sisters playing in the street plies her five knitting needles with astonishing rapidity.

But the cares of life do not weigh heavily upon them, either young or old. The children learn to sing in their schools, and the old market-women scold and chatter among themselves as gaily as birds. They seemed to be inured to hard knocks. Seeing a little fellow fall upon the curbstone, and knowing what his American cousin would probably do under like circumstances, one is surprised that he jumps up, rubs his head, and utters-not a sound.

The only attempt, so far as I know, to give girls or women a higher education, different from or in addition to that above mentioned, is in the Victoria Lyceum, in Berlin. This praiseworthy institution, founded by the Crown Princess, is designed for those who have completed the ordinary course in the high schools, and especially for teachers. The instruction is given in two courses-one, of lectures : the other, of lessons and recitations. Some of the finest teachers in the Gymnasium in Berlin and professors from the University are among the lecturers in this Lyceum. There are courses in higher mathematics, in the sciences-chemistry even in the languages, ancient and modern; in history, art and literature. In short, here, for the first time, a girl has the opportunity of pursuing those studies which have heretofore been considered out of her sphere, not if beyond her comprehension. The price of tuition for teachers, or for those intending to teach, is merely nominal; for foreigners and others who may wish to attend it amounts to about twenty-five cents for each lecture.

With regard to the German schools from the teacher's standpoint, there are some facts and comparisons which may not be uninteresting. In all the public schools a teacher is an employee of the Government, and generally a graduate of a university, although this alone does not entitle him to the position, the examination for the doctor's degree at a university being a private affair, while the Staatsexamen for a teacher is conducted under the auspices of the Government and is much more difficult. Having passed this examination one is expected, in many parts of Germany, to give his services, without compensation, during a trial or Probejahr, at the end of which he receives a certificate of fitness as an instructor. He may thus have to wait one or even two years before securing a place, but the Government is under a sort of obligation to give every successful candidate employment, sooner or later; and once appointed, he retains his position during life or good behavior. No further question of competency or incompetency is raised.

If he becomes incapacitated from ill health or old age he is retired with a pension, graduated according to the number of years of active service. So, after forty years, a superannuated teacher may withdraw with full salary. The remuneration at first is not so large as with us. Three hundred dollars a year is surely no great sum; but when one takes into consideration the tenure of office-the pension in case of incapacity falling to the family after death-the greater buying power of money, and the more modest style

of life demanded of a teacher, a given stipend in Germany may well be as good as three times the amount in America. In addition to this there is the certainty of a regular increase of salary up to eighteen hundred or two thousand dollars. (These figures do not apply to the University professors, whose compensation is, of course, much greater.) A teacher, too, may augment his income by giving private lessons, for which he sometimes receives a dollar an hour; and considering that a physician in the same city gets only seventy-five cents a visit, it would seem that, of the twÓ, the teacher is the better paid. And this is indeed the case. Comparing his own salary with that of other men around him, he has no more reason than he has disposition to complain. He is contented and devoted to his work, feeling himself a part of the grandest institution of the sort in the world, and conscious that he holds that place in society which, next to a great military commander, is most highly honored. SETH K. GIFFORD.

FUNGI: A LARGE AND CURIOUS FAMILY.

THE plants included under the general name of the

fungi are exceedingly numerous, and present greater differences in structure, reproduction, nutrition and habits of life than are to be found in all the plants that the farmer, gardener or pomologist has brought under cultivation. If we compare the greatest sequoia or eucalyptus with the tiniest moss which grows upon its bark, the difference in size is far less than between the largest and the smallest of the fungi, while in modes of nutrition and reproduction the differences are still greater. In fact, the fungi do not constitute a single group of plants with similar structural and other characters; they constitute many groups, with varying degrees of difference and resemblance. For convenience we may divide the fungi into three general kinds, namely: (1) the Saprophytic fungi, i. e., those living on dead matter; (2) the Parasitic fungi, i. e., those living on living matter; and (3) those which are partly parasitic and partly saprophytic. The first more directly harm living plants; the second feed upon living plants but are dependent upon the life of the host; the third may prey upon a living plant, and after killing its tissues lives upon their decaying remains. The last kind are much more dangerous than either the saprophytes or parasites.

