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August wore away, and September came in; and Hugh continued to mope and to bore himself to his heart‘s content at that detest- able Whitestaud. To distract his soul, he worked hard at his “Ode to Mauetho ” but even Manetho, audacious theme, gave him scanty consolation. Nay, his quaint “ Ballade of Fee-Faw-Fum" that witty apologue, with its grimly humorous catalogue of all possible nightly fears, supplied him with food but for one solitary morning’s meditation. You can't cast out your blue-devils by poking fun at them; those ccruloan demons will not he laughed down or rudely exorcised by such simple means. They recur in spite of you with profound regular- ity. The fans e: orzgo mali was still present. That hateful poplar still fronted his eyes wherever he moved : that window with the wistaria still haunted his sight whenever he tried to lounge at his ease on the lawn or in the garden. The river, the saudhills, the meadows, the walks, all, all were poisoned to him : all spoke of Elsie. Was over Nemesis more hideous or more complete? Was ever punishment more omnipresent? He had gained all he wished, and lost his own soul; at every turn of his own estate some horrible memento of his shame and his guilt rose up to confuse him. He wished he was dead every day he lived: dead, and asleep in his grave, beside Elsie. CHAPTER XXV.-â€"CLOUDS 0:: THE Hem 70X. As‘ that dreaded anniversary, the seven? teenth of September, slowly approachedâ€" the anniversary, as Hugh felt it, oi Elsie's murderâ€"hie agitation and his gloom in- ereased visibly. Winifred wondered silent- ly to herself what on earth ’ould ail him. During the last few weeks, he seemed to have become another man. An atmosphere of horror and doubt surrounded him. On the fifteenth, two days before the date of Elsie's disappearance, she went up hastily to their common room. The door was half locked, but not securely fastened : it yielded to a sudden jerk of her Wrist, and she entered abruptly-to find Hugh, with a guilty red tece pushing away a small bundle of letters and a trinket of some kind into a tiny cabinet which he always myster- iously carried about with him. She had hardly time tc catch them distinctly, but the trinket looked like a watch or a locket. The letters, too, she managed to note, were tied together with an elastic band. and numbered in clear red ink on the envelopes. More than that she had no chance to see. But her feminine curiosity was strongly ex- cited; the more so as Hugh banged down the lid on its springâ€"lock with guilty haste, and proceeded with hot and fiery fingers to turn the key upon the Whole set in his own portmanteau. I . u . u an . Hugh turned upon her as she had never before seen him turn. No longer clay in the hands of the potter, he stood stifl‘ and bud like adamant then. “If I had meant you to know," he said coldly, “ I would have told you long ago. I did not tell you The Massingers pitched their tent at Whitestmnd again for August. Hugh did ’ is best indeed to put off too evil day; but lyou sell your soul for gold, you must take .he gold with all its encumbrances ; and Winifred's will was a small encumbrance that Hugh had never for one moment reckoned upon in his ante-nuptial cal culations of advantages and drawbacks. He took it for granted he was marrying a more 'rl, whom he could mould and fashion to is own whim and fancy. That simple. childish, blushing little thing had a will of her own. howeverâ€"av, more, plenty of it. When Hugh proposed with an insinuating snail.) that they should run down for the sum mer to Barmouth or Aberystwithâ€"he loved North \Valesâ€"Winifred replied with quiet dimity : " Wales is stuffy. There’s nothing so bracing as the east coast. After a Lm‘ don season, one needs bracing. I feel pulled down. We’ll go and stop with mamma at Whitestrsnd.” And she shut her little month upon it with a snap like a rat‘trap. Against that solid rock of sheer resolution, Hugh shattered himself to no purpose in showery sprays of rhetoric and reasoning. Gibraltar is not more disdainful of the foam that dashes upon its eternal clifls year after year than Winifred was to her husband‘s running fire of argument and expostulation. She never