1897 



THE AMERICAN DEE KEEPER. 



283 



rain, he puts his tarpaulin over his load, 

 a cover over his horses and a waterproof 

 coat ou aud starts off t6 matket. He 

 may go 50 miles' before he finds' a mar- 

 ket that suits him, or he may know in 

 advance just where he is going. You 

 do not often see anybody driving 90 

 miles through a rainstorm in the Unit- 

 ed States to find a market for a load of 

 hay, but it is not uncommon to see 

 farmers' wagons 40 or 50 miles frorri 

 home in France. They choose the wet 

 vpeather for that purpose. Their roads 

 ire just as good then as at any time. — 

 Philadelphia Times. 



standing and Sitting. 



David Slowpay — I shall bring you 

 tack those dark trousers to be reseated, 

 Mr. ,.Sui^. You know I sit a good deal. 



Mr. Smp (tailor) — All right, and if 

 you'll bring the bill I s^ent you six 

 months ago I will be please rl to itceipt 

 that also. You know I've stood a good 

 deal. — London Tit-Bits. 



Women Criminals In Rnssia. 



Russia's penal statistics show that in 

 the dominion of the tzar the women 

 criminals outnumber the men by nearly 

 50 per cent, just the contrary being this 

 ciase in other. countries. Most of thewo^ 

 men criminals are unmarried, and J^he 

 majority come from the laboring classes 

 iu the cities. •*"»-' 



The ancient ccppfr mines of Sinai 

 have just teen re-txnlored. These were 

 worked by the Egyptians or their slaves 

 7,000 years ago and ai e believed to have 

 been abaudcnecl about 8,000 years ago, 



A Spider's Web. 



It is hard to realize how small a spi- 

 der's web really is. A famous micrc- 

 scopist once maae some interesting com- 

 pariso'S of a cobweb with human hair. 



"I have otten compared the size of 

 the thread spun by full gro%\T3 spiders 

 with a hair of my beard," he says. "I 

 placed the thickest part of the hair be- 

 fore the microscope, and, from the most 

 accurate jurlgmeut I could form, more 

 than 100 of such threads placed side by 

 side could not equal the diameter of 

 one of such hair. If, then, we suppose 

 such a hair to be of around form, it fol- 

 lows that 10.000 threads spun by the 

 full crown spider, when taken tocether. 



will not be equal iu substance to the 

 size of a single hair. To this, if we add 

 that 400 young spiders at the time when 

 they begin to spin their webs are not 

 larger than one full grown one and 

 that each of these minute spiders pos- 

 sesses the same organs as the larger 

 ones, it follows that the exceedingly 

 small threads spun by these little crea- 

 tures must be still 400 times slenderer, 

 and ccusequeutly that 4,000.000 of 

 these minute spiders' threads cannot 

 equal iu substance the size of a single 

 hair," — Chicago Record. 



When the Sea Was Fresh Water. 



The ocean was once merely brackish, 

 ind not salt, as it is now. This was 

 when the earth was in its first youth 

 and before there was any land showing 

 at all or any animal life, in the water.. 

 At this time the water was gradually 

 cooling from its original state of steam, 

 and the salts were slowly undergoing 

 the ch'adge from gases into solids. Then 

 cjame the appearance of land, and later 

 on rivers, which gradually washed down 

 more and more salts, while at the bot- 

 tom of the ocean itself chemical action 

 was constantly adding more brine to 

 the waters. At present it is estimated 

 there are in the world's oceans 7,000,000 

 cubic miles of salt, aud the most aston- 

 ishing thing about it is that if all the 

 salt could be taken out in a moment 

 the level of the water would not drop 

 one single inch. — New York World. 



' A Cool Specimen. 



"When I was out west, "said the 

 maker of tools, "a young man registered 

 at the hotel and set iu to make things 

 lively. The first night he played poker 

 frith the landlord and cleaned him out; ■ 

 the next night he came home drunk and 

 tvhipped the cabman; the third night 

 he w«nt up aud down the halls, singing 

 at the top of his voice. In the morning 

 they asked for the key of his room and 

 gave him his lill. He looked it over 

 and then said with surprised pathos, 

 'Don't you n ake any discount to minis- 

 ters?' "— Haidware. 



Agriculture In Paraguay. 



Agriculture has been about the sole 

 industry of Paraguay since the estab- 

 lishiEf^nt of ilit^ Je.suit missions in 1557. 

 All the field work is done^t^ women, i 



