=10= stamps and large list =FREE=! L. DOVER & CO., 1469 Hodiamont, St. Louis, Mo. [Illustration: Thompson's Eye Water] [Illustration: COLUMBIA BICYCLES] HARPER'S PERIODICALS Hold their place in the front rank of the publications to which they belong.--_Boston Journal_, Feb. 19, 1896. MAGAZINE, $4.00 A YEAR WEEKLY, $4.00 A YEAR BAZAR, $4.00 A YEAR ROUND TABLE, $2.00 A YEAR A Good Story about Mr. Blaine. It often happens that men in public life find themselves in possession of sources of power--or it may be of weakness--of which they did not dream, and which, in not a few cases, they themselves maintain they do not possess. Sometimes they are at a loss to know why the public insists upon attributing the peculiarities to them. During the political campaign of 1884 some gentlemen, serving on a reception committee, met Mr. Blaine on a railway train journeying toward the city at which a great meeting was to be held. Mr. Blaine was the Republican candidate for President, and, of course, the centre of interest. Always one of the most charming of conversationalists, he sat in the centre of a group of admirers who, as the train sped on, asked him questions of the campaign and of himself. "May I ask you," interposed one young man, "if you know why people insist upon cheering so wildly whenever you come in sight? Or, not to be too blunt, do you know the secret of your magnetic power? This power you possess more than almost any other man in our history, unless it might have been Henry Clay." "Now, frankly," said Mr. Blaine, "I do not. All I know about it is that ever since, as a young man, I began speaking in public, people insisted upon 'cheering wildly,' as you say, 'almost insanely,' I say. They did it, too, before I had said or done anything, so it could not have been my record in public life. I cannot explain it, though I have often been asked to do so." "Then you found it one of your assets as a public man, just as some other men in public life have found a reputation for coldness a deficit, so to speak," observed the chairman of the reception committee, an older and a more experienced man than the first questioner. "Exactly," responded Mr. Blaine. Then, thinking of his pending candidacy, a cloud of trouble flitted over his face, long of a peculiar whiteness, and he added, "I am trying to realize on that asset now." Great as the "asset" was, he failed to realize his greatest hope upon it. * * * * * A Hammock Convenience. These summer nights I camp out often. The other night we told riddles, and I told this one. It was not guessed. The answer is "Hatteras." My first is an article of dress, One, two, is the man who will make it. My last is as-- But if I tell more You'll have no chance to mistake it. My whole is a point that can't be disputed; That its position's a sound one was never refuted. J. G. BATTERSON. ASBURY PARK, N. J.