Newspaper Page Text
By R. S. HOWARD.
VOLUME V.
Hope, Love, Patience.
O'er wayward childhood would’st thou hold
firm rule,
An d sun thee in the light of happy faces ?
Love, hope and patienoe, they must be thy
graces,
And in thine own heart let them first keep
school.
for as old atlas on his broad neck places
Heaven’s starry globe and there sustains it, so
Do these upbear the little world below
Ot education— patience, love and hope.
iletbinLs I s*e them grouped ia seemly show,
The straightened arms upraised, the palms
aslope,
And robes that touching, as adown they flow,
Distinctly blend, like snow em oss’d in snow.
Oh, part them never! If hope prostrate lie,
Dove too will sink and die.
But love is subtle, and will proof derive
From her own lite that hope is yet alive.
And bending o’er with soul-tre.nslusing eyes,
Woos back the fleeting spirit, and hall supplies;
Thus love repays to hope what hope flrst
gave to love. *
Yet haply there will come a weary day,
When overtask'd at length
Both love and hope beneath the load give
way,
Then with a statue’s srnde, a statue’s strength,
Stands the mute sister, patience, nothing loth,
And, both supporting, does the work of both.
Samuel Tay ter Coleridge .
‘ EDGETT’S THANKS.”
“Ain’t it strange?” said Pohv.
The mellow gold of the summer after
noon lay like a veil over the artist’s
characteristically untidy studio; the
tall red hollyhocks reared their crests
at the window, and a cat-bird was
whistling sweetly in the branches of
the Canada plum tree beyond.
Mr. Edgett, the artist, had gone on a
sketching tour, and Mrs. Molus, the
landlady, had promptly availed herself
of the opportunity to “clean up things
a bit”—a process which was systemati
cally frowned-down by Mr. Edgett.
when in possession of the premises.
Polly was a rubicund-faced, red
armed girl of twelve, awkward and
clumsy in the extremest degree—but
she was, ns Mrs. Molus expressed it.
"a regular spider to work.”
“There ain’t any grown girls,” said
the landlady, “ as you’ll get more worh
out of than you will out of Polly.”
And us she scrubbed away at tin
floor, her fascinated gaze involuntarily
riveted itself upon a halLcompleteo
sketch of a woman’s head upon th
easel—a spirited thing, with wild, bai k
ward-flowing hair, eyes full of red
savago light, and firm lips apart.
"Wherever I go. and whichever wa\
I turn,' said Polly, in despair, “they
follow me—them eyes! The thing ain 1
alive, be it?”
I hut is high art, Polly,” said :
grave voice, close to her elbow.
And she nearly upset her cleaning
pail in the stait produced by seeing Mr
K tgett himself, portfolio, portabh
easel, furled umbrella, and all, strapper
across his shoulders.
II" had found the summer meadov
too hot, and had returned before the ex
pec ted time.
hat are you doing?” he demanded.
sharply.
“Please, sir, I’m a-scrubb : n’,” said
rising clumsily to her feet, and
'topping a stiff bob of a courtesy
“Missis she said—”
“ Your missis is a fool, Polly!” crisply
spoke up the artist, “and you are an
other.”
.} ' ease < sir, that’s what they always
s . aul at the workhouse,” said Pollv,
despairingly.
hut, nevertheless,” encouragingly
aided Mr. Edgett, “you are a good
they 6 ?” 1 " art * ie e^eS *°^ ow y° u > do
And with a shudder. Polly admitted
that they did.
That woman, Polly,” said the artist,
raying down his portfolio, “is Medea.”
ihdn t never live hereabouts, did
she?'said Polly, curiously.
she murdered her children
some centuries ago-did Medea.”
ol *y stared herder than ever, in un
mitigated horror.
