from nine until half-past eleven, and from twelve until wo. Perpetual silence is imposed upon all the monks, except that they speak to the abbot when necessary, and the abbot, prior, guest-master, and the man who serves the guests, are at liberty to speak as may be ordinarily required; but in certain parts of the abbey no one may speak, except as required by the rules, as for instance in the chapter-room. From Easter until September 14th and on Sundays two meals per day are served, but during the rest of the year there is only one, dinner. Meat, eggs, fish and butter are prohibited, as is also milk during Lent and Advent. Cider is permitted. Weak broth, potatoes and brown bread are the staple articles for meals. Fruits are also permitted.

The Gethsemane monks work about a third of their sixteen-hundred-acre farm, raising the usual productions, and making cheese besides. The white robe mentioned as distinguishing them is worn of course only in their devotions, while in their labors their suit, which the cowl is at the devotional hours made to cover, consists of a coarse flannel shirt, a white, coarse woolen gown, a scapular and hood, coarse drawers and socks, and heavy shoes. A leather belt confines the gown at the waist. Instead of a leather girdle the abbot wears a purple cord.

The present abbot is Father Benedict, who succeeded the first one, Eutropius, with whom he came to America as a novice. He was born in France in 1820, made a priest in 1851, and a bishop and abbot in 1861 at New Haven. His name was Berger before he joined his Order.

In an angle of the monks' church is a marble slab which covers the remains of John Lambert Emmanuel Amor Constant, Baron de Hudiamont, a benefactor of the abbey, who was born in Belgium, but settled in St. Louis, and died at Gethsemane in 1879, in his ninety-first year. He lived with the monks ten years, without, however, taking the vows of the Order. His descendants still live in St. Louis.

Another home of Trappists was established in Iowa, in 1849, near Dubuque. It was established by a colony from Ireland, and is called New Melleray. That and Gethsemane are the only Trappist houses among us. They bring down into the present the curious specimens of the Church customs of the Middle Age, apparent anachronisms like the reconstructed mastodons of a museum. Yet within their seclusion beat human hearts, faintly touching, if even only by memories, those surging in the bitter battles of the corroding world; and, let us hope, gaining a foretaste of the peace which is enshrined in the eternal quiet which must somehow at last come to all the sons of men.

A FOOLISH FAMILY.

STRANGE are the stories told of the mode of life of the Delavals of two generations; the vast and almost perpetual crowds of company entertained; the fétes given, when their beautiful house and gardens became in truth a perfect fairyland of light and beauty and music, with floating throngs of gay and lovely creatures, who were ready to rush into the most extraordinary frolics and scenes of mischief imaginable. The daughters of Lord Delaval, who were very handsome, are said to have been fond of assuming various disguises, and playing off in them various pranks. The Delavals were particularly fond of theatrical amusements, aud on one occasion the whole family acted on the boards of Drury Lane, by permission of Garrick. Here, too, the same pleasures went

on, as well as a variety of practical jokes of no scrupulous kind.

The lovely Lady Tyrconnel was one of these daughters, who had hair of such rich luxuriance that when she rode it floated on the saddle. There is a portrait of her, as well as of others of her family, and amongst them of her husband-said to be the finest man of his time-at Ford Castle, and an arch and most lovely creature she must have been. The present Marquis of Waterford no doubt inherits not only Ford Castle, but his strong penchant for practical jokes, from his family, as well as his fair complexion and light hair, his mother being the only daughter of Lord and Lady Tyrconnel. It is said that many were the contrivances in the house for carrying into effect these jokes; such as beds suspended by pulleys over trap-doors, so that when guests had retired after a carouse, and were just dropped asleep, they were rapidly let down into a cold bath, and awoke in consternation, finding themselves floundering in darkness and cold water. Another contrivance was that of partitions be tween sleeping-rooms, which could be suddenly hoisted up into the ceiling by pulleys, so that when ladies and gentlemen were retiring to rest, and had doffed all their finery of wigs and hoop-petticoats, they were in a moment astonished to see the walls of their rooms disappear, and to find themselves in a miscellaneous assembly of the oddest and most embarrassing description.

A story illustrative of their amusements is told of the brother of Lord Delaval. He laid a wager to walk blindfold from some distant part of the garden into the house in a straight line; but for this purpose he had provided a very fine silken thread as a clew to guide him. A boy, however, who had sharper eyes than the rest, perceived it and silently pointed it out to the competitors, who speedily shifted the end from the grand portal to which it was attached, and placed it in a direction right across a pond on the lawn.

Mr. Delaval, therefore, boldly marching on, as he supposed, to the door, soon plunged headlong into the water -a fact announced not only by his own disagreeable astonishment, but by the peals of laughter with which it was accompanied from all sides, and which gave him no little wrath and chagrin.

