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GIFTS FOR INVALID FRIEND. To those whose world is bounded by the four walls of their room, any kindness and attention from their friends comes with peculiar pleasure and appreciation. The simplest remin~ der. indeed, of the outside world is refreshing and brings joy to the shut- in one. There are so many things that will brighten the life of an invalid one need never be at a loss when desiring to give them a little pleasure. Flowers are always acceptable, esâ€" pecially the potted plant, whose beau- tiful bloom will brighten the room for many a day. Those who live in the ci'ty can easily supply themselves .with flowers from the green-house, but one living remote from the city can send for bulbs and seeds and raise beautiful plants of their own. The delicate cyclamen is one of the most satisfactory of house plants. Its bloom is generous and lovely and the plant requires but little care. Give the delicate cyclamen to your invalid friend and it will be a constant source of pleasure. One invalid's room into which Iofâ€" ten go is to me ideal, writes acorres- pendent. It is in the sunniest pleasâ€" ant‘est part of the house, and is daint- ily furnished that the burden of alâ€" ways remaining in it may be as light as possible. The floor is of hard wood and cov- ered with a. few pretty rugs. Dainty muslin curtains are at the windows, and several easy chairs, Iher favorite books and table for fancy work, with a few restful pictures complete the furnishing of the room, except what every invalid’s room should contain, a threeâ€"quarter iron bedstead painted and gilded, and daintin furnished, and a. low dressing table and wash- stand. On her bookcase is a clock .with a large white face,,whose figâ€" ures and numbers can be plainly seen from any part of the room. This is a very welcome and inexpensive gift to one whose sight is growing dim. lA screen to protect the bed from drafts and a strong light is almost a necessity in an invalid’s room. A carpenter can easily make the frame for one, and it is then a small mat- ter to finish the screen with silkalenc or Japanese matting. Pretty covers for the stand and taâ€" 'bles are also acceptable gifts. 1A subscription to a good. magazine .will give our invalid friends something to look forward to each month, and books and pictures are always wel- come to the shut-in ones. To one who enjoys the sing'ing of birds the gift of a canary will give' great delight. Whatever gifts we give to our in- valid friends let us not forget that the best gift is the sunshine and joy of our presence. It is woman’s mis- sion to " soothe and to solace,” and everywhere to ameliorate suffering. .We cannot all be :1 Florence Nightin- gale or an Elizabeth Fry, or wear the silver cross of the "Sisters of Charity,” dispensing comfort and healing, but the opportunity is often and from that time ours to lhelp i-n seine small way, and this we Should never fail to do. SOME GOOD RECIPES. Graham Breadâ€"To make a very suâ€" perior loaf of graham bread, take a cup of dough, when forming the dough into loaves in the morning. Beat it up with half pint lukewarm water, and half cup Syrup. Add one cup white flour, and bufficient graham flour to form a stiff dough, firm enough to turn onto the kneading board. Knead it well. Place into a wellâ€"greased tround tin, and allow it to rise until very light, when place in a steamer over boiling water, and cover the steamer closely. Keep the water boiling, until a broom splint thrust into the leaf will come out clear of dough". 'l‘hcn place in the oven for half an hour to dry and become a pale brown. This forms a loaf of very nutritious graham bread. A New Salmon Saladâ€"Two cans canâ€" ned salmon,2 two cans cabbage, chop- ped fine. Dressing: One-half lea- spoon mustard, two cggs, one teaspoon salt, fo’ur tablespoons'vfnegar. one tea- spoon sugar, four tablespoons butter. Separate eggs; beat Volks. Blend mus- tard, salt and sugar and add to yolks. Then add vinegar and butter. Cook in double boiler till thick, then cool. Beat whites till stiff; add to mixture, cutting them in lightly. Mix salmon and. cabbage Well and add dressing, ngam mixing well. Set in cold place till ready to serve. All measurements level. iValentine Cakeâ€"Crush one lb. alâ€" monds with one lb sugar, and three eggs. Mix these thoroughly and add twelve beaten eggs and half cup rich cream. Beat until perfectly light. Line a cake pan with very thin paste fill nearly full with the almond pro- paration and bake in a slow oven. W'hen cool [rest with a light frost- ing and strew with finely cut al- monds. Orange Drops.