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"RrloT imil Comprehensive.
Years apo, when tho subject wan
broached of digging tin* canal that con
nects Portland, Mo., with Lako Hebago,
there was, of course, much opposition on
the part of that considerable class found
ready on all occasions to bitterly oppose
internal improvements of every kind that
can appeal to tho pockets of tax payers.
In one of the towns interested in that
canal a meeting of the legal voters was
called to sec if the town would pledge its
credit if necessary; or would recognize
by vote the necessity of tho work.
Tho meeting was opened, and tho op
ponents were out in full fores; and they
hail engaged a penurious old deacon,
who never paid a tax that lie could avoid
paying, toargue their ease. They thought
lie could do it. He could worry the
other side down, and wear them out, any
way.
Tho moderator read the warrant, and
stated the object of the mooting; and, ill
a few very choice, clear, amt pleasantly
s|K>keu words, he stated the facts in tiie
case, and made known what it was
hoped, by the lilierul and progressive
element, the town would do.
And then tho peppery old deacon
sprang to his foot, and opened his
magazine of general abuse and scurrility.
He talked an hour and a half—a tempest
of ugly, false and insinuating stuff, which
disgusted even some of his own supporters.
Ho closed with a grand peroration on
tho power and majesty of God, and tho
wickedness of interfering with the plans
of the Almighty Architect of the
Universe.
“Mr. Moderator,” he said, with a grand
spread of Ins arms, “if there had been
intended a water communication between
Harrison and Portland—cutting through
Cumberland County like a river—the
Almighty would have put it thar! Where
the Supreme Arohiect wunts water to
flow He’ll make it How; and He won’t
see puny, insignificant man interfere with
His divino plans! Feller citizens! Mind
what 1 (ell you!”
; And Deacon Skinflint sat down. And,
on the instant, up rose ’Squire Sam Lit
tlefield, with his pleasant, jolly face all
aglow, and said he;
“Mr. Moderator, we read in the Good
Book that in a certain place there was
lock of water; and Abraham digged a
well there, and called the place Beer-
Slieba. Sir, I move the previous ques
tion.”
The thing took wonderfully. That
simple sentence —“and Abraham digged
a well there!” —spoken in Littlefield’s
quiet, quaint, and yet significant way,
brought down tho house. The motion
for the “previous question" was carried;
then tho main question was put: Should
the credit of the town bo given to the
great improvement?—and it was carried
by an overwhelming majority. And yet
it was said, by those who ought to know,
that, had some friend of the measure
followed old Skinflint in an exhaustive
speech, tho chances would have been
decidedly tho other way.— New York
Ledger.
The Rothschild Family.
The Pari* branch of this funions family
is quite large. The dowager Baroness
Rothschild, who lives in the family man
sion in the line Latltto, had live children,
Baron Alphonse, who is at this time the
head of the family; Baron Solomon, who
died a long time ago; Baron Gustave,
Baron Edmond, and the Baroness Nath
aniel Rothschild. The venerable dowa
ger is a veritable fountain of charity.
Siio gives away hundreds of thousands of
francs every year. In summer she lives
in a splendid county house at Boulogne,
where apartments for each out) of her
sons and daughters are kept constantly
in order. Baron and Baroness Alphonse
Rothschild live in Ihe old mansion in the
Rue Saint Florentin, where Talleyrand
once resided. They are gay and ex
tremely fond of society, and are seen
everywhere in the mondo; the Baroness
is one of the most ueoomplishod equest
riennes who frequent the Bois do Boul
ogne. Her husband is an enthusiastic
patron of the turf. He Ims stables at
Meautrif and at Chantilly, and lavishes
millions on them. Solomon Rothschild
was a delicate-minded man, fond of con
versation, hooks, pictures and society.
His widow has a daughter who w ill, it is
said, he the richest heiress in the Paris
family. Baron Gustave is the only one
who has married outside the family. Oue
of the sons of the late Nathaniel Roths
child has just purchased the splendid
mansion of Count Tolstoi, in the Avenue
do Friedland: and another, named Ar
thur, spends his life in collecting books.
