Newspaper Page Text
SOMETHING OUR FOREFATHERS
LAUGHED OVER.
An interesting snipe hunt took place
at Wadsworth, Nev., reports the Reno
Gazette. Tlio method of sucking snipe
had heon explained to a young man who
had recently arrived there, and he was
eager to go on a hunt. So, fully in
structed, he took up liis position on the
top of a big rook on a hill overlooking
the town. He carried with him a rod
signal lantern and a big dinner-bell.
From dark until 10 o’clock, for more
than two hours, that young man stood
on the rock waving his lantern and
holding the Back. Sometimes he would
ring the dinner-bell with all his might,
and then he would shout like one pos
sessed. He kept up an incessant din,
never doubting for a moment that the
snipe had done their work well, and he
was fully impressed with the necessity
of patience and perseverance to secure a
good bag of birds. While this perform
ance was going on the people of Wads
worth had all turned out to watch it.
There whs the young hunter high up on
the hill, in the red glaro of his lantern,
his yells and shouts ringing in their
ears. IIP was too good. The “boys”
just rolled over and over on the flat,
delirious with joy, kicking up their heels
in an ecstasy of delight. They laughed
fo much that they could laugh no more.
But still, when the red light would be
swungand the shouts of “Sni-pe, sni-pe,
sni-pe, O, sni-pe,” would ascend from
the hill, they would experience fresh
convulsions, and double up like young
sters stricken with colic after a feast of
green apples. Suddenly the lamp was
extinguished and all was silent on the
hill. lie had “ tumbled ” and was gone.
fatti’s Home in south i fates.
Patti has fixed her country home in
Breconshire, South Wales, where she
some time since bought a property
calledjCraig-y-nos Castle, and it is a curi
ous coincidence that Craigy is said to
mean, in the patois of the district,
nightingale. The castle, an Elizabeth
ian structure, is finely placed on the
slope of a hill, and on its improvement
and that of its grounds the great prima
donna has already expended many thou
sand pounds. The castle is two hours’
drive from the Swansea station, but a
victoria, with four beautiful pet ponies,
soon carries visitors over the ground,
nnd there is talk of a railroad which will
give a station near the castle. A visitor
describes its mistress as singing all over
the house and garden. The house is
crammed with beautiful things—offerings
to its mistress. Such are the splendid
plate and Exquisite china and glass used
in the table service. At this retreat the
diva sumptuously entertains her friends,
and lately surprised them with a splendid
display of fireworks by a London pyro
technist, lighting up vividly the woods
and rocks of hex lovely domain. When
the display was ended, and the moon
emerged from the clouds, there was a
call for a song, and, stepping out on the
terrace window, whither a piano was
w heeled, she sang, amid a silence broken
only by the low purling of a brook over
the pebbles, “ Home, Sweet Home.”
WHAT KILTED THE OYSTER.
Pick up that oyster shell. Do you
see a little hole in the hard roof of the
oyster’s house ? That explains why
there is a shell but no oyster. A little
creature called whelk, living in a spiral
shell, dropped one day on the roof of the
oyster’s house. “The little innocents,”
someone has called the whelk. “The
little villains,” an oyster would call
them, for the whelk has an anger, and
bores and bores and bores until he
reaches the oyster itself, and the poor
oyster finds he is going up through his
own roof. He goes up but he never
comes down.
A writer speaks of noticing on the
shores of Brittany the holes in the oyster
bored by its enemy, both burglar and
murderer, I should call him.
“ A little sin, a little sin ! ” cries a boy
who may have been caught saying a
profane word, or strolling with a bad
associate, or reading a bad book, or sip
ping a glass of beer. “Don’t make toe
much of it! ” he says.
Young friend, that is the whelk on the
oyster’s back. You have given the
tempter a chance to use his auger, and
he will bore and bore till he reaches the
center of all moral worth in the soul,
and draws your very life away.
