BURNING THE DEAD. REV. T. DE WITT TALMAGE EXPLAINS THE HINDOO CREED. No Comparison Between Heathen Beliefs and the Christian Faith--A City of Idolaters--India's Religions Stronghold Being Undermined by Efforts of Missionaries.

BROOKLYN, Dec. 16.--Rev. Dr. Talmage today delivered the third of his series of round the world sermons through the press, the subject being "The Burning of the Dead," and the text: "They have hands, but they handle not; feet have they, but they walk not; neither speak they through their throat. They that make them are like unto them."--Psalms cxv, 7, 8. The life of the missionary is a luxurious and indolent life. Hindooism is a religion that ought not to be interfered wth. Christianity is guilty of an impertinence when it invades heathendom. You must put in the same line of reverence Brahma, Buddha, Mohammed and Christ. To refute these slanders and blasphemies now so prevalent and to spread out before the Christian world the contrast between idolatrous and Christian countries I preach this third sermon in my round the world series. In this discourse I take you to the very headquarters of heathendom, to the very capital of Hindooism, for what Mecca is to the Mohammedan, and what Jerusalem is to the Christian, Benares, India, is to the Hindoo. We arrived there in the evening, and the next morning we started out early, among other things to see the burning of the dead. We saw it, cremation, not as many good people in American and England are now advocating it--namely, the burning of the dead in clean and orderly and refined crematory, the hot furnace soon reducing the human form to a powder to be carefully preserved in an urn--but cremation as the Hindoos practice it. We got into a boat and were rowed down the river Ganges until we came opposite to where five dead bodies lay, four of them wrapped in red garments and a man wrapped in white. Our boat fastened, we waited and watched. High piles of wood were on the bank, and this wood is carefully weighed on large scales, according as the friends of the deceased can afford to pay for it. In many cases only a few sticks can be afforded, and the dead body is burned only a little and then thrown into the Ganges. But where the relatives of the deceased are well to do an abundance of wood in pieces four or five feet long is purchased. Two or three layers of sticks are then put on the ground to receive the dead form. Small pieces of sandalwood are inserted to produce fragrance. The deceased is lifted from the resting place and put upon this wood. Then the cover is removed from the face of the corpse, and it is bathed with water of the Ganges. Then several more layers of wood are put upon the body, and other sticks are placed on both sides of it, but the head and feet are left exposed. Then a quantity of grease sufficient to make everything inflammable is put on the wood and into the mouth of the dead. Then one of the richest men in Benares, his fortune made in this way, furnishes the fire, and after the priest has mumbled a few words, the eldest son walks three

times around the sacred pile and then applies the torch, and the fire blazes up,

and in a short time the body has become the ashes which the relatives throw into the Ganges.

The Sacred River.

We saw floating past us on the Ganges the body of a child which had been only partly burned because the parents could not afford enough wood. While we watched the floating form of the child a crow alighted upon it. In the meantime hundreds of Hindoos were bathing in the river, dipping their heads, filling their mouths, supplying their brass cups, muttering words of so called prayer. Such a mingling of superstition and loathsomeness and inhumanity I had never before seen. The Ganges is to the Hindoo the best river of all the earth, but to me it is the vilest stream that ever roiled its stench in horror to the [?]. I looked all along the banks for the mourners for the dead.

I saw in two of the cities nine cremations, but in no case a sad look or a tear. I said to friends: "How is this? Have the living no grief for the dead?" I found that the women do not come forth on such occasions, but that does not account for the absence of all signs of grief. There is another reason more potent. Men do not see the faces of their wives until after marriage. They take them on recommendation. Marriages thus formed, of course, have not much affection in them. Women are married at 7 and 10 years of age and are grandmothers at 30. Such unwisely formed family associations do not imply much ardor of love. The family so poorly put together--who wonders that it is easily taken apart? And so I account for the absence of all signs of grief at the cre-

mation of the Hindoos.

