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Stury of Baron Trenck. EARLY LI FEâ€"CAI’TIVIT Y. Baron Frederick Trenck, whose sufferings as a prisoner of state have made his name Widely known, was born at Konigsberg, in Prussia, February 16,1726, of one of the most noble families of the country. After the death of his father, a majorgeneral of cavalry in the Prussian service, in 1740, his mother married again, and, leaving Prussia, Went and resided at Breslau. Frederick had two brothers and u Slater; his youngest brother was taken by his mother into Silesia. ; the other was a cornet in a regiment of cnirassiers. His sister was married to the only son of General Valdou, who, having quitted the service, lived in retirement on his estates in Brandenburg. Brought up in the midst of gay and half- barbarous scenes, young Trenck acquired the thirst for military fame and dissipation which characterised this period of conti- nental history. On all sides was there a rage for military conquest, and in Prussia, which had begun to enlarge itself at the ex- pense of neighbouring states, this was carried to the most extravagant and crimin- al height. With such tastes, however, Trenck possessed abilities of a high order: he had a strong love of knowledge, and stored his mind with the riches of ancient and modern learning ; he was also intimate- ly acquainted with some of the practical sciences, could draw accurately, and learned fencing, riding, and other exercises. In re- ligion he Was Lutheran ; and, among other branches of instruction, he was well read in the sacred Scriptures. With many good abilities and accomplishments, there were, nevertheless, mingled the military ardour and taste for reckless dissipation to which we have averted; and to this defect was added an unhappy self-esteem, which ren- dered him impatient of control, and led him into many fatil errors. Having completed his education at the university of Konigs- berg, he was, as a youth hopeiul oi promo- tion, removed to Berlin, where he was intro- duced, under the best auspices, to Frederick, king of Prussia, by whom he was flattering- ly received and appointed a. cadet in the bodyguards. This event, which took place in 1742, when 'I‘renck was only sixteen years of age, gave him the highest pleasure ; and he was inflamed with the desire oi dis tinguishing himself. Everybody is aware that Frederick II. of Prussia was a most extraordinary instance of what can be accomplished by a settled purpose perseveringly carried out. His design was, by military tactics, to make a great nation out of a comparatively unim- portant state in Germany; and he did it. Unable to raise vast armies from his limited dominions, be compensated by great skill What was efficient in point of force. Never was there such a thorough diseiplinarian. His army was like an ingeniously-contrived machine, in which every part was finely balanced, while he, in his own person, was ‘ the prime mover. The body-guards into which ’lrenck was admitted were a model and school for the Prussian cavalry. They consisted of one single squadron of men, se- lected from the whole army, and their uni- form was the most splendid in all Europe. Two thousand rix-dollars were necessary to equip an officer: the cuirass was wholly plated with silver ; and the horse furniture and aceoutrements alone cost four hundred rix-dellars. This squadron only contained six officers, and a hundred and. forty-four men; but there were always fifty or sixty supernumeraries, and as many horses; for the king incorporated all the most handsome men he found in these guards. The officers were the best taught of any the army contained ; the king himself was their tutor ; and he afterwards sent them to instruct the cavalry in the manoeuvres they had learnt. Their rise was rapid, if they behaved well ; but they were broken for the least fault, and punished by being sent to garrison regiments. . .v ‘1 1 A llilo soldiers in the world underwent so much training as this body-guard. EXercise began at four in the morning, and experi- ments were made of all the alterations the king meant to introduce in his cavalry. Ditches of three, four, five, six feet, and still Wider, were leaped; hedges, in like manner, were cleared; and the horse ran races, meeting each other full speed, in a kind of lists. The same exercises were often repeated after dinner with fresh horses ; and it was not uncommon, at l’otzdam, to hear the alarm sounded twice in a night. The horses stood in the king’s stables ; and who- ever had not dressed, armed himself, saddled his horse, mounted, and appeared before the palace in eight minutes, was put under ar- rest for fourteen days. Scarcely were the eyes closed