It is said that no one else in France ex
cept the Duke d'Amnnle possesses such
estimable treasures of rare editions and
luxurious binding os this young Roths
child. One of the latest additions to the
delegates in Paris of the phenomenally
rich family is Baron Adolphe Rothschild,
of Naples, who has closed out his busi
ness, and retired with the serenity of
conseieuco promoted by the knowledge
of the possession of a fortune of one hun
dred and eighty millions of francs. He
may be seen now and then in the Bois,
lolling negligently in the blue carriage
which is one of the peculiarities of the
house. Hi' is a great collector, and will
spend hundreds of thousands of francs
upon any trifle which he happens to con
sider that he must have. There is but
one Catholic in the family, and that is
the youug Duchess of Grammont, who,
it will bo remembered, was the daughter
of Baron Rothschild, of Frankfort-ou-the
Main, one of the richest members of the
guoup. —Paris Letter.
To-day's duty can only be done well to
day. Time and circumstances are now
favorable, and we are in the best condi
tion to perform it. To-morrow all will
be changed; other exigencies will arise,
other objects will claim our attention,
and our capacity for performing that
a pec ml duty will be sensibly diminished.
Denver has a policeman who writes
poetry, the editor who refuses to
publish it is liable to go to the lock-ur
SOUTHERN NEWS.
At Brownville, Texas, the recent snow
storm was the first in fourteen yeurs.
Farm hands are said to lie more scarce
in Thomas county, Ga., than they have
been since the war.
Three hundred German carp have been
placed at various points up the St. John
river in Florida.
A Louisiana planter says that he con
siders twenty geese in a cotton field equal
to one hoe-hand.
Negroes are said to lie leaving Gadsden
county, Fla., in such numbers that it
amounts to an exodus.
Toccoa, Ga., having an existence of
eight years, has acquired a thrifty popu
lation approximating a thousand souls.
Thousands of robins roost in a cane
brake about fifteen miles from Homer,
La. They are taken to Homer by the
sackful!.
A clipper ship, brought into Port
Royal, 8. C., loaded with guano, came
up to the dock at half-tide, drawing
twenty-one feet.
In Louisiana the census exhibits 473
Chinese, SIG Indians and halfbreeds,
eight half-Chinese, one West Indian and
one East Indian.
N. Garbini has been elocted President
of the New Orleans Fruit and Produce
Association, anew and permanent organi
zation of wholesale fruit dealers.
In the last four months of 1880 col
portuers of the American Bible Society
supplied 1,913 destitute families and 955
destitute individuals with the Bible.
Harry Stephens, the well-known col
ored body-servant of Hon. Alex. H.
Stephens, who died last week, at Craw
fordville, was the owner of perhaps $20,-
000 worth of property.
The St. Augustine (Fla.) Press says
that the majority of the farmers there
abouts, instead of raising their own corn,
buy it at the city stores. A cotton planter
could scarcely do worse than that.
An amendment of the constitution of
Arkansas has been proposed in the Leg
islature, providing that the general elec
tions shall occur every fourth year, State
Representatives be elected for four years
and the Legislature meet every fourth
years.
The Perry, Ga,, Home Journal says
that the old plantation system, almost
universal in Houston county before the
war, has gone to its death, and small
farms now constitute the order of agri
cultural work. There are very few ten
mule farms in Houston.
There is a proposition to form a uew
North Carolina county ou
of parts of Sampson, John
Stoll, Wayne, Cumberland and Har
nett counties. There are several propo
sitions to cut oft'portions of Wake county
tor the formation of new counties, hut
Raleigh is averse.
At Scarboro, Ga., John F. Toole is
1 Resident, Warren R. Wood, Treasurer,
and James A. Fulcher, Secretary, of the
“First National Non-cursing Society,
Scarboro Division No. I.’’ The object
of the organization is to discontinue the
practice of profane swearing.
