the Potomac river on a fine bridge and enter Maryland, and after a few miles reach Hagerstown, the county-seat of Washington county, Md. Washington county is one of the finest counties in Maryland. Hagerstown is a beautiful town of about six thousand inhabitants, well watered by fine springs of pure water, and is becoming quite a manufacturing place. The manufacture of the one of the finest wheat-drills in the United States is carried on to a large extent; also steam engine works, the great Updegraff glove works, and others of less magnitude. It is the place where Mr John Gruber first began to publish this Almanack, over 80 years ago; the old house is still standing and occupied in which he printed the first edition in 1798. A few miles futher you will cross Mason & Dixon's line into Pennsylvania; then reach Greencastle; then Chambersburg the county-seat of Franklin county, Pa. A more beautiful place you will scarcely find in any State. It was burned by the Confederate army in 1864. Since then it has been newly built. The Shippensburg, Newville, and Carlisle, the county-seat of Cumberland county; then Mechanicsburg; all towns of considerable size and beauty. Eight miles from Mechanicsburg you will cross the beautiful Susquehanna river and enter Harrisburg, the capital of the great State of Pennysylvania, which has a population of about 30,000; it is a great manufacturing city and railroad centre.

Happiness is like manna. It is to be gathered in the grains and enoyed everyday; it will not keep; it can not be accumulated; nor need we go out of ourselves, nor into remote places to gather it, since it has rained down from heaven, at our very doors, or rather within them.

Alexandria and Washington.

The pilgrim who leaves the nation's capital to visit the grave of Washington arrives, midway to Mount Vernon, at the quiet town of Alexandria. There he may find, if he will but blow aside the dust of a century, footprints of the Father of this Country that tell of his ways as he moved round about home. Elsewhere the great chief is on horse back, or sits high in some chair of state, lofty and removed from common men; but in Alexandria he is dismounted and afoot--a townsman and neighbor.

The town and Washington came together into active life; for it was just as he grew from childhood into youth, at his brother's home, Mount Vernon, that the neighboring hamlet of Belhaven grew into the town of Alexandria. Belhaven was a tobacco warehouse and some log-huts on the southern part of a patent owned by the great-grand children of one John Alexander, who in 1669 paid six thousand pounds of tobacco for nine miles of river-shore nearly oppostie what is now the district of Columbia. Just after this purchase, Washington's great-grandfather had led from the settled lands near the mouth of the Potomac a troop of militia to punish the Dogne Indians for the murder of Robert Hen, a herdman, near what is now Mount Vernon. He became enraptured with these magnificent hills, and soon included them in a patent of seven thousand acreas. Over sixty afterward this tract descended to Lawrence Washington, George's elder brother, who married a daughter of COlonel William Fairfax, of Belvoir, the county lieutenant, and became a neighbor to his father-in-law by settling at Mount Vernon. Hither cameyoung George Washington, fresh from school. Having failed to be a midshipman, he was becoming a land surveyor--a profession not so opposite as might seem; for in mathematical methods the pursuits are identical, and the survey of a wild country is, in peril and adventure, not unlike a voyage at sea. Into Belhaven young George Washington rode every day. Tradition says that he came tem times during one week, each time upon a differenf horse, every one an animal that would have delighted General Grant. In those days the fine rider of a fine horse readily won his way to the popular heart. The lad had borrowed in turn all the best horses of the country-side, and he managed each iwth such skill and grace that therafter his future was made in the village.

The family circle at Belvoir and Mount Vernon included, besides the visitor, Lord Fairfax, Baron of Cameron, Colonel William Fairfax, his son George William Fairfax, his sons-in-law Lawrence Washington and John Carlyle, and William Ramsay, a counsin of the Washingtons. These gentlemen united with the Alexanders, who owned the Belhaven land, and some village traders, and established a town at Belhaven warehouse, designed as a practical matter to make money, and as a matter of taste to honor at the same time the royal family of England and the Fairfax family of America. The new town took shape with its streets at right angles. One oentre street, Cameron, flanked south by King Prince and Duke streets, and north by Queen, Princess, and Duchess streets, and those streets crossed by another centre street, Fairfax, flanked by Royal street on one side and the river on the other. Anxious as the young urveyor George Washington was to perfect himself in his art, it is impossible to believe that this plan was made by his relatives and friends with out his familiarity.

