Newspaper Page Text
A. M. C. RUSSELL, Editor and Proprietor.
VOLUME II
Select Miscellany.
WRECKED.
I stand beside the vessel’s guard;
The moonlight streams across the sea,
J'he waste of waters met the stars;
The busy world recedes from me.
A touch upon my shoulder laid
Recalls me from a dream divine;
Beloved, when apart some day
Upon us other moons will shine.
But will they find us then as now?
Will times or absence change us not?
Wnl life still be serenely blest,
So far-beyond the common lot?”
“Talk not of changes,” I replied:
“ Our future lies an open page—
A shining path along the years
That mark the road from youth to age.
u As this good vessel rides to-night
The waves that rise and fall beneath,
So, safely on through storm and night
Shall we si il over troubled seas?”
11 But ah!” he answered, 11 Hopes as fair,
These waves are coldly sweeping o’er;
The ship that sailed but yesterday
To-day is tossed, a wreck on shore.”
JSinee then the years with tireless feet
Have, passing, kept their promise true!
With sails dismantled, out of sight
Our ship has sunk from mortal view.
The hearts that met—the clasping hands,
Both time and distance sever now
Ami deep within the s-ilent past
Lies wrecked those hopes of long ago.
Those Boots.
“Well, Mr. Siskin, shall we say ten
o’clock —ten punctually?” You can
pay the deposit, and the horse will be
virtually yours.”
“ No,” he answered, with a fierce
ness that as nearly knocked me off my
pins as if a scuttle-ball had struck me.
“ No, not punctually. Punctuality
and pedigree I have had enough of.
Insist on its being ten punctually and
I am off my bargain.”
In those early auctioneering days I
did not easily let a customer go. I
should as soon have thought of knock
ing Mr. Siskin down as of opposing
him ; so, smiling in spite of myself, i
said:
“About ten, then, shall we say ?”
“Ay, now you sneak. About ten
it shall be. But mark me sir ”
I could have marked him more lit
erally than would have suited Mr.
Siskins; for I was most terribly hun
gry, and the man was so like the an
cient mariner when he held the wed
ding guest—his eye glittering like a
diamond with fierce excitement, kin
dled by ray innocent remark about
punctuality.
He was a man with a grievance—no
doubt of that; and I, poor hungry
wretch, with a dear wife—my Julia,
punctual little puss—who would have
dinner ready to a lick (the spirit of
punctuality, driven out of Siskin, may
have sought and found congenial ref
uge in Julia), mi -t devour his long,
dry story instead of a savory and more
substantial meal.
“ You have heard,” lie began, and
as be spoke, his long, claw-like finger j
irsinuated itself in my button-hole — i
“you have heard,” be said, “it is ill
waiting for dead men’s shoes ? Mark
me again when I say that it is true, j
Other man might say it, hut I know it.
“ Susan —that’s my wife ; happy to
introduce you, but deaf as a post —
Susan and I waited for old Lionel’s
cash for years—there’s no denying
that. —and reckoned bis income to a
penny.
“The hope of having that money |
was our star, our anchor. Tough old j
party, too —tearfully tough. He
should have been a missionary; might
have defied the cannibals, who could
never have got their teeth in him!
“But the punctuality of the man!
Talk of the Charles’—the what is it?
of Germany, and the watches, Lionel
would have beaten him into fits.
II is house was all clocks, except
where it broke out into watches.
“ Fearful house to visit—awful
place to stay at. Up by the clock;
dinner by the clock. lime divided
between looking out for punctual ser
vants and dismissing unpunctual ones.
What a signal-man old Lionel
woukl have made, or a postman!
But as a private gentlemen he
was a bore. Did l tell you
what relation onel Sands was to
me? Not likely. I have been half
maddened too often, trying to trace
the Siskincum-Sands genealogical tree,
to be in much danger of attempting it
again.
“ If, to shun the Scylla of punctual
ity, you fell into the Charybdisof ped
igree, your dearest foe might pity you.
“ If we had not been as poor as Job,
we would have soon cut Mr. Sands;
hut he was rich and old, we poor and
young, so we thought it wise to keep
in with ‘dear relations,’ especially as he
had only a nephew, and he abroad
somewhere.
