A woman of New Britain, Conn., who is a Christian Scientist, maintains that mosquitoes have brains and reasoning powers; that it is "outrageous" to kill the "little harmless insects," and that all that is necessary is to reason with them. She says:

"If a mosquito is troubling you, just speak to him kindly and say, 'Look here, my friend, you leave me alone and I'll leave you alone.' Then believe that he won't bite you. Even if he does, his sting won't hurt. I have done this for years and now enjoy having the pretty little things around and listening to their musical buzz."

In a study and discussion of dust, French scientists are pointing out that the quantity of minute particles raised and suspended in the air has been greatly increased in urban communities by the advent of the automobile. They estimate that one automobile stirs up as much dust as twenty carriages.

Wednesday evening a young man who is at Fairview for the summer rang the curfew bell just as the entertainment at the town hall was closing, and about one hour after marshal Powers had performed that operation to the satisfaction of all concerned. Marshal Powers was on the alert and caught the offender when about half way from the hall to the lake. While the bell was rung in a spirit of sport, the authorities have taken a firm stand against practical jokes of that kind and the offender will be prosecuted.

That the ordinary stepladder is neither safe nor convenient for women can readily be seen, and for this reason a new ladder has been invented. Its merit lies in the fact that it is provided with a platform and a balustrade, the platform opening automatically as soon as the ladder is placed in a position and a fall being rendered impossible by the balustrade, which surrounds the platform. Furthermore, this ladder can be fitted wit ha large table board, on which can be placed kitchen utensils or other articles necessary for cleaning purposes. If windows have to be washed or walls to be cleaned, the work can be done with perfect safety and convenience.

In other respects the ladder is constructed the ordinary manner, and it is so light that it can easily be transported from place to place.

It is no exaggeration to assert, said an asylum doctor of long and varied experience, that there are scores of men and women in our asylums who have literally been sent there through excess of joy. Many of these cases which are, in my opinion, the saddest of all have come under my own observation.

I remember in the very first asylum with which I was connected one of the patients was a strikingly handsome and very well educated man, who was as sane as you our I except on one point. He was really a man of considerable wealth, but his delusion was that he was a pauper, and he would tell the most pitiful tales of his destitution, begging, with tears in his eyes, for a few coppers with which to buy bread.

According to the story told me, he was the only son of a wealthy merchant. In his youth he had fallen among evil companions and had led such a dissolute life that his father not only threatened to disinherit him, but forbade him ever to enter his house again. After that he seems to have sunk into the lowest depths of poverty until he was glad to earn a few coppers by selling papers or matches in the streets.

It was at this last and lowest stage that news came to him that his father had died intestate and that he was heir to all his vast fortune. The sudden news completely turned the man's brain and brought on such a condition of excitement that he had to be sent to an asylum, and when he calmed down again he had lost all recollection of his good fortune, and nothing can shake his delusion that he is on the verge of starvation.

Another patient in the same asylum was a young and in his lucid moments a most intelligent fellow, whose "brain was turned," as the saying is, on learning that he had passed an examination. He had sat for the matriculation examination at the University of London, on passing which he had set his heart and asked a friend in London to wire the result as soon as the names were screened at Burlington House.

About three weeks later came a fatal telegram, "Failed—sorry," which sent the young man into the lowest depths of despair, for he was too old to sit again. Not many hours later, however, came another telegram, "Passed honors—very sorry crush so great did not see name this morning." The revulsion of feeling was so great that the student's reason gave way, and he became so violent in his excitement that he had to be confined. Fortunately he was not with us long and is now, I am glad to know, doing very well as a solicitor.

Disappointed love sends many people to asylums, but it is very seldom that success in wooing drives a man mad. It had this strange effect, however, on one of my late patients. The girl he loved had gone out ot India to keep house for her brother before he had screwed up his courage to the point of proposing to her, but an offer followed by mail very quickly after her.

Weeks and months passed, and not answer came to the impatient lover until, after waiting two ears in despair, he became engaged to a girl who had nothing but her money bags to recommend her and for whom he had not a particle of love. Scarcely, however, was his fate sealed than he received the long despaired of letter from India, accepting his offer and explaining that the girl's brother had received and mislaid the letter, which had only just been found and had come into her hands.

Within an hour of the receipt of this letter the man was a raving maniac, and although his condition is improved I doubt whether he will ever recover his reason.

In another remarkable case it was the joy at seeing her husband again that robbed a lady patient of her reason. Her husband was the captain of a merchant ship which was reported to have gone down with all hands. The widow had deeply mourned her husband for nearly a year, when one day on returning from a walk she found him sitting in the drawing room as hale and robust as ever.

With a shriek she fell unconscious on the floor, and when she recovered her reason was gone. It seems that her husband, after floating for some time, had been picked up by a passing "tramp" and had been landed on the west coast of Africa, from which he had returned home by the first available vessel.—London Tit-Bits

Malden, Mass., has an eccentric recluse in Miss Harriet Pierpont. She lives outside the city in a picturesque old house, surrounded bye hens and dogs. She is about 70 years old and has much property. Complaint has been made of her dogs and the filthy condition of her house, and a reporter called upon her to ascertain the facts. He was met at the door with a chorus of yelps and howls, mingled with the cackling of hens. The woman was wrapped in a bundle of rags. Her brown hair, slightly tinged with gray, fell in graceful braids over her shoulders, yet her face was wrinkled and not particularly clean. About the upper part of her body were the remains of a man's flannel undershirt, while her skirt would defy description. Despite her unpleasant appearance, she was courteous in her manners, and spoke in a sweet, well modulated voice. "This is outrageous," said she when told of the complaint. "The complaint comes from some of those people who have stoned my dogs and broken my windows. Of course you will be bitten if you twist a dog's tail. But why didn't they complain to me? Was it not a principle of the Roman law that the accused should have the privilege of facing his accuser. They have no right to interfere with me. There is no law which prescribes the clothes a woman shall wear, or how often she shall bathe, or when she shall sweep her kitchen."

Her house inside was in keeping with her dress and person. She formerly had twenty-seven cats, but they interfered with her dogs, so she disposed of them. Hens and dogs are her only companions, sharing her house and food alike with her. She has been living in this manner for ten years.

Housewives are now advised to boil the microbes out of the clotheslines before using the latter. Before long we will be advised to boil the "washlady."—Baltimore American