In such merriments and prodigalities, it is said, flew those days at Seaton Delaval; feasting was a daily matter of course, and such good things did the farmers pour into the house that on rent days they had, it is said, more frequently to receive money than to pay it. Lord Tyrconnel was a dissipated man, who kept several mistresses; and Lady Tyrcounel, on the other hand, was said to be the mistress of the Duke of York.

It is no wonder, then, that the country people talk of the wickedness of the Delavals, and look on the extinction of this numerous family so rapidly and completely as a judgment on that account. Yet, if we may judge from other circumstances, the Delavals were rather mischievous to themselves than to their neighbors. They appear to have spent their estates freely amongst them, and to have been not only profuse, but generous, liberal, and sparing no cost to promote the good of their tenants and those about them.

Sir Francis Delaval died at a comparatively early age. Of the manner of his death the accounts differ. Cooke says he was dining at his brother-in-law's, Lord Mexborough, and having taken a large quantity of ice, was seized with spasms, and died without ever recovering from the fit; Edgeworth, that the last illness was attributed to his drinking large quantities of water and small beer, of which last he had always a large jug standing by

his bed. However, when Edgeworth went to see him he spoke of himself in a manner which might apply too well to the generous but dissipated Delavals in general; and how strikingly effective might his last words be, if a certain living relative were to consider them as addressed expressly to him!

"Let my example, said he, "warn you of a fatal error into which I have fallen. I have pursued amusement, or, rather, frolic, instead of turning my ingenuity and talents to useful purposes. I am sensible that my mind was fit for greater things than any of which I am now, or of which I was ever supposed to be, capable. I am able to speak fluently in public, and I have perceived that my manner of speaking has always increased the force of what I said. Upon various useful subjects I am not deficient in useful information; and if I had employed half the time and half the pains in cultivating serious knowledge which I have wasted in exerting my powers upon trifles, instead of making myself merely a conspicuous figure at public places of amusement, instead of giving myself up to gallantry, which disgusted and disappointed me, instead of dissipating my fortune and tarnishing my character, I should have distinguished myself in the senate or the army, I should have become a useful member of society and an honor to my family. Remember my advice, young man! Pursue what is useful to mankind. You will satisfy them, and, what is better, you will satisfy yourself."

A STURDY SON OF MARS.

You can still near in every barrack-room the story of Darcier, that carabineer of the Second Regiment of the French Line, who rescued his captain in a rather singular fashion. He had succeeded in capturing an officer of the hostile party and bringing him into camp, where, on perceiving that his captain was missing, he seized the officer by the belt, and, holding him with both arms straight above his head, he carried him off to where the English stood, shouting, "Here, I have brought you your captain; give me mine back again." M. de Nieuwekerke, the Superintendent of the Fine Arts, one day called on Darcier in his modest apartments on the outer boulevards, to request him to sing at a soirée he was about to give, adding that he left it entirely with the artist to fix any price he liked to name. The popular singer professed very advanced democratic principles, and, as a thorough going republican, he replied that he would not have the slightest objection to sing for a poor workman or a needy artist, but that he refused to sing at any price for a gentleman of the Court. Darcier, who was a great admirer of physical force, and himself possessed of great strength, had in his room a number of dumbbells in all sizes. The count looked at them, lifted them, and, spying one weighing a hundred pounds, he slowly raised it from the ground and held it out at arm's length. "Monsieur," said Darcier, with astonishment, "you are not so much of an aristocrat as I took you to be. You can leave me your address, and I will come and sing at your soirée.”

THE RUDE PARTNER.

THE worst variety of all is the rude partner. He perhaps wanted to dance with Miss Lydia Languish, but her aunt circumvented him, and, unhappily, he falls to poor little Miss Muffett, to whom he pays not the slightest attention as he jealously watches Lydia revolving,

and shows himself so cross and bored that she is ready to cry for vexation. I heard one of this class who was presented to a lady at a ball; she did not take his fancy, so he offered her his arm and began to promenade. Arriving opposite one of his acquaintances, he said: “I say, Meadows! allow me to introduce you to Miss Aster;" and, disengaging his arm, he left the girl with a bow! Now, what is a woman to do or say when so insulted? She might, of course, make a fuss; but that is not to be thought of by any one of refined feeling. Her helplessness makes it all the harder. If men could but know the burning yet powerless indignation she must try to choke back, none could be found so utterly devoid of chivalry as to subject her to such a mortification.

CURIOUS FINDS.

NATURE accommodates herself to the most extraordinary conditions of life. A lady lost her gold ring. Some three years afterward the loser's cat caught a rat, from which pussy had eaten the head. The neck of the rat was exposed, and the owner of the cat saw something metallic glittering on the rat's neck. On examination this proved to be the lost wedding-ring imbedded in the flesh. The ring must have been carried by the old rat to its nest, and a very young rat must have thrust its head into the ring. As the animal grew larger each day, its novel collar would become a fixture. The wonder is how Nature continued to permit her living demands to be supplied through such a small circumference; yet the creature lived, was fat and looked healthy.

