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too strong to allow us to coast along and shelter ourselves by the land. At last we round a corner, making our last tack, and find ourselves in the spacious harbor from which the island takes its name, and which would hold a fleet with ease. Harbor Island is a small island, almost encircled by Eleuthera, a long, narrow, semi-circular strip of land, and a few other cays to the west. A good gathering of the inhabitants was of course on the little pier for the great event of the arrival of the Dart. A rose cockatoo, an unmentioned passenger, which had already visited Harbor Island, was received as an old friend, and we were not sorry to find ourselves on terra firma and in our hired house.

manila. I said only cocoanuts throve on Harbor Island; I withdraw these words. We never saw finer or more healthylooking sisal than here, where the sandy soil exactly suits it; and where, after being abused, ill-treated, cut, and burnt, young plants are now sold at sixpence, ninepence, and a shilling a dozen.

Harbor Island looks a large place from the sea; its grey wooden houses are clus. tered along the southern shore, raised on posts two feet from the ground, the vacant space a shelter for fowls and goats. The church shows well on a rising ground with its pretty bell tower pointing upwards. The tasteful carving, painting, and arrangement of the sanctuary are entirely the handiwork of the rector of St. John's Church. Above the church three casuarina-trees shelter the rectory; a long, narrow wooden building alongside is the S. School; and two smaller ones at a little distance are day schools for boys and girls. We have now reached the middle of the island-just a quarter of a mile and hear the booming of the ocean on the northern beach. We dip down a manilalined path, filling our shoes with sand, toil up a short ascent, and are on some hummocks covered with sea-bent; before us, a vast stretch of firm, dry sands, the racecourse of the island, with the loveliest of seas and the most refreshing of breezes.

We have often been amused at the business-like way in which our American visitors sally forth on shopping expeditions; no doubt, the stores of Nassau appear as quaint to them as do the outisland shops to us. Of course we had taken a box of stores; but who can reckon for the countless minutiæ of cooking? Our modest wants cost us many steps and much time. We sought for mustard, and found it in "the doctor's shop." (Croup does sometimes visit these latitudes.) Table salt was nowhere; but salt of island manufacture did equally well; a tin of roast beef-all honor to the inventor; a bottle of pickles, soda crackers, fresh eggs- what could we want more? We returned home, only to retrace our steps to our farthest limit for cheese and lard. Finally, we had dinner, and did justice to it. But water · that too, we had to buy at a halfpenny a bucket. Every tank was dry, and the happy possessors of wells made fortunes. Bathing-machines have not yet established a footing in the Baha- But though only half a mile wide, HarAn enterprising P. Secretary once bor Island extends from east to west three planted two on the beach of Fort Mon- miles. Its chief feature is the abundance tagu, Nassau; but they stuck high and of cocoanut groves, cool, shady retreats, dry on the sand, and finally fell to pieces the sunlight glinting on the rich colored, from sheer neglect. Our bathing cos-glossy, drooping leaves; tempting one to tumes were threatened with the same lounge, book in hand, many a sultry hour. fate; and our daily ablutions had to be performed in a thimbleful of water.

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It is a pretty sight in the early morning to see all the little boats hoist sail and skim over the harbor to the neighboring mainland of Eleuthera. The soil of Harbor Island is simple sand; nothing but cocoanuts can grow in it. All cultivation of vegetables and fruit is carried on at Eleuthera, where, by old legislation, a grant of land was made to the inhabitants of Harbor Island. Three thousand acres of this land they are now desirous of sell. ing to some English capitalist for growing

At this season of the year (March) the beach is generally covered with masses of gulf-weed, unpleasant for walking; but there is compensation in all things; so at least thought a man who had the luck to light on a piece of ambergris entangled therein a find of some thirty pounds value.