“ What had happened we could not
even guess; hut for some reason our
letter remained unanswered for months
BUENA VISTA, MARION CO., GEORGIA, FRIDAY MORNING, NOV. 24, 1876.
and we dared not write out of turn,
when a telegram came asking me to
meet the old man in Brighton the day
after next at half-past three precisely,
on particular business.
“ But you are in a hurry, I see,” said
the old hypocrite, holding me as tigh£
ly as ever.
I was ravenous, but dared do noth
ing but resign myself.
“ I will cut a long story short,” he
said.
But he was not so truthfully as
some men are. A friend of mine
would have described him as an “able
bodied liar,” —but he is fond of odd ex
pressions.
“ Susan let the telegram drop from
her hands, as she said :
“ ‘What can it be about ?’
“ She was not deaf then. , $
“ ‘His will, my dear,’ I chuckled ;
‘lie wants to make his will in our favor,
and would like my advice. He has
quarreled with every other relation,
except the wandering Jew of a nephew
and us, on the score either of punctu
ality or pedigree.’
“‘.Silas,’ said my wife, ‘it will never
do to go in such boots as those of yours.
It will be madness to go on such an er
rand down at the heel, with one stock
ing inked at the toe, and an underlay;
it would be simply ridiculous.’
“ I will not detain you while I de
scribe the drunken shoemaker that
agreed —when he got sober enough to
understand that I wished to be a cus
tomer —to send me a pair of boots
worthy of the occasion.
“‘They shall be the right sort,’he
declared over and over again. Of
the right sort at twelve, they should
be at my house punctually.
“ Now, if he had been a man of his
word, I might have been enabled to en
dure the word punctual to-day; hut he
was not. The train would leave at
1:15. Twelve came hut no boots; half
past, yet still they came not. It would
take a quarter of an hour to reach the
station ; and as I said to Susan twenty
times that day, if once —
“ ‘I wouldn’t have missed that train
for the wold.’
“ ‘Boots or no boots,off I go,’ said lat
last. ‘lf the train st( ps long
enough at Lewis I will buy a pair
there’—-I was living at Hastings. ‘lf
not, tell Lionel about the shoemaker
disappointing me. It will be a line for
him, and put him in a g >od humor to
begin with.’
“Another minute I should have
started with my old boots polished like
glass; but I was stopped by the ar
rival of a dirty chiid with the new
pair.
“I put one on in a twinkling—it*
fitted admirably; then, giving the
child my old ones to take heme to be
repaired, I stooped to put the other
on, saying gaily:
“Now, then, on you go, and off go
I.’
“ ‘Oh, confusion ! By all that is
perverse —how stupid! Why, how’s
this ? Why, it’s not the fellow one, but
a mile to'-> small.’
“I dragged at it till the loops crack
ed again, and the perspir ition ran off
my face like rain.
“ ‘Run after that young imp of a
girl?’ I shouted. ‘Get my old boots
back. Stupid! why do you stand
there? I wouldn’t miss this train for
the world ?’
“ ‘Why did you send the old ones
till you had tried the new ?” retorted
Susan, sharply. I think you are the
stupid.’
“She was right. But when I went
hopping off alter the child, she
was softened in a moment, and darted
to the door. Whether the quick-start
ling blinded her, or how it happened,
I know not; but the ‘young hussy,’ as
she called her in her vexation, could
not be found.
“You are tired, I see,” said Mr. Sis
kin, as I yawned wearily, and tried to
smile; “hut the joke’s in the sequel,
and I have nearly done.
“I raved and turned as I stood with
one boot on, and the fragment of
the other in my hanc. The
right was right enough, but
what was left of the left was no
larger than a child’s boot; nothing
short of hydraulic pressure could have
got my foot into it.
“ Nothing in the shape of hoots had
I in the house, but some old carpet
slippers. It was raining, too, but in
desperation I put one of the slippers
on. and started. Will the shade of
Hood pardon me if I say, altering his
lines a shade —
With a breathless haste, like a soul in chase,
I slipped it on and ran
and caught the train, to my surprise
and joy.
“ l'uere was a handsome, sunburnt
fellow in the carriage, a perfect gen
tleman —capital, good-natured fellow
tie was, too —entered into conversation
at once, and seemed so wonderfully in
terested in my story of the boots—
strangely so, almost. He asked as
many questions about my relatives as
it he had been an old friend.