Cats in their hunting expeditions sometimes meet with an untoward fate. As some workmen were felling timber they discovered in the centre of one of the trees a cavity, in which were the remains of a cat. The skeleton was entire, and some hair of a sandy color yet remained on the skin. It is conjectured that the animal, having entered a hollow part of the tree, was unable to extricate itself, and the wood in process of years had grown around it.

Curious finds have not unfrequently been made in trees. Some woodcutters in the Forest of Drommling made a strange discovery. They began to fell a venerable oak, which they soon found to be quite hollow. Being half decayed, it speedily came to the ground with a crash, disclosing the skeleton of a man in excellent preservation; even the boots, which came above the knees, were perfect. By its side were a powder-horn, a porcelain pipe-bowl, and a silver watch. It is conjectured that while engaged in hunting he climbed the tree for some purpose, and slipped into the hollow trunk, from which there was no release, and so the unfortunate man probably died from starvation.

Another mystery was found in the heart of an oak. From a tree of this kind, a block eighteen inches in diameter, that had been knocking about in various yards and woodsheds, was split up lately, and in it was found an auger-hole, about three-fourths of an inch in size, containing a bunch of human hair done up in a piece of printed paper. The hair was near the centre of the block, and fastened in with a wooden plug. It was apparently put in when the tree was quite small, as the tree had grown over the plug to the thickness of about four inches, with the grain perfectly smooth and straight. A natural curiosity was shown in a timber merchant's workshop; this was the skeleton of a bird imbedded in a piece of beech. The timber seemed quite sound all around the cavity, and there was no sign of any aperture

786

STUDYING TO AVOID STUDY.

this singular alleviation of their grief, but Johnson defended it in his clear and forcible manner, and, says Boswell, mind, the fair view of human nature that it ex"was much pleased with the hibited, like some of the reflections of Rochefoucauld." On the strength of it he went home with Reynolds, supped with him, and was his friend for life. No moralist with a reputation to lose would like to back Reynolds's remark in the nineteenth century.

A CURIOUS MARRIAGE ENTRY.

THE REV. BROOKE LAMBERT, the Vicer of Greenwich, has disinterred and sent to the London Times a very curious entry in the marriage registers of St. Alphage, Greenwich, under the date November 18th, 1685:- "John Cooper, of this parish, almsman in Queen Elizabeth's College, aged one hundred and eight years, and Margaret Thomas, of Charlton, in Kent, aged eighty years, by license of ye Lord Bishop of Rochester and leave of ye Governors of ye Draipers' Company." This marriage must, we should think, have been got up by others than the parties themselves, as have entered into a tie of this kind on the very brink a vulgar sort of joke. Even if the ages be a of the grave. little exaggerated, no sane people of that age would scarcely have been any such marriage. Since the age of Methuselah, there can

THE MOON A MIGHTY SCAVENGER. IT is chiefly as the producer of ocean tides that the moon renders us such signal service. The sun, it is true, as well as the moon, exercises an influence in the production of this diurnal phenomenon; but it is on the moon chiefly that we depend for this important recurrence. By inland dwellers the tides are thought of as monotonous events of no great moment; but they have a far wider significance than many imagine. Exactly as the sun preserves through the agency of winds a healthy circulation in the atmosphere, so the moon performs a similar service to the waters of the sea, and the great tidal rivers which flow into it. But for this work as a mighty scavenger our shores where rivers terminate would become stagnant deltas of corruption. Twice a day, however, the decomposing matter which our rivers deposit is swept away by the tidal wave, and a source of pestilence is thus prevented.

CHANGES IN MEN'S STANDARDS.

ONE of the most interesting things in literature is to mark the shifts and changes in men's standards. Boswell tells a curious story of the first occasion on which Johnson met Sir Joshua Reynolds.

Two ladies of the company were regretting the death of a friend to whom they owed great obligations. Reynolds observed that they had, at any rate, the comfort of being relieved from a debt of gratitude. The ladies were naturally shocked at

JAPANESE art is not all, perhaps, that its fanatics would have us believe. It is quaint, it is pretty, it is amusing; and it is all these three to an extreme. But there are ters that have ever lived; and the danger is that, now higher qualities than quaintness and prettines, while to that we are coming to know something about this agreebe amusing has been denied to some of the greatest masable subject, we may take it too seriously, and make peculiarities take the place of genuine art would be more of it than it is worth or will bear. It is the century of fads, or the peril would scarce exist. To make these destructive to good taste.

