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STRIVE ON.
What though an undertaking
Reach but a fruitless end,
Afouldst thou, thy toil forsaking,
To disappointment bend!
Droop not beneath disaster.
More sternly fare the gale!
Then yet mavst prove a master,
And o’er calm waters sail.
—Melville Milne.
A LINE FENCE.
“If there ain’t them hens again,” said
Elia.-Long, setting down the milk-pail
on the kitchen porch with a jerk. The
•tout, pleasant-faced paused in the woman to whom he
apoke doorway with her
bare arms twisted into her calico apron,
*nd regarded tlie offenders mildly.
the They wi-re straggling through one of
numerous gaps in the broken-down
fence which separated Mr. Long’* garden
from that of his neighbor. Alvin Taleott
— a procession of nine, clucking in a
crooning way with and stepping high. They
ami- on composed deliberation,
pausing among the skirting cucumbers with a
contemplative air. the radishes
after a dissatisfied survey, and settling
down fit last, among the tomatoes with a
chorus of victorious clink-.
-ft ain’t going to do,” said Mr. f.ong.
wiping a disturbed face with his old red
silk handkerchief, -f ain't going to
•taud
• ll ain’t likely he's thought of it." said
his wife,
“He. can’t think of nothing but that
pe-ky croquet business,” rejoined Mr.
Iiovn:. jerking his head toward his neigh
Isir' yard, from which the sound of
von os and the click of mallets proceeded,
“1 ain't going to stand still and get ate
out of bouse and home by nobody’s hens,
if yon be.”
•‘(if:, laws, Elias”' Mrs. Long began,
in easy remonstrance: but her husband
had - :/ed an old tin dipper from the
ponb-helf, and was making for the to
niato patch as fasl a-liissixfy years would
permit. There was a wild cackling and
•cutti ing as he threw his dipper into the
mto of the scratching flock, pursued
tin unrelentingly to the furthest possible
pm: ami leaned exhausted!}’ against
the liken gate of the dilapidated fence,
ll was sunken with the weight of the
main friendly chats held across it since
the long ago period of its erection; chats
held at all times of day uiul upon all sub
jerk- tiiizi politics, sewingsorieties,crochet mowing-machines, far
raised rs, cake recipes, patterns,
etc.
M' Talcott’s croquet, ground was be
fore bint. Mr. Taleott himself stood near,
leaning the, weight of his small and wiry
li jier-on on his mallet ; hi.-lint over one ear,
if- cheerful, round fa re shining with
eagerness, his whole attitude expressive
of watchful and profound absorption.
His eye* were fixed upon the long tig
tire of Hart Coiling, the. champion
croquet - player of the town,
who stood nl the other end of
tin ground in the net of striking
Old I>r. Blair, upon whose ball lie was
riously preparing from to his operate, ..........I him se
retiremenl on (lie well
•ton, ; little Mr. Metjuirk. who had step
pedseross from hi- grocery to take a
fourth hand, and who was keeping an
eye on that edifice, fidgeted about in nor
vousapprehension and dangerous pro.v
imitv to the upraised mallet.
Mi. Long surveyed the scene with dis
plcasure. He had, origi........ strongly
disapproved of hud Mr. TiilrottV croquet
ground. He not been sure that cro
qtict. was not on 11 level with “kcerils”
nnd gambling; and that a deacon of the
church and a member of the town conn
cii should countenance and encourage .-mb
iniquity was a subject for grave retie.:
tion.
From this after frequent glimpses and
occasional considerations of the game,
over f he fence he had softened to the
opinion of that it was a waste of time und a
puck foolishness; fulling gradually
iiit" the habit, despite hi* conviction*, of
oh-ctving it regularly Mr graduating doorstep, from
the fence to Taleott' and
thu- acquiring rnetluds. a tolerable knowledge of
its baleful He had even been
known to manifest an interest in the
game, to tender advice in a crisis, to give,
hi- opinion upon a disputed point, to
join But he in hail applause always of considered a good stroke, hi.
that
pre-om e was something ol a reproof and
restraint. Just now, as he stood frown
ing down the long bewieketed ground,
nothing could have convinced him that
he bad ever reheated in the least from
his primal attitude of rigorous disup
promt
“I declare for il !" said Mr. Taleott.
howling rx’ultiegly, as the doctor’s ball came
into the corner; “we're getting
right along! ( ome 111 . . lie went onalablv,
turning to Mi. Long “ll looksns though
we.ltiv dll this time, efl.
Mi Long slutted In- position.
•ion II have to keep them Hen* of
yourn to home, said. “ I hey ru spoiling
my garden jest al.vout as last as they can
i* 1 Vi 1
Mi, I ah'oU » s smiling Saee t hardened, i it
was not the first time Ins mughlior had
mentioned the hen-; though never hither
to with so much decision.
“I dont really; know as _ it s any of my
concern, lu- said: you emit jest cx
jar: lor me to be cha-ii.g liens cvcrlast
mg 1 .
“I don t know but what you better be
rh.'ising hens than wasting time m d
tins here, responded h.s neighbor, sur
vcyrng the croquet-grouml with steruue.-s
iu h> long fcatun-d face.
Mi l aleott s small, bright eyes snapped.
