That settled the matter; and the news of the result of the conference between mother and son being conveyed to Milly, she consented. They were married, and they live in a calm blessedness and confidence in each other, enduring crosses and griefs and trials like other people. A year ago, Gerard's father died, peacefully and happily, having lived to dandle an heir-male upon his knees, and to see a promise that the old house would be kept alive. The great firm prospers, and is higher in the world than ever; and Barnes still sits in the seat of Garling. Val Strange meets his old friend and enemy at times, and after all there is on each side a softened and tender esteem. The two know each other's temptations, and that is a great matter. Where storm raged, calm reigns.

I have told my tale ill indeed if it needs that I should point my moral here. The shadows I have lived with for a year grow pale and fade. The tale is told, and yet the hand is half reluctant to lay down the pen. Some day-who knows how soon?-an inexorable hand will write down Finis to your life's history and mine. The tale which goes before that awful word will tell of many wanderings in the dubious Primrose Way. Let us resolve in parting that it shall tell also of an honest effort to follow Duty, though she tread the rougher path on which it seems God's ordinance that she shall most often travel. We can scarce do ill, if we part with one another on those terms. And so-Farewell.

OUR MILK-SUPPLIES. AMONGST other things in this country which have been affected by American competition, is the making of cheese and butter; and some who are disposed to grumble would allege that our rivals on the other side of the Atlantic have so cut in upon home production, as to make it little better than a losing business. In spite, however, of such an allegation, we find a steady increase in the production and consumption of home-dairy produce during recent years. Pure and good milk is one of the first necessities of every household, and how to secure the purity and richness of our milk-supply is one of the dietetic problems of modern life. The British dairyfarmer, therefore, if he knows his business, has little to fear in the trade of milk-selling and butter-making.

The agricultural returns of Great Britain for last year show an increase upon the previous year of twenty-nine thousand cows and milk-heifers. A long row of figures is required to represent the probable quantity of milk annually produced in the United Kingdom; it has been estimated at sixteen hundred and twenty-eight million gallons.

In spite of our apparently abundant home supply of dairy produce we imported butter in 1881 to the value of about eleven million pounds sterling. The largest supply-745,536 cwt.-came from Holland; France sent us 496,724 cwt.; Denmark, 279,625 cwt.; and the United States, 174,246 cwt. In the matter of cheese, the United States in the same year sent us by far the largest proportion of our total imports, or 1,244,419 cwt.; the total from all countries being 1,840,090 cwt. This immense importation of cheese from America may

be partially explained by the abundant pasturage, and the factory system of cheese-making, which has been carried on for many years. American cheese is usually made in large quantities. The farmer sends his milk to the cheese-factory, which draws its supply from the surrounding district, and which is usually large enough to receive the milk of about two thousand cows daily. The farmer is either paid for the quantity of milk which he brings, or from the general results. This system -apparently introduced from Switzerland about 1851-has spread very rapidly, so that there are now over three thousand such factories in the United States. This system was adopted in Derby in 1869, and in Stafford in 1877, on a small scale.

We have now many Dairy-supply Companies and butter-factories in England, where the cream can be separated from the morning's milk, made into butter by mid-day, and be on sale in London in the evening. Such a factory-erected at a cost of about eight hundred pounds-will consume about one thousand gallons of milk daily, and is the best defence the British farmer can make against foreign competition. Our present railway system has so revolutionised the milksupply of our large towns as to make it possible to gather in quantities of milk from a wide dis trict. This is an advantage, as the milk from our town dairies, where the cows get no open-air feeding, can scarcely be so wholesome as the country supply.

In addition to our supply of fresh milk, condensed milk is also largely used and manufactured. The export of this substance from Switzerland is very great, the largest proportion coming to this country. This substance is milk from which the watery particles have been artificially driven off until of the required consistence, when sugar is added, to prevent decomposition. Thus manufactured, condensed milk contains about fifty per cent. of sugar, an obvious objection to its extended use with many people. Still, where fresh cows milk cannot be had, it is the best substitute for it, as it contains all the nutritive qualities of the milk with less water in solution. We find that even such a flourishing agricultural colony as New Zealand imported in 1880 six thousand nine hundred and forty-three packages of preserved milk, valued at ten thousand one hundred and forty-nine pounds. Pure condensed milk, which only requires the addition of water for its use, may also be had; but it must be quickly used, as decomposition rapidly sets in after the tin is opened.

