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old w1yb8 lakes to the lbth bb1dge mihe8 an interestln description t an uuk- ijjjj country the prairie to the vicinity of the old- wives lake and for a lng distance beyond them are covered with an exceptionally thick award of mart luxuriant grasses be tokening at orwe the excellence of the soil and tnfficienoy of the annual rainfall in deed the mere presence of so many land locked and consequently alkaline sheets of water is proof sufficient of the existence of the latter of these conditions while they do not overbow their banks to any appreciable extent shows that the mean temperature of the air is warm enough to keep them within bounds by the evaporation of their surplus waters both of these conditions are emi nently favorable to the operations of the agriculturist and as soon as the much needed tide of immigration rises to the flood the settlers on these plains when they have secured a suffioient supply of sweet water for- domestio pur poses will find that the district is about equally buited to the growth of crops and to the cattle industry in all its branches nor need they fear that the exuberant vegetation to be seen on all sides is a thing of recent origin due to some capricious climatio cnange and liable to disappear without warning a glance at the prairies in any direction in this immense district will reveal to the most inexperienced eye a perfeot network ot old buffalo trails easily distinguished irom the more recent trails of the domestio and ranch cattle by their greater widthaivi depth and by the direct ness with whim they invariably lead to the best wateringpieces in the neighborhood large areas are al30 fairly pitted by their wallows or mud baths and the whole surface of the country was only a few years ago thickly strewed with their bones and horns on every side there is abuudant evidence that this region was one of the favorite haunts and feedinggrounds of these mighty monarchs of the plain and therefore that it was especially distinguishe for its fertility in the dayb 61 old today the buffalo as a lordly roamer over his wide do- main is a thing of the past but other game in abundance may be found to reward the adventurous sportsman who is willidg to go in search of it sraceful antelopes may frequently be seen gazing at a safe distance for a brief space inquisitively and suspiciously at the passing train and then bounding off lightly to reach a still safer vantage ground on the boundless expanse the shrill sharp bark of the cowardly coyote may occasionally be heard dying away into a most unmetodious howl as he turns tail and flies with lightning speed across the turf the gregarious prairiedog may also be seen indulging in antic gambols with his demure sedate-look- ing fellows among the regularly laid out burrows of their cifcy-liko- warren and of course the ubiquitous gopher j or ground squirrel is to be met with here as elsewhere all through the country busily plying his industrious little feet in ntfer disregard of trains sportsmen and all such trifling causes of disturbance near morse station is an other pretty large alkaline lake and a fewj miles further on we como to rush lake a wide area of fresh sweet water almost con stantly tenanted by myriads of water fowl of various descriptions ducks geese swans and even pslicans in countless numbers have adopted tnis lovely sheet of water as a favor ite resort and the wouldbe sportsman must indeed be a wretched fowler who cannot se cure an exceptionally large bag as the fruit of a days shooting along its reedlined shores the vast nunmers of waterfowl to be found in almost every quarter of the northwest territories and the unknown variety of their species and genera constitute a marked end far from unimportant feature of the country their principal food con sists of small fish marsh grasses and other aquatic produots animal and vegetable so that in their natural wild state the flesh has a strong fishy unpleasant flvor but whenever their habitat is within convenient distance of cultivated lauds they make predatory incrusions into the wheat fields in the fall of the year and by picking up the fallen grain among the stnbble render their flesh as deliciously plump aud free from flihlness as the most epicurean gourmand would desire nor do these raids work any serious injury to the farmer sometimes they are a decided benefit because this appropriation of the loose grain scattered on the surface prevents it from being plough ed into the soil and thus coming up a volun teer crop to disturb the calculations of the agriculturist who may possibly have intend- to sow an entirely diffrent kind of seed and in any case he is amply rapid for the toll levied on his fields by the abundant sup ply of deliciously palatable food thus placed within his reach whenever he may desire to add some of the choicest wild fowl to tho contents of his larder another peculiar feature of this part of the country is the frequent occurrence of alkaline and fresh water