I hope they gave her a good, round
mrn m jaiJ,” said she. “ I likes little
.1 >( n—i does. If I’d all the money
I "'anted—”
‘‘]yoil?"’ said Mr. Edgett.
and build a great, big house, and
'UKe in an the orflings and work’us
‘ ! (, i 'n, and them as boasted no home,
ana-—-
" Polly!”
lie shrill voice of Mrs. Molus inter
(!; Ml at this juncture, and Polly’s
ruin' 111 Cn s P ane tumbled into
, J -ilgett was a great artist, un
, ,i ' *Hy, but somehow his pictures
' not S(? d. And before the glossy
: un the maple leaves in front of the
i °, Uh ’ turned to scarlet, Mrs. Molus
mmed him with considerable ani-
Y* iat "there was other parties wait
r the room, as could be depended
i’f s he’d trouble him to move out
things afore nightfall.”
1 * ’• Edgett looked at his lean-jawed
**Twith a troubled, lazy gaze,
ould you mind waiting a week,
MolusP" said he. “ I—l do not
t exactly well, and—”
should mind it very much,” Mrs.
h 0 as acrimoniously answered. “I
• I mentioned as the rooms was let,
r ‘ ( * m ust beg you to clear out right
away.”
j Edgett, with throbbing pains
n ‘‘s head, and a sick, dizzy sensation
t, ' 1 ry movement, packed his lew mill
-0 lf ds and color-tubes, and started
away,
* aih sorry that I must leave here in
the forest news.
he -ur
withhe”! “ rry ' too! ” Ba PPed the dame,
“ p . T i,n lj Ps viciously compressed.
But I hope soon to hear from mv
Um,” m EnKl!uld ' “ and settle all liabili
m:/Z 7 0rd8 bitter no parmep,”
said the landlady, bouncing back into
her hall 86 ’ “ attenuated india-rub
-I?dgGtt walked slowly and pain
3rnJ].* ° ng ’ Untll he cached a sweet
smeJhng pme CO pse, where the shadowg
<ay dense and deep, and the sound of a
bidden waterfall filled the air with ten
der mysteries.
I here s an old deserted mill here
somewhere,” he said to himself, “ I
know, because I sketched it, one
showery day last Juno. It is cool-cool
and shady-with the noise of drippino
water m one’s ears, and I can rest there.
w 11aiout fear of let or hindrance ”
*
Iwenty-four hours afterward, little
, * y * all dust and pallor, came into the
drug store in the village.
“Come, then, what’s wanting?” said
pert assistant, who wore a paper
collar and an imitation gold watch
chain.
“ Wot’s good for ’eadache?” demanded
I’olly, “and fever? and light-’eaded
ness? I’ve got ten cents here, and—”
“Come, girl, clear out of here!” said
the assistant, superciliously. “We
don’t want any tramps around.”-
“I ain’t a tramp!” said Polly, with
tears in her eyes and a lump in her
throat. “And I want ten cents’ worth
of what’s good for—”
“ Where is the case?” demanded the
druggist himself, a shrewd, bald-headed
Scotchman.
And Polly led him to the deserted mill
in the pine woods, where Eustace Edgett
lay, tossing in delirium.
Child,” said he. “ do you know what
is the matter with this man?”
1 oily shook her head, with her apron
to her eyes.
“I know he's sick,” said she, “ and
hasn’t no one to nuss him but me. He
knows me, he do-and he says, ‘ Polly,
you ain’t such a fool, arter all.’ He was
kind to me, an' he give me a ten-cent
piece once—no one ever did afore—and
I took it to buy medicine, I did!”
“ Has he no friends?”
“Notas I knows on.”
“He must be removed to a hospital
at once,” said the Scotchman. “He is
ill of variola—in other words, small
pox.”
“He mustn’t never be took nowhere
where I can’t take care of him!” howled
Polly; “ for he was good to me !”
When Eustace Edgett’s life-bark
Irifted back again to the shores of con
sciousness, two facts met him, face to
face. One was the certainty that his
ife was owing to Polly's faithful care;
the other was a black-edged letter from
England, briefly stating the demise of
iiis uncle, and curtly congratulatine
him upon succession to ample wealth.
“Polly!” said the artist, lifting his
heavy eyes to the place where his faith
ful, red-armed little nurse sat darning
stockings, by the window.
“Sir!” said Polly.
“ I’m a rich man at last,” said Mr.
Edgett.
“Is you, sir?” said Polly, moment
arily fearful that the delirium had re
turned.
“ You shaU have your Utopia,” said
Edgett.
“ Sir!” said Polly.