The lots of the new town were sold on the 13th of July, 1749. Among the purchasers were Lawrence Washington, John Carlyle, Adam Stephen, afterward a subaltern under Braddock, and one of the Washington's generals in the Revolutionary army, and John Champe, father of Sergeant-major Champe, of Lee's legion, who feighned desertion in the hope of capturing the traitor Arnold. The bids were made in Spanish pistoles. The lots, one quarter acre each, sold at from $15 to $250 each. Young Washington had no money to spare to buy town lots; but he owned some land opposite Fredericksburg, and was already earning a doubloon a day by surveying the wild lands of Lord Fairfax. Almost as soon as this survey was completed, he was commissioned major in the Cononial militia, and appointed adjutant of thefrontie district, with headquarters at Alexandria. From this centre he organized the militia of the frontier counties, selected rill masters for the officers, attended and regulated musters, and on this limited [held?] first developed that mastery of detail and talent for organization which, twenty-five years later, organized on Boston heights a crude militia onto a Continental army. There lingers yet in the traditions of the town the dim figure of a tall, wiry, sunburned young man, always horseback, of 'bitter' will, and yet of great popularity; not a personal magnetism that attracted individual men, but a dominating power that won men in mass by giving every one assurance of safety under his lead.--Harper's Magazine.

Odd Thoughts.

Calumny would soon starve and die of itself if nobody took it in and gave it lodging.

We all dread a bodily paralysis, and would make use of every contrivance to avoid it, but none of us are troubled about a paralysis of the soul.

Our distinctions do not lie in the places which we occupy, but in the grace and dignity with which we fill them.

Sunday is the golden clasp that binds the volume of the week.

Not being untutored in suffering, I learnto pity those in affliction.

No place, no company, no age, no personis temptation free. Let no man boast that he was never tempted; let him not be high-minded, but fear, for he may be surprised in that very instant wherein he boasteth that he was never tempted at all.

The holiest of all holidays are those kept by ourselves in silence and apart-- the secret anniersaries of the heart. When the full river of feeling overflows. Those happy days unclouded to their close, those sudden joys that out of darkness start, as flowers, from ashes, swift desires to dart, like singing swallows, down each wind tat blows.

White as the gleam of receding sail, White as a cloud that floats and fills in air, White as the whitest lily on a stream. These tender memories are a fairy tale Of some enchanted land, we know not where, But as is a dream within a dream.

THE WANDERINGS OF ULYSSES.

A Sketch of General Grant's Tour Around the World.

General Grant, with his wife and his elder son, left Philidelphia to begin his tour of the world on the 17th of May, 1877, on board the steamship Indiana, of the American Steamship Company's line, and arrived in Liverpool on the 28th, having made the passage in eleven days. From Liverpool he went to London, and dined with the Duke of Welington on the 2d of June. During his stay in England the General has honored with an invitation to dine with Queen Victoria at Windsor Castle. The invitation having been given and accepted in due form, at half past 8 o' clock on the 26th of June, 1877, The Queen, surrounded by her court, received General Grant in a magnificent corridor leading to her private apartment in the Quadrangle. The dinner served in the Oak Room. Among those present were Prince Leopold, Prince Christian, Princess Beatrice, Lord and Lady Derby, the Duchess of Wellington, General Badeau, and others. After dinner the Queen entered into a conversation with the party, and about 10 o'clock took her leave followed by her suite. The next morning the General and party returned to London, and for some days afterwards received the most flattering attentions from the nobilty and the statesmen of the kingdom.

