Biennial sessions of legislature and elections in even years-as 1874-76, etc.-in Kentucky, Missouri, North Carolina, Oregon and Vermont. Biennial sessions in even years (elections in the years immediately preceding) in Arkansas, Iowa, Maryland and Ohio. Biennial sessions and elections in odd years-as 1875-77, etc.-in California, Tennessee, Texas and Virginia. Biennial sessions in odd years (elections in the years immediately preceding) in Pennsylvania, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, Nebraska, Nevada and Tennessee, 1876 10000 1 Tu. Jan. 1875 1000 May & Jan. 1877 4000 4 M. Nov. 1877 3000 M. Jan. 1878 50001 M. Nov. Oct. 1876 1000 2 Th. Oct. 1878 50001 M. Dec. 1875 2000 2 Tu. Jan. 1876 12501 W. Jan. Q. Garcia Moreno. M. Garcia Granedos... President.. C. Arias... THE GOVErnments oF THE WORLD, NOVEMBER, 1874. State. United States.... Argentine Confederation... Costa Rica Ecuador.. Guatemala. Honduras.. President.. President.. Colombia. San Salvador. Venezuela ............ Dominica.. Santiago Perez... Vincente Cuadra.. Great Britain and Ireland.. Victoria I.... President.. President. 2,894,992 Catholic. President.. President.. President... 600,000 Catholic. President... 572,000 Catholic. Maximo Gomez........ Pres. Insur. Rep. Queen.. President.. 36,102,921 Catholic. Emperor. 82,135,740 Greek Church. Austria. Francis Joseph I.... Emperor.. Sweden and Norway. Oscar II.... King.. Denmark.. Holland Belgium.. Christian IX. King.. William III. King.. 3,674,402 Reformed. ...... Luxembourg.. William III. Grand Duke.. 197,528 Catholic. Germany.. 41,060,695 Prussia.. William I.. King.. 24,656,078 Evangelical. Waldeck and Pyrmont... George Prince.. 56,224 Evangelical. Saxony.. Albert.. Lutheran. Oldenburg... Mecklenburg-Schwerin... Fred. Francis. Mecklenburg-Strelitz...... Fred. William Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach... Charles Alexander. Brunswick & Lunenburg.. William Grand Duke... 557,897 Lutheran. Grand Duke.... Peter..... Grand Duke...... 312,596 Lutheran. Duke.. Saxe-Meinengen & Hild burghausen.. Anhalt Frederick. Duke.. 203,437 Evangelical. 54 BRITISH POSSESSIONS IN AMERICA. Pagan. Lutheran. Lutheran. Pagan & Cath. DOMINION OF CANADA-Governor-General, Frederick Temple Blackwood, Baron Dufferin and Clandeboyle. Lieutenant-Governor, W. P. Howland, C. B. 44 " " Sir Narcisse F. Belleau, Kt. " Albert J. Smith. Adams G. Archibald, Anthony Musgrave. H. E. Morris. " " King.. 2,500,000 President... 39,000 President.. 300,000 President.. 718,000 Univ. Tole'n. King. 300,000 King.. 56,897 Queen... 200,000 Vancouver's Island- " NORTH AMERICAN COLONIES. W. MacDougall, C. B. J. W. Teutch. Prince Edward Island-Lieut.-Gov., Sir Robt. Hodgson. Newfoundland-Lieut.-Gov., Col. J. S. Hill, C. B. Dominique-President, A. W. Moir. Grenada-Lieut.-Gov., S. Freeling. Honduras-Lieut.-Gov., W. V. Cairns. H. T. Usher. Tobago- FRENCH POSSESSIONS IN AMERICA. NORTH AMERICAN COLONY. FRENCH WEST INDIA ISLANDS. St. Pierre and Miquelon-Commandant, Col. Guadaloupe and Dependencies-Gov., Couterier. P. V. Cren. Guiana-Governor, Col. Loubère. USEFUL HINTS. KNIVES Should never be dipped into hot water, as it injures the handles. The blades may be placed upright in the water in a mug, by which plan the handles will be kept dry. RECIPE FOR MAKING THE HANDS WHITE.Take some dry Indian meal, wet your hands and rub them with it, then wash them with soap and tepid water. TO EXTRACT GREASE FROm Papered Walls. -Dip a piece of flannel in spirits of wine, rub the greasy spots gently once or twice, and the grease will disappear. TO REMOVE GLASS STOPPERS.-When the stopper of a glass decanter is too tight, a cloth wet with hot water and applied to the neck will cause the glass to expand, and the stopper may be removed. In a phial the warmth of the finger may be sufficient. TO CLEAN SILVER.-Silver door and bell plates are most expeditiously cleaned with a weak solution of ammonia and water, say one teaspoonful of ammonia to one tea-cup of water, applied with a wet rag; it is equally useful in cleaning other silver plate and gold jewelry. REMOVAL OF DRY PUTTY.-According to an English journal, the difficulty of removing hard putty from a window-sash can be obviated with great readiness by simply applying a piece of heated metal, such as a soldering-iron or other similar implement. When heated (but not redhot), the iron is to be passed slowly over the putty, thereby rendering the latter so soft that it will part from the wood without any trouble. ECONOMICAL SOAP.-The addition of threequarters of an ounce of borax to a pound of soap, melted in without boiling, makes a saving of onehalf in cost of soap, and three-fourths the labor of washing, and improves the whiteness of the fabrics; besides, the usual caustic effect is removed, and the hands are left with a peculiar soft and silky feeling, leaving nothing more to be desired by the most ambitious and economical washerwoman. A STRONG WHITE PASTE.-Dissolve 21⁄2 oz. of gum arabic in 2 quarts of water, and stir it into 1 pound of wheat flour until the whole becomes of a pasty consistency. It is then to be heated, and 11⁄2 oz. each of sugar of lead and alum dissolved in a little water added thereto, and the composition well stirred until it shows signs of boiling, when it must be removed from the fire. Add while hot 6 drops of carbolic acid. This is a very tenacious and durable paste, and may be used on almost any substance. TO DESTROY RATS AND MICE.