We are all more or less startled when we hear that a fever epidemic has been traced to the use of tainted milk; and this taint, again, may have been traced to impure water, of which the cows may have been drinking. Fifteen cases of typhoid fever due to infected milk, occurred in twelve houses in Clapham recently; and other cases will have come within the experience of every reader. An Order of the Privy Council, called the Dairies, Cowsheds, and Milkshops Order, has been binding since the middle of 1879 on cow-keepers and dairy-men in England and Wales, in regard to the proper sanitation of dairies and the contami nation of milk. By its provisions, the mixing of the milk from a diseased cow with the other milk for sale is distinctly forbidden. It must

Danish separators at work, a steam-churn, and butter-workers. The milk is gathered in from the farmers as in the American system, and both Lord Vernon and those who share in this co-operative system, seem satisfied with the result. The skim-milk is used to feed pigs. The saving of labour by this butter and cheese factory is very great, while all the products are sweeter and better than by the old system of setting the milk in cans until the cream rises.

Another experiment after the method of the American factory system, for the manufacture of cheese and butter and the sale of milk, skimmed and fresh, was begun at Low Row, Cumberland, in the spring of last year by Mr Thomas Carrick. The ventilation of the buildings erected by him is of the most perfect description, absolute cleanliness being maintained, while there is an abundant supply of fresh spring-water at hand. To start with, a contract was made with about forty farmers for the supply of pure and fresh milk. Each farmer was provided with a Lawrence's Refrigerator, to cool the milk to a temperature of not less than sixty degrees Fahrenheit, before despatching it in the large steel churns employed for this purpose. The milk is either creamed by means of the Laval Separator, or set in deep pans on the Swartz system. The churning is performed by steam; and the after-processes are also performed by machinery, which prevents all contact by hand. About five hundred pounds of butter were made daily at first. The fresh skimmed milk-of which there are about one thousand to fifteen hundred gallons daily-is sent for sale to the northern towns, where its excellence and utility as an article of consumption are gradually becoming known.

Not content with sending to us such a large portion of cheese and butter, many manufacturers in the United States have gone into the artificial cheese and butter line. We are inundated with 'butterine' and artificial Cheddar and Stilton, the latter kinds sold in all probability at twenty or thirty per cent. above their fair value. Dr Voelcker, on behalf of the Royal Agricultural Society, made an analysis of some of this imitation cheese, and found it quite wholesome. Yet these imitations should be sold as such; and the Council of the Royal Agricultural Society have wisely recommended that the Board of Trade be urged to take steps to insure that these descriptions of so-called cheese be sold under their proper designation.'

The manufacture of oleomargarine was discussed in a paper presented to both Houses of Parliament in 1881; and allusion was made to it again this year in a question to the President of the Board of Trade. In the year ending June 30, 1880, the export of oleomargarine from New York was about nineteen million pounds, the largest part of it going to Holland. The present exports are estimated at from twenty-five to thirty million per annum. This substance is made from beefsuet, disintegrated in warm water, passed through a fine sieve, melted at one hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit, and afterwards solidified. It is refined by subjecting it to pressure at ninety degrees Fahrenheit. When butterine is the object of manufacture, the oil is mixed with ten per cent. of milk, then churned, coloured with arnatto, rolled in ice, and afterwards salted.

When analysed, it is found to differ from ordinary butter only in that it contains less of soluble fats. American Cheddar is made of oil, lard, or this oleomargarine and skim-milk, The imitation is so perfect, that competent judges can scarcely determine which is the real and which the imitation cheese.

The practice of dairy-farming differs in various counties, according to the nature of the pasturage, the processes of manufacture, and the condition upon which the farms are let. The quantity and richness of the milk are also dependent on many conditions, such as, the times for milking, the kind of feeding, and the breed of cattle. It is self-evident, however, that where there is a great demand for dairy produce, scientific as distinguished from ignorant and slovenly dairyfarming is the most profitable to the farmer himself, as well as the most advantageous to the consumer.