The bacteria are in many cases partly parasitic and partly saprophytic. They are the smallest of living things. If we were to magnify one of the smallest of the bacteria so as to make it appear of the size of a medium apple, an apple equally magnified would be over two and a half miles in diameter. Or take this as a more striking illustration. If the body of an average man were cut up into bits the size of the smallest bacteria, and these were laid out in a single line touching one another, the line would be long enough to stretch almost double the distance from the earth to the sun, or long enough to completely encircle the earth more than 6,500 times. Bacteria obtain their food by simple absorption from the medium surrounding them, and by changing the proportions

of the constituents of the sap they set up a fermentation which results in the breakdown of the organic compounds. The most common method of reproduction is by a simple division of one cell into two, and these into two again, and so on. At first such a multiplication is slow, but after awhile it becomes very rapid, the increase being in geometrical ratio. The brilliant discovery of the agency of bacteria in the production of blight in pear and apple trees, made by Dr. Burrill in 1880, and since fully confirmed by Mr. Arthur at the New York Experiment Station, has entirely changed the whole aspect of the longcontinued discussion regarding the disease.

A blighting tree is suffering from a disease analogous to the smallpox of the human subject, or the anthrax of domestic animals. When an inoculation of bacteria takes place, as in the above experiments on apple and pear trees, there is always a period of "incubation," as it is called, during which the bacteria are multiplying. The beginning of this period is one of apparently perfect health, but it finally merges with increasing rapidly into the state of active disease. The period of incubation is the time required to carry the multiplication of new bacteria far enough to bring about much disturbance in the infested tissues. Bacteria are distributed by the winds. When the juice of a blighted apple twig exudes from the bark the rains may wash out the gummy matter, leaving the bacteria exposed to the dry winds. By these they may be picked up and carried half way around the world, and possibly further still. That they are carried in the air may be demonstrated by a simple experiment, as follows: Put a little boiling soup into a cup which has just been taken from boiling water, and expose it to the air. If the temperature be high enough (70° to 80° Fahr.) in a few hours bacteria can be detected, and in a couple of days the soup will be swarming with them. Tyndall found, however, that while the lower strata of the air are laden with bacteria, the air of the upper regions (several thousand feet altitude) is free from them.

The mildews are examples of the purely parasitic fungi. They are of much higher organization than the bacteria, and consist of tubular stems which run through the tissues of various plants, drawing therefrom the juices for their own nourishment. The grape mildew and the fungus causing the potato rot belong to this family. The blights constitute a third family of parasitic fungi. They bear much resemblance to the mildews but grow upon the surface of plants, instead of through their tissues. They are as a consequence not so harmful. The lilac blight is a familar example of this family. The black-fungi include an enormous number of parasitic and saprophytic fungi, many of which are exceedingly harmful to vegetation. They are usually dark colored, hence the popular name of the family. The blackknot of the plum and cherry, and the ergot of rye are common examples of this family.

The rusts are all internal parasites of the worst kind. They include many species, one of the best known being the rust of wheat and oats. All rusts have several stages of existence, comparable to the

several stages of insects. In wheat rusts, for example, the first stage attacks the barberry, and is known as barberry-rust, or barberry cluster-cups, the last name referring to the beautiful cup-like shapes of the fungus. The second stage is the red-rust of the wheat; the third stage is the black-rust of the later part of the season. The spores of black-rust germinate in the early spring and produce the fourth stage, in which very minute spores are produced. The latter fall upon barberry leaves and growing there produce the barberry-rust again, and so the round of life continues. There are few remedies properly socalled which can be applied in the case of plant diseases due to fungi. Prevention is the best policy. When once the disease is established it is generally best to use the knife and cut away the diseased part, or even to dig up the whole plant.-Dr. C. E. Bessey, in N. Y. Tribune.

OLD TIME BEDS AND BEDROOMS.