‘A oil haiu't no call, as 1 know of. to
give no Long opinion turned whatsoever.” he retorted hi
Mr his eyes upon
irate countenance. He was slower to
wuger than his uei thbor. “About them
hens. '■ he said ; “1 rut her guess this line
fence better be fixed up: need* it. They
couldn't get in then unless they should
go round by the orchard, and that ain't
likely.” ■
1 h'aint Iteou calculating to layout
»ny thing on fence- jest at pre-cut," -aid
Mr Taleott, bracing himself 011 hi
short legs defiantly hi
"The laws allows," rejoined
neighbor “that a man's obliged to pay
halt toward fixing up a fence that -been
coiurpUtiued hadn't of been " calculating to layout
“I
no mouev on fem e-. Me.TuU ott repealed,
hi- voice rising Hi a sharp pitch
M Long's thin face gre w grim.
“X don't know a> 1 ever heard that the
law makers exception-of people that are
.* little i lns, beobserved.
Mr. Taleott gasped. W\> hard, remind
for the middle w tek t
moments inmmtug through
et. and had fftiled to go
*».r. Mr*. T*lcaU , had out of the 1 ou-e
come
*
“5 want you lo take in some of my iV
ing to Hannah," she said. They h;a
known each other by their first names foF
some fifty years.
When .... Mr* ,, Long T opened , the kitchen . .. , „
door at 6 oclock the next morning and
in the momentbefore the fried'wk hS
si/zled itself alloittr unite brown fZltleTceZltraZ and the coffee
to
themselves upon beneath an her unexpected cireum
stance just eyes. down
‘•Elias," she said, ‘‘he's tearing
tlie line fence. He's got Job Dwyer
helptng hnn. She was devoid of sub
P™'"* concerning the fact; her voice
was merely inquiring. rather
Mr. Long came to the door slow
v - H” stood there rubbing his chin the.
doubtfully . and then went down
S,, T“- ftnd t<,ward llis neighbor’s yard.
NIr - Taleott was working energetically.
'j pile of worm-eaten post-, pulled up In
Jlo- *»»'• roots, A and broken f,, rU , |‘ r pickets, do «“ Job lay Uw before S er
similar . . heap.
W “ M a
. iahott appeared unaware of Ins
««*»>»«'• presence, lie snapped off an
o'hci picket without speaking. 11c wore
a forbidding look which set strangely on
I*'" orduiartly good humored face.
“I bought likely you d think better of
' • ' ,r l ?>"% '’'’served, with his eyes
fixed wanly on the other “This fence
xa« been want.ng fixing for quite a spell.
ft | don <Iowi.: t know thought, as t s worth mobbe, while little tearing fix
a
mg up d do it- But I m willing to do
"W “»•“«*. jf la ' ca,cula ting to l.mhi
one. Alter an unresponsive pause:
‘'. v<m r< ' calculating to build a new one, I
s K,s< ' •’
“Ve«, 1 lie,” Mr. Taleott rejoined, with
acrimonious promptness. “Jest fetch up
that crowbar, Job. This post seems ton
took root,”
neighbor's Something in his voice shook his
composure. But. ho carried
off' his discomfiture creditably.
“Well,” lie said, “it'll be a good thing,
I s’pose it ought to have been done be
fore.” He pulled a grass and chewed it
undauntedly for t wo or three minutes be
fore he went into tlie house,.
“Well? - ’said his wife, as she set the
dish of pork ou the table.
' ‘lle’sset out to build a new line fence,”
said Mr. Long, taking his scat and shov
ing his knife up and down between the
tines of his fork.
His wife turned to look at him. Her
sharp the intuition rooted out the dark side
of statement.
“Yon huin't had words with him
Elia-”’she said, a quick alarm in her
pleasant face. “Now you didn’t have no
trouble with him yesterday about them
hens?''
“I told him, ” said Mr Long, reaching
for the coffee pot, “his hens hail been
making tol’alile tree in my garden, and
the fence better be fixed up. H he’s a
a mind to flare up like a fool, I don't
know as it's any of my concern.”
He took a swallow Irom his cup. His
wife watched him wistfully. She looked
dazed.
“You h’niu't ever had no trouble with
him before,” she said. She did not eat
anv luck fast.
.Mr. Taleott and Job Dover worked
demolish;,I fast. Bv night the old fence had been
and carted into the wood
house, and new boards stood loaning
atrain-l the well stone. Bv noon the
next dav the posts and scantlings were
up and a ling yard of the fence done
Mrs. got up from the dinner
tablet........ al it, ami turned a blank
face upon hoc husband,
“Kim*," sViesiiid, “lie’s got it more'n
two yards high.”
Mr. Long stared ill her. Then lie re
covered himself,
•'H don't make no sort of difference to
me how high lie’s got it,” he snapped.
• J don't know what to make of it,"
-he said, coining hack to the table, unx
iously. “I don’t know why a little low
picket like the old one wouldn't done
jest as well. You could look right
through il jest us though there wasn’t
nothing there; und it was liundy to
hand things across.”
She went about the house that day
w ith an uneasy apprehension in her face,
“1 don't know wlmt to makeof it,” she
kept thinking, in a troubled way.
She knew by the next night, The
new line fence was done. It was seven
feet high. There win. nothing to lie seen
across it except tlie upper half of Mr.
TaleoH’s house, the tops of the trees and
the barn-roof. It rose tall and stern and
forbidding. And there was no gale. It
was a hostile, uncompromising barrier,
ll was an effective monument to Mr. Tal
cott's wrath and resentment.