On the 26th of July the General and his party arrived in Geneva Switzerland. He afterwards crossed the Simplon Pass, made the tour of the northern part of Italy, and returned to Ragatz by the 14th of Augest. Thence he made a flying trip through Alsace and Lorraine. Returning to England, the General, on the 5th of July, left London for Ostend, where King Leopold tendered the party the use of the royal car to Brussels. On their way they stopped and examined the principal places of interest at Ghent. On the 7th of July King Leopold, of Belgium, called on General Grant at his hotel, and had a long conversation with him. The visit was returned the next day at the palace. The ex-presidential party arrived in Palermo, Italy, on the 23rd of December, 1877. Here they spent Christmas, and dined on board the United States ship Vandalia. On the morning of January 19, 1878, the General and his compantons entered Slout, Egypt, and were welcomed by the American Vice Consul and his son. From Egypt the General proceeded by ship to Jaffa, on the Mediterranean, and thence made the tour of the Holy Land. After a trip full of pleasant and complimentary incidents, he embarked from Beyrout, in Syria, for Constantnipole and arrived there immediately after the treaty of San Stefano, which ended the late Russo-Turkish war. Thence he proceeded to European Turkey and arrived at Stamboul on the 5th of March 1878, where he was received by the diplomatic representatives of the United Stated. In the latter part of March General Grant Sailed for Italy, arriving in Rome soon after the election of Leo XIII. to the Pontificate. Having visited the principal cities of Italy, the Grant party left for France and arrived in Paris on the 7th of May, and thence soon after for Holland. From Holland the party went to Germany, arriving in Berline on the 26th of June, when they were met by the late Minister, Bayard Taylor. The BGeneral reached Hamburg, by rail, on July 2, when followed his tour through Denmark, Sweden and Norway. At the last of the month the party crossed the Baltic from Stockholm to St. Petersburg. After a visit to the principal cities of Russia and a visit to Poland, General Grant reached Vienna, Austria, on the 18th of August; thence he proceeded to Switzerland and thence throught Southern France, and finally Spain.

The ex-President and his party arrived at Vittoria on the 16th of October, 1878, having entered Spain from France via Bayonne, and was received by Senor Castelar, ex-President of the Spanish Republic, and subsequently by King Alfonso. In December the party was still in Spain and Portugal. In January of the present year the General and party visited Ireland, and returned thence to Paris. On the 24th he embarked at Marseilles for Bombay, India, where he arrived on the 12th of February. General Grant's visit to India was marked by the attention and respect shown him everywhere by the native officers and English rulers. In Calcutta, where he arrived on the 10th of March, he was received by a guard of honor and an aid-de-camp of the Viceroy. At a state dinner given in the evening, Lord Lytton, in an eloquent speech, proposed a toast to their distinguished guest. All the notables of India were present. After dinner the General received many native gentlemen and princes. On the 17th General Grant proceeded to Burmah, and thence to China.

At Bangkok the General received a letter from the King of Siam inviting him to visit that kingdom as the guest of the government. The letter was encased in royal purple satin.

The party arrived at Hong Kong, China, on the evening of April 30. The ship was boarded by United States Consuls Mosby, of Hong Kong; Lincoln, of Canton; Charge d'Affairs Holcombe and deputations of citizens of various countries, including Japan. The party was received at Canton on May 6 by the consular officials and conducted to the Viceroy's residence. They left Hong Kong for the North of China on May 11. There were receptions and entertainments by European and Chinese parties, and a public garden gathering on May 10.

General Grant and his party reached Yokohama, Japan, about the 1st of last July, and on the 4th the distinguished tourist, accompanied by Mrs. Grant, was admitted to an audience with the Emperor and Empress. The Mikado welcomed his guest in a cordial speech, highly eulogistic of the exPresident and of the country which he represented. It gave him, he said, especial pleasure to greet the ex-President on the anniversary of the independence of the United States. On teh 7th there was a brilliant review in honor of the General, and on the 8th a gorgeous festival was arranged for him in the great hall of the Kobu Dai Gaku. No effort was spared by the Japanese authorities to make his stay in that country agreeable and varied in all its phases. A special and highly complimentary feature of General Grant's visit to China was his conversation with Li Hung Chang, Viceroy of the Province of Tientsin, now the foremost statesman of the empire, in which the General was invited to become the mediator between that government and Japan concerning the Loo-choo difficulty, the Viceroy's proposition being authorized by Prince Kung.

The party left Yokohama on the 25th of August, and had a pleasant passage to San Francisco.

Thus ends the most extraordinary tour around the world made by any human being. The journey from the moment of landing from the Philadelphia steamer at Liverpool, In May 1877, to the hour Gen. Grant left the shores of Japan, was one in which peoples and princes joined with spontaneous enthusiasm to honor a quiet, unpretending American expresident.

During Gen. Grant's famous tour around the world, now happily ended, he was received with distinguished honors by the following princes, potentates and powers of the earth, besides many others not mentioned:

Queen Victoria, of England. King Leopold, of Belgium. The Khedive of Egypt. The Sultan of Turkey. King Humbert, of Italy. Pope Leo XIII. President MacMahon, of France. The King of Holland. Emperor William, of Germany. Prince Bismarck. King Oscar, of Sweden. The Emperor Alexander, of Russia. The Emperor Francis Joseph, of Austira. King Alfonso, of Spain. President Grevy, of France. M. Gambetta. Viceroy Lytton, of India. King Thebau, of Burmah. Prince Kung, of China. The Emperor of Siam. The Mikado of Japan.