ponds separated from eaoh other sometimes by comparatively slight distances and offering at first sight no explanation to account for the difference in the character of their contents closer ex amination however reveals the fact that the fresh water lakes and lakelets are on the conrse of some running stream which ultim ately finds its way to the sea while the sal ine ponds and marshed are generally land locked their alkaline properties being most probably due as i have pointed out in a former letter to tho fact that they have no ontlet each kind of stream or pond re ceives the same proportion of alkali as the other from tho ashes of the burned prairies and i do not know of any more satisfactory explanation of the difference between them than that now suggested no one who has even once witnessed a prairie fire and has marked tho frightful havoo and destruction wrought by one of theso terribly devastating conflagrations will find it difficult to account for the pre sence of so much alkaline matter on the surface of the grounds by attributing it to the washing out of ealino substances from the ashes produced during centuries of simi lar cataatrophiea oa several occasions during my trip i had opportunities of see ing tho prairies on fire sometimes close at hand sometimes at a long way off in iso lated spots of small area or embracing wide tracts in their devouring progress shooting up to the sky in gigantic pillars of smoke by day or illuminating the heavens with the lurid glare of their cloudcapped pillars of fi- e by night bat no matter when ox where or bow i might chance to observe them however deeply i might be fascinat ed by their appalling barty and magni ficence i was always i think far more fcroibly impressed by an overwhelming sense of their terrible destrnctiveness and of mans incompetency to grap ple with such an allpowerful engine of devastation hundreds of square mile are sometimes burced over by one of these cor flagratious the fire makinga clean sweep of every particle of verdure in the entire arei the flames leap up to a height of thirty ftwt or more into the air and if the wind should should chance to be hlowing at all briskly the progress of the ruin is incred ibly rapid j the swiftest animals on the plains being often suffocated by the derse smoke or caught by the devouring fire in spite of their utmost efforts to escape generally their mnst destructive ravages are confined to the still open unoccupied wild lands but occasionally the farm of a settler is invaded by a fire borne onward from the prairie by an unusually high wind in an exceptionally dry season and then the chances are that his most strenuous of- forts will prove unavailing and he will have to bear the agony of seeing the labor of his hands sacrificed to the insatiate appatite of the fire demon what causes the fire to start is generally unknown an accidental spark from the pipe of solitary traveller an unextinguished brand left smouldering in the ashes of a camp fire a stillburning cinder belched from the smokestack of a passing locomotive a flash of lightning or even the quasispontaneous combustion resulting from the accidentally focused rays of the sun any one of these and pos sibly many other causes may be the origin of some of the most widespread and des tructive conflagrations that devastate the prairio section so often and so unexpectedly the oarleesness of the native indians has frequently had to bear the blame but i have been assured by very many officers and men of tho mounted police that the imputation is unjust and that the aborigin es are of all travellers on the plains the most systematically careful and cautious in everything relating to their camp fires never pitching their tents till they made the site fireproof by treading down or burning the surrounding grassland never leaving a fire still burning when they strike their camp to move into other quar ters some time ago people used to think that the prairie grasses were improved in quality and quantity by being burned over but this is now generally held to have been an erroneous impression it is seen that the native grasses do not require to be impiov- ed and that there is in fict no room for- improvement whereas the damage is un deniable not only in tho possible destruction of or even o life but in the produc tion of broad temporarily waste acres of un sightly blackened surface over which dry scorching winds constantly blow and on which no dew can ever fall precautions of various kinds have theretore been taken to guard against the common enemy a fine of beueyeywohundred dollars is the pen alty for starting a prairiefire by wilfully or carelessly allowing the grass to become ignit ed byicamp or other fire around each farmhouse and barnyard or whenever btacks of grain are built in the open country fireguards are made by ploughing a broad strip of land over which an ordinary fire can not leap all along the railway tracks simi lar fire guards have been ploughed or else the grasb has been burned away for