“The big house, you know,” ex
plained the artist, “for the homeless
children. And we’ll call it'Edgett’s
Thanks.’ In the meantime, Polly, you
shall go to school.”
“But I don’t want tc go to school,”
sail rebellious Polly. “ I don’t need no
book-learning to take care of the chil
dren !”
‘ But you know, Polly,” urged Edgett,
“the house can’t be built all in a day!
It will take years and years. For Ed
gett’s Thanks must be worthy of its oc
casion. And you’ve got to stay some
where in the meantime; so boarding
school is the place for you. Polly.”
Eustace Edgett went to England to
assume the mantle of his own responsi
bilities. Polly retired reluctantly enough,
to a school where “young ladies of de
fective education ” were especially
fostered ; and the huge, red brick walls
ol Edgett’s Thanks reared themselves,
by slow degress, as near as possible to
the spot where its endower had lain
under the roof of the deserted mill,
lighting for bis life. And in ten years
lie came back again.
The playground was musical with the
merry voices of little children. A tall,
lair-haired young lady stood in their
midst, her flaxen curls blown about, her
eyes shining like blue stars, with a close
fitting dress of deep, blue serge, outlined
the prettiest of figures.
Involuntarily Eustace Edgett raised
his hat.
“ I beg vour pardon, ma’am,” said he;
“ but is there a girl by the name of Poily
Browning here?”
“lam Polly!” she cried, blushing
to the very roots of her golden
hair. “ Oh. Mr. Edgett, didn’t you
know me? 1 should have known you in
China or Japan!”
The artist stared at the willowy
figure, the soft, shy eyes, the air of
delicate refinement.
“ Polly turned into a princess!” cried
he. “Well, I’m ready to believe any
thing now.”
Miss Browning held out her slender
hand.
“ Welcome to Edgett’s Thanks,” said
she, with quiet dignity. “ Will you
walk over the buildings now?”
Of course he didn’t go back to Eng-
JEFFERSON, GA., FRIDAY, JUNE 4, 1880.
land, and of course he married pretty
Polly, and of course they both live at
Edgett’s Thanks, with a family of three
or four hundred little children. And
1 oily is radiantly happy- -and so is her
artist husband.
For what greater bliss can there be in
this world than to do good and to love?
Trapping Wild Pigeons.
A lecent letter from Shelby, Mich.,
says: Probably few persons are aware
of the interest taken by a large class of
people at this season of the year in the
business of catching pigeons for market.
The writer arrived here this morning,
and finds about seventy-five persons
here and in the vicinity, for the purpose
of catching these birds. People are here
from Illinois, Wisconsin, Indiana, Ken
tucky, Missouri, Ohio, New York, New
Jersey, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania
and Michigan. Old, middle-aged and
young, some of whom have been en
gaged in the business in its season for
the last forty years. The profits in a
good season are reported at from S2O to
SIOO per day.
About this time each year pigeons
arrive from the South in this part of
Michigan in very large numbers, where
they soon commence building their nests
and raise their brood. They frequently
collect in such large numbers that the
noise of their wings makes a noise like
the rumbling of cars. This migration
is repeated to this State nearly every
year since 1840. In anticipation of their
arrival, which usually is very sudden
after they commence arriving, these
people from the various States assemble
here with nets and birds to use lor de
coys. Being thus well equipped with
the paraphernalia necessary, the ground
is looked over and places selected for
locating their nets.
Chicago is wide awake to the inter
ests of the trade, having buyers on the
ground even before the arrival of the
birds.
This business of trapping proves quite
remunerative to many of the people
here besides the hotel men, as many
board at private houses in the vicinity
of theii nets, but an occasional sharper
here is reported as professing to own or
control most of the very favorable and
convenient localities for trapping, for
the avowed purpose of extorting ex
orbitant charges from the trappers for
privileges of locating their nets, which
the trappers generally avoid.
The Antiquity of the Spoon.
