Two narrow beds (iron bedsteads) with fresh hair or straw mattresses are the best. These beds are easily moved, and thus the patient will not be compelled to look constantly at the same cracks in the wall, or count the same three spots in the corner. You can move him, now in a shaded corner, now the western window, to see the sun go down again in front of the fire, that he may look at its cheerful blaze, and anon into the most secluded corner, that he may rest and sleep. All this is an immense gain, and is sure not only to comfort the prisoner, but to shorten his sickness. The best way to manage is to have two beds, and lift the patient from one to the other. When the bed which has been in use from four to six hours is released, the mattress and blankets should be put where they can be thoroughly aired, and, if practicable, sunned. This will not only shorten and mitigate the graver stages of the malady, but it will greatly hasten the convalescence.

Of pigs it is commonly reported that so queerly fashioned are they that if they attempt to swim they cut their throats with their fore feet but this is only an old wife's fable. Whether wild or tame, they are all good swimmers, though, owning to the shortness of their legs, they just touch their throats with their fore feet and beat the water very high. Many of the islands of the southern seas are now inhabited by wild pigs, which are the descendants of those which have swum ashore, sometimes great distances from wrecked vessels. - Peterson's Magazine.

There is a remarkable family living in the Sixteenth Ward. It has been natural as far back as the wife's family can recollect for her parents, grandparents and great grandparents and their children, to be blessed with six toes on either or both feet, or six fingers on one or both hands. Of the present family the mother has twelve toes, as has her father and nearly all others of her family. She has three children, two of whom have each twelve toes, and the youngest child had six fingers, but one on each hand had been successfully amputated. What is most remarkable in this family is that the extra fingers and toes are regularly formed and perfect. The matatarsus bone (the bone from the knuckle to the middle joint) is perfect, the muscles are normal and the extra finger or toe is as serviceable as others; in fact, it is difficult to tell which is superfluous.

Rumors of a tailed race of men living in the interior of Borneo have often been heard, though probably no one seriously believed them. Carl Bock, a recent traveler in Borneo, was, however, assured by some of his native companions that such a race really did exist in the interior somewhere about the upper course of the Barita. Mr. Bock tells us that, tempted by a large reward, one of his native guides undertook to visit the territory of the chief of this so-called tailed race, and the result was that the chief, feeling insulted, made active preparations for war. It seems that the suite in attendance on the sultan of Fassir is known as his "tail people," and out of this it can easily be seen how all the rest would arise.

Sponge underclothing is the very latest, some German genius having recently invented and patented a line of underwear manufactured from this porous substance. It is claimed for it that it can be cleansed more easily than woolen goods, and being more flexible, does not chafe the skin so much. It is a bad conductor, and tends to keep the surface temperature uniform. One who wears this underclothing is not liable to take cold, for it absorbs the perspiration without checking it. After the mineral and vegetable impurities in the sponges have been sufficiently beaten by a heavy hammer to admit of being readily washed out, the sponges are dried and prepared with a sharp knife. These parings are then sewed together. The fabric is prepared without the use of poisonous dyes which, as incorporated in cloth underclothing, sometimes proves very deleterious to the system.

On Monday last, Mr. Wesley Hudgins killed and dressed a pig only nine months old, which weighed 386 pounds net. On the day following, Mr. Thomas D. Noe hung one on the hooks in front of his market house which tipped the beam at 500 pounds. The age of this latter hog was 18 months, length from tip of nose to root of tail five feet 11 inches size, around the girth six feet two inches, after the hair was taken off and entrails taken out. Both hogs were of the Poland China stock - score one for Carteret County on pork raising. -- [telephone.]

There have been several conflicting accounts of the effect of the supreme court decision on the Tennessee law which made it a misdemeanor to sell cigarettes or bring them into the state for the purpose of selling them. The state supreme court held that cigarettes were noxious and hurtful, not a legitimate subject of inter-state commerce, and therefore their sale could be prohibited by the police power of the state.

The majority of the United States supreme court dissent from this view, holding that tobacco in any form is a legitimate subject of commerce. It held also that the Tennessee law properly applies to the importation in question as the cigarette came into the state in a form different from the original package in which they are usually shipped. But four of the nine members of the court, headed by Chief Justice Fuller, dissent from the majority opinion and hold that the state has no power to prohibit the importation of cigarettes even in single packages.

The result of the decision would seem to be only to require the manufacturers of cigarettes to reduce the size of their present original packages. They can easily do this. The Tennessee law falls, and the sale of cigarettes will continue in spite of hostile state statutes,

The cigarette wins!

A young conductor on the Midland road has established a new station a few miles above Kinston, to be called "Carraway Station." The circumstances connected with the establishing of this station will necessitate the changing of the name of that spicy news gatherer of the News & Observer from "L.R. Walker" to R.R. (Railroad) Walker. "Dead heads" and newspaper travelers be sure to have your passes when you travel over the Midland.

A small boy rushed into the office of a Brooklyn dentist recently. "Say, Doctor," he exclaimed. "Mother's false teeth ar botherin' 'er, an' she wants to get 'em fixed."

"Why didn't your mother have the plate attended to when it was first made?" asked the dentist.

"Well, because mother's been dead two years. Stepmother's wearin' the teeth, an' she says they grip 'er awfully."

KINSTON is flourishing like a green bay tree. A bank, an opera house, and many new residences and business places are among the additions of the past year.