he was released and allowed to return to his duties.

THE CUSTOM OF THE COUNTRY.

An English lady accustomed to travelling abroad, and able to converse
fluently in the languages of the countries she visited, recently found
herself alone in a railway carriage in Germany, when two foreigners
entered with pipes in their mouths, smoking strong tobacco furiously.
She quietly told them in their own language that it was not a smoking
carriage, but they persisted in continuing to smoke, remarking that it
was "the custom of the country," upon which the lady took from her pocket
a pair of gloves and commenced cleaning them with benzoline. Her
fellow-passengers expressed their disgust at the nauseous effluvium, when
she remarked that it was the custom of her country. She was soon left in
the sole possession of the carriage.

--_Truth_.

AN INSULTED WOMAN.

Mark Twain in his interesting work "A Tramp Abroad," thus refers to a
railroad incident:--"We left Turin at 10 the next morning by a railway,
which was profusely decorated with tunnels. We forgot to take a lantern
along, consequently we missed all the scenery. Our compartment was full.
A ponderous, tow-headed, Swiss woman, who put on many fine-lady airs, but
was evidently more used to washing linen than wearing it, sat in a corner
seat and put her legs across into the opposite one, propping them
intermediately with her up-ended valise. In the seat thus pirated sat
two Americans, greatly incommoded by that woman's majestic coffin-clad
feet. One of them begged her, politely, to remove them. She opened her
wide eyes and gave him a stare, but answered nothing. By-and-by he
preferred his request again, with great respectfulness. She said, in
good English, and in a deeply offended tone, that she had paid her
passage and was not going to be bullied out of her 'rights' by ill-bred
foreigners, even if she _was_ alone and unprotected.

"'But I have rights also, madam. My ticket entitles me to a seat, but
you are occupying half of it.'

"'I will not talk with you, sir. What right have you to speak to me? I
do not know you. One would know that you come from a land where there
are no gentlemen. No _gentleman_ would treat a lady as you have treated
me.'

"'I come from a land where a lady would hardly give me the same
provocation.'

"'You have insulted me, sir! You have intimated that I am