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CThc Sniicinuiili (Tribune. Published bv the T»tßxn>r Publish is? Go. j J. H. lIHVEAUX. Manioo > VOL. 111. The Katydids. Sight after night, in the old elm tree# A queer discussion has long been held; fiuch a war of words ’twould have taken a host Os peacemakers ever the feud to have quelled! An individual —Katy by name — It seems the quarrel was all about: But who was Katy, or what she had done, Our earnest endeavors could ne'er make out! An irate voice in the topmast bough In challenging tones cried, “Katy did!” From a lower limb in quick response Came “Katy didn’t!" in triumph said. Theu from friendly trees that had long clasped arms, Reaching across o’er the broad highway, Called new contestants, both pro and con. With ardor joining this odd affray. ’Till the dear old tree that had nodding stood So quiet and peaceful all day long. Whispering only in loving mood— Tremulous thrilled by the wild bird’s song— Seemed filled with gossiping, clamoring tongues That rose and fell on the evening air, While “Katy did!" and “Katy didn’t!" Were heard and repeated everywhere. All through the early autumn nights, Still was not ended the strange dispute: The woodlands turned to crimson and gold, Brown and russet —the birds grew mute; But one starry night—when the winds were chill, I heard a voice from the elm tree call, That in this contention was the last word, It just said “Katy’’—and that was all! —[Hartford Times. A NOBLE REVENGE. BY JENNIE I>. ELKTON. Winter was here and with its iciest throe sheeted everything by a fall of sleet; the north wind held its sway, and tore with bitter gusts through the storm driven streets. Steps and pavements were traps for the unwary; telegraph and telephone wires were down; even staunch poles had been snapped sheer oil between the weight of the ice and the force of the wind. But the sun came out the next morning clear and bright, flashing in rainbow tints on a crystal world; and a lineman who was out on the roof of a seven-story building', creeping down towards the eaves after a refractory wire, caught the dazzle in his eyes, slipped and fell, but made a des perate clutch with his numbed hands at the eavestrough, ami hung suspended by that frail support which might give way any instant beneath his weight. People in the street below cried out as they caught sight of his perilous position. “Oh, he’ll be down in a minute.’’ “He can’t draw himself up, for see, it’s breaking away now." “No, it holds vet. Can’t something be done for him?” While they gazed upward, dazed with horror and feeling the utter help lessness of any effort to reach him in time, a second lineman appeared on the roes, sent there, it would seem, to assist the other. It only required an instant to take in the situation—the cracking, swaying eaves-trough, the desperately igripping hands, the ghastly set face of Ithe doomed man, who swung over that {deadly abyss. “nave him! Save him!” came up from [the street below. I Only the meaning of the cry reached lhe man on the roof, so loud and strong ■vas the wind which blew there, but he Answered as if he had heard it: ■ “I’ll try. ’Taint no dijf'rence to me ■ tis Steve Brady. May be as we’ll Both go down; but 1 reckon we’ve about Bkil chances." ■ He was busy fastening a rope to the Blearest chimney as he spoke. It was not ■ long rCpe, but it would reach beyond Bl ■ edgo of the roof, and he made a ■oose in the end of it, which he placed ■round lis body beneath the arms; then Baking a eoil of wire which he carried ■or repairing purposes from his pouch, Bie plied it to the rope a few feet farther Kp, and dropping upon hands and knees, Bnade Id’s way to the eaves. | “Hold fast, Steve,” he called, en couragingly; “I’m cornin' to help ye. ■lang on till 1 get a turn cf the wire ■rour.d yon—good Lord! man; don’t ■on wriggle, or you’re a gone one in ■’it' al me'” SAVANNAH. GA.. SATURDAY. DECEMBER 24.1887. But in the same breath with the warn- 1 ing there was a convulsive effort on the part of the suspended man, the parting caves trough slipped from his rigid fin gers, he was toppling backward, falling into space, the earth, the sky, the face of the man above him all blending in one chaotic picture before his despairing sight, yet he did not fall; the atm of John Harmon, who had slipped like a flash over the edge, was about him hold ing him up, while he adjured: “Get a hold, get a hold, for God’s sake. If you vaily your life and mine, keep your wits about you, Steve Brady. Now, then, climb up the rope. I’ll bear the strain, I think, and’you can get on the roof from my shoulders. Steady ;so.” There was a moment of suspense, the strands of the straining rope were cut ting on the edge of the slates, but the wire which John had plied to it higher up divided the weight and enabled first