Weekly Mail

THE STERNER SEX. Ave ye good men and true ? —6hukspcare. REFLECTIONS. The fellow who lives on his wits frequently must put up with poor wittles." Good laws are of little avail when bad men are depended upon to enforce them. There is nothing in which men more de- ceive themselves than in what they call zeal.— Addison, A great many men who profess to have religion do not show it by the way they treat their horses. A selfish man's heart is no bigger than his coffin-just room enough for hiiiiself.-Dr. Guthrie. It is hard to reconcile the two facts that the Lord made man and that the Lord never made a mistake. Pessimism is the philosophy with which we regard our neighbours, and optimism that with which we regard ourselves. The world owes all a living, yet no man can collect the debt unless he pulls off his coat and takes it from the world's hide. GIVE IT UP. 011 why does it seem so exceedingly funny When the other man bets and gcti rid of his money ? Don't wait until your life is in danger before you pray. You will botch the job unless you have had previous practice. There are not half so many disappointed men as there are those who do not know what they want and are morbid in consequence. The man who does not complain makes more friends than the man who always has a grievance. The dead martyr is the only kind that is ever oanonised. RESIGNATION. Philosophy is something which we find In every walk of life; it is not rare; And it enables us to be resigned To all the ills our neighbours have to bear. A MAN'S SEVEN AGES. The seven ages of man The first tooth, the first boots, the first years of long trousers, the first shave, the first proposal, the first baby, the first grand-child. JUST So. Who's always true to us ? Woman, woman. Who stuck like glue to us since the world began ? Who buys evary dr. ss she will To make the neighbours feAI quite ill? But who has to pay the bill ? Why man, poor man. NEW SOCKS. A pair of new socks feel very comfortable to the feet, but the man who wears them before they are washed makes a mistake. Hosiery should always be washed before being worn, as the washing shrinks the threads and makes the socks wear as long again, besides preventing the feet being injured by the colouring. When put on before washing they stretoh out of shape, and can never be restored to the original form. A MAN WE ALL DISLIKE. We all dislike the unimpressionable man. He is generally a flaccid, vacuous person, with a clammy band and a clammy disposition. He chills us by his misanthropical and passion- less countenance. He replies to our most cheerful advances by growling, Humph! When you favour him with your choicest jests and anecdotes he doesn't smile. When you bombard him with sarcasms he doesn't wince. He stares at you with fishy, unsym- pathetic eyes, and all your brilliant thoughts congeal in your brain. AN IMPROVEMENT IN TIES. A very good idea has been adopted for ordinary ties. The advantages of it will at once be seen from the accompanying sketch. The tab on which the ring is fastened being of elastic, the tie will fit anyone. The front is never disarranged in fas- tening. FREEDOM FROM DEBT. a Let no young man (said the late Horace Greeley) misjudge himself unfortunate, or truly poor, so long as he has the full use of his limbs and faculties and is substantially free from debt. Hunger, cold, rags, hard work, contempt, suspicion, unjust reproach, are disagreeable; but debt is infinitely worse than them all. Avoid pecuniary obligations as you would pestilence or famine. If you have but 50 oents. and can get no more for a week, buy a peck of corn, parch it, and live on it rather than owe any man a dollar! Of oourse, I know that some men must do business that involves risks, and must give notes and other obligations; and I do not consider him really in debt who can lay his hands directly on the means of paying at some little sacrifice all he owes; I speak of real debt-that which involves risk or sacrifice on the one side, obli- gation and dependence on the other-and I say from all such let every youth humbly pray God to preserve him evermore I THE SMOKER'S Vow. In the morning came the warning: Things about me nil revolved. Earnestly I then resolved, While my fevered head was soaking, That I then would give up smoking. Løave the vice to weaker men; I shall never smoke again." Then 'twas noon; ah, what a boon Just a whiff or two would be! Yes; but I had quit, you see. And the vow was past revoking; I had ceased for ever smoking. "Let the weakling be the slave; I am strong of will and brave." In the gloaming I was roaming, And the light of my cigar Vied with many a twinkling star. In the morning I was joking When I vowed to give up smoking. Man must wear some sort of yoke; I prefer one made of smoke." THE MAN OF No ACCOUNT. We see him everywhere, this man of no acoount, in all classes of sooiety; shambling along the Strand between two sandwich boards; carpentering his life through without ever wooeeding in putting up a eholf to correct measurement; preaching Sunday after Sunday to listless congregations saved from the abyss by the props of ciroumstance, lying wherever he falls without the strength to pick himself up. He is devoid alike of health, talent, and ambition. Passion rarely ruffles the stagnant surface of his soul. He is too poor-spirited to have vices; his good- ness follows the definition of Schopenhauer, in that it is absence of positive evil. For this reason novelists and playwrights disregard him, in common with the world at large. He is a puir, feckless body, generally receiving more kicks than halfpence." For mankind has a fine contempt for abjects, orts, and imitations," whether they be cracked crockery or forlorn fellow-creatures. We find little or no use for wasters, and the man of no account is a waster in the human fac- tory. At school he is snubbed, bullied, and neglected; he can neither play games nor learn lessons, and he leaves less impression on the minds of his schoolfellows than a sheep who has grazed in the playing fields. No special pursuit has any attraction for him he usually moons about in a solitary, friendless fashion, doing nothing, thinking of nothing, dreaming of nothing. Of course, he is the pride of his mother's heart; but anyone can be that who has a mother. When he reaches nvnhood a position is found for him whereby he earns his living, and there he remains if sufficiently propped until the end of his days. Callow juniors are promoted over his head; but he never complains. The idea of doing more responsible work fills his soul with vague terror. He is almost always addioted to mild piety, and seeks the excite- ment that is necessary to him as a mere human being in tea meetings and the like. Men We Read About. The Duke of Fife is always measured for his neckties. It is customary for German princes to learn a trade, and the present Emperor of Germany is a bookbinder. Jules Verne published his first novel when he was thirty-five years old. Since then he has written an average of two books a year. The Czar is one of the few living ban- queters, it is said, who can "drink a toast" according to the old style, swallowing toasted apple, liquor and all, from the brimming cup. The German Emperor is exceedingly fond of playing chess. King Humbert of Italy like a game of draughts. Czar Alexander has a predilection for backgammon. King Christian of Denmark is to be found regularly every evening at the whist-table—an amusement to which Queen Victoria is not averse.

