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W.'a'. MaVis CHALK,} Kd,lor ® and Proprietors. NEWS OF THE WEEK, SOUTH. The value of spo.’ges collected this season on the Florida reef is estimated at $65,000. Competition has reduced the steam boat freight rates 40 per cent, between Ctii cago and New Orleans. The steamship St. Louis, from New Orleans for Liverpool, put in at Savannah Ga., last week, with cotton on fire. A young man, by the name of Corwin, at Moran, Ind., was caught by the buzz-saw, in the mill at that place, and was literally sawed in two. He died in a few hours. At a recent cattle sale in Paris, Ken tucky, twenty-one cows were sold at an aver age of #1,995. One cow Bold for #B,OOO, an other for #5,100, and still another for #4,400 Mr. Gray, of Jones county, Ga., be queathed the sum of #20,000 to Mercer uni versity, at Macon, for the education of young men from Jgnes county who are unable to pay their tuition. The steamer James Kinney struck a snag just below Cairo, lsjjt week, stove a hole in her side, and was run on & bar on the Ken tucky side, where she sunk. Her bow is in four and her stem in nine feet water. The office of the Gazette at Wittsburg, Ark., was set on fire last week, and, owing to a high wind prevailing at the time, the flames soon communicated to the adjacent building and seven buildings were consumed, valued at $25,000. In the suit of Win. M. Farrington against the Memphis city railroad for $12,000, for services as president, and against which the company brought a counter-suit for SIOO,- 000, for alleged damages sustained under Farrington’s administration, the jury returned a verdict granting Farrington nearly $12,000, and the counter-suit was thrown out of court. The last letter ever written by Gen eral “ Stonewall” Jackson is in the possession of the southern historical society. It was ad dressed to General Lee under date of May 2, 1863, and reads as follows: “General—The enemy has marie a stand at Chancellor’s, which is about two miles from Chancellorsville. I hope as soon as practicable to attack. I trust that an ever kind proyidonce will bless us with success.” A dispatch from Osceola, Ark., states that a negro named Jack Phillips outraged the wife of a planter near there. From the treat ment received she will probably die, as she was within a few weeks of her confinement. The negro was arrested and brought to Osceola, the citizens of which place, both white and black, improvised a court, and after hearing the ovidence, took the prisoner out and shot him to death. An officer sent from Fort McPherson, Nebraska, a few days ago, by Gen. Ord, to visit all sections of the grasshopper districts, reports that he finds no cases of actual star vation, but much suffering, some of which partially relieved from various sour ces. Relief must be given or hundreds will starve before winter is half over. Within ten days many will be without a pound of coni or flour. The present aid they are receiving is but a drop in the bucket. Unless the gov ernment aids them their alternative is fearful to contemplate. FOREIGN. The sister of the Tichborne claimant have petitioned the queen for liis release. The Duke of Abercorn has been elected grand master of the Free Masons of Ireland. At the request of Gen. Garibaldi the subscriptions for his relief have been sus pended. The great painting of St. Anthony, by Murillo, has been stolen from the cathedral in Sevillo. Nalakaua, the King of the Sandwich Islands, will arrive at San Francisco by the Benicia, about the last of this month. Political parties in France are known as the “ Macs,” the “ Anti-Macs,” the “ Mac ma honteus” and the “ Plonplonites.” Gen. Jovellar has entered Turnel, the Carlists flying befoie him. Large bodies of insurgents have offered to surrender at Maostrazzo. The first attempt of the Prussian government to have priests elected by their congregations, has taken place at Sandsburg and resulted in an utter failure. Only eleven persons offered to vote. Advices from Cape Town, of the 11th of October, state that the gold fields were at tracting more attention, large nuggets being found almost daily. The crops throughout the colony are in good condition. Despite the government’s measures in Asia Minor, the famine continues. The Khe divo of Egypt sent corn to the distressed dis trict. Baker, the American minister, Philip Frances, the British consul general, and M. Lobet, a French banker, have formed a relief committee. It is reported that Italy is about to issue a memorandum to European powers calhng attention to the dangers to Italy from the intrigues of the Vatican, declaring that the government can no longer tolerate a con piracy in its own capital, and urging the pow ers to discontinue the custom of keeping am bassadors at the holy see. The festivities of tho lord mayor’s day were concluded with a grand banquot at Guildhall. In response to a toast to the queen’s iShistry, Disraeli made a speech in which he said : The working classes of Great Britain inherit rights and privileges not yet possessed by the nobility of other lands. They had no fear of arbitrary ministers and domiciliary visits. They possessed the right to combine for and in the protection and in terest of labor. Justice was pure and no re specter of individnal classes. No one was liable to be dragged unwillingly from his home and employments. It was not wonder ful that a nation possessed of such privileges wished to preserve them. Under such circum stances was it to be wondered at that the work ing classes were conservative. The chief authorities "of the church have decided to hold a great international Catholic congress in London, with the object of maintaining the doctrines of papal infalli bility, asserting the pope's right to temporal as wed as spiritual power, and the duty of all Christians to retnrn to the allegiance of Rome. It is stated this determination is the result of direct instructions from the Vatican, and some of the highest dignitaries of the church will attend the congress. Archbishop Manning, in a speech at Westminster, admitted that his spiritual iufluence greatly increased since he lost his temporalities. If arbitration was ever to supersede war, the pope would be the only possible authorized arbitrator. The Catholic world, he added, was threatened with a con troversy on all decrees of the oecumenical council. There was undoubtedly approaching one of the mightiest contests the religions world bad ever seen. Therefore, it was°nec essary to fearlessly assert, through the free press of England, the pope’s rights and his pretensions to world-wide allegiance. MISCELLANEOUS. Eighty workmen have been discharged at tlio Washington navy-yard. A further reduction will soon take place. It is reported in Philadelphia, that the owners of the steamship Great-Eastern are deliberating about sending 5,000 passen gers over in her, to be fed and housed on board during the Centennial exhibition. It is announced that the new direct cable company expect to commence business this month, and have made a contract with the Atlantic and Pacific telegraph company for the transmission of their messages at the end of the line. Ihe third wfiistairb post master-gen- THE STANDARD AND EXPRESS. eral. in his annual report, estimates the pro portion of washed stamps nsed again in pay ment of postage at 5 per cent, of the value of all stamps sold each year, causing an an nual loss of a million dollars to the revenues of the department. The redemption agency of the treasu ry department, which has been in arrears for some weeks in the redemption of national bank notes, is now up to date, and, therefore, ena abled to make prompt returns for all* remit tances of such notes sent in for redemption. The names of Messrs. Wood and Cox, of New York, Randall, of Pennsylvania, Kerr, of Indiana, and Payne, of Ohio, have been discussed for the next speakership. Gen. Banks is also spoken of. but he does not call himself a democrat, and this is regarded as putting him out of the range of probable ee lection. There is no prominent person ye spoken of for the clerkship of the next house The present