The summer passed on into the fall.
and the fall lieeamu raw and windy, and
eventually snowy,
Mr- Taleott and Mr Long did not
speak to each other wlreu they met m
the street or the post.U ice or the black
sinith shop; they passed each other grim
ly. W hen Mr. Taleott was appointed to
the school board, ol which Mr. Long was
already a member, lies,.at 111 a resign a
tion. When Mi Long was put on a
< hur» h 1 ominit 1 <' "i \'huh lalcntt
was one. In' refused to act.
It lieeamu rapidly known that the
old neighbors were “not on speaking
■ termsand tlie causes and circumstances
of the rupture were not a mystory. Deo
,,|„ came On varying pretexts to look at
the fence, from otic side or the another,
and hear the story in detail. Often they
went thence over to the other aide, and
.listened w .th mtere-t to'the complement nl
ver-iou. 1 If whole affair, perhaps, was
welcomed as a break in the monotony ot
the genera! nmieahlem-ss
H was known, too. that Mr- Long
!in d Mr-. Taleott were not art ive parti,a
pants in the quarrel. Their old pleasant
companionship seemed virtually ended:
their backyard intercourse was neccssa
rilv cut off. ami they had ceased to run in
of mi evening But this was lieeause
neither felt “free to enter her neighbor's
house, as matter- stood; and because, in
their timid womanly submissivemss.
they obeyed the unspoken commands of
their husbands rather than face the di
nleasure w hich would have followed a de
fiance of them.
They smiled when they met each other;
they lingered in the church vc-tibule to
exchange dish good-mbrnittg. fresh fried Once cakes Mr-. Long By
sent in a of 1
neighbor's boy. lie (old hot thu Mr-,
I'a’c >tt had Imr-t wit crying She had
emptied th 1 di-h, ami sent it back lull
>f nj>pje sauce.
The autumn «la\*s tilled the air with
the dim blue vapor and not unpleasant
mlor of bonfire smoke Mr Taleott wa
lute w ith bis. lb had put it off till lus
fall done the pardon tn ud
-Rrr -UKid black and : vr frozen; -“F a few ;, “R dead
hu-hc- cut dow u and the fruit tree
ss •<
plundered “}«TE h. In torn
•iV
hcrl|^^^H “JfH
Sid , 1 "wB
| twiirtook fire from thiand burned to
( ; ts ,. nd urd a t l)( STI tin1er
’datum’ j He watched the curious little
line of ,j ght M it ate its flj ck( . rin<f W av
j along There drifted'up was a small <1. posit of
(i ead leaves against the tall
fence-, they took the alarm, and glowed
and crackled smartly. And then the flame*
mounted up, and grew broader and red
—Ow fence had caught fire
Mr. Taleott „ ot up and Widkcd 0VPr
it T hen he turned, with scarcely the
kafl t c which might have been looked for,
and atartcd for the pump. He seemed
rather to linger on the wav • when hr.
reached it. he stood for a moment with
doing anything in particular before
he fin ,, d u wooden pail, which lay near,
and W( .„t back with it. The fence was
fl amin „ Brightly; but he. stooped to pick
out a ch5p |, Which had got stuck into the
W)le of h Boot. antl tdcl the old woolen
m ,, r wore around his neck with
b „ n ,, H which wcre not ,/ qu5te .steady.
Th ,, n h(! ‘ , a „ abo t him. in an
odd , n wav< eniptirsl Ll his ind pail of
wa teV on the ground, ’ went sat
down ()11 th(; „ turtl)) ^ a ^ a ii.. He looked
co]d W)SS and v a „ d anvl hinR
'
but j H , ro j ( .. | )Ut u J( . r(; w a .s anew-found
| -witliin him
There was quite a crowd about the
place half an hour later lookin'' line”fe,n<:e- at the
blackened remains of the -
several men attracted hv the flames ’ and
a few women hastily wrapped up.
>1 r. Taleott had a good deal to say
about the way it, luid happened. He
said a bonfire was a plagued thing -you
never knew what it was going to do;
you couldn’t feel safe with one if you
didn’t watch it every minute, lie dwelt
on t),,. jnefflcaey started, of water pointed when once the a
|j r( . |,ad pail, got and to
empty where it lay on point. the ground,
j„ conclusive proof of the. and'watched
Mr Long had come out
the conflagration from adisrreet distance,
But, fi,. f tad drawn gradually closer, till
he finally stood poking over the warm
cinders with one foot. Mr. Taleott stood
near by. They did not look at each
other for a moment. Then the latter
spoke, in a voice made high and sharp
by the greatness of the effort.
“Went down jest like paper,” he said,
<q guess there couldn’t anybody u-stop
ped it it. I couldn’t do anything against
nothing at allHe felt that he re
gained by this some of the dignity
he had lost in his own conception; he
looked relieved.
His neighbor did not reply directly,
The darkness hid his softened perturbed
expression, and he was not the per
son to make it manifest. His tone, when
he spoke, was composed and even con
descending. said, “I
“According to law,” lie x’pose I
I’m called o„ to put up the next one.
s’pose so' I might do it any time; I ain t
terrible busy jest as present.” looking
“Well,” said Mr. Taleott,
down the garden. “I rut her guess you
better build a picket. I guess a picket ’d
do full as well. You h’ain’t heard how
old Lem Pearson is, have you?” -Emma
A. 0 V per.
------—-------
The Peasant in Prance.
Judgmg from (lie outward aspect ot
the well-to-do peasant, proprietor, and
from his mode ot life, no casual observer
would ciedtt him with possessing sur
plus pence, mid certainly would never
dream of his keeping a banking account.