deigued to argue in return; she merely repeated with naked iteration ten thousand times over the categorical formula, “ We’ll so to Whitestraud.” A woman‘s mind goes straight to the qul's- eye. N 0 use pretenuing to mislead her with side-issues; she flings them aside with a con- temptuous amile, and proceeds at once to warm her Way to the kern_el of the matter. ‘ “ High," she cried, standing still to gazs upon him, “ What do you keep in that little cabinet 2" They did not occupy Elsie‘s room this time. Hugh had stipulated with all his might for that concession beforehand. He would never pass a night in that room again, he said; the psint or the woodwork or the chnirs or something made him hopelessly sleepless. In these old houses, sanitary ar- rangements were always had. Winifred darted a piercing look at him as he shuffled uneasily over that lame excuse. Already a vague idea. was framing itself piecemeal in her woman’s mindâ€"n very natural ides, when she saw him so moody and preoccupied and splcneticvâ€"tlnt Hugh had been reallv in love with Elsie, and was in love with Elsie still, even now that Elsie was away in Aus trslieâ€"else why this unconquersble and ab- surd objection to Elsie’s room? Did he think he had deceived and i1l~trested Elsie? we. to dull flet Suffolk when August came, and’relinquished with a sigh his dreams of delicious picnics by the Dolgelly water- falls, and his mental picture of those phen omenally big troutâ€"three pounds apiece, fishermen‘s weightâ€"that lurk unceught in the deep green pools among the rocks and stiokles of the plashing Wnion. The Bard had sold himself for prompt cash to the first bidder : he found when ir. was too late he hsdsold himself unknown into a mitigated form of marital slavery. The purchaser made her own terms : Hugh was compelled meekly to accept tnem. :Two strong wills were clashing together. In serious matters, neither would yield. Each must dint and better the other. And to Whitesrmnd they went in due time. The plastic male character can no mole resist the ceaseless pressure of femin- ine persistence than clay can resist the hands of the potter, or wood the warping efi‘ect ofAheat_ and dryness: Hugh took his THE THREAD OF LIFE SUNSHINE AND SHADE. “ That creature. I'm in a position to state withoutreserve,” Winifred answered chillily, " ran up the river to the Fisherman's Rest late last night, as lively as ever. I saw the Mud- Turtle come in my- self, before a. chipping breeze ! And Mrs. Shannawsy told me this morning Mr. Ralf was a-lying off the hard, just opposite Stanrmwsy’s. So I thought it’d be a. capital plan, in memory of old times, if we got Mr. Ralf to take us down in the yawl to 0rford~ ness, [and us comfortably at the Low Light, and let us picnic on the nice dry ridge of big shingle just above the graveyard Where the_y busy the wrecked sailors.” _ . . . Hugh's whole soul was on fire within him ; but his face was pale, and his hands deadly cold. Was this pure accident. mere coin- cidence, or was it designed and deliberate torture on Winifred's part, he wondered? To picnic in sight of Elsie's nameless grave, on the very anniversary of Elsie’s death, with every concomitant of pretended re- joicing that. could make that ghastly ac; more ghastly still than it would otherwise be in its own mere naked brutality I It was too sickening to think upon. But did Winifred know? Could Winifred mean it as a punishment for his silence? Or had she merely blundered upon that horrible proposition as a sheer coincidence out of pure accident '.' “ There's nothing to see at Orfordness," he said shortlyâ€"“ nothing but a- great here bant- of sand and shingle, and a couple of lighof houses, standing alone in a perfect desert of desolationâ€"Besides, the weather’s just beastlyâ€"Much better stop at home as usual by ourselves, and eat our dinner here in peace and quietness ! This isn't the sort of Seusop for picnickiug." “Oh! Huh Hugh,” Mrs. Meyaey pa 1:, with her maternal authority, “you know «we - “ Relf's 'yawl 1" Hugh cried aloud. with increasing excitement. " Y on don’t mmu to say that: creature’s here again I ’ “ I hadn't thought of the saw mills,” Winifred answered with quiet igniby. “ I thought it'd be awfully nice if w all be- spoke a