Can this Spanish dance be described in our cold, precise English? True, the swaying to and fro of the arms, the lissome gyrations of the body, the voluptuous posing, the grace of bending and bowing, and the quick and nervous ambling of feet can be told. But the spirit, the bold abandon, the wicked and suggestive beauty, and the mingled passion and poetry, will be sadly lacking. The fandango, in all its wild mazes and intricate evolutions, must be seen to be appreciated and understood.

Well, the dance goes on. Higher and higher the music rises on the sweet evening air. Dancers wax more enthusiastic. Faster move feet, arms, and bodies. The eyes of the dark doncellas grow brighter, and gleam with passion and lovelit fire.

Fierce and jealous glances are shot from beneath cloudy brows of tall señores. The scene grows wilder and madder-mildly suggestive of Pandemonium.

The dancers remind one of lost spirits, actuated by a gleeful despair. Ever and anon some jealous hidalgo is seen to grasp in nervous desperation the half-hidden handle of his stiletto or the hilt of his narrow rapier.

Finally there is a brief pause. The dancers stop from sheer exhaustion. Hark! the music again! Again the amorous dance is renewed.

Near midnight a halt is called. Then refreshments are served-oranges, bananas, and other fruit, and dainty confectioneries in abundance, washed down with copious draughts of lemonade and pulque.

Some of the fierce hidalgos, scorning such mild beverages, indulge freely in the fiery mezcal and aguardiente. Then follows the pensive promenade through the shadowy aisles of the perfumed grove. What could be nearer Paradise to an ardent Spanish lover than a quiet stroll in the mystical moonlight!

Cigarettes lend additional pleasure to the promenaders. Their use is not restricted to the hombres. Señoritas, like the swart señores, are adepts in making

cigarettes and in consuming them. Did you ever see a pretty Mejicana make a cigarette? A few dexterous turns of her shapely wrists and twists of her nimble, tapering fingers, a graceful wave of her little hand and a proud toss of her head, and presto! change! the thing is accomplished; the cigarette is evolved. Then the match is struck; the cigarette deftly placed between the cherry-hued labios. A few gentle draws, then a delicate whiff or two, and the smoke is sent in curls and rings from her boca hermosa. With an airy grace she removes the smoking object from between her pearly teeth, looks saucy and defiant, and answers your surprised and admiring glance with "Que cosa?"

Through light and shade, and amidst the aromatic grove, the gay promenaders flit. They chat and laugh, exchange ardent glances, and gallants repeat soft vows to more than willing ears. Ah! love is just the same the wide world over, whether beneath the Oriental moon under cold Northern skies!

or

Time speeds along, and soon the orchestra strikes up some lively Andalusian strain. Gay and sentimental promenaders hastily toss aside the half-consumed cigarettes and wheel again into line. So goes the mad, merry fandango to its close. It is long past midnight when the dancers disperse.

Again the beautiful grove was tenantless. The night wind rustled through leaves and branches. Luna looked serenely from her lofty throne and smiled down upon the sleeping Mexican land

O

NE of the most interesting features of the extensive arrangements attending the opening of the NationEl Park at Chattanooga was the establishment of a souvenir factory, similar to the relic foundry in Brussels that has, for years, supplied the field of Waterloo with ready-made mementos of that memorable battle. So great has been the demand for old bullets, minic-balls, fragments of shell, rusty bayonets, and other battle-field débris of the Civil War, that the supply was exhausted long ago; industrious relichunters have gone over every foot of battle-ground, even in places plowing over acres of soil, to find the reminders that bring the stirring scenes of war-time strangely near. Nothing, however, recalls so vividly the associations of that period as a bundle of old letters written from camp and field. They rouse a dead generation to instant resurrection.