Words of Wisdom. With time and patience the mulberry leaf becomes silk. The more we help others to bear their burdens the lighter our own will be. If you would not have affliction to visit you twice, listen at once to what it teaches. The way to gain a good reputation is to endeavor to be what you desire to appear. He that resolves upon any great and at the same time good end, by that very resolution has scaled the cheif barrier to it. Truth and purity, like so many gems in the life and example of the good man, cannot but shame and condem error and vice in others. It is easy enough to make sacrifices for those we love, but for our enemy we have to struggle and overcome self. Such a victory is noble. Those who, without knowing us, think or speak evil of us, do us no harm; it is not us they attack, but the phantom of their own imagination. Politeness may prevent the want of wit and talents from being observed; but wit and talent cannot prevent the discovery of the want of politeness. Life has many ills, but the mind that views every object in the most cheering aspect and every doubtful dispensation as replete with latent good, bears within itself a powerful and perpetual antidote.

Poetry is the art of substan tiating shadow and of lending existence to nothing. "We know what the camel and needle's eye means- no man as can't live on his income whatever it is, must not expect, to go to Heaven at any price." Nicholas Nickleby.

THE CLOSING SCENE BY T. BUCHANAN READ

[The following is pronounced by the Westminster Review to be unquestionably the finest American poem ever written.] Within the sober realm of leafless tress, The russet year inhaled the balmy air. Like some tanned reaper in his hour of ease, When all the fields are lying brown and bare.

The gray barns, looking from the hazy hills O'er the dim waters widening in the vales, Sent down the air a greeting to the mills On the dull thunder of alternate flails.

All sights were mellowed and all sounds subdued, The hills seemed further and the streams sang low; As in a dream the distant woodman hewed His winter log with many a muffled below.

The embattled forests, erewhile armed in gold, Their banners bright with every martial hue, Now stood, like some sad beaten host of old, Withdrawn afar in Time's remotest blue.

On slumbrous wings the vulture tried his flight The dove scarce heard his sighing mate's complaint, And, like a star slow drowning in the light, The village church-vane seemed to pale and faint.

The sentinel cock upon the hillside crew - Crew thrice, and all was stiller than before - Silent till some replying wanderer blew His alien horn, and then was heard no more.

Where erst the jay within the elm's tall crest Made garrulous trouble round the unfledged young; And where the oriole hung her swaying nest, By every light wind like a censer swung;

Where sang the noisy mansons of the eaves, The busy swallows circling ever near, Foreboding, as the rustic mind believes, An early harvest and a plenteous year;

Where every bird which charmed the verna feast Shook the sweet slumber from its wings at morn, To warn the reapers of the rosy east - All now was songless, emoty and forlorn.

Alone, from out the stubble piped the quail, And croaked the crow throught all the dreary gloom; Alone the pheasant, drumming in the vale, Made echo to the distant cottage loom.

There was no bud, no bloom upon the bowers; The spiders wove their thin shrouds night by night; The thistle - down, the only ghost of flowers, Sailed slowly by - passed noiseless out of sight.

Amid all this, in the most cheerless air, Ans where the woodbine sheds upon the porch Its crimson leaves, as if the year stood there Firing the floor with his inverted torch -

Amid all this, the center of the scene, The white-haired matron, with monotonous tread, Plied her swift wheel, and with her joyless mien, Sat like a Fate, and watched the flying thread.

She had known sorrow. He had walked with her, Oft supped, and broke with her the ashen crust; And in the dead leaves still she heard the stir Of his black mantle trailing in the dust.

While yet her cheek was bright with summer bloom, Her country summoned and she gave her all; And twice War Lowed to her his sable plume - Re-gave the swords to rust upon the wall.

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Re-gave the sword — but not the hand that drew, And struck for liberty the dying blow; Nor him who, to his sire and country true, Fell 'mid the rank of the invading foe.

Long, but not loud, the droning wheel went on Like the low murmur of a hiVe at noon ; Long, but not loud, the memory of the gone Breathed through her lips a sad and tremulous tune.

At last the thread was snapped—her head was bowed; Life dropped the distaff through his hands serene; And loving neighbors smoothed her careful shroud, While Death and Winter closed the autumn scene.