1

IN olden days, devotees of the black art incurred the risk of being burned as wizards or ducked as witches, according to their kind, male and female, and of receiving other unpleasant tokens of popular disfavour. In our own times, its professors make a very good thing out of it; and the public, so far from wreaking vengeance on them in life or limb, will rush to a 'magical entertainment' with greater eagerness than to almost any other minor form of amusement. But though modern conjurers are in the receipt of handsome incomes, they often meet with disagreeable little incidents in the exercise of their art. Such incidents or accidents necessarily happen to the amateur with far greater frequency than to the professional magician, for to the practised artist they should be well-nigh an impossibility. I was once talking with the celebrated conjurer Herrmann about the recent inventions of Messrs Maskelyne and Cooke and other novelties in that line, and I asked him what feat or sleight he should choose as a crucial test of a good performer. He replied: No feat at all; but see how he fails! by which he meant me rather to understand, 'see how he avoids palpable failure. Just as an acrobat is taught how to fall in comparative safety if he misses his tip,' so the tyro in modern magic has it impressed upon him from the outset that he must never plead guilty to a mishap; if he cannot do what he originally intended, he must turn or twist the trick into something else.

Unrehearsed effects sometimes produce the greatest éclat; and seeing that it is not only the quickness of the hand' that deceives, according to the generally received notion, but misdirection by the eye and tongue, the ready use and perfect control of those organs are of even greater consequence than digital dexterity. The cleverest of conjurers fails at times to force the particular card he wishes, or finds his calculations otherwise upset; but he must not abandon the trick, or betray by the slightest hesitation or embarrassment that any thing is wrong. As a rule, he will look so far ahead of what he is actually about, that when the moment comes for doing anything, it is already done, as far as he is concerned; and the audience

Journal

go away mystified with a sort of impression that he has executed no sleight-of-hand at all, from the absence of any parade of rapid movement or manipulation.

Nevertheless, there are certain things for the most part involving more or less intricate mechanism, or dependent on apparatus liable to damage which, if they fail in any degree, fail utterly, and bring the Professor to irretrievable grief. Buatier's dissolving bird-cage is an example. This is a small oblong cage about twelve inches in length by five in depth and breadth, made apparently of wire on all sides, which is held in the two hands right in front of or even amongst the audience, away from any table or screen. One, two, three! and it is gone; and the performer allows the spectators to examine him, to ascertain thereby that the cage has not been folded up flat by any means and concealed on his person. The effect is extraordinary, as the cage-innocent of the very possibility of mechanical deceit seems to have melted into thin air under the very eyes of the audience. The explanation is, that there is a double-rotating hinge or joint in the eight corners of the brass framework, which permits it to fold together end-wise, or rather, corner-wise, in the form of a spindle, the wire of the sides -really black elastic-aiding this collapse by its tension when the framework is released from the oblong shape which is maintained by the hands. Around the right wrist is fastened a strong silk cord, which passes up the arm inside the shirt, across the back and down the left arm, to be attached to a tiny ring, hidden by the ball of the thumb, at the lower and inner left-hand corner of the cage, which forms one extremity of the spindle when collapsed. This cord is of just such a length that when the hands are holding the cage in front of the chest, the arms being bent and elbows close to the sides, it is comfortably taut. Now, it will be seen that if the arms be extended, as they are suddenly and violently at the word 'Three!' the cage being instantly collapsed at the same moment, the latter must necessarily be drawn up the shirtsleeve, where it will lie along the arm, and allow the coat to be removed by the audience without fear of detection. But it has happened more than once to the inventor himself to experience a hitch at the cuff, and to have the mortification of seeing his collapsed cage dangling ignominiously therefrom, amid the roars of all present. There is no possibility of covering such a failure; the only thing to do is to turn away as rapidly as may be, and confess to a disaster before every one has discovered its precise nature.

