A Discriminating Petition

The story that Causeur told last week about the country parson who prayed for rain to such purpose that on the following Sunday he had to pray to have it stoppei, reminds a clerical friend of One he once heard from Hon. E. B. Washburne, late minister to France, who youched for its truth. It was in Scarborough, Me., a place famed for fish, but not for the richness oí its soil, although about one-half its population manage to keep body and soul together by farming. There had been a long drought, and one Sunday, when a clergyman had come by way of "exchange" was to preach, one of the deacons, having referred to the "dry spell," suggested that a petition for rain was desirable. "The soil's rather thin, isn't it, Brother B ?" said the minister. "Rather," answered the deacon; "but we need rain." The good man took his place in the pulpit, opened the morning service, and, when the proper time came, said, "O, Lord, thy servant is instructed to pray that thou wilt send rain to this land ; but thou knowest, O Lord, that what it wants is dressin '" The Woman's Education Association of Boston have opened a cooking school. Girls who wish to be professional cooks, or women who wish to use their knowledge in their own families, get six lessons for $1.50. Their teacher ia Miss Parloa. Cruel. - Fair one (during an interval in the valse) : "You're very fond of dancing, aren't you ?" Brown: "Yaas, I go in for it a good deal." Fair one : "I wonder vou don't learn !"- Punch. The latest sensation in Paris is Miss Cora, "the lions' bride." She claims to be an American, and lives in a den with hyenas, bears, lions, and other f erocious beasts. Waterproof glue may be made by boiling two ounces of isinglass in a pint of skim milk, until the required consíhIubc is Maimed.