Funding for the digitization of this title was provided by R.J. Taylor, Jr. Foundation.
About News & planters' gazette. (Washington, Wilkes County [sic], Ga.) 1840-1844 | View Entire Issue (March 2, 1843)
NEWS & PLANTERS’ GAZETTE. “D. e. DOTTING, Editor. No. 27.—NEW SERIES.] MEWS & PLANTERS’ GAZETTE. terms: Published weekly at Three Dollars per annum if paid at the time of subscribing; or Three Dollars and Fifty Cents, if not paid till the expi ration of six months. No paper to be discontinued,unless at the option of the Kditor, without the settlement of all arrearages. O* Letters, on business, must be postpaid, to insure attention. No communication shall he published, unless we are made acquainted with the name of the author. TO ADVERTISERS. Adc, ? rtisemenls, not exceeding one square, first i insertion, fSeienty-Jiie Cents; and for each sub sequent insertion, Fifty Cents. A reduction will be made of twenty-five per cent, to those who advertise by the year. Advertisements not \Jimited when handed in, will be inserted till for f*d, and charged accordingly. > Sales of Land and Negroes by Executors, Ad ministrators and Guardians, are required by law, f.o be advertised, in a public Gazette, sixty days previous to the day of sale. The sales of Personal Property must be adver- j tised in like manner, forty days. Notice to Debtors and Creditors of an Estate ! must be published forty days. Notice that application will be made to the Court'of Ordinary, for leave to sell Land of Ne groes, must be published for four months ■ — notice that application will be made for I.otters of Administration, must be published thirty days; and Letters of Dismission, six months. Mtidl Arrangements. POST OFFICE, > Washington, Ga., January, 1843. $ AUGUSTA MAIL. ARRIVES. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 5, A. M. CLOSES. Tuesday, Thursday, and Saturday, at I‘2, M. MILLEDGEVILLE MAIL. ARRIVES. Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 8, A. M. CLOSES. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 11, A. M. CAROLINA MAIL. ARRIVES. Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 11, A. M. CLOSES. Sunday, Wednesday, and Friday, at 6, A. M. LEXINGTON MAIL. ARRIVES. Tuesday and Saturday, at 2, P. M. CLOSES. Monday and Friday, at!), A. M. ELBERTON MAIL. ARRIVES. CLOSES. Thursday, at 8, P. M. j Thursday, at 8, P. M. LINCOLNTON MAIL. ARRIVES. CLOSES. Friday, at 12, M. \ Friday, at 12, M. LAW NOTICE. sAiEis m.sarx'rjiau ATTORNEY AT LAW. ID 3 Office iu Mr. Barnett’s new building, North west corner of the Public Square. Washington, Wilkes county, Ga., ) December 22, 1842. ( 17 ’ KIIINIGSY IF, ATTORNEY AT T.aW. Washington, Georgia. O’ Office over Callaway &. Co’s. Store February 2, 1843. 4t 23 COTTING & BUTLEIt, , ATTORNIES, HAVE taken an OFFICE in the rear of Willis & Hester’s Store. January, 1843. 28 To Rent . THE STABLE situated m the rear oi the Printing-Office. Apply to M. J. KAPPEL. February 9,1843. 24 For Sale , K Six good Milch COWS with young Calves. Apply at this Office. February 16, 1843. 25 To Rent • llJLlilra?. Two Rooms on the Pub lic Square. FRANCIS T. WILLIS. - February 23, 1843. 2t 26 Notice to Debtors and Creditors. A LL persons indebted to the Estate of Thom- J*- as J. Ellington, late of Wilkes county, de ceased, are requested to make immediate pay ment, and those having demands, will please present the same, duly attested, for payment. WILLIAM B. ELLINGTON, Ex’r. February 9, 1843. 6t 24 ~ RWHNNBo ALL persons indebted to the Estate of Mary Hughesvdeceased, late of Wilkes county, are hereby notified to make immediate payment to the undersigned, and those having demands a gainst the same will present them in terms of the Taw. BARNARD 11. HUGHES, Adm’r. January 5,1843. 6t 19 JYotice . ALL persons having demands against the Es tate of Larkin Clark, late of Elbert county, deceased, will present them as the law requires; and those indebted to said estate will please make iim'Yedtate payment to ROBERT McMILLAN, Executor, iftterton, January 4,1843. 