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try the experiment for yourselves.—, Youth's Companion.

(2492)

See.

PRESERVATION, A PROCESS OF

It is not hard to believe that the passage through death will be the occasion for a new blossoming of the flowers of character, after the analogy of the frozen flowers about which this account from Harper's Weekly is given:

The latest and most approved method of preserving flowers during transportation is that of freezing them. When this process is employed the flowers are picked while in the bud and will keep perfectly for several weeks in refrigerator boxes. No deterioration in their beauty results from this treatment, and after they have been unpacked and placed in water they slowly revive and the blossoms develop fully. During the period of refrigeration all growth is suspended, and so slowly do the flowers return to their natural state that such blossoms will last much longer in a room than would be the case had they been brought directly from the greenhouse or the garden.

The facility with which horticultural specimens have been transported by this new method has led to experiments in South Africa, with a view to determining whether many of their wonderful flowers may not be safely exported in bulk to supply the trade in Europe and America.

(2493)

Preservatives—See.

PRESS, OMNISCIENCE OF THE

I have been somewhat of a reader of the newspapers for forty years; I could read very well when I was eight years of age. It has given me forty years of observation of the press; and there is one peculiarity that I have observed from reading it, and that is, in all of the walks of life outside of the press, people have entirely mistaken their profession, their occupation. I never knew the mayor of a city, or even a councilman in any city, any public officer, any government official—I never knew a member of Congress, a Senator or a President of the United States, who could not be enlightened in his duties by the youngest member of the profession. I never knew a general of the army to command a brigade, a division, a corps of the army, who could begin to do it as well as men far away in their sanctums.—

(2494)

PRESS, PROSTITUTION OF THE

The Salt Lake Herald abstracts from "The Press of the World" some of the "rules of conduct" which Benjamin Franklin followed in his first journalistic venture. "They are so perfectly applicable to present-day newspapers," it says, "that they are worth preserving and emphasizing." He had just begun the publication of his Pennsylvania Gazette when an article was submitted to him that did not meet his views of propriety. With his customary deliberation he did not at once reject it, but told the writer he would sleep over it and give his decision the next day. This is how he applied his rules to the subject:

"I have perused your piece," he wrote, "and find it to be scurrilous and defamatory. To determine whether I should publish it or not, I went home in the evening, purchased a two-penny loaf at the baker's, and, with water from the pump, made my supper; I then wrapt myself up in my great coat, and laid down on the floor and slept till morning, when, on another loaf and a mug of water, I made my breakfast. From this regimen I feel no inconvenience whatever. Finding I can live in this manner, I have formed the determination never to prostitute my press to corruption and abuse of this kind for the sake of gaining a more comfortable subsistence."

(2495)

Press, Using the—See.

PRETENSE

About the time when it was fashionable in France to cut off men's heads, as we lop away superfluous sprouts from our apple-trees, the public attention was excited by a certain monkey that had been taught to act the part of a patriot to great perfection. If you pointed at him, says the historian, and called him an aristocrat or a monarchist, he would fly at you with great rage and violence; but, if you would do him the justice to call him a good patriot, he manifested every mark and joy of satisfaction. But, tho the whole French nation gazed at this animal as a miracle, he was, after all, no very strange sight. There are, in all countries, a great many monkeys who wish to be thought patriots, and a great many others