Widnes Examiner. — 1888-10-27 (Widnes, Cheshire, England)

ABOUT ADEUSEMENT.—Never seek for amusement, but be always ready to be amused. The least thing has play in it, the slightest word wit, when your hands are busy and your heart is free. But if you make the aim of your life amusement, the day will come when all the agonies of Fa pantomime will not bring yoU an honest laugh.— . Ruskin. . . .  Two men were discussing the burial question. One of them was of an i&moclastic turn of mind, the other a bumptious aspirant to the pulpit. Iconoclast: "What rest hes the parson te charge extra for burying folks in the consecrated side?" Embryo Parson: " Yo'r rang thor. It's not mair for the consecrated, but less for the unconsecrated side!" . . .  A rough-looking man got into an American train, took a seat, dropped his head on his hands, and sobbed like a babe. "What's the trouble, friend?" said a man in a neighbouring seat. " Wal, you see, stranger, my ole chum is dead, and I'm a-carryin' his corpse home ter his de mother. It makes me sad; you oughter know'd I shall never get another like him. He was 18-carat, fine." "Was he sick long?" "Naw; he died kinder sudden." "Fever?" " New ; he—he" (and here a suffocating sob choked his voice) "he committed suicide, stranger." "Shot himself, eh ?" " Wel, no-o, but it 'mounted tá 'bout that." " How ?" "Wal, you see, he , called me a liar." , One morning, when:Dr. von Laver called to see" the late German Emperor, the latter remained standing at the window, as though:absorbed in thought, and without returning his salutation. The physician, surprised at this, waited forean explanation, when suddenly the monarch turned round, and,beckoning Dr. Lauer to approach, said to him, in his most affable manner, "Excuse my apparent want of attention, but on looking out into the street, I noticed a peasart, who must have come a long way to see thet Emperor: he was holding up his litt;e boy, to let him have a good look. 1, therefore, was compelled to stay a little longer at the window, so as not to spoil the pleasure of the good folks." CAN HENS TALK ?—A gentleman had among his Spanisb hens a mother with nine chickens. This hen at length sickened and died with the comb disease. Her chicks were only about four weeks old, and could scratch but little for themselves. The weak mother would go round with them, putting down her bill to indicatel where they were to scratch. She soon became too weak for this, and the gentleman says :—Soon after we noticed all of her chicks standing around her in a sort of half circle, with their eyes looking piteously toward her, " peeping " mournfully, she in turn, giving faint "chirps." At this all the other fowls came around her, and each seemed to have something to say. After about fifteen minutes had been spent in this manner, a healthy young dominick hen that was laving eggs every day, and had shown no'signs of even desiring to set, stepped out from among the rest, and took her position by the side of the sick hen. Upon this, the mother hen gave a few faint chirps, which all the chicks answered with a chirp. Then the mother looked toward the dominick, and gave two or three "clucks," to which the dominick responded for the first time with "Cluck! cluck!" and the chickens answered with " Peep ! peep!" in concert, and all rushed up to the dominick. The mother hen gave two or three farewell chirps, and the new mother walked off with the brood, clucking and scratching as vigorously for them as though she had herself hatched the brood. The dominick and brood never went near the mother again. She died the next day, and dominick protected and faithfully raised the chicks committed to her care Whatever others may think of this, it seemed to the writer, and those who witnessed the transaction, as genuine a case of giving away children before death as we witness among human kind. These creatures must have had communication with each other respect. lug the matter, at least judging from their actions, and the old saying that "Actions speak louder than words" was literally true in this case. Sins