Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-12-28

4hSLiCo 1oAIS5s OuuSA 41uO 1loACo LII ul4C
wooden head, with the drollest "patchy"
effect.-Olive Thorne Miller, IN St.
Nicholas.
TIE LOON, o1e GREAT NORTHERN
DIVER.
From an article on Bird Music" by
Simeon Pease Cheney in the Century
we quote the following: "The loon is
not a singer, but his calls and shoutings
exhibit so great q variety of vocal quail
ties that we must consider him mem
Der Of Natures orchestra.
"In the summer Of 1887 spent few
weeks on the borders of Trout Lake, ST..
Lawrence County, N. Y. This beauti-
full little island-dotted lake, some three
miles long, has been inhabited for years
by three or four pairs of looms. There
they lay their eggs and rear their young,
and there found agood opportunity to
study them. On one occasion small
party of us discovered nest When
we were yet q good way off the wary
sitter slid from sight into the water,
darted along beneath our boat, and was
far out into the lake before she came to
the surface. The nest, simply little
cavity in dry muck, was on the ruins of
an old muskrat house, not more than
eight or ten inches above the water.
There were two very dark eggs in it,
never more than two are found in the
nest of the loon,-nearly as large as
those of a goose.
"The time of sitting, as I was in
formed, is four weeks. Wilson says of
the looms that they light upon their
nests; but careful observer, who had
several times seen the female make her
way from the water to her nest, told me
that they shove themselves to it on their
breasts, very much as they push them
selves in the water. was also informed
that the young are never fed upon the
nest, but are taken to the water upon
the back of the mother, where they re-
main and are fed for time, and then
are launched upon the waves for life.
At this age one can row up to them and
take them in the hand, which they de-
light in giving hard nips with their long
and timber bills; but when q month old
they seem as wild and cunning as their
parents"
COST OF LIVING ABROAD.
In England house rent, clothing, and
nearly all the commodities of life are
cheaper than they are in America.
Hotel charges, admission to theaters
and railway travelling are exceptions
unless you travel third class. There
! is talk Of abolishing the second class
and give people their choice only be-
tween first and third. AS it is, many of
the first class carriages run empty and
only cucumber the trains. For high
charges in French restaurants and no.
tells there is good reason. New York
does not appreciate the great advan-
tages it enjoys in its abundant and cheap
market supplies. In Paris three fran
ces per pound (sixty cents) is charged
for the same quality of beef-steak which
we buy in New York for thirty cents.
/ Good coffee in Paris costs the same
price per pound, three frances.
4 They grow some fruits in France and
England that we don't raise in the
north, but on the whole the fruits of
these two countries will not compare in
abundance and flavor with those pro-
/ duced even in our northern states only;
and as for grapes and peaches their best
specimens are grown under glass, but it
must be admitted that no grapes in the
world equal for size and beauty the
F! English hot house grapes. English
hot house peaches are pretty to the eye,
but they lack the juiciness and rich
flavor of the American peach and their
cost is very great. The nights in Eng
land and France are too rainy for the
favorable production of fine fruits in the
open air. Retail dealers over there in
stead of selling vegetables and fruit in
our rough-and-tumble way, by measure,
which by its very uncertainty is unsat-
isfactory both to seller and buyer, sell
them by weight Or number, potatoes
and apples by the pound, peaches and
large William" pears by the Dozen
IN. p" IN Home journal.