THE Tigers of India and the countries around are the largest in the world; and the people of those countries are fond of hunting them. They will try to take their young cubs, and feed them until they are full grown, and then, having made them as strong and as savage as they can, set them to fight with other animals for their amusement. This is very cruel and very wicked, and shows that the people are almost as savage as the wild animals themselves.

A Traveller in Java, a country beyond India, thus describes a fight between a Tiger and a Buffalo. It took place before the Emperor and thousands of people. He says:

Now appeared the hero of the day-a fine black male buffalo, with whitened horns, and a garland of flowers round his neck. He stood in the middle of the pen, and eyeing the crowd in his turn with a fierce and surprised look. But presently, when a royal tiger tumbled in, this look became more intense. The animals, who would have rushed at each other in the desert, only gazed in shy astonishment; the buffalo keeping his place in the centre, but wheeling round as on a pivot, with his head down and horns levelled, as the tiger sneaked slowly round the edge of the circle. How long this would have gone on is hard to say. The tiger, inspired at once with hate and fear, sought for a weak point, yet dared not spring; while the buffalo, stern and self-possessed, knew too well the

THE CHILDRENS' CORNER.

treacherous nature of his enemy to abate his vigilance, but seemed willing to decline a combat if possible.

The music, however, had already conmenced to which the actors were to fight; and as the roll of the drum, the clang of the trumpet, and the thunder of the gong became fiercer, and faster, and wilder, the movements of the combatants kept time. Confused with the noise, and with the wild gestures and excited cries of the attendants, the animals gradually lost their self-command such as it was. At length the mad tiger sprang upon the head and shoulders of his enemy. A moment the spectators were in doubt-but only a moment; for the buffalo, without giving him time to fasten, threw him yelling back into the air. Again the tiger adopted the same stratagem-again, and again, and again, in such rapid succession, that the eye could scarcely follow his motions; but each time he was flung up again as at first, till at length he stirred no more after his fall, but lay as if dead, and was dragged away.

So much for the buffalo. But we must now show how the remainder of the tigers were disposed of, this being the second and final act of this horrid drama. A larger circular piece of ground was chosen for the new exhibition, three hundred feet across it, and its walls were composed of lines of men standing several rows deep, each armed with a long spear. These troops were clad in red, yellow, blue, and green jackets; and the interval between them and the platform where the emperor and his visitors sat was occupied by his guards, armed with rifles, spears, swords, and other weapons. The circle was closed round by spectators, to the number of several thousands; while every roof, tree, wall, or elevation of any kind in the neighbourhood was crowded with men, women, and children.

In the centre of the ring were the oblong cages of the tigers, hung round with long grass. On a signal from the emperor a man set fire to one of the cages to drive the tiger out. The dry grass bursting into flames, the tiger bounded out. Then struck up the music, then rolled the drum, then clanged the trumpet, then thundered the gong, then shouted the men, then screamed the women; and the denizen of the forest, confounded with the strange salute, shrunk back into his den. But not long could he stand the heat and smoke; and with slow gliding pace, and eyes rolling in desperation round the circle, he returned deliberately to the open space, and prowling backwards and forwards in front of the emperor. Sometimes he approached the line; but his courage failed at the sight of the glittering spears, the blades of which met on all sides, with his body as the centre to which they pointed. Then he retreated to observe the state of his burning den; but deriving no comfort from the view, he stood still, as if in despair, with his lower jaw hanging down. At length, rousing himself, he made a sudden rush at the armed ring, from which he was thrown back bleeding. Galloping round the circle, he tried point after point as quick as thought, but always baffled, always wounded. At length rousing all his energies, he made so desperate a charge near the royal stand that his enemies gave way. In an instant he was through the line; in another he had passed under a carriage in which some ladies were sitting; and in a third he had flashed by the side of the old Prime minister, who sat eyeing the feat with the most unalterable coolness. But here his sudden good fortune as suddenly deserted him: the lancers were round him in a compact body; he was pinned to the ground in an instant; and he yielded up his hope and his life together.