before the trumpet again sound- ed, to accustom youth to vigilance. By these exercises many horses and men were lost ; but of that Frederick took no account. Occasionally, detachments were allowed to take some recreation in Berlin ; and the more favoured officers sometimes dined with the king, and on gala, days with the queenâ€" an honour which was considered to be cheap- ly purchased by the continual risk of lite and limb. Trenek, who owned some good estates in Hungary, from which he derived the title of baron, was under no necessity to seek court favor ; but his temperament led him to do so with inconsiderate ardour, and he had the good fortune to be noticed up- provingly by the sovereign. Our hero, from infancy, had been noted for a. surprising memory, and he had been scarcely six weeks a. cadet when the king examined him on this remarkable faculty, He gave him the names of fifty soldiers to learn by rote, which was done in five minutes. He next repeated the subjects of two letters, which Trenck immediately composed in French and There’s a knowing: little prm erb From the sunny land of Spun, But in nothland as in solthla'x'i 19 its meamng clear an'l p‘aln, Lox-k it. up wmmn gour Imam, Neither lose nor lend it,â€"â€" Two it takes to make a. quarrel 2 One can am" ys end it. Try it well in every way Still you’ll find it true, In a fight without a toe Pray what could you do? If the wrath is yours alone So In yod will expend it. Two it $01188 to nka a‘ quarrel; One can always end it. Let's sxvppase that both are wroth, And tne stxife begun, If one vowe hhlll cry for peace Soon it wdl be dsne. If but om: shall span the breech He will quickly mend it. Two it takes to make a quarrel : One can always end it. A Quarre]. Latin. He afterwards ordered him to trace a real landscape from memory, which, being executed with equal success, he gave him a. comet’s commission to his body- guards, and also a. splendid equipment for the service. _._. .. ‘ - I ~ 1' ' , LI. A w” v. hr.-...a. _ Thus set forward in his profession, the young Baron Trenck had every prospect of winning his way to the highest honours, when his own folly ruined every anticipation of the future. It appears that, while settled at Berlin, he contracted an attachment to a sister of the king; and as this was impru~ dently encouraged by its object, he may be said to have lived on the bank of a volcano, which threatened every moment to burst and overwhelm him. The king did not be tome aware of this presumption on the part of Trenck, until after he had served in a camâ€" paign against Austria, and given tokens of bravery. It Was therefore with a greater degree of reluctance than could have been expected from the Prussian monarch, that he resolved on punishing the young officer for his audacity. The blow did not even fall until Trenck had given fresh cause of offence, in receiving a present of homes and a letter of friendshipfrom his cousin Francis, a. commander of pamdours in the Austrian service, and which, it seems, gave the king reason to doubt Trenck’s loyalty. This combination of errors sealed his fate. In a. country under a free constitution, crimes real or alleged against the state, or against private individuals, become the sub- ject of formal trial, and if the accused he found innocent, he is dismissed. In coun- tries governed by a despot, whose will has the effect of law, there are no guarantees against injustice. Whether the suspected be tried, or at once condemned to confine- ment, depends on the caprice of the reigning sovereign. Frederick of Prussia made great professions of public justice, and Where his own feelings of policy were not concerned, he was certainly in the habit of allowing the ordinary tribunals to take their course. On the present occasion, acting in the spirit of a. true despot, he ordered his victim to be seized, and, Without explanation or form of trial, sent him as a prisoner to the citadel of Glatz. The seizure, which took place in July, 1745, when Trean was only nineteen years of age, was as humiliating as it was unexpected. Unheard, unaccused, unjudg- ed, he was conducted like a. criminal from the army by fifty hussarrs ; his cquipage be- ing left behind, as the booty of some cree- tures of the king, and his commission given to another. Trenck was of course guilty of great imprudenceâ€"perha‘ps was legally criminal-â€"but the manner of his condemnaâ€" tion and imprisonment was a disgrace to Frederick, usually styled “ The Great.” \Vell might one c-xelaim with Trean on this dismal occasion, “ Unhappy people i where power is superior to law, and Where the in. nocent and the guilty are exposed to a, simi- lar doom. Unhappy land ! where the 0m- nipotent SUCH 1s one \VILL supersedes all legal sentence, and uncompromisineg robs the subject of property, life, and honor.” strong fortress in a mountainous country. The politic course to have followed in such circumstances, would hate been to have humbly petitioned the king for pardon. But, conscious of having done nothing trea- scnous, and smarting under indignities, he requested to be tried by a court-martial. Thls tone still more displeased Frederick, t who returned no answer to the communica- l tion. Despairiug of redress or liberty, and with his usual impatience 0f subjection, the ‘ prisoner now hethought himself of attempt , ing an escape from confinement. He did ‘ not want friends or money. and believed that there would be little difficulty in gainâ€" ing over the officers of his guard. In plan- ning this project, he was assisted by a Lien- tenant l’laschky and Ensign Reitz, both of whom proposed to go OH with him ; and fin- ally, he gained over a Captain Manget, who had been condemned by a. court-martial to ten years’ imprisonment. After all the ne» cessary measures had been taken for escape in company with these individuals, the plan was betrayed by Mangct, who thus pur- chased pardon and liberty. Piaschky saved himself by dcsertion ; Reitz was arrested, and only suffered a. year’s imprisonment, with the loss of his commission ; and Trenck was now closely confined to a. chamber, and guarded with greater caution. The king's suspicions were greatly increased, as like wise his anger, by this attempt at escape ; and hopes of liberation were now almost at an end. Trenck was now a prisoner in Glatz, a Having brought the preliminary account; of Trean to this point, we shall leave him to continue the narrative in his own words, abridging only where it appears necessary. IMI’RTSOEMENT IN GLATZ. Left to myself, I considered my situation in the Worst point of View, and determined either on fligl‘it or death. The length and closeness of my confinement became insup- portable to my impatient temper. I did not despair of gaining over the garrison to my side. They knew I had money, and, in a poor garrison regiment, the officers of which are all dissatisfied, having most of them been drafted from other corps, and sent thither as a. punishment for slight of. fences, there was nothing that might not be undertaken. My scheme was as follows :â€"My window looked toward the city, and was ninety feet from the ground in the tower of the citadel, out of which I could not get, Without having found a. place of refuge in the town. This an officer undertook to procure me, and pre- vailed on an honest soap-boiler to grant me a hiding-place. I then notched my pen- knife, and sawed through three large iron bars ; but this mode was too tedious, it being necessary to file away eight bars from my window before I could pass through; another officer therefore procured me a file, which I was obliged to use with caution, lest I should be overheard by the sentinels. Having ended this labor, I cut my leather portmanteau into thongs, sewed them end to end, added the sheets of my bed, and de- scended safely from this astonishing height. It rained, the night was dark, and all seemed fortunate ; but I had to wade through moats full of mud before I could enter the city, a circumstance I had never once considered. I sunk up to the knees, and, after long struggling, and incredible efforts to extriâ€" cate myself, I was obliged to call the sentin- el, and desire him to go and tell the govern- or Trenek was stuck fast in the moat. My misfortune was the greater on this occasion, from the Governor of (llatz being one of the cruelest of men. Disregardng my message, he left me standing in the mire till noon, the sport of the soldiers. I was then drawn out, half dead, only again to be imprisoned, and shut up the whole day, without Water to wash me. No one can imagine how I looked, exhausted and dirty, my long hair having fallen into the mud, with which by my struggling it was loaded. I remained in this condition till the next day, when two felluw-prisoners were sent to assist in cleaning me. The only kiniIness which I experienced during my confinement, Wm: being a'lowed a. supply of books, with which I whiled away the time. \‘Vhen tired with reading, and in the darknes‘s of the night, my reflections were very gloomy. I was as yet untamed in spirit, and I panted for the liberty of which I had been unjustly robbed. One day Major D00 came to Visit me, ac- ‘ companied by an officer of the guard and an adjutant. After examining every corner of ‘ my chamber, he addressed me on the crime of attempting to escape, and went the length ‘ of eallivg me a traitor to my country, who heui corresponded with the enemy. At that instllnt I watched his sword from his side, on which my eyes had some time been fixed. sprang out of the door, tumbled the sentinel from the top to the bottom of the stairs, passed the men who happened to be drawn up before the prison-door to relieve guard, attacked them, sword in hand, threw them suddenly into surprise by the manner in which I laid about me, wounded four of them. made through the rest, sprang over the hreastwork of the ramparts, and, with my sword drawn in my hand, immediately leaped this astonishing height, without re- ceiving the least injury. 