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SOUTHERN NEWS ITEMS
Rice culture is increasing in Louiai
tuuu
Baton Rouge wants to be a capital
*gin.
Charleston’s debt amounts to nearly
♦4,000,000.
Coin in Han Antonio is scarce at one
dollar a hush. 1.
Tbe south Georgia strawberry crop is
finer tuts year thaa ever before.
There are two hundred c nvicta for
life in the Mississippi penitentiary.
Recent good rains have saved the cot
ton and corn crop* In northern Texas.
The population of Atlanta is said to
he increasing at the rate of six tfconyumt a
year.
The Texas legislature has pass'd a
law giving 640 acre? to every veteran pen
sioner.
The cit'zens of New Orleans are ac
tive in putting the city in good sanitary con
dition.
Thirteen hundred cases are before tbe
supreme court of Tennessee, representing
five million dollars and twenty thousand
litigants.
A negro named Johnson Spencer has
been lynched near Siarkville, Mississippi,
for barn burning.
The prospect of the corn and cotton
crop in Viigsiggippi is promising. The plant
ers ar<t busy and hopeful.
The recently planted ciops in Alabama
suffered greatly by the heavy rains. Large
ureas will have to be replanted.
Gen. Himonr, who recently died in
( harleston, whs in command of the southern
forces when Fort Hunafer was attacked.
Pour hundred illicit distillers are to
be brouuht before the federal court at Nash
ville, There are eight hundred witnesses.
If the new Indian Territory is opened,
it will secure Galveston tw new lines of
railroad connecting her with the “ new
west.”
North Carolina it one of tbe five
atatei in the American union that have al
ways refused the veto power to their govs
ernors.
A mad dog in Chesterfield county, S.
recently hit Mr. Tucker, who in turn bit
two of his children, and the lives of all
three are despaired of.
Houston, Texas, has voted to place
herself practically under the control of the
Galveston board of health, so far as matters
of quarantine are concerned.
The Natchez cotton-mill has been in
operation less than a year, and so great has
been the success that tbe stockholders are
about to increase its facilities.
The white taxpapers of Selma pay
annually over three thousand dollars to
support a hospital and furnish a physician
and riedicines for the colored population.
“The remains of the old fort,” says
the St. Augustine Press, “ thrown up by
Oglethorpe in 1740, when he attacked the
city, are still to be seen on Anastasia island.”
Trucking in the eastern part of North
Carolina is a growing industry. Last week
contracts were made for the delivering of
•*5,000 bushels oi green peas in northern
markets.
The crops of northern Texas are all in
lino order. It had been thought that the
wheat crop would be lost by the drouth, but
the recent rains have revived it, and all is
flourishing.
Three little children near Augusta
ate honeycomb which had been made from
yellow jasmine. One died in fifteen min
utes, and the others were made blind tern,
porarily, and only saved by a free use of
sweet oil and milk.
Mississippi is to have a convention at
Vicksburg in May to take into consideration
the present agitation of the labor question.
r l he planters hope to stop the emigration ot
the colored people north, and call upon the
colored people to send delegates.
The Mississippi Stockbreeders’ associ
ation are to hold a convention, the purpose
■of which is to try and induce planters to
emancipate themselves from the thraldom
of king cotton and devote themselves to the
better paying pursuit of stock raising.
Dr. Pratt, the gentleman who dis
covered and first developed the immense
phosphate beds of South Carolina, is in
Georgia, ar.d says that Georgia has the ma.
terial a'\<[ Atlanta ean manufacture ferti
lizers cheaper than anyplace in the country.
Havannah is reported by Dr. LeHardey
in a paper read before the Georgia Medical
-association, to be in such a condition that
yellow fever, if imported, could no more
prevail there as an epidemic than could the
seeds of any plant spring up and bear fruit,
if seminated on a barren rock.
Charlotte ville (Va.) Chronicle: Mr.
Warner Wood, of “ Farmington,” lost four
teen of his best sheep a few nights ago
through the bloodthirstiness of prowling
dogs. Some ot them were pure Cotswolds,
one of them a valuable buck, nud two of
them ewes, purchased by Mr. Wood in Ken
tucky at a high figure.
The proclamation of Governor Rob
erts, establishing quarantine along the coast
f Texas against all vessels from, or that may
touch at, any point south of latitude 25
degrees north, to take effect from and after
April 25. 1579, and against any other part or
place at which contagious or epidemic dis
ease may exist, is published in the Galveston
News of the 23d inst.
Atlanta Constitution : There is a law
in Georgia, and, we believe, in other south
ern states, which prohibits the intermar l
riage of races. With possibly one or two
exceptions, there has been no attempt either
to evade or violate this law. and thus far it
has slumbered quietly in the statute book
being less a bar to misceganation than the
•.ustincts and desires of the whites and
blacks. The indications are, however, that
the constitutionality of state laws prohibit
ing intermarriage will shortly be tested be
fore the supreme court of the’United States,
with every prospect that they will be held
void and of no effect.