This dissolving cage is generally exhibited empty, though there are several forms of the apparatus which may contain any number of living inmates; but these involve the use of a prepared table. Others, again, there are which have hinged sides, so arranged that the whole can be folded so flat as easily to be concealed in a pocket; the cage falls into position by the weight of its floor when lifted by the ring at the top, and is adapted for production from a borrowed hat or pocket-handkerchief, but not for vanishing. A canary is sometimes shown in Buatier's apparatus generally an artificial and collapsible one, which is made to joggle about on a perch with a very fair semblance of life at the distance at which it is viewed by means of a bit of elastic

or fine spiral wire, passing from angle to angle through its body, and capable of being manipulated by the tips of the second fingers, as the hands hold the cage in position. Herrmann, one of our best prestidigitateurs, uses a dummy of this description; but with the wonderful sangfroid and dexterity which characterise everything he does, takes a living bird, and apparently puts it into the receptacle, with exquisitely deceptive petting and chirping. He adds a capital effect, too, by palming' a little roll of yellow feathers, so that the cage vanishes in a cloud and flutter of these, as though the canary itself had actually melted out of its investiture. Occasionally, I believe, a real bird is employed; and a special modification of the machine, with an extra joint in the middle of each bar of the frame, which would thus grasp the bird in an oval dilatation at the centre of the spindle when collapsed, is manufactured to admit of this being done; but the creature must be tied, or its pressing against the elastic wires' would reveal their real nature, and in any case one would imagine that it must be liable to injury.

That ever-popular illusion the globes of goldfish ought to be tolerably well known by this time, since it forms part of the stock-in-trade, if not the pièce de résistance, of every entertainer; but perhaps some of my readers may not be aware of the modus operandi. A handkerchief or cloth is waved about, to show that it is empty and free from preparation; then it is held out across the hands, and a glass globe, containing water and living gold-fish, is produced from under it; and this is repeated three or four times. 'Globes' they are called in the programmes; but as a matter of fact they are very different from the aquaria for gold-fish or anemones seen in our drawing-rooms or greenhouses under that designation, being rather large glass saucers. These are fitted with tight india-rubber covers, and, so protected, lie in two large pockets opening perpendicularly in the sides of the dress-coat, or are concealed behind. The cover is removed with the handkerchief. A very effective trick, and easy of execution, but a little apt to be marred by the occasional bursting of a capsule, and consequent cascade of water and wriggling fish down the magician's leg. I have known a cover refuse to come off, too, with very embarrassing results; for, though usually not difficult of removal, they necessarily fit so tightly that it takes considerable pressure to put them on. Sometimes, by way of a surprise, a brass bowl, flaming up a foot high with coloured fire, is brought out after the fish-bowls. This is filled with tow dipped in spirits of wine, &c., and is either ignited with a lucifer-match under the handkerchief, or has a little trigger with a phosphorus arrangement inside the latter being a very dangerous dodge, as a French conjurer found to his cost the other day, in whose breast-pocket the whole affair took fire prematurely. Delille was once engaged in the performance of an elaborate trick, in the course of which a pigeon is thrown up in the air or appears to be and, with a loud explosion, changes into a balloon. The balloon of course opened by springs, which at the same time broke a glass tube containing a detonating mixture of chlorate of potash and sulphur ; and the whole lay folded up in a small compass, ready for

use in the profonde or inside-tail-pocket. Unfortunately, he passed rather too near the corner of a table in coming forward to the front of the stage, and the audience were startled at seeing his coat-tails blown off with a bang. Whether he was injured or not, I cannot say.

I once witnessed a very ludicrous contretemps of a similar though less serious character. When a hat is borrowed, every one naturally expects that something unusual will presently be taken out of it; and indeed there are probably a plumpudding, a baby, a cannon-ball, or a couple of live rabbits waiting on the servante or shelf behind the table to be deftly introduced; but on his way back to the platform the conjurer generally contrives to introduce something from his pockets under cover of some movement which misdirects the attention for a moment. This something may be a supply of sweets for the juveniles, a score of tin goblets, some hundreds of yards of ribbon, or the wardrobe of the aforesaid baby-all very portable in a condensed form. But perhaps nothing is so showy as a number of gaudy and apparently solid cloth balls. These balls in reality owe their spherical shape to a spiral spring in their interior which admits of their being pressed flat, so that twenty or thirty can thus be packed in a sort of rouleau and carried about the person without difficulty, being held down by threads, which are snapped by the finger in the hat. But a gentleman who was holding an entertainment in a large hall at Southampton had the misfortune to get his thread broken while the rouleau was still in its place of concealment-long before he had come to the hat trick-and balls enough to fill a large bucket immediately expanded in his tail-pocket with astonishing effect.