An Enterprising Railway of To-day. What is the stii -Itest railway in the world ? asks the Pall Mall Gazette. Surely that from Raven- glass to Boot in Cumberland. It is like a large toy. The gauge is three feet, the engine a.n alsurd little thin* and thB carriages like miniature cages. As t > the station?, they resembid double bathing- boxes more than anything else. The rllilwny officials are easily summed up; the engine-driver is also stoker, guard, ticket-collector, ticket-distri- butor, and porter. Being Lite for a train is not a serious disaster, since anv active Derson can over- take it, and it ill stop to pick up passengers any- where.

How to Raise Revenue. As a method of raising revenue with prompti- tude, the Portuguese Government is to muke a new issue of postage stamps. It is said thst this measure has been adopted under the belief chat, In consequence of the strong "and universal passion for collecting sti-mpp, the present stock will soon bccome extinct, and its Bille is expected to realise half a million sterling.

Bankrupt Russian Nobles, Russian nobles are in sore strniis. During next month no fewer than 874 estates belonging to (tie nobility will be sold by auction at the instance of the State Bank, which holds them as mortgagee. These foreclosure sales (says the Odessa corre- spondent of the Daily News) will assuredly not cover the enormous advances mnde by the State Bank, since not only the Jews but all foreigners or foreign syndicates are now unabe to acquire landed property.

Mr. Charles Whitehead, agricultural adviser to the Privy Council, is lying seriously ill at Maid- stone. Captain J. Menzie", a military knight of the Royal Foundation, Windsor Castle, died at his residence this morning at the age of 92. A strike is imminent at Shireoaks Colliery, Worksop, Notts, in consequence of the managers refusing the request of the union miners to dis- continue employing non-unionists. The German Emperor's appearance is not im- proved (the World declares) by the chestnut beard he is so industriously cultivating, and the Germin barbers are in despair, as they feel that their occu- pation is seriously threatened. Mies Louisa Percival, one of the two surviving daughters of Mr. Spencer Percival, who, when Prime Minister, in 1812, was assassinated at Bel- lingham, died at Ealing on Sunday at the age of 87. The deceased lady was well known for her benevolence. Birmingham detectives on Thursday arrested a young woman named Florrie Dytch in a lodging- house in that city. She is charged with com- mitting numerous thefts in Wolverhampton and Walsall. The prisoner was formerly a member of the "New 13-ibylon 11 Company until its breaking up two months ago. Since then she has been out of an engagement, and it is alleged she has obtained her board and lodgings by means of falso pieiences. She has been handed over to the Wolverhampton police. At the London Guild-hall Bobsrt Schmidt, a German furrier, was again chirged with having a die in his possession for the purpose of manufac- turing counterfeit coin. Another German, a die- sinker of Nowgate-street, gave a circumstantial account of the dealings between himself and the prisoner, and the way in which, acting under Treasury instructions, the case was developed. According to the evidence, prisoner frankly con. fessed his intention to make counterfeit sovereigns, and to circulate them by mixing them with good ones In business transactions. He was committed for trial. About one o'clock on Friday morning a report of firearms attracted attention to one of the bath- houses in rear of the soldiers' quarters at the Royal Artillery Barracks, Woolwich, and Gunner Charles Hope was found therein quite dead, having blown out his brains with his carbine. In his kit was a letter addressed to his commanding officer, stating that he intended to destroy his life because his comrades disliked him on account of his superiority and pride, his father having been a gentleman in South Africa,