His daily fare is of the most meagre de
script ion. For break last he. and his
family usually partake of bread, with the
magnetic, n preparation anchovies, of small sometimes .-alt
fish, such as etc.,
varied with a species of Imked batter,
made of oil and flour, culled la casing
liner. For dinner iie often lias stockfish
(a staple article of food) or vegetable
soup and salad: and lor supper a prepa
ration ol lentils, beans, or other vegeta
bins, which later, in summer, are Ire
ipieiitly eaten raw. During Hie hot
months dry bread and some raw toma
tatoes' often form the entire meal of many
a family. Macaroni and other Italian
paste,though mui’h appreciated, is seldom
partaken of except as a treat. But onions
and garlic supply all deficiencies in the
peasant’s menu, and he and his dwelling
1 itorn 11 v reek with the powerful odor of
the last named esculent.
Coffee is too expensive to he used ex
eept most sparingly. 1 ho good wife
roasts as well as grinds the coffee beans
herself, and the steaming cup is palate not un- by
frequently made perfect for lus
tin- insertion of a dove of garlic. Ills
drink, when it i- not water, is an evees
sively thin, sour wine; but il must not be
supposed that such a luxury is indulged
When he comes down into
town he will permit himself to be
convivial with a frioiul to the extent ot
a glass j!„B|,its of wine costing extensively one sou. kept, and
are most
during the summer ya period of compura
tiw leisure for the fanner in thw part of
the world) visits are exchanged among
the peasantry on Vlwir ehamiwugnes, as
their holidays are termed. Then are 111 -
augurated the fetes an lapin. At these
d i„ m , r parties one rabbit is slaughtered flavor
Bv the host and serves to
the macaroni and vegetable regaled. stew
w |,h which the company is
These entertainments are usually paid
for bv the richer guests from town. or.
jf „Jt. there is sure to he a formal re
turn. Meat, such as beef and mutton.
j s rarely eaten, and it may be doubted
whether it be tasted, upon an average,
;l month by each member of the
community. but commonly,
Pigs are kept, which is not of inferior
B a eott and pork, an
quality and not well cured, is not eaten
to any appreciable extent. The average
expenditure of the peasant freeholder
upon his food has been accurately cont
puled. It amount-to the astonishingly
small sum of onlv four sous (twopence) under
; p ( ,,. d ; em This sum must be
stood to refer to a family, say. of four
or five, ami where the children are under
ttie age of seventeen or eighteen year >
T.t-i,
V Nevada Borax Field.
Teel's marsh, iu Nevada, is the most
pr.iduetirre to>n>x fiel.l on the Pacific
, ' ' -
uu . rs < * r 1 ;* u s s*id “ to include
, , •
part-with dry, off,msc^t^lG. washed
... course of age- from the ^ feldspar
.,c ,h.n o, l - 1 rK* Lk, .*,._,•
c/3
j* jBSCArtffi CONVICTS ARK
RKIJKn IN THE SOUTH.
V-
Rrkable Rngulah Keenness of
to* Onr Man A "<•>"« *
■ HundriHl-Tauglit to Bay
"* A ""*'
*
While at Oldtown I saw a race betwc n
a convict and the hounds. A gaunt
>°ng of leg and flunk, was selected
for the run. He was told to put off
quickly, circle in the woods, take a swift
run over fields, roads and through every
squad of convicts he could find in his
way. This he did. ihe hounds were
then loafing about the stockade yard, as
listless a lot of dogs as ever were seen,
“I'm tempted,” said Mr. Williams, “ to
let Ihe convict ride a horse for a mile or
two after he has run a white. I have had
d ®s?» trail a convict on horseback four
miles, and then take the track where he
jumped from the horse.’ By tins time
the flying convict was a small sjieck on
Hie broad fields, and in a moment more
Had melted into the horizon and was
gone. «s if. indeed, he had found that
liberty for which hi- soul panted, lards and
bail gone as the strong winged go
when they vanish in the blue ether
In an hour we mounted our horses.
The hounds were still loafing about m
the sunshine. Suddenly Mr. Williams.
squaring himself m h.s saddle, blew
three qui- k. short blasts on the eo« '
horn that hung at its side. As il by
magic, the hounds awoke and charged
at his saddle—eager, baying, frantic,
“ Nigger 1” he said sentcntiously. Like
the wind they were off. nose to the
ground, fails tip, circling like hounds beagles.
Larger the circles grow, the si
loot as specters, eyes and nose eating the
earth for its secret. convict “They squads, will pass
over the tracks of but
will open on the first single track they will
find. If it is tlm wrong track, we
simply sit still. They will run it a him
dredyards or so, and, noting our silence,
will throw it off again. When they get
the right track, we will halloo and start
after the hound that has it. The others
will join him and the race is opened.”