â€"Thc rind and juice of one orange and a pinch of tartaric acid. Add confectioner’s sugar untii it is stiff enough to form into small balls the Size of a small marble. lDucks’ Eggs. are better for pies than hens' eggs, making a firmer fillâ€" ing. Three eggs make a large pie. Ishort. Beat thoroughly in a quart li:isiu,have one pint boiling milk ready, pour over the. beaten eggs, I'th stir in a tiny teaspoon salt, and quarter cup sugar. Have a deep pie tin, prick slightly the bottom crust, pour the .hot Custard in, grate nutmeg over the foaming, heady surface, and bake in :1 hot oven. Heat and cwiftness are always needâ€" ed in cooking of eggs. Pork Chowderâ€"Take one and a half quarts green born, one quart pota- toes sliced, and two onions. Fry half lb salt pork, take. out the scraps and fry the onions in the fat. Put the corn and potatoes in the kettle with seasoning in layers with the onions and fat, and a little. flour sprinkled warm for the latter. Make a "drop" tor and boil slowly 20 minutes. Mix three tablespoons flour with a little milk, then add one and a half pints milk. Stir all in the boiling mixture Have six crackers split and dipped in cold water and put them in. But on the lid, boil once and serve. NEW MAPLE DAINTIES. Maple Mousseâ€"Whip one pint sweet together, put in a covered mold and pack in ice with lsalt. Serve in glasses. Maple Sugar Cakeâ€"One cup butter, two cups granulated sugar, one cup sweet. milk, three eggs, beat the whites and yolks separately, three cups flour, three teaspoons baking powder. Bake in two or three layers. Fillingâ€"Put one lb' maple sugar on stove and boil till it spins to a thread. Beat the white of one egg dry. Re- move sugar from fire and stir till it begins. to cool; do not let it go to sugar. Then add slowly the egg and three tablespoons confectionery sugar. Spread this between layers. For ic- ing the top, add a little more pow- dered sugar to stiffen. Maple Fudgeâ€"Three cups brown su- gar and two of maple. Place sugar on fire and let boil, stirring constantly until it ggums when dropped into cold water. One cup milk, half cup waâ€" ter and butter size of an egg should be added to sugar and all boiled toâ€" gether. then removing from fire, stir in one cup hickory or English walnuts”. Stir all till‘ it begins to suâ€" gar. {Then immediately spread in flat tins which have been well buttered. Fritters with Maple Syrupâ€"These are a delicious substitute for pan- cakes when the spring days are too wam for the latter. Make a "drop" batter thus: Yolks of two eggs well beaten, add half cup milk, one table- spoon butter, one saltspoonful salt and one of flour. \V'hen ready to use,add the whites of the eggs, beaten dry. leith‘ a large tpoon, drop into hot, deep lard. They will form balls. Leave in fat till brown and thoroughâ€" ly done. ll‘est by opening one. Serve with maple Lyrup, while fritters are hot. _+__ BETROI‘HALS IN NORWAY. â€" A Young Couple Exchange Rings ns Soon as They Become linsngrd. In Norway, it is customary for a young man and maiden to exchange rings directly they become engaged. forward each wears the circlet which proclaims him or her to be no longer free. This is a universal custom, but among the poor, silver instead of gold rings are used, sometimes filigree, sometimes . solid metal. Norwegian wooings are apparently happy, but they are certainly " long a-doing," for an engagement that lasts but a year or two is considered Indeed, Norwegian engageâ€" ments frequently last for a decade or more, while one of seven years is considered of quite moderate length. The reason is not that Norsemen are laggards in love, but that their laws do not allow. a man to marry until he is a householder. The also permits only a specified number of dwellings to be built upon any piece of land, and as the number is a very small one in proportion to the. dimenâ€" sions of the land, the result is that early marriages are seldom possible. By his ring one may as surely know aNorwegian to be either betrothed or married, as one knows an Englishâ€" wocman to be: a wife by the plain gold circlet on the fourth finger of her left hand. But he is not. content merely to wear a rim-g as a symbol of his betrothal; he announces the fact to the world in [general by having his fiancee's name printed beneath his own on his visiting cards as soon as the engagement is an accomplish- ed fact. in w â€"â€".__. SCAVENGER HEN. " The eggs of a scavenger hen are not fit to be eaten," says Dr. J.II. Kellogg, writing in Modern Medicine. "My attention was called ‘to this a number of b‘ears ago. A lady said she could not eat our eggs. She wanted “sunflower eggs.