Shell Cameos. Everybody is familiar with shell cameos. The art of cameo-cutting is of high antiquity, and was brought to great perfection by the Greeks. Until modern times, however, the only materials used by the artists were different kinds of precious stones, but chiefly the variegated onyx. About the year 1805 the art of making shell cameos was introduced into Rome, having been conveyed from Sicily, where it is believed to have originated. Forty years ago it found its way to Paris, where it has been carried on to a greater or less extent ever since. Now the finest shell cameos are produced at Rome and Benoa, those made in France being designed or a cheaper market. There are four varieties of shells used for cameos, namely : the bull's mouth, the under layer of which is red, resembling the sardonyx; the black helmet, the ground of which is a dark onyx; the horned helmet, which has a yellow ground, and the queen's conch, the ground of which is a pinkish hue. For cameo-cutting it is necessary that the shells should have three layers or strata of different colored material, the lower to form the ground, the middle for the figure, and the upper to mark the hair, wreath or other prominent part. Having selected and cut out a portion of shell suitable for his purpose, the artist fixes and with cement on a piece of wood of convenient size and shape for holding in one hand. He then sketches with a pencil an outline of the design. All the substance of the shell outside this is removed by scraping or filing till the ground layer is reached; then by the careful use of a series of delicate tools the work is completed. — Many of the French cameos are sent to Birmingham to be mounted. At present shell cameos are not in much demand in England, but purchases for them are found in the British colonies and in the United States.

American Inventions. An English journal gives credit to American genius for at least fifteen inventions and discoveries which, it says, have been adopted all over the world. These triumphs of American genius are thus enumerated : First, the cotton gin; second, the planing machine; third, the grass mower and grain reaper; fourth the rotary printing press; fifth, navigation by steam ; sixth, hot-air or caloric engine; seventh, the sewing machine; eighth, the India rubber industry; ninth, the machine for manufacture of horse shoes ; tenth, the sand-blast for carving; eleventh, the gauge lathe; twelfth, the grain elevator; thirteenth, artificial ice manufacture on a large scale; fourteenth, the electro-magnet and its practical application; fifteenth, the composing machine for printers.

SOME FACTS REGARDING GEORGE ELIOT. In view of the announcement tha Marion C. Evans, who wrote under the nom de plume of George Eliot, and is sometimes spoken of as the widow of the learned George Lewes—although she was never married to him—will not favor the world with any more of her matchless novels, a few facts connected with her career will be read with interest:

George Eliot's writings have been very profitable. Their value in the market has rapidly increased. For 'Scenes of Clerical Life' she received but £300 ($1,500) ; for 'Adam Bede' she got, all told, £3,000 ($15,000), but something less, I fear, for 'Mill on the Floss.' — 'Romola,' perhaps her most artistic and one of the most interesting of her novels to cultured people, has never been fully appreciated. Its earnings have to date, I am told, not been much over £3,000. She has cleared from 'Middlemarch,' issued by the Blackwoods, in eight divisions, the enormous sum of £8,000, and for 'Daniel Deronda' about the same. 'Silas Marner,' one of her strongest stories, was not very profitable, while 'Felix Holt,' not at all equal to it, gave her six times as much money. Her poetry—she has issued six volumes —has not been liked, nor does it deserve to be liked in any measure with her novels. Still she prefers her poetry, and would rather be rank'd as a poet than a fictionist. Her entire earnings have been about $250,000, and she could make a contract any day for a new story for which she would be guaranteed $40,000. Her money-making power is not excelled by that of any writer in Great Britain.

In her case genius has been rewarded. George Eliot is one of the most learned authors of her time. The amount of her acquirement is wonderful. She is mistress of French, German, Italian, Spanish and Dutch, has a tolerable acquaintance with Romaic and Russian, is up in all the sciences, is a critical Latin and Greek scholar, an admirable historian, an archaeologist, understands music, painting and statuary, and is a brilliant conversationalist. Beauty she has not, and nothing like it. Some persons count her very plain, even homely; others hold that she has a very interesting face. To me she is in no wise remarkable in appearance; she does not look like a genius—geniuses seldom do. She has gray eyes, rather large features, abundant hair, streaked with white; a medium figure, neither stout nor slender, and a pleasant, well-modulated voice. She has been extremely industrious in her profession. She composes rapidly often; but corrects with great care, and frequently injures her health, not robust by any means, by her excessive applications. She is a pronounced rationalist in belief; in most respects a wonderful woman, and surely a prodigious intellect.

