Pamphlets, Etc., Received.

A full and detailed account of the Polled Galloway breed of cattle is sent us by the Rev. John Gillespie, M. A., Dumfries, Scotland. The catalogue has also an appendix containing a correspondence on Polled-Angus versus Galloway cattle for the Western States of America.

Jabez Webster's descriptive wholesale and retail price list of fruit and ornamental nursery stock, etc., Centralia, Ill.

Illustrated catalogue and price list of grape vines, small fruits, etc. John G. Burrow, Fishkill Village, Dutchess county, N. Y.

The Canadian Entomologist, by William Saunders, London, Ontario. This is an exceedingly neat little pamphlet, and contains articles upon many of the most important subjects relating to entomology, by a number of prominent and well-known writers of the day.

The Argus Almanac for 1884. This almanac is replete with useful information concerning the Government, public debt, State elections from 1873 to 1883, finances of State of New York, biographical sketches of State officers and members of the Legislature, etc., etc. Price, 25 cents, Albany, N. Y.

"A Primer of Horticulture for Michigan Fruit Growers." This pamphlet has been prepared for the use of beginners in horticulture by Charles W. Garfield, Secretary of the Michigan State Horticultural Society, and will be found very helpful to all such. Price, 15 cents.

Waldo F. Brown's illustrated spring catalogue of vegetable and flower seeds. Oxford, Ohio.

R. H. Allen & Co.'s descriptive catalogue of choice farm, garden, and flower seeds. Nos. 189 and 191 Water St, N. Y.

The Manifesto, a pamphlet devoted to the interests of our Shaker friends. Compliments of Charles Clapp, Lebanon, Ohio.

"THE THIRD HOUSE."

Its Good and Bad Members—The Remarkable Experiences of a Close Observer of Its Workings During a Long Residence at Washington.

[Correspondence Rochester Democrat.]

No city upon the American continent has a larger floating population than Washington. It is estimated that during the sessions of Congress twenty-five thousand people, whose homes are in various parts of this and other countries, make this city their place of residence. Some come here, attracted by the advantages the city offers for making the acquaintance of public men; others have various claims which they wish to present, while the great majority gather here, as crows flock to the carrion, for the sole purpose of getting a morsel at the public crib. The latter class, as a general thing, originate the many schemes which terminate in vicious bills, all of which are either directed at the public treasury or toward that revenue which the black-mailing of corporations or private enterprises may bring.

While walking down Pennsylvania avenue the other day I met Mr. William M. Ashley, formerly of your city, whose long residence here has made him unusually well acquainted with the operations of the lobby.

Having made my wants in this particular direction known, in answer to an interrogative, Mr. Ashley said:

"Yes, during my residence here I have become well acquainted with the workings of the 'Third House,' as it is termed, and could tell you of numerous jobs, which, like the 'Heathen Chinee,' are peculiar."

"You do not regard the lobby, as a body, vicious, do you?"

"Not necessarily so, there are good and bad men comprising that body; yet there have been times when it must be admitted that the combined power of the 'Third House' has overridden the will of the people. The bad influence of the lobby can be seen in the numerous blood-bills that are introduced at every session."

"But how can these be discovered?"

"Easily enough, to the person who has made the thing a study. I can detect them at a glance."

"Tell me, to what bills do you refer?"

"Well, take the annual gas bills, for instance. They are introduced for the purpose of bleeding the Washington Gas Light company. They usually result in an investigating committee which never amounts to anything more than a draft upon the public treasury for the expenses of the investigation. Another squeeze is the abattoir bills, as they are called. These, of course, are fought by the butchers and market-men. The first attempt to force a bill of this description was in 1877, when a prominent Washington politician offered a fabulous sum for the franchise."

"Anything else in this line that you think of, Mr. Ashley?"

"Yes, there's the job to reclaim the Potomac flats, which, had it become a law, would have resulted in an enormous steal. The work is now being done by the Government itself, and will rid the place of that malarial atmosphere of which we hear so much outside the city."

"During your residence here have you experienced the bad results of living in this climate?"

