The Buena Vista Argus. (Buena Vista, Ga.) 1875-1881, November 24, 1876, Image 1

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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.