1 leaped the secâ€" ond wall with equal safety and good fortune. None of their pieces were loaded; my one durst leap after me; and, in order to purr sue, they required to go round through the town and the gate of’the citadel; so that I had the start fully half an hour. A sentinel, however, in a. narrow passage endeavoured to oppose my flight, but I pan-ried his fixed bayonet, and wounded him in the face. A second sentinel, meantime, ran from the outworks to seize me behind, and I, to avoid him, made a spring at the pzilisades ; there I was unluckin caught by the foot, and received a bayonet wound in my upper lip ; thus entangled, they beat me with the butt-end of their muskets, and dragged me back to prison, while I struggled and defended myself like a. man grown des- perate. .. . 1 1 'r ,r,,IL, It is certain that, had I more carefully jumped the palisades, and despatched the sentinel who opposed me, I might have es- caped, and gained the mountains. Thus might I have fled to Bohemia, after having, at noonday, broken from the fortress of Glutz, sprung past all its sentinels, over all its walls, and passed with impunity, in despite of the guard, who were under arms, ready to oppose me. I should not, having a. sword, have feared any single opponent, and was able to contend with the swiftest runners. Brought back, bleeding and disconcerted, to my chamber, the severities of my impris- onment were increased : two Sentinels and an under officer were locked in with me, and were themselves guarded by sentinels Without. My pain was excessive ; my foot had been sprained in the struggle; I spat blood ; and my Wounds were not cured in less than a month. I was now first inform- ed that the king had only condemned me to a. year’s imprisonment, in order to learn wheLher his suspicions were well founded. My mother had petitioned for me, and was answered â€"~“ Your son must remain a. year imprisoned, as a punishment for his rash correspondence. "’ Of this I was ignorant, and it was report- ed in Glatz that my imprisonment was for life. I had only three weeks longer to re- pine for the loss of liberty, when I made this rash attempt. What must the king: think? \Vas he not obliged to act With‘ this severity 7 How could prudence excuse my impatience, thus to risk a. confiscation, when I was certain of receiving freedom, justification, and honor in three weeks? But, such was my adverse fate, circum- stances all tended to injure and persecute me, till at length I gave reason to suppose I was a. traitor, notwithstanding the purity of my intentions. Once more, then, wasl in a dungeon ; and no sooner was I there, than I formed new projects of flight. I first gained the intim- acy of my guards. I had money, and this, with the compassion I hid inspired, might ell'ect anything among discontented Prussian i soldiers. Soon had I gained thirty-two men, who were ready to execute, on the first signal, whatever I should command. Two or three excepted, they were unae» quainted with each‘other ; they consequent- jy-Egfilcl not all be betrayed aft a timé, and I had chosen a. sub-oflicer, Nicholai, to head them. , he garrison consisted only of one hun- dred and twenty men from the garrison reg- iment, the rest being dispersed in the counâ€" try of GIMZ, and four officers their com- manders, three of whom were in my interest. Everything was prepared; swords and pis- tols were concealed in an oven, which was in my prison. We intended to give liberty to all the prisoners, and retire, with drums beating, into Bohemia. Unfortunately, an Austrian deserter, to Whom Nicholai, had imparted our design, went and discovered our conspiracy. The governor instantly sent his adjutant to the citadel, with Orders that the fficer on guard should arrest Nicholai, with some others that were imâ€" plicated. 