The consumption of matches has reached amazing proportions. According to the Lancet, about 18,000,000 gross of boxes are consumed per anunum, 63 per cent, of which were of the "strike anywhere" and 37 per cent, of the safety variety. This is 2,582,000,000 boxes and more than 500,000,000,000 matches. Friction matches were first used in 1833.

There seems to be no good reason for doubting the story that set free a Neapolitan prince accused of murder. It was the locally notorious case of the Princess Caravella, at Naples, in Italy. After giving a dinner party she proceeded to her room to snatch a few minutes of rest in order to refresh herself for a dance.

She was discovered lying dead on her bed, with a pistol wound in her heart. Her husband, Prince Caravella, had been noted for his jealous disposition; and, as it was certain that no stranger could possibly have been in the princes' room, suspicion pointed to him and he was arrested. The pistol was found lying near the murdered woman, which in itself was favorable to the prince, for no murderer, unless he courted detection, would thus leave the weapon to be discovered. In spite of this, it was probable that things would have gone hard with the accused but for the shrewdness of a Naples police officer. This man carefully examined the bedchamber and, lying on the floor by the bedside, he found one of those large moths that abound in Italy. A lighted candle had stood on a table by the bed, and the moth's wings bore evident marks of having been badly singed against the flame.

What was more important still, some of the powdery dust from the moth's wings was found on the trigger of the pistol, and the pistol had lain in such a position that it covered the princess' heart. It was clear, argued this astute detective, that the moth had burned its wings and had fallen on the table where, writhing in agonies, its wings had struck the trigger of the pistol, and the pistol had been thus fired. It was noted that the trigger worked with exceptional ease.

It should be remarked that these Italian moths are larger than any with which we are familiar in Canada. On this evidence the prince was acquitted.

The question where sleep begins is by no means easily answered. One is inclined to draw the line at the insects. But since all living things, plants as well as animals, display periodical sates of quiescence, perhaps we shall be near the truth in regarding sleep as universal among living thigns. In the case of plants, it is enforced by darkness, save in the case of many bacteria and fungi, which, like evil deeds, grow under the cover of darkness.

The other evening a man of the burglar type stepped up to an old gentleman and, handing him a piece of paper, said:

"Sir, would you be good enough to read me the writing on this piece of paper?"

The individual addressed consented and, moving toward the rays of a convenient gas lamp, read the following words:

"If you utter a cry or speak a single word I shall shoot you. give me your watch and chain and your purse at once then pass it on."

Completely taken off his guard, the gentleman handed over the articles asked for and walked off. A few steps brought him to a policeman, and, relating his story, the pair proceeded in pursuit of the stranger, who was not yet out of sight.

Next morning, before the magistrate, the vagrant was called upon for an explanation.

"Your honor," he said, "I am not an educated man, and, therefore, can neither read nor write. Last evening I picked up a piece of paper, and, it striking me that it might be of some importance, I took it to the first person I met and asked him to decipher it. The gentleman read it quietly to himself and then, without saying a word, handed me his watch, chain and purse and walked off without giving me time to recover from my surprise or ask him what it meant."

Paterson, N. J.—Any person who fears that some day he would welcome death is invited to join the newly organized Paterson anti-suicide association. The aim of the association is to make existence so delightful for its members that they will banish all thought of suicide and will want to live. The president of the association is Joseph Abraham Cohen. Articles of incorporation will be filed by the county clerk of Passaic county in a few days.

In this age of the we have come to value more highly the soft and modulated tone in habitual speaking. When we merely wrote or telegraphed to our friends we took little notice of voice tones in the messages, says a writer in the Baptist Standard. Nowadays we frequently converse with persons whom we never saw and whom we may never see. One liberal user of the says that she often communicates with an unknown person at the other end of the line whose voice has caused her to wish to know the talker better. There has been something about the manner, pitch and inflection that indicate a fine and sympathetic nature behind the voice. We wonder how many of us who are using the daily are giving out that impression to the one at the other end of the wire.

In announcing a breakfast car service for commuters an eastern railroad evidently seeks to discourage the reprehensible practice of sprinting for the morning train, and the still more reprehensible practice of missing it. But there appears some danger that the innovation may fail of its laudable purpose, remarks the Newark Star. The average commuter's last moments is too deeply ingrained to be broken. The time saved by not breakfasting at home will be devoted to 40 extra winks. As it is now, when Mr. Howson Lott, of Lonesomehurst, hears the chugging of his train leaving the next station up the road it is the signal for him as he struggles with his necktie to yell down stairs, "Maria, have Bridget pour the coffee. Under the new order of things the same sound will be the reveille for him to jump out of bed and shed his pajamas. And then, too, what bout the card playing contingent? How can the commuter expect to reach his office in proper frame of mind for business if he has been wasting upon breakfast the time consecrtated to the regular morning game? Pinocle and pancakes are plainly incompatible.