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Show MISCELLANEOUS. get it." He is a staunch Republican, and advises all visitors to "Vote for Talbot." He sings the whole of the song, "Oh dear, what can the matter be?" and has never been known to swear. THE ENGLISH IN ROME.-Rome is by far the most English city in Europe, and foreigners visiting the place or frequenting Roman society often wonder how it is that there is scarcely a Roman lady or gentleman who does not speak English to perfection. One of the reasons why this language is so much in vogue is that the mothers and grandmothers of many children born in Rome are or were of British extraction. If you happen to find yourself hunting far away from the capital with a field of some thirty Romans, you hardly hear a word of Italian spoken. The huntsman and the whip are English or American, and never dream of speaking Italian to those who follow the hounds. The Roman aristocracy is by far the most conservative in Italy, and the ambition of all young patricians to imitate the English aristocracy has largely contributed to the formation of a great conservative party. Men dress in the English fashion, ladies give tea d'Anglaise, people read English novels and English papers as if they lived in Belgravia or Mayfair. BEAVERS COASTING.-One of my friends in Iowa sends word that when her brother-now a General in the United States Army-was a boy, he was very fond of hunting, and a great favorite with the grown-up hunters. One of these took him on a bright moonlight night in winter to see a strange sight. The pair crept through the cold, clear air to the home of some beavers. At the dam which the beavers had built, the moon was reflected from the ice with a great glare, and, in this light, the lookers-on saw the beavers have a splendid game of coasting down a long slide, from the top of the dam to the ice-covered stream below. The old beavers gave the young ones rides on their broad, flat tails, all slid down as gravely as judges, and then climbed up to have another. They kept it up until one of the watchers sneezed. At this, the beaver sentinels sounded the alarm, and then all was still-excepting that the lookers on went away laughing heartily at what they had seen.-Jack-in-the-pulpit, St. Nicholas for April. TRUE COURAGE.-A woman's idea of true manly courage was imparted to a West Point cadet during commencement week a year ago, under circumstances which make her words worth recalling at this time when West Point is posing, as it were, for manly courage. A lady was chatting with a spruce cadet during the evening review, and inquired who the cadet might be who carried himself in a manner so straight and soldierly. She had unwittingly picked out the weak spot in the corps. It was Whittaker, the colored cadet, who, in addition to his "highly scented hair oil," had the effrontery to look as white as his "superiors" at the distance of a few yards. The cadet did not conceal the general disgust which the presence of the octoroon inspired among the members of the corps, and being questioned, explained the kind of treatment Whittaker received. "You pretend to be a gentleman," said the lady, "why don't you, of yourself, treat him with common civility, at least?" The cadet replied that he wasn't going to endanger his position among his fellows for the sake of a negro. "Oh, I see!" replied the lady, in tones of indignation, "when a West Point soldier faces the enemy it is mere physical courage, you haven't any moral courage!"-Tribune. DR. JOHNSON had a habit of eating very fast, and using his fingers in place of his fork. One day the cynic was dining with a company, when a young would-be wit remarked "Doctor, you remind me of Nebuchadnezzar." "Nebuchadnezzar?" replied the doctor, his mouth full of victuals-"ah, yes. That's because I'm eat with the brutes." TOOMBS AND JEFF DAVIS.-A good story comes to the surface at the expense of Bob Toombs of Georgia. During the war Jeff Davis visited "the front," and was at once assailed by Toombs. Said Bob: "Mr. President, I am a brigadier-general and senior in rank to Brigadier General McLaws. Yet he has 10,000 men under his command, while I have but 1,000." "Is that so?" said Jeff. "I will rectify it at once." And that very hour he commissioned McLaws a major general. BE YE CLOTHED.-Mayor Leone, of Monrovia, Liberia, prints the following advertisement in a local newspaper. "Municipal Notice-Whereas, There has been a great laxity in observing the law providing that all persons coming into the city of Monrovia be clothed, this is to require all Magistrates and conservators of the peace to immediately proceed to its rigid enforcement twenty days from the date hereof. Pantaloons reaching to the knee and native shirts or loose gowns are to be considered sufficient clothing within the meaning of the ordinance." TRANSPLANTING AT NIGHT.-A gentleman, anxious to ascertain the effect of transplanting at night, instead of by day, made the experiment with the following results. He transplanted ten cherry trees while in bloom, commencing at 1 o'clock in the afternoon. Those transplanted during the daylight shed their blossoms, producing little or no fruit, while those transplanted in the dark maintained their condition fully. He did the same with ten dwarf trees after the fruit was one-third grown. Those transplanted during the day shed their fruit, those during the night perfected their crop and showed no injury from having been removed. THEODOSIA BURR.-The fate of Theodosia Burr Alston, the beautiful daughter of Aaron Burr, has always been a mystery. She took passage on an ocean vessel and was never heard of again. And now comes an old sailor who confesses to his participation in the crime of murder and piracy. A man named Benjamin F. Bendick lately died in the poor-house at Cassopolis, Michigan, and before his decease he confessed that he was one of the crew of a piratical craft which captured the vessel "Patriot" on January 3d, 1813, and that the passengers and crew of the ill fated ship were compelled to "walk the plank." Mrs. Alston was among them. She arrayed herself in white and made the fatal walk with a Bible in her hand without a tremor. It was the dying sailor's lot to pull the plank beneath her. Her face haunted him ever afterward. A LEARNED PARROT.-A parrot in Bowdoin square, Boston, is master of a vocabulary of 200 hundred words, which he speaks with a distinctness truly marvellous. Among the many phrases which he has been heard to utter are, "Come over here and have some fun," "Polly is a nice old boy," "If you bite me, I'll give it to you." One day, when annoyed, he said to the cat that was in the habit of sharing his meals, "I'll put a bead on that old cat!" When he is naughty he is punished by being confined to his cage, which he calls being put to bed. On one occasion he said to an admirer, "I'd put a bead on you, and then I'll have to go to bed, and don't you ??" |