By a clerical error, in making up the
list of cities for census bulletin No. 45,
the population of one enumeration dis
trict of Atlanta was omitted. The true
population, Gen. Walker, Superintend
ent of the Census, says, is .‘17,421, not
84,838, as previously announced.
Real estate in the business part of Or
angeburg, S. C., is as high as in Charles
ton. A cotton factory with four Clem
ent attachments is established. The crop
of upland rice raised in the county will
probably reach about 40,000 bushels.
The cotton crop is between 80,000 and
40,000 bales.
The answer of the citizens of Memphis
to the petition of bondholders or credi
tors of the old corporation of Memphis
alleges that the compromise proposed by
the taxing district, twenty-five cents on
the dollar, and in addition, the taxes
due the old city, say $1,248,082, is fair,
just and honorable.
Knoxville, Tcnn., was laid out in 1701,
and named in honor of General Knox,
of Revolutionary fame. The firs Ter
ritorial Legislature assembled there in
1794, the constitutional convention in
1795, and the first State Legislature in
179fi. The seat of government was re
moved to Nashville in 1810.
Richmond Dispatch : 11 Mr. Jefferson
Davis does not make numerous changes
in his proof-sheets, he is not the man he
was in ISSO. Then he had a habit of
changing the reporter’s notes to such an
extent that his speeches seemed almost
to be new ones, or rather not the same
which he had delivered in the Senate.
A bill is ponding before the Florida
Legislature providing for four examining
medical boards—at Pensacola, Tallahassee,
Jacksonville and JL*y West—which shall
examine applicants and grant certificates
to those only who are qualified to dis
charge the functions of a medical expert.
The bill is not retroactive, and will not
disqualify physicians now practicing.
President Haygood, of Emory College,
Georgia, says that in 187t> the improved
lands in Georgia amounted to 28,737,539
acres. In 1880 tho aggregate had grown
to 29,815,581 acres, the increase of four
years being sufficient to provide farms of
100 acres each for nearly 11,000 families.
He says the colored people are buying
farms of from twenty to fifty acres, and
getting excellent returns from them.
Evidently he does not believe in th
decadance of Georgia.
Charleston (S. C.) News and Courier
To-day the leading men of Mississippi-
Arkansas and Texas are Georgians, and
in every county and neighborhood, al
most, in those States the controlling
spirit is a Georgian. The Governor of
Texas is a Georgian, so are both the Sen
ators from Mississippi. She has given
three Governors to Texas, two to Mis
sissippi, a Governor and Senator to Ala
bama, and her ablest and best men to
Arkansas.
The manufacture of brick is one of the
most important industries of Macon, Ga.
The material furnished by the land be
low' Macon, in the Ocmulgee swamp, and.
a tract extending across the Brunswick
railroad is said to lie unexcelled in the
world for purity and firmness. The Ma
con Telegraph and Messenger thinks
there is no reason why the number of
manufactories should not be increased,
and the production of pottery, pipes,
drains, etc., for the whole State entered
upon.
An old negro near Stockton, (flinch
county, Ga., has invented for himself a
new plan for planting orange trees, and
has planted several hundred. He plants
them among the green pines, and leaves
tho pines standing to protect the orange
trees. He clears up a space twelve feet
square and plants an orange tree. Two
gentlemen in Clinch county propose to
plant a grove on an island in the Su
wanooche, near Dupont. A gentleman
in an adjoining county c'ntcmplates set
ting out several thousand trees.
A Charlottesville, Va., correspondent
of the Richmond Dispatch says that
George Rogers Clarke “lived within
sight of Charlottesville, though two
miles and a half away. I have been to
the old house-place. There is not a ves
tige of the buildings left, but the situa
ation commands a most beautiful view
of a large extent of country, looking
westward and northward, and southward
down the Rivanna vailey, and is on the
Southwest mountains, on the farm now
owned by Mr. Redfield. The Clarke
family owned thousands of acres of land
in that section, embracing even Edge
Hill, the residence of the late Thomas J.
