The Washington critic., 1889-05-10
MATTER WORTH READING


II has been computed that between
30, ,000, 900 and 81 1000, 900 of babies are
born into the world each year. The
rate of production Is, therefore, about
seventy a minute, or rather more than
one for every beat of the clock. With
the one-a-minute calculation every
reader is familiar, but II Is not every
one who stops to calculate what this
means when II comes TO years supply.
And IL will probably, therefore, startle
good many persons to find on the
authority of q writer in "The Hospital"
that could the infants of year be
ranged in line in cradles seven deep
they would go round the globe We
have the ingenious conclusion, also,
that supposing the little ones TO grow
up and the sexes to be about equally
divided, We should have an army u
hundred times as large as the forces of
the British Empire, with wife in addi.
ton to every soldier. The same writer
looks at the matter in still more
picturesque light. He imagincs
The babies being carried past n
given point in their mothers charge
one by one, and the procession
being kept up continuously night and
day until the last conner in the twelve
month has passed by. a sufficiently
liberal rate of speed Is allowed, but
even with these babiesin arms going
past twenty minnie, the reviewing
officer would only have seen sixth
part Of the infantine host file onward by
the time he had been year at his post.
In other words, the babe that had TO be
carried when the work began would be
able to waddle onward itself when q
mere fraction of It's comrades had
reached the saluting post; and when
the years supply of babies was taper
ing to a close, there would be q rear
boys and girls. They would have
passed, in fact, out of the maternal
arms into the hands of the school
teacher. Every moment Of nearly
seven years would be required to com.
pletc this grand parade of those little
ones that in the course of twelvemoDth
begin TO play their part in the first age
Of man. - Leeds Mercury.
A Defiance OF Poverty.
George Francis Trains novel idea of
subsisting on ten cents worth of pota-
toes, n cup of coffee and Turkish bath
daily, is defiance of poverty which It
would be well for Marion Harland or
some other writer on cheap living TO
analyzc. II is study of economy which
reads well in print and exists only In
the airy fiction Of fanatics Imagine a
| laborer, a mechanic, or professional
man subsisting for twentyfour hours
on such light diet. If we all had moth
ing more to do than TO sit in the park
and talk to birds, perhaps we, too, could
exist on this small portion of potatoes,
coffee, hot water and massage. Such
philosophy is akin to starvation. ]
wonder If that isn't what George Fran.
els is up TO, after all L. Exchange.
The Prince of Wales and Fashions.
Kaiser Williams change of the court
dress back to the fashions of 1900 leads
one of the social organs of London to
| consider the influence of the Prince of
Wales on fashions, and the conclusion
| is that It is very small. A couple of
| years ago his attempt TO force "cross-
| lined check on stiff fnecked West End"
was complete failure. This year he
has tried TO make knee brceches go, but
they don't go. He has q very strong
dislike to black tic with evening dress,
but even there he has been able to
enforce his idea only upon such men as
are on the guest list Of Marlborough
House, from which several names have
been crossed off for disregard of the
hosts preference for white cravats.
A, o,, r,.,
,, s.,, II s',..
Mr, 80, oni1n, , wnile % hsning IN Lake nc
; a. rla, aho la,e,y faugh. @ as'ranE h
| like an eel. hui thicker and LARGER, no
scales, head short and flattened But
the grave difference between Il and
other fish was in its having two anterior
limbs each about one and one half
inches in lengh, which are used in swim.
ming, and II can use them in travelling
on the ground, for 1t can move pretty
well out of its own element. 1t Is not q
true fish, but reptile, and is described
in natural history as a siren. They can
live long time out of water. They are
rarely seen. This is the second one
| caught by Mr. Smith within n month.