Benares is the capital of Hindooism

and Buddhism, but Hindooism has

trampled out Buddhism, the hoof of the one monster on the grizzly neck of the other monster. It is also the capital of filth, and the capital of malodors, and the capital of indecency. The Hindoos say they have 300,000,000 gods. Benares being the headquarters of these deities, you will not be surprised to find that the making of gods is a profitable

business. Here there are carpenters

making wooden gods, and brass workers making brass gods, and sculptors making stone gods, and potters making clay

gods. I cannot think of the abominations practiced here without a recoil of

stomach and a need of cologne. Although much is said about the carving on the temples of this city, everything is so vile that there is not much room left for the aesthetic. The devotees enter the temples nineteen-twentieths unclothed and depart begging. All that Hindooism can do for a man or woman it does here. Notwithstanding all that may have been said in its favor at the parliament of religions in Chicago, it makes man a brute and woman the lowest type of slave. I would rather be a horse or a cow or a dog in India than be a woman. The greatest disaster that can happen to a Hindoo is that he was born at all.

A City of Illusions.

Benares is imposing in the distance as you look at it from the other side of the Ganges. The 17 ghats or flights of stone steps reaching from the water's edge to the buildings high up on the banks, mark a place for the ascent and descent of the sublimities. The eye is lost in the bewilderment of tombs, shrines, minarets, palaces and temples. It is the glorification of steps, the triumph of stairways. But looked at close by the temples, though large and expensive, are anything but attractive. The seeming gold in many cases turns out to be brass. The precious stones in the wall turn out to be paint. The marble is stucco. The slippery and disgusting steps lead you to images of horrible visage, and the flowers put upon the altar have their fragrance submerged by that which is the opposite of aromatics.

After you have seen the ghats the two great things in Benares that you must see are the Golden and Monkey temples. About the vast Golden temple, there is not as much gold as would

make an English sovereign. The air itself is asphyxiated. Here we see men making gods out of mud and then putting their hands together in worship of that which themselves have made. Sacred cows walk up and down the temple. Here stood a fakir with a right arm uplifted and for so long a time that he could not take it down, and the nails of the hand had grown until they looked like serpents winding in and

around the palm.

The god of the Golden temple is Siva, or the poison god. Devils wait upon him. He is the god of war, of famine, of pestilence. He is the destroyer. He has around his neck a string of skulls. Before him bow men whose hair never knew a comb. They eat carrion and that which is worse. Bells and drums here set up a racket. Pilgrims come from hundreds of miles away, spending their last piece of money and exhausting their last item of strength in order to reach this Golden temple, glad to die in or near it and have the ashes of their bodies thrown into the Ganges.

The Monkey Temple.

We took a carriage and went still farther on to see the Monkey temple, so called because in and around the building monkeys abound and are kept as sacred. All evolutionists should visit this temple devoted to the family from which their ancestors came. These monkeys

chatter and wink and climb and look

wise and look silly and have full possession of the place. We were asked at the entrance of the Monkey temple to take off our shoes because of the sacredness of the place, but a small contribution placed in the hands of an attendant resulted in a permission to enter with our shoes on. As the Golden tem-

ple is dedicated to Siva, the poison god, this Monkey temple is dedicated to Siva's wife, a deitess that must be propitiated, or she will disease and blast and destroy. For centuries this spitfire has

been worshiped. She is the goddess of scold and slap and termagancy. She is

supposed to be a supernatural Xantippe; hence to her are brought flowers and

rice, and here and there the flowers are

spattered with the blood of goats slain

in sacrifice.

As we walk today through this Mon-

key temple we must not hit or tease or hurt one of them. Two Englishmen years ago lost their lives by the maltreatment of a monkey. Passing along one of these Indian streets, a monkey

did not soon enough get out of the way, and one of those Englishmen struck it with his cane. Immediately the people

and the priests gathered around these strangers, and the public wrath increased until the two Englishmen were pounded to death for having struck a

monkey. No land in all the world so

reveres the monkey as India, as no oth-

er land has a temple called after it.

One of the rajahs of India spent 100,000 rupees in the marriage of two mon-

keys. A nuptial procession was formed in which moved camels, elephants, tigers, cattle and palanquins of richly dressed people. Bands of music sounded the wedding march. Dancing parties kept the night sleepless. It was 12 days before the monkey and monkeyess were free from their round of gay attentions. In no place but India could such a carnival have occurred. But, after all, while we cannot approve of the Monkey temple, the monkey is sacred to hilarity. I defy any one to watch a monkey one minute without laughter. Why was this creature made? For the world's amusement. The mission of some animals is left doubtful, and we cannot see the use of this or that quadruped or this or that insect, but the mission of the ape is certain--all around the world it entertains. Whether seated at the top of this temple in India or cutting up its antics on the top of a hand organ, it stirs the sense of the ludicrous, tickles the diaphragm into cachinnation, topples gravity into play and accomplishes that for which it was created. The eagle, and the lion, and the gazelle, and the robin no more certainly have their mission than has the monkey. But it implies a low form of Hindooism when this embodied mimicry of the human race is lifted into worship.