An amusing case has recently come to
trial in England. A plaintiff named
Tanner had a claim for compensation
against a company for a piece of land
belonging to him, part of which they
had taken. A jury was impaneled to
assess the compensation, and tlie jurors
were sent to view the ground. They
were taken to the ground in carnages,
and upon their arrival a champagne
lunch was found waiting them, fur
nished by the claimant. Probably ex
hilarated by the good things
for them, the jury gave thejelaimant
heavier damages than he hud asked.
The company objected, and sitid the
jury were biased after the luncheon,
which one of the counsel jocularly de
scribed as “Tanner’s feast.” After a
long discussion as to champagne lunch
eons, the Lord Chief Justice gi anted a
rule nisi , and the plaintiff will probably
be obliged to stand anew luncheon.
Miss Chapman, the lately weddet.
wife of Gen. Grant’s son, is the daugh
ter of W. S. Chapman, a wealthy San
Francisco capitalist, whose bold and gi
gantic operations in real estate have
attracted attention. The young lady is
a petite demi-blonde, with a wealth of
the lightest light-brown hair and soft
light-brown eyes. Jesse is -22 years u.
age.
A young lady at an examination in
grammar was asked “why the noun
bachelor was singular?” She replied im
mediately, “Because it is very sfngmar
they don’t get married,”
flic lima Twin
Will W. Singleton, Editor & Publisher.
VOL. VI.
UNDER TliK VII AN I)EL11C It,
I!¥ ILDEOKRTE.
Do you remember, darling,
Under the light of the chandelier,
The soft, low hum of voice*,
Softly low, distinct and clear t
With the music in the parlor,
And uu and pa not far away,
While the light of summer faded,
Aud night knocked, in her cloak of gray ?
Do you remember, -sloareet,
A* I watched your red lips blow,
Liko Homo red roß© In summer.
In an amber after-glow?
Do you remember, Winnie,
Ab I gave to you my hand,
That wiJJi went my heart,
A delight yet strange and grand?
Bo we parted, Winn if red,
Under the light of the chandelier.
Are you sorry, darling;
Are you sorry, very sorry, doar?
Parted to meet in after years;
Perhaps to meet and love again.
Still of love wo did not speak
Yet, and vet the heart felt pain.
THE QUAKER DETECTIVE.
We were five passengers in all—two
ladies on the hack seat, and a middle
aged gentleman and a Quaker and my
self on the front.
The two ladies might have been moth
er and daughter, aunt and niece, gov
erness and charge, or might have sus
tained another relationship which makes
it proper for two ladies to travel togeth
er unattended.
The middle-aged gentleman was
sprightly and talkative. Ho soon struck
up an acquaintance with the ladies, to
ward whom in his zeal to do he rather
overdid the agreeable—bowing and smil
ing and chatting over his shoulder in a
way painfully suggestive, at his time of
life, of a “ crick” in the neck. He was
evidently a gay Lothario.
The Quaker wore the uniform of his
sect, and confined his speech, as many a
parliamentarian would save his credit
by doing, to simply “yeas” and “nays.”
As for myself, I make it ati invariable
rule of the road to he merely a looker-on
and listen.
Toward evening I was aroused from
one of those reveries into which a young
man, without being a poet or a lover,
will sometimes fall, by an abrupt query
from the talkative gentleman:
“Are you aimed, sir? ”
“I am not,” I answered, astonished,
no doubt visibly, at the question.
“I am sorry to hear it,” lie replied,
“ for, before reaching our next stopping
place, it will he several hours in the
night, and we must pass over a portion
of the road on which more than one
robbery is reported to have been com
mitted.”
The ladies turned pale, but the strang
er did his best to reassure them.
“Not that I think there is the slight
est danger at present,” ho resumed,
“only when one is responsible for the
safety of the ladies, you know, such a
thing as a pistol in reach would materi
ally add to one’s confidence.”
“Your principles, my friend,” ad
dressing the Quaker, “ I presume, are
as much opposed to carrying as to using
carnal weapons ? ”
“ Yes,” was the response.
“Have tho villains murdered any of
their victims V” the elderly lady nervous
ly inquired.
“Or have they contented themselves
with —with—plundering them ?” added
the younger, in a timorous voice.