20 The Subscriber* JMUTSHING to close business, offers at Redu ” ced Prices, his present STOCK, consist ing in part, of the following : gjfl Ladies’ Kid and Calf walking IJ Shoes, just received. Misses Calf and Seal do. do. Children’s Shoes,of various kinds Boy’s Calf and Kip, sewed and peg’d. Siioes, Men’s Shoes, sewed and peg’ll, a variety, Women’s sewed and peg’d. Kips, Women’s fine Leather Bootees, Gentlemen’s line Calt Boots, Coarse Brogans, men’s and boys, beet quality, Do. do. extra size, Men’s Leather Slippers, Men’s Calf and Seal Pumps. ALSO, Ladies’ Kid Buskin Ties, and a case of Gentle raeu’s sewed Shoes, soon to arrive. Also, Factory Oznaburgs, at 9 reals per yard and woolen Linseys, nearly a yard wide, at 2? to 30 cents, which article was sent invoiced at cents, and cannot be bought at the Factory now at much less than 40 cts. by the quantity. O’ Persons wishing any of the above articles, will do well to call at the SHOE STORE of A. 1,. LEWIS. N. B.—Persons indebted on account will please call and settle at the earliest possible date. January 12,1843. A. L. L. Cabinet mUlateing. THE Subscriber will continue the CABI NET BUSINESS at the old stand for merly occupied by Mr. Joseph Moseley, where he will despatch all kinds of work in his line at prices corresponding with the hard times. Persons wishing to purchase any articles in his line will do well to call before buying else where. He would also inform the public that he is prepared to execute TURNING, which he will do low and on terms to suit his customers. Do not be baakward in coming forward. JOSEPH GARDNER. February 23,1843. 4t 20 Removal • THE Subscriber informs the public that he has removed from Tyrone to Crawford ville, where he lias permanently located himself, and will carry on the business of manufacturing COTTON-GINS, and will deliver Gins to any part of Georgia or South Carolina, to order.— Persons wishing any correspondence with the Subscriber, will please direct to Crawfordville, Taliaferro county, Ga., where all orders in my line of business will be thankfully received and will he promptly attended to by the Subscriber. I return my thanks to Old Wilkes for her pat ronage, and yet hope not to be forgotten by her, believing as I do that I can do as well by the Planters in furnishing them with Cotton-Gins as any man iu the Southern States. S. R. CRENSHAW. January 5,1843. 19 Tailoring Establishment Removed over FI. S. Belcher’s Store. Subscriber begs leave to inform the pub lie and his former customers, that in conse quence of the present Hard Times, ho will make up Work in a Superior Style of Fashion, at a reduced price for Cash. Cotton, Hog-meat, Lard, Meal, Flour, or Irish Potatoes. Persons wishing to patronize a TAILOR that is willing to comply with the Times, can do so by applying to tlxc Subscriber. WILLIAM F. SOIIAN. October 13, 1842. 7 Georgia, Elbert county. Superior Court, September Term, 1842. William IV. am, Adinm-') mtrator of Jacob Higginbotham, Ur ceased, vs IN EQUITY J ailxei ; liggiubothcm, Jacob :i - ham, Job Uil ; m i:; oo: h:; , William l'liggint •-•’iian.i, Francis iiigginbotji Riley Higginbotham, Joseph Higginbotham, Benjamin Higginborham, Elizabeth Higginbotham, William Maxwell and Jane his wife, and Stephen Rowrey and Hannah his wife. _ Evidence having, beer, submitted to the Court that three of the Defendants, to-wit: Jo seph Higginbotham, James Higginbotham and Jacob Higginbotham, had renounced all further claims upon the estate of their deceased father, in consideration of advancements made to them by their father in his life-time. It is Ordered by the Court, that the said three Distributees fur nish testimony on or before the first day of the next Term of this Court, to rebut said proof, at which time a final distribution of the Assets will be made in terms of the Interlocutory Decree already rendered. It is Ordered, that a copy of this Rule be published monthly, until the next Court. True copy from the Minutes of said Court, this 26th day of September, 1842. IRA CHRISTIAN, Clerk. October 6. mom 6 Lincoln Superior Court, October Term, 1842. Rebecca Fleetwood, i Libel for Divorce, vs - >ln Lincoln Sup’r. Court, John Fleetwood. J returnable April Term. TT appearing to the Court, that the defendant A in the above stated Libel for Divorce, has not been served, and lias removed out of the county of Lincoln, and to parts unknown. It is there fore Ordered, that said defendant do appear at the next Term of this Court