To Preserve the Eyesight. A writer who thoroughly understands the subject, tells the readers of Harper's Bazar how to preserve their sight and thus avoid the early use of glasses:

First.—In working at or near a sunny window sit so as to let the light fall obliquely over the left shoulder. If the light comes over the right one, the shadows and movements of the right hand will disturb the surface and the reader unequal and trying the vision.

Second.—Neither in the daytime nor evening sit reading or working with the back to the light. 'The rays of light are too directly reflected,' and their management will be very fatiguing to weak sight.

Third.—Never hold a book or a piece of sewing behind the lamp or light so as to have the flame glittering right in the face, while the eyes are necessarily strained looking through the trying illumination.

Fourth.—It is good for the eyes to vary their occupation; and writing is easier for them at night than reading.

Fifth.—When occupied on close or fine work, frequently remove the glasses, and rest the eyes by looking away at long distances.

Sixth.—After reading, sewing or writing several hours at a stretch, or after being in a theater or brilliantly lighted room, bathe the eyes in cold water. Indeed, this cool bath should never be neglected after the day's labor and after the night's sleep.

Seventh.—Whether reading, sewing or writing, always, if possible, secure an oblique light, at any rate, always avoid a horizontal one.

Eighth.—A Bedroom having white walls, white curtains, and that faces to the east, is very trying to aging eyes.— Painful contractions of the eyes and inflammations of the lids result from this cause. Neither should the blinds be opened hastily, or the eyes for the first hour after awakening in the morning be saluted with any sudden or brilliant light.

Ninth.—At all times it must be remembered that very white walls, gilt frames and moldings, abundance of mirrors, gay carpets, painted ceilings and dazzling, shimmering colors, are among the beautiful things which made for the eye a merry, but a short life.

Tenth.—Most people believe that colored glasses are a great protection from such fatal brilliancy. If used, green are far better than blue and violet rays and transmits the red ones, thus producing a shorter spectrum and a more direct image on the retina. Blue absorbs the different parts of the spectrum unequally, and transmits the extreme blue and violet; therefore blue glasses, however fashionable, are more mischievous than useful. However, a dim glass of no particular color is the best.

Every kind of labor or pleasure that fatigues the eye sets its tamp on the substance of the organ—an organ so delicate that it cannot be strained beyond its power without irremdiable injury. If, then, we would continue to old age our pleasures and our independence— if, in short, we would keep 'the curtain from falling until the drama of life closes'—let us guard with a patient and wise care that portion of vision left us from the reckless waste of youth.

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The History of Newspapers. At a meeting of the New York Historical Society Hon. Erastus Brooks read a paper entitled 'The Historical Press.' He gave an outline of the rise and progress of the press in America, and called attention to the fact that in 1721 there were but two journals published in the United States. From 1770 to 1825 the number had increased to 6,000, while in 1879 there were 7,500— a number nearly equal to that of all the journals published in every other part of the civilized world. The history of the press began in old Rome, where the news was written in red chalk upon the walls of houses. Sometimes a tablet was thus inscribed and hung out where the pouplace could read it. It was in this way that Julius Caesar, who was himself a journalist, instructed the people as to the proceedings of the Roman Senate. The press was a power then as now.

Cromwell established a newspaper with his army in Scottland, in 1562, which was a reprint of the London Journal. Napoleon had a newspaper with him at the Kremlin during his campaign to Russia. The Frenchrevolution gave librerty to the press in England. At first newspapers contained simply a record of facts without any statement whatever. Of the first newspaper published in Rome, Pontifex Maximus was the editor. His newspaper was printed on a wooden tablet, and attached to the residences of citizens, as the news is now posted on the bulletin boards of newspaper offives.

Old Ben Franklin's paper in Boston, called the Courant, was the first rebel organ published in the United States; and for a little plain talk his brother, James Franklin, was locked up for a moth, and was notified to discontinue publication. The responsibility of Printing the paper then fell to Benjamin, who lampooned the assembly all he dared.

In 1772, for simply saying that the Massachusetts authorities were tardy in sending out vessels to stop the pirates marauding off Beech Island. Franklin brought down upon his head the wrath of the assembly. When Boston had a population of 8,000 people the News Letter appeard on April 24, 1794, and contained the latest news from London, thirteen months old. After seventy-two years of existance this paper gave up the ghost. It was usually printed on a single sheet of foolscap, but often appeared on half a sheet.