force in that office is made up al together of republicans, and, of course, there wiil be many changes among them. Mr. Bar clay, the journal clerk, remains under all dy nasties. and is not likely to be removed. Gen. Walker’s essay on the center of population brings into new prominence the steadiness with .'which this center clings to the thirty-ninth parallel, along which are situ ated Baltimore, Washington and Cincinnati. At no time from 1790 to 1880 has the center of population departed north or south more than twenty-five miles. It has marched westward 399 miles in that period, the greatest leap be ing from 1850 to 1860 (eighty-one miles), when the transfer of a small population to the Pa cific coast gave a sudden elongation to the western part of the lever, and necessitated the moving of the fulcrum quite a distance. It is now forty-eight miles east of Cincinnati, and in 1880 will nearly coincide with that city. Condition of the United States Army. ANNUAL BEPORT OF GEN. SHERMAN. Gen. Sherman’s annual report to the secretary of war shows the total num ber of enlisted men in the army on Oct. 15 to have been 26,441. It estimates that this number will probably be re duced through natural causes by the fir-t of January, 1875, to the 25,000 al lowed by law. It depreciates the inad equacy of so small an army for the de mands of so large an area of territory as it has to be scattered over, involving the necessity of withdrawing troops from one department to meet the re quirements of some other a long dis tance away. It compliments highly the efficiency of Gen. Sheridan and his sub officers, in maintaining comparative peace in the Indian country. It says the report of the commanding officers demonstrate that the small army of the United States, called a peace establish ment, is tbe hardest worked body of men in this country. The discipline and behavior of officers and men have been worthy of all praise, and whether em ployed on the extreme and distant fron tier, or in aiding the civil authorities in the execution of civil processes, have been a model for the imitation of all good men. Iu regard to the removal of his headquarters to St. Louis, he says: “I am prepared to execute the duties that may be devolved upon me by proper authority. Here I am cen trally located, and should occasion arise I can personally proceed to any point on this continent, where my seivices are needed.” shf.ridan’s report of the black hills. Lieut. Gen. Sheridan in his annual report touches slightly upon Gen. Cus tar’s Black Hills expedition, which it pronounces a successful reconnoisance. Some gold was found near Harney’s peak, but of its abundauco there is at present no reliable information. Suffi cient evidence could not be given by an expedition such as that of Gen. Custar’s to determine its quality. Gen. Sheri dan again recommends the establish ment of a large military post in the Black Hills country. Of the Indian troubles, Gen. Sheridan says : “I res pectfully differ with Gen. Pope as to the chief causes of these Indian trou bles, and attribute them to the immu nity with which the tribes have been treated in their raids into Texas for the past three t years. Their reservations have furnished them supplies with which to make raids, and shelter from pursuit wheu they returned with their scalps and plunder. No man of close observation can travel across the great plains, from Nebraska and Wyoming to Texas, and see the established ranches, with their hundreds of thousands of cat tle, sheep, and horses, together with the families of the owners, and reason ably think these people, much exposed and having such valuable interests, are desirous of provoking Indian wars. There wus a time, possibly, when the population of the Indian frontiers may have been desirous of Indian troubles, but that has passed long ago.” Two Strange Human Beings. I was once sitting in a cool under ground saloon at Leipsic, while without people were ready to die from heat, when anew guest entered and took a seat opposite me. Tho sweat rolled in great drops down his face, and he was kept busy with his handkerchief, till at last he found rftjief in the exclamation, “Fearfully lidt.” 1 watched atten tively as he called for a cool drink, for I expected every moment that he would fall from his chair in a fit of apoplexy. The man must have noticed that I was observing him, for he turned toward me suddenly, saying, “I am a carious sort of person, am I not?” “Why?” I asked. “Because I perspire only on the right side.” And so it uas; his right cheek and the light half of his forehead were as hot as fire, while the left side of his face bore not a trace of per spiration. 1 had never seen the like, and, in my astonishment, was about to enter into conversation with him regarding the physiological curiosity, when his neigh bor on the left broke in with tbe remark, “ Then we are the opposite and coun terparts of each other, for I perspire only on the left side.” This, toe, was the fact. So the pair took seats oppo site each other, and shook hands like two men who had just found each his other half. —Popular Science Monthly. Tlic Total Eclipse in Africa. A copy of the “Cape Argus” gives the following account of the ideas of the natives regarding the recent eclipse: In Natal the Zulus stopped work when the eclipse began, and resumed when it was over, demanding two days’ wages, the eclipse, in their opinion, having been a short night. At the diamond fields the natives rushed ont of their claims, horror-stricken, and said the sun was dying. The grandest living tableau ever seen was the great gathering of horror-stricken nudes watching, with fearfully rounded and glaring eyes, month open, and fiDgers pointed at what they believed to be the dying moments of the almighty luminary, whose ma jesty is the only God they know. The effoct of the eclipse on the imagination of the natives, as depicted in their coun tenances, was terrible. They were grouped together on the heights of the Kopje, silent and awe-stricken. They knew nothing of the ghastly light that preceded the darkness; gloom came upon their labors silently as a thief in the night, and it was not until the whole of the mines presented a sulphurous appearance that they left their work. Poor young thing ! She fainted away at the wash-tub, and her pretty nose went kerslop into the soapsuds. ‘ Some said it was overwork; others, however, whispered that her beau had peeped over the back fence and called out: “ Hullo, there, Bridget, is Miss Alice at home ?” AUTUMN LEAVES.’ Like shattered rainbows where they lie Within the forest silently, . Autumn leaves ! The wind-harp grieves For summer passed away— Russet leaves! Fluttering like snow-birds down— Tender things of sober brown That to onr windows fly. Golden leaves! Drifting like the Bunbeams fair On the silent waves of air So radiantly by. Crimson leaves! Dropping like the sun’s last rays At the close of antumu days, Upon the western hill. Yellow leaves! Whirling by on every blast That plays a re piiem for the past In tones that sadlv thrill. Yellow, russet, gold, and red ! That rustle softly ’neath our tread. Beautiful leaves! That the frost king weaves In nature’s magic loom. BILL AND THE WIDOW. BY 3. A. SMITH, ALIAS CAFT TOTHERBY. “ Wife,” said Ed. Wilbur one morn ing as he sat stirring his cofffee with one band and holding a plum cake on his knee with the other, and looked across the table into tbe bright eyes of his neat little wife, “ wouldn’t it be a good joke to get bachelor Bill Smiley to take Widow Watson to Barnnm’s show next week ?” “ You can’t do it, Ed.; he won’t ask her ; lie’s so awful shy. Why, he came hero the other morning, when I was hanging out some clothes, and he looked over the fence and spoke; but when I shook out a night-gown he blushed like a girl and went away.” “I think I can manage it,” said Ed ; “ but I’ll have to lie just a little. But then it wouldn’t be much harm under the circnmgtances, for I know she likes him, and I know lie don’t dislike her ; but as you say, he’s so shy. I’ll just go over to his place to borrow some bags of him, and if I don’t bag him before