one, then the other to climb to the roof. They stood there panting with exer tion, looking into each other’s eyes. “I owe my life to you,” said Brady, “but I wish I didn’t. I wish I’d dropped down into the street afore I owed it to you.” The cause of the enmity between them? The usual cause—only a girl. Not even a pretty girl as the world saw her, but the one on whom each of these men had set his heart. There was some thing of the coquette in her, or else she had not yet learned her own mind, for she had given encouragement to each, or he thought so, which amounted to the same. The bitterness of feeling that, out of common gratitude, he ought to stand out of his rival’s way, was working in Steve Brady, but, with the words on his lips, he began to waver and sank down unconscious. When he. came to himself he was in a strange place, but it was still John Harmon who was with him and who had this to say: “Now, look here, Steve Brady, don’t you go to fussin’ or worritin’! You’ve been took with a spell, and busted a blood vessel innardly, through strainin’, but you don’t want doctorin’ so much as quiet an’ peace of mind. That’s why I brung you here. This is my room and it’s in my mother’s house, and I want to say to you that I’ll be square an’ even with you. I won’t take a step toward seein’ Dolly till you’re on your feet again. 1 won’t try to get ahead with her through your misfortin’, and I don’t want you to feel beholden to me for anything. You’d a done as well by me if I’d been in your fix. The evil spirit in Steve was quelled by this generous treatment. “You’re a better man than I am, John Harmon,” he cried out. “You’re more deservin’ of her, too.” “I don’t know," answered John, “I'm slow an’ you’re quick, that’s about the difference. It just depends on which she takes to most, that’s all there is of it.” Another spirit moved the injured man before he was conceded by John Har mon to be fairly on his feet again. The latter canie home late from his work one evening. “How’s Brady?” he asked of his mother as he sat down to the supper which she had kept for him. “Wants to get out, eh? He’ll be there soon now, but I reckon I’ll have to give him the slip to-night. She’d bo disappointed if I didn’t come ’round.” “Yes,’’from the mother. “But seems to me bananys ud give jou better worth for your money than them there roses, John.” “She wouldn't think so, mother.” Then a door went shut, and Brady, who was half way down the stairs when these words arrested him; turned anil went up again vpth his blood on fire. So, this was the kind of faith with him! This was the man who was more worthy of Dolly than lie was. He could hear John splashing the water st the kitchen sink as he made ready to go out, but Harmon hud no idea that a dark figure on the other side of the way, when he finally reached the street, was that of his rival. lie did not notice how it crept after him, keeping him in sight, and if there had been any doubt at all in Brady’s mind it was soon ended, for they were taking the direct route to Dolly's home. It was a lonely way; down side streets and alleys, and presently Steve saw a second dark form on Harmon's side of the way now, creeping stealthily after him. He remembered then that this had been pay day and that John most probably had his week’s wages in his pocket; but his first impulse was to cry out and warn the other died down. Why should he interfere? What busi ness was it of his if John should be as saulted and robbed? Was not the latter stealing a march on him, carrying roses to Dolly and ingratiating himself when he had promised to keep away. He had a momentary glimpse of an uplifted arm carrying something which looked like a short club. He knew instantly what it was. He remembered an item which he had read the week before of an un known man who had been sandbagged on the street and killed outright by a single blow. He had not set this out law upon the track of John Hannon; he had nothing to do but to hold his peace and it might be his rival would be re moved from his path forever. It was a wicked thought, a horrible thought. “You hain't, got to do nothing, Steve Brady; only just keep quiet,” whis pered the tempter. But another inward voice,finer,stiller, made itself heard. “Wher’d you be now if he'd done nothing when you hung down from that rotten eavestrough? Did he keep quiet an' let you drop out of his way, or did he venture his life to save your'n? This here’s murder you're a nursin’ in youu heart, Steve Brady. Are you ready to do murder for any girl—leastwise for a girl that don’t know her own mind well enough to choose between the two oi you?” All this before the murderous blow fell. It takes time to tell these thoughts of his, but they all flashed through his mind in the .space of a breath. As it fell a wild, car-splitting yell startled