The age-herald., 1898-10-16

tie ring so that the asp's tongue came
 out and there was little scratch on your finger. Tomorrow it grew black,
 and your hand swelled, while your friends talked about cholera, and mo- body dared whisper "polson,' though everybody knew. There is another fa- | nous ring. It belonged to a great ex- | plorer-a heavy band of gold, with a
 cameo having the face of a beautiful
 woman cut in it. But the cameo is
 like lid and lifts up, and under it is a vegetable poison that, softened by a
 little heat, will kill two or three men, l and this one man took it rather than
 ride to the guillotine in a common l cart.
 In little town near Vienna an enter prising American girl found and never was satisfied until she had bought the wedding dress of Marie Antoinette. Like all of the house of Hapsburg, she had given her marriage gown and veil to some poor church. where the lace might be used as a veil and the dress be cut into vestments. Here it was waiting its turn, and the frock worn by the girl bride will probably remain always a souvenir, a something that has his- tory and one that is so delightful Queen Victoria counts among her treasures the walking stick that Bonnie Prince Charlie forgot when he started off that morning to fight the battle of Culloden. It was discovered afterward and shows on it's handle that it has carved on one side the head of Wisdom and on the other the laughing head of Folly.
 From all the world over we hear that jewels were never worn to such great extent as now, but nobody wants just diamond band. The diamonds must be set in some strange way and must have been worn by some great and good wo- man or some great and bad woman. Which would you rather have the ring of nun who gave her life to prayer or the ring of Catherine the Great? No, no; no explanation is necessary. Human nature is very much the same all the world over, but you know they did have such odd things in the days gone by. When a worker in trinkets devoted a year to cutting out ring or designing a rosary, then they were worth possess ing.
 That poor empress of Russia, poor be- cause she stands equal with the poorest woman living or dead, claimed to have had a piece of the tree upon which Christ was crucified, and this tiny bit of wood is in a perfect shell of diamonds, while it rests on an altar made espe cially for it, draped heavily with fine laces and before which lamp burns forever, while sister of charity never ceases saying her prayer for the whole wicked world.
 Apropos of wonderful rosaries, girl who has plenty of money, and, better still, good taste, picked up in Japan rosary formed of huge beads made of dark brown, highly polished wood. Each bead is hollow and cut in sort of lat ticework, so that through it can be seen the little gold god that literally grins out at each one and about which the bead itself must have been cut. Undoubtedly it decorated some famous temple, since it's great length-it is A feet long-would suggest that it was not intended for home use.
 By the bye, even in the hour of sick. ness I laughed and laughed and laugh" ed again at an old Scotch story as it was told me. A Scotchman was having a slight contest about money with the driver of a hanson. It was matter of money, for the Scotchman does not lessen his life and weaken his heart by quarreling over anything else bus money. The driver on the high seat ia- sisted that he had not been given enough. The fierce looking laddie from the land of the mountains threw him. self into dignified attitude and said, Mon, mon, dinna ye ken that l am a Mackintosh?" "Oh, bosh" answered the cabby. "I don't care if you're an umbrella. You have got to pay tha. sixpence." So with dropping crest, the Scotchman gave the sixpence and felt that he was in a country that was no good.
 like that sort of pride. like the sort of pride that when pennies are scarce makes one happy because one's grand- father came of what our Scotch cousins call "gude" blood. Ii Is very good to know that ones progenitors were re- spectable.
 Your grandmother may have been queen of the washtub yesterday and ride in her carriage today, but if s..s washed the clothes well she did her duty in that state of life in which snr had been placed, and you owe her fe- spect.
 Your grandfather may have been a respectable farmer who worked away in the hayfields until one day a railroad wanted to go through his land and he made them pay for it. You can afford to be proud of him. He was a good. honest farmer, and that is more than can be said of most of the present day politicians.
 All of you and all of "we-uns" may have been born of respectable and well behaved people, who wouldn't have known how to wear a coronet, but stlll it is from the great middle class, in- dustrious and economical that all the wealth in this world comes. But wealth is not everything. There is something in being a Macintosh, for it gives one a respect for oneself and the right sort of self respect makes the right sort of man or woman. You and I both like the good things of life. We like to be Miss Muffet. I should, for I have a special liking for curds and whey and think they are just as good out of an ordinary bowl as If eaten from the finest of fine china.
 Like beautiful things, possess them if you can, but do not let the rage of the collector overcome you. The man with one idea grows very tresome. His one idea is always the great value of the Iattar