I come back, don’t kiss me for a week, Nelly.” So saying, Ed. started, and while he is mowing the fields, we will take a look at Bill Smiley. He was rather a good looking fellow, though his hair and whiskers showed some gray hairs, and he had got a set of artificial teeth. But everyone said he was a good soul, and so he was. He had as good a hundred acre farm as any in Norwich, with anew house and everything comfortable, and if he had wanted a wile, many a girl would have jumped at the chance like a rooster at a grasshopper. But Bill was so bashful—always was—and when Susan Berrybottle, that he was sweet on (thoughhe never said “boo” to her) got married to old Watson, he just drawed in his head like a mud-turtle into his shell, and there was no getting him out again, though it had been noticed that since Susan had become a widow he had paid more attention to bis clothes, and had been very regular in his attendance at the church where the fair widow at tended. “ But here comes Ed. Wilbur.” “ Good morning, Mr. Smiley !” “Good morning, Mr. Wilbur. What’s the news your way?” “ Oh nothing particular, that I know of,” said Ed., “only Barnum’s show that everybody is talking about, and everybody and his girl is going, too. I was over to Sackrider’s last night, and I see his son Gus has got anew buggy and was scrubbing up his harness, and he’s got that white-faced colt of his as slick as a seal. I understand he thinks of taking Widow Watson to the show. He’s been hanging around there a good deal cf late, but I’d just like to cut him out, I would. Susaa is a nice little wo man, and deserves a better man than that young pup of a fellow, though I wouldn’t blame her much either if she takes him, for she must be dreadful lonesome, and then she has to let her farm out on shares, and it isn’t half worked, and no one else seems to have spunk enough to speak up to her. By jingo! If I was a single man I’d show him a trick or two.” So saying, Ed. borrowed some bags and started around the corner of the barn, where he had left Bill sweeping, and put his ear to a knot-hole and lis tened, knowing that the bachelor had a habit of talking to himself when any thing worried him. “ Confound that Bagrider !” said Bill, “ what business lias he there, I’d like to know. Got anew buggy, has he? Well, so have I, and new harness, too ! and his horse can’t come in sight of mine, and I declare I’ve half a mind to—yes, I will! I’ll go this very night and ask her to go to the show with me. I’ll show Ed. Wilbur that I ain’t such a calf as he thinks I am, if I did let old Watson get the start of me in the first place!” Ed. could scarcely help laughing out right, but ho hastily hifehed the bags on his shoulder, and with a low chuckle at his success, started home to tell the news to Nelly; and about five o’clock that evening they saw Bill go by with his horse and buggy on his way to the widow’s. He jogged along quietly, thinking of the old singing-school days —and what a pretty girl Susan was then—and wondering inwardly if he would have more courage now to talk up to her, until at the distance of about a mile from her house he came to a bridge—over a large creek—and it so happened that just as he reached the middle of the bridge be gave a tre mendous sneeze, and blew his teeth clear out of his month, and clear over tbe dash-board, and striking on the planks they rolled over the bridge and dropped into four feet of water. Words cannot do justice to poor Bill, or paint the expression of his face as he sat there—completely dumbfounded at this startling piece of ill lu.k. After a while he stepped out of the buggy, and getting on his hands and knees looked over the water. “Yes, there they were,” at the bet tom, with a crowd of little fishes rub bing their noses against them, and Bill wished to goodness that his nose was as close for one second. His beautiful teeth that had cost him so much, and the show coming on and no time to get another set—and the widow and young Sackrider. Well, he must try and get them some how— and no time to lose, for someone might come along and ask him what he was fooling around there for. He had no notion of spoiling his good clothes by wading in with them on, and besides, if he did that he could not go to the widow’s tha* night, so he took a look up and down the road o see that no one was in sight, and then qnickly undressed himself, laying his clothes in the buggy to keep them clean. Then he ran around the bank and waded into the almost icy water, but his teeth did not chatter iu his head, he only wished they could. Quietly he waded along so as not to stir up the mud and when he got to the right spot he drop ped under the water and came np with the teeth in his hand and replaced them in his month. But hark ! What noise is that ? A wagon ! and a little dog barking with all his might, and his horse is starting. “ Whoa ! Whoa !” said Bill, as he splashed and floundered out through mud and water, “confound the horse. Whoa ! Whoa! Stop, you brute you, stop !” But stop he would not, but went off at a spanking pace with the unfortunate bachelor after him and the little dog yelping after the bachelor. Bill was certainly in capital running costume, but though he strained every nerve he could not touch the buggy or reach the lines that were drag ging on the i round. After a while bis ping hat shook off the seat and the hind wheel went over it, making it as flat as a pancake. Bill snatched it. as he ran, and after jamming bis fist into it stuck CARTERS VILLE, GEORGIA, WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18, 1874. it, all dusty and shapeless, on his head. And now he saw the widow’s house on the hill, and what, oh what would he he do! Then his coat fell out and he slipped it on, and then making a des perate spurt he clutched the back of the seat and scrambled in, and pulling the buffalo robe over his legs, staffed the other things beneath. Now the horse happened to be one that he got from Squire Moore, and he got it from the widow, and he took it into his head to stop at her gate, which Bill had no power to prevent, as he had not posses sion of the reins, besides he was too busy buttoning his coat up to his chin to think of doing much else. The widow heard the rattle of the wheels and looked out, and seeing that it was Mr. Smiley, and he did not offer to get ont, she went to the gate to see what he wanted, and*there she stood chatting with her white arms on the top of the gate, and her smiling face turned right toward him, while the cold chills ran down his shirtless back, clear to his bare feet beneath the buffalo robe, and tho water from his hair and the dust from his hat had combined to make some nice little streams of mud that came trickling down his face. She asked him to come in. No ; he was in a hurry, he said. Still he did not offer to go. He did not like to ask her to pick up his reins for him, because he did not know what excuse to make for not doing it himself. Then he looked down the road behind him and saw a white-faced horse coming, and at once surmising that it was that of Gus Sackrider com ing, he resolved to do or die, and Hur riedly told his errand. The widow would be delighted to go, of course she would. But wouldn’t he come in. No, he was in a hurry he said ; had to go on to Mr. Green’s place. “ Oh,” said the widow ; “you’re going to Green’s, are you ? Why, I was j ust going there myself to get one of the girls to help me quilt some. Just wait a second while I get my bonnet and shawl, and I’ll ride with you.” And away she skipped. “ Thunder and lightning !” said Bill, “what a scrape!” and he hastily clutched his pants from between his feet, and was preparing to wriggle into them, when a light wagon drawn by a white-faced horse, driven by a boy, came along and stopped beside him. The boy held up a pair of boots in one hand and a pair of socks in the other, and just as the widow reached the gate again, he said, “ Here’s your boots and your socks, Mr. Smiley, that you left on the bridge when you was in swimming. ” “ You’re mistaken,’’said Bill, “they’re not mine.” “ Why,” said the boy, “ ain’t you the man that had the race after the horse just now ?” “No, sir, I am not! you had better go on about your business.” Bill sighed at the los9 of bis good Sunday boots, and turning to the widow he said. “ Just pick up the lines, will you, please ; this brute of a horse is for ever switching them out of my hands.” The widow complied, and then he pulled one corner of the robe cautiously down, and she got in. “ What a lovely evening,” said she, “and so warm; I don’t think we need the robe over ns, do we ?” (Yon see, she had on a nice dress and a pair of new gaiters, and she wanted to show them.) “Oh, my!” said Bill, earnestly, “you’ll find it chilly riding, and I wouldn’t have you catch cold for the world.” She seemed pleased at the tender care for her health, and contented her self with sticking one of her little feet out, with a long silk neck-tie over the end of it. “ What is that, Mr. Smiley ?