"Well, while I have not at all times enjoyed good health, I am certain that the difficulty which laid me up so long was not malarial. It was something that had troubled me for years. A shooting, stinging pain that at times attacked different parts of my body. One day my right arm and leg would torture me with pain, there would be great redness, heat and swelling of the parts; and perhaps the next day the left arm and leg would be similarly affected. Then again it would locate in some particular part of my body and produce a tenderness which would well nigh drive me frantic. There would be weeks at a time that I would be afflicted with an intermitting kind of pain that would come on every afternoon and leave me comparatively free from suffering during the balance of the twenty-four hours. Then I would have terrible paroxysms of pain coming on at any time during the day or night when I would be obliged to lie upon my back for hours and keep as motionless as possible. Every time I attempted to move a chilly sensation would pass over my body, or I would faint from hot flashes. I suffered from a spasmodic contraction of the muscles and a soreness of the back and bowels, and even my eyeballs become sore and distressed me greatly whenever I wiped my face. I became ill-tempered, peevish, fretful, irritable and desperately despondent."

"Of course you consulted the doctors regarding your difficulty?"

"Consulted them? well I should say I did. Some told me I had neuralgia; others that I had inflammatory rheumatism, for which there was no cure, that I would be afflicted all my life, and that time alone would mitigate my sufferings."

"But didn't they try to relieve your miseries?"

"Yes, they vomited and physicked me, blistered and bled me, plastered and oiled me, sweat, steamed, and everything but froze me, but without avail."

"But how did you finally recover?"

"I had a friend living in Michigan who had been afflicted in a similar way and had been cured. He wrote me regarding his recovery and advised me to try the remedy which cured him. I procured a bottle and commenced its use, taking a teaspoonful after each meal and at bed-time. I had used it about a week when I noticed a decrease of the soreness of the joints and a general feeling of relief. I persevered in its use and finally got so I could move around without limping, when I told my friends that it was Warner's Safe Rheumatic Cure that had put me on my feet."

"And do you regard your cure as permanent?"

"Certainly, I haven't been so well in years as I am now, and although I have been subjected to frequent and severe changes of weather this winter, I have not felt the first intimation of the return of my rheumatic trouble."

"Do you object to the publication of this interview, Mr. Ashley?"

"Not at all, sir. I look upon it as a duty I owe my fellow creatures to alleviate their sufferings so far as I am able, and any communication regarding my symptoms and cure that may be sent to me at 506 Maine avenue will receive prompt and careful attention."

"Judging from your recital, Mr. Ashley, there must be wonderful curative properties about this medicine?"

"Indeed, there is, sir, for no man suffered more nor longer than did I before this remedy gave me relief."

"To go back to the original subject, Mr. Ashley, I suppose you see the same familiar faces about the lobby session after session?"

"No, not so much so as you might think. New faces are constantly seen and old ones disappear. The strain upon lobbyists is necessarily very great, and when you add to this the demoralizing effect of late hours and intemperate habits and the fact that they are after found out in their steals, their disappearance can easily be accounted for."

"What proportion of these blood-bills are successful?"

"A very small percentage, sir. Notwithstanding the power and influence of the lobby, but few of these vicious measures pass. Were they successful it would be a sad commentary upon our system of government, and would virtually annihilate one branch of it. The great majority of them are either reported adversely or smothered in committee by the watchfulness and loyalty of our congressmen."

J. E. D.

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PUBLISHERS' NOTICE.

The Prairie Farmer is printed and published by The Prairie Farmer Publishing Company, every Saturday, at No. 150 Monroe Street.

Subscription, $2.00 per year, in advance, postage prepaid.

Subscribers wishing their addresses changed should give their old at well as new addresses.

Advertising, 25 cents per line on inside pages; 30 cents per line on last page—agate measure; 14 lines to the inch. No less charge than $2.00.

All Communications, Remittances, &c., should be addressed to The Prairie Farmer Publishing Company, Chicago. Ill.

Entered at the Chicago Post Office as Second-Class Matter.

CHICAGO, MARCH 22, 1884.

WHEN SUBSCRIPTIONS EXPIRE.

We have several calls for an explanation of the figures following the name of subscribers as printed upon this paper each week. The first two figures indicate the volume, and the last figure or figures the number of the last paper of that volume for which the subscriber has paid: EXAMPLE: John Smith, 56-26. John has paid for THE PRAIRIE FARMER to the first of July of the present year, volume 56. Any subscriber can at once tell when his subscription expires by referring to volume and number as given on first page of the paper.

RENEW! RENEW!!

Remember that every yearly subscriber, either new or renewing, sending us $2, receives a splendid new map of the United States and Canada—58x41 inches—FREE. Or, if preferred, one of the books offered in another column. It is not necessary to wait until a subscription expires before renewing.

[Transcriber's Note: Original location of Table of Contents.]