The president’s house at William and
Mary college, Virginia, came near burning
down a few days ago. This house was built
*u 1732, and was accidentally burnt by the
French troops, under Lafayette, on their
way to the battle of Yorktown. in 1781. It
was then rebuilt by Louis XVI. out, of his
private funds, and has survived the fires
which have since then so often destroyed the
college. It is the only house in Virginia
built by a reigning sovereign.
Nashville American: An amusing in
cident is related of deputy-marshal Chap>
inan and a noted distiller of Overton county.
Chapman and posse surrounded his house,
and knew he was in it. After making search
and failing to find him, he politely requested
his wife, who was kitting on a chest, to rise.
Hie good lady obeyed, and the chest proved
to he locked on the inside. He turned it on
end, when the man on the inside, having his
head downward, called for quarter and sur
rendered.
MISCELLANEOUS.
The more a man preys the more cer
tain is he to be damned —by those he preys
upon.
The pestmaster-general has issued an
order abolishing all agenciep in Washington
for the sale of postage stamps.
Siven cents’ worth of oatmeal pro
duces as much force in the human system as
ninety cents’ worth of lean ham.
A monument to commemorate its tri
umph over Turkey has been ordered in
France by the Russian government.
After all the talk, none of the south
ern legislatures, except that of Virginia, has
yet accepted the Moffett liquor register.
Poindexter, who killed another clerk
in Richmond for remarking upon the sym
metry of his (P.’s) sweetheart’s ankle, has
been sentenced to two years in the peni
tentiary.
An Arkansas couple, on their bridal
tour, naturally attracted con-iderable at
tention, because the bride was six feet tall,
the bridegroom six and a half, and both ex
ceedingly slim.
The late Judge John W. Edmonds,
being once asked what he thought of a cer
tain speaker who had a loud voice and was
rather prosy, said that he considered him a
rem trkable man, for he could fill a house
and empty it at the same time.
Anew method in the cure of madness
is practised with considerable success at the
lunatic asylum on Blackwell’s island, New
York. A hall has been fitted up with every
facility tor gymnastics, and the patients are
greatly delighted with the exerciser
VOL. XX.-NO. 16.
|]oetrv.
TIME AHD I.OYE.
Yea, ait we down in the o!d folks’ chair
And watch we the little ones crow and c'amber-,
We have woven yew garlands for sunny hair,
And put out the lights in the bridal chamber;
And hard in hand, and with dimming eyes
Wait we, and watch in the dusk together,
O love, my love of the summer weather,
Heart of my heart, who wert ones so fair!
No more of tolling, no more of spinning,
No more heart-beatings, no more sur
prise ;
For the end ii forest3n from the first
beginning,
The castle is tali'n ere its tuirets rise—
Ah. love, niv love. It is sad to be wise!
But Time our master, stands winged and hoary,
And seeming to smile as be whets his blade;
Whilst l,ve is whisp’ring the same old story,
And Hope seems shrinking and half afraid;
For of theie the measure of youth is made,
And the measure of pleasure, the measure of glory
Which is meted out to a human lot;
And so on to the end (and the end draws nearei)
When our souls may be freer, our senses clearer,
(’Lis an Old World creed which is nigh forget),
When the eyee of the sleepers may waken in won
der,
And the hearts may be joined that were riven
asunder,
And lime and Love shall be merged—in what ?
+ * *
Js>tories jfor the fireside.
TEIX.
“ Do you jknow where Miss Beatrix
is?”
There was something sharp in Mr. St.
John’s glance as he questioned little Ro
setta, his cousin’s maid.
“ Yes, sir; Bhe’s in the garden with
Mr. Le Blond and the young gentlemen.”
At this answer the sharpness of For
rest St. John’s glance increased, and turn
ing from the door of Redwood he passed
quickly along the terrace.
At the end he stopped before descend
ing the steps, and boked down the broad
garden path. He saw plainly the group
there under the locusts—a regally beau
tiful young lady in purple silk, two
dark-eyed boys leaning upon her lap, a
young, fair-complexioned man standing
so as to overlook the brook upon which
the eyes of all were fixed. It was cer
tainly a peaceful scene, yet the eyes oi
Forrest St. John grew bloodshot and
sullen as he stood surveying the group.
Descending the steps he advanced
slowly, never removing his baleiul gaze
until he came face to face with the
young lady. She looked up. First sur
prise, then observation, then offense
showed themselves in her mobile counte
nauce. She turned silently again to her
book.
“ I wish to speak with you, Trix.”
“ Certainly, as soon as I am at leisure.
Go on, Reginald.”
“ It is Max’s turn now,” responded the
elder of Miss St. John’s young brothers.
She turned the book in her lap so that
Max could continue his reading of Ger
man. A lurid flush of anger overspread
her cousin’s floiid face. He waited with
what grace he could until it was Miss
St. John’s pleasure to give him a hear
ing.
Unconscious as she appeared, her face
bad grown clouded, and the expression
of pleasure had fled, too, from the features
of Paul Le Blond. The boys only ap,
peared totally indifferent to the presence
of the new arrival, who stood whipping
his bootleg with his slender riding-whip.
As soon as tbe last word of the lesson
was pronounced, Le Blond extended his
hand to the younger boy.
“ Come, Max, we have detained your
sister longer than was necessary.”