several i yards on either side and finally the ubiquitous mounted police are forever keep ing a most vigilant outlook to detect the first faint line of blue smoke which indicates the commencement of the fire and if possible to extinguish the in cipient conflagration before it has got be yond hnman control some unthinking people indeed seemtto consider this the sole duty of these hardworking men and to hear such people talk one would imagine that the police were in some mysterious way accountable for every fire that burns across the plains and that they ought to bo bed responsible for all the damage that may thus be caused but then there will always be some unreasonable people in ovsry community nothing apparently can for tho present at least prevent these disasters they will grow less and less frequent as the country fills up with set tlers and farms take the place of the cattle ranges and unoccupied tracts of prairie not greater vigilance but more immigrants is what the country wants and until these have been located in sufficient numbers there will not be an end to prarie fires but in th3 meantime the present settlers might do something to distribute the occasional losses from this source so as not to let the whole burthen of fate fall on the heads of an odd unfortunate here and there a mutual associ ation for protection against loss by prairie fires might bo organized on a plan somewhat aimiliar to that previously suggested for pro tection against loss by the early frosts in manitoba the settlements in this section are neither numerous nor large though they are all growing and some fow give signs of such robust vitally as augurs well for their future swift current 115 miles from moose jaw is an import in t railway divisional point round which a town is growing up to supply the wants of numeroua ranchers in the neighbor ing country at maple creek anotherfessen ti illy ranch town there aro extensive yards for the ahipmont of cattle and not far from the infant town is a police station and also an indian village of the crees from borrer the next station on to ounmire looks of tho geological period knowna crataceous age occur in which numorou fcimona of gigantic saurians and other ex- monsterb have been discovered womeh is peb81a t there is no feature of oriental ltfe which more forcibly attracts- the attention and stimulates the curiosity of europeans and americana than the condition of the women of the east the peculiar barriers which have so long surrounded and secluded them in turkey and egypt aregraduallyyielding to the pressure of contioc with european races but in persia these extraordinary limitations to the development of society continue in full force and forth one of- the greatest obstacles to the introduction into that country of the improvements which mark the progress of civlurition in the nine teenth century -c- many assume that- the tews and customs regulating the condition ofwbmen in orien tal lands are due to the mandates of mahomet tnere conld not be a greater mistake j mi- hornet simply continued in force and incul cated in a theocratic code principles existing on the subject for sges in the easi it is originally a question of race rather than of religion tbe ancient greeks believed in the seclusion of women 8q did the zoroastrian persians so do the pagan east indians and chinese and even some of the asiatic christians such as the armenians while the arabsof the desert and the nomadic tribes ot persia entirely dis pense with most of the regulations on the sub ject followed by mahometans elsewhere- at the outset we may say thai any sym pathy we may feel for women on account of such enforced seclusior may be reserved for other purposes as theyare not anxious to have these customs abolished and teal muoh sympathy for their european sistere and sometimes a strong aversion towards customs which allow a woman to show her face or neck and arms in public it is after all a matter of usage or aathd turks bay adet all of which is further shown by the circumstance that while the persian is smitten with horror at the ideabj exposing her face except in the presence of her bus hand she is but htle disturbed if she is seen walking through the grass bare above the knees if a stranger is suddenly disr covered approaching when her mantle is down bhehastenato draw it tightly over all but an eyej ot the risk perhaps of display ing a largeportion ofher figure after all it is a question of adet the indoor costume the indoor costume of persian women fronj the princess to the slave is one ot the most extraordinary ever invented in the nature of tho case it could onlybe worn ine warm dry climate where the seasons change with the alow imperceptible movement that marks the progress of old age this cos turns consists of a jacket or chemisette more or less decorated with needlework it is caught on the bosom by asingle button and reaches to within a lew inches above the hips the middlo portion of the body is uncovered a skirt far more abbreviated than that of a