A Democratic Kami iy Newspaper.
“ ‘ Lewis is no go,’ he said; train
stops two minutes only, that’s a
stumper.’
“Then he talked a little; and yet,
as I looked at him, I noticed he was
abstracted.
Mind seemed other where.”
I muimured.
“ Exactly. Apt—very apt.” *
And he grinned horribly. 9
“My newly-found friend,” he con
tinued, “offered most kindly to hAp
me out of my difficulty—he did iffjt
know Brighton very well, hut having
listened to the description of the posi
tion of Lionel’s house, he decided that
I should have a quarter of an hour at
least to spare.
“ ‘ I will take the pattern boot, and
match it in no time at the first boot
shop ; you can wait at the station. I
will not keep you long.’
“He was as good as his word when
we reached Brighton. 1 sat in the
waiting-room, while, with the pattern
boot in hand, he hurried off on his gen
erous mission. It was a ridiculous
predicament to be left there with one
slipper on and dependent on the word
of a stranger. I shall never forget
that time —the longest quarter of an
hour I ever remember. At last the
conviction flashed on me that the time
was gone. I ran out of the room on to
the platform to see the clock. Oh,
horror! the time was past by seven
minutes.
“An astonished porter stopped, and
asked me what was up ?
“ ‘ The time is,’ I answered sharply.
“ Then more politely told enough
of' my story to enlist his sympathy,
which took an eminently practical
form.
“ ‘ Take a cab at once,’ he said.
“And giving me a lilt on his back, I
was in another minute rattling down
Queen’s road like mad.
“ ‘ Dolt, not to have thought of this
before. What will Susan say? She
will never forgive me for being such an
unmitigated noodle.”
“ When my Jehu had thundered
with the knocker sufficiently—accord
ing to his notions of propriety, which
were peculiar —the door of my dear
relation’s house was thrown open
by my late traveling companion,
who, bowing in the blandest manner,
said:
“‘Oh! here are your boots, Mr.
Siskin. Will you put them on in the
eab?’
“ ‘ You crafty scoundrel! ’ I roared,
as soon as I could draw sufficient breath.
‘ I will kick you to Jericho with them
if I can only get them on.’
“ ‘ Here, cabby, fetch a policeman or
two,’ said the nephew—for of course it
was he. ‘Or stay; your machine will
just do to run him in ; he’s as mad as a
hatter.’
“Cabby grinned, so did everyone of
the small crowd that had gathered
round.
“I put the boots on, and paid the
fair; then, quietly stepped to the door,
as old Lionel Sands came along the
passage, I was about to explain the
trick that had been played on me.
“To my intense disgust, the old don
key pointed to a gigantic clock-face in
the hall, and addressed me as follows:
“‘Mr. Siskin, you know mv rule —
punctuality. Strict punctuality, and
no excuses. The business is settled. My
nephew will not regret it if you do.
Another time if you cannot get your
boots to come in, come without. Good
day.’
“He slammed the door in ray face.
“I shall never forget the after exas
peration that seized me. I kicked at,
the door like an impotent madman. I
am afraid I swore, or very nearly, then
turned away to hide my tears—for keep
them back I could not for mv life.
Well, I cannot stay to tell you all; be
sides, I am detaining you, perhaps?
“Whenold Sands died, he left, every
thing to that gentlemanly thief of' a
nephew, by a will dated the day he so
fiercely sent me packing. He soon
sold off the clocks and furniture, and
long before this has been halt over the
world.
“One thing I must say —we received
£2OO by post six months after the
death of old Lionel; and as we could
never trace the sender, put it down
as ‘conscious money’from the nephew.
“Well, good day,” said Mr. Siskin :
“and about ten look for me. ’
So I did, but he never came, and to
this hour, if I disappoint dear Julia,
she is apt to ask me if I have been
stopping to talk to Mr. Siskin about
his boot.- — English Magaeim. .
The new pr< cess of drying eggs bids
fair to become quite an industry at
Passau, on the Danube, where it seems
it first originated. The Prussii a mil
itary authorities are about to give ti.e
product a trial in the soldiers’ ration-,
several German chemists being verv
sanguine as to its success, and giving
it as their opinion that the eggs lose
none of their nourishing qualities bv
the evaporation of the water contained
in them in their original state
Our Young Folks.