-Mix some ground plaster of Paris with brown sugar and Indian meal. Set it about on old plates, and leave beside each plate a saucer or pan of water. When the rats have eaten the mixture, they will drink the water and die. To attract them toward it, you may sprinkle on the edges of the plates a little of the oil of rhodium. Another method of getting rid of rats is to strew pounded potash in their holes. The potash gets into their coats and irritates their skin, and the rats desert the place. To prevent rats dying in their holes and becoming offensive, poison them by mixing half a pound of carbonate of barytes with a quarter of a pound of lard. It produces great thirst, the rats leave their holes to drink, and are unable to return. PROSPERITY THAT KNOWS NO CHANGE. THE Public Ledger is, as everybody knows, the great Philadelphia local newspaper. Its circulation is enormous, and, in spite of the active rivalry it encounters, every year shows a large increase in its edition. It is now printing an average of over ninety thousand copies daily. There is no mystery about its circulation. The publisher follows the plan which every newspaper ought, in justice to its advertisers, to adopt, of keeping a daily account of the number of copies printed, and exhibiting it to all those who wish to see. To readers of New York papers, and still more to those familiar with the great successful journals of the Western cities, the Ledger is an enigma. So unattractive is it in its make-up, so solid and crowded and bare of enticing head-lines and bright, "newsy," leaded matter, that its success is a wonder to people who do not know its solid merits and the peculiar affection the conservative Philadelphians have for it. Typographically, the paper is just about what it was when started in 1836. It is a great deal larger, of course, and contains more news, but the old style of type and arrangement of news and advertising are very closely adhered to. The general news is paragraphed on the first page. Following it is a full city department, set solid, with no dash-lines between the paragraphs. Then come the Washington news and a New York letter. On the second page we find from one to two columns of well-written editorial, usually on non-political topics. The third page has a column of paragraphs, and the fourth an excellent money article. All the rest of the sheet is full of short advertisements, which, taken together, form a curious and interesting epitome of the business, amusements and daily life of the great city. When asked by a New York journalist why he did not modernize his paper a little in its external appearance, Mr. Childs replied: "The Philadelphia people would break their hearts if I should change the looks of the old Ledger. They want to see it looking just the same as it did when their fathers and mothers took it." No doubt Mr. Childs is right, and yet it is a singular fact that in these rushing, changeful times there are nearly a hundred thousand people in a single city and its environs who like a paper all the better because it continues to wear its old face. The editing of the Ledger, it should be said, is careful and thorough, and its business management very able. There is probably no daily in the country that has so efficient a carrier system. The city is laid off in districts, each under charge of a carrier, who patrols it far more thoroughly than the policemen, and knows everybody in it. As soon as a family moves into a house, the Ledger carrier arrives about as soon as the furniture wagon, and offers to serve the paper.-New York Tribune, June 20, 1874. TO CLEAN GOLD ORNAMENTS.-Make a lather of soap and water, and wash the articles; then lay them in dry powdered magnesia. When dry, rub them with a piece of flannel, or if embossed use a brush. Or the articles may be washed in soapsuds, and while wet put them in a bag with some clean fresh bran or sawdust; shake them, and they will look almost like new. 56 GLEANINGS. THE mere lapse of years is not life. To eat and drink and sleep-to be exposed to darkness and the light-to pace round in the mill habit, and turn thought into an implement of trade,-this is not life. In all this but a poor fraction of the consciousness of humanity is awakened, and the sanctities still slumber which make it worth while to be. Knowledge, truth, love, beauty, goodness, faith, alone can give vitality to the mechanism of existence. The laugh of mirth that vibrates through the heart, the tears that freshen the dry wastes within, the music that brings childhood back, the prayer that calls the future near, the doubt which makes us meditate, the death which startles us with mystery, the hardship which forces us to struggle, the anxiety that ends in trust, are the true nourishment of our natural being. AN anxious, restless temper, that runs to meet care on its way, that regrets lost opportunities too much, and that is over-painstaking in contrivances for happiness, is foolish and should not be indulged in. If you cannot be happy in one way, be happy in another; and this facility of disposition wants but