BEDS in some parts of the world-in Persia and in

the far East-have generally served as couches, and even as thrones of state during the daytime. Those of the ancient Persians were of gold. The bed on which the Sultan of Turkey used to receive ambassadors in the porch or "sublime porte" (gate) of his palace is still shown, and is overlaid with plates of pure gold set with jewels, and covered by a tester on golden posts. Western nations have not made a display of their riches in such a shape as this. The beds of our ancestors were bags filled with straw or leades (litter, from the Latin legere, to collect; lectum, a bed), like the modern palliasse, but not upholstered or squared with modern neatness. The bag could be opened and the litter remade daily, as the traveled reader will have experienced with the mattress of old-fashioned inns in Italy. There were few bedrooms in the houses of ancient England. The master and mistress of the Anglo-Saxon house had a chamber or shed built against the wall that enclosed the mansion and its dependencies; their daughter had the same. Young men and guests slept in the great hall, which was the only noticeable room in the house, on tables or benches. Woollen cover-lids were provided for warmth; poles on which they could hang their clothes, or hooks projecting from the wall; perches were provided for their hawks. Attendants and servants slept upon the floor. Bedding of this rough kind could be stowed away during the day, and as many guests could be accommodated as there was room for in the hall. All the rooms of the house, such as the hall, the chapel, the sleeping-rooms against the walls, the offices, were on the ground floor. After a time a room was built above the hall, called the solar, a chamber which admitted the sun freely, and had occasionally a gallery or terrace on which to take the air. It was approached by outside steps, and the terrace was probably a long landing-place or open-air passage.—Magazine of Art.

He who is false to present duty breaks a thread in the loom, and will find the flaw when he may have forgotten the cause."

NEWS AND OTHER GLEANINGS.

-Professor Wethers, a colored school principal of Dallas, Texas, has taken steps for the establishment of a colony of 2000 colored families in Brazoria county, in that State. He proposes to buy 100,000 acres of land, and divide it into 50-acre farms.

-J. G. Whittier is one of the most modest of writers, one who loves not for himself biography and biographers. 'Of course," he said to a correspondent of The Pall Mall Gazette, "I am glad to have thee tell my friends anything about me they care to know; but such fame as a man gets from books written about him after he is dead seems to me worth very little. I have never thought of myself as a poet in the sense in which we use the word when we speak of the great poets. I have just said, from time to time, the things I had to say, and it has been a series of surprises to me that people should pay so much attention to them and remember them so long."

It cannot be said of John Ruskin that he greatly resembles Whittier in this pleasant attribute of modesty. His last præteritæ contains this remarkable paragraph concerning little Johnny's finding his first piece of copper pyrites: "If only then my father and mother had seen the real strengths and weaknessess of their little John-if they had given me but a shaggy scrap of a Welsh pony and left me in charge of a good Welsh guide . they would

have made a man of me there and then; and afterward the comfort of their own hearts, and probably the first geologist of my time in Europe."

-Artificial eggs, with real albuminous whites, and yolks made of ground carrot and saffron, are said to be manufacturable at a half cent apiece by an alleged inventor in New York.

-Health Commissioner Raymond, of Brooklyn, having finished his inspection of the districts in South Brooklyn where typhoid fever was prevalent, attributes the outbreak to defective plumbing.

-The experiment of sending the oil of the Arctic whalers home across the continent, from the Pacific coast, proved so successful that another train of 17 cars has been started on its way from Oakland, Cal., to New Bedford,

-According to a cabinet decree of 1817, master artisans in Prussia who gratuitously teach a trade to a deaf-mute boy, and thereby enable him to become self-supporting, are entitled to a State premium of 150 marks-an award that was recently made to a saddler of Königsberg.

-During his eight years of diplomatic service James Russell Lowell has never resigned his position as Professor of Belles-Lettres in Harvard University. He has been rated each year as "absent on leave," but last September he returned to active duties.

-Measurements of the heights of clouds have been made at the Upsala Observatory during the past summer. The results are proximately as follows:-Stratus, 2,000 feet; nimbus, or rain cloud, from 3,500 to 7,200 feet; cumulus, from 4,300 to 18,000 feet; cirrus, 22,400. Cloud measurements are always uncertain, but these figures are considered fairly correct.