An Obliging Fakir.

In one of the cities for the first time in my life I had an opportunity of talking with a fakir or a Hindoo who has renounced the world and lives on alms. He sat under a rough covering on a platform of brick. He was covered with the ashes of the dead and was at the time rubbing more of those ashes upon his arms and legs. He understood and spoke English. I said to him, "How long have you been seated here?" He replied, "Fifteen years." "Have those idols which I see power to help or destroy?" He said, "No; they only represent God. There is but one God." Question.--When people die, where do they go to? Answer.--That depends upon what they have been doing. If they have been doing good, to heaven; if they have been doing evil, to hell. Q.--But do you not believe in the transmigration of souls, and that after death we go into birds or animals of some sort? A.--Yes; the last creature a man is thinking of while dying is the one into which he will go. If he is thinking of a bird, he will go into a bird, and if he is thinking of a cow he will go into a cow. Q.--I thought you said that at death the soul goes to heaven or hell? A.--He goes there by a gradual process. It may take him years and years. Q.--Can any one become a Hindoo? Could I become a Hindoo? A.--Yes, you could. Q.--How could I become a Hindoo? A.--By doing as the Hindoos do. But as I looked upon the poor, filthy wretch, bedaubing himself with the ashes of the dead, I thought the last thing on earth I would want to become would be a Hindoo. I expressed to a missionary who overheard the conversation between the fakir and myself my amazement at some of the doctrines the fakir announced. The missionary said, "The fakirs are very accommodating, and supposing you to be a friend of Christianity he announced the theory of one God, and that of rewards and punishments."

There are, however, alleviations for Benares. I attended worship in one of the Christian missions. The sermon, though delivered in Hindoo[?] of which I could not understand a word, thrilled me with its earnestness and tenderness of tone, especially when the missionary told me at the close of the service that he recently baptized a man who was converted through reading one of my sermons among the hills of India. The songs of the two Christian assemblages I visited in this city, although the tunes were new, and the

sentiments not translated, were uplifting and inspiring to the last degree.

There was also a school of 600 native girls, an institution established by a rajah of generosity and wealth, a graduate of Madras university. But more than all, the missionaries are busy, some of them preaching on the ghats, some of them in churches, in chapels and bazaars. The London Missionary society has here its college for young men and its schools for children and its houses of worship for all. The Church Missionary society has its eight schools, all filled

with learners. The evangelizing work

of the Wesleyans and the Baptists is

felt in all parts of Benares. In its

mightiest stronghold Hindooism is being assaulted.

Maligned Missionaries.

And now as to the industrious ma-

lignment of missionaries: It has been said by some travelers after their return to America or England that the missionaries are living a life full of indolence and luxury. That is a falsehood that I would say is as high as heaven if it did not go down in the opposite direction. When strangers come into these tropical climates, the missionaries do their best to entertain them, making sacrifices for that purpose. In the city of Benares a missionary told me that, a gentleman coming from England into one of the mission stations of India, the missionaries banded together to entertain him. Among other things they had a ham boiled, prepared and beautifully

decorated, and the same ham was pass-

ed around from house to house as this

stranger appeared, and in other respects a conspiracy of kindness was effected. The visitor went home to England and wrote and spoke of the luxury in which the missionaries of India were living. Americans and Englishmen come to these tropical regions and find a missionary living under palms and with different styles of fruits on his table and forget that palms are here as cheap as hickory or pine in America and rich fruits as cheap as plain apples. They find here missionaries sleeping under punkas, these fans swung day and night by coolies, and forget that 4 cents a day is good wages here, and the man finds himself. Four cents a day for a coach man, a missionary can afford to ride. There have been missionaries who have come to these hot climates resolving to live as the natives live, and one or two years have finished their work, their chief use on missionary ground being that of furnishing for a large funeral the chief object of interest. So far from living in idleness, no men on earth work so hard as the missionaries now in the foreign field. Against fearful odds and with 3,000,000 of Christians opposed to 200,000,000 of Hindoos, Mohammedans