Randolph, five miles away.”
Altered Times.
In the year 1671, on the second read
ing of a bill in the House of Commons
for building a bridge over the Thames,
at Putney, after a number of members
had delivered speeches in ridicule of the
idea, Sir Henry Herbert, just before the
House divided, rose and said : “ I hon
estly confess myself an enemy to mo
nopolies. lam equally opposed to mail,
visionary projects; and I may be per
mitted tn say that in the late King’s
reign several of these thoughtless inven
tions weie thrust upon the House, but
were mutt properly rejected. If a man,
sir, wore to oome to the bar of the House
and tell us that lie proposed to convey
us regularly to Edinburgh, in coaches,
in seven days, and bring us back in
seven more, should we not vote him to
Bedlam ? Surely we should, if we did
him justice; or, if another, that he
would sail to the East Indies in six
months, should we not punish him for
practicing upon our credulity ? Assur
edly, if we served him rightly.” The
journey from London to Edinburgh is
now accomplished in something like
eleven hours. What would Sir Henry
think now, could he arise from his
arrays ?
The Associated Press.
“The Associated Press is a great boon,
is it not?” said the cigarette smoking
nciou of a South Side sire to a beautiful
Boston girl, full of sentiment and oys
ters as they were returning from the
theater. “It is, indeed,” she replied, in
soft tones: “George and I had one all
last winter; but papa came in one night
before George could take his arm avay
and acted dreadfully. Do they iave
them in Chicago?” “I should blush to
murmur,” responded the untutored
Chicagoan as he measured her surcingle
belt with his strong right arm. —Chicago
Tribune.
The love of truth and ral desire of
Improvement, ought to be *nly motives of
augmentation; and, whs** these are sin
cere, no difficulty can mad# of em
bracing the trutia as *°° n as it is per-
MivL
High or Low Heels.
Some time ago Mr. Morey devised an
apparatus for registering the steps,
which he has called an odograph. It
consists of a small cylinder, rotating by
means of clockwork in the interior, and
of a pen which marks on the cylinder,
and is raised at each step by an impulse
communicated by a ball of air beneath
the sole. Observations have been made
on a numlior of young soldiers. It was
ascertained that the step is longer in go
ing up hill than in going down hill. It
is shorter when a burden is carried;
longer with low than with high-heeled
boots ; longer when the sole is thick and
prolonged a little beyond the foot than
when it is short and flexible. It thus
appears that the heel may with benefit be
almost indefinitely lowered, while it is
disadvantageous to prolong the sole of
the boot beyond a certain limit, or to
give it an absolute rigidity. Some in
fluences which lengthen the step lessen
its frequency ; so in going up hill the
step becomes at the same time longer
and less frequent. In walking on level
ground the length of the step and its
frequency are always proportioned; the
quicker the walk the longer the step.
“Nature here proves the folly of the
high heel in a most practical manner ;
and the objection to them in men is
equally applicable to them in ladies;
and if they could only see themselves as
they totter along perched up on high
heels and walking as if stepping on egg
shells, tlieir ludicrous appearance would
at once stop the fashion. Any one ac
customed to country life and long walks
on the hills, must have felt that terrible
leg-weariness which a day’s shopping
with a lady entails. The slow, irregular
walk, the frequent pauses, and the diffi
culty of taking short steps with proper
balance are trials well known to men.
Without a good-shaped low-heeled boot,
no lady, however i pretty her foot or
graceful her carriage, can walk becom
ingly, with ease to herself, and a proper
flexion of the muscles of the feet and
legs. Half the ricked ankles come from
heels being too high to form a proper
steady base for the weight of the body,
and the narrow pointed toes prevent
their proper expansion and use. Make
a footprint in the sand and then go and
place your boot in it—what a margin
there will be! Horses even, with a
horny hoof, suffer horribly if their shoes
are cramped and do not allow the foot to
expand. Much more might be written
of the accompanying ills of tight and
high-lieeled boots ; but as long as women
will bear the pain so as to appear taller
and to have tiny feet, so long will they
do violence to nature’s gifts. Legs and
feet were given us for use to exercise
the body upon. In fact, so cramped up
and stilted has fashion made the walk
nowadays that a lady with wooden logs
might pass muster in the park undis
covered.—The Lancet.