-In Georgia colored men own 600,000 acres of land and pay taxes on about $10,000,000 of property. In the whole of the South their taxable property is put down at about $100,000,000. In South Carolina 66,429 of the 122,093 pupils in the public schools are colored. In Georgia taxes paid by the colored race are almost as much as the sum devoted to the colored schools of that state. Everywhere in this country the colored race is making commendable progress, and is vindicating its right to that political equality denied to it in so many parts of the South.

CURRENT EVENTS.

BOTH Houses of Congress adjourned on the afternoon of the 21st inst., until the 5th of next month. The most important action taken, so far, has been a revision of the rules of procedure in the House, the principal feature of which is the assignment to other committees than the single one on Appropriations of several of the appropriation bills. This is regarded as much reducing the control supposed to be exercised by S. J. Randall, (who has been Chairman of the Appropriations Committee), over the money expenditures.

In England there is much agitation over the approaching session of Parliament, with reference to the course to be adopted towards the affairs of Ireland. The Irish members, led by C. S. Parnell, will be virtually in control, and able to make and unmake ministries. W. E. Gladstone is supposed to be ready to grant such concessions to Ireland as will satisfy Parnell, but the uncertainty on this point, (as he declines to speak definitely at present), adds to the public excitement.

PROF. John C. Draper, well-known as a writer on scientific and medical subjects, (and the son of Prof. John W. Draper, a still more distinguished author), died in New York, on the 20th inst., in his 51st year.

A SHOCKING mining disaster occurred at Nanticoke, near Wilkes-Barre, Pa., on the 18th inst., twenty-three miners being shut up in a mine by a caving-in of the roof. At the writing of this paragraph their rescue alive is not hoped for, though strenuous efforts have been made to reach them in time.

THE armistice between Servia and Bulgaria has been extended to the 21st of Fifth month next, and there has been no more fighting recently.

FOUR children at Newark, N. J., who were bitten some weeks ago by a dog supposed to be mad, and who were sent to Paris to be inoculated with hydrophobia virus, (on the principle of small-pox vaccination), by M. Pasteur, the distinguished scientist, have arrived safely and were operated on, on the 21st. The result is watched with great interest.

THE deaths in this city last week numbered 361, which was 50 more than during the previous week, and 3 more than during the corresponding period last year. Among the main causes were: consumption of the lungs, 51; croup, 32; diphtheria, 13; typhoid fever, 14; inflammation of lungs, 37; old age, 19; paralysis, 7.

NOTICES.

**Friends' Book Association has made arrangements to remain at the old stand, 1020 Arch Street, during the present month, where all books and stationery on hand will be sold at half price as heretofore.

**Seventh-Day, First month 2d, 1886, has been appointed donation day at the Home for Aged Colored Persons, Belmont and Girard avenues. Contributions of all kinds are solicited, and may be sent to the Institution, or to

DILLWYN PARRISH, President, 1015 Cherry st. WM. STILL, Vice-President, 244 South 12th Street. THOS. H. MCCOLLIN, Secretary, 631 Arch street. ISRAEL H. JOHNSON, Treasurer, 809 Spruce street. Goods may also be left with H. M. Laing, 30 North 3d street.

** The Yearly Meeting's sub-committee to visit Philadelphia Quarter have appointed the following meetings in First month, 1886: Merion the 5th prox. Haverford 6th, Valley 7th, Schuylkill 8th, Reading 10th; all at 10 o'clock.

EDWIN L. PEIRCE, Clerk of Quarterly Meeting's Committee to co-operate.

THE attention of those already subscribers, and

of all who are interested in the religious principles of the Society of Friends, or in its ethical and social influences, is earnestly asked, at this time, to the importance of making a large increase, for the coming year, in the circulation of this journal. An enlarged circle of readers would give it a wider and greater usefulness; would enable its conductors to continue its improvement and development; and would permit a modification of the price of subscription.