0.1 1 1.1 rm”, , Nicholai was one of the guard, and the lieutenant was my friend, and, being in the secret, gave the signal that all was dis- covered. Nicholai instantly formed his re- solution, cryingâ€"“ Comrades, to arms : We are betrayed I” All the conspirators fol- lowed to the guard-house, Where they seized on the cartridges, the officer having only eight men ; and, threatening to fire on Who- ever should ofler resistance, came to deliver me from prison ; but the iron door was too strong, and the time too short, for that to be demolished. Nicholai, calling to me, bade me aid them; but in vain ; and per- ceiving nothing more could be done for me, this brave man headed nineteen others, marched to the gate of the citadel, where there was a sub-officer and ten soldiers, obliged these to accompany him, and thus fled into Bohemia. Now, I was exposed to all the storms of ill fortune. A prosecution was entered against me as a. eonspirator, who wanted to corrupt the officers and soldiers of the king. They commanded me to name the remaining conspirators ; but to such a question I made no answer, except by steadfastly declaring I was an innocent prisoner, an ofliuer unjustly broken ; unjustly, because I had never been brought to trial; that consequently I was released from all my engagements; nor could it be thought extraordinary that I should avail myself of that law of nature which gives every man a. right to defend his honor defamed, and seek, by every possible means, to regain his liberty; that such had been my sole purpose in every enterprise I had formed, and such ahould still continue to be; for I was determined to persist, till I should either be crowned with success, or lose my life in the attempt. ... 1 r A V _ ' ‘ ' ' J 7" ' ' L The soldiers were now withdrawn from my chamber, and my money was nearly all expended. I was a wretched prisoner ; and could see no prospect of any melinration in my condition. While thus in a kind of stupor of despair, I attracted the sympathy of a, brave and somewhat ecentric individ- ual, Lieutenant Bach, a Dane by nation, who mounted guard every fourth day. En- tering my dungeon, he told me that it was humanly impossible I should escape, unless the officer on guard should desert with me ; that he wished nothing more aldently than to sacrifice his life on my behalf, but that he could not resolve so far to forget his hon- or and duty as to desert himself, while on guard. He, notwithslandiug, gave me his word of honor he would find me such a. per- son in a few days, and that, in the mean- time, he would prepare everything for my flight. He returned the same evening, bring. ing with him Lieutenant Sehell, and as he entered, saidâ€"“ Here’s your man.” Schell embraced me, gave his word of honor, and thus was the affair settled. \Ve soon began to deliberate on the means necessary to obtain our purpose. Schell had lately come from garrison at Hubelschwert to the citadel of Glatz, and in two days was to mount guard over me, till which time our attempt, was suspemied. Besides Schell, two other officer:, Schroeder and Lunitz, proposed to desert. Schell was to go with me, and Schroeder and bunim were to fol- low three days afterwards. In the matter of education the Chinese are very diflerently off from What Europeans are lad to inter, says a. writer in the London Post. It is a rare thing to find a Chinaman who cannot read and write his own language. Out of more than a hundred that I have em- ployed at different times I have only found two who could not Sign their names. This is a very extraordinary thing at first sight, but when one has visited China the fact is easily explained and understood. The truth is that by education it is open for any lad, unless he be the son of an actor or a. criminal â€"both stand in the same light and rank in Chinaâ€"t0 rise from the lowliest degree to the estate of a mandarin. Take, for in stance, the examinations which are periodi- cally held in the great university of Canton. Here is a huge building, or rather congeries of buildings, comprised in a. vast oblong space walled in. At one end of the space is the examining hall ; the rest of the space is covered over with a multitude of little cells â€"a.bout (3)000 in number, I believe-which are allotted to the students whenever they have received their papers for examinatione Exit from the place is impossible ; when the student has got his papers he must remain in the cell and finish the answers. At length the time comes to hand the answers in to the examiners, and, this being over, the students go home to await the result. Till such a. time as this is announced all are in a. state of the greatest possible excitement. It is known that the examination is absolutely fair. it so chanced when 1 was at Canton that the result of an examination not long before held was daily expected. One morning the ' eomprador, or Chinese buyer for an English firm of merchants with whom I was ac- quainted, rushed into the front office of the firm, and in almost an ecstacy of excitement threw himself