“Decidedly the latter,” tire amiable
gentleman hastened to give assurance ;
and we are none of us prepared to offer
resistance in case of attack, so nothing
worse than robbery can possibly befall
us.”
Then, after blaming his thoughtless
ness in having unconsciously introduced
a disagreeable subject, the gentleman
quite excelled himself in efforts to raise
the spirits of the company, and had suc
ceeded so well by the time night iiad set
in that all had quite forgotten or remem
bered their fears to laugh at them. *
Our genial companion fairly talked
himself hoarse; perceiving which ho
took from his pocket a box of newly
invented “cough candy,” and, after
passing it to the ladies, he helped him
self to tho balance and tossed the paper
out of the window.
He was in the midst of a high en
comium on tho new nostrum, more
than half the efficacy of which, he in
sisted, depended on its being taken by
suction, when a sin-ill whistle was
heard, and almost immediately tho coach
stopped and two faces, hideously black
ened, presented themselves one at each
window.
“ Sorry to trouble you,” said the man
on the right, acknowledging with a
bow two ladylike screams from the
back seat; “but business is business,
and ours will soon be over if things go
smoothly.”
“Of course, gentlemen, you will
spare, as far as may Vie consistent with
your disagreeable duty, the feelings of
these ladies,” appealed the polite pas
senger in his blandest manner.
“ Oh 1 certainly; they shall be first at
tended to, and shall not be required to
leave, their places, unless their conduct
rtoders it necessary. ”
‘ ‘ And now, ladies,” continued th
robber, the barrel of his pistol glitter
ing in the light of tho coach lan' “be
so good as to pass your purses, watches
Devoted, to the Interests of Marion Coun y and Adjoining Sections
BUKNA VISTA, MARION COUNTY. GA„ SATURDAY, JANUARY I, ISBI.
and such other trinkets as may be ac
cessible without too much troublo.”
The ladies came down handsomely,
and were not further molested.
One by one the rest got out. The
middle-aged gentleman’s turn came
first. He submitted with a winning
grace, and was robbed like a very Ches
terfield.
My own affairs, like the sum I lost,
are scarcely worth mentioning.
The Quaker’s turn came next Ho
quietly handed over his pocket-book and
watch, and, when asked if ho had any
other valuables, said, “Nay.”
A Quaker’s word is good, even among
thieves, so, after a hasty “good-night,”
the robber thrust his pistol into his
pocket and, with his two companions,
one of whom had held the reins of the
leaders, was about departing.
“Stop 1” exclaimed the Quaker in a
tone more of command than of request.
“Stop! What for?” returned the
other, hi evident surprise.
“ For at least two good reasons,” was
the reply, emphasized with a couple of
derringers cocked and presented.
“Help!” shouted the robber.
“Stop!” the Quaker exclaimed; “and
if any of thy sinful companions advance
a step to thy relief, the spirit will surely
move me to blow thy brains out.”
The robber at the opposite window
and the one at the leaders' heads thought
it a good time to leave.
‘ ‘Now, get in, friend, ” said the Quaker,
still covering his man, “ take the middle
seat; but first deliver up the pistol.”
The other hesitated.
“ Thee had better not delay. I feel
the spirit begin to move my right fore
finger.”
The robber did as he was directed,
and the Quaker took his placo at his
side, giving the new-comer the middle
of the seat.
The driver, who was frightened half
out of his wits, now set forward at a
rapid rate. The lively gentleman soon
recovered his vivacity. He was espe
cially facetious on the Quaker’s prowess.
“You’re a rum Quaker, you are.
Why, you don’t quake worth a cent.”
“I am not a ‘Shaking Quaker,’if
that’s what thee means.”
“Of the ‘Hickory,’ or, rathei, the
‘ Old Hickory,’ stripe, I should say,”
retorted the lively man. But the Quaker
relapsing into his usual monosyllables,
the conversation flagged.
Sc.“nei' iiun we expected the coacl
stopped where we were to have supper
and a change of horses. We had de
ferred a redistribution of our effects un
til wo should reach this place, as the
dim light of the coach lamp would have
rendered the process somewhat difficult.
