and pounded ice, and in water, it cannot
but have been an Arctic exploration on a small scale. Besides the ice,
it is a notorious fact that ice cream freezers are made of zinc, the
coldest metal in the world, if we bar women's feet.

"Sheridan's Ride" has been spoken of in poetry and in song, but it pales
into insignificance by the side of this girl's ride on the ice cream
freezer. If the young man had exhibited foresight, and had a side saddle
buckled on to the ice cream freezer, the experience would have been
robbed of much of its frigidity, or if there had been a thick blanket
under the saddle, but he failed to take even that precaution.

As it is we do not blame the girl for breaking off the engagement. In
addition, we think any court would decide that he should pay for the
ginger tea and cough lozenges that she had to take to cure her cold.

SOME TALK ABOUT MONOPOLIES.

We know it is fashionable for people to talk about the great monopolies,
the railroads, and show how they are sapping the life-blood from the
farmers by arranging facilities for transporting wheat worth forty cents
a bushel in store pay, without railroads, to a market where the farmer
realizes nearly a dollar a bushel in cash.

Demagogues ring the changes on these monopolies, tell how the directors
ride in palace cars and drink wine, from the proceeds of the millions of
dollars invested in railroads, though they never mention the fact that
the railroads have made it possible for farmers to give up driving ox
teams and ride after horses that can trot in 2:40.

We presume that railroad managers like to get a pretty good dividend on
their investments, but do they get a better dividend than farmers do
on some of their investments? Do you know of any farmer that ever
complained that his produce was selling too high? If you complain
at paying eight dollars for a jag of crow's nest wood during a snow
blockade, does he argue with, you, to show that he is a monopoly, or
does he tell you that if you don't want the wood you needn't have it?

Now, talking of railroad men manipulating stock, and taking advantage of
a raise, how is it about eggs? Within the last two months there has been
the worst corner on eggs that the world has ever seen, and the dividends
that farmers have received on their investments have been so enormous
that they must blush for shame, unless they are a soulless corporation.

Now, for instance, a farmer paid twenty-five cents