• a neck tie?” “Yes,” said he, “I bought it the other day, and I must have left it in the buggy. Never mind it.” “But,” she said, “it was so care less and stooping over she picked it up and made a motion to stuff it in be tween them. Bill felt her hand going down, and making a drive after it, clutched it in his and held it hard and fast. They went on quite a distance, he still holding her soft little hand in his and wondering what be should do when they got to Green’s and she wondering why he did not say "something nice to her as well as squeeze her hand, and why his coat was buttoned up so tightly on such a warm evening, and what made his face and hat so dirty, until as they were going down a little hill one of tbe traces came unhitched and they had to stop. “O murder!” said Bill; “what next ?” “What is the matter, Mr. Smiley?” said the widow, with a start that came mar jerking the robe off his knees. “ One of the traces is off,” said he. “ Well, why don’t you get out and put it on ?” “ I can’t,” said Bill ; I’ve got—that is, I haven’t got—oh, dear, I’m so sick ! What shall I do ?” “Why, Willie,” said she, tenderly, “what is the matter?” do tell me,” and she gave his hand a little squeeze, and looking into his pale and troubled face she thought he was going to faint; so she got ont her smelling bottle with her left hand, and pulling the stopper eut with her teeth she stuck it to his nose. Bill was just taking in breath for a mighty sigh, and the pungent odor made him tlirow his head so far back that he lost his balance and went over the low-backed buggy. The little woman gave a little scream as his big bare feet flew past her head ; and cov ering her face with her bands gave way to her tears, or smiles—it is Hard to tell which. Bill was “ right side up” in a moment and was leaning over tbe back of the seat hnmblv apologizing and ex plaining, when Ed. Wilbur, with bis wife and baby, drove up behind and stopped. Poor Bill felt that he would rather have been shot than have Ed. Wilbur catch him in such a scrape, but there was ro help for it now, so he called Ed. to him and whispered in his ear. Ed. was like to burst with sur passed laughter, but he beckoned to his wife to drive up, and after saying something to her, he helped the widow ont of Bill’s buggy and into his, and the two women went on, leaving the men behind. Bill lost no time in ar ranging his toilet as well as he could, and then with great persuasion Ed. got him to go home with him, and hunting up slippers and socks and getting him washed and combed, had him quite pre sentable when the ladies arrived. I need not tell how the story was all wormed out of bashful Bill, and how they all laughed as they sat around the tea’table that night, but will conclude by saying that they went to the show together and Bill has no fear of Gus Saekrider now. This is a true story about Bill and the widow, just as Ihadit from Ed. Wilbur, and if there is anything unsatisfactory about it, ask him. They are utilizing straw in the San Joaquin valley, California, by using it as fuel in some of the steam flour mills. The proprietors estimate that they can save fifty per cent, in the cost of fuel by theburning of wheat straw. The Par adise flour mills, on the Toulume river, being situated virtually in the center of a 200,000 acre wheat field, it is found both convenient and econ omical to burn straw instead of wood, and accordingly no other fuel is used. Seventy-five ladies of Rochester are out in a card denying that they sleep in their corsets in order to keep their forms graceful. PRESIDENT POLK’S WIDOW. A Visit to One of the Mothers Tof the Nation. Nashville Letter to Chicago Inter-Ocean. On one of the cozy, shady streets of Nashville, the Boston of the south, in an old-fashioned mansion of red brick, with wide, deep windows, and a mam moth-pillared piazza jutting out like the bold forehead of the famous man that once lived there, is the house of Mrs. James Knox Polk, widow of the tenth president of the United States— one of the mothers of the nation. A slender, graceful old lady, with a snow white neckerchief and folds of curls that lay pat on each side of her brow. She is seventy-six years old, but her figure is as straight, her step as quick and her eyes as bright as the eyes of a girl; active in every benevolent scheme, generous to an extreme, hospitable ac cording to the traditions of Kentucky hospitality, and as courtly as a queen. In Nashville, a few days ago, the house was pointed out to me, and a descrip tion of the old lady given, with the remark that she liked to receive strau gers. So I thought I would pay my respects to the widow of a president, and about noonday entered tho gate of “the Polk Place,” and went up the long gravel walk that leads to the house. The yard is laid out in the old fashioned style, with flower-beds in dif ferent designs, borders of box and shrubs of different sorts placed at mathematical intervals. An old-fash ioned brass knocker, like the handle of a coffin, burnished as bright as a mirror, asked entrance for me, and a bent, rickety old negro woman answered the summons. “ Is Mrs. Polk at home ? ”j “ Yes. sail; will you step in, sab ; Missus Polk is at home, sal, but was just gwine out, sab, and she’s boun’ to go ’bout this time. Take a chair, sah.” She led me into an old-fashioned pnr lor, with shells of all sorts on the man tel, and chintz curtains with large flowery figures hung before the win dows. On the walls were portraits of men in wigs and military uniforms of the old regime, and women with high powdered hair and ruffles, with a few an tique prints and half-faded landscapes. The furniture was heavy mahogony, and exquisitely caivod, and the carpet, half-covered by canvas, was a relic of ancient elegance. I was able only to glance at things for a moment after the servant left. Mrs. Polk entered, and, extending her hand cordially, said : “ I see sou are a stranger, sir ; but I am happy to see you, nevertheless. People call every day to see me,” said she, laughing, “ to see how a woman lives that lived in the White House once, and I value the attention very highly. ” I thanked her, and attempted to ex plain and apologize for my intrusion, but she tapped her hand impatiently with her parasol, and said : “The apology is on my part, sir, for I must beg you to excuse me. I have an appointment at this hour it is quite imperative I should meet, or I would be pleased to entertain you. I pray you will excuse me, and make yourself as much at home in my house and ou my grounds as if I were here. My servants will show you what people generally wish to see. They are accustomed to seeing strangers, sir ; ha ! ha! quite ac customed to it, I assure you.” It was something I bad read about, this graceful, old-fashioned courtesy, but I never saw before a real illustra tion of the manners of the republican court, and as I escorted tbe nimble old lady to her carriage, she chattered away as cordially as if she was my grand mother, and insisted upon my calling again. Her riding dress was of the shiny silken material that one sees at old folks’ concerts: black, and ent long waisted, with a plain belt of corded rib bon. At her neck was a white linen ’kerchief, folded with artistic