The next fair of the Jefferson County, Wisconsin, Agricultural Society will be held the second week in September.

The potato which has sold for the highest price in Boston all the season is the Early Rose. This has been one of the most remarkable potatoes known in the history of this esculent.

A Gentleman residing at Milk's Grove, Iroquois county, Illinois has obtained a patent for a new and cheap building material; this material is straw and concrete pressed together and bound with wires. He thinks he has a good thing. Time will tell.

The Chamber of Commerce at Lyons, France, protests to the government against the embargo on American pork. Trichiniasis prevails in various parts of the German empire. It is traced to the use of uncooked home-grown pork. Here we score two points in favor of the American hog product.

The excellent articles on Silk Culture by E. L. Meyer, Esq., have attracted very general attention, as is proven by the number of letters we have received asking for his address. This was unintentionally omitted. Mr. Meyer resides at Hutchinson, Kan. The article was originally prepared for the quarterly report of the Kansas Board of Agriculture.

Our Indiana friends should remember that in that State, Arbor Day occurs April 11th. A general effort is being made to interest the teachers, pupils, and directors of the district schools in the observance of the day by planting of trees and shrubs in the school yards. It is to be hoped that the people generally will countenance the observance in all possible ways.

Prof. S. A. Forbes writes us that there is needed for the Library of the State Natural History Society, back numbers of The Prairie Farmer for the following years and half years: 1852, 1855, 1856, 1857, 1858, 1859, 1860, second half year of 1862, 1864, and 1874. Persons having one or all of these volumes to dispose of will confer a favor by addressing the Professor to that effect at Normal, Ill.

Florida vegetables are coming into Chicago quite freely. Cucumbers are selling on South Water street at from $1.50 to $2 per-dozen. They come in barrels holding thirty dozen. Radishes now have to compete with the home-grown, hot-house article, and do not fare very well, as the latter are much fresher. Lettuce is comparatively plenty, as is also celery. Apples sell at from $4 to $6 per barrel, and the demand is good.

Mercedes, the famous Holstein[r] cow owned by Thos. B. Wales, Jr., of Iowa City, died on the 17th inst., of puerperal fever, having previously lost her calf. Mercedes enjoyed the reputation of being the greatest milk and butter cow in the world. Her last year's calf it will be remembered was sold for $4,500. The cow and calf just dropped were valued at $10,000. The butter record alluded to was ninety-nine pounds six and one-half ounces in thirty days. The test was in 1883.

The Mark Lane Express in its review of the British grain trade last week says the trade in cargoes off coast was more active, but the supply bare. California was taken at 39@41s per quarter. Two cargoes have gone to Havre at 39s 11½d@39s 3d without extra freight. Seven cargoes have arrived, ten were sold, eight withdrawn, and one remained. Sales of English wheat for a week, 59,699 quarters at 37s. 7d. per quarter, against 57,824 quarter at 42s. 2d. the corresponding week of last year.

At the next American Fat Stock Show in Chicago, there promises to be an extensive exhibit of dairy products. The Illinois Dairymen's Association will have it in charge, and the State Board of Agriculture has decided to appropriate $500 as a premium fund for the Dairymen's Association. It is rather strange, yet nevertheless true, that Illinois has never yet had an exhibition of dairy products at all commensurate with the importance of the dairy interest of the State. It may now be reasonably predicted that this remark will not remain true after November next. We have heard nothing said about it, but it is to be presumed there will be no extra charge to visit this exhibit. The managers of the Fat Stock Show have not been satisfied, we believe, with experiments in this direction.

Many years ago a young Scotch gardener brought from Mexico to Kenosha, Wis., a specimen of the Century plant. It was then supposed to be about twenty years old. For more than forty years this man cared for his pet with unflagging faithfulness. Dying at the age of sixty-five he left it to the care of a little daughter of a lady who had shown him kindness. This girl grew to womanhood and to middle age caring tenderly for the plant. About two years ago the plant exhibiting signs of blooming, a gentleman joined with the lady and erected a building for it near the Exposition building, in this city. Here it has since been, but through carelessness it was unduly exposed to the terrible freeze of the first week in January last, and the plant is now past recovery. The lady had expended upon it about all the means she possessed expecting to reap from admission fees to see it a rich reward. Thus eighty years of care and constant expense came to naught in a single night. A neglect to order coal resulted in the fire going out just when the cold was the most intense. One can hardly imagine the disappointment and regret of the lady who had nursed it with such care for nearly a lifetime.