The use of our common table utensil,
the spoon, is widespread, and its inven
tion, as it appears, dates from remote
antiquity The form that we use at the
present day—a small oval bowl provided
with a shank and flattened handle—is
not that which has been universally
adopted. If we examine into the man
ners and customs of some of the pi ople
less civilized than we—the Kabyles, for
example we shall find that they use a
round wooden spoon. The Romans also
used a round spoon, which was made ot
copper. We might be led, from the lat
ter fact, Lo infer that the primitive form
of this utensil was round, and that the
oval shape was a comparatively moderp
invention. But such is not the case, for
M. Chantre, in making some excava
tions on the borders of Lake Paladru,
the waters of which had bsen partially
drawn off, found in good state of pre
servation wooden spoons, which in
shape were nearly like those in use at
the present day— the only difference be
ing in the form of the handle, which was
no wider than the shank. The lacus
trine station where these were found
dates back to the ninth century, and we
therefore have evidence that oval spoons
were already in use during the Cario
vingian epoch, and learned men tell us
that spoons of a primitive kind have
been found among the fossils of the
reindeer age.
Road Locomotives for the West.
There was recently brought to this
country from England a number of road
locomotives consigned to Wadsworth,
Nevada, where they will be employed
in the transportation of minerals and
general merchandise. They are to be
operated in different parts of tbe State,
connecting outlying mining districts
with railroad stations. These steam
wagons weigh about seven tons each,
and are rated at from twelve to four
teen horse power. They are fitted to
use any kind of fuel, and in case of need
the road wheels can be replaced with
flange wheels for running on rails.
They also have winding drums at
tached to the axle capable of holding
100 yards of coiled rope, for hauling
loads up st?ep hills. These road en
gines, with an engineer and two labour
ers, can haul from ten to twelve tons of
paying load on any good roads not steep
er than one to twelve, and make an aver-
age speed of three and one-half miles an
hour. A sixteen-mule team, with a
wagon carrying from six to ten tons,
cannot make an average of more than
two miles an hour. The locomotive
and its train of wagons does not cost
much more than the mule team, and it
can haul freight for from five to ten
cents per ton per mile, which is about
one-fourth as much as the hauling by
mule team costs.
Someone says dandiuff maybe de
stroyed by rubbing the roots of the hair
with lemon. The remedy is not as sim
ple as it looks. It is easy enough to
pull out each particular hair and rub its
root with a lemon,-but to get the hair
back in its proper place is where the
fifteen-puzzle comes in. Norristown
Herald.
FOR THE PEOPLE.
Midnight Sunshine on Northern Fields.
A Norwegian scientist, Professor
Schubeler, has recently reported the re
sults of his investigations to determine
the effects of the midnight sun during
the Scandinavian summers on the wheat
and other crops. The sight of the sun
shining near the Arctic circle through
the twenty -four hours consecutively for
weeks together has attracted many to
the North Cipe, but few have reflected
on the phenomenon except as a physical
curiosity. In the northern parts of
Norway its uninterrupted radiation is
felt for two months (from June 23 to
August 23), and the powerful influence
of the almost unbroken sunlight on
grain sand fru ; ts, as revealed by Pro
fessor Schubeler’s researches and ex
periments, is astonishing. His experi
ments were made with samples of Onio
and Bessarabia wheat, both of which
every year acquired a richer and darker
hue, until finally they assumed the
yellow-brown tint of the hardy home
grown Norwegian wheats. Similar
color changes occurred in Indian corn
and different kinds of vegetables trans
planted from foreign countries under
the Norwegian skies. In no case
did the experimenter find any im
ported plant capable of being grown
in Norway lose in intensity of color
after continued cultivation there, while
with many garden plants of Cen
tral Europe after acclimatization they
seem to increase in size and weight.
The conclusion he draws is that wheat
corn and seeds imported from a warmer
clime, when cultivated under the unin
termitted sunlight of a Norwegian sum
mer, become hardier as well as larger
and better able to resist excessive cold.
This discovery is of the very highest
moment for the farmers and grain-grow
ers of our Northwestern States and Ter
ritories, whose losses m some years
from slight excesses of cold (when the
snow covering for the winter wheat is
too thin) are enormous, but which may
possibly be avoided by planting seed
wheat hardened and invigorated in
a Scandinavian climate and by its pe
culiar solar influences. There are many
reasons for urging this suggestion on
their attention, with a view to the de
velopment of our great grain-growing
resources. Professor Schubeler’s dis
covery—the result ofthi rty years’ 'ex
perimentation—has been[powerfully cor
roborated by similar skilled researches
of other investigators, showing that
seme plants attain in Lapmark, near or
within the Arctic circle, great robust
ness and depth of color.