“It has not been irksome; I have en
joyed it,” answered Miss St. John, rising
and shaking out the folds of purple silk
crushed by her brother's resting arms.
“ They do so well!”
The boys turned gratefully at her
praise, kissed and embraced her.
When they had turned aside with
their tutor she joined her cousin, who
had advanced impatiently a few steps
up the main path.
“I wish to know, he began, at once,
“what need there is of your mixing
yourself up with the boys’ lessons? Isn’t
Le Blond capable?”
“He does not teach German, and I
gained quite a good knowledge of it
while abroad,” answered his companion,
indifferently arranging the lace around
her wrist, though it was evident Mr
Forrest St. John was in a foaming
passion.
“ Then let him go without learning
German! They have lessons enough
and it only encourages him.”
“ Encourages whom, if you please ?”
“Le Blond. He watches for a chance
to speak to you, day or night, and you
know it 1”
A color like the glint o f au opal came
into Trix St. John’s oval cheeks. She
did not speak. Her cousin’s watching
eyes saw. He foamed over.
“ A white-faced adventurer,who would
like to be master here! And it’s a burn
ing shame to you,'Trix, that you are
flattered by it! Any lady would resent
it as an insult.”
“ Stop, if you please 1”
“ I beg your pardon,” muttered the
other sullenly. “ I did not quite mean
that. Come Trix, give up these Ger
man less ms, or give that Le Blond his
walking papers. To please me,” he
added.
A faint smile curled Beatrix’s beauti
ful lips at the last words
“ I can not please you in this matter,
For re it.”
He choked an angry answer.
“ It is desirable that the boys have
esrly 1 sains in German. And I know
of no reason why Mr. Paul Le Blond
sV uld have bis walking papers, as you
term it ”
“ If you don’t dismiss him, I shall,
Trix.”
“ By what authority ?” coolly.
“ By the authority of my relationship
and right to prevent you from throwing
yourself away on a poverty-stricken fel
low who is nobody knows who 1”
“ I do not think that I shall wed Mr.
Le Blond until he asks me,” with a
curious smile.
“ He’ll soon have tl e impudence to do
that with the encouragement you give
him.”
Miss St. John’s fine black brows had
contracted, and her nutty curis touched
a burning color in her cheeks; and when
her cousin added, “ you mean to marry
him, but, by heaven you shall not!”
she stopped in the path.
“ Forrest,” she said, “ I hate reproaches
and recriminations, but there is no other
way with you. You, who are not fit to
govern your own life, shall not be allow,
ed the government of mine. You have,
squandered the fortune my father left
you; you are my cousin, and by courtesy
my gue3t. You are nothing more. You
shall be permitted no authority over me.
The law gives you none, and I will not
submit to your interference in my
affairs.”
The florid face was quite white now.
The sullen black eyes were fixed upon
the ground. But Forrest St. John con
trolled his rage.
“ 1 beg your pardon, Trix ; but you
do have a way that puts me in a cursed
passion. I don’t mean to interfere in
your affairs, of course, You can marry
whom you like.”
* He turned away with a downcast
countenance and boiling heart, leaving
her to go alone to the house. Trix en
tered the great hall of Fairfield alone.
The cedar door clanged after her. She
went up to her chamber. There tbe
beautiful hot cheeks cooled slowly. Her
face grew calm, introspective.
“ Sweet with the bitter,” she mur
mured. “ Does Paul Le Blond watch for
my coming ? Does he love me ? He is
a loyal, true-hearted gentleman, and ”
The confession she made under her
breath brightened again the dreaming
eyes, crested the beautiful head.
Down the avenue walked Forrest St.
JohD, gnawing a white lip.
“ I’ll conquer her yet. I mean to be
master here. She shall marry me ! ”
*****
Paul Le Blond sat alone in the school
room. The boys, permitted a half holi
day, had gone to town with their ponies.
Beatrix had gone with them on her
graceful Ally.
Paul L 9 Blond held a book in his
baud. It was open where a knot of
rose colored ribbon was laid between the
pages. He closed it quickly at the sound
cf a step at the door. Mr. St. John en
tered.
“ Miss St. John wishes you to go to
the Corners and get the German books
for the boys she was speaking of last
evening,” he said, in the ungracious
way in which he spoke habitually to the
tutor of bis young cousins.
“ Certainly.” replied Paul, rising with
alacrity. He was lithe, active, graceful,
his fair, spiritual face in strong contrast
with St. John’s over-indulged and sen
suous shape. The other hated him for
the clear, dark-gray eyes which always
looked into his without flinching.
“ You will have to go and return
along the shore. Miss St. John wants
you to return before two,” he said, turn
ing from the room as Paul, with a smile,
reached for his hat.
Along the shore. The little waves
were rocking in the sunshine. The tide
was out, so that he went down in the
sands to see their sparkle and white-fret
ting about the rocks. The beach-birds
twittering sweetly. He enjoyed it all,
as only pure, fine souls can.
But when he came back the tide waa
thundering in, loud and strong. The
yellow frothing surges swept up to the
feet of tbe cliffs, which they had so far
abandoned two hours before. (Suddenly
he found the way impassable. He turned
back in surprise and bewilderment.