precision, and fastened with a large brooch, which contained a picture of her husband. Her shawl was of black lace, folded in the old-fashioned way, and on her hands were “mitts”—or whatever they call those silk, knit affairs that haven’t any fingers. As the carriage drove away I turned back into the yard, and went to the tomb of tbe president, which stands midway between the street and house, at the left of the walk. It is a plain, rectangular sarcophagus, about sixteen feet in height, of smooth limestone, and inclosing a low square monument of the same stone. An effort has been made to remove it to the grounds of tho state house, which stands not more than six hundred yards away, but it is Mrs. Polk’s wish that it remain where it is, and she wants to be buried in the vault beneath, beside her husband, Every year the legislature of Tennessee call upon Mrs. Polk in a body, have a brief prayer at the tomb of the president, and are entertained for a few moments by his widow, with the assistance of a few other old-fashioned ladies that have been her life long friends. The monument is covered with in scriptions. On the side facing the street, in bold, square letters, is en graved : JAMES KNOX POLK, ; j TENTH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. J : Born November 2, 1795. Died June 15, 1849. : On the next face is an inscription as follows: • The Mortal Remains : of : JAMES KNOX POLK • ; Are resting in the vault beneath. : He was born iu Mecklenburg County, ; ; North Carolina, : : And emigrated with his father, Samuel Polk, to ; ’ Tennessee in 1806. : ; The beauty of virtue was illustrated in his life. : : The excellence of Christianity was ; ; exemplified in his death. On the third side, looking toward the house, is the following : : His life was devoted to ; : the public service. He was ; • : elevated successively to the : : first places in the State and ; : Federal Government*. a ; : member of the General As- : • sembly of Tennessee, a : : member of Congress, Chair- • • man of the most important • : Congressional Committees, ; : Speaker of the House of ; ; Representatives, Governor ; • of Tennessee and 1 “resident : • of the United States. : On the fourth side is the following : : By his public policy he defined, : : established, and extended the : • BOUNDARIES of his country; ; : He Planted the laws of the : AMERICAN UNION ; : on the shores of the Pacific. : : His influence and his counsels : : tended to organize the ; ; NATIONAL TREASURY : on the principles of the ; ; Constitution, : and to apply tte rule of : : Freedom to NAVIGATION, : : trade, and : INDUSTRY. The state of Tennesseo owns “The Hermitage,” the famous residence of Andrew .Jackson, and prominent citizens told me that whenever Mrs. Polk should die they doubted not but that her resi dence would alao be purahaaad and kept, as the Hermitage ia, sacred to the memory of its former owner. Tennessee is grateful to the past, and holds in respectfnl sacredness the relics of her famous sons. Kentucky lets the grave of Zachary Taylor lie unmarked, and Illinois let the nation build a tomb for Abraham Lincoln, when she should have been jealous of the privilege. This is noticeable in the fact that within the walls of her statehouse, the most per fect, architecturally, perhaps, of any building of the sort in the United States, are laid by act of legislature the bones of its builder. It is estimated that the people who have fallen victims to the famine in Asia Minor number over 150,000. As an in stance of the terrible devastation among (he catth and flocks, it is stated that, in one village oat of more than 1,600 riheep and goats, just one sheep and one goat remain, and of 100 cows two re main. In another, from a flock of 1,200 sheep and goats, eight are re ported ; and from another flock in the same village, numbering 800, which 700 are mohair goats, the same number, eight, is reported. The Frisky Flea. The averge woman hates a flea with an intensity almost diabolical in its na ture. She will pursue one of these little innocents with the remorseless ness of a fiend, and if you ever expect to see a beautiful exemplification of womanly traits never look for it when she knows that a flea is about. And in proportion as the woman hates, tbe flea seems to love, and is never enjoying ecstatic bliss unless favored with her society. He likes to seek her coueh in the stilly hours of the night, woo her from slumber, and from a sheltered nook witness her feverish exertions to escape his caresses; b t perhaps be does not reach the acme of enjoyment until he can slyly accompany lier to church and not make his presence known until she has satisfactorily set tled her furbelows and flounces on the cushioned seat all ready to be admired and make note of how others look. And then the flea begins his manipula lions, knowing'full well that he has his victim at a disadvantage. Here there can be no hasty flinging of skirts, no assuming of unbecoming postures while making frantic grabs at the mischievous and inaccessible monster. If you note the woman closely, you will see a com pression of the lip and look of hate and pain creeping into the face which she would fain conceal and not reveal, for are not many eyes upon her ? One moment she settles herself a little more firmly on one side, as though hoping to crush the aggressor, but the next mo mentfeels him scampering upward, when she settles backward quickly to catch him between her back and the rail, but all in vain—his flag is still there. One dainty gaiter may rub up against its fellow as far as may be done without disarranging drapery, and there may be a quiet, yet nevertheless vicious clutch of a jeweled hand under the pretense of arranging lowing drapery, bnt all in vain. And the flea, how he does enjoy it. He roams hither and thither at his own sweet will, uncaring for the boiling wrath which fairly makes the white flesh upon which he plays shiver be neath his light tread. And perhaps the flea has his mi te, and then the an guish is doubled. At one moment they are playing tag ; at another hide and seek, and while the one is cosily nestled away, the other rushes hither and thither to find it in a way which is maddening ; and then they act the part of explorers, and prospect every hill and dale of the form divine. But one thing they do not do, they do not go to sleep. And during this hour of martyrdom how the wrath of the woman gathers, and how only thoughts of dire vengeance make the brief agony endurable. But at last the service which has seemed so long is ended, and with as much majesty as her writhiug form will permit, she sails home without loitering, you may be sure. The bouse reached, with one bound she is within the privacy of her own chamber, and there all restraint is cast aside. With lightning haste oft oome the barricades behind which the flea found intrenchment, and at last she stands like a gladiator stripped for the fight, and then the fate of the invader is sealed. He is pursued with remorse less fury, and the battle does not end until the victor shakes aloft the scalp of the foe, and vows that so perish always the flea who dares to invade the sacred territory of her person. Smiley’s Gun. Recently it ocourred to Mr. Smiley, of Darby, that it would be a good thing to go out to see if he could not shoot a rabbit or two. He always kept his gun loaded and ready in the corner of the room, so he merely shouldered it and went ont. After awhile he saw a rabbit, and taking aim he palled the trig ger. The gun failed to go off. Then he palled the other trigger, and the cap snapped again, and then, taking a pin, he picked the nipples of the gun, primed them with a little powder, and started again. Presently he saw another rabbit, but both caps snapped again. The rabbit did not see Smiley, so he put on more caps, and then they snapp and too. Then Smiley cleaned out the nipples again, primed them, and fired the gun off at a fence. Then the caps snapped again. Smiley became furious, and in his rago he expended forty-seven caps in an e7ort to make the gnn go off. When the forty-seventh cap missed also, Smiley thought there