CADBUBY'S COCOA has, in a remarkable degree those natural elements of sustenance which give the system endurance and hardihood, building up muscles and bodily vigour, with a steady action that render %ealth1,1 and reliable

THE LADIES. 0 I resolve to have something which may bo of enter- tainment to the fair sex.Sir Richard Steele. QUITE TRUE. It frequently happens that the prettiest maidens do not obtain husbands. It was thus in ancient days,.for it is well known that the Three Graces remained old maids.—Heinrich Heme. MISTRESS AND MAID. Mistresses (observes the Ilev. Newman Hall) should treat their domestics, not as strangers, but as members of the household, caring for their comfort, considerate of their feelings, and, while maintaining due autho- rity and requiring respectful obedience, avoiding harshness and unreasonable restric- tions, and by kindness of manner and womanly sympathy making domestics feel they are friends, as well as servants thus obeying the precept i. "All of you be subject one to another in brotherly love." When servants are complained of as being disrespectful, in- attentive, disobedient, this may sometimes arise from faults in the mistress. respect and kindness on her part will generally secure corresponding response. WATER A.S A PICK-ME-UP. Did you ever try water as a pick-me-up after a day's outing or shopping, when you know you are tired, hot, and frowsy, and that when someone comes home to dinner for whose praise you care he will find you looking your worst? l'our cold water over your wrists, bathe them in it until you begin to feel cool, and then stop, or you may get a chill by lowering the tempera- ture of the body. too much. Wring a cloth out of boiling hot water and lie down for five minutes, or ten if you can get it, with the cloth spread over your burning face and tired eyes. You will be surprised to see how the tired lines will fade out, and how brightly the dull eyes will shine. STOUT WOMEN'S DBESS. The stout woman is always asking what she shall wear. Now, these are some of the things she should not wear :—She should not wear a tailor-made suit fitting her figure closely it brings out every pound of flesh for the benefit of lookers one. She should not wear a rosette at her belt, either at the back or front it makes her look thicker through. She shouJd not wear a lace or ribbon ruff about her neck, though the soft feather one is per- missible if it have long ends. She should not wear a short skirt; it gives her a queer, dumpy look that is specially undesirable. She should not wear her h,¡ir low on her neck; it should be high and arranged with great smoothness, though it need not look oily. She shonid not wear a string of beads about her neck, rings in her ears, or, if her fingers are short and fat, many lings on them. A WOMAN'S HATE. I hate you, I hate you the umideri said, And her eyelids drooped, and her face grew red, And she turned from her lover and hung her head. The flush crept up to her lich brown hair, And she plucked to pieces a rosebud fair, As she stold a g]-ince at her lover there. And he, these men are so full of guile; His eyfs a glistening with mirth the while, Looked calm lyon, with a doubting smile. I Late you, I hate you she said again. And she tapped her toe on the carpet then, A if each tap were a stib at men. Ht r lip was a-quiver, her eyes in mist, Her cheek and throat, as the sun gods kissed, Were bathed in the essence of amethyst. And then her love, with a startled look, Grew serious quite, and his face forsook The confident glow which it erstwhile took. And 01), very well," as he rose to go; And if it please yon to have it so, Why, so itsitall b", as you d ''ubt'e?s know." He took one step, but a-suddeu turned. Oh, much the sweetest: i bliss unearned And looked in the tear-wet eyes that yc.rned. No word she spoke, but her arms entwined Around his neck. Oh, a woman's mind Is a puzzle, to which no key you'll find. Upon his shoulder she kid her head, And he kisseJ her chesk, which was still rose-red You know how I hate you wus all she said. THE COLONIAL GIRL. As a rule" (says Woman))" the Australa- sian is lacking in that dainty bloom so pecu- liar to the girls born and bred under the grey skies of the snug little isle.' Perhaps the heat may be answerable for this fact, but certain it is that, with the exception of las- mania and the south island of New Zealand, rosy complexions are decidedly in the minority. There are very many clear faces, most beautiful to see, and others, of a rich olive tint, but Colonial daughters are not, generally speaking, possessed of as good complexions as their mothers. Strangely enough, girls emigrat- ing from the Mother Country do not lose their good colour, and form a pleasing con- trast to the native-born. Australasian maidens are slight, and not so tall as the average Knglish gnl neither, as they grow older, do they attain the amplitude of pro- portion