The water had washed out his path.
He was hemmed in.
*******
Forrest St. John received the riders
cordially. Even the careless boys ob
served and wondered at his graciousness.
But it was certainly pleasanter than his
usual surliness.* They were about to
dine.
“ Where is Mr. Le Blond ?” asked
Beatrix.
“ Gone to the woods for botanical spec
imens, I believe,” replied her cousin,
She saw a little, quick smile of his a
moment after, but could not read it.
“ Come, Reginald, to your dinner,”
said Miss St. John.
“ Come here a moment, Trix.”
The boy stood at the drawing-room
window with his toy telescope.
“ There is a man under the cliffs,” he
said, looking up into her face as he
handed her the glass.
“What?”
Trix lifted the glass quickly.
She put it down the next moment,
white as a rose, every nerve strung tight,
“ The tide is coming in! He is pris
oned there 1 He will be drowned!” she
said.
“If you please, mam’selle,” trembled
little Rosetta, at her elbow, “ its Mr. Le
Blond. -Mr. St. John sent him to the
Corners this morning.”
Trix turned and went bareheaded out
of the house. Her young brother pressed
at her side. She threw her long skirt
over her arm and ran over the sharp
rocks in her velvet slippers, Bwift as a
deer, and Reginald followed close beside
her. They reached a boat, cut the rope,
and were afloat.
“ Pull now, if you love me, Reggie!”
CARTERSVILLE, GA„ FRIDAY, MAY 16, 1879.
The boy did not need to be urged. He
loved Paul.
Paul Le Blond, braced against the
cliff, the water above his knees, saw the
little boat come dancing over the high,
sparkling water. The dory soon reached
his side. A white, ringed hand was ex
tended.
“ You would have died if we had been
five minutes later,” said Miss St. John
in a shaking voice.
“ That would not have mattered. It
would have been in your service,” he
replied.
But he laid down in the boat much
exhausted.
“ It was not in my service,” Beatrix
had replied. She looked with a hard
glance at the school-books which he had
laid at her feet as she took up the oar
again. And then she fixed her dark eyes
firmly on Fairfields; but her heart
bled.
The prostrate man in the boat turned
over and kissed the little velvet shoe so
near his face.
“ Pardon,” he said, for Reggie saw;
“ but the lowliest may kiss the foot of a
queen.”
But he held his hand up to Trix’s
sight, and she saw that blood had drip
ped upon it from her foot.
“ The recks—l needed to hurry,” she
stammered, blushing and confused ; but
in all her life she never forgot his gaze of
adoration. “It is nothing.”
They came to Fairfields.
“ Forrest St. John,” she said to her
cousin, “ I have extended the hosp’tality
of my home to you for years by cour
tesy. It shelters you no longer. I will
not abide a murderer under my roof.”
Cawed, he went forth, and, in spite of
his fierce vows to heaven, Trix married
Paul Le Blond.
A Hunt After Bats.
One of the funniest stories I have
heard for a very long time, fays a
writer in the London Sporting and
Dramatic News, is my friend Mr.
Eccles’ description of how he caught
innumerable bats one night. It was
many years ago when he was young
in his profession, and while on a tour
with a Provincial company. He had
taken lodgings in a clean but rather di
lapidated little house. Sion after go
ing to bed he fell asleep, and soon after
falling asleep he was awakened by a
strange, fluttering noise as of a fright
ened bird, in the curtains of his bed.
He sprang up, struck a light, and saw a
dark-colored little creature with wings
blundering about the room. Not being
well acquainted with natural history,
Mr. Eccles did not recognize it as a bat,
but determined to catch it if pcs ible,
and examin it carefully in the morn
ing. Taking up a soft felt hat, he began
the hunt, and tried to capture the in
truder for a long time in vain; but at
last he pounced upon it, carefully took
it from under the hat, shut it in a draw
er, listened to its ineffectual attempts to
escape—wanting to be suie he had real
ly caught it—and went to bed to dream
of flying dragons. But he was not des
tained to sleep for long.
Hardly had he dozed off when another
fluttering awakened him, and, lighting
another match, he found another bat.
After this one he had another hunt,
caught it, put it in the drawer with its
brother and agajp went to bed. Again,
however, he was awakened in a similar
manner ; bats came not in single spies—
but if tliß expression be pardonable—in
battalions.
Mr. Eccles hunted diligently and en
thusiastically, making quite a collection
of specimens, and putting them all with
great care in the drawer. Heated with
the chase, he then opened the window,
and, tired fout, at last enjoyed a few
minutes sleep.
Waking with the morning light, he
jumped out of bed and opened the
drawer very cautiously, a fraction of an
inch at a time, to look for his bats; but,
lo ! and behold, there were no bats there.
He opened the drawer wide, and then
discovered it had no back to it. He had,
in fact, been passing all the night in
catching the same bat, which had flown
out of the back of the drawer as soon
as he had put it in at the front, and
when the window was opened had finally
escaped.
A Western Outlaw.