and other false religions, these mission-

aries are trying to take India for God. Let the good people of America and England and Scotland and all Christendom add 99¾ per cent to their appreciation of the fidelity and consecration of foreign missionaries. Far away from home, in an exhausting climate, and compelled to send their children to England, Scotland or America so as to escape the corrupt conversation and behavior of the natives, these men and women of God toil on until they drop into their graves. But they will get their chief appreciation when their work is over and the day is won, as it will be won. No place in heaven will be too good for them. Some of the ministers at home who live on salaries of $1,000 or $5,000 a year, preaching the gospel of him who had not where to lay his head, will enter heaven and be welcomed, and while looking for a place to sit down they will be told: "Yonder in that lower line of thrones you will take your places, not on the thrones nearest the King. They are reserved for the missionaries!"

Spread of Christianity.

Meanwhile let all Christendom be thrilled with gladness. About 25,000 converts in India every year under the Methodist missions, and about 25,000 converts under the Baptist missions, and about 75,000 converts under all missions every year. But, more than that, Christianity is undermining heathenism, and not a city or town or neighborhood of India but directly or indirectly feels the influence, and the [?] speeds on when Hindooism will go down with a crash. There are whole villages which have given up their gods, and where not an idol is left. The serfdom of womanhood in many places is being unloosened, and the iron grip of caste is being relaxed. Human sacrifices have ceased, and the last spark of the funeral pyre on which the widow must leap has been extinguished, and the juggernaut, stopped, now stands as a curiosity for travelers to look at. All India will be taken for Christ. If any one has any dishearten-

ments, let him keep them as his own

private property. He is welcome to all

of them. But if any man has any en-

couragements to utter let him utter them. What we want in the church and the world is less croaking owls of the night, and more morning larks, with spread wing ready to meet the advancing day. Fold up "Naomi" and "Wind-

him" and give us "Ariel" or "Mount

Pisgah" or "Coronation." I had the joy of preaching in many of the cities of India and seeing the dusky faces of the natives illumined with heavenly anticipations. In Calcutta, while the congregation were yet seated, I took my departure for a railroad train. I preached by the watch up to the last minute. A swift carriage brought me to the station no more than half a minute before starting. I came nearer to missing the train than I hope any one of us will come to missing heaven.

RESCUED BY A BOXER. The Adventure of an American Girl and Its Strange Denouement.

This term "respect," often applied to professional boxers, will seem very strange, and yet it is thoroughly one which defines the prestige with which the heroes of pugilism are surrounded in the United States, writes Paul [?] in "Outer Mer." in the Boston Herald.

One of my lady friends here to whom I was speaking of this enthusiasm told me how she owed her life to one of the most famous boxers of the west, and under circumstances so singular that it is worth while to report them in [?]. She had dined and spent the evening in one of the suburbs of the large town which was then her home and was returning in her carriage when she had to cross a street which was full of threatening people. She had fallen into the turmoil of a big demonstration after a prolonged and painful strike. Her horses were compelled to stop. She put her head through the window out of curiosity, and an overwhelming clamor at once saluted her appearance. The gleam of the electricity which lighted the streets had just struck on some large diamonds which sparkled in her hair. This latter sign of luxury, added to the aspect of the brougham, the livery of the coachman and the footman, and the turnout of the harness, raised the indignation of this famished crowd. Fists were extended; faces approached with insults in their mouths. "I had taken a long gold pin," said the young woman, "and I was resolved to strike at the eyes of the first one who came too near." At that moment, and when she believed herself to be in extreme danger, having only so feeble a weapon, she saw with terror a colossal form brush through the ranks of the crowd, pushing people aside with so much authority that she took him for one of their chiefs. "Don't be frightened at those wretched people," said the man when he was near her. "I will see to it. Only tell your coachman to advance." The young woman once again leaned out of the window, but this time the terrible cry did not arise, and she gave her orders to her servants, who were overcome with fright on their seats. The brougham started, escorted by the unknown, who simply rested his hand on the edge of the window, and the crowd separated to let the equipage pass. Once beyond the strikers, the unknown saluted the lady. The coachman whipped up his horses and started off at full speed. The footman was still trembling all over as they reached the door of the house. "You may imagine that I was anxious to know by whom I had been saved," she continued, "but the two servants were Irishmen who had just arrived from Europe and who knew nobody. The description which I gave to some of my friends who were acquainted with the personal appearance of the leaders of the strike did not answer to any of them. I had therefore given up the hope of knowing the name of that mysterious protector, whom I saw continually, with thin face, haughty and martial, his domineering look at the ease, at once brutal and supple, of his movements.