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We took a pleasant walk to one westward along the hummocks, the hollows of which were carpeted with the wild white ribbon lily. Two ends of a rainbow were visible over the sea; by degrees the perfect arch disclosed itself, and behind it an advancing shower. The rainbow had the appearance of quickly walking over the water, and as it touched the shore, down came the rain. Fortunately, we were not far from shelter; a little shed, to which distance had lent the appearance of a châlet, was our goal. To this we hastened; and though raised at least three feet from the

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ground, and guiltless of steps, we vaulted | easily in the Bahamas, and no one is in a into it with an agility which surprised hurry except some newly arrived Englishourselves. The rain over, we descended man. into the cocoanut grove, at the foot of a The Glass Window is the great sight of steep sandbank. Had we possessed a Eleuthera. One of the clergy was going sledge we might have done some tobogan- to the Cove hard by, and kindly combined ing. As it was, we looked about for duty and pleasure by taking us in tow. alpenstocks. It was almost too cold and The sail is the quickest part of the expedamp to enjoy the cocoanut water with dition, followed on landing by a two-mile which our guide supplied us, robbing our walk over honeycomb rock which defies host with his own tools, for we had brought every effort of the roadmaker. But the down his macheté (bush-knife) from our sight repays the labor. The Glass Winshelter. A cocoanut grove dripping with dow is a large, rectangular span worn by rain is not so captivating as the same the action of the sea through a mass of grove on a hot sunny day, the long leaves honeycomb rock, giving the effect of a swaying with each breath of wind, and a large window. There is some amount of soft subdued green light, making it look danger at the place, as a sudden wave like the fairy-tales of childhood. To sit in sometimes surges up, boiling and rushing the cocoanut groves on a fallen trunk or on through the window from the chasms be the soft, dry grass is enjoyment indeed. low. But as you look at the dark blue This is only one of many pleasant walks waters of the outer sea, and the light blue which this small but pretty island affords. of the inner basin, you forget that the sea Barrack Hill, with its winding walks and is treacherous, and associations come to clumps of bush, like an English common; you of Oxford and Cambridge boat-races, Spit Sands, with its white, sandy, cliff-like of English crowds and eager shouts and banks, a miniature Dover; and the Tract, eager faces. But no. This hot sun canwith groves of sappadillo, laden with fruit not belong to an English March, nor was for passing hand to pluck. Life might be ever English footpath at its roughest spent in worse places than Harbor Island guilty of such wear and tear to shoeby those who can recognize in their neigh-leather as left one of our party almost solebor "a man and a brother." The library, less on her return home. an excellent one for so remote a place, can help on many a leisure hour; and of excursions there are plenty by sea, for which the kindly inhabitants are always ready to

lend a boat.

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Eleuthera boasts also extensive caves, which are said to rival those of Matanzas, with stalactites and stalagmites for curious eyes, and guano for avaricious ones; but the writer's only view of them was from the stern of the homeward-bound schooner City of Nassau. With no wind and a chopping tide, scenery and blue waters soon lost their charm. On and on we glided, scarcely moving, with sails full set, a painted ship on a painted ocean," till, at four o'clock A.M.-twelve hours later than our reckoning the schooner crossed the bar, and in the stillness of early dawn dropped anchor once more in Nassau harbor.

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BRAZIL'S LIMITED LIABILITY ACT.-Since | that no company shall be formed of which the the Limited Liability Company's Act came into operation in 1862, some thirty thousand companies have been registered, with a nominal capital of more than £3,000,000,000. They have survived in the proportion of about a third. How many of the failures have been due to insufficient capital it would, of course, be difficult to approximate; but there can be no doubt that this is a main cause of ultimate liquidation. Brazil, at any rate, is alive to this evil; and its government has just decreed

entire capital is not promised, and one-third actually deposited in an approved bank. The first stipulation seems to be rather foolish, offering, as it does, an inducement for the formation of companies with too small a capital; but the principle of requiring a substantial deposit is wholly admirable. A tenant who fills his house with furniture offers the best proof in his power that he has come to stay.

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Financial News.

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For EIGHT DOLLARS, remitted directly to the Publishers, the LIVING AGE will be punctually forwarded for a year, free of postage.

Remittances should be made by bank draft or check, or by post-office money-order, if possible. If neither of these can be procured, the money should be sent in a registered letter. All postmasters are obliged to register letters when requested to do so. Drafts, checks, and money-orders should be made payable to the order of LITTELL & Co.

Single Numbers of THE LIVING AGE, 18 cents.

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Thy coming brings us sadness; Afar are those we hold most dear,

The damp and faded leaves give forth a scent Here men are strange, and skies are drear; Sweet, subtle, but which blends

With nature's woe, and adds to the lament Of life that all life ends.

