thrown upward several feet. These lesser 
eruptions are continued at intervals of sev¬ 
enty or eighty minutes, a whole day some¬ 
times passing before the Great Geyser’s full 
power is manifested. Then a report louder 
than usual is heard; the water in the basin 
is yet more deeply agitated; the tube boils 
of the great Napoleon, which attracts many 
visitors. 
LIFE BUILDERS, 
troruttonal 
J$Y ANN IK HERBERT. 
FORESTS OF THE SEA 
How tho busy builders throng! 
Ever coming, ever going. 
Day by day their great walls growing 
To tho hammer’s ringing song; 
Whether reared on Fashion's highway, 
Or on dose and crowded by-way, 
Still are homos for men upfiprtnglng, 
Still Is labor's anthem ringing, 
Whe.ro the workman piny* his part, 
Stout of hand, and true of heart. 
POOR READERS 
The. sea has not only its mountains, its 
fountains, and streams, its forests with their 
peculiar plants, their splendor of col¬ 
or, their lovely (lower gardens and 
extended prairies; it has its land¬ 
scapes, that are more splendid and 
fairy-like than any that are to be seen 
on the earth. Let us take the sea fire 
garden for example. It grows in sucli 
a beautiful form, and its color is so 
lovely, that those who have seen it 
growing out under the water say that 
it surpasses their powers of descrip¬ 
tion. 
The fire gardens at the bottom of 
the sea stretch over the prairies of the 
sea, and climb up the mountain sides. 
They are covered over with the beau¬ 
tiful gold • colored coral moss. Its 
leaves wave to and fro with the cur¬ 
rents of tin; water, and the long 
branches are agitated sometimes with 
the great storms that pervade the 
bottom as well as the surface of the 
seas. The largest forest in the world 
is in the Sea of Saragossa, between 
the Azores and Antilles, and is six 
rjt times larger than Germany; so that 
Columbus needed fourteen days to 
■ sail over it. 
There is a species of torture not spoken ages, under twelve 
of in “ Fox’s Book of Martyrs.” It is the Exercises in rein 
unutterable agony of having a poor reader pbyaro adapted to 
seize your last journal or magazine, and seat j skillfully managed 
himself to edify you (save the mark!) by 
reading its contents aloud. Oh, the words 
mutilated until no resemblance to their fair 
proportions remains, and your brain is racked 
almost to death with trying to make sense 
of the conglomeration of words 1 Oh, the 
commas aud periods run over without pity, 
to say nothing of the sonorous, untiring 
voice, which adds the last drop of misery 
to the cup! 
1 know a man who sustains the relations 
of husband and father, with tho respect of 
the community, hut whose youth, alas! was 
spent in manual labor, and not In the halls 
of learning, and whose hobby is reading, 
and whose listeners are much aggravated 
between the innate sense of respect toward 
the head of the house and their sense of the 
ludicrous, when the weekly mall is being 
read. In vain is the rattling of tea dishes 
and other housekeeping implements to 
drown the laughable but mortifying render¬ 
ing of the “ King’s English.” All in vain 
the suggestions of nervous headache, or the 
disinterested offers of some cultivated hearer 
to relieve him a.while, lie is not weary, 
and to convince you rambles along again, 
without regard to rhyme, reason or rhythm. 
And t his leads me to speak of a fact l have 
noticed—that reading is a branch of educa¬ 
tion much neglected in all our schools; and 
many a student who prides himself on his 
knowledge of other things, is hardly a re¬ 
spectable reader. And yet how important 
if is that one be able to read well; how 
pleasant to sit about the table, busy with 
knitting or sowing, aud have a good reader 
with a good book entertain you in such a 
way that it is like reading it for yourself, 
and while the. words full ou your ears in the 
carefully modulated voice, your mind takes 
in the whole meaning almost without effort. 
Boys and girls, while you do not neglect 
other studies, endeavor to become good 
readers. It is not difficult, and will be the 
source of much enjoyment both to yourselves 
and others, and will save you much mortifi¬ 
cation of spirit, perhaps, at some future day. 
Berry Briar. 
Thus, with deeper mennliiK frnuffht, 
Viewless muntlotm all are rearing, 
On their shadowy walls appearing 
All the work our hands have wrought 
Though wo build for song or story, 
Carve out cross or Crown of glory, 
Silently, and very slowly, 
Build we on funnjlutlon lowly 
Laid with word, or deed, or pen, 
Hidden In the hearts of men. 