THE UPSHOT OF A QUARREL.
A dish of milk wns on the floor;
Russ wanted some, and so did Dash;
’Twas l.ig enough for many more
To lap out of without a splash ;
But she was rude, and he was ruder;
Neither would let the other taste it;
Each thought the other an intruder,
And did the most to spill and waste it.
If Dash one moment ventured nigh,
Russ would that moment spit and fly;
If Russ the dish next moment sought,
Dash the next minute raged and fought,
At length, with sorrow bejt spoken,
Between them both the dish was broken.
Brothers aud sisters, all take warning,
The lesson must not meet your scorning;
Never let selfish trifles lead
To loud dispute and spiteful deed ;
Yield to each other, and be sure
Your happiness is more secure.
— Presbyterian,
A Rose-Winflow.
No wonder that Wilfred was a lone
ly child, with no brother or sister to
play with. And no wonder that the
little fellow would so often steal away
to the entry-window, and, with his
chin on the broad sill, watch the clouds
that sailed slowly by, or the doves that
cooed to each other under the eaves of
the great cathedral; or that the ca
thedral itself should have become a
familiar object, with its graceful bell
tower, its solid buttresses, and its
great rose window over the chancel.
He had traced its curves and circles
so many times, that it seemed before
him wherever he looked. But why
was it that when he went out to walk
with nurse she always hurried him by
the open doorway, and would never
let him go in to see the other side of
the big window ? And why did mam
ma always sigh, and sav that the ca
thedral was papa’s tomb?
One day his mamma come up in
to the entry-hall and found little Wil
fred in his favorite position, with his
chin upon the window-sill, looking out
at the great cathedral. But tears
were standing in his eyes, and the
little voice faltered, as he said:
“Please mamma, tell me about the'
rose-window, and why the cathedral is
papa’s tomb ?
So inammatook the little head in her
lap, and as she stroked the soft, light
curls, she thought of the time when
another head, tired and aching, had
lain there, and she had stroked its soft
hair.
Then mamma told her little boy
how his papa had planned the cathe
dral, all but the great rose-window,
and for that he could invent no pattern
worthy to let the light shine through
into the house of God. And how he
had set up long nights, and worked
weary days to find the right design,
until, at last, wi en he had drawn the
graceful curves and circles, lie was too
sick to go about, and could only lie in
this very entry-window, and watch the
men at work. And when, one day,
the great window was set up, the very
day that little Wilfred was born, papa
was carried out and buried under the
door of the unfinished chancel, with
the great window high up over his
head.
Mamma again stroked the light hair,
and said: “But this will not do. My
little bov has been too much alone, and
he mu-t. go to school, where he can j
plav with other children, for he is al-!
most five years old.” And she kissed j
the child as she looked at the great |
church opposite, and thought of the ■
Wilfred in that house, top.
So one bright sunny day, mamma j
again came up the stairs to take her j
little Wilfred out to walk. And they!
| went together across the common, by |
I the great cathedral, and down a street, j
j rill they came to a pleasant looking
i house, with plants and a bird in one
window, and more plants and a gold
fish in the other. They went into this
house, and were shown into a bright
room, where there were some little
children standing in a circle, and play
i ing such a quiet pretty game! Boon
j they all went into another room, sing-
I ing as they went, and mamma and Wil
fred followed. The children sat down
at two long tables, when the teacher
came in and said: “Would not
you like to come, too? See
here is room enough between
; Bertha and Alfred.” But Wilfred
I did not quite like to go, till
mamma said : “ Go, darling. I will
stay close by.”
Then one of the little girls went up
to the teacher, who gave her a box full
of rings. And pretty soon she had
laid hefore each child a wire ring of
about two inches in diameter. Elsie
(for this was the little girl’s name) was
{ very careful to place it on the table
j directly before the child, so that the
. .nitre came where two of the lines
wtiirh divided the tables into squares
crossed each other, making four divis
ions in each ring. After Elsie had
taken one and sat down, the teacher
said: “Now let us sea what this is
' and what it is made of.” One said,
1 wire. “ Yes, and what is wire made
of ?” But none of the children could
exactly tell this, so the teacher ex
plained how iron was dug out of the
ground, melted in big furnaces, cooled
into long bars, and how those were
again melted and drawn through a
succession of holes each time becoming
smaller, till at last it was the wire they
saw. Then how it was cut into short
pieces, and these were soldered to
gether to make these little rings.