It was now necessary that it should
be attended to at once, as our jovial
companion had previously announced
his intention of leaving us at this point.
He proposed a postponement till after
supper, which he offered to go and
order.
“Nay,” urged the Quaker, with an
approach of abruptness, and laying his
hand on tho other’s arm. “Business
beforp pleasure; and, for business, there
no time like the present.
“ Will thee be good enough to search
the prisoner?” he said to me, still keep
ing his hand in a friendly way on the
passenger’s arm.
I did so, but not one of the stolen ar
ticles could be found.
“ He must have got rid of them in the
coach,” the gay gentleman suggested,
and immediately offered to go and
search.
“Stop!” 'thundered the Quaker,
tightening his grasp.
The man turned pale and struggled to
release his arm. In an instant one of
‘he derringers was leveled at his head.
“ Stir a hand or a foot, and you are a
dead man ! ”
The Quaker must have been awfully
excited, so completely to forget both the
language and principles of his persua
sion.
Placing the other pistol in my hand,
with directions to fire on the first of the
two men that made a suspicious move
ment, he went to work on tlia Lothario,
from whose pockets, in less time than it
takes to tell it, he produced every item
of the missing property, to the utter
amazement of the two ladies, who had
begun in no measured terms to remon
strate against the shameful treatment
that gentleman was receiving.
The Quaker, I need scarcely add,
was no Quaker at all, but a shrewd de
tective, who had been set on the track
of a band of desperadoes, of whom our
middle-aged friend, who didn’t look near
so middle-aged when his wig was off—
was the chief. The -robbeqy had been
most adroitly planned. The leader of
the gang had taken passage in the coach,
and after learning, as he supposed, our
defenseless condition, had given the
signal to his companions by throwing
out the scrap of paper already men
tioned. After the unexpected capture
of the first robber, it was attempted to
save the booty by secretly passing it to
the accomplice—still believed to be un
suspected—who counted on being able
tei make off with it at the next stopping
place. The result was that both, for a
season, did the State some service.
A RACE FOR LIFE.
“I was once,” said an old hunter,
“ chasing a small fox with half a dozen
hounds. They had been pushing him
pretty closely for some three hours, and
lie was finally foTced to try to gain his
den in a ledge of rocks. Now, it hap
pens to boa fact that, n fox always likes to
put as much distance as possible between
himself and his pursuers when he takes
to liis domicile, and as a consequence he
makes the highest possible speed when
finishing the run. In this particular in
stance Reynard started on a straight
run for his home, when nearly a mile
distant, and was soon 200 pr 300 yards
ahead of the hounds and widening tho
gap. When less than a quarter of a
mile from home he was intercepted by
three fresh dogs, which, hearing the
chase, had started to ioin it from a point
on a line with tho loxs kenneling place.
Of course they drove him back on a lino
nearly parallel with the course on which
he had been running, and it looked as
though he would have to make a circuit
of two or three miles to reach home.
The fresh hounds having literally
taken up the chase and carried it back
past my own at an angle, my dogs left
the trail, and, by a short cut, joined the
intruders, and the whole pack was soon
in full cry within 100 yards of the fox,
which was now rnnniner directly away
from home. At this point the fox left
for the woods and took to an upper field
that sloped abruptly down some 800
yards to a narrow valley. He had barely
disappeared over the brow of the hill
when nine dogs broke from the woods
over the fence, all of them except the
leader with heads erect, looking eagerly
for their prey.
I was standing on the opposite hill
nnd had an unobstructed view, and care
fully noted all tho movements of the fox
and his pursuers. As soon as he had
cleared the fence and before the hounds
were in a position to see him he put on
a magnificent burst of speed for one
hundred yards down the hill until he
reached a large stump three feet in
height and perfectly flat on top. Leap
ing upon it lie lay down with his nose
pointing in the direction of his noisy
pursuers and flattened himself out so
completely that he was practically in
visible to me, aud I doubt whether a
man would have noticed him passing
within two rods of th stump unless he
ivas looking for something on it.