Therefore should you build, my friend. 
Nobly, with high scorn refusing 
Low aims offered for the using. 
Doubtful ways to some good end ; 
Write above life's archway golden 
These strong words of knighthood olden 
" Belter stent/ truths un/earing 
Titan a ttf. inltit smooth venturing; 
lllcher honor's empty purse. 
Than rt pilfered universe." 
Lay foundations deep and wide, 
Not Oil White sands, Idly drifting, 
Rut upon the rocks, uplifting 
All their grandeur o’er tho tide; 
Build mo wide that every other 
Struggling soul shall ho your brother 
Light a beacon for the weary, 
Tolling long through darkness dreary, 
That your towers may stuml complete, 
Crowned with beuedlotlons sweet. 
Memorizing. — While we do not 
believe in too much learning “by 
rote,” we are firmly convinced that a ‘<$4 
careful memorizing of many lessons 
is desirable. It fixes a habit in the 
mind which works beneficially in 
after life. Memorizing cultivates the lis 
memory,—disciplines it, and renders 
it more serviceable. Forgetfulness 
in later years, so complained of by 
some persons, would he avoided by 
tasking remembrance in school clays 
in the memorizing of a certain class of reci¬ 
tations very carefully. 
Let your work ho (air to see ; 
Trace the linos of grace and beauty 
Round the rugged front of duty. 
And where'er your lot may bo— 
Waysldo tool or marble palace, 
Cottage girt about with lilies— 
Make life something worth the living 
Use God’s gifts, whutn’er the giving; 
And Ills record puro shall tell 
You have bullded true and well. 
PROGRESS IN MADAGASCAR 
ing a royal chapel in her private 
grounds. It will be the finest build¬ 
ing on the island, and the first to he 
roofed with slate. She has sent three 
thousand men to open a slate quarry 
for this purpose. As is the custom in that 
country, which does not at once rise out of 
barbarism, the labor is forced, the men be¬ 
ing well fed with rice, beef, sugar, manico 
and now and then pineapples. The corner¬ 
stone was laid hist summer, in the presence 
of the Government. Only recently the 
Queen has had the enclosure surrounding 
the house of “ Kelimalaza,” the great nation¬ 
al idol, removed; and there, arc whispers 
that the idol himself will shortly meet with 
public execution. 
DOME OF THE HOTEL OF THE INVALID US. 
angrily; and suddenly there shoots upward 
a magnificent column of water, clothed in 
vapor of a dazzling whiteness, which, radia¬ 
ting at tho height of seventy or eighty feet, 
showers water and steam in all directions. 
A second and third eruption rapidly fol¬ 
low, and a few minutes later and the beau¬ 
tiful vision has vanished, leaving the basin 
completely dried up, and the water sunk to 
several feet below the rim of the shaft. Re¬ 
maining there quiescent for half an hour or 
so, it then begins to rise, fills tliu basin in a 
few hours, and overflowing, runs over the 
slope of tho mound into the White River. 
Soon the subterranean thunder is heard again, 
and the scene is repeated. aj£ t. has been wit¬ 
nessed regularly for eontujjp 
Bulhl your mansion cure, ray friend, 
From foundation Ml,one to rafter 
Build It for ilie vast Hereafter, 
Makiip/ strength anil beauty blend, 
Like u hint of grnea supernal, 
Like a dream of domes eternal. 
Where the shufts of sunrise quiver 
O’er tho homes beyond the River, 
On the streets by angels trod, 
In the olty of our uon 1 
THE GREAT GEYSER, 
tones for 
EAFE SCHAFFER 
Seal Rock, —Upon the ocean shore, half 
a dozen miles from San Francisco, arc two 
rugged outjuttings of rock, covering perhaps 
an acre in area, which are inhabited by a 
large colony of sea-lions, or large seals. 
These curious animals are protected in their 
right of property by statute law, and are 
wholly undisturbed, though a hotel tor visit¬ 
ors stands but a few hundred yards away. It 
is a most amusing sight to watch them in 
their clumsy efforts to climb to the highest 
pinnacles. 
BY BERTHA SIBLEY 8CKANTOM 
GENERAL INFORMATION. 