During the days of the Civil War, among a multitude of ways in which patriotism was displayed, was the use, by business firms and private individuals. alike, of envelopes bearing patriotic devices, which, though often crude in coloring, grotesque in drawing, and fantastic in idea, sustained a significant relation to the great events of the time. The designs described and reproduced in this article. are from a private collection of envelopes in use during the years between 1861 and 1865, and will recall numerous personages and many phases of passion that are imperishably connected with the nation's crisis. The greater number of the envelopes in this collection are white; now and then there is one of a deep yellow, and some are striped in red, white, and blue. In shape they are oblong, about five inches long and three in width, and they bear a stamp unfamiliar to our eyes since 1883. At the outbreak of the Civil War, Postmaster-General Blair declared the stamp issues of '47 and '51 obsolete (in '51 the three-cent stamps first appeared), and prepared a new issue because so many of the old stamps were in possession of men who

had been postmasters in States that attempted to secede.

Perhaps the most popular form of envelope was a style that prevailed in every loyal State in the Union, each depicting its coat-of-arms; this one of New York is typical. (No. 1.) Almost equally popular was the design of a cannon flanked by the Stars and Stripes. It bore no motto, but was used everywhere in the North. (No. 2.)

A number of the designs might be grouped together and presented as a flag series. The flag which serves as a center of thought in times of peace becomes a rallying-point in times of war; over ail the "pomp and circumstance" of war, over all constitutions and laws, it serves as a proclamation of the inherent qualities. and beliefs of the nation. And so, when for the first time in its history the Stars and Stripes were fired upon as a beginning of hostilities against the Government which it represented, a new dignity and sacredness seemed to invest our nation's emblem. Early in the Civil War the Stars and Stripes were suspended from the top of Bunker Hill monument and remained there till the close of the struggle, thus flying for a longer consecutive period. than any other flag on record.

The "flower flag," the Germans called our emblem when it first appeared in its regulation form, and it is common opinion that it is the most beautiful flag of any nation, through a happy combination of the elements that contribute to its beauty, -the union of stars and stripes, the proportion of form observed in the entire flag, and lastly, the coloring-so symbolical, the red denoting daring, the white purity, and the blue perseverance or loyalty. The flag lends itself admirably to decoration, whether draped or floating on the breeze, and thus it was that it went up and down and across the lands of the Union like the bloom of the orchards, one all-pervasive blossoming whose marvelous flame had power "to kindle souls to the color of fame." (No. 3.)

One design recalls that scene in "The Man Without a Country," when poor Nolan lay dying,-" The Stars and Stripes were triced up above and around a picture of Washington, and he had painted a majestic eagle, with lightnings blazing from his beak and his foot just clasping the whole globe, which his wings overshadowed." This should satisfy the most ardent expansionist of to-day.

Sometimes a buxom America, clad in the Stars and Stripes, carries the flag "Onward to Victory." (No. 4.) Or a similar America, with a spear, pursues the Devil with Scriptural injunction, "Resist the Devil, and he will flee from you." The Devil carries the Southern flag, known as the "Stars and Bars." It was also called "The Pirate Flag," and frequently the red stripes bore the names respectively of

"The Star-Spangled Banner shall ever float above the filthy rag of Disunion," is the triumphant song of a young bluejacket with curly hair streaming in the wind, and rolling clouds about him, clinging by his legs and his left hand to the topmast, while he nails the Union flag to a mast on which the Confederate flag is reversed and below the other.

The rock, "Constitution of Our Fathers," is a favorite planting-place for the flag in the envelope decoration of 1861.

Jefferson Davis and Alexander H. Stephens, the middle one (white) being used for the address.

As the designs of the Confederate flag entered largely into the Northern envelope

caricatures, a word here concerning the adoption of that flag. When it became necessary that the Confederacy should have a flag of its own, there was great diversity of opinion as to the design. A curious relic in the Confederate archives is the scrap-book of nearly one hundred and fifty designs which were suggested, most of which, however, were modeled upon the old plan, expressive undoubtedly of a lingering respect for the Stars and Stripes and the desire to keep as much of it as possible. One woman who sent a

design said in the letter accompanying it: "You have fought well under one glorious banner; could you fight as well under another? Never! Alter it, improve it as you will, but, for Heaven's sake, keep the stars and stripes." Another design was thus outlined: "Keep the stars! Keep the stripes! Keep the azure field, and then add a red cross-the Southern cross

cutting the stripes at right angles."

Finally, on March 5, 1861, the original of the Stars and Bars was adopted as follows: "A blue field to extend through the