What wonder that we, too, attuned to grief,
To sadness ever prone,

Find the world's dreary aspect a relief,
And claim it for our own!

How many men and women, even as I,
Behold the day depart,

And consecrate its ending with a sigh
From an o'erburdened heart!

O winter tide, Ō winter tide, Thy days are days of sadness.

O merry bells, O merry bells,
That ring a Christmas greeting;
As through the air thy full notes peal,
What softer feelings o'er us steal :

O merry bells, O merry bells,
Ring out a Christmas greeting.

O fairy tide, O fairy tide,

Thy magic gives men gladness;

Though bleak the sky, though chill the wind,

Ah, but God hears them, friends, our dreams If hearts be warm, if friends be kind,

he knows,

The yearning that is pain;

He gave the moaning to the wind that blows,

The sadness to the rain.

O Christmas tide, O Christmas tide, Thy magic gives us gladness.

Göttingen.

T. M. Academy.

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From The Westminster Review.
ALSACE-LORRAINE IN 1890.

visa, for which you pay eleven-and-sixpence. The gendarme challenges that We have heard a good deal about the visa, and querulously cross-questions you: efficacy of "twenty years of firm and res- "Who is Schmettau?" to wit, the gentleolute government." It so happens that man who has signed it. All this hapat the present moment Alsace and German pened to me at Diedenhofen. One is Lorraine have completed the precise term afraid to think what the terrorism must of the course prescribed. It was, there-be to natives, when to inoffensive stranfore, I think, no altogether unnatural curi-gers it is so severe. osity which prompted me last summer to There is something also to be objected cross over into the "reichsland," in order on the score of hotels, the majority of to see for myself what the much-extolled which are not good, and as to the merit of panacea has done for conquered provinces. which neither Murray, nor Joanne, nor The trip has more to recommend it be. Mündel serves as a trustworthy guide. sides the political lesson to be learnt. It But once you can manage to stomach is true, the German gendarmes make trav- these trifles, the country has plenty to elling rather a troublesome process. The make it attractive. The mountains are whole country seems under police surveil- splendid. There are truly magnificent lance. It literally bristles with spiked forests-forming, according to M. About, helmets. There are policemen every- one-ninth in extent and one-sixth in value, where. You come upon them at every of the entire forest-wealth of undivided turn, armed as if for war, with a rifle on France. There are interesting old their shoulders, and a bullet in the barrel churches, and abbeys, and other historical fierce of aspect, and ready to bully you monuments, from Druidical times downas only German gendarmes can bully. ward. There is the rich, smiling plain of And they watch you with Argus eyes. the Rhine-from time immemorial "la "To have a bundle of notes about you, or cave à vin, le grénier à blé, le gardea tourist's map," said the late M. Grad, "is manger des pays environnants." You can at once to make you an object of suspicion realize here what a Frenchman must feel and mistrust." On such evidence you are at the thought of the loss of so rich a held, as Habakkuk was by Voltaire, to be possession. Industrial life offers some capable de tout" - from simple espion- peculiar, noteworthy features. And so age up to high treason. To carry a does the highly perfected system of prov"Murray," I found, with Alsace still in- ident and co-operative institutions, which cluded in "France," and places described has been the making of the Alsatian workby their French names, is ten times worse. ing-man-receiving him, as M. Grad You are supposed personally to have re- says, at his birth with a ready welcome, fused recognition to the treaty of Frank- assisting him through every incident of fort. But even asking for information his toilsome life, and never withdrawing only rather an excusable proceeding, its helpful hand, till the grave closes over one would think, in a tourist-is enough him. to stamp you a suspicious character. And But with all these things I have at the German gendarmes have no respect present nothing to do. My business is either for persons or for laws. Their em- with the governors and the governed, peror says that Englishmen may travel brought together twenty years ago, not by without passports. But the gendarme a mutual desire for union, but by the rules from his superior throne that a pass-strong hand of fate. It was an interesting port every traveller must have. The political experiment which Germany-or emperor has ordained nothing about Prussia-entered upon at that time, and passports being made out in German. one which Europe might well watch with The gendarme sulkily objects that he curiosity. There seemed to be no insudoes not know English-why was not perable obstacle in the way of reunion, at the passport written in his own language? any rate assuming the employment of tact Their emperor's ambassador gives you a and patience. Germany did not go among

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