the assailant and assailed alike. John Harmon wheeled in his tracks, and the blow, grazing his check, had force to knock him down. He was up again on the instant; up in time to catch Steve Brady as the ruffian flung him off after the briefest struggle—for Steve was weak yet and no match for the burly villain whose flight he had tried to intercept—to catch him and break the deadly force with which he was hurled head first against the wall. That set-to had the effect of sending Steve back to his bed again. His head troubled him and he raved about roses and sand clubs and Dolly until one day he found himself looking into Dolly’s own blue, tearful eyes. •‘Oh, you poor fellow!" she cried. “Oh, to think you eared so much for me! But how brave of you to save him when you were so sick and jealous and all. You needn’t say a word, for John Harmon has told me everything; but the idea of you believing that I—that I could—like him the best.” • “Dolly,” muttered poor Steve, hardly knowing if he were really awake, “de you mean—you choose—me?” “You, and you only,” murmured Dolly, who would have been vastly in dignant had any one hinted that honest John Harmon was mere worthy to be glorified by that same heroic light with which she had invested Steve. It made no difference when Steve con fessed his temptation to her afterward. What woman will not forgive a man who errs through loving her? Those roses were never intended for Dolly, after all. They were meant for a little lame orange girl who was fast dying of consumption. They were the one bright spot in her joyless life, and that was the only pay night as long as she lived on which John 11 irmon failed to take them to her. lie is Steve's best irn nd, but he has never found another Dully. -[ Washing ton Critic. if there is any (mtmoii to whom you feel a dislike,that is the person of whom you should never speak. Legend of the “White Woman. she latest measurement makes Popo catepetl a little more than 19,000 feet in height, one of the mightiest in that “burning girdle” which surrounds the Pacific. Its twin, Iztaccihuntl, is 3000 feet lower, a long, uneven ridge, instead of a cone, but being that much nearer the limits of vision, the greater of the two from the vallpy. Facing eastward, Iztaccihuntl-la Mujer Blanca, or the “White Woman,” is really suggestive by its shape, of a dead giantess, robed for burial. Far and near this long ex tinct volcano is known as the “White Woman,” and from the City of Mexico, as from the plains of Amcca-Mcea, the resemblance is the same, to a dead woman stretched out on her bier, cov ered with a white sheet. The contout of face, breast, and limbs is perfect, and the hair is streaming in long, silvery locks back from the snowy forehead and down the sides of the bier. The feet, are turned toward her companion giant, and between the two lies a brown anil treeless ridge. There is a tradition among the Indi ans that these two volcanoes were once, in the early years of the world, living human beings, both of gigantic stature. Unfortunately for the colossal pair, thej committed some misdemeanor which sc offended the Supreme Deity that He changed them into mountains. Ik struck the giantess dead, and there she lies to this day, robed in glistening white, stretched beneath a winding sheet of snow. The giant was merely rooted fast to the spot, condemned through all the slow centuries to con template his loved companion. For merly he was wont to express his grief and indignation by pouring forth vol times of smoke and shedding floods of fiery lava tears, shaking the whole earth in the agony of his tremblings. Then the affrighted natives worshiped him as Tlaloe, the God of Storms, and called him Popocatepetl (“Hill That Smokes.’’) But all this was long ago; and for hundreds of years the giant ha« remained impassive, apparently re signed to his doom.”—[Mexican Letter. The Mouth. The mouth contains seventeen distinct species of micro organism, according to M. Vignal, who has of late succeeded in isolating and cultivating them, and test ing their action on foods. Os these or ganisms, 7 dissolve cooked albumen; 5 swell it, or render it transparent; 10 dissolve fibrin; 4 render it transparent, or swell it; 9 dissolve gluten; 3 trans form starch, but only 1 acts with some energy; another seems to live upon it but without transforming it; 7 coagu late milk; 0 dissolve casein; 9 transform lactose into lactric acid: 7 intervert cane, 7 cause glucose to ferment, and transform it partially into alcohol. Ail these actions are more or less energetic. Six of the buccal organisms were found in the fasces. Vignal concludes that micro organisms play an important part in the digestion of food.