"But fancy, seven or eight weeks later, as we found ourselves, my mother and I, in a shop buying furs, a disturbance broke out at the door. I saw my coachman off his seat and one of my horses on the ground, and a man, the fully drunk, fighting with the police. I recognized my savior and at the same time found out his name and the extravagant exploit which he had just accomplished. It was John M. V----, the celebrated boxer, who, under the influence of alcohol, had bet that he would fell a horse with his fist. Chance had it that this absurd wager brought him right in front of this store, and that he had just happened to strike one of my horses. I was able to acquit myself, at all event to a certain extent, of my debt toward him by preventing them from prosecuting him for his act, although he did not run the risk of being condemned to a severe punishment. He was too popular."

A MODEST PARSON. He Could Not Be Induced to Live In a Fine and Roomy House. A recent item in reference to the Rev. John Brown, who has been pastor of a Presbyterian church in Hill River, Mass., for 25 years, and who will resign June 1, sold his library, buy a tent and preach the gospel when and how he pleases, renders timely a statement of the reason leading to this resignation. The congregation of the Rev. John Brown are deeply grieved at his departure. The trouble arose through their devotion to him and their desire to promote his comfort. The parsonage had long been an eyesore to the stylish and well-to-do people of the church. It was a tiny house, and the pastor's possessions had so far outgrown it that his bookshelves lined even the halls and stairways. Still the pastor would not move nor permit his people to enlarge his house. Finally a wealthy member of the church, who had built a large and beautiful home and then wearied of it, presented his home to the parish, and now the parishioners insisted that their loved pastor should live there. The result was that he resigned. He gave his explanation on the day he presented his resignation. "From my youth up I have had an aversion to large houses. I like to be within touching distance of my family. I like a sense of fullness, of [?], in a house. Nothing gives me such pleasure as that my books must wander for a resting place through all the rooms, and that the plants must crowd each other from the conservatory and bloom in every window."

Then he related a part of his life before unmentioned.

While he was still in his teens his father died. [?] overtook the family, and finally the children decided to divide the family property and responsibilities. Two things came to him, his mother and his mother's bedstead. The care of his mother, even though she was old and feeble, seemed no tax on his youthful strength, but the bedstead had been the trial of his early years. It had been purchased in the days of greatest prosperity. It was [?] width and length, and the headboard presented an adjustable ornamental extension which demanded a very high ceiling. Often in his early struggles, when his income was very limited, he [?] longed to live in some small, comfortable cottage. But his mother refused. She had only one argument. "Think of the bedstead, my son. You know I could never put the top piece on the headboard in that tiny house."

The mother's whims must be humored. So all thought of comfort was abandoned and some [?] house was chosen, [?] to the bedstead, of course, but the family must shiver in its cold halls and half furnished rooms. One time the family effects were destroyed by fire, with them the bedstead. Since then he had always lived in a cottage. "So," he concluded, "since it is your wish that once more I must yield to your preference and live in that large house which in your mistake [?] you have provided, I must cheerfully resign my parish."--Chicago Record.

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ODDS AND ENDS.

If the doctor orders bark, has not the patient a right to growl? A house at Canton, Conn., that was built in [?] is still occupied as a dwelling.

The rose of Castile is the national flower of the [?] and fiery Spaniard.

The first famous German brewer was Herr [?], who wrote a handbook on his art in 1575.

Horses are so plentiful in Chile and Buenos Aires that it is not uncommon for beggars to ride.

True modesty avoids everything that is criminal, false modesty everything that is unfashionable.

The real happiness of life cannot be bought with money, and the poor may have it as well as the rich. There is talk of running trolley observation cars across Niagara falls suspended 50 feet above the water.

Imitation may be the sincerest flattery, but an up to date girl doesn't think so when she is presented with a paste diamond.

[?] often said that the suffering he endured from one adverse criticism more than outweighed all the pleasure he enjoyed from the public applause. Pope owed his accuracy and polish of style to a hint from a miserable poet named Walsh that the English poetry of that day was deficient in elegance. A bomb was recently found near the Roman coliseum. "While stands the coliseum Rome shall stand," said Byron, "and when Rome falls--the world." Raynaud, a very voluminous author, persuaded a publisher to issue a 20 volume edition of his works. It was done at ruined the publisher, who died in a poorhouse. Scarron was for many years a victim

of [?] rheumatism. He could use only

his tongue and his hands. All his bril-

liant works were written on a portfolio

placed on his knees.