dry seat in IVER Belfls yawl â€"â€" As a matter of fact, the last solution was the true and simple one. The sand bills. or Orfordness, were the two recognised alter- native picnicking places where all White strand invariably disported itself. If you didn't go to the one, you went as a. matter of course to the other. There was no third way open to the meet deliberate and states- manlikeof mortals. The Meyseyahas gone to Oriordness for years. Why not go there on the anniversary of \Vinnie's engagement? To Winifred, the proposal seemed simplicity itself ; to Hugh, it seemed like a strangely perverse and cunning piece of sheer feminine cruelty. therefore I do not mean you to know. Ask me no questions. This incident is now clased. Say nonbing more about it.” And he turned on his heel, and left her astonished. That was all. Winifred cried the night through. but Hugh remained still abanlnte adamant. Next morning, she altered her tactics completely, and drying her eyes once for all, said never another word on the subject. She even pretended to be cheerful and careless. When a woman pic- teuds t) be cheerful and cureless after a do mesbio scene, the luckiess man whose destiny she holds in the hollow oi her hand may well tremble, especially if there is something he wants to conceal from her. She means to egg it all out, and cgged out it will all be, as certainly as the sun will rise to mar row. It; may take a ionxz time, but it will come for all that. A woman on the truck of a secret, pretending carelessness, is a dangerous animal. She will go far. Ham: m, Romans, caveto. On the seventeenth, Winifred formed a little plan of her own, which she ventilamd withchil'iish effusion at. lunch-time. “ Hugh, dear,” she said in her most Winning voice, “ do you happen to rememberâ€"if you‘ve time for such triflesâ€"thab to mormw's a. very special anniversary '2" Hugh‘s cheek blanched as if by migic. What deviltry was this? What deliberste cruelty ? For the moment his usual courage and presence of mind forsook him Had Winifred, then, found out everything ?â€" Aspecial anniversary, indeed! As if he could forget it lâ€"And that she, for whose sakeâ€"with the msnor of \Vhitestrsnd thrown inâ€"he had done it all and made himse‘f next door to a murdererâ€" that she, of all people in the world, should cost it in his teeth. and make bitter game of him about Elsie’s death! “Well. “Iinifred.” he answered in a strange low voice. looking hard at her eyes: “I supvose I’m not likely to forget it, run I?’ Winifred noted the tone, silently. Aloud, she gave no token in any way of hsving observed his singular manner.â€"“It’s a. year tomorrow since Hugh proposed to me, you know, mamms dear," she went on, in her quietest and most cutting voice, turn- ing round to her mother, “and he does me the honour to so) politely he isn't likely to forget the occasionâ€"For a whole year, he’s actually remembered it. But it seems to make him terrible grumpyâ€"Never mind, Hugh; I’ll let you off. I’m a sweet little angel, and I’m not going to be sngry with my great beer : so there, Mr Constellation, you see I’ve forgiven you.â€"Now, what I was going to ssy’s just this. As to-morrow s a. special anniverssry n our iverl I propose we should celebrate it wi.h becoming dipiiv.” “Which men-.5, 1 suppose, the ordinhry British symb )1 of marry-making, a. plum pudding for dinner,” Hugh interposed bit- terly. He saw his mistake with perfect clearneas now, but he hadn’t the tact or the grace to conceal it. with a woman’s clever- ness under ashow of goodAhumour. “A picnic!" Hugh cried, aghastâ€"“a picnic to-morroW!-â€"On the seventeenth !" â€"â€"Then recollecting himself once more, he added has‘ily : “ In this unsettled weather 1 The sandhills are soaked. There isn‘t a. place on the whole estate one could” rmnge to seat one’s self down on comfortnt y.” " A plum-pudding is banal," Winifred answered with a smileâ€"“distinctly banal. I'm Bur :rised a member of the Cheyne Row set should even dream of suggesting it. What: would Mr. Hatherley say if he heard the Immortal One make such a proposition? He’d detect in it the strong savour of t’hil- istia. ; ha‘d declare you'd joined the hosts of Goliathâ€"No. It isn't a plum-pudding. My idea’s this. Why shouldn’t