The hounds came down the hill with
a rush, some taking one side of the
stump and some the other. There w-as
no abatement in their speed until they
reached nearly the opposite side of the
field, when the leader discovered that
the trail was “lost,” and giving the
well-known signal the pack were thrown
into confusion and the search to pick it
up began. As soon as the hounds had
gone a safe distance beyond him, Rey
nard leaped from his perch and made a
bee line for home. It was fifteen min
utes before the hounds made out the
trail, and he had ample time to reach
the ledge before they were again in pur
suit of him.
The proposed agitation in Great Brit
ain for the abolition of the House of
Lords will grow in popularity if the
policy of obstruction to all measures of
roferm on the part of that body is ob
ftinately pursued. It is now announced
that the House of Lords will refuse to
consider the Hare and Rabbits bill, a
measure intended to put a stop to the
depredations of these animals upon the
crops, by allowing tenant farmers to kill
all found upon their land ; which is cer
tainly a very mild measure, as it does
not interfere with the animals on adja
cent land, where they may do almost as
much damage. The damage from these
pests is national as well as personal. A
writer in the Westminster Review esti
mates that the cost of feeding a rabbit
when running wild among the crops
amounts to $‘2.50, while the market
value of the animal is only 20 cents.
This represents a loss of $2,000 on every
ton of rabbit meat, and, as 10,000 tons
are annually sent to market, the total
loss amounts to $20,000,000. Eight
years ago a member of Parliament said
that, in one district alone of his county,
p.s much as 18,000 acres were untenanted
on account of tho game, and that, if
hares and rabbits could be ‘ ‘ kept with
in reasonable bounds,” 40,000 more
sheep could be kept in the county. A
couple of hares, it is said, will eat and
destroy as much as a sheep. It is
against reforms which aim to improve
the productive powers of the country
hat the House of Lords sets itself in
pposition.
The British Government is now build
ing at Chatham a naval monster called
the Polyphemus. This vessel, says a
a correspondent, which is utterly unlike
anything previously seen in the royal
navy, is designed as an armored sheet
plated ram of 2,640 tons and 6,500
horse-power. She is built almost en
tirely of steel, and as a torpedo ram she
will be the most formidable vessel in the
world, and the opinion has been formed
that there is no vessel afloat, no matter
of what description, which oould survrre
after one or two blows from her ram.
CHANGE OR SCENE.
We all need change, no matter how
“contented” our dispositions may be.
A perpetual round of duties has a de
pressing effect both on the body aud
mind. It wearies us day by day to seo
tho same faces, view the same things,
hear the same voices, smell tho same
odors, listen to the same platitudes.
After long experience at home we know
exactly how the tea will taste, how tlie
sirloin of boef is likely to be served up,
and what probability there is of the
mutton being tough, or the steak under
done. We know, too, exactly what wife
will say when we oomo homo, and the
exact tone in which she will say it.
When people live together day a f ter
day, month after month, and year after
year, they find it difficult to find sub
jects for profitable conversation. They
are talked out. It is probably owiug to
the barrenness of subjects that tho wife
enlarges on domestic themes, and wear
ies the husband with a recital of her
small perplexities. This monotony can
best be combated by change of air; for
with this comes variation of scene; with
that arrives change of thought, and with
that, again, start up new trains of ideas
and expansion of mind. To go for
change of air is, or ought to he, an ex
pedition in quest of information, and a
search for something new. From it one
returns with a fresh fund of anecdotes, a
new collection of stories, a fuller reper
toire of experiences, and an additional
store of illustrations, which, for months
to come, serve to brighten the dull reali
ties of life. It is obvious that if the
main object of change of air is to get
over the results of monotony, pater
familias should not always travel with
his wife and family. A brief separation
will teach them to value each other
more highly than ever when reunited.
A LOST FAMILY BIBLE AND A FORi-
UNE OF $100,000,000.