‘ I asked her what she meant by that, and she said. that an old German at home fed his chickâ€" ens on punflo'wer seeds, and that the eggs were remarkably sweet. Some of the eggs were sent for. and this was found to be true. Eggs do pan take of the nature of the food which has been eaten. \Vhen chickens are fed on dead calves. dead hogs, or other dead animals, their eggs” will paf'takn of the strong, rank flavors that they have swallowed with their food. cream dry, add’ to this one cup maple syrup and one tablespoon powdered sugar. Flavor with vanilla. Beat all "n' ‘ ’ Allâ€"KS. NATIVES ARE EQUALLY ZEALOUS‘ AT fl Mystery Surrounds “any of the Wrcclisâ€" Hululruls 01' Flnc Vessels and Thun- sands of Seamcu and Passengers Llc In [he been \Vaters of Ille Eastern (‘nnih The rugged coast of Newfoundland seems to possess some mysterious in- fluence upon the shipping that freâ€" q‘ucnts these waters. Its rock-ribbed eastern seaboard is lined with the ruins of hundreds of fine vessels and the bones of thousands of seamen and passengers lie in the deep waters about it. There is a mystery, too, about many of the wrecks. One day" a ship is seen sailing safe on her way. The next day, perhaps, fragments come ashore to tell of her fate, but the man-oer of her loss may never be known The recent mysterious loss of the steamer Luccrno is acase in point. About the some time as the Lucerne and a few miles nearer St. John‘s, a schooner or square-rigged sailing craft, met her doom under equally mysterious circumstances. No clue has been obtained to her identity. All that is known is that her wreckage i-n splintered forum strews the shore of Blackhead. three miles from St. John‘s. Another mystery Bacal-icu, where the identified Lucerne with went down, was the loss of the steamer Lion, fifteen years ago, She left St. John’s for Trinity, seven hours' run. On a bright, clear winter’s night she disappeared and the body of a woman passenger, floating On the tide the next day, was the solo eviâ€" dence from. then until now of her taking off. A few years later the same locality c-hmniioled another mysterious dis- appearance, that of the schcorner Em- meLi-ne. Slhe bound from St. John’s to Twi‘llingate, carrying a lot of fisher folk. She was seen by an- other vessel, GOING THE CONTRARY WAY, as she made for the entrance to Baca- was li‘eu Tickle, oir Strait, which separates the islet from the mainland. That iwas about 10. p.mt. and the next morning some raffle of deck gear was washed ashore, that being the sole proof that death had come to all on board. It was six years ago that the Bri- tish cargo boat Calietro, from Liver- pool for Baltimore, missed her reckon- ing in the fog and crashed into the promontory that marks the extent of Bacaliiveu peninsula. She became a total loss and three of her men met a watery grave, but‘ the remainder of her people, including the captain‘s wife, made their way to shore. They were Well receirvcd and kindly treated but their belongings and those of the ship Were regarded as legitimate spoil by the coast folk, who look on a wreck as a merciful intervention of Providence in their behalf. Promptâ€" ly was the shin looted, from keelson to truck, and everything portable was CICan‘eyed to some secure hiding places, while what could not be casi- ly moved was hacked into convenient pieces for transport, or smashed inâ€" to fragments for some trifling' gain. When a Magistrate was despatch- ed to the scene with a posse of police to compel restitution and punish the offenders, the mother of the ring- leader waited upon the Judge with an ingenious plea for mercy; “Oh, Judge, don’t be too hard on the Poor boys!” she said. "’Tis not often they get a chance at anything \Vhy did them steamer people keep so close to the shore, puttingr tempta- tion in tlhe. way of poor people?” The Judge was callous, and a SENTENCE 0F SIX MONTHS in the penitentiary gave the \vreckers ample opportunity to cogitate on the unwiisdom of giving :way to such temptations in future. A few miles distant a large Norâ€" wegian bark in ballast was driven ashore in a fierce gale. The crew plr‘O‘mpily scrambled ashore and left her to her fate, glad to escape with their lives. “hen the storm abated the fishermen from the neighborhood assembled in force 'and stripped her. Again was the Magistrate dcspatehâ€" ed with his minions. and again was swift and sure justice administered to the offenders. 0n th.i-.1 occasion it was the elderly father of one of the strapping young fishermen who pleaded for his erring offspring. “I don’t know what the Almighty can be thinking of at all,” he com- mouted‘ “filrst he sends us a bad fishery and now he sends us a damned Norwegian full of rocks.” Obviously from this view of it. the looting was of no account. It is a strange mioral code thch 1 fisher folk have. Ther.n is no danger mo great for them to brave to rescue the unforrtunates on a wreck. The best in a fishea‘mun's house is now [too good for the castaway. Yet thr very men will then board aderelicr and loot her with a thoroughness be» gotten of long practice. At the me time they will respect the suite”- kitbag-as religiously as a sacred cir.