“ The man with the gold tooth” is at
present the terror of the frontier. Hi
name is Middleton, and he is thirty-Av*
years old. He began his career as an
outlaw in 1877, at Sidney, Nebraska,
where he killed a man and was con
victed of murder. He escaped from Sid
ney, organized a band of robbers, plun
dered, burnt and murdered until the
fall of 1877, when he was lodged in jail,
only to tunnel himself out with a coal
scuttle. Reorganizing with fifty men ke
stole three thousand head of cattle from
the Ponca Indians. The robbery of a
German settlement of the Elkhorn led
to hot pursuits by a squad of horsemen.
The trail was followed for three days.
On the fourth day the Germans awoke
to find their pickets murdered and every
horse stolen. Middleton gets his soubri
quet from a front upper tooth made en
tirely of gold. He is six feet tail, and
wears af fierce black moustache, under
which the tooth shines like a grain of
corn. Two needle guns, four revolvers
and two dirks made up his armament.
.. Speaking of a recent execution, the
New York Express says that the victim
w’m hanged “because he could not prove
hia innocence.” Most criminals who
suffer the penalty of the law And it diffi
cult to do so.
POETRY OF MOTION.
The l.ljchi Fantastic* Toe inung the Jfa
tint!* of Antiquity*
IForner’a Progress.
Dancing at first wa°, without doubt, a
mare g&ticulation, a cortege of graceful
pantoiuanists, probably a natural and
spontaneous exhibition of feeling, which
g'adually became more polished and
refined until arriving at the dignity of
an art. Religion seems to have given
danciDgits first effective impetus, just as
hymns were evidently the first songs.
These were the germs of the two arts
People can dance before they can talk,
sometimes. A king of Pontus, in the
days of Nero, could not teach his bar
barous neighbors to speak his language
and theirs was a gibberish barely com
prehended by thems9lves. So the king
having seen a dancer entertain the
Emperor Nero with a representation of
the labors of Hercules, tracing in a man
ner so true all the different situations of
this hero that, following the gestures of
the actor, he could comprehend, with
utmost facility, every circumstance of
the performance, he was so delighted
that he entreated the emperor, as a great
favor, to let him take the dancer home
with him, that he might, through this
means, the better instruct his people.
As civilization advanced to a 'certain
importance, and the ingenuity and ele
gant taste of the Greeks began to mani
fest itself, the art of dancing was reduced
to a regular system. They oii
ginated dances depicting all the
passion of which human nature is
capable, exciting the beholders to
such sympathy that the effect produced
seems almost incredible. The accounts
we read of these early dancers are so
overwhelmingly expressive, that to be
lieve them at all, one must acknowledge
that these people were possessed of not
only a powerful imagination, but an
inherent poetic and passionate nature as
well, exhibited in the Greeks by an en
gaging grace and softness of manner, and
by the Romans in slaughter, bloodshed
and the horrid practices of war. Their
military dances are said to have been
practiced with offensive weapons; the
youth of the country were so trained in
the dreadful art of war, that it was thus
made a part of their daily recreation.
The Spartan virgins, even, were partici
pats in these manly exercises, so that
according to the idea of Lycurgus, they
should not be inferior to the other sex
in point of strength and vigor, both of
mind and body. What wonder that
they had a nation of Amszons, or that
the Sabine women fought with the skill
of warriors I The Spartans never danced
except with real arms; in process oi
time, however, other nations used only
weapons of wood on such occasions, or,
as in the second century, instead of
arms, they carried only flasks, wands or
reeds and lighted torches, instead of
javelins and swords. With these torches
they executed a dance called the “ Con
flagration of the World.” The number
and variety of the ancient dances are
countless; they were used for all pur
poses, representing fun and frolic, hope
and despair, youth and old age, love and
hate, innocence and licentiousness,
birth and marriage, life and death,
paradise and hell. The bacchana-
Tan dances arrived at such a
state of corruption that much of the
vice of the Etruscan cities has been
attributed to their excesses. Plato
reduces the dances of the ancients to
three classes: First, the dances which
tended to make the body robust, active
and well disposed for the exercises of
war. Secondly, the domestic dances,
which had foi their object an innocent,
and agreeable relaxation and amusement.
Thirdly, the mediatorial dances, which
were in use in expiations and sacrifices.
Among the latter I suppose may be
classed the strangest of all dances, the
funeral dance, which in tbe time of the
ancient Athenians and Egyptians was
the accompaniment of all funerals. A
double file of dancing boys and girls
preceded the corpse, and then followed
the dance of the chief mimic. Imagine
what a direful and heartrending custom
this must have been. An experienced
mimic would be appointed to precede
the hearse, dressed in the clothes and
wearing a mask showing a perfect like
ness of the deceased. To the sound of
grave and solemn symphonies would be
represented in dances the most striking
and noted actions by which the unfortu
nate dead man had during life distin
guished himself. This might be called a
mute funeral or ation without exhausting
the patience of the auditors, and proba
bly, by the censure or praise of the dead,
often proved a useful admonition to the
living. In short, as a historical writer
says, “ tbe dance of the arch mimic was
in morals what anatomy has now become
in physic.”
The dance of innocence. So called
because maidens performed it before the
altar of Diana with grave and solemn
steps and in modest attitudes, has fur
nished history with much o! its romance.