An advertisement recently appeared
in the Windham County Transcript of
"ering a reward of SSOO for the recovery
of the Bible that once belonged to Mary
Stevens, who died in East Thompson in
1804. The last known of this Bible is
that it was carried away by Robert
Stevens (husband to Mary Stevens),
when he deserted her about the year
1780.
The advertisement is the key to a ro
mance which the Times has already
given in substance. The Alary Stevens
referred to was the beautiful and accom
plished daughter of Lord John Town
ley of Lancashire, England. She was
bom in 1827, and, while yet a young
maid, she eloped with a man named
Williams. Little is known of his his
tory, but it is probable that his family
was of lower social standing than the
Townleys, inasmuch as the bitter oppo
sition of the latter to the marriage of
Mary and her lover led to the elopement.
To elude pursuit, when they quit England
they assumed the name of Stevens.
Mrs. Stevens took her mother’s family
Bible with her, which contained a com
plete family record. They settled in
Windham county in this State. Nine
children were bom to them. Soon after
the birth of the last child, Stevens de
serted his wife, taking with him tho
family Bible. Just before her death,
Mrs. Stevens acquainted her youngest
daughter with the family history.
Stevens died in Pomfret, Windham
county, in 1791, and anxious search is
now being made for the Bible, which, it
is supposed, he had in his possession at
the time of his death. It contains evi
dence which will establish the claims of
the heirs of Mary Townley, his wife, to
an estate estimated at $100,000,000.
Undoubtedly the Bible is stowed away
in some attic in Eastern Connecticut.—
Hartford Times.
31USK.
Musk is a concrete substance, found
in an animal having a near affinity to
the deer tribe, a native of Thibet, China
and Siberia. The musk deer is a timid
animal, and rarely appears during the
day; consequently the musk collectors
watch and surprise it at night. The
best musk comes from China, and to
have it genuine it should be purchased
in the natural pod or bag, as it is very
often adulterated. Tho Bengal musk is
inferior, and that from Russia the worst
of all. The hair on the pod of the
musk is a fawn color; that on the inferior
a dirty white. A variety of musk is
found in the musk-rat of Canada, au
animal about the size of a small rabbit.
Musk is of a bitter taste, and of an odor
more powerful than anything known;
substances in its neighborhood become
strongly infected by it, and, when once
perfumed with it, long retain the scent.
It has been known to affect chests of tea
placed at a considerable distance, oven
though both had been packed up in
leaden boxes, for which reason the East
India Company gave an order not to
import musk and tea in the same sliips.
Many persons dislike the odor. It has
the property, when employed in very
small quantities, of augmenting tho
scent of other substances, without im
parting its own.
General abstract truth is the most
precious of all blessings ; without it a
man is blind ; it is the eye of reason.—
Rousseau.
Amount of Subscription, $),25.
NO. 17.
Mu. RnnPATH drives a most shocking
picture of the sufferings endured by the
tenants of Lord Lansdowne’s estates in
Kerry. These estates cover about twen
ty square miles. They have been gov
erned for several generations by one
family of agents, the Trenches, who
have had the full support of tbo land
lords in all their odious nets of oppres
sion. The “ rules ”of the estate cause
the special hardships. They prohibit
marriages among the tenants, except
with the permission of the agents, or
the sheltering of any person, whethe
relative or not, in any cabin on the
estate. Tenants’ or laborers* children
who do marry without permission are
ejected at onoe. The common punish
ment for sheltering strangers or visitors
is a line of a gale of rent. A gale is half
a year’s rent. Several deaths have been
caused by the operation of these rules.
Tenants have been fined for sheltering
their own children. Women about to
be confined have been turned out to suf
fer the inclemencies of winter. Rules
like these are common in Kerry and
other counties of Ireland. Lord Lans
dov/ne deserves credit only for inventt
ing them. They constitute the chief
difference between the lot of the En
glish laborer and that of the Lush ten
ant, and are as near an approach to the
condition of slavery as could be realized
in a country pretending to be free.
FORGETFULNESS.
There are well-authenticated instances
of persons w'ho suddenly found that they
could not remember their own names.
