Figures Will Not Lie

bilt they may impel a tuiin to bloodshed. I have trureled thousands and llmusands of miles on rail i-oads in general, and the Michigan Central in particular, but he never tustened upon me until lust week. I had eft Colcago on the fust New Vork expres?, and dined sumptuously in the suiftly ntovtng caravansary. 1 enjoy tlie good Ihings of tliis life, and took mucli solid pleasure in the well-appuinted mc.il the sable servitor brought me, letting tlie cares of business slip away is tlie pleasant landscape sped by, toying wltli the entrees and dallylng with tlie dessert and Ieisurely elp'plng my wlne. A fr.igrant clgar from the dinlng-car's wellstocke.i coffers lulled my soul into the most plaeid contentinaiit, and alter a sound sleep in the palatlal sleeper, I rose refreshed to the enfoyment of' tlmt most glorious seene of all tbe world, NUgara, As the long train swept swlftly n round the ciii ve down to the brink of the Ilorseslioe Fall, the thundera of the cataracl seemed to shake the earth, and the grand picture buret suddenly upon myenrapturedgaze. Krom the riglit carne tumbling and foanimgand tunibling the great torrent of enicnild waters taking tiieir t] uu tr; into the abysg at my very t'eet. Beyond was the great white wall of the American Fall, below the boilinj,' caldron ibove the great cloud of spray rose, tinted by the f un as the smoke that overbanga the battle Held. Filled with the uncxainpled grandeur and raptare of the scenc, I involuntarily exclaltned, "What a inad, wild waste of roarlng waters!'" _ "A waste, indeed." f-aid a thin volee beside me. "Think of the Imrse power coutained in the ninety million tons that hoiirly poura over that precipice, 150 feet lililí and 8,100 feet in length." And he solved the arlttimetlcal problem at once, and procee'ded toglve me anotlter, while bis biirht eyes twinkled behlnd hlsjflasses. Now, I'm not fond of figures outside of my business, and I endeavored to turn hls mind to the beauty and grandeur of the scène. Uut in vain. He had calcnlated the peciuiiary animal vahío of NU Rgara's lost water-power aml to my horror had lished a note bonk from his pocket as we rulled onto the Cantilever bridge and caught another view of the cataract upthegorge. Now I admire this won derful steel 8t me ture for its strength anti beauty and tbe mcchanical genius involved in lts perfect construction. It is a doublé track bridge and as safe, I suppose as any in the world, hut I shuddered as the fiend at my elbow told me its dimensions, heisht. cost, and numeróos otlier iigures. And when he began to teil me of the ;'5,000 years of the retroeession of the falla to tbeir present situation, and the 10,000 more years requlred to draln Lake Erie ind make Búllalo au inland town, as we were gilding by the rapids' brink and looking down on eithcr side of Goat [sland, the Iiomicidal instinct was too strong and I cast tilín lurth into the swlft waters. True to his scientilic trainnijü he turned upon lus i ack as he rose to the surface, and lloated caluily to his fate, waich in hand to note aecurately the speed of the current. He is rone but remorse is not mine. The statistical flend is exorolsed from the Michigan Central, "The Niágara Falls Route."