Helena was at this exercise when Theseus
giw ani carried her away ; and, as some
ill-natured writers will have it, she was
po well pleased with the adventure of
her first elopement that she frequently
paid her homage to Diana afterward,
and that it was there also that Paris
surprised her and took her thence—not
from her husband’s house—-a breach of
hospitf lity of which his memory would
be happily cleared, whilst hers, as is
usual, would carry the burden of re
proach. Socrates, when quite advanced
in years, learned the art of dancing from
the beautiful and accomplished Aspasia
This historical woman comes to one like
a sweet vision in the hours of revery.
I shall name her my muse and call upon
her for inspirations. “ You laugh,”
said Socrates to his friends, “because I
pretend to dance like young people } you
think me ridiculous to wish for the
benefit bf exercise as necessary to the
health of the body as te the eleganß of
deportment.” 1 remember not long ago
hearing the Rev. Dr. , of
Presbyterian church, deliver a sermon
against “the practice of the light fantas
tic.” Among other things, he said,
“No man of greatness of mind has
ever been a dancer.” Most cf hia
points were well taken, only one
felt arising. Quaker fashion, aDd
combating his statements from another
view of the case—what an advantage
this getting up in meeting and “ talking
back,” a privilege a wag once conceded
to the Episcopal church because of the
responses. Cato was a wise man, and
notwithstanding his austere and method
ical manners, did not disdain to dance
alter he was sixty years oid, finding a
pleasure in practicing in his age what he
had learned in his youth. A host of
ancient writers have also commended it,
while [Addison and Locke, the former
under the title of the “ Tattler,” and
the latter in an essay on “ Education,”
both dignified dancing as a useful bodily
exercise, an inoffensive relaxation, being
of the opinion that when the body is in
motion the mind reposes itself, the
figure, the steps, the movements of the
dance being equally amusing to the
spectator and the dancer. Dancing
seems to have been the origin of the
drama. Among tbe first mentioned in
history were the“ Mysteries” and “ Mo
ralities,” two religious plays ot the
rudest character, the “Mysteries ” being
a representation, partly in pantomime
and dialogue, and tak- n from some well
known incident related in the bible, and
the “ Moralities ” a sort of discussion
and enforcement of religious doc
trine or moral truth by allegorical per
sonages. At first they were performed
almost entirely in the churches upon
scaffolds, erected for the purpose, some
what in the form of a small theatre, and
divided from the altar, much as may be
seen to this day in the churches of St.
Clement and St. Pancras at Rome.
There, in imitation of the Levites of old,
the clergy joined with the people in reli
gious dances. Indeed, our ancestors
seemed to have really enjoyed the privi
lege of going to a cathedral and seeing
satan and an archbishop dancing a horn
pipe with the Seven Deadly Sins and
the Five Cardinal Virtues. In some
parts of France aa late as the seventeenth
century it was still the custom for the
priests and people to join in the dance
of the church, and to sing, instead of
the Gloria Patria, these lines :
Oh, pray for us, good Bt. Marcian,
Whilst we trip it along with you.
In all tbe ancient religions priests
were dancers by education, because
dancing was considered by all nations in
the world as one of the most essential
parts of the worship paid to the
Deity. This idea of dramatic and
allegorical dancing is still carried on
in most of the theatres in Italy,
frequently the ballet of an opera
occupying at least one-balf oi
the evening performance. They are
more like rhythmical pantomimes of a
mythological, fantastic, warlike cr pas
toral character tban our ordinary ballet
of to-day, wliich seems to have become
unfaithful to its original design and to
its true artistic significance and to con
tent itself with exhibiting mere feats of
ability, distortions of the person to almost
acrobatic dexterity, and tl e balancing o’
the figure in attitudes sometimes, to say
the least, ungraceful. It was not until
the seventeenth century that women
made their appearance in ballets, in
plays or operas. Up to this time men
had been the exclusive performers,
though during the reign of Elizabeth the
dance of “ The Mysteries ” is spoken of
as having been performed in her own
household and by her attendant ladies,
the queen not disdaining to take
part in it herself. They represented
the ten virgins mentioned in the
gospel, some of them having their
lamps well trimmed and burning,
others without oil or light and begging
both of the former, so that if women did
not dance in public before the siven
teenth century, they certainly had tbeir
little hops and skips. Iu France and
Italy, however, social dancing at this
time was considered quite inelegant,
most of it being performed for the
amusement of guests by pro'essional
dancers and not by the guests them
selves. On one occasion Linis XII.
danced at a court entertainment; as
likewise did Louis XIV. in his youth,
both of which extraordinary exploits
were of sufficient importance to entitle
them to special historical mention.
Having professional dancers at enter
tainments is still common among the
eastern nations. In Egypt there are
dancing and singing girls, called Almeb,
who are especially educated for this
vocation. No festival could be complete
without their attendance. They were
principally employed to depict tbe
origin, the growth, the successes, the
misfortunes or the miseries of love, and
g ucb was their skill and flexibility of
action, the reality of their looks ana
gestures, that a foreigner to their lan
guage needed no interpreter but their
entrancing grace and warmth of agita
tion. So, if Europeans and Americans
boast of the luxury of instrumental
music during public entertainments, the
more luxurious Asiatics revel in enjoy
ments for the eye, the ear and the im
agination.