~ blemt At another point a large French bark. buffeted by adverse w-Eind' drifted near the shore. The crew he'xn-g without food. launched thri- boat. and rowed shoreward, seeing which six of the settlers put off an: boarded her. Overjoycd with their prize, they drank generously of A JAR. Oil“ BRANDY, which they found in the cabin. Sleep succeeded, from which they awoke to find their boat broken adrift and themselves confined on a ship which had not a crust. Incredible misery was their: portion: for six long daye. when they at last succeeded in boat- into a barber. When the, liii; North German.stcnm- shi-p Herder was last near Cape Race a few years ago the natives actually burned \\':h:ilebon.e worth $15,000 a ton to obtain light to save. leather valued at 20 cents a pound. When the Arbela’s cargo was being salvaged they ruthlessly slmashcid in pieces crates of the dainticst of glassware for table use to get out two cases of Fronmh prayer books, worth about 25 cents each. 'I‘.hlr(3€ men in a nearby harbor once got ashore a piano, and having no idea of its value or how to dispose of it, tried to solve the. difficulty by the Solomonâ€"like expedient of sawing it into three pieces. The Grasbrook wreck enabled the musical talent of a long stretch of coast to be cul- tivated through the medium of a deluge. of German ctmcertinas, and the loss of the IInnovcri-an in 1800 provided the shore with such a stock of (llifilcago canned meat ’tbat it is said it is still a‘ staple article of diet t’h-ere. â€"â€".â€"- TELEGRAPH ACROSS AFRICA. â€"â€"I . The Survey for the Line Has Reached the Heart. of the Dark Continent. The telegraph lime which Mr Cecil Rhodes is extending from Cape Town to Cairo is making excellent progress. The line, stretched on :short iron poles has now reached the neighborhood of the Zambesi River and the surveyors who are selecting the route are far in advance. It has been decided to run the line up the east coast of Lake Tanganyika as far as Ujiji, whence it will be carried northâ€"east to the south coast of Victoria Nyanza; then it will be built along the east coast of that lake and into the little known country west of Lake Rudolf, and fin- ally will skirt the western frontier of Abyssinia and descend the Nile. Some people may wonder how a telegraph wire can be pushed through a barbarous country and be kept in condition for business. It is a com- paratively simple matter. The scheme for safeguarding the wire is that which Stanley suggested long ago. Native chiefs all along the route are subsidized to keep the wire in proper position. As far as it ex- tends through their territory they must see that the wire is kept off the ground and in its proper place on the poles. They are well paid for their services if they {fulfil their duty, but of course receive nothing if they neglect their charge. It is therefore to their interest to keep the wire in good condition. This system has been found to work” well on the Congo and in other parts of Africa where it has been tried. , __+_ SAND AND THE SUEZ CANAL. .â€" 4 Plant That Is Preventing Sand From Filling lip the ( hanuels. One of the problems which has giv- en the management of Suez Canal much trouble is that of the sand that blows into it, adding to the dredging expenses. A considerable number of plants have been tried in the effort to fix the sands so that a comparatively small quantity would be blown into the canal. All of these plants have failed except one, which, it is now believed, will be quite effec- tive in keeping the sand in place. This large plant is the casuarina tree. It thrives in the southern hemi- sphere, and grows well on the sand banks that [skirt the Suez Canal. It not only survives intense drought, but also excessive humidity, which is important, as the northern part of the canal is liubject to inundations at some periods and droughts at oth- er seasons of the year. The. roots of this tree penetrate the sand so deeply that they tap suhâ€" terranean sources of water. Many of the trees planted twenty-five years ago have thrived so well in their new habitat that they are now over forty feet in height. All who have studied the problem of sand fixation are cer- tain that this tree will offer import- ant resistance to the movement of sand along the canal. Steps are being taken to plant it extensively. _â€".