characteristic of the British matron. D- The climate does not appear to admit of superfluous flesh in young or old. With few exception,3, girls in the Colonies are thoroughly domesticated. Even those who, by reason of their occupation, have made little practical acquaintance with household affairs are old-fashioned enough to make it their business to learn something of the housekeeper's art before they are placed at the head of homes of their own. It is con- sidered almost disgraceful for a woman to be ignorant of the proper management of her own house." NERVKS. It is a common thing for a person to apologise for an irritable, ill tempered woman, on the ground that she is nervous, as if an unseemly display of temper was per- fectly consistent with Christian character, providing the individual could offer the plea of nerves." There are, as every one knows, abnormal conditions of the physical system, when the nerves are not under the control of the mind, and the sufferer is to be excused for all kinds of absurdities of action. But these conditions occur in fevers and states of insanity, and then the patient is put under restraint, for the safety of hersdf and others. The nervous person who is the cause of ceaseless misery to herself and her friends is the one who would resent being treated as of unsound mind, and yet takes nearly all the privileges of one who is. Per-! sons of delicate nervous organisation are often the most amiable long sufferers from lingering disease seem to acquire a power to bear pain which seems little short of angelic. The display of nervous temper," cannot be excused on the ground of illness, as the most irritable people are not those who are sufferers from depressing sickness, and the muoh-talked-of irritability of the invalid is found on investigation to be much a matter of temperament. The so-called nervous women, who make everybody around them wretobed with their unaccountable freaks, and, above all, -vith their unbearable temper, are very often women of robust health, who will walk miles in pursuit of a shopping fancy or some whim that attracts them. Women of fine nervous temperament, delicate and sensitive as only suoh people can be, are the very last to wound the feelings of their feifliafo by a coarse display of irritability 0" by selfishness. It is an essentially coarse and selfish woman who will make everyone around her wretohed by her irritability and whims. SHE SIMPLY COULDN'T, She could sing and she could play, She could dance from night till day. She could while the hours away, So 'tis said She could skate and she could paint, She could play the patron saint, But she couldn't and she wouldn't Make a bed. She could walk eight miles a day, And play tennis charmingly Flirting in a siucy way, Little scamp She could drive a cricket ball, She could make a stylish call, But she couldn't and she wouldn't Clean a lamp. She could swim and she could row, She could always have a b"au, And I'm sure that we all know She was shy. She could laugh and she could praDce» Siie could play a game of chance, But she couldn't and she wouldn't Make a pie. She could etch and write a boolr, She c ;u!d vanquish with a lo>k; She could win by hook or crook, I confess; She could scold and she could flout, She could cry and she could pout, But she couldn't and she wouldn't Make a dress. She could talk of Church affairs, But knew naught of household caves; Siili I'm sure that none compares With sweet Nan; Even if slie couldn't bike Bread and pies and angel cake, She enraptured and she captured A rich man! HOUSEWIFERY. Though the methods of housekeeping have changed, and the area of foresight and good management is more circumscribed than here- tofore, the difference between good house- wifery and ill remains as marked as ever, and the discomfort ensuing from the latter is as great as it used to be. For the human mind has essentially the properties of a iS'asmyth hammer. It can meditate on the grandest problems of life or worry over the smallest pinpricks. It can manipulate impartially the boulders of historic tragedy or the most fra- gile little teacup wherein was ever brewed a domestic tempest. Hence, owing to this elasticity-this power of feeling irrespective of size-the anoyanoes caused by the ill- housewifery of to-day are to the full as pungent as when this slipshod management included the week's spoilt baking or the cask of home-hrewed turned sour. Grant that the store closet is of less importance now than in the days when grooeries were ordered for a month's supply and the week's market- ing was the shortest time of storage—the nearest approach to hand-to-mouth manage- ment a good housewife allowed herself—still, the ill-housewifery which allows the stores to run short, and so has to send out at the last moment for a screw of sugar or a pound of rice for the day's dinner, is quite as repre- hensible as when the result of such