new and spick-and-span cafe. It has become almost an annex to the offices above stairs. I dropped in there yesterday to see Mr. John B. Cauldwell, the head of the art department. He was chatting with some of his friends, so I sat down, ordered a cup of coffee and waited. A half dozen of the college boys came in and took a table near me. One of them wanted ginger-ale. He asked for it calmly: 'Oh, give me a bottle of gingerale.'

"The unhappy waiter shook his head. "'Ginger-ale,' the young man repeated crushingly.

"The waiter waved his hands in helpless agony.

'Why, don't you talk French?' one of the young fellows asked; 'I thought you could talk French.'

"'So I can,' said the other indignantly; and he added, 'Garsong, coffee!' "It was a compromise."

A Careful Business Man.

"Talkin' about mean men," remarked the Cranberry Corners storekeeper during a temporary lull in the evening's discussion, "I don't know as you could call Josh Nubbins (the old chap. you remember, who used to live on the Hankins place) mean exactly, but he was about the closest figgerer I ever had any dealings with. One day Nubbins came into the store and wanted to know if I had any cheese for sale.

"Full cream or skim-milk?' says I.

""How much is the full cream?' says he. "Fourteen cents a pound in slices,' says I, 'but if you want a hull cheese I'll make it twelve.'

""That's purty steep, ain't it?' says Nubbins, leanin' over the counter an' helpin' himself to a sample hunk of the cheese. 'I hear the storekeeper over at Buckwheat Ridge is sellin' .he best cream cheese sliced for a shillin' a pound.'

"Wen,' says I, 'you can buy cheese jest ez cheap here ez you kin at Buckwheat Ridge is sellin' the best cream cheese sliced have it fer the same. All you've got to do is to say how much you want. Don't want to take a hull one fer eleven cents a pound, do you?'

'Guess not today,' says Nubbins; 'not at that figger. How do you sell your skim-milk cheese?'

"I told him the price slices, or eight cents a cheese, an' Nubbins said:

was ten cents in pound fer a hull

"Couldn't make it eight cents a pound?' "I might, seein' it's fer you,' says I; 'but there ain't much profit in it at that figger. About how much of it shall I cut off fer you?' "'Waal,' says Nubbins, in his low, easygoin' drawl, ez he fished a two-cent piece out of his pocket and planked it down on the counter, 'I reckon you kin slice off a quarter of a pound an' do it up fer me. All I need

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The other day Mr. H. G. Wells had a transatlantic visitor. The sun was shining outside, but an occasional flying cloud brought a slight flurry of snow with it. But there was no fire anywhere, and the long French windows were flung open wide to the sea breeze.

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Mr. Wells' marriage is a literary partnership as well.-From The Saturday Evening Post.

* * *

Progress in Bicycle Construction. Considering the great utility of the bicycle and the pleasure and recreation it afforas to countless thousands, its slow development is a matter of considerable surprise. This fact strikes us as especially strange when we remember that a two-wheeled affair very similar to the bicycle of today was in use over a century ago. This state of affairs may be accounted for through the fact that the development of the bicycle was impeded by social and economic conditions. Fifty years ago, or even twenty-five, there was not the rush to get about that has become one of the characteristics of the present day. quently there was no demand for the bicycle. ConseDevelopment in railroads and wagons was being perfected, owing to existent conditions. This development came to a practical end, however, in the 70's, and the real development of the bicycle begins at that time. The pioneer in bicycle construction, America, at least, was Col. Albert A. Pope, in of the Pope Manufacturing Company, the makers of Columbia bicycles. It was he who gave the industry its first impetus, and it has been largely through his efforts that the bicycle has reached the place it occupies and is the perfect machine it is today. Columbia bicycle, whether due to superior facilities for manufacture, or the care in and extent of experiments that the Pope Company has carried on, has always been in the van of bicycle construction. It has been the invariable rule that the Columbia has led, and the others have followed, but no innovation has been adopted, until it has been found by the severest tests to be an improve

The

146

ment of practical value. Through this care in adopting new ideas, and at the same time always being in the field with the newest and the best, the Columbia has become the acknowledged "Standard of the World." In its 1900 wheels the sobriquet is borne out inthe most pronounced and satisfactory manner. The chainless wheel may aptly be termed "a thing of beauty and a joy forever." The weight of the wheel has been perceptibly reduced from that of the preceding chainless model, while the lines have that grace about them that catches the eyes of all lovers of "wheeling." The bicycle world is justly proud of this triumph in bicycle construction, and looking at it from the present day standpoint it is difficult to see that there is "more beyond," especially when all the resources of a perfect plant have turned out as perfect wheels-chain and chainless-as science, money and brains can produce.

* *

Important Questions.

Do you realize the meaning of the rapid growth of cities, and the dangers that are gathering about them?

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Do you know what cities and towns in the United States now own and operate their own electric light plants, gas plants, water works, etc., and how much they save thereby?

Do you know to what extent cities and towns are under bondage to state legislatures? Do you know to what extent the people in cities and towns are under bondage to city councils?

Do you know the results of the use of the initiative and referendum in the United States and in Switzerland?

Do you understand those methods and the reasons of the growing demand for the extension of their use?

Do you know the best remedies for corruption in elections? Do you know England's experience in this respect?

Do you understand proportional representation?

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