. .The mao who originated ine saying,
“ hurry is the mark of a v/eak mind,”
never was chased by a bull-dog. [Brad
ford Era,
S. A. CUNNINGHAM.
SUtt HEY, THE JBEURHYErHER#
tV lint In. 91. said to Iht tVoPmo Staffi age
FanTratlo •.
St. Lctsii Kepflblican Report.
Mrs. E. A. Merriwether, of Memphis,
was next introduced, and for an Lour
she entertained the audience with an
address that was fall of pith and caustic
She said she was brought up in the con
servative south, which the north be
lieves so far below it in point of civiliza
tion, and though she was young in pub.
lie service she was an old thinker. The
greater part of her life had been spent in
rocking the cradle, but while doing that
she thought a great deal, and determined
that when her children grew old enough
to admit of it she would make an effort
to do something toward elevating her
sex. A few years ago, wh i: n it was pro
posed to enfranchise women in England,
one member objected on the ground that
the ballot would unsex women and de
prive them of the maternal affection
which was cne of their loveliest charac
teristics. The idea that the maternal
feelings, she said, were dependent upon
or to be affected by men-made laws was
simp y preposterous. Another had ob
jected because every woman in England
would be transformed by the ballot into
the terrible abomination of “a strong
minded woman.” She here produced a
pictorial sketch of the unmarried
strong-minded woman, vinegar-visaged,
scrawny, and totally void of phy
sical development, except altitud
inally. She also produced a picture of
the ideal big-bonneted, red-faced, obese,
brawny, married strong-minded woman,
with her puny husband under one arm.
Both the caricatures were good and pro
voked much merriment. Ths speaker
said that the people who seemed so much
to fear the strong minded [female nev. r
seemed to consider tho possibility of a
strong minded man marrying a strong
minded woman, but always assigned to
her “such a looking fellow as thst.” She
told how her husband who stands very
high as a lawyer is Memphis, was spoken
of for mayor, and eulogized in the pres
ence of a lady there. “ What 1” Do you
mean the husband of thatMerriwether ?”
said she. “ Yes,” was the answer.
“ Why,” she remarked, “ I thought her
husband must be a fool.”
The speaker next scored John Bright
for his recorded declaration in parlia
ment that women could always tiust to
the justice and generosity of man in the
matter of legislation, and cited barbarous
English laws as a refutation of that
assertion. The Bible, she held, declared
woman’s equality with man, as in Genesis
it was declared that to man, male and
femaie, was committed the government
of the earth,,'and in many other portions
the same idea of equality was convey and.
Treating the story of Eve and the
apple from a legal stand-point, the
speaker showed that there was no scrip
tural proof that Eve ever heard of the
injunction against eatiDg the fruit. The
Bible stated that Adam was created
before Eve, and that he was told not to
touch the apple, but there was no hint
that Adam ever told Eve about this,
yet to her is charged all the trouble that
grew out of it.
Woman was man’s equal, she said,
until man b e gan the business of war,
and according as they became savage and
warriors, they usurped tho position of
master over women.
Quoting Coke’s declaration that Eng
lish law was the perfection of reason,
that it commands what is necessary and
forbids what is wrong, the lady pointed
to the frightful cruelties of the heresy
and witchcraft laws, and the enormities
of the clergy law, which she character
ized as beautiful in its idiocy and sub
lime in its stuoidity. Yet Coke did not
have the fairness to condemn the law
which warranted, first the burning of a
poor woman for heresy, and then the
burning of her child as a heretic, whose
premature birth occurred at the stake as
a result of her torture Biaekstone was
alike cowardly in his treatment of Eng
lish law, and could see no harm in the
law which allowed the burning of a pris
oner for heresy, even though he did not
know that he had been guilty of a viola
tion of law, on account of its ambiguity.
Speaking of witchcraft law, B'acketone
said it existed to the terror of ancient
females. This animosity to ancient
females exists to this very day in Eng
land. It is manifested in the unmanly
flings at mothers-in-law, which had
their origin in England, and were im
ported here through English novelists.
An Englishman considers his wi e his
slave, his property, his chattel. As the
southern planter hated any man be*
friending his slave, so an Englishman
bates any one who manifests a sympa
thizing interest in the woman whom he
oppresses, and that person inevitably is
his mother. Henc?, while we hear
always of a man complaining o' his wife’s
mother, we never hear the wife com
plaining of her husband's mother. Inis
unmanliness toward mothers in-law
would constitute good ground for divorce
if women were legislators,
Nature Proclaims a Deity.