careless- ness was graver. The sense of scrambling is just as aiinoyiug-tbe absence of fore- thought is as manifest. There is no justice in throwing the blame on the servants. A good housewife needs a no mean equipment of faculties both intellectual and moral, and ill house- wifery has the smirch of disgrace belonging to sluttishness and selfishness to want of consideration for others to want of regard to duty all through. It has become the fashion to villify housekeeping as beneath the con- sideration of a fine mind and an heroic temper. It is the button beyond which the gifted soul must soar to be worthy of its talents. History belies this high-stepping theory. English women were never grandei than they were in the days when they were practical housekeepers and the active rulers of the household—when sex determined func- tion, and that man was mo3t honourable who did his masculine work in the world with most vigoor-that woman most loveworthy whc performed her womanly duties with most thoroughness and conscientiousness, 1m Queen. Nu^gels. 11 In China the men buy their wives, and in this country the wife often discovers that she has been sold. The hardest thing in the world for a yonn woman to do is to look unconcerned the firs time she comes out ia a handsome enyage ment ring. Barry Pain, in "The Mine Muses Minui One," asks whether you ever knew a womat yet who thought twice, by way of pity, about a man she did not love when she had a mas that she did love to think about. A new novel is called A Lady's Foui Wishes/' An old bachelor Rays he hasn'j read the book, but he knows what her wishes are. "First, a new bonnet; second, a neM bonnet; third, a new bonnet; fourth, a new bonnet." Call a girl a chick, and she smiles; call a woman a hen, and she howls call a girl an enchantress, and she's pleased; call a woman a witch, and she's indignant; call a girl a kitten, and she rather likes it; call a woman a cat, and she'll hate you. Queer sex, ain't it A Women We Read About. The only woman, with the exception of Mrs. Grimwood, who has received the lloyal Red Cross is Florence Nightingale. l he Queen of Saxony maintains three physicians, whose sole duty is to attend the ailments of the suffering poor. The Queen of Spain is said to be one of the best housekeepers in Madrid, and more than one of the garments worn by the baby King has been made by his Royal mother. Since Miss llraddon" published "Lady Audley's Secret," in 18G2, she has written 52 novels, representing in the original editions 156 volumes, or about 50,000 pages of printed matter. This means about 2,000 pages a year, or an average of six pages of printed matter daily-an amount which is equal to something like eighteen small pages of manuscript a day. Since the death of Prince Albert it is said that the Queen never wears any ornaments except two enamel bracelets, in each of which is the setting for a portrait. Jn the bracelet for the right arm is the likeness of the Prince Consort, and in the left that 01 her Majesty s youngest grandchild. For SOUH time Princess Feodora of Meiningen held thi place of honour, then the little sons of the Emperor of Germany had their turn. Now it is the Greek Prince, the infant son ol Princess Sophie, whose picture has been chosen. The Queen ways On the righi wrist I carry my first and greatest love, or the left the last bud that it has pleased C. oc to allow me to look upon."

A number of German ladies applied to the Chie; of the Police the other day for permission to rid4 in the Tiiiergarten in a reformed riding costume Their application having ben refused, they havi appealed unto Ciesar. The Emperor will have U decide the question. A girl clerk in a store at Washington, having a small plot of ground, began by cultivating violets on a small scale. One year she sold over 100,000 flowers, and started a small violet farm on tha proceeds. Soon she hopes to O0 ablo to subsist by Tilting fariuing alone.

Memory as a Test of Age. Memory is often a good test of age. When a person begins to find the recollection of current and recent work failing, and when he finds the recollection of events of the early patt of his life acutely perceptible, and by a kind ot spontaniety recurrent, the evidence is certain (says a writer in the Asclepiad) that the mind of that person is ageing. The fact is still further emphasised if, with the remembrance of past days, there is a sympathetic response calling forth II sentimental feeling either of pleasure or of p-iin. There pro- bably is a physiological reason for these pheno- mena. Aged people who forget the names of those who are stariug them in the face, who forget the details of the last ride, or walk, or work, and who forget engagement?, letters, and hours of iiieals, remember with the freshness of youth the friends of theiryouth; the places, habits, conversations, event", that have long since passed, and have been so long in oblivion.