we go for a. family picnic, just our three selves, in honor of the acousion '2" All that afternoon and late into the even- ing, Hugh watched the clouds and the bare. meter eagerly. His fate that day hung upon a. spider‘s web. If it rained to-morrow all might yet be well ; if not, ho felt in his own soul they stood within measurable distance of a domestic cataclyam. He would not go to Orfordness with Wini- fred. That much was certain. He could not picnic, on the anniversary of Elaie's death, within eight of Elsie'a nameless grave, in company with those two strange womenâ€"his wife and his mother-in-law. Ugh! how he hated the bare idea! If it came to the worstâ€"ii it was fine tomorrow â€"he must either break for ever with Wini- fredâ€"for she would never give inâ€"or else he must fling himself ofl‘ the roots of the poplar, where Elsie had flung herself off that day twelve months ago, and drawn as she had drowned among the angry break- era. “No, mother dear. That was the eight- eenth. I was engaged on the \Vednesday, you recollect, and 1b was the Thursday when we found out Elsie had gone a.an from us." Hugh managed to summon up a sardonic smile. “ I wasn’t married to you then, Win- nie,” he answered, with a. savage snurl,tbat showed his projecting canines with most un- pleasant disciuctness. “ My goings-out and my comings in were not: yet a. matter of daily domestic inquivsirioa. I hidn’a to re- port myself every time I came or went, like a soldier in barracks to his commanding of- ficer.â€"I went to Orfordnees one day for a walkâ€"by myselfâ€"unbiddenâ€"for my own amusement." There Would be a certain dramatic com- pleteness and roundnese about that particu- lar fate which commended itself especially to Hugh Maseinger'e poetical nature. It would read so like a Greek tragedyâ€"a. tale of Ate and Hubris and Nemesis. Even from the point of view of the outer world, who knew out the hook, it would seem romantic enough to drown one‘e self, disconeolate, on the very anniversary of one‘e first engage» ment to the young wife one meant to leave an untimely widow. But to Hugh Messinger himself, who knew the whole kernel and core of the story, it would be infinitely more romantic and cnurming in its way to drown one’e self off the self-same poplar on the self-same day that Elsie had drowned herself. No hard con (1 wish for a gloomier or more appropriate death. \Vould it rain or shine I On that slender thread of doubt his whole future now hung and trembled. " Thursday the eighteenth when we found it out, dear,” Mrs. Meysey repeated in 9. decisive voice (the meternei mind is strong on dates); “ but Wednesday the seventeenth, late in the evening, of course, when she went away from us.â€"Poor dear Elsie! I wonder what’s become of her 1 It’s curious she doesn’t write_to you oftener, Winifred," “ I went there once last year," Hugh answered sulkily ; “ and I saw enough of the beastly hole then to know very Well I don’t desire its further acquaintgnce.” The morning of the seventeenth dawned at last, and Hugh rose early, to draw aside the bedroom blinds for a moment. A respite ! a respite! It was pouring a regular English downpour. There was no hopeâ€"or no danger, ratherâ€"of a. picnic to-day. Thank Heaven for that. It put 05 his fate. It saved him the inconvenience and worry of having to drown himself this particular always go to Orfordness. It's really quite a charming place in its way. The sands are so broad and hard and romantic‘ We sail down, and picnic at the lighthouse; and then we get a man to row us across the river a: the back to Oriord Castleâ€"there's a spinn- did V iew from Orford Caszleâ€"and nlmgether it makes a delightful excursion. of its kind, for Suffolk. \Ve ought to do something to commemorate the tlay.