“ And now what are they like?” One
child thought “like the top of a flower
pot;” another “like the round picture
frame hanging over the mantle-piece;”
Alfred thought it would just slip over
one of the balls with which they
played the fruit game. The teacher
thought so too. and bringing one,
asked how it differed; for they were
not both round ? Elsie said it was a
slice cut out of the middle of the ball;
but Bertha said no, because you could
put your finger through the ring.
Then Alfred said it was only the
edge 1 of the round slice. The
teacher now gave each child a half
ring, and asked them to hold it
in the left hand with the end
pointing up, then down, to the right,
and then to the left hand side. This
half ring was then placed beside the
whole ring, and another half ringgiv
ing so as make two whole rings. Alfred
said they looked like a pair of eye
glass, or cart-wheels. Then the half
last put down was placed on the op
posite side of the whole ring, making
a figure each side, which he thought
looked somewhat like an hourglass.
Then the position of the half rings
was reversed, making a form which
Bertha called a table-top.
“Now,” said the teacher. “I will
give you some more rings, and you
may make just what you please.”
j Again Wilferd wished himself in
i mamma’s lap; but she looked over
I with a smile, just as the teacher placed
! before him a box filled with rings, as
! she said : “Can’t von make something,
I too?”
Immediately the thought of therose
-1 window flashed into his mind ; he could
I see every curve and circle plainly, so by
I the time the teacher had talked with
; the other children about the spiders and
j croquet fields and dolly’s wagon, Wil
! f'erd was all ready to explain that this
was papa’s rose-window in the great
' cathedral.
The teacher looked pleased to see so
i beautiful a form; but the mamma
! silently brushed away a tear, as she
! thought how this little child, by these
j simple means, had found that for
| which his papa had sought so long and
i so wearily.
This was the first of many days for
Wilferd at the kindergarten; butlong
years aiterwards, when he had become a
famous designer, he would often kiss
his mother’s pale cheek, and say : “It
has all come of the ring exerci es
at the kindergarten.”— -Kinderqarten
had.
Strange Bible Facts.
The learned prince of Granada, heir
to the Spanish throne, imprisoned by
order of the crown for fear he should
aspire to the throne, was kept in soii
tarv confinement in the old prison at
the place of skulls, Madrid. After thirty
three years in this living tomb, death
came to his release, and the following
remarkable researches taken from the
bible, and marked with an old nail on
the rough walls of his cel), told how the
brain sought employment through the
weary years.
In'the bible the word Lord is found
1,853 times ; the word Jehova 6,855,
and the word reverend but once, and
that in the 9th verse of the OXlth
Psalm. The Bth verse of theCXVII’m
Psalm ini the middle verse of the bible.
The 9th verse of the VIIIth chapter
of Esther is the longest verse; 35th
verse, Xlth chapter of St. John, is
the shortest. Tn the CVIIth Psalm
four verses are a 1 ike, the Bth, 15th, 21st
and 31st. Each verse of the CXXYIth
Psalm ends alike. No names or words
are found in the bible. The XXX\ 11th
chapter of Isaiah and XlXth chapter
of 2d Kings are Jlike. Tbe word girl
occurs hut once in the bible, and that
in the 3d verse and lllkd chapter of
Joel. There are found in both books
of the bible 3,586,473 letteis, 773,693
words, 31,373 verses, 1.189 chapters
and sixty-six books. The XXVIth
chapter of the Aeis of the Apostl s is
the finest chapter to read. The most
beautiful chapter in the bibfe is the
XXIIItu) Psalm. The four most in
spiring promises are John XlVtb
ichapter and 2d ' T erse, John Vltr
chapter and 37th verse. St. Matthew
Xlrh chapter and 28th verse, and
XXXIIth Psalm 4th verse. The Ist
verse of the LXth chapter of Isaiah is
the one for the new convert. All who
flatter themselves with vain boasting of
th.'ir perfectness should learn the Vlth
chapter of Matthew. All humanity
should learn the Vlth chapter of
St. Luke, from the 20th verse to its
ending.