An Ambassador at St. Petersburg was
once in this case, when calling at a
house where he was not known by the
servants, and he had to apply to his
companion for the necessary informa
tion. The names of common things are
sometimes strangely forgotten. The
wife of an eminent jurist who consulted
Dr. Trousseau, of Paris, told him that
her husband would say to her, “Give
me my—my —dear me! my—-you know,”
and he would point to his head. “Your
hat?” “Yes, my hat.” Sometimes,
again, he would ring the bell before go
ing out and say to the servant, “Give
me myum—timbrel—umbrel, oh, dear !”
“Your umbrella ?” “ Oh, yes ;my um
brella.” And yet at the very time his
conversation was as sensible as ever.
He wrote or read of or discussed most
difficult points of law. A patient will
often use a form of circumlocution to
express his meaning; thus, one man
who could not remember scissors would
say, “It is what we cut with.” —Popular
Science Monthly.
DISCREET DEAFNESS.
People who openly boast that their
eyes and ears are always open make a
great mistake. It is unwise to be too
observant; and it is just as well if we
are conveniently deaf at times. There
arc so many things which it is painful
to hear—many which we ought not to
hear—very many which, if heard, will
disturb the temper, corrupt simplicity
and modesty, detract from contentment
and happiness, that every one should be
educated to take in or shut out sounds,
according to their pleasure. We gam
much by so wise a course. If all the
petty things said of one by heedless or
ill-natured idlers were to be brought
home to him he would become a mere
wallring pin-cushion, stuck full of sharp
remarks. If we would be happy, when
among good men, we should open our
ears ; when among bad men, shut them,
it is not worth while to hear what onr
neighbors say about our children, what
our rivals about our business, our dress,
or our affairs. This art of not hearing,
though untaught in our schools, is by
no means unpracticed in society. We
have noticed that a w’ell-bred woman
never hears a vulgar or impertinent
remark. A kind of discreet deafness
saves one from many insults, from much
blame, from not a little connivance in
dishonorable conversation.
President Hayes made a reply to an
office-seeker recently that sounds like
Lincoln. He was asked to fill a vacancy
in the army by the appointment of a
young man whose great-great-grandfa
ther was a naval officer during the Rev
olutionary war, whose great-grandfather
was a gallant soldier of the army, and
whose father was a distinguished ex
irmy officer. ‘ ‘ Don’t you think it about
time that one of that family earned a liv
ing for himself?” remarked the Presi
dent with a quiet smile.
The telephone made a mistake in Bos
ton. It began to think it was so valua
ble that people could not do without it
and so it raised its price. But Boston
people can do without anything except
culture and pork and beans, so
they are gradually freezing out the tele
phone. Nearly all the principal sub
scribers have signed a paper agreeing to
discontinue the instrument when the
new tariff goes into effect. It will make
the phone “hello” with surprise when
it finds it has no one to whisper to.
Ex-Senator Dorsey, Secretary of the
Republican National Committee, and
ex-Senator Barnum, Chairman of the
Democmtic National Committee, are in
timate friends, and are associated in
business together at 115 Broadway. New
York. They differ only in political
opinions, and there they differ widely.
I PROTECTION FROM LIGHTNING.
* A knight of the olden time in full
armor was probably as safe from the ef
fects of a thunder-storm as if he hail a
lightning-rod continually beside him ;
and one of the Romau Emperors devised
a perfectly-secure retreat in a thunder
storm in the form of a subterranean
vault of iron. Ho was probably led to
this by thinking of a mode of keeping
out missiles, having no notion that a
thin shell of soft copper would have
been quite as effective as massive iron.
But thoso Emperors who, as Suetonius
tells us, wore laurel crowns or seal-skin
robes, or descended into underground
caves or cellars on the appearance of a
thunder-storm, woro not protected at
all. Even in France, where special at
tention is paid to the protection of build
ings from lightning, dangerous accidents
have occurred where all projier precau
tions seemed to have been taken. But
on more careful examination it was
usually found that someone essential
element was wanting. The most com
mon danger seems to lie in fancying
that a lightning-rod is necessarily prop
erly connected with the earth if it dips
into a mass of water. Far from it. A
well-constructed reservoir full of water
is not a good “ earth ” for a lightning
rod. The hotter the stone-work and
cement the lens are they fitted for this
special purpose, and great mischief has
been done by forgetting this.— Nature.