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

Such is a picture of modern sports in the East-such is what was presented to the populace of ancient Rome such is pretty much what was tolerated in England at no very distant date. The sentiments which are now aroused amongst us on hearing of practices so revolting to humanity, mark the great advance which has latterly been made in public taste and feeling. That the spread of Christianity in the East will gradually lead to the abolition of the fiendish pastimes just referred to, is past all reasonable doubt."

Anecdotes and Selections.

DON'T WHINE.-Don't be whining about not having a fair chance. Throw a sensible man out of a window, he'll fall on his feet and ask the nearest way to his work. The more you have to begin with, the less you will have at the end. Money you may earn yourself is much brighter and sweeter than any you get out of dead men's bags. A scant breakfast in the morning of life whets the appetite for a feast later in the day. He who has tasted a sour apple will have the more relish for a sweet one. Your present want will make future prosperity all the sweeter. Eighteen pence has set up many a peddler in business, and he has turned it over until he has kept his carriage. As for the place you are cast in, don't find fault with that; you need not be a horse because you were born in a stable. If a bull tossed a man of mettle sky-high, he would drop down into a good place. A hardworking young man with his wits about him, will make money while others do nothing but lose it.

"Who loves his work and knows to spare

May live and flourish anywhere."

As to a little trouble, who expects to find cherries without stones, or roses without thorns? Who would win must learn to bear. Idleness lies in bed sick of the mulligrubs, where industry finds health and wealth. The dog in the kennel barks at fleas; the hunting dog does not even know that they are there. Laziness waits till the river is dry, and never gets to market. Try" swims it and makes all the trade. "Can't-do-it" would'nt eat the bread cut for him, but "Try" made meat out of mushrooms.-John Ploughman's Talk.

INFLUENCE. It is the bubbling spring that flows gently, the little rivulet which runs along all day and night by the farm-house, that is useful, rather than the swollen flood of the roaring cataract. Niagara excites our wonder and we stand amazed at the power and greatness of God there, as He "pours it from the hollow of His hand." But one Niagara is enough for the continent or the world, while the same world requires thousands of silver fountains and gently flowing rivulets that water every farm and meadow, and every garden, and that shall flow every day and every night with their gentle, quiet beauty. So with the acts of our lives. It is not by great deeds, like those of the martyrs, that good is to be done-it is by the daily and quiet virtues of life, the Christian temper, the good qualities of relatives and friends, and all, that it is to be done.

ANECDOTES AND SELECTIONS.

"DEAD ON THE FIELD OF HONOUR."-A few weeks ago a steamer, with hundreds of men and helpless women and children, was on fire within a few miles of New York. The captain, finding that nothing could be done to save her, took the wheel and ran her aground, and kept her steady there, with the deck burning below him and the flames licking his face and the hands with which he held her, until the last man had a chance to save himself. It was the old story of Jim Bludsee: "I'll hold her nozzel agen the bank till the last galoot's ashore." This man did it. A reporter found the captain a few days later in the hospital, his burned head swathed in bandages. It was supposed that he would lose both his eyes. "All the world is praising you," said the visitor. "I am glad they think I was not lacking in duty. I did what seemed the right thing to do at the time," said the sailor, quietly.

A short time since, a leak occured in the Hudson River Tunnel. In an instant twenty-eight men found death facing them, and death in the most horrible, hopeless form. They must be choked underground, like rats in a hole, with water and mud. There was no time for preparation or thought. The river was bursting in on them. One man, Peter Woodland, a Dane, came to the front, cool, intelligent, collected. There was a chance that eight of the men could be saved by breaking the glass bull's eye; but, when it was broken, his own instant death must result. It is probable that, in that brief moment, he counted the cost. He was an educated man, to whom life had given much. He was young, strong. He had a wife and little children. "I saw his face," says one of the survivors, "as he looked through the glass at us. It was ghastly pale. His voice sounded strange. He gave the order, 'Break the bull's eye!' We knew there was no chance for him after that was done, and hesitated. But he shouted again, 'Knock out the bull's eye, and do what you can for the rest of us!"" They obeyed and were saved. Woodland and the others were drowned.