These are not, however, the only ac
quisitions that plants make by exposure
to a ninht and day sun. The aroma
and flavor of wild and cultivated fruits,
capable of ripening in northern lands,
are much greater than when grown
under more southern skies. This is
particularly observed in the smal
ruits which are so grateful in the early
part of the warm season, requiring in
our latitude but a short period of heat
to mature them. Dr Schubeler main
tains, a3 the result of his patient and
careful experiments, that day and night
light unintermitted engenders aroma, as
high temperature engenders sweetness;
and, while the high flavor is obtained
at the expense of sweetness, the latter
quality is of minor importance. How
ever conflicting tastes may settle this
question the experiments of the Nor
wegian scientist derive double interest
from the recent inquiries of Dr. Sie
mens, illustrat’ng the power of the elec
trie light when applied to plants and
vegetables to quicken and invigorate
their growth. Both investigations,
though entirely independent, have led
to the same scientific result. —New
York Herald.
Words of Wisdom.
Ability and necessity will dwell near
each other.
A good art’cle is always worth the
money you pay.
There Is nothing so imprudent as ex
cessive prudence.
Men may be ungrateful, but the hu
man race is not so.
By over-sugaring of all good qualities
you may turn them to acidities.
Success in most things depends on
knowing how long it takes to succeed.
No man can end with being superior
who will not begin with being inferior.
Blushing is a suffusion—least seen
in those who have the most occasion
lor it.
Knowledge without justice becomes
ci*aft; courage without reason becomes
rashness.
Tf mortals could discover the science
of conquering themselves we should
have perfection.
Cheerfulness or joyousness is the
heaven under which everything not
poisonous thrives.
A Conclusive Auswer.
Dr. Murphy was boasting recently
that the climate of Minnesota beats the
climate of California or any other State,
and with a triumphant air of exultation,
exclaimed: “Look at me! behold my
beautiful rounded form. When I came
here I weighed only ninety-seven
pounds, and now I w'eigh two hundred
and seventy-five pounds. What do you
think of that?” One of the sons of the
late Bishop Willoughby, standing by,
said: ‘‘Why, doctor, that’s nothing,
look at me; I weigh one hundred and
seventy-five pounds and when I came to
Minnesota, I weighedonly six pounds.”
The doctor left. — St. Paul (Minn.) Pio
neer Press.
Mexico was colonized just 100 years
before Massachusetts was.
TIMELY TOPICS.
The relative status of the chief coffee
consuming countries ranges as follows :
First, the United States, consuming
323,000,000 pounds; next, Germany,
which takes 218,000,000; next, France,
with 110,000,000; next, Austria-Hun
gary, with 82,000,000; then Holland,
with 68 000,000; and finally Belgium,
with 48,600,000 pounds. These coun
tries take eighty per cent, ot the whole
product of the world. England ranks
among the third-rate consumers, and
Russia, with her 80,000,000 of people,
consumes only one-filth of a pound per
capita.
England’s greatest poet is described in
interesting fashion by a clever corre
spondent: “Nobody would suspect him
for a poet now. His face is strong and
his eyes haye a certain brightness, but
he is seamed, rather than wrinkled,
from forehead to chin ; he appears to be
puffy; he is partially bald; he stoops
and shuffles; dresses ordinarily and
carelessly, and has a generally rustic
mien and denotement. He does not af
fect, and never has affected, general
society, and the fact shows in his bear
ing and slovenly raiment.” The corre
spondent adds that Mr. Tennyson has
made such wise investment of his large
literary earnings, that his entire property
is probably worth a million of dollars—
a remarkable fortune for a poet.
The Dukes of Bedford have converted
what was an inland sea in winter and a
noxious swamp in summer, the waters
expanding into meres swarming with
fish and screaming with wild fowl, by
the labors of successive generations of
engineers, into 680,000 acres of the rich
est land in England, as much the pro
duct of art as the kingdom of Holland,
and, like it, preserved for human cul
ture and habitation solely by continu
ous watchfulness from day to day. The
present duke is devoted to agricultural
pursuits, and has placed one of his best
'arms at the disposal of the Royal Agri
cultural society for experiments des
tined to improve the scientific knowl
edge of farmers all over the world.
