f f talked of in new york the sport of ballooning the farmer given new cause to dislike the motor folk money made in performing seals to be applied to saving mens souls politics in new york NEW YORK balloon ascensions are becom ing so frequent in new york as to have ceased to be a novelty yet they are by no means corn mon place as not to excite interest last revealed the spectacle of a whole stock exchange of eager it somewhat overheated speculators turning into the street to sea a balloon sailing southward as it to invade the financial section wall street has scarcely ever been u excited by anything short of a real money crisis the balloon in question was on an interesting mission it appears that the balloon men on get ting down to the fine points of the science and leo stevens has been experimenting like dr thomas and others on sea anchors the pur u of the sea anchor is to diminish the danger which every balloonist in or near gw york has occasion to fear the danger of being carried out to sea by a wind unforeseen at the time of the ascent or by the failure of the valve rope the sea anchor Is a conical canvas bucket malch hangs at the ends of two ropes one of which supports it from a handle and the other which dumps it by attachment to the bottom with the bucket filled the flight ot the balloon is checked it the balloonist desires to be freed he has but to pull his dumping rope to empty the bucket which then leaves the water freely both stevens and dr thomas seem satisfied with their sea anchor ex perl ments though not unaware it may be sure that there Is many a slip mrs bensh ie has j idt been saying that ballooning Is an ideal sport for women but despite the tremendous vogue of ballooning in france the number of women in isea york continues to be comparatively small the automobile continues to hold the lead although it sometimes appears a scarcely less dangerous sport THE MOTH AND THE automobile speaking of automobiles reminds me that the new york state has just made a rather sensational announcement that the de va stating gypsy moth Is being brought into th state by automobiles at the first reading this sounds as it the dainty creatures were being imported in a fash conable way like so many pampered guests but the real purpose of the announcement is to remind the farmers of the state that ahe dreaded auto has a new power to annoy in that gypsy moth caterpillars cater ride uninvited nto our domain by becoming e so many human creatures at cached to motoi cars the gypsy moth is set forth as a ravenous leaf feeder that has been particular destructive in eastern massachusetts it feeds when pres ent in large numbers on almost every tree and shrub besides herbaceous plants its operations are particularly fatal to pine hemlocks and other evergreens since one defoliation of these trees Is invariably followed by death the more recently imported brown tall moth Is said to be especially destructive of fruit trees danger Is spreading in new york cries the entomologist by infer ence it Is spreading westward whether by automobile or otherwise it will find its way west ard unless something radical Is done to fight the cater which are declared to be particularly hard to dislodge and kill hundreds of thousands of dollars have been spent by new england fight lag the pests who came to massachusetts la 1868 the birds most useful in the fight are the yellow and black billed cuckoo the baltimore oriole the cat bird chickadee blue jay chipping sparrow and robin FROM SHOWMAN TO this city has just witnessed the extraordinary spectacle of a man for years devoted to the show business a master of his craft turning his whole time and fortune to the salvation of souls everybody I 1 suppose has heard of capt joseph george woodward master of the perform ing seals capt woodward s trained seala wee real wonders they played in a band they jug aled counted performed all manner of curious and singularly intelligent tricks they did every thing cue might say but speak it was no exah ger atlon to speak of them as the most intelligent animals on earth the seal Is notoriously intel agent but it was under woodward s astonishingly successful training that these seals made their hit these seals tor exploiting which woodward received a week have been sold tor 10 I 1 am told it this figure Is correct woodward now has a fortune of about 70 the whole of this sum the showman la to devote to his lifework the conversion of his fellowmen to the paths of religion every showman every circus player or vaudeville artist who has ever been associated with woodward has known of his religious trend and not one of these people will be found to say a word against his sincerity when woodward held a religious meeting between the sessions of a show nobody scoffed or it he did he remained to pray it was a habit of woodward to give away small bibles with certain pas sages marked these markings were not the same in every case and those who received the books soon discovered that in making the markings wood ward had been influenced by what he regarded as the particular needs of the person to whom he gave the gift that a man could follow the life woodward has here in new york and a other parts of the country without ridicule and without rebuff Is a curious and striking tribute to his sincerity and to his tact he Is now going to england to pursue there the work of an evangelist IN POLITICS ig game new I 1 everybody Is hard thinking learer than the is to know how lo cratic tickets will run for i for the etty well venti Is mr jerome s together but aps mr platt anty third birth all right except in some of his challenged his dell the talk ether to fight alon favorites is possibly far fetched but ed fellows before the tall campaign 1 over new governor or to reelect the present in ades of aspirants nothing has occasioned circles than the suns mysterious declare w york will be a democrat and that the e the next president of the united states thousands of answers have been offered alon tor a great reception to william jen and romping with his boys at oyster bay OF FASHION women are becoming more and more ingeni ous for instance they are doing without hats very largely at present and wearing feathers and other devices in their hair this may be because hairdressing Is becoming increasingly elaborate and expensive also the high coiffure la coming in higher and higher rises the crowning glory not in a simple pompadour aided by a single rat as heretofore but in one terrace of hair after another into a final gorgeous tuft it is wonderful is it not and then the elaborate bench petticoat fash ion is coming in the fancy petticoat that puts a premium on the lifted skirt it is no longer the fashion at the muddy place to lift both skirt and petticoat no the petticoat Is short and beamut tul more beautiful and expensive than the skirt and the dress alone la lifted this is the latest decree last here is the new fad foi hiring clothes certain feminine costumers have devised a plan by which they can rent dresses tor several weeks long enough for a stay at i fashionable watering place or at two or three tor that matter dresses so rented even if slightly soiled can be mended and pieced tor a new rental you don t get tired of your dress and you have a more expensive outfit than you coald otherwise afford to wear the owner gets a big profit out of a comparatively few rentals and gets the dress back with possibilities of remaking and reusing of costly lace etc moreover bridal gowns arc rented and frequently the bridal gown la only needed for aj single occasion and why buy onea the philosophy of thia scheme seems quite unanswerable to a man anyway philosophy or no pauo sephy the practice grows OWEN LANGDON