Rabbits, guinea-pigs, and doves are the livestock ordinarily preferred for conjuring purposes, on account of their quiet and docile nature. They are tamed and well fed, but not necessarily trained for participation in the performance; all that is required of them is, that they shall lie still until they are wanted. The best regulated of dogs will bark every now and then and reveal his whereabouts; while a cat's impulse to hold on with her claws to anything she touches in any unaccustomed position, renders the feline race undesirable as confederates. White rats, squirrels, and monkeys have all been employed, but are of too restless and inquiring a disposition to be eminently fitted for the purpose. Live snakes lend themselves very suitably to these effects, from their adaptability to a most disproportionately small space when concealed, and apparent impossibility of concealment at all when produced, not to mention the air of glamour and diablerie they impart. But it is not every one who cares to manipulate living snakes. When M. Herrmann was in Cairo, he procured some non-venomous serpents, in rivalry of a party of snake-charmers who were there, and used them for a time; but although he was perfectly persuaded of their harmless nature, he was sometimes seized with such a horror of them, that he was impelled to rush away, tear off the coat in which they were snugly stowed, and dash it to the ground. Even rabbits and pigeons, however, sometimes bring confusion by wriggling out of pockets prematurely, or by putting their

heads round the corner of the 'table free from all preparation,' into the box from which they have just been 'vanished' through a trap. To injure a borrowed watch or hat while pretending to do so-to drop a ring or coin and not be able to find it again-to cause a card to 'appear' with a flourish and find it is the wrong one-or to actually burn a lady's handker chief accidentally, instead of the substitute for which it should have been adroitly exchanged, are calamities more likely to befall the amateur from nervousness or inexperience, than the professional, and are certainly not calculated to reassure his confidence-or that of his victimfor the remainder of the evening. But there is one very annoying circumstance to which both are liable in showing tricks with cards-that is, when, at the conclusion of the trick, the person who has selected a card says: 'Oh, I have forgotten what it was!' or, 'Oh, I never looked at it!' or, worse still, names a wrong one. The whole sleight is entirely brought to nought, and through no fault of the prestidigitateur. He knows very well what the card was-knew it before it was taken; but it will not mend the matter for him to name it; and his doing so would further disclose the fact that a 'force' had been employed, and might perhaps injuriously affect his subsequent feats. This happens more frequently than might be supposed. The same thing sometimes occurs in non-observance of the date or special mark on a coin; the exact number of a quantity of objects requested to be counted privately; or a letter, word, or sentence in a book. Performers who put their trust in complex electrical or mechanical paraphernalia and the collusion of accomplices, instead of legerdemain pure and simple, have only themselves to thank when anything goes wrong.

Some time ago, at a spiritualistic séance-the genuine article-a fiery hand was seen waving overhead in the darkness, rushing from end to end of the room with incredible swiftness, now high, now low, and occasionally smiting people on the cheek with the cold clammy contact of a corpse. In spite of the medium's stringent injunctions that no one should move, a gentleman clutched this awful apparition as it swept past him, and, regardless of protestations and threats, refused to let it go until the lights were turned up. Then the messenger from the other world proved to be nothing more supernatural than a dirty white kid glove, rubbed with phosphorus and stuffed with wet tow; this, at the end of a thin line, was suspended from a fishing-rod which could be reduced telescopically to a length convenient for the pocket. Thus the medium could cause all manner of appalling manifestations' without rising from his chair.

Few things impress the spectators with a stronger sense of the magician's skill-if not uncanny dealings with the powers of darkness-than his catching between his teeth a marked bullet fired from a pistol by one of the company-they themselves having ascertained by minute inspec tion that the weapon has no speciality about it, and that the powder and ball with which they lead it are genuine. The performer stands with his hands behind his back; careful aim is taken at him, the trigger pulled; and without stirring, le allows the marksman to step up and remove the