A German named Baumgardner has
invented an air-ship which is a combi
nation of balloon and wings such as Mr -
Edison proposes to use alone. From a
published description it seems to be a
rather unwieldy cratt. there being ten
or twelve wings and three cars. The
wings are moved by cranks, and an
ascent was made at Leipzig the other
day. The two assistants whom the in
ventor took with him got scared when
the machine had mounted above the
housetops and jumped out. Baumgard
ner, however, continued to ascend until
the balloon burst, when he came down
very suddenly. He expects to live long
enough to try it again.
It appears that the German govern
ment has taken the matter of smoking
seriously in hand, the practice being
carried to so great an excess by the
youth of that nation that it ha3 been
considered to have damaged their con
stitutions and incapacitated t. em for
the defense of their country. In certain
towns of Germany, therefore, the police
have had orders to forbid all lads ua
der sixteen years of age to smoke in the
streets, and to punish the offense by
fine and imprisonment. Moreover, a
Belgian physician lias ascertained, dur
ing a journey of observation and inquiry
made at the request of the Belgian gov
ernment, that the very general and ex
cessive use of tobacco is the main cause
of color blindness, an affection which
has occasioned very considerable
anxiety, both in Belgium and Germany,
from its influence upon railway and
other accidents, and also from the mili
tary point of view.
The First English Song Set to Music.
The following old English poem is
said to have been the first English song
ever set to music. It was written about
the year 1300, and was first discovered
in one of the Harleian manuscripts now
in the British museum:
APPROACH OF SUMMER.
Summer is i-comen in,
Ltrnde sing cuccu;
Groweth led, and bloweth raed,
And spriDgeth the wde nu.
Sing cuccu.
Awe bleteth after lomb,
Lbouth atter calve cu;
Bulluc sterleth, buck verteth;
Mur’e sing cuccu;
Cuccu, cuccu;
WeJ singes the cuccu;
Ne swik’thow nawer nu.
Sing cuceu nu,
Sing cuccu.
The following is a literal modern
prose version: Summer is coming.
Loudly sing cuckoo. Groweth feed and
bloweth meed and springeth the wood
now. Ewe bleatet'n after lamb, loweth
cow after calf; bullock starteth, buck
verteth (t. e., harboreth among the
ferns); merrily sing cuckoo! Well sing
est thou, cuckoo. Nor cease to sing
now. Sing, cuckoo, now; sing cuckoo!
—Boston Transcript.
Hat dealers who have been in the
business fifty years, say they find less
difficulty in fitting the heads of farm
ers’ sons than they did a quarter of a
century ago. And they attribute it
to improved agricultural machinery.
Twenty-five years ago, farmers’ boys
always wore three or four lumps the
size of hens’ eggs on their heads, super
induced by practicing with the old
fashioned flail.
A STRANGE DISEASE.
The Terrible Malady Which Attacks the
Miner, of St. tiotbard.
The Oaeetta Piemoniese gives some in
teresting particulars concerning the
effects on the health of the men em
ployed in the St. Gothard tunnel, of the
unfavorable conditions in which they
are compelled to work, with special
reference to a disease engendered by the
presence in the intestines of animalcula
having a certain resemblance to trichi
na. The general appearance of the St.
Gothard miners, particularly of those
of them—and they are the n ajority
affected by the malady in question, is*
described a3 deplorable in the extreme.
Their faces are yellow, their features
drawn, eyes half closed, lips discolored,
the skin is humid and the gait difficult.
If they eat with appetite they cannot
digest, and when wine is taken in it is
invariably rejected. Let. a man be as
strong as he may, three or four months’
work in the tunnel njures his health,
and at the end of a year, or a little
more, he is a confirmed invalid.