Vondel was the Dutch Euripides. Most of his tragedies are on subjects

drawn from the Scriptures. In the "Deliverance of the Children of Israel" the principal actor was the Almighty.

A French author, noted in his own time, produced in the seventeenth century a folio volume on "Noses," in which he described all kinds and told what sort of nose every saint in the calendar must have possessed.

When Malherbe was on his deathbed, an unlettered priest was picturing to him in ungrammatical language the joys of heaven. "Hold your tongue," said the dying gentleman. "Your wretched grammar disgusts me with them."

Live Pigeon Shooting.

Live pigeon shooting from traps will never become generally popular in this country, because it is doubtful if there is any form of so called "sport" which offers so little attainment for so large a price. It is cheaper to keep a [?] horse and a pair of trotters the year round than to indulge in pigeon shooting to any great extent. The well-known pigeon clubs in the vicinity of New York sell birds to their members for 35 cents apiece, and besides this cost the sportsmen must pay for his [?], fee the men who manipulate the traps and provide himself with refreshments.

If bets are made--and there are many who seek to recoup themselves in this way--the expense is likely to be much greater. In England and on the continent there are a great many men who are said to make a good living out of pigeon shooting by means of bets made on the matches in which they take part themselves, but here such a means of existence would be looked upon as precarious to say the least.

The birds are supplied to the club members at about their original cost, but a certain profit is made through their natural increase as well as by the sale of the dead birds at $1.20 a dozen and by the returning of those pigeons which escape unhurt to the barn from which they came. The number of pigeons killed during a brisk season at the different clubs in the vicinity of New York is very large.--New York Sun.

A Couple at the Capital.

They [?] in which a Washington [?] appearance of [?] last such [?] atten[?].--Kate Field's Washington.

A Peculiar Industry.

The [?] industry. In the courts [?] his occupation [?]. In [?] at his peculiar [?] living. [?]--New York [?].

There [?] the other [?].

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Girls Who Hypnotize. Two pretty girls sat opposite me at luncheon the other day, two healthy, hearty, most daintily dressed creatures, who are very pretty disciples of Mesmer and understand the force of hypnotic suggestion. When the meal was over and we sipped our coffee in the drawing room, these sisters gave an exhibition of their powers quite terrible to see, since some of their manifestations were really inexplicable. They found and replaced in a selected spot in my head a hairpin I had secreted between the leaves

of a book, and they came and went from wide eyed dreaminess to active intelligence as easily as I pass in and out a door. They are two young English girls who have made of mind reading and mesmerism a study and a livelihood.

They are the daughters of a clergyman, well bred and refined, and receive so

much to come to a luncheon and exhibit their powers after. For a compensation

they will put one into a gentle mesmeric

trance that one may experience the strange sensation, or they will use hypnotic influence on each other, and the one under the spell will do all sorts of interesting things by her sister's silent mental suggestion.--Demerest's Magazine.

Indestructibility of the Diamond.

Four thousands of years after the discovery of the diamond it was believed to be indestructible, as far as acids and fire were concerned. As respects the acids, I believe that it is still maintained that there are none known that will dissolve it. In the eleventh century Bishop Rennes wrote the following concerning the diamond in his poem, "The Lapidarium:" Hardness invincible which naught can tame, Untouched by steel and unconquered by flame. The last words of the second line are not true under all circumstances. If air be freely admitted to the retort, a diamond will burn like a piece of bituminous coal as soon as the temperature is raised about 5,000 degrees of the Fahrenheit scale. Such excessive heat cannot, of course, be measured by Fahrenheit thermometers, but is recorded on an instrument called a pyrometer. But in regard to the fusibility of the diamond, while the experiment has proved that it is instantly reduced to ashes if subjected to a heat of 5,000 in an open retort, counter experiments also prove that if the air be excluded no known degree of heat will materially affect it. --St. Louis Republic.