At last a red hound,careering like mad
across the field, halts suddenly, tumbles
over himself, faces about, noses the
ground eagerly, lifts his head,
“A a oo o w u” and is off like an ar
row from a bowstring. “That's the
track,” shouts Williams, and after the
howling bound we go. The other hound dogs
join in pell mell at first, then each
true to the truck, in full cry and at a rat
tling gait. Away off to the left Captain
against James cal the Is attention sky. 1 to hat a is .moving the speck iet
‘ eonv
circling back to camp,’ he said. On 1he
dogs went, keen as the wind, inexorable
as fate, following the track ot the eon
vict as true as his own shadow. Across
the tracks of hundreds of others along
high roads, ovar fields, through herd- ol
cattle, by other convicts that smiled
grimly as they passed, the hounds went,
holding where it the had track been ot laid tlie as light flying eonvic-t Hustle
as
on the turn unth but where i fi f h
tell tale scent all the same. Nothing
couW.h»ketl^ furious 1 usfl. uvei outerti.i 11 a u oj
convicts wearing shoes Horn the same
last and same box they went without
hindrance, led by some intangible mtra
cle of the atr straight on wind a single tnul
“Now we’ll see them hts scent
( 'fty yards away,’ said Williams, as he
neared a patch of forest, (.’lose to this
was a squad of convicts. These we had
8en t through the woods an hour before,
had made “trustees,” walking singly,
touch every bush and tree. Then the con
vdcf W e were trailing was run through,
ma king a half circle, with at least fifty
yards’radius. The hounds entered the
forest at a hustling pace, a small red dog*
leading. Suddenly the leader faltered
b)r a „ instant, with nose in air, then
Burst with tierce cry to the left, ran ob
liquely for full fifty yards, with head of up,
when he took up again ttie track the
couvict and lowered his head to the
, r ,., mud He had simply made a short
cu( acrogg the semicircle, having caught
scent of the convict on. the bushes more
than 100 feet away. I am aware that this
js incredible to those who have never
seen it. 1 cannot explain what it is that
t ) u . flying man, clad and shod as a bun
dr ed others, fed on the same food,chained
dad y to the same chain, and sleeping in
the same bunks at night, imparts to a
yielffing twig touched by his clothes so
that it attracts a hound fifty yards away.
jpq d certainly does just that.
qi,,, |. 1S ( test was now coining. We
wero moving toward a squad of convicts
at work in a cotton field. We had sent
|| 1( . fugitive convict through this squad,
W( , had then made them walk in a
„„uble circle around him. They then
rrosse d au d re-crossed his tracks, mauv of
t i ve m weariim exactly such shoes as he
WHrc ()u( . Jlour i ate r the hounds struck
this point ' There was not an instant’s
. ( liUlsc There was no deviation, no let
jn th( . :u . 0 Through the labyrinth
af tracks tlie ho\incls went, ns swallows
through the air, hurrying inexorably ' on
,iie one track tin v had chosen.
'
, The convict te.min.I
. to ‘ * his „ W vl,in<r , IS secn houmfs
m,'m.rin.v lmd him' wat the
K." t ,«• aid ' “Won’t he climb
. , kt , d i._ No the hounds
' J- trained ' to simtdv ‘ bov the convicts
; '
' ;th th „ m 'q oth ,. r .
wo „ W ki tUo , n
*7. t j,e hounds had si-toted
tb.w -V. lcdted about twenty vu-d
- lv " ‘ ' ......in-t f„riouslv which he
, him Prettv
“ ^^'and v . a .. d d ,.,.j, w than j
again under a 'possum off and
tree Air AYilliams called them
,|,e convict came forward. “Deni pup
..ies is,loin' mightv well.Gap’ll,'*he said,
“Tinning, and as he lazilv " swung ' by ou
his wav to the stockade
'
.... lhese dogs , arc nott . hL , , .Klhomid j, , r T ;
doubt it there is a bloodl.ou d n G,> r
ssar&SK? *r,
slavery. Tire Oldtown dogs are fox
hounds of the Redbone breed,trained for
several generations to hunt men. They
are 1 never tempted with other game.
They are neither fierce nor powerful, and
arc relied ou solely to trail thc convict
mil lead his* pusuers to his latr.- Itlunta
Con*titnthn.
A Sail-Eyed Man's Effusion.
A sad-eved voting man handed this ■ no
in over the back fence the other morning:
, , ,
.........
. -
I'S :;to lhV - “ae'r^kplCTUi."! oppo&itebeLvior, ftdl
t ^
FACTS'
The farming slaves ameafl
worked with fetters on the
Georgia has a new w-onder,
marble, the veins of which form thir^H
feet outline of a woman’s figure. V M
. , , f v y ork nmkes a
j ing by selling, each, on peach Broadway, atthreeto hich he
five cents various stones w
has carved into fantastic shapes,
Two races of men are dying out, the
; Laplanders, who number 30.000, and the
.Maoris of New Zealand, reduced irom
100,000 to 45,000 since the days of Cap
, tain Cook, and likely to be extinct by the
j year 2000. called blind
The childish sport now
; ^’s buff was known by various names
^ j a old times, such as hood-wink, blind
; hob, etc. It was termed hoodmanblind,
j because the players were once blinded
| with their hoods.
ojp. - g a , * )00r co ok who cannot lick
: hig own fln Under a variety of
forms thig provwb ‘ j s f oun d in different
, countrieg> The Italians say: “He who
manages other people’s wealth does not ;
” SU nn er less to bed.” The Dutch, too,
.jj officers are greasv,” ‘ that is,
SO n )Ct hhm ” sticks to them.
™mnrket S’eomnwnTv in
a 1 'f C [ of an ir
bveolonimdes^^Iumore^ecent u ; bk t was sur
rounded ^ ctolonna h». lu
.
^S^yeSicos ! h.r Urn ta
£ g^ghelterL of considerable’ex feather
Ua J wu * h, ,h U l ® bad " '
Ihe art ot sculpture wood „ - stems , to
m
have been native among the early Greeks,
carved idols soon appearing as sub
-stitutes for those stones and trunks ot
i trees which were at first worshiped as
( divine symbols. These were frequently
so old that no account could be given ot
! their origin, and thaw were consequently
said to have fallen from the skies.