â€"liwe Weren‘t in such deepmourning still ’â€"â€"3nd )1 rs Mcysay glanc- ed Ilown with a conventional sigh as her craps excrescenceaâ€"“we'd ask a. few friends in to dinner ; but I'm afraid ib's a. little too soon for that. Still. at anymte, there could he no harmunot the slightest harmâ€"â€" in jufi: running down to Orfnrdness for a family picnic It’s nrccisely the same as lnnching a: home hnre together." “Yes,” M‘rs. Meysey continued, with another deep drawn nigh; “and what 3 night. that. wants be sure 1 S) in“ of sur- prises ! It was the night, you know, when poor Elaie Challoner ran away from us You got engaged to Hugh in the morning, and in the evening Elsie disappeared as If by magic 1 Such a coincidence 1 Poor dear Elsie! Notayear ago! A year ago to- morrow l" Y5u'r little hands were never meant To tear each other’a eyes, If he doesn’t want to go in Mr. Ralf‘s boat, he shan‘t be made to, then, poor little fel- low. He shall do exactly as he likes him- self. He shall have another boat all of his own. I’ll order one this evening for him at Martin’s or at Sbannaway’a." “ If ib'p fine," Mrs. Meysey interposed u “ If it’s fine. of course,” \Vinifred answer- ed riaing. " We don’t want to picnic in a. torrent of Himâ€"Whatever else we may be, we’re rational animals.â€"B'.lt how do vou know, Hugh, what Orfordness is like? You can’t tell. You’ve never been there." "Duyouurememher, Hugh,” Winifred went on, musingly, putting the screw on, " how we walked out. that morning, a year agn, be the water-side: and how you picked a bi» of for- get me-not and meadow-swws from the bank and gaveic me ; and what pretty verses about undying love you ropeatei as you gave it ?â€"And in the evening, mamma, I had no go out: to dinner, all alone with you and poor dear pupa, m Snade Vicarage I I recollect how angry and annoyed I was because I had to go out and leave Hugh that particular evening! and because I’d warn that same dinner dress at Snade Vicarage three parties rnn‘ning l” Were they workin'g upon his feelings, of mwlice [Wepense :7 Were they trying to make him blurt out the truth? be wondered. ‘ Hugh Massinger in his agony could stand in no longer. He rose from the (able and went; over to the window. There, the poplarl stared him straight in the face. He turned around and looked hard at Winifred. Her‘ expressior'llfaes blue eyefiwere placid as u a]. "No 1"' Hugh thundered in an angry tone. “ However you go, Ralf shan'b take you. I don't want to see any more of Ralf. I dislike Relf ; I object to Ralf. He‘s a mean cur ! I won’t go anywhere with Ralf in nature." Discharges of lava. and blistered stone con- tinued for several days, and in less than two months. the level field had become a. moun- tain of a. very considerable height. Constant discharges from its crater have since raised it over four thousand feet above the sea. An Adventure With a Panther. On the twenty-third of February, 1770’ a series of terrific explosions took place, the crust of the earth was lifted several hun- dred feet, wu'lle flsmes and lava issued from the rent in its surface. An hour later there was another convulsion, .which hurled inzo the air rocks weighing thousands of tons, and elevated the earth about three thousand feet. ~ “ Your mother recommended it," Hugh answered eullenly, “ as a place of amuse- ment. She said it was altogether a. most delightful excursion. She praised the sends an firm and romantic. So I thought I’d try it. on her recommendation. I found it damp, decidedly damp.â€"--Send me my shoes, please I” And that was all the explanation he ever vouchsafed her. The volcano of Yzzlco, in San Salvador, is fu- many reasons the most wonderful mountain upon the globe. It rises several thousand feet high, almost directly from the sea, and is surmounted by an immense column of smoke broken by masses of flames, a thousand feet in height, and rising with such regularity that the mountain has been called “The light-house of San Salvador.” A77L._L‘_ vants became so alarmed by frequent earth- quakes that they fled from the place. When mev returned, a week or two later, it was to find that large craters had been opened in the ground, giving vent to smoke and flame. Rambling sand explosions are constantly going on within Yzalco, and are audible at the distance of a. hundred miles. Its dis- charges are very regular, but it is chiefly remarkable as being the only volcano which is knowu to have originated in America. since its diamvery by Columbus. In 1769, the region now occupied by it was a level plain, forming the coffee and indigo plantation of Senor Don Balthazar Evaz ). In December of that. year, the gen. tleman was absent from gnome, and his sex. morning. And yet the denouemen: would have been