and answer to said Li bel, or in default thereof that the Court will pro ceed as to justice shall appertain. It is further Ordered, that a copy of this Rule be served upon the defendant bv publishing the same once a mouth for four months in the Washington News and Planters’ Gazette. True extract from the Minutes, HENRY MURRAY, Clerk. December 15,1842. m4m 16 executed at this 1 © F IF a © IE * I PUBLISHED EVERY THURSDAY MORNING. WASHINGTON, (WILKES COUNTY, GA.,) MAKCII 2, 1843. Irom Graham's Magazine, for February. TIIK ENCHANTED GUN. A TENNESSEE STORY. The evening closed in dull and thick, with that stagnant heaviness of the atrnos phere which often precedes a storm. There was a moon, but its face was veiled bv the Laden clouds; and its light, dissipated through the murky air, created that kind of “ darkness visible” which gives a drearier aspect to the landscape than when it is wholly obscured. The only cabin in sight lay in the midst of a desolate ‘clearing,’ which, though completely walled around by the forest of firs from whose depths I had just issued, bore not a trace of shrubbery to relieve the waste of blackened slumps. A well of primitive construction, with the bucket dangling at the end of a grape-vine attach ’d to a long lever pole, crowned a naked knoll wimro tile stumps had been cleared a way. The pole, from which the bark had never been stripped, was nearly covered with that pale green inov- which will often collect upon the dry rails of a fence which | have not for years been disturbed ; and I this, with the night wind whistling through the parted staves of the decrepit bucket, proved sulliciently that the well, if not dri ed up entirely, was stiil no longer used. A low shed, built of logs and roofed with bark, was the only other outward appurtenance of the cabin. The whole picture, it will he acknowl edged, was a dreary one. Comfortless, monotonous ; almost heart-depressing ! A scene of wildness without beautv ; of soli tude without dignity ; a woodland home without one attribute of rural cheerfulness; an abode in the wilderness utterly destitute of forest shelter and security. The spirits of evil, which in some lands are believed to take up their abode in every deserted palace or ruinous castle, me thought would straightway migrate hither ward did they dream of a spot so utterly lonely and, as it seemed, so man-forsaken. Isay ‘seemed,’ for though the traces of what are called improvements were about me, I could scarcely realize that the hands which had once wrought there might still he busy near. The man who had made such an opening in the forest must, 1 tho’t, have been frightened at his own work the moment he ceased from his toil and became aware how uneouthly he had given shape and form to the spirit of solitude which still sighed among the tall trees around him. I dismounted near the cabin, and scarce ly touched the door with the butt of my ri ding-whip, when it was flung open from within, by someone who instantly retired from the threshold. The abruptness of the act did, I con less, startle me. Though not easily alarmed, my mood of mind at the moment was sucli as to prompt some mystic associations with the scenes and circum stances already detailed. lam a perfect barometer of the weather, and the approach of a thunder-gust always weighs down my spirits with undeclinable oppression, in the same degree that a driving snow-storm ex hilarates them. The low mutteringsof the on-coming tempest, which were now begin rung to he audible, would, then, be suffi cient to account for my present sensibility ’ gloomy influences; hut I might also mention other things which perhaps added to the present anxiety of feeling, if the phrase he not too strong a one. It will suffice, however, to state merely that I had not heard the sound of human speech in the last two days, and that which now met my ears was harsh and discordant. It was the croaking tone which you may some times catch from a sour tempered virago as she strolls from the conventicle. ‘ I thought you’d a been here afore,’ said this ungracious voice, which upon entering the apartment, I recognized as belonging to its only occupant. She was a heavy-built woman, of course square features and saturnine complexion She wore her straight black hair plainly parted over her eyebrows, which were bushy and meeting in the middle. One elfish lock had escaped from behind her ears as she stooped over the hearth, holding a tallow candle to the ashes, which she was trying to blow into a flame, when my sum mons interrupted the process. ‘ You thought I would have been here before?’ I exclaimed, at last, in reply to her singular salutation; ‘ why my good woman, I have lost my way, and only stumbled upon your house by accident— you must take me for somebody else.’ ‘ I’m no good woman. Don’t good wo man me,’ she replied, with a scrutinizing glance which had something, I thought, of almost fierceness in it, as shading the now lighted candle with one hand, she turned scornfully round and fixed her regards up on me. ‘Yes, yes, stranger, you are the man, the very man that was to come at this hour. I dreamed ye—l dreamed yer hoss—yer brown leggins and all. I dreamed ’em—and now go look after yer critter while I get some supper for ye.’ Those who are so good as to follow me in my story, will perhaps be vexed and impa tient when I tell them here, that the whole of this singular’ scene has no immediate bearing upon its denouement. ‘ Why then,’ it may be asked, ‘ do you delay and embarrass the relation with the detail of matters that have no connection with the incident for which you would claim ! our interest ?’ j I did not say they had no Connection with i it! They have a intimate, a close connec- lion. It was these very circumstances which still further fashioned the mood of mind under which I became an observer, and partially an actor, in the startling though grotesque events which followed, and I wish to place the reader in exactly the same point of mental observation. Wc have returned, then, to the cabin, he (the reader) and I; again alone in the . midst of the wilderness ; in that dreary room ; alone with that weird-looking wo man. Tlie storm is now howling without, but it does not chafe savagely enough to excite the dispirited temper of our feelings, or offer a contrast of any dignity to the gloomy influence within. Supper was already prepared for me when I returned from looking after my horse. The coarse bacon and hoe-cakcs were placed before me without another word being spoken between my hostess and myself. I drew a rude stool to the table, and was in the act of helping myself from the wooden platter— ‘ Stop, I hear them coming !’ cried the woman. ‘Hear them!’ Who? said I, turning round sharply, as some new, though unde fiuable suspicion flashed upon me. ‘ Them as will have to share that supper with ye, stranger ; if how’s h’t they let ye eat any of it.’ I had no lime to weigh further the mean ing of her words, for at this instant there was a sharp flash of lightning, the door was dashed suddenly open, and the three arm ed men strode into the apartment, the storm pelting in behind them as they enter, ed, and a terific thunderburst follow ing in stantly the lightning amid whose gla. •: iiev crossed the threshold. The palor of their countenances, set off by their long black dripping locks, seemed measurably to pass away when that livid light was withdrawn; hut from the moment that the door was flung open there was an earthly smell in the room, which, whether coining from the reeking soil without or from the garments of those wild foresters, was most pereepti hie. Those less familiar than myself with the raw-savored odors which sometimes tra vel out with the rich perfume of the woods, would, 1 am persuaded, have identified it with the grave-damps which oursenses will sometimes take cognizance of in old church yards. The aspect of two of these men was suffi ciently formidable, though in point of sta tute and an appearance of burlv strength, they were inferior to their companion.