The material of which walking sticks are made is as various as can well-nigh be conceived of. Many are imported woods—some from the tropics, China and the East Indies. The celebrated Whongee canes are from China, where they are well known and celebrated for the regularity of their joints, which are the points from which the leaves are given off, and the stems of a species of phyllosiachys, a gigantic grass, closely allied to the bamboo. The orange and lemon are highly prized, and are imported chiefly from the West Indies, and perfect specimens command enormous prices. The orange stick is known by its beautiful green bark, with fine white longitudinal markings, and the lemon by the symmetry of its proportions, and both prominence and regularity of its knobs. Myrtle sticks also possess a value, since their appearance is so peculiar that their owner would seldom fail to recognize them. They are imported from Algeria. The rajah stick is an importation. It is the stem of a plant and a species of calamus. It is grown in Borneo, and takes its name from the fact that the Rajah will not allow any to go out of the country unless a heavy duty is paid. These canes, known as palm canes, are distinguished by an angular and more or less flat appearance. Their color is brownish, spotted, and they are quite straight, with neither knob nor curl. They are the petioles of leaf stalk of the date palm. Perhaps the most celebrated of the foreign canes are the Malacca, being the stems of the calamus sceptonum, a slender climbing palm, and not growing around Malacca, as the name would seem to indicate, but imported from Stak, on the opposite coast of Sumatra. Other foreign canes are ebony, rosewood, partridge or hairwood, and cactus, which, when the pith is cut out, presents a most novel appearance, hollow and full of holes. * * * * * Shortly after Miss Alcott’s “Little Women” was published a quiet-looking lady entered a Boston circulating library and asked a lady clerk to pick her out “a good book that would rest and amuse her.” Naturally “Little Women” was offered, and declined. “It’s very nice; you’d like it,” urged the clerk. “I should not care to read it,” said the other. “But at least look at it.” “No,” came the answer, firmly and with an odd smile; “it is not a book that I should care to read.” Then the clerk, pretty angry, walked away to the chief librarian and cried: “There’s a woman down there wants a book, and if you want her waited on somebody else must do it. I won’t.” “Why, why not?” “Why, she says ‘Little Women’ isn’t good enough for her to read.” “Do you know who that lady is?” “No, and I don’t care.” “Well, I’ll tell you. That is Louise M. Alcott. Now go and get her a book.” * * * * * A Michigan girl told her young man that she would never marry him until he was worth $100,000. So he started out with a brave heart to make it.