Professors Calderini, of Parma, and
Bozzolo and Pagliani, of Turin, have
made s veral visits to Airolo for the
purpose of studying th diseas< on the
pot. They [state that s vent, or eighty
per cent, of the men ar< su ff .ring from
this complaint, to whi i tney give the
name of anemia ankglos. >ma, a term de
rived from the worm found in the in
testines of a miner who died in the
Turin hospital last year. A somewhat
similar malady, arising from the
presence of the ankylosloma in the in
testine, is endemic in Egypt and Brazil.
Thirty per cent, of the cases are, classi
fied as “severe;” and among the men
who have wrought in the tunnel a year
or more, ninety-five per cent, are
affected. For boys of from fourteen to
sixteen, many of whom, I can per
sonally testify, are employed in the tun
nel, the professors stigmatize it as “a
veritable hell,” continuous labor in its
pestiferous atmosphere being almost
certain death for the young. Professor
Buzzolo is of the opinion that ten hours
spent in the tunnel are sufficient to
bring about a condition of body favora
ble to the development of anemia an\y- ■
lo stoma.
The disease, though it has probably
prevailed more or less for years, his
only shown itself to an alarming extent
during the last six months. Several
causes have contributed to produce this
result. The distance of the points of
attack, as the extremities of the gal
leries where the pei'forators were at
work, have been called, from the re
spective entrances (on the north side
nearly five miles) rendered ventilation
extremely difficult —an evil which has
increased by the occasional freezing of
the compressers. The air thus insuffi
ciently renewed was further vitiated by
the perpetual explosions of dynamite
of which the consumption has been at
the rate of 660 pounds a day, the smoke
from 400 to 500 oil lamps, and the ex
halations from the bodies of 400 men
and forty horses. Add to this that a
like number of men and horses have
been working night and day in each sec
tion of the tunnel for years, that there
an entire absence of sanitary appli
ances, and that the temperature has
averaged from eighty to ninety-five de
grees Fahrenheit, and we have a stale
of things inimical to life and health as
can well be conceived. Of this the mor
tality among the horses affords ample
proof. They are kept in a great tunnel
only eight hours out of twenty-four, yet
they die—generally dropping down dead
as if struck by a bullet—at the rate of
twenty-five per cent, per month; that
is, the average duration of equine life in
the St. Gothard tunnel has been exactly
four months.
Born to be Drowned.
The Seattle (W. TANARUS.) Intelligencer of a
late date says: A fatality to be drowned
seems to hang over the members of the
Love family, old and well-known resi
dents of Portland, Oregon. Away back
in Illinois, one of the brothers, when a
boy, fell into a well and was drowned.
Some years ago another brother, who
had-eome to manhood, was drowned in
the Columbia slough. About a year
ago still another brother, William Love,
was drowned in the slough, in nearly
the very same spot where his brother
was drowned years before. About a
month ago Albert Love, a son of
William Love, went to work on the
steamer Calliope. A few days ago the
Calliope went down the river to raise
the sunken steamer Maria Wilkens, and
while walking along the guard of the
boat he fell into the river. Of the sev
eral men working around the steamer
none could swim. Before assistance
reached him the young man sank in
sight of his relatives and friends.
May-Poles in Sweden.
In few villages in England can a May
pole now be seen, and probably in none
of them is it ever put in use. In Swe
den, however, there are May-poles still
in plenty, and there is around them no
lack of rustic merriment. Only, as the
snow may not have vanished by May
day, the al fresco friskings are wisely
postponed until midsummer. In Dale
carlia especially the old custom is kept
up, as the lately faded flowers and
wreaths of withering leaves that hung
about the poles in August plainly
showed. Terpsichore may doubtless
find elsewhere apter pupils than among
these thick-shoed peasants, still a May
pole dance in Dalarne must be a pretty
sight, if but for the gay dresses and
bright faces of the girls who take a part
in it .—All the Year Round.
PRICE—S 1.50 PER ANNUM.
NUMBER 52.
Past, Present, Future,
I said onto the past, ‘‘Give back thy t retires.
For they are mine—are mine by conquest
w >u;
Give back the lost, the lovoJ, the gloiious
pleasures
Which round tlio day-dreams of my child
hood clung !”
The past, it answere t me with voice oi gloom,
" Invoke me not! My joys an in the tomb.”
If aid unto the piesent, “ Mock me not!