so strictly dramatic than he almost regretted a. shower of min should intervene to spoil it. \Vinifred was waiting for him at the front ,deor, white with emotionâ€"not so much an. ger as alighted affection. “ Where have you been 7" she asked, in a cold voice, as he ar- rived at the porch, a dripping. draggled, wearied pedestrian, in a soaking suit of last year's twgegs. “ To Orfordness !" his wife echoed in pro- found astoniehmenb. “ You didn’t want to go with us there if it was fine. Why, what; on eath, Hu h, did you ever go there in this peltigg rain of 2“ At ten o'clock he rtn-ted cut alone in the blinding downpour and took the train as Ar as Aldaburgh. Thence he followed the shingle beach to Orfordnnss, plodding on, as he had done a year before, over the loose stones, but through drenching min, in- stead of under hot and blazing sun. light. ‘\ hen he reached the lighthouse, he sat himself down in pilgrim guise beside Elsie’a grave in the steady drip, end did penance once more by that unknown tomb in solemn silence. Not even the lighthouae man came out this time to gaz: at him in wonder ; it panre'l too hard and too persistently for that. He sat there alone {or hslf an hour, by Elsie's watch; for he had wound it that morning with reverent hands, and brought it away with him for that very purpose. A little rusty. perhaps, from the sea, in would keen good time ennugh gain for all he needed. At the end of tha half‘honr he rose once more, plodded back again over the shingle in his dripping clothes, and catching the last train home to Almundham, reached Whitestrand just in time to dress for dinner. a “ Didn’t I say well 1 was bound to report myself to my commanding officer ’3" Hugh answered tauntingly. " All right, than; I preceed at once to report myself. I may as well tell you as leave you to war . ’ve been to Orfoedneasfeloneâ€"trampe it." (TO BE CONTINUED.) Yzaloo. The tower will be fifted up on the inside of the shafts with elevators. There will be six or more connecting the first two galleries with the ground, and probxbly two which will go to the top. Consider its importance from a meteoro- logical point of View. It is not every day that meteorologists can get up a thousand feet above the soil. This tower will enable tnem to study the decrease of temperature at different heights, to observe the varia- tions of the winds, find out the quantity of rain that falls at; difl'erent heights, and the density of the clouds. Indeed, in all that relates to temperature, hygrometry, air currents, and the composition of the air, the tower will afford opportunities for study and research many of which have hitherto been impossible. It will be equally useful to astronomers. Here experiments with the spectroscope can be carried on with great facility ; the laws of refraction and the hy- sicel aspect of the moon, planets and no ula studied in most favorable conditions. Then there is its utility from a military point of View. In the event of another siege of Paris, see how important this tower wou‘d be. Communications could be kept up by means of optic telegraphy for a great distance around Paris ; for from the summit you have a magnificent panorama extending from 120 to 130 kilometres. Paris by night, decorat- ed aud illuminated as it will be durins the exhibition, is a sight which before was only within the reach of aeronauts. In fact, the tower will be the chief attraction of the ex‘ hibition. In our construction of the tower we have calculated on the force of the wind. We have calculated that the tower will normally withstand a wind pressure of 300 kilogrammes per square metre. which amounts to a totaflpressure of 2,250,000 kilogrammes. We have made this calcula- tion on the most favorable hypothesis pos- sible. We have reckoned the trellis work as full walls and made other allowances. And, as the strongest temperate known in Paris have never been beyond a pressure of 150 kilos per square metre, the tower is per- fectly secure. Should a. wind bearing a force of 300 kilos arise little would be left staflding in Paris except the tower. The highest structure in the world is now being built at Paris. The \Vashington Monu- menn is 555 feet high, and has no rival at pres- ent, but the Perisians are