HOTEL OF THE INVALIDES 
CHAPTER V, 
(Concluded from Page SO last No.) 
So Rafis’s winter in Paris rolled away. 
Letters came to Claiu, and In the golden 
summer weather Raf is sat among the moun¬ 
tains in Switzerland and wrote sucli glowing, 
heart-wrapt words that Clara wondered. 
She knew the little French Count, had lost 
his suit, and that the German lover had re¬ 
turned to his thalers, aud she knew that 
John would join them for tho summer. 
And for Rafk that 
summer will ho eternal, 
— in its beauty and in 
its joy. John Monta¬ 
gue learned all the plm- 
s, f - ses of her happy little 
heart in twilight talks, 
rSaMr' in boating parlies by 
-r.t.moonlight on the lake, 
PHI .c|% in sunny climbings up 
1 tlK! rnounta * u sides, in 
^ ,e ten thousand hits 
of talk and song and in- 
c M <;nt that came into 
' their lives. And then 
an English party joined 
them, and there was 
' U * 1!lD< ^° me ’ c *‘' va * r ' c 
' 3^ -i would end, as lie smok- 
ed his cigar upon the 
verandah of tho little 
chalet at. Interlaclien, 
and listened to Emu; 
Rape’s praises of his 
darling. It was a calm 
October sunset,— and 
* their last day together. 
To-morrow the travel¬ 
ers went to Italy,— to¬ 
morrow John set his face towards Liverpool. 
“ This is sudden, is it not? ” asked Eliittj 
Rape, anxiously. “ You have not told 
Rape this. She will be so disappointed! 
And we leave so soon,—that is, we shall he 
home for the holidays again.” 
John’s face looked older. 
This was all he 
General information includes much of 
the best, kind of education, and the news¬ 
paper is its best text-hook. A taste for 
reading and a habit of investigation are in¬ 
dispensable for the furnishing of a well 
informed mind. Both must be acquired 
while young or they are not acquired at all. 
It seems strange that from a home ot 
seemingly narrow advantages should come 
hoys and girls who educate themselves, and 
appear, from their very 
youth, to be intelligent, 
“ posted,” and “up to 
the limes,” while from 
another, where wealth 
answered every de¬ 
mand, and the children 
spent all the allotted 
time at the hoarding 
school and college, come 
young men who cannot 
akin to dress or gossip 
care* 
We illustrate herewith one of the finest 
specimens of architecture in the world. The 
Hotel des Invalided, in Paris, was founded by 
Louis XIV. in 1671, and during his reign, 
and for many years thereafter, was a place 
of retirement for superannuated servants of 
court favorites, as well as invalided soldiers. 
Since Louis XV.’s time, however, it has been 
held to its legitimate use as a public institu- 
Moss Agates. —These are very plentiful 
along the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, 
and are found in abundance in the vicinity 
VIFAV UF HAMMONDSI’OKT, AND VICIJSTTFY, H'i'IbTUBICN CO., iN. V 
lion, and has sheltered only the poor and in' 
firm defenders of the Empire. 
A church, hospital, library, etc., are com¬ 
prised within it, and it has accommodation 
for about 5,000 men. The dome rises to a 
height of over three hundred feet, and from 
it were formerly hung 0,000 colors, taken 
from different, nations; hut these were taken 
down and burned by the invalids when the. 
allies entered Paris, to prevent their rc-eap- 
ture. The structure is rich in works of 
statuary, and its chapel contains the tomb 
of Church Buttes and Granger, 880 miles 
west of jmaha, in beds fifty yards wide, one 
hundred long, and one or two miles apart. 
sixteen or eighteen feet in diameter at the 
top, and narrowing rapidly to ten or twelve, 
which has been sounded seventy feet, and 
probably ramifies far into the bowels of the 
earth, Tins sides of this tube are hard as 
iron, and smoothly polished. 
Ill its habits the far-famed spring is fitful 
and uncertain. Now tranquil as the most 
placid pool, it suddenly wakes, as from sleep, 
with a terrific roar, and becomes fearfully 
agitated. Large bubbles of steam rise from 
the tube and burst, and jets of spray arc 
“ It is a sudden plan 
said. 
The young people came in from the moon¬ 
light. John heard Rape’s voice below. lie 
went down and stood in the doorway and 