The lecturer said it was to Alexander Hamilton that the press of the country owed the recognition of the doctrine that "To publish a truth is not libel," which is now a part of the law of the land, and recognized by all courts. Hamilton, election of Aaron Burr to the Presidency, and was afterward called out and killed, for whaat he had printed, by BUrr. He mentions the names of illustrious Americans who had written for the press, such as Madison Jefferson, Franklin, Webster, Clay, Marcy, and in England, Mackibntosh, maculay, Coleridge, Addison, Steele, Swift, Johnson, Goldsmith, and a host of others, all of whom, with the exception of Swift, wrote for pay. In our day, he thought it was too much the custom to complain of the comments

of the press, as it was, also, too much the custom to indulge in the license of discussion. The severest critics of the press were those who had been elevated into power by its partiality and had been pulled down again by an abuse of that partiality. How to read, what to read, and when to read books or newspapers might be put down as one of the unsolved problems of past or present times. Dr, Johnson had said he never took up a newspaper without finding something he should regret to have lost.

Keep Your Troubles Sacred

A wife of fourty, whose life could not have been all sunshine, writes the following advice to other married women:

"Preserve sacredly the privacies of your house. Let no father or mother, sister or brother, or any third person, ever presume to come between you two, or share the joys and sorrows that belon to you two. With God's help, build your own quiet world, not allowing your dearest earthly friend to be a confident of aught that concerns your domestic peace. Let moments of alienation, if they occur, be healed at once. Never, no never, speak of it outside, but to eachother confess, and all will come out all right. Never let the morrow's sun still find you a variance. renew or review the vow at all temtations; it will do you both good. And therby your souls will grow together, cemented in that love which is truely one."

The Turn of the Year.

The days are brief and dark and cold; The barren fields are brown and sere: The world id chill, the world is old, And speeds the flying year.

The birds and flowers are gone away, Or sleep in mother earth's warm breast; But I amid the storms must stay, And toil and never rest.

Hush, heart unquiet and dismayed! Soon shall the sun in strength return. Why dost thou mourn, of life afraid? Soon the black year will turn.

The darkest day preludes the light, However man its depths bewails; After the longest, loneliest night The morning never fails.

What if thy year be near its end; If failing heart and flesh be faint? What if thy lovers, kin and friend, Be deaf to thy complaint?

Even as turns the faithful year In the slow days of storm and gloom, And spring begins her journey here To tempt the earth to bloom?

So shall thy sun unveil his face And all these mists in radiance burn. Wait but his hour; take heart of grace; Thy year begins to turn!

- Rose Terry Cooke

Such is Life

Chicago News

A little sour with every sweet; The honey mingled with the gall; The winter's cold, the summer's heat; A mounting first and then a fall; Not always up, but sometimes down; A time of peace, then sullen strife; The begger's rags, the silken gownThese things make up the web of life.

Full plenty and the pinch of need; The need as well as ample store; The flower growing with the weed- With weeds we love the flowers more. A little cloud, a little sun, The muddy lees of sparkling wine With these the webof life is spun, And who shall better the design?

They know not ever pleasure's thrill Who never knew the throb of pain, What joy is there to roam at will Unknowing of confinement's chain? Beneath life's burdens we must bend And groan, with heavy tasks oppressed, And then, at last, there comes the end, And then we'll know the sweet of rest.

Blain And The Cabinet.

The Secretary's Letter of Acceptance to the Late President Garfield.

Washington, Dec. 20, 1880.

My Dear Garfield: - Your generous invitation to enter your Cabnet as Secretary of State has been under consideration for more than three weeks. The though had really never occured to my mind until at our late conference you presented it with such cogent arguments in its favor and with such warmth of personal friendship in aid of your kind offer. I know that early answer is desirable, and I have waited only long enough to concider the subject in all its bearings, and to make up my mind definitely and conclusively. I now say to you in the same cordial spirit in which you have invited me, that I accept the position It is no affection for me to add that I make this decision not for the honor of the promotionit gives me in the public service, but because I think I can be useful to the great head of government. I am influenced somewhat, perhaps, by the shower of letters I have recieved urging me to accept written to me in consequence of the mere unauthorized newspaper report that you had been pleased to offer me the place. While I have recieved these letters from all sections of the Union, I have been especially pleased and even surprised at the cordial and widely extended feeling in my foavor throughout New ENgland, where I had expected to encounter local jealousy and, perhaps, rival aspiration.