little aid from philosophy; for health and good-humor are almost the whole affair. Many run about after felicity like an absent man hunting for his hat while it is on his head or in his hand. Though sometimes small evils, like invisible insects, inflict great pain, and a single hair may stop a vast machine, yet the chief secret of comfort lies in not suffering trifles to vex one, and in prudently cultivating an undergrowth of small pleasures, since very few great ones, alas ! are let on long leases. THREE-FOURTHS of the difficulties and miseries of men come from the fact that most want wealth without earning it, fame without deserving it, popularity without temperance, respect without virtue, and happiness without holiness. The man who wants the best things, and is willing to pay just what they are worth, by honest effort and hard self-denial, will have no difficulty in getting what he wants at last. It is the men who want goods on credit that are disappointed and overwhelmed in the end. Happiness cannot be bought by the bottle. It does not exist in any exhilaration, excitement or ownership, but comes from the use of the faculties of body and mind. THERE cannot live a more unhappy creature than an ill-natured old man who is neither capable of receiving pleasures nor sensible of doing them to others. Yet what is more common than peevishness, discontent and restless repining in the decline of life? And how rare the spectacle -all admit its beauty-of a cheerful, contented and equable old age! "It is difficult," said Madame de Stael, during the last week of her liant but strangely chequered existence," to grow old gracefully.' SELFISHNESS is poverty: it is the most utter destitution of a human being. It can bring nothing to his relief, it adds soreness to his sorrows, it sharpens his pains, it aggravates all the losses he is liable to endure, and when goaded to extremes often turns destroyer and strikes its last blows on himself. It gives us nothing to rest in or fly to in trouble, it turns our affections on ourselves, self on self, as the sap of a tree descending out of season from its heavenward branches, and making not only its life useless, but its growth downward. IF the disposition to speak well of others were universally prevalent, the world would become a comparative paradise. The opposite disposition is the Pandora-box, which, when opened, filis every house and every neighborhood with pain How many enmities and heartand sorrow. burnings flow from this source! How much happiness is interrupted and destroyed! Envy, jealousy and the malignant spirit of evil, when they find vent by the lips, go forth on their mission like foul fiends to blast the reputation and peace of others. NEVER forsake a friend. When enemies gather around, when sickness falls on the heart, when the world is dark and cheerless, is the time to try true friendship. They who turn from the scene of distress betray their hypocrisy and prove that interest only moves them. If you have a friend that loves you, who has studied your interest and happiness, be sure to sustain him in adversity. Let him feel that his former kindness is appreciated, and that his love was not thrown away. Real fidelity may be rare, but it exists-in the heart. They only deny its worth and power who never loved a friend or labored to make a friend happy. IN these days when there is a tendency on the part of the professedly religious journals to ignore morals for politics, it is pleasing to bear testimony to the fact that in Philadelphia there is at least one paper honorably non-political now so marked by a religious spirit that some call it their family Christian newspaper. A Philadelphia correspondent of the Protestant Churchman says with entire truth: "Objectionable advertisements do not mar its pages. Coarse slang and partisan political abuse Its editorials touch is rigorously shut out. merely on debated party questions; and when they do so, it is always in a dignified and courteous way. Questions of social science, public morality, family comfort, benevolent enterprise, church worship, and such like, form the subjects for the leading article each day. And when religion does come in, it is always treated of, not bril-flippantly and carelessly, but in a reverent and Christian tone. I am referring to the Public Ledger, which in the hands of Geo. W. Childs, Esq., stands first among our dailies in respect to circulation here, and only next to one in New York in the whole United States-is taken now in almost every house in Philadelphia. Standing in the midst of a community that must have newspapers, and will have them, of some kind, it is a pleasure to be able thus to point to one approaching nearly to the Christian standard and having something of a Christian tone."-New York Evening Express. "THE little I have seen of the world teaches me to look upon the errors of others in sorrow, not in anger. When I take up the history of one heart that has sinned and suffered, and represent to myself the struggle and temptation it has passed through-the brief pulsations of joy, the feverish inquietude of hope and fear, the pressure of want, the desertion of friends-I would fain leave the erring soul of my fellow-man with Him from whose hands it came."-Longfellow. |