— They were square-shouldered, black-bear ded fellows, armed both with hatchet and bowie knife, in addition to the short rifles which they still retained laid across their knees as they settled themselves side by side upon a bench and looked coldly around them. The third was a full-cheek, heavy featured man, ofeight-and-twenty, bearing a strong resemblance ~to my hostess, in complexion and countenance, save that his eyebrows instead of being square and coal black like hers, were irregularly arched and of a faded brown. His mouth also lacked the firmness of expression which dwelt around her thin and shrewish lips. This man bore with him no weapons save a huge old German piece, a Tyrolean rifle as it seemed to me, from the enormous length of the barrel and the great size of the bore, as well as the outlandish and cumbersome ornaments about the stock and breeching. It was, evidently, a weapon intended for the great distances at which the chamois-hunter claims his quarry and though serviceable for a long shot on our western praries, was ill suited to the thick woods of the Apalachian mountains. In convenient, however, as the length and size of the piece might make it in some hands, it seemed to be nothing in the grip of the sturdy mountaineer, (who had probably, bought it from some passing emigrant from the Old World,) for i observed even as lie entered that he held the gun vertically at arm’s length before him. Still ho seemed glad of relieving himself of the weight as soon us possible, for lie instantly advanced to the farthest corner of the room, where he placed the piece with some care in an up right position against the wall. ‘Well ! what for now’ said the virago ; ‘why do you stand looking at the gun after you’ve set it down?—You think she’ll walk off herself, do ye?’ The youth looked gloomily at her—took a stool on the opposite side of the hearth to his companions—leaned his head doggedly upon his hand, hut said nothing. I thought I had never fallen in with a more strange set of people. ‘What! Flank Stumpers, haint ve a word to fling to a dog?’ cried the woman advan cing toward him. ‘ls that the way you treat your dead father’s wife?’ The young man looked up stupidly at her, gave a glance with something more of intelligence at the gun, but still said noth ing. ‘Yes—yer nateral-born mother—ye chucklehead ye—and she a widder. Can’t ye speak up to her ; where’s the deer? the turkeys ? the squirrels ? haint ye got even a squirrel to show for your day’s work ? speak you, John Dawson, what’s the mat ter with the boy? He ben’t drunk, be he?’ ‘lt’s a matter of five hours, mother Stum pers, since either of us touched a drop,’ re plied one of the men briefly, and he, too, gave a furtive glanceat the old firelock. ‘Well—well, why don’t ye go on ? is any one dead ? are ye all distraught ? Jackson Phillips, you’ve felt the hack of my hand across yer chaps, afore now, for ye imperance—l know ye, man, and that sober possum-look means something ! i Do ye think to come it over me afore this stranger ?—speak up, and that at once, or it ’ll he the worst for some of ye, or my name’s not Melinda Washington Stump ers !’ (I did not smile, reader, as you do, at Mrs S.’s sponsoral dignity; did not dare to smile.) ‘You know we wouldn’t offend you, no how, Mother Stumpers,’ deprecatingly re plied the man whom she addressed as Phil lips. Hank’s misfortune, you sec, had made us doll-like, as it were, and— ’ ‘And what in the name of Satan is his misfortune ?’ interrupted the mother, now for the first time moved with concern as well as anger. ‘That’s it—that’s it, mamma,’ cried Hank with something of alertness ; ‘she’s dniv tile very nail on the head ; Satan is at the bot tom of all of it.’ ‘At the bottom of all of what ?’ screamed the virago, and, even as she spoke, the an cient piece in the corner, untouched by any one, without the slightest movement of the lock, discharged itself towards the ceiling! ‘At the bottom oftlie barrel of my gun ; bespeaks for himself,’ replied Hank, moo. dily, while his mother started back and I sprung to my feet at the sudden report so near me. ‘Your gun must befoul,’ I said, resum ing my seat ‘very foul, to hang fire so long. I suppose she made a flash in the pan when attempting to discharge her just before en tering.’ Stumpers looked vacantly at me, shook his head, muttered something about he and his mother being ‘ruinated,’ and then more audibly said, ‘Stranger, you may have more hook laming than me, but I tell ye, wonst for all, that Satan’s got into that gun!’ And hang ! at that moment again went the gun, as if to prove that his words were truth. ‘This is certainly most extraordinary,’ I exclaimed, as 1 rose to examine the gun for myself. ‘You’d better not touch her, stranger,’ cried Philips. ‘I tell you she’s got Satan in her,’ repeat ed Hank. I looked at Dawson, inquiringly. ‘Fact! stranger, every word of it. Hank has not been able to get that gun off since noon ; hut about a hundred rods afore we struck the clearing she begun firing of her own accord, just as you see— ’ Bang !—Bang !—went the gun. ‘I told you that Satan was in her !’ ejac ulated Flank. ‘That’s the way with her,’ said Philips, in a tone of solemn sadness—sometimes she'll not speak for a matter of ten minutes or so ; sometimes she gives two short barks like those ; and sometimes she gives a reg ular ripsnorter— (Bang! thundered the gun.) like that ?’ ‘1 told you she’d got Satan in her!’ still repeated Flank. I confess that it was now only the calm ness of those around me which prevented some feeling of superstitious terror being disagreeably awakened in me. The men, j however, seemed sad and awe-struck, rath- j or than alarmed ; while the woman—a : thing not uncommon with resolute minds j disposed to believe readily in the supernat- j ural—seemed at once to accept the fearful j solution of the mystery which had been j proffered to her, and ready to meet it with j an unflinching spirit. Still, puzzled and | bewildered as I was, I could not but smile at the manner in which her emotions now manifested themselves. ‘Well!’ she cried impatiently, ‘and what a poor skimp of a man you must be to let Satan get into the piece when you had her all day in your own keeping.’ ‘I am a skimp of a man?’ answered her son with spirit; ‘there isn’t another fellow in these diggins who’d ’a brought that gun home as 1 did, after he diskivered that sich goings on were inside of her. And if she’d tell her own story— ’ Bang !—Bang !—Bang ! pealed the gun. ‘That’s Satan who’s speaks now—•’ llang-Phizz-Bang ! ‘lt’s Satan, I say, and no mistake. But if she’d tell her own story she’d own 1 never let her go out of my hands this blessed day, save when Jackson Philips tuk Dawson’s piece and mine to watch for deer on the Runaway, while we went down the branch to see if we could’nt get a big sucker or two for supper out of the deep hole where I cotched so many fish last fall. No ! if she’d speak for herself—’ Bang ! thundered the gun, with a report so tremendous that I involuntarily put my hand to my ears. ‘Girn me the tongs-gini me them’ere tongs,’ shouted Mrs. Stumpers in great wrath ; while Dawson turned pale, and even Philips seemed a little disturbed as ho muttered,‘if the old thing should hurst it might be a bad business for us.’ Flank, however, doggedly handed his mother the tongs ; and before I could inter pose, or indeed before I was aware what the courageous woman was about to do, she had grasped the gun with the tongs, near the l6ck, and bearing it before her with a strong arm she moved toward the door.— ‘Why don’t ye open—’ Bang — pliizz ! — bang!—bang !— phizz ! phixz !— bang ! alternately pealed and sput tered the gun : hut still the intrepid virago went on. I sprang to the door and flung it wide before her. The light from within was reflected u pon the hollow buttonwood trunk which framed the curb of the well opposite, and in another instant the gun was plunged to HI. J. KAPPEL, Printer. tile bottom. ‘1 iiar !’ said Mrs. Stumper, clapping thj tongs in true housewife fashion as she re j placed them in the chimney corner. ‘Now one can hear hisself talk without the both er of sich a clatter.’ Bang ! moaned the gun at the bottom of the well. ‘Can’t stop Satan that way, mammy’ said Hank, his stupid face sicklying over with an unhappy smile. The mystery had now deepened'to the highest point of interest-that last discharge was wholly unaccountable—and for my own part, my curiosity was wound up to a pitch that was positively painful. I re membered, though, the shattered bucket, and bethought myselfofasking if there was any water in the well. ‘About enough to cover n lizard's car,’ answered Haul; ; ‘but there's a smart chance of mud under it, 1 tel! ye, stranger. That old gun will keep sinking for a week yet. ‘She’s stopped,’ said Dawson. ‘Yes,’ said Philips, ‘and we’d better fish her out before she sinks beyond our reach. ‘Don t, I tell ye Satan’s in the gun,’ cried