balletdancer is attached to the hips and when starched stands out in a manner that plainly indicates it is intended more for show than for- warmth that is all excepting a pair of embroidered elipperp sometimes and long masses of braided hair often reaching far below the waist the persian women are very handsome having a spanish complexion and a form and expression that aro more refinsd than those of the pure turkjshi or tartar races the limbs are long but shapely a trait which seems especially to mark j the persians perhaps because of the way they have of sitting on the knees and heels until the age of nine or ten a persian girl goes unveiled and wanders at will but about that time she enters on what to all oriental woman is the chief and the inevit able condition of her life matrimony very likely her hnsband is some youth with whom she has played in childhood per sian men marry at 14 to 16 and the women at 10 to 12 there are no old maids in that country and very few bachelors it is com mon to find a young gentleman and some times one of lower condition with two or three wives before he is 20 this custom has been followed there for thousands of years and the persian race is still far from effate either physically or mentally tho persian women are however not very pro lific and many of the children die young owing to poor diet and ignorance of sani tary laws and thus the population is kept down as soon aa she marries the persian woman enters an anderoon of her own this is a term equivalent to harem and means literal ly the inner apartments clubs are not permitted in persia nor indeed would they easily become popular because in the and- eroon a persian has a club of which he is the little god while there the persia wo men wield an influence as great if not greater than any enjoyed by european women there are regulations prescribing a fair exchange thus if each of the three is entitled to an equal portion tf his society w successive weeks they agree to accept from the favorite equivalents that compensate tor the loss of the husbands company he in turn has grtat liberty in exercising the forma of divorce yet it must be done with certain definite forms and phrases and the divorce is not final until pronenneedon three separate occasions he mutt also return hi r do sr to the divorced woman oj the other baud divorces work no injury to her and the may immediately remarry then besides a persian woman has a legal right to form what u called a tempor ary marriage without a slur on her reputa tion it may be for an honr or for ninety years but the relation can only be dissolved by death or the termination of tbe period of this matrimonial compact it differs from the regular form of marriage in that she brings- no dower the man giving her a present instead which he cannot recall many persian women undoubtedly practice his form of marriage for periods so brief but others on the other hand form life con tracts in this wayin order to avoid the an noyance of al divorce influence of the anderoon the anderoon offers a persian woman more occupation thrn one would suppose in addition to the care of their children of whom they are very fond and from whom they iejeive great filial respect they engage in prepariag conserves in embroidering painting and murie in which they sometimes acquire rare proficiency and occasionally thoy compose poetry although their range of knowledge and observation is contracted they have great natural intelligence and temperaments active and apt for affairs and intrigue hence the wives of a persian are of very great help to him in the pursuit oi the objects of his ambition haman re- sorteatohio anderoon and sought counsel of his wives when he realized that his for tunes were tottering supposing that a persian desires the favor of some personage of rank or seeks to induce a neighbor to sell him a certain piece of land does he seek influence at his club or go into the market and consult a broker 1 o he first confers with his favorite wife or in a case of great importance with all of them in council as sembled iu the anderoon while he smokes the aromatic weed of shiraz a courso of action having been decided on the wives call on the wives of the man it is intended to influence or on the wives of men whose wives can bring the- necessary influ ence to bear if he be of far higher rank or they go to the public bath which is the persian way for clubable people and while having their tresses combed and dyed with henna or embroidering and chatting they isisdjip diplomatically to the desired subject influence presents and bribes are offered and the transaction proceeds like a bargain in the bazaars when the criminal is hauled up for judgment and hie life u hangingin the balance it is then his wives rush to the anderoon of the judge or governor and even of the shah and urge them to make intercession for him in no country are the women so much t a fower behind the throne as irifersia and they so well appreciate the fact that they do nob complain if only once in