Timely Topics

I The Brooklyn bridge goos over tho site of President Washington' first of. ficial residenco in New York. "The house," it is said, "stoQd at the corner of Franklin square and Cherry strëet, a short distanco from the site of the Messrs. Harpers Brothers' great tab'ishment, and there, on the 29th of , May, 1789, Mrs. Washington held her first reception." m TriE contract between the state of Texas and a syndicate of Chicago capitalista under rfaich the lattcr were to build the State Capitol, receiving their pay in public lands, is about being terminated. The syndicate aro unable to dispose of sufficient land to settle: s to enable them to profit by their undertaking, and prefer to lose the $250,000 which is the penalty for non-performance of their contract, to fulölling it. _ Heke is a new scheme for catching moles, proposed by an Illinois farmer: Take two oldcow horns and place them point to point, torniug the hollows outward in the track of the mole, and then replace the earth over them. The mole will come along soon and crawl into the horn just as far as he can go, and remain there trying to get through, as ' he cannot turn round, and moles never go backwards. Scratch up your horns occasion ally and you will soon have your molo. Official l'fe in Washington has been nusually fata1. Ivot to mention the ragic deaths of Lincoln and GarSeld, f late years we havo seon Hunt, Gareld's Secretary of tho Navy, dwng alter a painful illness, while Minister to lussia, in a foreign land. Howe, rthur's first Postruaster-Gcneral, and i"olger, his first Secretary of the Treasry, died in office, and Frclinghuysen, is Secretary of State, a few weeks 'ter retiring to private life No w we ïave Gen. Grant in a precarious condion, and even Arthur'a health has been much broken. The Christian scientists of Boston are laiming that there is no longer any oubt as to to Gen. Grant's recovery. and that tho cause of the healing is the mind cure. Eiohtcen persons united tieir efforts, and he is, they asseí unousciously being cured by their occult ower. 'J hese pcople are not praying or him, or seeking divine help in his jehalf, but are silently thinking of him, nd the influence of their niinds unonsciously upon his mind is bringing lim into the "understandïug of God,'' nd this understanding harmonizas hig being, and so emancipóles liim from a alse belief as to the disea o. He simply needs mental treatment, and the mind ïcalers claim lo work through spaco and at a di tanee: physical i resence is not esscntial. They claim that there is no p erad ven tin re in his case now, they now that he will bc restored to hcalth. Herodotus tells of a young man who wenttomarry a king's daughter, but akina; too much win , slood himself en lis head and gesturcd violcntly with his egs. Whoreupon the br de's di gusted ather sent him away wiiU the rcniark hat he had "danced away hU mariage." A similar pass'on i'or base ball jroug'.t a young mati to grief in Westerá New York last Sunday. V hile waiüng at Ihe church with his bride for he minister, lie was atiracted by a game o' ba!l in the lot n ar by. Be ng a "champion'" h'mself wlien at home, ie could not n-sist the lemptation to ,ake a hand inii.il the pFi-acher appear. ed. When the bridcgioom put on his coat and hurried U his bride the elergyman, inslcad of paforming the ceremouy, gave him a treinentloui ieoturc for breaking lliö abbttth by ball-p'aying, and wound up by icfusing tomfttry him. The bride was 80 vexed that she wouldn't go to onotker, and the wedding is indefinitely postponcd. Twelve or tliiriecn ycars ago alad of 17 embezzled $li,O()o from his employer's store in New York. He was afnicted with so-called "friends" who spent his money or madu him spend it so lavishly that he, l.keso many others, had to resort to his cmployer'e bank account until discovery put him to iüght. He went to Memphis, "turned over a new ie:if,'' and jvas so honest and faitliful, so eo iragfious In ïtiyjng and keepitig the store opon during the whole of the yollpw fever piague in 1878. that bis onipluycr took him to Minneapolis w'tli liim, whero Ma conduct was without bleniish. lío had the full coufidenee of the lirm and plentiful opportunity of repeating his crime. But he never ditl iüid was on Ihe most friondly relations with the iinest people ín that city. Two yr-ars ago he was made a member of the firm, but the blow though long in suspense, feil upon him at last. His identity was discover3(1. Hc was aivc-i 1 and taken to New York to answcr lor his youthf uj ;rirne. "I write you calmly," he says In a note tohis partner, "bat my heart b broken, and 1 have no hope for the uture, Imade a bad break mul must mffer the penalty." The story is its wn lessón. . - ., An untinished brorz'i statufi r Chiéf Justica Chaso, by Clai k Mills, lias Icen -o'd as oíd niHt:t. Coke c mos from niiiP stn'os, !u! lVnns Ivanin previ uofts more ihan tb;1 ottn r pight c imbinod. Ttio wodiinsf if houtornuTPM h is ije come very coramon amona: 0u bUnioes men of the m t rrp(] . In Ciiina solriiir ai") piiil once i montli; in Spain, setnl-ccousiontvllj ; i" Tiirkoy, nev - h.anUy ever. The armies of K iropc c st tho nations of Europe, ia times of peace, nehrly $1,000,000,000 annually.