on the floor. For a moment he was speechless, and then being assisted to rise he gasped out that his son had that morning been declared head of the list, and was going to be sent up as one of the first three students to Pekin, there to receive a mandarin’s button and a. high official ap- pointment. The poor father was so over- whelmed With the honor which his son had thus gained that it was with difficulty he could be calmed, and, indeed, he continued in this state of semiâ€"frenzy all through that day. The honor, indeed, was a great one, but it Was one to which any Chinese lad, no matter of what degreeâ€"except he belonged, as I have said, to the playing or convicted classesâ€"might aspire, and to this fact I at- tribute the very general education which prevails all over China. The following rather curious piece of composition was recently piaccd upon the blackboarri at a teachers‘ institute, and a prize of \Vebster’s Dictionary offered to any J _ person who could read and pronounce every word correctly. The book was not carried off, however, as twelve was the lowest num- ber of mistakes in the pronounciation made: “ A seerilegious son of Belial who suflered from bronchitis, having exhausted his finan- ces, in order to make good the deficit, re- solved to ally himself to a comely, lenient and docile young lady of the Malay or Caucasian race. He accordingly purchased a. callicope and coral necklace of a. chameleon hue, and securing a. suite of rooms at a prin- cipal hotel he engaged the head waiter as a coadjutor. He then dispatched a le Lter of most exceptional calligraphy extant, invit- ing the young lady to a matinee. She re- vofited at the idea, refused to consider her self sacrificable to his desires, and sent a polite note of refusal; on receiving which he procured a. carbine and bowie-knife, said that he would not now forge letters hymen- eal With the queen, Went to an isolated spot, severed his jugular vein and discharg- ed the contents of the carbine into his ab- domen. The debris was removed by the coroner.” The duration of twilight is longer or shorter according to the inclination of the sun’s apparent motion 10 the horizon is more or less oblique. The difference in the den- sity of the atmosphere also has an influence on this phenomenon. Near the poles, Where the sun attains at noon no great altitude, and keeps near the horizon after disappearing, the twilight is necessarily continuous all night long during summer. This is the case, in a modified way, in all places higher than 48.3 o north or south lati‘ turl 0. Montreal is alittle north of latitude 45° N. and consequently not within this twilight zone. Twilight, in traveling north and south, increases in brilliancy until the circle of continuous (lay at midsummer is reached. To fully explain this phenomenon, which is entirely due to the refraction of the atmosphere and the apparent varying declination of the sun, see any fairly com- prehensive book on geography. An Exercise in Pronunciation. Self-Made Chinamen. Duration of Twilight. (TO BE CONTINUED The strumer \Villumette recently brought into Panama, from Central America, 2,223 tons of coffee, divided in 36,654 sacks. The farmers of Alameda, CELL, are obliged is) use luminous scare crows to drive the W1 { geese and ducks from their grain fields. Th: number of French people in the westr em hemisphere is 344,000, divided chiefly as foliows : United States, 106 972; Mexico, 15000; Huyti, 15,900; Chili, 3,314; Ar- gentine Republic, 153,000; Uruguay, 14,~ 375; Brazil, 6,108. The Sultan of Morocco has taken the bull by the horns. He has forbidden the sale or purchase of intoxicants. Some Moors have been stripped, fastened on donkies, and flogged through the streets of Tangiers for smoking in (11 fiance of the Sultan’s order. A citizen of Albany, GEL, who has an ivy- mannled oak in his yard in which English sparrows nest, made a raid on it the other day and captuxcd sixteen eggs and two bushels of mate, The birds hzwe gone to work repairing damages with great industry. To meet the growing scarcity of whale bone and its consequle increasxd cost, vari- ons substitutes have, been ln'uughc fox-v, urd ; among the: most rewan is the employment of geese and turkeys’ qm‘fls, a. factory by this kind of manufacturu having been establishâ€" ed in Michigan. Removing the brain of a. pigeon does not destroy its mental faculties. It can see, hear, feel, swallm lplfll put in its mouth, but: is incapable nf ox'igiuuiing any impulse, It. will stand in the axrliturle in which it is placed until it dim of starvation, but throw it in the air and in wall fly. Mr. George Henry Bell, of New York. has bought, and shipped to his New Hampshire farm, the leading