the year their lord and master is eeen walking abroad with them this is afthe no boz or newyear in the ides of march then the women appear in an entirely new dress and the whole city goes forth and rambles in the gardens and the parks or sits under the ohevars and listens to the professional storyteller and musieian or watches the uncouth dancing of bears and the grimaces of hideous apes there is nnhappiness and misery in persia as elsewhere domestic life there has its jealousies jars and trogedies bui it also has its pleasant side there are true and warm and enduring affections between husbands and wives there and i have yet to learn that so far as tbis life is connected there is not a3 much enjoyment got out of existence among the valleys of iran as on the slopes of italy or on the prairies of the west s g w benjamin latest from europe the peace of the continent bismarck and the english ambassador europe enters upon thesecond decade of her existence nnder the berlin treaty with less apprehension of immediate trouble than shft has felt in any preceding new year the chances of international provocation are in deed for the moment reduced to a minianm there is for the time beinginternal peace throughout the balkan states and thegreat powers inside the tripe alliance find them selves eo evenly balanced against those on the the outside that vo one sees reason- fear any precipitate tipping of the ecalesf y these ten years of peace under the ar rangementof jwd beaconifield and prince bismarck have not however been distin- guuled by uessngs which such a long and pacific term might bo expeotedto trine every nation in europe has faid most deaf ly for the privilege of quiet since 1s72 when the last elaborate compntation of the arrmes of europe was made the taxpayers oi the continent have expended s7 500 coo 000 on preparations for a war that has not come bismarcks mean and ministerial side was scarcely more than suspected up to the time of tho accession of the late kaiser frederick since then unhappily wahave been perl mitted to see little else this i present mo- ner quarrel to which theenguah and ger- man press are now fully and furiously com- mitted shows the iron chancellor and his son herbert in a most hateful light upon the strength of a verba statement re- portedto have been made bymarshalbazaino at the time he was most hoplessly discredited and was reduced to live on blackmail arid chanty they caused a deliberate insult to be put up by their reptile press upon the english ambassador at st petersburg who is at the head of the whole english diplo- matio service and the moat popular and likeable man in that service when tais gentleman produces marshal baz lines writ ten denial of the alleged utterance and writes to count herbert bismarck for a civil retraction hehs again grossly insulted anct brusquely refused i a bflnufl of sqtjibs written for inula by professor l trumpa for the unemployed labourers spadeja v li lv th aspiring medic is always ready to cut an acquaintance wljx are very young mabhera like because they are both too growing wheat gieen to thrash the right stuff lojnake the mahdis foliow ers sticy to himgumarabic v a state likely jo be disorderly rou manian when may a hiase be said to be out of the perpendicular 7 why when it is built with a stoup toit eh stupid nb this is too stupendous a joke to be guessed at once a good resort near toronto for yentrilo- quiets mimico the right place for old country waiters porters etc tipperary a disagreeable young lady mis an- thrope canadian resort for suppressed sorrow pentanguishene 1 unenviable notoriety central bink notoriety a final settler for tightlacing no pro perminded young lady would for a moment consent to be seen in a coarset a genuine iusub naturte a spelling- bee an important omission- said the retired city man in the country to his little nephow who had come in with his coat ripped up the back and his bat missing i told you what to do if tho bull chased you i told you that gordon cummings the african hunter says that when chased by a svage animal all you need to do is to turn your back to it stoop over and regard the bewt from between vour knees it will then flee in terror from yon did you tell the bull thatl tell tho bull 1 you greeny of courienot i thought not well you see the bull wasnt onto the racket after the days work is done after the visits of ceremony have been paid after the stroll or the canter when the sun is drawing low and his betting rays are tinging mountain and field with a roseate glow the persian gentleman retires to the seclusion of his anderoon onco there and the door closed no one can enter but tho eunuchs or the slaves the master is alone with his family sheriffs and creditors can- not disturb him nothing short of aa order from the governor or the shah now it is that the woman exerts her in fluence it is supposed there are many hatreds and fends among the various wives of a harem doubtless there are such but scarcsly more than occnr among women of society elsewhere