__ ENGLISH KINGS. Edward is the favorite name of Engâ€" lish Kings. Reckoning the three be- fore the Conqueror. there have been 10 of them. Henrys come next with eight, and the Williams and Georges divide the honors with four each. There have been since the Conqueror three Richards, two James and two Charles. Only one King has been named John, and only one Stephen. + TEST FOR DEAFNESS. A novel and curious test for deafâ€" ness or approaching deafness has jus: been described by a Paris specialist If the ’handle of a vibrating tuning fork be applied to the knee or other bony portion (if-the human frame, the sound cannot be heard by the person who possesses an unimpairedl ear, but if the ear be attacked by disease, thf‘l‘. the note can be heard distinctly. Ll MElilll‘ nL‘ minim. NEWS BYafgfilhlgBPOElggf-lgflfl BllLI/ hâ€"d Record of Occurrences In the Land ‘l'lul Reign-u Supreme In line Commercfll “‘«rld. Thc'rc. are 56 English teetotal mayors. ‘ 5,860 tons 01f salmon, \votr'tlh £640,000 .5 Britain’s yearly take. . London has 1,800 acres of parks; Dublin about 40 acres less. The war in South Africa is estimat- ed to cost £1,250,000 a week. 'l‘.lic King and Queen are going to add a new wing to Sandringham. The value of the pictures in National Gallery, £1,250,000. 'I here are 1,000 vess'els which cross the Atlantic ocean regularly every month. More than a million people are treated in the hospital! of London each. year. . Lelm-sterslrire is the greatest gran- ;te producing county in the United K;ngdom. The will of Captain Lord Kensing- ton, who died in South Africa, is on- tlefred at £711,218. The British Empire has increased dulrimg 't'he century at the rate of two acres per second. It costs on an average £40 to put out a fibre in London, and £138 to ex- tung'uish one in New York. Official returns show that last year Liverpool’s imports” and exports ex- ceeded London's by £15,000,000. The lawn at Buckingham Palace is large eno'ug'h- :to allow ample room for over 2,000 men to manoeuvre. , Khaki cloth is out of fashion in England, the tailors offering quanti- t-zes of it “at a ruinous discount." , Great firitain spends £123,866 9; year on the British Museum. The salary of the principal librarian is £1,500. The birth rate is falling all over England, having gone down from. 35 to 29 per 1,000 in London, where it is lower than for fifty years. Clairvoyants, palmists and fortune. tellers are workmg overtime in the west end of London. Society ladies have gone "gyte" over them. The late Mr. Robert Art‘hington, the "m’ncr millionaire" of Leeds, spe-~ cifically bequeathed £2,000 to the Free Ulurch of Scotland for Indian missions. Twentyâ€"six per cent. of the entire population of the world lives under the Union Jack. nine per cent. under Russian rule, six under French, and nearly six under American. Lord Roberts has said of the term parance movement that it has added what was equal to two battalions of the effective strength of the Indian army. or a gift of £40,000 a year. There is, perhaps, no royal family in the ymrld the members of wh'ch are so charitable, so genuine and dis- criminating in ihxll‘ charity as the members of the royal family of Brip- tam. IT'lie annual report of Vickers, Son & Maxim, shipâ€"builders, officially states that the directors have never had any intention of proposing amal- the London, is about gamati'o'n with certain American firms. Ileaton Park, Manchester, the seat of the Earl of \Vlltcn, has been purchased by the London syndicate for £240,000. It is proposed to corn veirt a portion of the demcone into a residential part, and to devote other portions to tenements. S): ‘William Huggins, who succeeds Laird Lister as: president of the Royal Sioei'ety, shares} with Sir Joseph Hooker, a past president, the record clt' having received three of the so- ciety's gold medalsâ€"the Copley, which is the highest the society can give. the Ruinford and the Royal. The Queen pieced Lady Lockhart, the widow of the late commander-in- c-hicf in India, among that limited body of distinguished ladies who wear the Cross of India. The Queen's sym- pathy with» Lady Lockhart in her grit-f was very marked, and it caused the greatest satisfaction in India. The greatest depth at which mining operations are carried on in Great Britain is 3,500 ft.â€"â€"at the Pcndleton Coll-Lry, near Manchester. In the Lake Superior district this depth has been greatly exceeded, the Calumet :md Hecla copper mine having a depth of 4,900 ft. Azt Mons, in Belgium, :1 colli‘e‘ry is being worked at adepth of nearly 4,000 ft. ___.__ OCEAN SUNSHINE. \thn the run is pouring down its rays upon the ocean at noonday none of them penetrate to a depth of over 200 feet. Could a diver descend to that depth he would find himself shrouded in darkness as profound as though he were immersed in a sea of ink. _+~ HADN’T OCCURRED TO HER. ~ Mrs. Newedâ€"‘I‘here, I have just fine ished a letter to mamma, but I can‘t think of anything to put in the post- script. Mr. Newedâ€"Then. my dear, is no cccasion to add on". at all. Mrs. Nuwedâ€"That': c). I never would have thought. of taut. there