A Sailor’s Tarn.
In a book written by Rear Admiral
Werner, of the German navy, a strange
story is told of the way in which many
years ago, in 1836, a French man-of-war
went down with all hands on board in
West Indian waters. The ship had been
in commission for two years on the An
tilles station, and during the whole of
the time her captain, who is described as
an incarnation of cruelty, had exercised
his ingenuity in tormenting in every pos
sible way both the officers and men of
his crew. So well had he succeeded that
the lives of all on board had been ren
dered a burden to them, while the cap
tain himself was hated with an intensity
of which proof was soon to be given.
Orders at length came for the ship to
return home. Not long after the anchor
had been it became evident that
a heavy squall was coming down on the
sllip, and the captain directed the officer
of the watch to shorten sail. The orders
were given, but not a man moved. Again
the orders were repeated, this time by
the captain himself; but still not a man
moved.
“ This is mutiny,” cried the captain,
and then a hundred voices answered:
“We will not shorten sail.”
In vain the terrified captain appealed
to the officers to support him. They
stood silent, and neither threats nor
promises availed to make man or officer
move, save only a few who were noted as
spies and favorites of the captain. A few
minutes more aud the squall struck the
ship. In a moment the vessel was thrown
upon her beam-ends.
“Cut away the masts!” shouted the
captain; but still not a man moved.
In another minute, however, the rig
ging was carried away, the masts went
by the board, and, thus relieved, the
ship righted herself. Then the long
suppressed rage of the crew broke forth,
and, rushing aft, they seized the captain.
A few minutes more aud he would have
followed the rigging, but the first lieuten
ant, going below, opened the door of the
magazine and fired his pistol into it.
There was a loud report, and the ship
was no more. An hour afterward an
American vessel passing over the spot
picked up one of the crew, tv ho told the
story of what had happened, and died
shortly afterward.
A rRETTT American girl went of late
frequently into the streets of Paris, un
attended as American young ladies are
wont to do, and contrary to the custom
there. The young Parisians followed
and annoyed "her, until sha invented a
novel method of rebuffing them. Ac
cording to the Continental Gazette, she
provided herself with a pocketful of cen
times, each the value of a half-penny,
and whenever a man spoke to her, pre
tending to mistake utterly his words, sha
gracefully extended her hand and drop-
Eed this coin into his hand, saying, in
er broken French: “ Hungry, are yon,
poor man! Well, take this and go buy
tome bread.”
■ One passenger is lulled by the rail
i roads for every 41.7 _ 8.775 miles traveled,
and one is either kihed or wounded for
l every 11.374.033 uiiies.
SCRAPS OF SCIENCE.
The Mormons raise carrots in order to
draw tho superabundance of alkali out of
the ground.
Scientists have caught tho skeleton of
a mammoth reptile in the Rocky Moun
tains, and they now call him Stegosau
rus.
About 82,000 different species of plants
have been distinguished by scientific
men, and 3,800 of this number are dif
ferent forms of grass.
Anew process for using old steel has
lately been patented in England. By it
anew metal of extraordinary strength
and ductility is alleged to be introduced,
which is expected to prove of great
value. Steel remade on this plan has
sold readily at $225 per ton.
The pachymeter, lately patented in
Vienna, which measures the thickness of
paper to the 1000th part of an inch, is
outdone by the micrometer caliper, now
coming into use in this country, which
determines the thickness of paper, or
anything else, to the 10,000 th part of an
inch.