At Americas, Ga., a large red-tailed
hawk suddenly pounced on the farm
house cat, which was enjoying The a nap hawk on
the sunny side of the barn.
stuck his talons deep and ascended with
his prey. When they came to earth
again, both were dead. The entrails of
the eat were torn out, and the hawk’s
head was bitten through. The hawk
measured fodr feet nine inches from tip
to tip of wings.
In the library connected with the
jkttite department at Washington is the
original copy of the constitution of the
United States. Another unique paper is
tb( , oath of allegiance taken at Valley
Forge. It is signed by George Washing
W)Il Benedict Arnold, D.dvalb, Steuben,
Lafayette and every soldier in the army,
There, too, is tlie pathetic begging letter that from he
Andre to Washington, the death of
might be allowed to die a
soldier, not a spy.
T he fashion of introducin'' a bowl of
wjn( , int0 chm . ( , h at a wedd i n „, t( . be
dl . uu i- bv du! Bride and bridegroom afte?the and
those present immediately mar
r ; a<> . ( . ri , r( , mi)Ilv is very ancient. It is
m( , a t-; oned ; n jpe ordinances of theli mse
ho]d ()f n en ry VII. magnificent of England, marriage and was of
p | ract i c( ;d at the
Ma rv of England, and Philip of Spain,
; Winchester cathedral, ami also at the
claught^r Elector Palatine to the
of the first English king of the
stuart fa milv.
-
— —
Criminals ami Their Homes.
.. P , read in
the papers how some -omt men men who who ms ju.t lust
done a job has skipped, entral leaving Othce no iletec- tiace
behind him, said a (
tive to a UmM reporter yesterday. blame detec- “The
first thing they do is to the
tive. Then, a year or two perhaps after
ward, they hear tint the man has been
caught . Then they praise the detectives
for skill and perseverance as much as they
blarncc] them before. They were wrong
to blame the detectives in the first place,
and I m not sure that they were right iu
prai-ing them so highly afterward. In
ordinary circumstances any criminal is
sure to be caught. crimes
“You say there are many never
unraveled. That’s so. But in most of
them the police get to know who did the
job as well as they know who stole Broad
way. but they can’t get the evidence,
and so they lie low and wait. In a few
exceptional eases it s best not to punish
anybody. the police
“If a man runs away can
pinch him nine times out of ten just by
watching his home. Shakespeare never said,
said a truer thing than when he
‘There’s no place like home.’ It was
Shakespeare, wasu t it? Well, every
man, no matter how bad lie is, has a
home of some kind that lie is going to
visit, although he knows that the visit
luav land him in State prison thinks for the twenty
years, and as soon as he coast
is clear lie's going to that home. All the
police have to do is to find out that home,
watch it and nab their man when he
shows up.
“There's that man who shot the negro
janitor. He got west and was doing
well and nobody knew where he was.
But he ha«l to come back to New ^ ork
to see his friends. There s Jimmy Riley.
lie broke seven of the strongest jails in
' the country - -Sing Sing was the last of
‘hem. What did he do when he got out
of Sing Sing? lie went straight to Tenth
avenue, where everybody knew him.
-Now he's back to Sing Sing. Talk to
Captain Washburn about Hells kitchen
and other places at the foot of M est
Thirty-ninth and Fortieth streets m his
He'll tell you that whenever
he wants one of the crooks who hang out
there lie lias only to go there to get him.
They never try to hide m any other part
of the city. Do you remember that burg
w ho killed a policeman way back m
the sixties, whenhe was Broadway caught, breaking
»"° an arms store m \A ,1..
he thought it safe to come back to New
Aork after neaily twenty years, ai.d.the
tir-t thing he knew he was 011 tnal
his life. He would have come back
soom , r . t oo, if he hadn't been prevented
b locked up , 1 . different prisons
,!rM
Tlle „ Mar, . Caught the Dog.
I have great respect for the Georgia
hloodhouud: even though he is not a
bloodhound. I saw lately some exam
pk- of hi- skill in trailing men that were
marvelous. But the Georgia bloodhound
t received a black eye in the matter of To
j bie Jackson. This alleged thirty dynamiter
was tracked through about miles
of mountain and ravine by a two-thon
.aml-doliar bloodhound. The sluggish
but persistent beast hung on the vanish
in^ track through storm and darkness,
‘ilhouet; da_ litret the s.umnit on an in
mountain peak. .1 haughty man
’ Jackson—the dog
tre. O m*n was
FISHING.
SMEI/rs FROM SHAN
.GILT ON THE ICE.
rand New Style of Fishing for the
Piscatorial Tidbits — Fishing
with Bag-Nets the Most
Profitable.
These delicious little fish—the smaller
the better—come principally from Maine,
although opposite Burlington, Vermont,
in Lake Champlain, they are taken in
sufficient numbers to constitute a trade.
The St. Lawrence river is also a famous
ground for winter fishermen, who make
good catches of smelts and “tomcods. ”
No longer does the half-frozen angler
stand on one leg by his hole in the ice,
and change his line from hand to hand a
dozen times a minute, and spend an hour
in baiting his hook. He sits now in a
comfortable shanty heated by a stove,
with often several partners to keep him
company, and fishes through a long and
narrow’ opening in the floor, which is
over a corresponding hole cut in the ice.
Then, when the fish do not bite, the
opening is covered over with planks, and
cots are made up for the men.
th *°™ tliab .