TERMS, $2 00 Per Annum.
NUMBER 9.
Truths and Trifles.
Since < Victoria took her place
on the English throne, thirty-nine years
ago, every throne in Europe from the
least to the greatest, has changed oc
cupants.
The largest shoe factory on the Pa
cific coast has lately discharged all its
Chinese help and employed 300 white
men, women and hoys, finding them
more profitable.
Christianity is spreading rapidly
in Japan. At Tokio 10,000 people
attend the missionary churches on
the Sabbath, according tea native
paper.
Miss Ellen Culver, of Chicago,
has managed the extensive real estate
business of Mr. Hall, the Baltlfnore
millionaire, in that city, and looks af
ter three hundred tenements.
It will afford sweeter happiness in
the hour of death, to have wiped one
tear from a cheek of sorrow, than to
have ruled an empire, to have con
quered millions, or to have enslaved
the world.
Proudly observes the Detroit Free
Press: “American genius is recog
nized the world over. The Japanese
government has bought a Rhode
Island cider mill, and is trying tc grind
wheat in it.”
Mons. Colombier, a merchant in
Paris, recently deceased, has left 30,-
000 francs to a ladv of Rouen, for
having, twenty years before, refused to
marry him, “through which,” says the
will, “I was enabled to live independ
ently and happily as a bachelor.”
It is estimated that throughout the
country 11,500 persons have died from
diseases brought on by being over
worked, drinking bad water, eating
improper food and undergoing unusual
excitement while attending the cen
tennial.
Some amusement was caused not
long ago in an English court,by a female
witness, who, on the oath being ad
ministered, repeatedly kissed the clerk
instead of the book. It was sometime
before she was made to understand
the proper —or at least the legal thing
to do.
Eli Perkins entreats the ladies to
throw away their silks, and dress in
sweet cheap, white muslins. Very well,
but does he know that it costs sweet
simplicity five dollars every time she
gets that cheap Arcadian garment
laundered, and that a good many hare
to wear the silks tor the sake of econ
omy.
She wouldn’t stand to have a tooth
pulled for one million two hundred
thousand dollars, she said, and yet she
walked the street all day in tiny
gaiters, two sizes too small for her,
and thought nothing of it; but then
nobodv saw that tooth, and several
saw the gaiters.
The success of the 100-ton gun,
made by Sir Willian Armstrong for
the Italian government, marks the
opening oi n new era in maritime arma
ments. Henceforth the naval power
of nations will have to he measured by
the number of those guns at their com
mand, rather than by the size and
strength of their iron-dads. The re
cent experiments demonstrate that a
strong vessel, easily managed, armed
with one or more iOO ton guns, would
he more than a match for the most
powerful iron-clad afloat. In the con
test between guns and armor the former
have won. __________
The End of a Diamond Wedding.
Some years ago there was a diamond
wedding in a brown-stone mansion close
to Fifth avenue. It was in all respects
a recherche affair—the gifts were mag
nificent and costly, and the young
couple started prosperously on the voy
age of life. After a couple of seasons
in Europe the young wife was taken
sick, and died in her mother’s house in
this city. Among the original presents
was a costly array of solid silver, duly
marked with the brides initials. Ibis
silver was valued at over 85,000. It
was handsomely incased, and for con
venience sake, after the woman s death,
was placed in a common packing trunk
and stored in the vaults of a safe depos
iting company. The sequel to this
story happened on Monday last, when
the husband, now a bankrupt, pledged
1 1 he whole of’ the silver to a profession
!al money-lender tor a paltry 8500.
Those who know him freely predict
that he will let the whole of it go
when hi* obligation matures, and that
j he will be unable to repay the amount
jof the loan. A similar sequel was re
{ ported last year to a stylish wedding in
Grace church only twenty months be
fore. The presents and jewels of the
wedding-day were sold for a mere pit
tance to buy bread and butter, and to
day the parties are penniless. In the
other case first mentioned, there is not
| a shadow of doubt that the silver thus
i pledged will be sacrificed in like man
ner. — New York Letter.