HUMAN WORK AND HUMAN WASTP
Work means waste, equally to a hu
man body and a locomotive engine.
“More work, more waste,” is a motto
alike true of tho mechanic’s ap
paratus and of the mechanic himself.
Not an action, wo repeat, is performed
by us which is not accompanied by an
expenditure of force derived from and
accompanied by a proportional waste of
substance. The movements of muscles,
the beating of the heart, the winking of
an eyelid, the thinking a thought, entail
wear and tear upon the museles that
work and the brain-cells that think.
Every action necessitates bodily waste
and corresponding physical repair.
Waste, however, cannot of necessity be
a single and final process in a living
body—unless, indeed, we were bom
with a full complement of matter, and
were permitted in the order of nature to
live on the principals with which we
had been provided, instead of wisely us
ing that principal as a means of gaining
a livelihood through the interest it ac
quired. That wo are not so constituted
is an evident fact, hence onr bodies de
mand pretty constant repair as a com
panion action to that of work, labor and
duty. This process of repair consists in
the reception of matter from the outer
w orld, in the transformation of this mat
ter into ourselves, and in its utilization
in the work and repair of the frame.
Such matter we shortly name food, and
the processes whereby it is converted
into onr owm bodily substance we term
digestion.— Chambers' Journal.
Cornelius J. Vanderbilt, the erring
brother, who got $1,000,000 out of his
father’s estate by going to court, has
started for Cairo, Egypt, where a com
pany will be formed at his expense, com
posed of guides, spearmen and wood
choppers, and with three American gen
tlemen he will set out on an exploring
expedition up the River Nile and over
the adjacent country. They will journey
into the Hoiy Land, spend considerable
time there, and also make a thorough
tour of the city of Jerusalem. On their
return to Cairo they will take a more
southern course. From Cairo they will
cross the Mediterranean sea, and visit
Constantinople. From there they will
go to Greece, where considerable time
will be spent in examining the antiqui
ties of that country ; after which Prussia
will be visited, and the party will next
go to St. Petersburg. Mr. Vanderbilt
has heretofore been principally notorious
because Iris father snubbed him, and on
account of his incorrigible disposition to
incur debts for the old Commodore to
pay. He never had money, while his
brothers were always flush, so he waa
compelled to prey upon society. But
now he has the funds, and is using them
to advantage.
THE C'A REEVE IRISH LA W BREAKER.
No Irishman ever breaks the law with
out having one eye watching over his
shoulder, to be sure his way of escape is
open. 1 remember when I first went
over a characteristic story was current.
A man was under sentence of death for
some bad crime. A gentleman whom he
used to live near chanced to know that
the man had meant to shoot him. He
went to the jail the day before the man
was to be hanged, and said to him : ‘ ‘ You
might as well tell me. Pat, since it [can
now make j no difference to you, why
you did not shoot me; for I know
you meant to do it?” The gentleman
was a capital shot, and always carried
arms, and was known to be very
resolute. The answer was: “Well,
your Honor, it’s true it will make no
odds to me now ; so I’ll tell ye. I had
ye covered twice from behind a ditch,
and as I was going to pull the trigger
the thought went through my head, ‘ By
heavens, if I miss him, it’s all up with
me.’”— Macmillan's Magazine.
THE CROWING.
Do not blame the rooster for bragging
over every egg that is laid in the family.
Only human nature, nothing more. You
remember that when that bouncing boy
arrived at your house, it was not the
mother who went about doing the
crowing. ___
A man near Houston, Texas, made
1600 per acre this year from the cultiva
tion of domestic blackberries. Tire
yield was 3,000 quarts per acre, which
sold at 20 cents a quart.
“Is it cheaper to board or keep
house?” asks a young wife. It is
olieaper to
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