priding themselves on the fact that by the 130 of January next they will have standing on the Champ de Mars a tower 1,000 feet high, built entirely of iron girders and pillars, in the simple con- struction of four great shafts consisting of four columns each, starting from the four camera of the base, and merging into the single great shaft which forms the main part of the tower. The whole tower when com- pleted will weigh about 7,500 tons, or 15,000,- 000 pounds. The cost will be about; $1,000,- 000, of which the French government pays about $300_000. The publication of the late Emperor Fred- erick’s diary will confirm the general be- lief in his generosity, magnanimity and ssgncity, the latter quality being especially evidenced by his intention t.) liberaliee German institutions and by his opposition in 1870 to the scheme for partitioning France and placing the Belgian King on her throne. The revelation that this project was entertained, and may be revived by another German conquest, will of course nerve France to prepare most thoroughly for the coming war, to fight it out even more desper- ately than in 1870, and to impose harsh terms on Germany in case of the not wholly improbable French success. For these rea- sons, and becsuse the diary exposes Prince Bismarck as the prime mover in the anti- Papsl crusade, the publication of the diary may well give serious annoyance to the Iron Chancellor and his young master. There appears very good reason to believe that the late Professor Proctor fell a victim to the unmanly fright of the New York Board (f Health. The doctors who per- formed the autopsy state that they are unable to find any traces of yellow fever. As the Professor was removed by force from his hotel to an hospital in the dead of night during a violent storm, and while he was in a state of collapse, the inference is that he was was killed by cflicial ignorance and in- capacity. Theyellowfeverscare seemstohave terrified many people out of their senses. In all such cases the inherent selfishness of human nature comes to the surface, and every consideration is sacrificed to that of self‘ preservation. Nah‘lralliy enough, M. Eiffel, the eminent French engineer who is building the tower, is proudiof his tall entorprisp. He says : A Kineston clergyman explained on Sun- 651 t» his congregation that in Winnipeg wnenever a. one cent piece is found on the collection plate it is assumed that a person from Ontario has been to church. This is libelious, because everybody knows that On- tnrio people place five cents pieces on the plate, largely becsuse there is no smaller silver coin. But, joking aside, it is remark- able what a. large assortment of small change finds its way into the church treasury. The phenomenon should perhaps be attributed to the strong desire to imitate the example of the widow who gave her mite. The Tariff bill prepared by tk‘z'e'Repub. licaua in the United States Senate abolishes the tax on tobacco. This will reduce the re- vume about thirty millions. Tue tax on sugar has been cut down fifty per cent, which will decrease the revenue by twenty. five millions more. Ten milliops additional are to be saved from the tax on alcohol used in the arts, and five millions from various articles placed on the free lint. Bfibish Columbia. is not entirely oblivious to the big business it can do in supplying fruit to the districts lying east; of it. The Victoria "Culonist’s” advices from Chilli- wack, which is situated in a very fertile agricultural put of the province, say that “nthousnnd boxes of plums have been already shipped But this 568801], and last; year apples were shipped to J apan. Peaches and pears, and fruitof all kinds are raised in great abund- ance, and prove a source of more than ordi- nary profit 10 many.” Sundav is observed after the American plan in British Columbia, though Victoria, the capital. is in other respects exceedingly English. The excuse for the non-observance of the dsy of rest is uhe circumstance that there is no other occasion in the week for recreation. To meet this p‘m the Ssturday half holiday is to be introduced. The news- pspers advocate the reform, but they do not; propose to drop their Sunday editions. NoTES BY THE WAY. The Eifl'el Tower.