aud it muat be remem bered that a polygamous life is a custom to which every persian woman ii habituated from birth and looks forward to as a matter of course what would therefore bo a terrible indignity and curie to a canadian woman and rouse her worst passions pro duces no impression on a persian wife it should also be xemembered that persia is provided with a written code which among other matters prescribes the most careful regulations for the direction of married people and the protection of tho rights of women these regulations are carefully observed by men as well as women both because common sense shows them the importance of such observance and because tho code and custom alike allow suffi cient license to reduce the burden of con jugal tits if a man has three wives he can not given exclusive attention to one to tho prejudice of others it is share and share alike bnt if he manifestly prefers one to the others no directoire costume is complet wirhout a full jabot of rich lace at the neck decembers here and winter drear will bite our ears and smite our jaws but all the earth is filled with mirth for tis tho month of santa claus hard luck a rebellion against mortgages has achieved success in western kansas to the extent that a legislature has been eleoted purposely to deal with e istern shylocks during tho last few years a number of com panies dealing with western farm mort gages have been launched moat of them do respectable business but some of them are the veriest sharks all of them profess to lend only to onethird of the value yet there have been thousands of foreclosures alter the mortgageshad endured two or three years and the farms havebeen found insufficient to satisfy the mortgages part of this f ailnre u due to the crops hav ing been destroyed bfc drouth for three years in succession anttnft co inequitable laws the newlegislaljtte fe pledged to- pass an aoi allowing a mrtgcr threo yoars in which to redeem nroperty that has beon foreclosed upon tais however will not elect a i evolution in the climate tho long and the short of it is that the arid bole is played out as a place for settlement women are beginning to make their powe felt iu questions having both political and social aspects in tho united states there aro fortyeight national societies of women with a direct membership of 500000 mem bers the largese is the womens christian temperance union with a membership of 210000 then follow the missionary of peace tho suffrage organizations and philanthropio and educational sooieties twelve of these national organizations have joined with the national council which was formed to unite all the women societies of the nation into one great and powerful league in england the women are ative politicians the powerful influence of the primrose league which is wieldec by the ladies is exerted in the conservative cause on the other hand there are 16000 ladies who are members of the womens liberal associations and it is hoped by the glad stone party that their united influence will help to neutralise the conservative element of the primrose league yes said young stiggors the insur ance clerk i never was so swindled and robbed in all my life i feel like going down and jumping overboard every time i think of it whats the trouble aid the fellow at the next desk why you see i stood in tho line at the sar theater from 11 pm tuesday night until the next morning not that i was going to put up for any 5 seat but i thought id sell my place in the line like the other fellows did you understand well long about 6 oclock when waa almost ready to drop for want of sleep a follow in an ulster with bis hat down over his eyes comes up and offers me 10 for my place that was lucky lucky 1 bat wait of course i sold out and let the man squeeze into my place and then i held out my hand for the money and he gave you a counterfeit eh worse thanthat it seems nt was old skidmore my tailor and he just chuckles and says thats all right mr stiggors ill just credit you with ten on your little bill by jove if i hadnt been bo played out and exhausted id have assassinated him texas sittings the strength of evidenoe a student said to a distinguished lawyer one day i cannot understand now circum stantial evidence can be stronger than post tive testimony i will illustrate it said the lawyer my milkman brings me a can of milk and says sir i know that is pure milk for i drew it irom the cow washed tho can throughly strained it into the can and nobody elso has handled it now when i take the cover from the can out leaps a bull frog surely the frog is stronger evidence than the man 1 the way he got even woman to tramp why do you stand in that dejected pleading attitude aint the pie good j tramp yes maam tbe pie is all right but i used to be a waiter and 1 got the habit of taking this pathetic posture while looking for a foe woman well what did yon do when you didnt get any fee tramp what could i do i just brushed a few crumbs into the customers lap or let his hat drop and let him go