Eating Alligator. There is reason to believe that the flesh of a young boiled alligator is barely distinguishable from veal. It is probably cleaner and more tender than much of the meat of the animals that are usually consumed as food on the continent or in the [?] end of London. I have never desired to taste the flesh of alligators, cooked or uncooked. But in India I have seen the [?] and other casteless natives [?] devour the flesh of an alligator without waiting to cook it. The flesh was very pale in color, and probably was much superior to the flesh of snakes and rats and such like creatures which form the [?] food of the predatory [?] when hunting in his native woods. It does not [?] lot very often to be able to [?] and slay and eat a large alligator. He more frequently [?[ small alligators, and they [?] to [?] contents of his cooking pots. If, however, he is so lucky as to [?] a [?] has shot a large alligator, say about 6 feet long, he [?] delicacy without [?] to cook it [?] of [?] devour the [?] not [?].--Longman's Magazine.

Gladstone's Retirement Is Final. Our Chester correspondent states that the reports current that Mr. Gladstone will resume his interest in political concerns, should the operation on his eyes prove successful, is unfounded. Mr. Gladstone's withdrawal from public life is final. Yesterday some little stir was caused at the castle by the arrival of

three large furniture vans containing for the most part Mr. Gladstone's things from the prime minister's official resi-

dence in Downing street. Extensive alterations are being carried out at the castle. No doubts are entertained there that Mr. and Mrs. Gladstone's stay at the castle will, after their return at Whitsuntide, be permanent.--London Standard.

Largest Lighthouse In the World.

The distinction of owning the most powerful flashlight and the largest lighthouse in the world belongs to France. This monster light has been set up at the Cap de la Heve, near Havre, in the center of the most dangerous section of the French coast. For the past year the French lighthouse board has been making some curious experiments at the Cape de la Heve tower. First they used oil lamps, with fixed lenticular apparatus, which yielded 12,000 candle power and could be seen 19½ miles. The next trial was that of the fixed lenticular in connection with powerful electric arc lamps, the light in this case being equal to 24,000 candle power and capable of being seen 57 miles. The next trial was that of electric arc and flashing machinery yielding 24,000,000 candle power, which could be seen no less than 130 miles on a clear night. The light now in use at this Titan of the lighthouses has power equal to 40,000,000 candles, and its reflection can be seen 213 miles.--St. Louis Republic.

Floor Washing Machine.

A floor washing machine has been recently invented. The mechanism consists of a mainframe with suitable driving wheels driving an endless belt provided with a series of flap, a water tank delivering upon the belt, which is also engaged by wringing rollers, beneath which is supported a dirty water tank. The flaps absorb the water and bring a

large rubbing surface to bear on the floor as they are carried beneath the

roller, the belt and its flaps then pass-

ing between the wringing rollers, and

the machine being used by simply pushing it across the floor after the clean

water pipe has been opened.--St. Louis

Post Dispatch.

How many [?] are who think religion is [?]--only to be put [?]!

The membership of the Primrose league has reached 1,160,561.

W. L. DOUGLAS $3 SHOE IS THE BEST. NO SQUEAKING.

$5 CORDOVAN, FRENCH & ENAMELLED CALF.

$4. $3.50 FINE CALF & KANGAROO. $3.50 POLICE, 3 SOLES.

$2.50 $2. WORKINGMENS EXTRA FINE.

$2. $1.75 BOYS' SCHOOL SHOES.

LADIES $3. $2.50 $2. $1.75 BEST DONGOLA.

SEND FOR CATALOGUE. W. L. DOUGLAS, BROCKTON, MASS.

You can save money by purchasing W. L. Douglas Shoes. Because, we are the largest manufacturers of advertised shoes in the world, and guarantee the value by stamping the name and price on the bottom, which protects you against high prices and the middleman's profits. Our shoes equal custom work in style, easy fitting and wearing qualities. We have them sold everywhere at lower prices for the value given than any other make. Take no substitute. If your dealer cannot supply you we can. Sold by C. A. CAMPBELL.

OCEAN CITY. A Moral Seaside Resort. Not Excelled as a Health Restorer.

Finest facilities for FISHING, Sailing, gunning, etc. The Liquor Traffic and its kindred evils are forever prohibited by deed. Every lover of Temperance and Morals should combine to

help us.

Water Supply, Railroad, Steamboats And all other Modern Conveniences.

Thousands of lots for sale at various prices, located in all parts of the city. For information apply to E. B. LAKE, Secretary, Ocean City Asso'n, SIXTH ST. & ASBURY AVE.