might perhaps be something the matter with the inside of the gun, so he tried the barrels with his ramrod. To his utter dismay he dis covered that both barrels were empty. Mrs. Smiley, who is nervous about fire arms, bad drawn the load3 without tell ing Smiley, for fear of making him angry. If there had been a welkin anywhere about, it would probably have been made to ring with Mr. Smiley’s excited denunciations of Mrs. Smiley. Finally, however, he became cooler, and loading both barrels, he started again after rabbits. He saw one in a few mo ments, and was about to fire, when he noticed that there were no caps on his gun. He felt for one, and to his dis may found that he had snapped the last one off. Then he ground his teeth and walked home. On his way there he saw at least six hundred rabbits. He has been out hunting every day since, how ever, with his gun in first rate order, and he has never laid eyes on a solitary rabbit. Smiley is beginning to think something is wrong in the government of the nnivers*. Magnetic Women. In the intellectual as in the physical world, there are natural and artificial magnets—these produced by those. Most women are the artificial, gaining by culture, adaptation, training, in flation, imitation, a portion of what a few women—the natural magnates— have by inheritance. Magnetism may be communicated by contact, either material or social, and it often iB, with out intention or violation. Unless there be organic opposition, a really magnetic woman may impart something of her power to her intimates, easily when their sympathy is so complete and active as to beget homogeneity. Human magnetism moves in circles, returning in added force to its point of emanation while yonth and vigor last. Fitness dwells in this, for a circle is the form of grace, the symbol of continuity; and magnetism ii compulsion fairly cloaked as the continuity of graoe. Man catches not a little of his magnet ism, when not inherent, from his fem inine associates. He is molded, refined, rounded by them through the influence of that pervading property. He is rarely amiable or interested who is un accustomed to the societry of women. She can convert clownishness into com plaisance, selfishness into benevolence, so serenely and skillfully that he hardly knows he has been translated. Her magnetism daily performs miracles, which, from their commonness, get no credit. Half the success of man with man he owes to the lessons which woman has taught him, and, by a strange perversion of justice, by a ma lignant violation of gratitude, mono of his success with woman likewise. That she should give into his hands the weapons he turns against her, and in struct him in their eflective use, reveals the sarcasm of her destiny.— Junius Henri Brown. RAVAGES OF A PESTILENCE. Ilow the Indian* Were Destroyed In California in 1833. The following appears as a communi cation from Mr. J. J. Warren, in the Los Angeles (Cal.) Star : I have read of the horrors of the London plague, and of the more than decimation by pestilence of the inhab itants of various parts ef the world, in different ages, and of the destruction of mankind by the angels of the Lord and by destroying angels ; bat I have never read or heard of such a general destruction of a people bv any angel, good or bad, or by plague or pestilence, as that which swept the valley of the Sacramento and San Joaquin in the summer of 1833. Iu the autumn of 1832, a party, of which the writer was a member, trav eled from tlie mountain down along the banks of the San Joaquin river, and np those of the Sacramento to some distance above the confluence of the latter with Feather river. The number of Indians living along and in the vicinity of the banks of the rivers was so much greater than I had ever seen living upon the same area of country, that it presented a cons tant source of surprise. The con clusion was then reached by me that there was no other place on the conti nent, north of the tropic, the natural productions of which could snpppot so large a population as was then living in the section of country to which I have referred. In the latter part of the summer of 1833 we entered tbe northern extremity of the Sacramento valley from the Kla math-lake and Pitt-river countries. We found the northern part of the valley strewn with the skeletons and fragments of skeletons of Indians under the shad ing trees, around springs and the con venient watering places, upon the banks of the river and over the plain, where wolves and coyotes, waddling from tree to tree or over the plain, their hides distended with unnatural fatness, had dragged and denuded them. From the head of the valley to the American rteer but one living Indian was seen, and he was the most perfect personifica tion of solitude that was ever presented to my view; his wasted muscles, his eyes deeply sunk in their sockets, as if there were no brains within the crani um, emited a dull, vacant gaze, as if astonished to behold a living being, when he believed that all, all were dead, and he alone left, telling most emphati cally of his utter loneliness, of how he had seen the destroying angel engaged in his work of death on every hand, and wherever his eyes were turned, until he himself was prostrated, not killed, but left to rise upon his feet, and wander about among the bones and festering bodies of his folk. The dwellings of the Indians in tbe numerous villages lo cated upon and along the banks of the Macramento river and its tributaries were void, and no foot-tracks but those of fowls and wild beasts were to be seen in the lonely villages. As we traveled southerly the skeletons were of a fresher appearance, and be fore reaching the buttes, and from thenoe southerly, the entire or partially devoured bodies of the Indians, in ail stages of decay, were so invariably found in and about all tho convenient and desirable camping places that it became necessary, in order to escape the stench of decomposing humanity, to seek onr night’s encampment upon the open plain. After crossing Feather river, those villages along the Sacramento which in the winter previous were eaeh inhabited by hundreds of Indians, were desolate aud the abode of ruin. The same ap palling proofs of the dire calamity were constantly presented to us as we trav eled up the San Joaquin. Neither biblical nor profane history has por trayed such mournful results of the march of a destroying angel as were presented to onr senses as we repassed through, along by and around those silent and vacated villages, which some ten months before we had seen swarm ing with Indian life, and resounding with voices from hundreds of human throats. Around the naked villages, graves, and the ashes of funeral pyres, the skel etons and swollen bodies told a tale of death, such as no written record has ever revealed. From the head of the Sacramento valley until we reached the mouth of King’s river, not exceeding five live Indians were seen, and here we found encamped a village of Indians among whom the destroying angel wa3 sating his greed of human victims by a ghastly carnage. During tbe one night more than a score of victims were added to the hosts upon which he had been feeding. The wailing of that stricken village during that night was incessant and most terrible. The sword of the destroyer was a remittent fever, with which the victims were first strick en down, to be finished by a hot-air bath, followed by a plunge into a cold water one. It was evident to us, from the signs we saw, that at first the Indi dians buried their dead ; but when the dead became so numerous that the liv ing could not bury them, resort was had to the burning of tbe dead bodies, and when the living, from diministed num bers, were unable to do this, they aban doned their villages, the siok and the dy ing, and fled in dismay, only to die by the springs and pools of water, and beneath the shade of protecting trees. Don’t Die Young. One of the most curious discoveries mado during a recent investigation of the almshouses of this state is that the paupers have an obstinate way of not dying. The average length of life after admission to their comfortable estab ments is said to be twenty years, though the inmatos are, upon entering, most of them, well advanced. Such is the ad vantage of being free from botheration, worry, fret, trouble, anxiety, disap pointment, and the like things, the names of which may be found in Dr. Roger’s Thesaurus. It was long ago settled by agreement of the moralists and the physiologists that fuss kills more than fever, and sends greater numbers to an untimely sepulcher. The wise pauper may say, if be takes the trouble of saying anything: “I have made a snug harbor at last; I have all that the richest man is sure of— three meals daily, a bed nightly, and clothes to put on when I get up in the morning. Good-by, hope I I have no further occasion for your anchor, my lady ! Farewell, care ! You shall not kill me as you did the cat! Nothing to do but to live ; ard, by George, I will live as long as possible. Old boy, you have got into a good thing! Don’t make a donkey of yourself by prema turely exhaling! ” He doesn’t it seems —and why should he ?