Two Hundred Years Ago

Dame Betta's bent shoulders and hands hardened by toil told very plainly of her li f e of bondage. A thatched roof. a clean floor, a larder scantily supplied, and garinents of the coarsest. Strangely enougli thia poor widow had the cheeriest heart in the world. WJien others were sad, she was briirhtest, with ever a comforting word or deert of kiudneas. In times oí deepest poverty, she was never without flowers in her window, and sweet-smelling herbs tied ,to the beam over her floor. It wa8 wonderful how all dumb creatures loved her; horses and donkeys piïcked up their ears when slie plodded along with a bunch of fagots on head, sure of a wisp of straw or a handf ui of moss. Rough doga licked her hand and turned their heads for a loving pat; wild birds nesting near sang sweetly over the crumb of black bread, or kernel of wheat that never failed theni. Uut one day scalding tears came to Dame Betta's eyes; her son's wife died, leaving a very "strange baby-boy to be loved and cared for. In Nuremberg, that old, old city, never bef ore had been seen sucha child. All the old cronies, Betta's neighbors, said such a deformity could never live, but if it did, of what account to any body could it ever be. No wonder all tongues were busy, for baby Max had neither hands, feet, legs, or thighs; there was just the body of a baby with something like cut-off arms growing from, the shoulders, and a beautiful head. Dame Betla liad her cry out, theu folding the little one iu her arms, prayed silently, and oh so tervently, that great patience and great love might ever dweil in her heart for this pooichild, for she kuew that he would never creep or walk like other babies, and oh, how will it be, she asked herself, when he is no longer a child in years 'i Before Max had outgrown the rude peasant eradle where he had slept and played for more tban three years, Dame uetta liad round out what a sweet and loving soul he liad; liow intelligent were the large blue eyes, and how even her simple psalm-singiiig touched him to tears. It seemed as if the grandmother's love for all tliings bright and beautiful had come into the baby's soul, as if the little one was living her life over again; the joy it was to Dame Betta cannot be tol-J, and with more Uowers and new singiug-birds, 3he tried hard to make his poov life one of pleasautness and calnswntent. Many strangers looked in at their humble home. One day, a flute-player strayed in; Max listened entranced; fiom that moment his mind was made up; play lie must, or die. Af ter years of intense and patiënt study, we find him quite at home with flute, dulcimer or trumpet, attraeting crowds, who were no less interested in the applieation of curious little machines, designed by himself and so arranged, as to give him complete mastery over all these Instruments, and he played with the touch and fervor oí' ona long accustomed to them. Dame Betta's witliered hands were now heaped with gold, the lowly home was exchanged for more fitting apartments, and life began to look easy for them both. In the aceotiiplish inent of writingand drawing, this strange little man became a proflcient; for these, also, the oddly devised machines were called into requisition. He had more orders than he could flll, and there may still be found his own portrait exquisitely flnished in vellum. Dama Betta lived to see her beloved Max "a famous man," well to do in the world and surrounded by friends. Max died before he was flfty, proving how much can be accomplished with patience and energy even agatnst fearful odds. A Memphis darkey stole a mulé not long ago iu payment of wagns which ie could not colleet from the owner. Upon being arrested he sent for a láwyerwho had saved him from prison mee before when the law was after lim for stealing bed-clothes. The lawyer reminded his quondim cliënt that i fee was still due for services in the aed-clothes ca3e, and refused to help iim further until that was paid.'Why, sosa," exclaimed the disconsolaíe darLey In a last attempt to touch the lawfer's heart, "I stole dat mulé 'specially to sell him and pay you." At laat accounts he was atill without a legal adviser. Never before was it so uecessary to open up new flelds for American agricultural and manufactured producís. The extensión "of 'American cominerce interests all classes of people. New markets to absorb our surplus products means flrmer prices, steadier demand and better proflts at home. The extra)rdinary increase in productivo capaci;y going on demands the outlets proDosed to be furiished by.the steamship ines. EnglanJ is liberal to her shipling interests. France pays her shipjuilders twelve per cent on the gross cost of the vessels built by them, but we stand still and clutch our pennies, while foreigu powers run away with our ocean trafile.- North American Manufacture)'.