There is a God 1 The herbs o‘ the val
ley, the cedars of the mountain bless
Him ; the insect sports in His beam ; the
bird sings Him in the foliage ; the thun
der proclaims Him in the heavens; the
ocean declares His immensity—man
alone hath said. There is no G-id 1 Unite
in thought at the same instant the most
beautiful objects in nature. Suppose
that you see at once, all the hours of the
days, ah the seasons of the year —a
morning of spring and a morning of
autumn—a night bespangled with stars,
and a night darkened with clouls—
I meadows enameled with flowers —forests
hoary with enow—fields gilded with the
tints of autumn—then alone you will
have a just conception of the universe I
While you are gazing on that sun which
is plunging into the vault of the #est,
another observer admires him emerging
from the gilded gates of *he east. By
what inconceivable power does that aged
star, which is sinking fatigued and burn
ing in the shades of the evening, reap
pear at the same instant fresh and humid
with the rosy dew of the mohiing f At
every hour of the day, the glorious orb
is at once rising, resplendent as noonday,
and setting in the west; or rather our
senses deceive us, and there is, properly
speaking, no east or west, no north or
south, in the world.
. SPOTS ON TUB SUN.
They will be Knmeron* lh* W**.l Two
Teat*'
FhllaJelphia Tiiuo*.
The period is approaching when the
greatest number of spots appear on the
solar surface. Even at the present time
several are visible, and some of them of
considerable rise. A number of facts
seem to warrant the opinion of pelhaps a
majority of physicists' that th^^xllange 8
on the disc of the central Inmimßty frigieh
the spots show to be
fluence many phenomena on tlbfj"garth..
The variations, therefore, from uniform
brightness on the great orb of day are at
present watched with an interest which
was unknown in the infancy of optical
and astronomic science. The discovery
of the checkered physiognomy of tho
solar orb is due to Galileo, though ac
counts of variations in the [sun’s light
date as far baefc as the reign of Augus
tus Caesar. In April, 1611, soon after
the invention of the telescope, Bpota
w pr e observed by the Florentine astrono
mer, nearly at the same time by
Schreiner, & German Jesuit, and Fabri
cius, the friend of Kepler. Being
unacquainted with any .means of
diminishing the inteiW glare, the
first telescopists were obliged to
make their observations fhrough
thin clouds or when the sun was near
the horizon. The blindness that embiU
tered the latter days of Galileo was, no
doubt, caused by watching the sun-spots,
and the elder Herschel lost one of his
eyes in consequence of his close study erf
solar phenomena. It has been found
from the examination of a long series of
observations that the times of the great
eat number of spots recur in about eleven
years. The last took place in the sum
mer of 1871. In that year and the pre
ceding they were frequently observed
and measurement made of their size at
the observatory in this city. On this
occasion a spot was discovered with the
naked eye that was at least fifty thou
sand miles in diameter. In 18S9 spots of
twenty-nine thousand and even of sev
enty-four thousand miles are recorded.
In 1816 they were seen on several occa
sions without the aid of the telescope.
The readiest way of observing the spots
is to receive the image of the sun either
upon a screen or a paper marked by per
pendicular and horizontal lines at an
equal distance from one another. Not
only the outlines of this spot, but alro
its relative size can thus be very easily
traced. Many theories have been brought
forward in order to account for the spots
upon the solar surface, especially since
the rose colored flames which appear
during a total eclipse of that luminary
have been shown to be caused by hydro
gen gas. But with the exception of this
tact and the manifest effects of cyclone
lite waves which rise and produce dis
turbances in portions of its disc, the
true causes of the changes on the sun’a
surface, with the exception of those pro
duced by some of the planets, as well as
the sources of its heat and light, are un*
known. Observations of the spots now
appearing, and which will become more
numereus during the next two years,
may enable physicists to determine many
questions connected with the central
luminary which are now unanswered.
The elder Herschel suppoaed that the
average temperature of years in which a
large number of spots appears on the
solar surface is generally lower. This
has not been fnlly proved, yet the sum
mer of 1816, so remarkable for large
spots, was the coldest on record in the
.Rules of Conduct.
BurlfnJ" 0n Hnwkeye.
Never exaggerate, at least don t exag
gerate so excessively as to cause undue
remark. ,
Never laugh at the ol
others, save in the isolated instance ol a
man struggling between heaven and
earth, with only the blue dome of the
sky above him, and nothing to speak of
under him, except a banana peel.
Never send a present hoping for one
in return. Nine times out of ten you
will slip up on your expectations. Freeze
to the present you buy. You are dead
sure Af that.
Never question your neighbor’s ser
vant’s or children about family matters.
They are liable to fib you. The best way
is to “ snook ” around and find out for
yourself.
Always offer the easiest seat in the
room to a lady or an invalid. A hard
bottom, straight back chair is usually
considered about the easiest thing there
is made to sit on. A rockingschair is
apt to produce sea-sickness.
.. An impromptu mock auction sale of
women was amusing and profitable, at
first, in a Racine, Wis., church fair.
The young men bid liberally for the
attractive girls, and it wi s all very fun
ny indeed, until an ugly and influential
.l iter was put up. The auctioneer was
compelled to knock her down at twenty
five cents, and she was so angry that she
put on her things and went home.
.. In the bazars of Turkey apples and
pear.? are frequently exposed fi r sale
marked with the imprtssion of a leaf.
While the apple is green a leaf is glued
or fastened upon it, which prevents the
sun’s rays from acting upon that part
and the impression is distinctly prc
ducetl.
.. “How shall we train our girls ?” asks
an exchange. Train ’em with about
twenty-two yards of black silk, if you
want to please your girls. A silk vel
vet train would also make ’em happy.