“Even so young authors require pruning; and how thankful we all ought to be that the _Chronicle_ keeps an ass!” Walking one day in the Haymarket, then a rather disreputable promenade, some one met him, and thus accosted him: “What, Jerrold, you here? Looking about for characters, I suppose.” “Yes,” said Jerrold quietly; “I am told a good many are lost about here.” * * * * * THE NEWS OF ALL NATIONS. Michigan on Gridiron. Six of the eight games which will make up the University of Michigan’s 1915 football schedule were announced recently by the board in control of the athletics. The midweek games have not yet been decided upon. The schedule follows: October 9, Mount Union; October 16, Case; October 23, Michigan Agricultural College; October 30, Syracuse; November 6, Cornell; November 13, Pennsylvania at Philadelphia. With the exception of the Pennsylvania game on Franklin Field, Michigan will fight all her battles on the home gridiron next fall. Hen and High-bred Chickens. A hen of high-flying propensities advertised her character when a barred Plymouth Rock, the property of Mr. Gushee, of Hastings, N. Y., announced from a cedar tree on the Longue Vue estate, that she had a remarkable secret to impart. Those who answered the frenzied squawks for aid found with her a brood of thirteen chicks. M. C. Cronin, who superintends the poultry stock at Longue Vue, removed the flock from the tree crotch, which was twenty feet from the ground, and installed the family in a comfortable house. The hen had been missing for days, but no one thought to look for her at such a height. Now they are trying to decide whether the birds are cedar birds or plain chickens. Destroying Odor of Smoke. A new invention is a lamp which consumes smoke. It resembles an ordinary alcohol lamp in appearance. At the tip of its burner is a piece of platinum. When the platinum is made to glow by the alcohol flame arising from the burner it gives off formaldehyde in great quantities. This overcomes the smoke or any other impurity in the atmosphere. When the lamp is lighted in a room where smoking is in progress it prevents the accumulation of stale smoke. It can also be used as a disinfector. Ex-slave Ill at 102. Mrs. Minerva Gillies, whose father, Richard Washington, was George Washington’s slave, was taken to the Harlem Hospital, in New York recently, suffering from ailments that come with old age. She is 102 years old, and lived with her daughter at 58 West 133d Street. Richard Washington was a stableboy at Mount Vernon. After the death of George Washington, he was sold and went to Petersburg, Va. There Minerva was born. She remained in slavery until the end of the Civil War, when she came North. From Gate to President.