Thou art my boon companion. Dwell with
me,
And wo will make sweet lile a sunny spot,
When naught but things ail puie and bright
shall be.”
The piesent sighed, “ My joys can never last;
My numbered hours are gliding to the past!”
I spake unto the luture; but a light
So gloiious circled round that shadowy
brow—
Hope’s gorgeous iris—so divinely bright
That I could only kneel, and whisper low,
“ May every moment of tho luture be
Sacred and dedicate, my God, to Thee!”
Youth's Companion.
ITEMS OF INTEREST,
Ships are frequently ou speaking
terms, and they lie to. —Bcslon Tran
script.
Sitting Bull has given his tomahawk
to a Canadian missionary, who has pre
sented it to a college museum in Ottawa,
Ont.
America now has nearly a hundred
varieties of American grapes under cul
tivation, and more than eight hundred
varieties of pears.
The annually revived and touching
story of an old gander having fallen in
love with a cow, comes to us this time
from Lancing, Ky.
Agriculture is to be made an obliga
tory study in all the elementary schools
of France. This is a recent action of
the French senate, and was adopted by
a majority of 254 votes.
The London Times estimates that
there are 52,000 blind persons in Great
Britain and Ireland. Nine-tenths of
these, it think?, could have been saved
from their affliction had the highest
special skill been called to their aid in
time.
Brass pins are whitened by long boil
ing in copper vessels containing block
tin. The process of making white iron
pins is still a secret. There are eight
pin factories in the United States, with
an annual production of about 7,000,-
000,000 pins.
Juvenile Theology.—Mother (at tea
table) : “ Jack, who helped you to those
tarts?” J ack (aged seven): “The Lord.”
Mother: “The Lord? Why, what do
you mean, Jack?” Jack: “Well, I
helped myself, but father said yester
day that the Lord helps those who help
themselves.”
The French academy of sciences has
awarded a prize of SSOO to Boutmy <fc
Foucher for their improved and safe
method of manufacturing nitro-glycer
ine. For the pa3t six years there has
been no death in making nitro-glycerine
at their works at Yonges, and the
health of the employees has been excel
lent.
Near the village of Dubno, province
of Vladimir, Russia, a number of dogs
attacked a woman anu tore her to pieces.
A peasant, who happened f o see the
woman struggling with the infuriated
dogs, and who tried to save her, was
nearly killed himself. He was rescued
by the combined efforts of seven peas
ants. These dogs belong to a rich man,
who takes a barbaric pleasure in keep
ing the peasants in dread of them.
“ The Schoolmaster Is Abroad.”
This well-known and oft-quoted phrase
has a noble origin. It is taken from the
following sensible bit of eloquence ot
Lord Brougham, the eminent English
orator:
There have been periods when the
country heard with dismay that the
soldier was abroad. That is not the
case now. Let the soldier be abroad—
a less important person in the eyes ol
some, an insignificant person, whose la
bors have tended to produce this state
of things. The schoolmaster is abroad!
And I trust more to him, armed with
his primer, than I do to the soldier in
full military array, for upholding and
extending the liberties of the country.
The adversaries of improvement are
wont to make themselves merry at what
is termed the march of intellect, and
here, as far as the phrase goes, they arc
in the right. The conqueror moves in a
march. He stalks onward with the
pride, pomp and circumstances of war,
banners flying, shouts rending the air,
guns thundering dnd martial music
pealing, to drown the shrieks of the
wounded, and the lamentations of the
slain.
Not thus with the schoolmaster, in his
peaceful vocation. He quietly advances
in his humble path, laboring steadily
till he has opened to the light all the re
cesses of ignorance, and torn up by the
roots the weeds of vice. His is a pro
gress not to be compared with anything
like a march, but it leads to a far more
brilliant triumph, and to laurels more
imperishable than the destroyer of
his species, the scouige of the world,
ever won. Such men —men deserving
the glorious title of teachers of mankind
—I have found laboring conscientious lv,
though, perhaps, obscurely, in their
blessed vocation, wherever I have gone.
Their calling is high and holy; their re
nown will fill all the earth in after ages,
in proportion as it sounds not far ofl in
their own times,