9 
known to every florist that a change of 
location, that is, a change of light, tem¬ 
perature, and soil (replanting), occasion¬ 
ally produces new colors, whence it may 
be deduced that an interrupted nutrition of 
the flower may, under circumstances, effect 
a change of color. We see no va id reason 
why the well-authenticated fact of the 
change of color produced by manuring with 
iron oxide, thereby changing the nutrition 
of the plant, should not be practically em¬ 
ployed by the liot-house gardener. Another 
very singular and successful experiment, 
in producing a change of color in a bird, 
has recently been made. A breeder of ca¬ 
nary-birds conceived the idea of feeding a 
young bird with a mixture of steeped 
bread and finely pulverized red Cayenne 
pepper. Without injuring the bird, the 
pigment of the spice passed into the blood, 
and dyed its plumage deep red. The cel¬ 
ebrated ornithologist Russ believes that the 
color of the plumage of birds might be 
altered according to desire, by using ap¬ 
propriate reagents .—August Vogel, in Pop¬ 
ular Science Monthly for October. 
THE OUTCAST. 
Out in the cold and pitiless snow. 
Lonely I wander, no where to go. 
In the home of the stranger the fire sparkles bright 
While I am perishing out in the night. 
O, once I was free from the curse and the stain. 
Which burdens my conscience and maddens my 
brain; 
Ere the base world deceived me and taught me 
to sin 
I was pure as those snowflakes the earth is wrap¬ 
ped in. 
Long ago in the freshness of life's morning dew, 
I loved and I trusted,—that heart proved untrue; 
And long ere I knew of the snares round me spread, 
I learned the dark pathway ot rain to tread. 
Then friends and companions all cast me away. 
For the alien and outcast no pity had they; 
But hating and loathing the once cherished heart. 
From the home of my childhood they bade me de¬ 
part. 
* : . jL ‘ » 
Then came years of sorrow, of anguish and pain, 
That smote all life's flowers that once bloomed 
so fair; 
For the world careth naught for the soul it hath 
slain, 
Nor the heart it hath blighted and cumbered with 
To-night I am left in the wide world alone, 
The cold earth my pillow, the dark street my 
home; 
Fond mother, above all this tempest so wild, 
O look down and pity your perishing child! 
—Roslein. 
NOTES AND GLEANINGS. 
Nearly 80,000 tons of barbed wire, or at- 
length of 500 000 miles, were manufactured in 
the United States in 1882. 
It will benefit lawns to let the grass* 
grow upon them without cutting from now until 
winter, for a protection to the roots during cold 
weather. 
One-half ounce camphor, one pound of lard,, 
and black lead enough to cover, mixed together 
and appli.d with a cloth, is said to protect iron 
work from rusting. 
There are 25,000 people employed in cigar- 
making in New York city. There are 827,000,- 
000 cigars and 230,000,000 cigarettes manufac¬ 
tured there yearly. 
“My dear,” said a fond wife, “when we weres 
engaged I always slept with your last letter 
under my pillow.” “And I,” murmured her 
husband, “I often went to sleep over your let¬ 
ters.” 
« 
Mary Wager-Fisher tells the readers of 
the Rural New-Yorker that a thorough 
sprinkling of salt water from a watering pot 
entirely freed her currant bushes from worms. 
IIow much preferable this would be to poison¬ 
ing. 
Our native herbs, catnip, spearmint, pen¬ 
nyroyal, boneset, &c., are universally known to 
be of much value in nursing and in the home- 
treatment of many disorders. See to it that a 
good supply is gathered and propsrly cured im 
bunches before they are injured by cold weather... 
The shortest letter ever written consisted off 
a single letter. A French poet once wrote to* 
Piron, the dramatist, the following two wordsr 
“Eo rus,” which G the Latin for “I am going; 
into the country.” Piron. not to be beaten iit 
the matter of brevity, wrote lack, “I,” which* 
in Latin signifies “Go.” 
To banish EATS, catch one and paint it with: 
gas tar all over the body, except the head; let 
him loose, and he will run through the hole©- 
and the rats all Lave in a hurry. Moles are 
easily dug out with a spad«, by a boy keeping? 
watch in the garden and when the dirt moves in* 
his burrow run the spade behind him and dig 
him out. 
care. 