Hank, almost furiously—‘down—down— she’ll keep going down now till he has her in liis own place all to himself. I lost an axe myself in that well wonst, and if half that father used to tell about it be true— ’ ‘ Spluch-uch-uch-Bubble-üble bang ! blc- Bang /— Sphi—hie—bang- - ban” BANG! We listened ; we looked at each other; With the last report, which was almost overpowering, I was convinced that the ex plosion must have been aided hv inflama ble gas at the bottom of the well, for the blue flames, as it rose from it, flashed through the only window oftlie cabin, and showed the features of its ignorant inmates, I for the first time, distorted with real terror. At least Philips and Dawson, upon whom my eye was fixed at the time, looked per fectly aghast with fright. Flank’s supposition of the ultimate desti ny of his famous gun (viz. going lo the spor ting dominions oftlie great Hunter below) could hardly he true, inasmuch as a piece of the blackened muzzle was found next morning, driven half through a fragment of the wood curb which lay shattered a round, broken in splinters by the explosion of the fire darmi. The poor young man fairly wept outright when it was shown him bv Philips; who, with a generosity 1 could not sufficiently admire at the time, insisted upon replacing the hoary weapon of Hank’s affections with his own light Eas ton rifle ; saying at the same time that he had a Kentucky tool at home which lie much preferred to the Pennsylvania yager. This same Philips, by the way, very civilly offered after breakfast to put me on my road, which from the number of Indian trails along the borders of the Cherokee country, i had wholly lost. ‘1 say, stranger,’ said he, the moment wo had got out of earshot of the house, ‘you were devlish cool when that well blew up ! tell me the trick of it unlv, and I’l 1 tell you ; the trick of the gun, which rather sheared you a few, as I think.’ I explained to him the fire damp. ‘Raally, now,’ he exclaimed, ‘wells is | most unknown in this country, for we either I settle down by a spring, or get our water | from the branch. But the fust well I can j fall in with, I’ll draw up a bottle of that | gas. as you cal! it, and have some raal fun with the fellers. But look here,’ said he, stopping and tearing off some dry fungus from an old stump, ‘when you want to play a chap sich a trick as made music for us last night, you’ve only to put twenty char ges in a gun, with sich wad as this atween each on ’em—and scotch now and then, in stead ofdry powder, will be all the better ; ram each down well ; let the chap carry his gun about for an hour or so, unbeknown, jist like that simple Hank did—and choose your own time for dropping a piece of light touchwood into the muzzle.’ Upon my word, I was not sorry that I was to part company, before night, with this practical joker: who, for aught 1 knew, migh see some tempting opportunity to slip a snake into my boots, stuff my saddle with squibs, or play off some litle piece of face tiousness like that with which ihe jocular Captain Goffe, in Scott’s novel of the Pi rate, used now and then to indulge his hu mour ; the said Captain having a funny way of discharging his pistol under the mess-table, merely to pepper some one’s shins with a half-ounce ball. Manufactures and Agriculture. —lt is cal culated that the machinery now operated by steam in England, does the work of four hundred millions of laborers. There needs no further illustration of the means by which England has gained her vast wealth or maintains her immense influences over the world The population of that coun try is about equal to our own. If we break down our manufactures —if we limit the operations of our machinery, and adopt tiie policy of being only an agricultural people, then it is cleat that, steam being applicable to agriculture, and saving little or no labor there, the ad vantage will ho in favor of England as 400 is to 17, in one branch of industry alone. Which nation will be most prosperous in this state of things? We pause for a reply —N Y. Com. Adv. An o'd lady, not very remarkable for the / clearness,-of her ideas, describing a fiy summer evening, said : “ It was a beany bright night—the moon made every as light as a feather !” 7 [VOLUME XXVIII.