MULTUM IN PARVO.

everywhere Ralph was féted, flattered and adored. His wealth, his handsome person and his bonhomie made him welcome in the most exclusive as well as the most democratic society. I was afraid so much attention would turn his head, but he was always the first to propose a change of place. A demon of restlessness seemed to have taken possession of him. I secretly wondered if any of the beautiful women who so cleverly laid siege to his heart had succeeded in making an impression on it; but I was soon convinced his indifference was too complete to be feigned.

One evening we came home from a dinner, where Ralph had been unusually brilliant and entertaining, and as we sat smoking, watching the faint streaks of light grow brighter in the East, I said: What put you in such good spirits last night?"

home as he had been abroad; the life of our old clubthe centre around which the most brilliant society revolved. Then there came a blank, and for years I heard of him no more. Twenty-three years after our parting, business called me back to America. I found myself a stranger in my native land. I determined to look up Ralph, and for that purpose sauntered into the old clubrooms, thinking I was certain to find him there. Old friends with new faces greeted me-the boys were menwe had to get acquainted anew. But he was not amon them, I asked every one to whom I spoke for Ralpì. Ainsworth-the pride of the club, the king among his fellows.

"Ralph Ainsworth? Let me think. Brown, where is Ainsworth? Dead, ain't he?"

"Ainsworth? I have not seen or heard of him for

"Why, old boy," I cried, "what is taking you home on such short notice ?"

He got up hurriedly and walked back and forth, full of suppressed excitement.

"It is no new thought. I have looked forward to this day ever since I first set foot on foreign soil-yes, before I engaged my passage over." Presently he took from an inner pocket a small locket of blue enamel on a gold ground, and placed it in my hand. "That is why I am going home," he said. I opened it eagerly, and was fascinated with the exquisite girlish face before me. Around her perfect throat was a delicate chain, and suspended from it the counterpart of the locket in my hand. Under the picture was the name "Lilian Ainsworth."

I describe this incident minutely on account of the strange circumstance connected with it, which I will relate further on. Ralph was looking over my shoulder at the beautiful face. Since he had begun to speak of her, the floodgates seemed open; he could not again retreat into his usual reticence. He poured forth rapid, broken sentences that stunned me into silence.

"She is my cousin. I gave her my word of honor I would neither see nor write to her for three years. My father is a madman to oppose our union. I will never submit to a final separation. It was for her dear sake I have endured this miserable exile. The endless strife between my father and me was killing her-I could see it. He holds marriage between cousins is a crime. He has almost wrecked the two lives he once held dearest by his insane obstinacy. Lilian venerates and fears him to the verge of fanaticism; but the time has come when I shall claim my own love, in defiance of the whole world, if need be."

Two hours later I stood on the ship trying to say good-by to Ralph. He was full of high spirits and joyous excitement.

"My dear Allen," he said, "don't look so forlorn. You would give me the blue devils if I was not on my way home."

I asked: "Are they expecting you, Ralph ?"

He threw back his head and laughed: "No. I can imagine the joy of my respected father when I walk in. He thinks I am at the bottom of the sea by this time, probably."

"And-Lilian ?"

His face was positively illuminated as he answered: "I have perfect faith in Lilian, thank God !'

As the weeks and months went by I heard of him occasionally-never from him. He was as popular at

How did you happen to think of him?"

Out of all those old-time friends of his, who roared when he laughed, danced when he piped, only one could give me a clew to his whereabouts in the last dozen

years.

"If I remember aright, about ten years ago he was down on his place; but a good deal can happen in ten years. He may be there and he may not. We lost sight of him in the club fifteen or twenty years ago. He was a splendid fellow-Ralph. You don't see such young men nowadays."

It seemed incredible that he could have been forgotten. It was monstrous, unheard-of, that his friends could be so indifferent as to his fate! I resolved to hunt for this man, who had so completely dropped out of the life that used to be so full of him, till I found him. I did not rest until I had reached the inn of the village nearest his old home. As I ate my breakfast, I asked the landlord: Have you any conveyance to take me over to Mr. Ainsworth's place?"

Mariar," he said to his wife, who just then entered the room, "the furren gentleman wants we should git him over to Squire Ainsworth's."

He spoke with a studied carelessness, with a palpably assumed, off-hand jauntiness. The woman paused with startled eyes; the plate of smoking cakes she carried fell with a crash to the floor.

"Lord-a-massy!" she cried, and fled.

After a great deal of coaxing, threatening and bribery I induced "mine host" to allow his man-of-all-work to drive me to my destination. I tried in vain to discover why the name of my genial friend should throw theso good people into such a state of consternation, but could elicit nothing save a caution not to tell the man where I was going. I was to keep up an elaborate pretense of business in the next village till I reached the Ainsworth place, which was minutely described to me. When I had accomplished half of my journey it became impossible for me to restrain my curiosity any longer.

"Does Squire Ainsworth go often to the village ?" The man turned on me two wide-opened, staring eyes. "Say," he murmured, huskily, "what did you ask that there fur ?"