The genealogical tables of the reigning
and othor princely families of Europe
have of late been examined to determine
the mean duration of the life of a gen
eration of the human race. The life of
princes does not appear to be anything,
if at all, longer than that of the majority
of other people, for the data which the
tables presented gave a period of thirty
years as the mean limit of a genera
tion.
Several changes in the summit of
Mount AStna have been observed by Frof.
Silvestri since the last display of volcanic
activity. The summit is now 3,300
metres above the level of the sea, the
height having decreased twelve metres;
the interior edge of the crater has in
creased from 1,500 metres to 1,800
metres, and the eruptive axis, which was,
before the eruption of 1879, on the west
side of the crater, is now right in the
center.
A remarkable iustance of preservation
of the mental and bodily faculties to a
very advanced age is presented by the
case of M. Clievreul, professor of chem
istry and natural science, v who is now in
his ninety-fifth year. This more than
nonagenarian savant lias just finished,
for the fiftieth time in liis lengthened ex
istence, his annual course of lectures on
“Chemistry Applied to the Study of Or
ganized Beings,” at the Museum of Nat
ural History, in Paris.
A comparative analysis of the statis
tics presented in the suicide records of
France and Sweden has been made by
M. Bertillon, of the Anthropological
Society, Paris, with the result of estab
lishing, on what lie thinks quite satis
factory evidence, the two following laws:
1. Widowers commit suicide more fre
quently than married men. 2. The
presence aud influence of children in the
house diminish the inclination to suicide
iu men and woman.
A resident of Germantown has in his
possession an interesting relic of a pub
lic benefactor. This is a silver tankard
weighing 20 ounces, which was the prop
erty of Gabriel Wilkinson, the first mar
ble rnnson of Philadelphia, who died 148
years ago. He hung the tankard fro* l '
the pump in front of his marble yard fo.
the benefit of thirsty passers by. It
would not be safe for the present owner
to hang that silver tankard in such a
conspicuous place—even in Philadel*,
phia.
Marriage Contracts..
Civil marriage is becoming more com
mon in New York, not only among re
cently-nrrived immigrants, who are ac
enstomed to it in Europe, but amonj
Americans. To step up to the Mayor’;
office and settle the matter in a few min
utes, costs nothing for white dresses
veils, gloves, flowers, presents or fees
There is no necessity for bridesmaids an
groomsmen, or for a clergyman, an
there is a reliable public record kepi
which is not always secured by marryin
before a minister. In any case, it is tb
mutual consent of two persons legal)
entitled to wed which constitutes tl
marriage, and a ceremony is wisely ii
stituted by law to provide evidence
that consent. The true course to V
pursued in this most important matt
is that common in European countrie
to have the same law of marriage for t
whole nation, and local civil officers coi
petent to decide on the legal capacity
the parties to contract marriage, and
keep a publio record of each mania;
duly attested. When this most nee
sary civil contract has been comple’
the parties, having their certificaf
be married, without any further
gation, by priest, minister or rabin,
they may see fit, and with all the
monies, festivities and expense they n
desire. —New York Hafneai.
Some Americans We Are Ashamed
It is a melancholy fact that, of
people under the sun, Americans —tb
who have the most reason to be prou
their country—are the only race who
ashamed of it. Not that all Ameri<
are so contemptible, bnt many whe
abroad are a disgrace to their birtlipl
bv actually attempting to pass tl
selves off as English or French, or
thing but Americans. The Chinese,
Japanese, Russians, Turks, Gem
English and French—all nations i
ized and otherwise—under any an
circumstances, defend and are pro"
their native land. It is only the A
can, “ with soul so dead,” who ape
English, or attempts to pass liimse
as French. If we had a Siberi
might be well to send a few of the
constructed idiots thither for life
perhaps, recollection would stir,
their patriotism.— Andrews' A - i
Queen.
Mistress “ Mary, this ve
goose is tough enough to brer
teeth.” Maid—“ Yes’m; didn’t j
me, ma’am, that you wanted it
piece de resistance.”