As soo,1 as ? u \ s ilt ^ n :
mn . " of winter,the . shanties nr S pulled out ot
^ rom the sb o re and piaced on the edge
the channels , 3nd as near to the open
water down-stream as possible. Tlie
holes hl theiceare cut. and H the position
^ good and fish bite rapidly they are
kept.opcn as the ice thickens. If, how
evzr> the place selected is found to lie a
poor one, then the shanty is shifted about
until the right spot is found. Often with
out a pp aren t rt-ason the fish stop biting; good
then the houses are moved about a
deak looking for new grounds, andsome
times at Damnriscotta, Maine, almost the
whole little village of one hundred huts
can be seen moving about over the bay in
various directions, presenting a curious
and novel scene.
Many of the “smelt houses” are small
enough to haul on a boy's hand sled,
those used at Damariscotta being about
four by five feet in size. They are frame
structures, walled with cotton drilling,
a nd, to prevent their blowing grappling-irons, away, are
made fast to the ice by
Usually there is but one man to each
house, single houses being thought the
best, as a gang of fishermen is supposed said that
to make too much noise. It is
the smelt bite best on cold, stormy days,
and some fishermen assert that there are
two varieties, known as the “school
smelt” and the “permanent smelt ’
the former, which is constantly
moving . about, are supposed to bite
most readily. I his smelt is distinguished
by a light-colored back, while that of
the other is dark. Many smelt fisher
men work only at night, burning strong fish,
lights beside the holes to attract the
A'hen this is done, sturgeons and other
big fishes are also often attracted by the
hgbt, and drive the smelt away. In
tide-waters the ebb or out-going tide is
supposed to be the best time to fish, but
1S n°t to be relied upon with an} cer
tauity. only hook and ,
In .somelocalities one
nno 18 us ® d to f house, but it ™ oie
common for each man to “thumb” two
or ^'nes eac “ F
shanties the hand end , of . the r lines „ are
fastened to an overhead rack. Each
fisherman is provided rigged with With two or leaden more
hnes, which are
^kers and which wire dangle spreaders hooks from of about the
prongs of
No. 8 or 9, .sproat, in size.
Every smelt fishery has its local pro
j ud j ces and notions as to bait. Often
whatever can be most easily obtained is
used i u some places the favorite bait
minnow’, which the fisher
mC n collect in quantities in the autumn,
and preserve alive in springs, or in their
cellars iu tanks of water. In other
places they use clam-worms—long, red
w orms found in the mud where the long
1 abounds. Glams themselves are
used, also chubs, smelts, raw beef, and
hog’s packed liver chopped in boxes, fine. and The their fish princi- are
frozen
pal market is in New York. Philadelphia
und Boston.
Smelts are taken not only in the Pen
obscot, but in many other rivers in
Maine, and by various methods. The
j aw permits fishing for them from Oeto
ber 1 to April 1, and in some places by
some modes of capture the tishingcon
tinues the entire period, with
It is found that fishing the bag
nets is most profitable. These practica- nets are
set at or near the bottom when
a ud always in a strong current; in
gome places on ebbtide; in others, on
j flood. They are commonly thirty to forty
feet long, with a mouth spreading twelve
eighteen feet in w idth and ten feet in
HeijgUt. In certainJacalities, as between
i t hc piers of the bridge at Bucksiiort, they
we fitted with long rope- that run
through sheaves at the bottom of heavy
poles which are set upon the bottom and
las fl ed to the bridge. These ropes are
tbc “down hauls,” yvhich pull the net
do wn to its place; two other ropes are the
**up ]iauls, v whose name suggests their
uge . two more ropes are the “openers,”
lq, means of which the mouth of the net is
1 opened after it has been drawn down. Thc
fisherman set these nets when the tide is
| favorable, aud draw them up just before
1 the tide turns. Iu places where the ice
j makes dowll strong enough, the poles feet are
, rnn SO me thirty or forty
! iuto the water , never touching bottom, ends,
and t h e nets drawn down to their
; t h e whole affair rising and falling with
; tho tide Jn stm other places, where
j the water is too salt for ice, the v sink very
, heavy “moorings”—great rocks—to the
j bottom, having * fastened to them a piece
, o{ chau , and loQg log or buoy, to the
, f reeendo f which is attached a frame of
j WO od on which the mouth of the net is
Wretched; this swings with the tide
aroim d the “mooring." Theseopen
water nets are operated from boats: when
1 the tide is slack, the bnvanev of the log
; alld frame briugs t h era to the surface; forces
, when the tide is running strong it
\ »
netto be dnlwn to the top of the water.
j All the nets are so rigged that the first cf
j feet of hauling on the halyard is to
; close the month.— Harper* Weekli/.
- --
• Tea and Coffee Drinkers.
| I sec it stated that wiiilc Englishmen
j drink five times as much tea as coffee,
Americans drink eight ‘C times as much
coffee as tea. This in a great measure is
L due to the coffee that is sold in the Uni
; ted States being less unadulterated than
worth of tJa than iu a shilling's worth
of coffee.-£o»uto» Truth.
—-----
B,. km MM* t» mdved
« Leipric the highest diploma in phiW
THE FOUNTAIN OF TEARS.
If you travel o’er desert and mountain.
Far into the country of sorrow,
To-day, and to-night, and to-morrow,
And may be for months and for years.
You shall come, with a heart that is burst¬
ing,
For trouble, and toiling, and thirsting.
You shall certainly come to the fountain.
At length—to the Fountain of Tears.