members of Henry \Vard Beecher‘s herd of no‘ted Jersey cattle. Among the number is the beautiful cow Bella, Mr. Beechtr‘s sp£0iml pride, with a. record of 46 lbs. of milk per day. The sewage of London, amounting to 200,- 000,000 gallons 2» day, ia carried 12 miles down the Thames to huge reservoirs on op~ posite sides of the river, Where it is treated with one gx‘ain por gallon of sodium manga- nate and a few grams of chloride of lime. After the solid matter is precipitated, the water is let into the river, at ebb tide, in an odorless condition. A Sedalia, M0., man, recently converted by the Salvation Army, entered a. hardware store and asked the proprietor if he remem- bered what axes Were selling for in 1872. “ About $1, I guess,” was the reply. “ \Vcli,” said the Sulvutionist. “ I want to give you 1» dollar, then. 111 1872 I stole an axe which vms displiyéd in from; of your store.” St. Louis is the grcnteat Strawberry mar- ket in the world. and it, daily receives dur- ing the sezwon tons :md tons of the berries from Arkansas and lower Missouri. Spe- cial cars are side tracked at all important stations, and in the e\ ening the far mers come from mila-a around with great baskets of tempting berries to be consigned to the St. Louis dealers. livery mam has 27; right to make himself something better than he is. but no man has a right, to claim hmmr mud audit, which are not due him. The time which a man wastes in trying to force the world to accept him for something which he is not would, if pro- perly usui and uaomiiiiizcd, enable him to make himsqu S():nc6lll!lg higher and better than than which he is trying to seem.â€" Gcorge Saml. Charleston, S. C., lumsts the youngest murderer on record. Hisagcis: seven years, and he calmly stuck a fork In his baby sis- ter‘s]li because the child cried, and he wanted to quiet it. The blow being fatal, the yonnbr man hid the. body, though he afâ€" terward unnfebscd what; he had done. On account of his extreme youth he will not be tried for “manslaughter,” bub his career henceforth will be an object of interest to mor L1 Society. Of the amount of silver in existence, $4,00",!M?0,000 is estimated to be in coin and bullion. $300,000,000 in watches and the remainder in plate, jewelry and ornaments. Of the amount in customer) S4,745,0 0,000 is estimated 10 have; been obtained from North America, $736,000,000 from South America, $63,000,0l 0 from Europe, $47,000,000 from Africa. and $340 0,00 v from Asia, inéluding Australia, New Zealnnd and Ocvanicat. The amount of the pmcious metztls in existence is estimam d to be $13,974,0’L'0,000. A BALOUN PROPELLER.“Successful ex~ perimems have been made at; Metz with a. navigable ballonnpmpelied by an electric motor. The Augshuuz Allgemaine Zeitung says the baloon ie the invention of a Ger- man engineer named \Velker, who for some time was employed in America, where he perfected his discovery. The German Gov- ernment, the paper says, has bought; the in- vention, paying for it 1,0033 00 marks down and another 1,000,000 which is to be paid in insbalments. The speed of the balloon exceeds that of a railway train, and it may be stopped and (lirected.at will, moving agai-fiéérthe wind. \Yhabever brfith thefé may be in the report, it is certain that: the residents of Metz are nqw lfightly startled by Van electric illumination havering at a, great height over their houses. Anew process of tempering steel, dis- covered by two Kentuckians, is being test- ed at the Washington Navy Yard. It is claimed that common grades of cast-steel can be made to hold an edge like that of the best grades. Secretary Whitney’s pocket- knife being treated, whittled a. steel key with ease. FIRE-PROOF DRESSES.â€"Many chemicals have been used from time to time to render ballflresses and other textile fabrics incom- bustible, but one of the most efficacious and least expensive is tum/state of soda, which may be most conveniently applied by mix- ing it with the starch for the dressing 2 Add one part of the tongstate to three parts of good dry starch, and use the starch in the ordinary way. For fabrics which do not require starching, dissolve one pound of tangstate of soda in two gallons of water, saturate the fabric Well in the solution, and let it dry. It will not change the most delicate colors or affect the quality of the fabric in any way, and ironng will. not in the least interfere with the efficacy of the process. Muslims or silks, so treated, may be held in the flame of a candle or gas Withâ€" out catching fire; so that, although the portion in Contact with the flame may by continuance be charred, or even destroyed, there is no danger of spreading the comâ€" ‘ bu stion. A» Sanitarium HERE AND THERE.