The editors believe that the paper is worthy of an earnest effort in its behalf. They are able to say with sincerity that in conducting it they have had these principles steadily in view:

being to print whatever was deserving,—when space permitted, but to omit whatever was not in the line of our work, or was not likely to be useful or edifying.

The proceedings of all our Yearly Meetings have been reported,-most of them with considerable detail,—and many subordinate meetings, conferences, committees, etc., have been punctually noticed. In this department of its labor, as the medium of conveying to Friends information of the proceedings of the Society, the value of the INTELLIGENCER AND JOURNAL must, we think, be conceded. The work of the body is thus made known to all, interest in it is maintained, and faithfulness to its principles is encouraged. To Friends who live in distant localities,

2. To promote in every direction the practical application of the Christian ethics to the existing conditions of life;

3. To afford to the membership of our body of Friends a fair expression of their views and opinions upon all topics suitable for treatment in such a periodical.

In pursuing the objects thus outlined, we have printed within the last seven months, (since the union of the INTELLIGENCER with the JOURNAL), not less than four hundred original articles, letters, reports, and communications, sent us by Friends and others interested in our Society, the authorship of these probably representing two hundred persons, resident in different parts of the field in which the paper circulates. All of these contributions received due consideration before their publication, our desire

port given by the regular weekly visits of such a journal can scarcely be overestimated.

The editors look hopefully forward to a steady improvement in the paper, if a larger circulation can be obtained for it, and they confidently appeal to all who favor its aim and approve its character to give it an effective support at this time. They have fixed upon the following:

TERMS FOR 1886.
For a single copy, (as heretofore)
For a club of eight, (8), each,
For a club of twenty, (20) each,

$2.50 2.25

2.00

Those willing to act as agents are invited to correspond with us, if in doubt upon any point, and information will be gladly afforded them. Specimen copies will be sent free to those who might subscribe, if names are furnished us. Now is the time to begin work.

Express on week-days, 3.20, 4.35, 5.00, 5.45, 6.50, 7.30, 8.20, 8.30, 11 and 11.15 a.m. (Limited Express 1.14 and 4.50 p.m.), 12.44, 3, 4,

STRAWBRIDGE & CLOTHIER

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DRY GOODS.

The stock includes Silks, Dress Goods, Trimmings, Hosiery and Underwear, Gloves, House-Furnishing Goods, Ready-Made Dresses and Wraps, and everything that may be needed either for dress or for house-furnishing purposes. It is believed that unu sual inducements are offered, as the stock is among the largest in the American market, and the prices are guaranteed to be uniformly as low as elsewhere on similar qualities of goods.

3.20, 4.35, 5, 5.45, 8.30 a.m., 12.44, 4 (Limited Express, 4.50),

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Express for Boston, without change, 6.30 p.m. daily. For Sea Girt, Spring Lake, Ocean Beach, Ocean Grove, Asbury Park and Long Branch, 8.00 and 11.30 a.m., 2.44, 3.30 and 4 p.m. on week-days. Saturdays only, 5 p.m. Sundays, 8 a.m. (does not stop at Ocean Grove and Asbury Park). For Freehold, 5 p.m., week-days.

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Daily except Sunday: Express for Easton, Delaware Water Gap, Scranton and Binghamton, 7.40 a.m., 12.05 noon and 5.35 p.m. For Scranton and Water Gap, 3.15 p.m.

FROM MARKET STREET WHARF. Express for New York, via Camden and Trenton, 9.00 a.m. on. week-days.

Express for Long Braneh and intermediate stations, 8.30 a.m. and 4 p.m. Sundays, 7.30 a.m.

Trains for Trenton, connecting for New York, 6.20, 7.30, 10.30 a.m., 12 noon, 2.30, 3.30, 4.30, 5.30 and 7.00 p.m. On Sundays, 6.45 p.m.

PHILADELPHIA, WILMINGTON AND BALTIMORE RAILROAD.

TRAINS LEAVE NEW BROAD ST. STATION.

For

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TICKET OFFICES:

CHARLES E. PUGH, General Manager.

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S. E. Corner Broad and Chestnut Streets.
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J. R. WOOD,
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