Very peaceful the place is, and solely
For piteous lamenting and sighing
And those who come, living or dying
Alike from their hopes and their fear.-*
Full of cypress-like shadow’s the place is,
And statues that cover their faces;
But out of the gloom springs the holy
And beautiful Fountain of Tears.
And it flows, and it flows with a motion
So gently, and lovely, and listless,
■ And murmurs a time so resistless,
To Him who hath suffered and hears,
You shall surely, without a word spoken.
Kneel down there and know you're heart¬
broken.
And yield to the long-curbed emotion,
That day by the Fountain of Teal’s.
—Arthur O'Shaugh 11 essy.
PUNGENT PARAGRAPHS.
It isn’t much of a dog that can’t make
a man go mad by biting him.
As was predicted, the winter has been
very open and lots of cold weather got
in.— Picayune.
Advertising is a good deal like making
love to a widow. It can't be overdone.
— Chicago Ledger.
It’s the little things that tell—especial¬
ly the little brothers and sisters.— Bur¬
lington Free Press.
The only leading lady that society re¬
cognizes is the one who conducts a pug
with a string.— Judge.
The next worst thing to going to a
a dentist is going to a photographer.—
Norwich (Conn.) Bulletin.
Most men like to see themselves
in “print,” but women don’t. They pre¬
fer silk or satin .-—Texas Figaro.
“Whenever my wife scolds me,” said
a hen-pecked toper, “I go right, straight
and liquor .”—Indianapolis Herald.
Suns may set, and tides may flow,
States may sink from want of sticking,
Men may come, and men may go,
lint a mule is always alive and kicking.
— Judge.
Some statesmen are continually putting
their cars to the ground to hear what
posterity will say of them.— Houston,
(Terns) Post.
The bangs having gone out. of style
among young ladies the rolling- pin and
washboard begin to look more hopeful.—
Merchant- Traveler.
An awfully homely man at a sociable
where kissing games are in played looks as
lonesome as a straw hat a snow-storm.
—New York Journal.
Certainly, there is such a tiling as the
poetry of motion. That is the reason
+he kangaroo is popularly regarded as a
S p r jng poem.— Puck.
A Michigan “ K bov had wW his left hand taken
Sil w, he thought was
t m ° OV 'haSd ; n , r -PiT jie now calls his right S hand
kf t
wind landed blew in the off mud: his stovepipe hat,
It
No sadder sound was heard than that—
Ker-wish, ker-whop, ker-thud!
-GoodaWs Snn.
“A student of human nature says any
thmg can be sharpened.” Somethings,
however, don’t need sharpening—so we
have heard experienced married men re
ma] . k _ Graphic
, nt -
L ' an ‘ „
’ '
S . , L ITwl , f nn „
I j '!! * nt _ j ‘to . J , /! »' , L,
gue . up ' smokin a” ,‘p oonwuieu. ,
0 .
j that One we of see the on most our travels melancholy through pictures . this
•
vale of sorrows is a fat dog trying to run
home against unscratched the wind ice. acro.-s a pond of
slippery, Puck.
She looked like a funeral hearse, so sad,
Of all Joy bereft and forsaken;
0h ’ thls cUaug,« iu teatuie once
She was having —Gorham her photograph Mountaineer. taken,
In German army circles a soldier is
obliged to write home to his wife once
every month. An old bachelor says this
explains why so many Germans military come duty.— to
this country to escape
Norristown Herald.
Wife—“What a very polite young man
Air. Dumlcy discovered is?” Husband—“Yes? I
never it.” Wife—“He was
very polite to me last evening. Among
other compliments he spoke of my sing¬
ing.” Husband—“Did he! That was
polite.— Harper's Bazar.
SPRING POEM.
Oh, where is the thing
We call “Gentle Spring,”
The season of thaw and of zephyr?
She In the singing laud of a psalm the palm.
Where she kicks up her heels like a heifer.
—New York Journal.
California papers are saying some cut¬
ting things about a youth who swallowed
an open penknife three and a half inches
long. It may afford the boy’s parents
some consolation to know that he will
not cut his fingers with the knife two or
three times a day now, nor carve his ini¬
j tials on every piece of furniture in the
house. A penknife is less injurious in¬
side of some boys than out .—Norristown
Herald.
Bevenge Was Sweet.
Colonel Yerger presented his wife with
a sealskin sack. She immediately in¬
sisted on walking out with it on. It was
very cold, and he said, with a shiver:
“Let us go home; I'm almost frozen
to death.”
• I don't feel cold at all.” she replied,
with chattering teeth, “but let us go
back aud walk past the windows of tho-e
Petersbys."
“But you may get pneumonia and die
a painful death.”
“Never mind if I do. I don't feel
cold at all as long as I've got this sack
on.
• But why do yon want to go by the
Petersby mansion again?"
“I want that stuck-up Airs. Peterby to
see my new sack once more anyhow. It
will make them gnash their teeth and
turn green with envy when they see it
and think of their last winter’s cloaks
that they are wearing.”—• Siftingt.
Perils of Lake Navigation.
Commander Bartlett, U. S. N., has ex
pres-ed his belief that at least half the
vessels lost last season on the lakes
might have been saved by the judicious
use of oil on the troubled waters. But
oil won't give a ship sea-room or keep a
sharp rock from piercing a ship's expedi¬ bot¬
tom. The fact is. a good many
ents that can be worked to advantage in
navigating the high seas are quite im¬
practicable on the lakes said on account that of
limited sea-room. It is there
are more vessels lost on the great lakes
annually than on any two oceans. — Bos¬
ton Commc oial Advertiser.