LEGEND OF ABRAHAM.-When Abraham sat at his tent-door, according to his custom, waiting to entertain strangers, he espied an old man, stooping and leaning on his staff, weary with age and travel, coming toward him, who was an hundred years of age. He received him kindly, washed his feet, provided supper, caused him to sit down, but observing that the old man ate and prayed not, nor begged for a blessing on his meat, asked him why he did not worship the God of heaven. The old man told him that he worshipped the fire only, and acknowledged no other god; at which Abraham grew so zealously angry, that he thrust the old man out of his tent, and exposed him to all the evils of the night and an unguarded condition. When the old man was gone, God called to him, and asked him where the stranger was. He replied, "I thrust him away because he did not worship Thee." God answered, "I have suffered him these hundred years, though he dishonoured Me; and couldst thou not endure him for one night, when he gave thee no trouble?" Upon this, saith the story, Abraham fetched him back again, and gave him hospitable entertainment and wise instruction. Go thou and do likewise, and thy charity will be rewarded by the God of Abraham.-Stanley.

THE FIRESIDE.-NOTES AND QUERIES.

The Fireside.

Sick headache can often be greatly relieved and sometimes entirely cured, by the application of mustard-paste at the base of the neck.

Small-pox is cured by Mexican doctors in three days, and no marks left, by treating the patients to cold drinks of cream tartar and water. The cream tartar is first dissolved in boiling water. The Mexican method

is worth looking into.

As every particle of food must be acted upon by the gastric juice, or some of it will be troublesome afterward, it stands to reason that the finer food is cut, chewed, masticated, the more easily and perfectly will it dissolve or be digested. Meats, vegetables, any food masticated as fine as small shot, will certainly be digested

far more easily and very much sooner than if it goes down in lumps as large as buckshot, or chestnuts or walnuts. Masticate the food fine in the mouth, and mix it well there with saliva.

All heat or warmth in the body comes from the food oxidized, slowly burned in the body, just as much and in about the same way that heat in the stove or furnace comes from fuel oxidized or burned there. Warmth is always escaping from the body, unless it is in an atmosphere nearly up to 100 degrees of heat. Warm clothing, warm houses, stalls, sheds, that prevent the rapid escape of heat, save the necessity of taxing the stomach to digest an excessive amount of food (fuel) to keep up the heat of the body, human or brute.

Notes and Queries.

you. The expression rather points to that which was then a source of gladness, and would remain so long as the character which created it was unchanged.

F. B. B.-There is, says Professor C. J.-We can hardly agree with Plumptre, the highest probability that the rich young ruler and Lazarus are one and the same. The various grounds for this assertion are too long to be put into a brief note. It is well to remember that the three accounts given in the Gospels should be taken together. Matthew alone gives us the clue to the answer of our Lord, viz., "If thou wilt be perfect." It was not salvation that the young man sought, but perfection, which is a very different thing.

A. R.-Certainly. The men who went everywhere preaching the word were neither apostles, nor office-bearers in the church. We do not see how the fact of lay preaching can be fairly objected to, in the face of this incident. S. L.-The first meeting for prayer after the ascension is the one recorded in the first chapter of the Acts. It was held in a private house, probably in the house where the Last Supper was celebrated. This gives it a special interest.

A. D. P.-"Life" is a word of many meanings. It is obvious that when the Sacred Bard said, "Thou wilt show me the path of life," he did not mean that God would show him the path of bare existence. When men shout, "Long live the king!" they do not mean that they wish for the king mere life. In both cases, and in the one you quote, it is happy life that is meant.

F. B.-It is quite true that the familiar words of the angels song at the Nativity, as they appear in the Revised Version, "and on earth peace among men, in whom He is well pleased." The Revisers regard this as the truest translation of the most ancient and valuable manuscripts.

L. M.—“ Carriages,” in Acts xxi. 15, is now "baggage."