189G. 



TJIK AMh:nic.\y hek-keeper. 



135 



A Qentleinan of the Old School. 



President Krugci' lives up to Ins Puri- 

 tan priuciples. When iu Paris, he refused 

 all iuvitatioiis to go out ou a Sunday, 

 and he tiiought the costumes woru by 

 ladies at the op(Jru or parties very im- 

 modest. He said he could not think 

 how any lady who respected herself 

 could look at a ballot. The only books 

 he had ever read besides the Bible were 

 the "History of the Princes of Orange," 

 "History of the Thirty Years' War," 

 Motley's "History of the Dutch Repub- 

 lic," Macaulay's writings on William 

 of Orange and "The Pilgrim's Prog- 

 ress." He said that in the Transvaal 

 when a boy was sent to school he was 

 provided with a gun and a pound of 

 ammunition. He could th-^ bring home 

 a bag of game and deiend himself 

 Bgainst the Kaffirs, but the parents tried, 

 nevertheless, to make these self reliant 

 boys understand that the meek shall in- 

 herit the earth. 



Another story told of President Kruger 

 is that when he got home from his visit 

 to Europe he said England was well 

 enough, but the land seemed to be all 

 owned by somebody. Ouecoulduot even 

 go out into the country and sit down 

 under a tree to smoke his pipe but some- 

 body would come along and say that he 

 owned the laud and ask what the 

 smoker was doing there. — Buffalo Cou- 

 rier. 



Ducking Stools. 



Ducking stools are noticed as existing 

 formerly at Chester, Cambridge, Rug- 

 by, Southam, Coventry, Nottingham, 

 Southwell (Notts), Retford, Grimsby, 

 Scarborough, Hull, Beverley, Morley 

 (near Leeds), Ilkley, East Ardsley, 

 Craven, Manchester, Liverpool, Preston, 

 Kirkham, Burnley, Derby, Chesterfield, 

 Kingston-on-Thames and Leicester. Ex- 

 amples of the actual instrument seem 

 still to be preserved at Leominster, Ips- 

 wich, Scarborough and Leicester. The 

 latest recorded use of the ducking stool 

 (the designations cuckiug and ducking 

 were, of course, synonymous iu the days 

 of Queen Elizabeth) was in l'S09. It 

 was at Leominster, when a woman 

 named Jenny Pipes, alias Jane Corran, 

 "was paraded through the town on the 

 ducking stool and ducked iu the water 

 near.Kenwater bridge bv order of the 



magistrates. In 1817 another woman, 

 called Sarah Leeke, was wheeled round 

 the place in the same chair, but not 

 ducked, as, fortunately for her, the wa- 

 ter was too low. The instrument of pun- 

 ishment in question has not been used 

 since then. — Notes and Queries. 



A Soothing Car Ride. 



The latest cure for insomnia is cheap. 

 The remedy was suggested by an old 

 doctor to whom a despairing young man 

 had gone for advice. "Of course," said 

 the doctor, "I could give you drugs that 

 woHld put you to sleep, but in the case 

 of a young man that is to be avoided. 

 The reason you cannot sleep is your 

 nerves are unstrung. That does not nec- 

 essarily mean that you must put your 

 nervous system to sleep by the use of 

 drugs. What you want is a mild excite- 

 ment, that will lift your nervous system 

 out of the rut it has fallen into. The 

 best thing in the world to do that is a 

 trolley ride. Don't try to settle upon a 

 particular route. Just jurup on any car 

 that comes along. Don't even ask the 

 conductor where the car is going, but 

 just go along with the car. It will sure- 

 ly come back some time to the point 

 where you took it. If the route is eight 

 or ten miles long, so much the better. 

 One thing is certain — you will either 

 sleep during the ride or as soon as it is 

 over." — Philadelphia Record. 



Most Popular Novels. 

 The novel or story which has probably 

 enjoyed the largest term of popularity 

 is "Robinson Crusoe, " by Daniel Defoe, 

 published in 1719. This novel attained 

 great popularity from its first appear- 

 ance and is one of the very few that 

 have continued to be popular down to 

 the present day, or for more than 175 

 years. Defoe died April 24, 1731. The 

 next most popular works of fiction were 

 the Waverley novels of Sir Walter Scott, 

 published iu 18U-1831. So successful 

 have these novels been from then till 

 now that no fewer than 80 men have 

 been uninterruptedly engaged by one 

 Edinburgh firm for the last ejuarter of a 

 century iu producing them. Of Harriet 

 Beecher Stowe's novel, "Uncle Tom's 

 Cabin," published iu 1851, more than 

 a million copies iu English have been 

 eold. — Philadelphia Times. 