— N. Y. 1 rib. Emigration Statistics. In one week in July last 2,000 steer age passengers sailed for Europe from New York. Last Saturday week 500 sailed in a sigle ship. During the year ending June 30, 1873, the outgoing passengers by sea from the United States were 110,154. Dnring the five years previous the average annual num ber was 81,000. Of these departing 53,706 were cabin passengers and 65,- 448 were “ other than cabin.” The ex cess in Ihe year named is Dot due to the Vienna exhibition, for during the three months of the spiring and sum mer, when travel was at its height, the steamships carried only about 500 more passengers abroad than in the corres ponding period of 1872. For the year ending with June, 1873, 47,744 citizens of the United States came home, and 13,388 “ aliens not intending to remain” arrived. The whole immigration for the year was 473,141, exclusive of our returning citizens. The remarkable increase in the number of people going abroad indicates the return of immi grants for good. Some have made their fortunes; some have been dis appointed ; even labor has failed. This last cause has operated for the past year more than heretofore, as the returns of next season will show. A Mid-Ocean Rock. The Mercmy publishes a rather sen sational report of a rock in the middle of the Atlantic ocean as a solution of the mystery regarding the fate of the steamships City of Boston, President, Pacific, United Kingdom, the Ismailia and other vessels that have never been heard from after leaving port. The rock, it appears, lies in latitude 40 north and longitnde 62.18. It was discovered by Capt. Picasso, of the Italian bark Teresa, which arrived at Queenstown October 2, from New York. Capt. Pi casso makes the following report of his discovery: On the ninth of September, at one p. M., wind northerly, very light and clear weather, with sea perfectly smooth, ob served on the horizon a large rock in the shape of a trapezeum, about four miles to the windward, in latitude 40 north, longitude 62.18 west; tried to beat up to it, but, owing to the lightness of the wind, could not do so. The rock lay north and sonth, and was of a red dish-brown color; discerned the seaweed on it plainly with a glass. The dimen sions are as follows: Length, 100 metres, 3 feet, 3 1 inches per metre, on the south part; 14 metres broad, and 6 metres out of the water, which was low about half past two p. m. The rock bore north, and we made, by chronometer calcula tion, the rock was in the exact position of latitude 40 north, longitnde 62.18 west. Capt. Picasso states that he has a chart of 1848 by Noneys on board, with this rock marked on it, bnt there are two degrees difference m longitnde. This, he says, is accounted for by the incor rectness of the old chronometers. He was surprised at not finding this rock on an English chart by Wilson, dated 1872, and also on a French chart, same date, which is on board. He states that he tried for soundings, but could get none in the vicinity of the rock. According to Capt. Picasso’s report, the rock is within a few seconds of the same degree as New York is situated in, and on a straight line from west to east, lying about 550 miles from our harbor, and nearly in the course of the ocean steam ers, in what is known as the southern passage. Figlit with a Conga r. A letter from Fort Griffin, Texas, gives the following account of a little episode in frontier life : “On the bank of the Clear Fork of the Brazos river John Selmau and his family were sitting in their little cabin, enjoying the com forts of a brilliant fire, when their dog set up a fierce barking. Mr. Hewitt, who lives with Mr. Selman, walked out to see what was the matter, and discov ered a largo cougar. Mr. H. stepped back to get a gun, leaving the door open, intending to return in a moment. But their morning visitor did not choose to wait for his retnrn, and followed im mediately into the house. The first in troduction the intruder gave himself was to leap upon a little child, taking hold of its neck with his monster teeth, inflicting some very serious wonnds. Mrs. Selman, the mother of the child, grabbed it and released it. The animal then made an attempt to recapture the child from tho mother, and Mr. Hewitt, who is gifted with uncommou Bizo and unusual strength, knocked the monster down and kicked it under the bed. Mr. Selman had got hold of a gun by that time, and, as the cougar came from un der tbe bed, shot it, the ball entering the left side of its neck, ranging back and coming out throngh the abdomen. Bnt that only infuriated him more than ever. He then leaped up on the bod, tearing the bed and bedding. The dot r had got closed during the fracas, and the wild animal having become dissatis fied with his little prison, like a lion in a cage, leaped from side to side of the room, upsetting the chairs, table, and other furniture, at the same time utter ing the most terrific screams immagina ble. At last Mr. Selman got hold of another gnn, and shot it throngh behind the shoulders. It then jumped at the fire, grabbed its mouth full of live coals, and stood there and growled until Mr. Selman opened the door, and Mr. Hewett took it by the tail and dragged it into the yard, where it died. It measured 11 feet 9 inches in length. ” Jeremy Taylor on Marriage. Marriage has in it less of beauty, but more of safety than the single life; it hath no more ease, but less danger ; it is more merry and more sad; it is fuller of sorrows and fuller of joys ; it lies un der more burdens, but it is snppcr.ed by all the strengths of love and charity, and those burdens are delightful. Mar riage is the mother of the world, and preserves kingdoms and fills cities, and churches, and heaven itself. Celibacy, like the fly in the heart of an apple, dwells in perpetual sweetness, bnt sits alone, and is confined and dies in sin gularity ; but marriage, like the useful bee, builds a bouse, aud gathers honey from every flower, and labors, and unites into societies and republics, and sends out colonies, and feeds the world with delicacies, and obeys their king, and keeps order, and exercises many virtues, and promotes the interests of mankind, and is that state of good to which God hath designed the present constitution of the world. Weather Signs. ! Farmers predict a hard winter because rabbits are burrowing far into the ground. It is wise in a rabbit to do this. If he didn’t some young man would have him out of that with a forked stick pretty quick. However, if that is a sign, it can be offset by the action of certain cockroaches around this office. Not one of them has even commenced to dig yet. They ramble around as if they expieeted aj>- plo trees to blossom in January, and sort o’ tnrn up their noses when they hear any thing about cold weather or the wolf of starvation. They don’t seem to care a cent whether they swing on a gas burner or roost on the steam pipes, and.their utter recklessness goes to show that the coming winter won’t be of much account.