Museum of Wonders, or Curiosities of the World

A cabinet of curiosities in book form, 1890: monsters of the ancient world, wild animals, queer wanderers in the vasty deep, famous inventions and sublime scenery — assembled to astonish the young and, the preface admits, their elders too.

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T. S. Arthur

A Dissatisfaction of Rich and Poor.

MAN in his carriage was riding along, A gaily-dressed wife by his side, In satin and laces; she looked like a queen, And he like a king in his pride.

HE world is full of careless people, and consequently the newspapers are full of "dreadful accidents" and "shocking casualities." Children are expected to be rattle-brained and careless; but for their fathers and mothers there is no excuse ! A wood sawyer stood in the street as they passed, Only the other day our nerves were worked up to explosion point by an account of a perilous surgical operation, by which a woman's trachea was opened to remove a silver dime which had lodged there. And how on earth did a silver dime ever get into a woman's windpipe? Simply because she was careless, and laughed with her mouth full of small coins. Was there no other place where she could keep her threecent pieces? We do feel sorry for a creeping baby when it gets hold of the bars of the grate by mistake, or cuts its fingers, or bumps its head; but for grown people who suffer from their own recklessness, we have very little patience!

The carriage and couple he eyed; And said as he worked with a saw on a log, "I wish I was rich and could ride."

The man in the carriage remarked to his wife : "One thing I would give if I could- I'd give all my wealth for the strength and the health Of the man that saweth the wood."

A pretty young maid, with a bundle of work, Whose face as the morning was fair, Went tripping along, with a smile of delight, While humming a love-breathing air.

She looked on the carriage-the lady she saw, Arrayed in apparel so fine, What is the use of a woman's converting her mouth. into a pin-cushion, and then expecting our sympathy, And said in a whisper, "I wish from my heart when a sudden sneeze or an unexpected cough imperils her life?

What is the use of a man's balancing himself on an oscillating chair instead of sitting up straight like a Christian?

Are we expected to find vinegar and brown paper for the contusion on the back of his head, when finally he comes down with a crash (and serves him right!) ?

What is the use of a woman's picking her ears with a long knitting needle, as half the women do, when a child running against her would send the instrument three inches into her brain, if she has got any?

What is the use of a man's handling a loaded gun as though it were a broom-handle, and then accuse Providence because the charge goes into his head or foot, as he might have known it would?

What is the use of a woman's buying arsenic to poison rats, and putting it just where the children will be sure to get at it? What does she suppose her reasoning faculties were given to her for?

What is the use of leaving children to play by themselves in a room where there is fire, or of postponing the sweeping of that dangerous chimney until "tomorrow?" What is the use of endangering life by the use of the fiend camphine, as long as anything else will give light? Those who persist in this practice must have Those satins and laces were mine."

The lady looked out on the maid with her work, So fair in her calico dress, And said, "I'd relinquish possession and wealth, Her beauty and youth to possess."

Thus, in this world, whatever our lot, Our minds and our time we employ In longing and sighing for what we have not, Ungrateful for what we enjoy.

We welcome the pleasure for which we have sighed, The heart has a void in it still, Growing deeper and wider the longer we live, That nothing but heaven can fill.

T Angels of the House.

HREE pairs of dimpled arms, as white as sncw, Held me in soft embrace; Three little cheeks, like velvet peaches soft, Were placed against my face.

Three pairs of tiny eyes, so clear, so deep, Looked up in mine this even ; Three pairs of lips kissed me a sweet "Good-night," Three little forms from heaven.

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