In our new relation I shall give all that I am and all that I can hope to be freely and joyfully to your service. YOu need no pledge of my loyalty in heart and in act.- I should be false to myself did I not prove true bith to the great trust you confide to me and to your own personal and political fortunes in the present and in the future.- Your administration must be made brilliantly successful and strong in the confidence and pride of the people, not at all directing its energies for reelection, and yet compelling that result by logic of events and by the imperious necessities of the situation. To that most desirable consummation I feel that, next to yourself, I can possibly contribute as much influence as any other one man. I say this not from egotism or vainglory, but merely as a deduction from a plain analysis of the political forces which have been at work in the country for five years past, and which have been significantly shown in two great national conventions. I accept it as one of the happiest circumstances connected with this affair that in allying my political fourtunes with yours, or rather, for the time merging mine in yours, my heart goes with my head, and that I carry to you not only political support but personal and devoted friendshipI can but regard it as somewhat remarkable that two men of the same age, entering Congress at the same tiem, influenced by the same aims, and cherishing the same ambitions, should never for a single moment, in 18 years of close intimacy, have had a misunderstanding or coolness, and that our friendship has already grown with our growth and strengthened with our strength. It is this fact which has led me to the conclusion embodied in this letter, for however much, my dear Garfield, I might admire your Cabinet if I did not believe in you as a man and love you as a friend.-

Always faithfully, yours,

James G. Blaine

17 Washington D.C. August 11, 1881 Dear Mother

Dont be disturbed by conflicting reports about my condition. It is true I am still weak. and on my back. but I am gaining Every day, and need only time and patience to bring me through Give mylove to all thee reliatives & frends & especially to sisters [Holly] and Mary -- Your loving son -- James A Garfield

Ms Eliza Garfield

[Hiran] Ohio

PRESIDENT GARFIELD'S LAST LETTER FAC-SIMILE OF THE HISTORICAL LETTER TO HIS MOTHER PENNED BY HIM WHILE UPON HIS BED OF SUFFERING.

(GARFIELD DIED 1882.) He was simply ans staunchly true to his duty, alike in the large case and the small. So all true souls ever are, _ Mystery of Edwin Drood

JOHN G. WHITTIER ON PRESIENT GARFIELD.

The following letter from John G. Whittier was read at the funeral services of President Garfield, held in Amesbury, Mass:

DANVERS, MASS., 9th mo. 24, 1881. W. H. B. Currier : - MY DEAR FRIEND.- I regret that it is not in my power to join the citizens of Amesbury and Salisbury in the memorial services on the occasion of the death of our lamented President. But, in heart and sympathy, I am with you. I share the great sorrow which overshadows the land; I fully appreciate the irretrievable loss. But it seems to me that the occasion is one for thankfulness as well as grief. Through all the stages of the solemn tragedy which has just closed with the death of our noblest and best,I have that divince Providence was overruling the mighty affliction--that the patient sufferer at Washington was drawing with chords of sympathy all sections tions and parties nearer to each other. And now, when South and North, Democrat crat and Republican, radical and conservative, lift their voices in one unbroken accord of lamentation; when I see how, in spite of the greed of gain, the lust office, the strife and meanness of party politics, the great heart of the Nation proves sound and loyal, I feel a new hope for the Republic; I have a firmer faith in its stability. It is said that no man liveth and no man dieth to himself; and the pure and noble life of Garfield, and his slow, long martydom, so bravely borne in the view of all, are I believe, bearing for us as a people "the peaceful fruits of righteousness." We are stronger, wiser better for them.

With him it is well. His mission fulfilled, he goes to his grave by the lakeside, honored and lamented as man never was before. The whole world mourns him. There is no speech or language where the voice of his praise is not heard. About his grave gathers, with heads uncovered, the vast brotherhood of man.

And with us it is well also. We are nearer a united people than ever before. We are at peace with all; our future is full of promise; our industrial and financial condition is hopeful. God grant that, while out material interests prosper, the moral and spiritual influence of this occasion may be permanently felt, that the solemn sacrament of sorrow whereof we have been partakers mat be blessed to the promotion of the "righteousness which exalts a nation." Thy friend,

JOHN G. WHITTIER