—[Medical Record. Testing the Sea’s Depth. On some parts of the coast of Sumatra and the neighboring islands the fisher men test the depth of the sea and also the nature of the sea bottom by the noises they hear on applying the ear to one end of an oar of which the other end is plunged in the water. At a depth of 20 feet and less the sound is a crepitation, similar to that produced when salt is thrown on burning char coal; at 50 feet it is like the ticking of a watch, the tic-tac being more or less rapid, according to whether the bottom is entirely of coral or alternately of coral and mud, or of sand. If the bottom is entirely of sand the sound is clear; if of mud it resembles the humming of a swarm of bees. On dark nights the fishermen select their fishery grounds according to these indications —-[Science Monthly. At the Garden Gale. / “Don't you Hunk it’s getting pretty late, George.” “Yes, dear, it is, a little for one to b< out, but not so very late for two.”— [Boston Courier. 1 f 1.25 Per Annnm; 76 rents for Six Months; < 60 cents Tuns Mouths; Single Copies ‘ 5 cents- -In Advance. Idiosyncrasies of Plants. An English reviewer of a book by Mr. Charles Roberts, called “The Natural ist’s Diary,” mentions the idiosyncrasis of certain plants and animals as a fea ture to which more attention might bo given. Thus, a quantity of seed taken from the same plant at the same time, and sown under tjio same conditions so far ns possible, will nevertheless exhibit very great variation in the length of time required for germination. The fact enforces the circumstances that the same amount of aggregate temperature and of water-supply, the same conditions of .soil, etc., do not necessarily imply corresponding identity of result. The same, thing happens to trees. Every one knows how some individual horse-chestnut trees arc year by year more precocious in their development than their fellows. It sometimes hap pens, too, that one branch of one trea is considerably in advance of the others. Some persons might call these cases of exceptions, but they are hardly that. Since they are connected with the main body of habitudes by every possible gradation, they arc to be considered as extremes rather than as exceptions, and therefore to be included in the making up of averages.—[Monthly Popular Science. The Value of Pearls. The value of a pearl depends upon its size, shape, color, brightness and free dom from defects. The most value able pearls are those which are perfectly round, the bouton or button-shaped pearls rank next, and then comes the drop or pear-shaped jtearl. Perfectly round pearls, over twenty-five grains in weight, arc extremely scarce and secure high prices. They are greatly sought after to form the centre, of necklaces, and large pearls of this character are safe and very profitable investments. New discoveries of diamond fields have before now so largely increased the sup ply of diamonds that those gems are by no means steady in price. Other dis coveries may again cause a fall in value, but the source of supply of pearls is far more closely sealed, and the difficulties attendant upon the prosecution of pearl fishing are as great as its disappoint ments, risksand uncertain character are deterrent to the xvould-bc explorer. There is, indeed, no prospect of pearl fishing being increased to any great ex tent, nor are the habits of the mother of-pearl oysters likely to alter and render the formation of pearls a less rare occur pence.—[Jewelry News. “Sleep Off” a Headache A scientific writer says: “Sleep, if taken at the right moment, will prevent an attack of nervous headache. If the mbjects of such headaches will watch the symptoms of its coming, they can notice that it begins with a feeling of weariness and heaviness. This is the time that a sleep of an hour or two, as nature guides, will effectually prevent the headache. If not taken just then it will be too late, for after the attack is fairly under way it is impossible to get sleep until far into the night, perhaps. It is so common in these days for doc tors to forbid having their patients waked to take medicine, if they are asleep when the hour comes round, that the people have learned the lesson pret ty well, and they generally know that Heep is better for the sick than medicine, But it is not well known that sleep is a wonderful preventive of disease—better than tonic regulators and stimulants.” j The Regular Tiling. An old gentleman of Detroit was passing through the ceremony of taking his fourth wife the other day. At the impressive climax of the good preacher man’s part in the performance, some body was heard sobbing in an adjoining room. “My goodness! exclaimed one of the guests in a dramatic whisper, “who on earth is that crying on this festive oc casion?” “Thatreplied a mischievous mem ber of th* - experienced brid.-groom's family. ••That’s nobody but Em. She always bootioos when pa's getting mar ried.’—[Detroit Free Press NO. 10.