— Detroit Free Frees. Tobacco. The condition cf the tobacco crop is aomewhat higher than was foreshadowed by the September returns, though still the promise is for less than two-thirds of a crop ; the average of all the states reporting this crop is 61. Only two states, Connecticut 109, and Georgia 101, are above average ; Massachusetts, Florida, and Oregon are full average. These five states, however, represent lees than 6 p>er cent, of the entire crop. Kentucky, which produces about two fiftli ■ of the entire crop of the country, averages but 44. Virginia, the next largest tobacco growing state, averages but 65; Tennessee, the third in rank, 44; Ohio, the fourth, 40; Maryland, the fifth, 78; Missouri, the sixth, 65. All the other states are below average. The Philadelphia Press: “ Six months before the belching of the guns of Sump ter any one would have been deemed a fool who predicted alisolnte war.” And the Louisville Courier Journal: “ This may be all true enough ; but the war is over now, and why do yon seek to renew the bitterness of sectional bate by spell ing Sumter with a p?" VOL. 15--NO. 47. SAYINGS AND DOINGS. Marriage is often the end of man’s troubles—but which end ? The largest diamond does not always cover the best hotel clerk. When a female child is born in Wis consin the unhappy father begins to save money to buy a piano. Tennyson is said to be at work upon something for Mrs. Edinburgh’s baby. It begins, ’tis said : “ Oh. toothless, hsiileoa, royal babe. About thee all the Kussiana rave." etc. The peanut crop amounts |to only 750,000 bushels this year, and after the female colleges have been supplied there won’t be a pint apieoe for the rest of us. California now holds the Tosemite valley in trust for the nation, and has paid 855,000 to settle the pre-emption claims of the persons who oolonized there. —lt is asserted as a fact that Disraeli is quite spoony on the Empress Eu genie, and all because the premier has taken to wearing forget-me-nots in his button-hole. The high-toned young women who danced with Alexis when he was in this country will be glad to hear that the young man is well. He has ordered an other barrel of American beans. They are going to try and put a stop in Germany to the sale of so-called “soothing sirups” for infants. Physi cians assert that more babies are killed by these concoctions than by disease. Speaking of the profits of cattle graz ing, an Indiana journal tells of a man in Lafayette, in that state, who has just sold, for $50,000, a herd of Texas cattle that he gave $20,000 for last fall. The city of Rome is said to be honey combed with about 900 miles of subter ranean passage ways cut through the solid rock, and that these contain the bodies of from 6,000,000 to 7,009,000 of human beings entombed there since the city was built. The imperial memorial office in Pekin has received the following verbal decree from the emperor : “In honor of the birth-day cf her majesty, the empress, let dragoon clothes be worn for three days, beginning from the 29th inst. (11th August.) From the throne.” When there wa3 a rumor in Paris’ of the engagement of Mme. Lucca at the Salle Ventadour, communications were sent to all the journals, denouncing her as being a most bitter hater of the French, and all because, being an Aus trian, she married a German, sang in Berlin, and nursed her wounded hus band during the late war. Satisfactory Solution.— Facts in geology and Egyptology, Very momentous as touching chronology, Seem to run counter to facte of theology. * Very well, never mind. What if they do ? These facts, and those facts as well, may be tine. Truth and troth ne’er can at variance be; All truths will some day be proved to agree. Seeminglv different troths, let us say, Are equally true in a different way. Adelina Patti is getting to have a reputation as a spoiled child of song. At a late reception, a Yankee, whose parsimony held even sway with enthu siasm, ventured to present the bejeweled darling of the salon with a fifty-cent nosegay, and the shock it caused her was so great that she stood upon one leg for several seconds while ten or a dozen gentlemen scrambled wildly around in search of cushions for her to faint away on. Goethe’s ideal of married life, and one to which he strictly adhered, is de scribed by himself as the union of two persons of cultivated faculties, identical in opinion and purposes, between whom there exists that best kind of equality, similarity of powers and capacities with reciprocal superiority in them, so that one can enjoy the luxury of looking up to the other, and can have alternately the pleasure of leading and being led in the path of development. Bret Harte, |in an essay on Confu cius, gives the following as “his jokes:” “One day, being handed a two-foot rule, Confucius opened it the wrong way, whereupon it broke. The master said quietly that ‘it was a poor rule that wouldn’t work both ways.’ Ob serving that Wan Sing was much ad dicted to opium, the master said, ‘Filial regard is always beautiful.’ ‘Why?’ asked his disciples. ‘He loves his pop py,’ replied the master, changing coun tenance. The farmers of California were much elated a few years ago over the prospect of raising their own coffee. Many trees were imported and set out, but the yield of berries was small, and the quality of them was poor. Then they fell to rais ing chiooory as a substitute for coffee. It yielded “well, but they tired of its taste. They have recently discovered that grape stones parched and ground yield a beverage with a flavor almost identical with that of fine old govern ment Java. And now the drawling “ Tha-a-nks ” of the languid swells has crept into the dry goods stores; so when a lady hands her currency to the brisk counter-jump er, and he has yelled “ca-a-sh!” in a rasping voice into her very face half a dozen times, and rapped on the oonnter till her teeth are on edge, he unsettles her digestion for the rest of the day by handing her the change and drawling “ Tha-a-nks ” in a vapid, easy, familiar style, as if he had just finished a waltz with her. An inventory has been made out of the articles found in the stomach of the lunatic shoemaker who died in the Prestwick Asvlum in England the other dav. In all'there were 1,844 articles, namely: 1,639 shoemakers’ sparables, 6 four-inch cut nails, 19 three-inch cut nails, 8 two-and-a-half-inch cut nails, 13 two-inch cut nails, 40 half-inch cut nails, 7 three-quarter-inch cut nails, 39 tacks, 5 brass nails, 9 brass brace-but tons, 20 pieces of buckles, 1 pin, 14 bits of glass, 10 small pebbles, 3 pieoes of string, 1 piece of leather three inches long, 1 piece of lead four inches long, and an American pegging awl,—the to tal weight being 11 pounds 10 ounces. The production of castor beans has increased to such an extent that we hear of the erection of three new mills to extract the oil from them. There will be no more physic to cast to dogs or to use in evacuating the bowels than there was before these mills were put up. Some sharp chap will perfume this oil so that its odor will be as pleasant as its taste is disagreeable. Then he will put it in nicely-shaped bottles and label it “Bears’ Greasp, warranted pure.” Some people have wondered why the supply of bears’ oil holds out so well, since bears are becoming scaroe. They will understand the matter now. English Journals. Mr. Bailey, of The Danbury News, has reoently returned from a scrutiniz ing journey through the worm-eateu monarchies of Europe, and wherever he went he ferreted out things about news papers. He thinks that “they are rather slow concerns, are the London dailies. They crowd their advertisers into repulsive limits; they mix up their matter without regard to classification ; they publish but a beggarly handful of American news; they report in full the most insignificant speeches; they don’t seem to realize that there is such an at traction as condensed news paragraphs ; they issue no Sunday paper, and but one or two have a weekly; they ignore agriculture and science, personals and gossip; they carefully exclude all humor and head-lines, and come to their read ers every week-day a sombre and monn ful spectacle that is most exasperating to behold.”